Alan Kelly
Tipperary North · Labour Party · Ireland
“I have never, in my time in here, nearly 20 years, seen legislation so mental as regards the breadth and depth of issues. It is an A to Z of issues. Many of them could have been Bills on their own, while some of them could have been grouped together. The depth and breadth of issues here, however, is phenomenal.”
“I will not be opposing any amendments. Most of them are very technical, and a few of them are on significant issues. As I said previously, I believe in miscellaneous Bills. I brought them in myself. I have no issue with them, but this is one of the most mental Bills I have ever seen.”
“This is kind of like a repeat speech from when we previously discussed this issue. The motion is erroneous and mean spirited. The real question for the country is where these people are going to go. The options are not there.”
“It was thought that this would happen later, but so many people I know will be so thankful for and welcoming of this aspect of the legislation. They will be in with us later tonight. The issue in relation to counselling notes is one we really had to have so much discussion about. It was a very difficult discussion.”
“I acknowledge what the Minister said about my colleague, Senator Laura Harmon. She came to the Minister in relation to the sex-for-rent issue. I have to acknowledge the fact that the Minister has always commended her on this issue. She has always been a strong campaigner on this issue given her history of involvement in student politics.”
“It shows that they have worked. I do not see why, in the spirit of where we are and after everything we have said about the war in Ukraine, we are actually going to go and take this away now.”
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“If we are depending on the famous pipeline that is coming from the River Shannon, we will be waiting a long time because that is what it will take. Are Uisce Éireann's response rates, the way in which it deals with people, its servicing, etc. all up to the level they should be? No; not a hope of it. I am as frustrated as everybody else by this. The reality is that Uisce Éireann has not been funded. Anyone who says anything different is not telling the truth. It has not been funded to deal with the infrastructural gaps that exist across the country, and the Government is going to bloody well pay for it. It does not have a prayer of building the houses necessary because of the failure of politics over the past decade or so to deal with this infrastructural issue. That is the reality.”
“He did not mention that the problem is that the amount of money going in initially over those years was bloody well ridiculous and we have been playing catch-up ever since. It is a failure of this House, a failure of politics and a failure of government. There are towns and cities all over this country that are hamstrung because it takes years for this investment to reach a development status whereby houses can be built. In my town of Nenagh, more than 1,000 houses are planned but we must wait for a plant that was meant to be built for 2027 but will not be done until 2028. This is happening all across the country. I have another prediction, which will not take nine years to come to pass. We will have water shortages in this city, possibly this year, and we will have infrastructural issues to do with waste that will go on for decades.”
“We are very bad in this country, across all political parties, at infrastructure planning. We are horrendous at it. It is shameful because we are letting down the people. When it comes to infrastructure, there is no long-term planning. The national planning framework is a dog's dinner. The national development plan is loaded with aspirations and projects that often do not materialise and it contains, in various aspects, the token political whims of a number of people in government. We are not very good at this. On 27 April 2016, I predicted in this House that we would have infrastructural issues with water and waste. That was more than nine years ago. We have failed in this regard. The Minister of State stated that investment in this area has gone from €300 million to €1.4 billion.”
“What are the Minister for Justice, the Taoiseach and the Garda Commissioner going to do to back up the language of the need for a reset how we think about roads policing, with which I agree, by enforcing the laws with the volume of gardaí required and honouring what the Commissioner said to the justice committee last year? Nobody from that competition has been appointed.”
“All of us in the House offer our condolences on the death of Garda Kevin Flatley. I agree with the Garda Commissioner, who said we need a reset for how we, as a society, think about roads policing. However, the same Commissioner sat before the Joint Committee on Justice on 15 May 2024 and committed to the addition of 150 new gardaí to roads policing. There were to be 75 in 2024 and 75 in 2025. You can guess that the actual number who have gone into roads policing from that competition is zero. Forty sergeants and 246 gardaí came through the competition. Actions speak louder than words. There are just over 600 gardaí in roads policing now. There are significant gaps all over the country, for example, in the mid-west and Limerick. In 2009, we had 1,046 gardaí in roads policing.”
“The issue is that we need to give some guidance because workers are left in a situation where they do not know. There could be scenarios where minors end up drinking alcohol, either accidentally or deliberately because of this. The vintners, in fairness, have come out and said they should not be served. They said under-18s should not be served and that adults who order it for them should not be served either. They should not be served the non-alcoholic version. Therefore, some guidance on this from the Minister's Department with regard to how the legislation will work in spirit would be really helpful to those who are obviously serving quite a considerable amount of this in outdoor settings.”
“Guidance is needed here because people have been left in difficult scenarios where they did not know what the right thing to do was in this-----”
“I can go down the street from this Chamber and it might cost €7 for a pint, which is ridiculous for a pint in the first place, but it will cost €6 or €6.50 for the non-alcoholic version of it. In my local pub the pint is €5.50 or less, which is still expensive. However, to have to pay €6.50 for a non-alcoholic version of the same drink and try to encourage people to drive and be the designated driver or just not drink alcohol is absolutely ridiculous. What does need some guidance, however, is whether publicans and those working in hospitality in bars, restaurants and hotels should serve non-alcoholic branded beer to adults who are going to give it to people aged under 18. I do not necessarily think the Government can legislate for this.”
“If this is allowed to happen, and a person walks in and orders two pints of the alcoholic version and one pint of the non-alcoholic version, there are indistinguishable once they are laid on the table or the counter. It is impossible. The person or people working there cannot then distinguish if the person under 18 is drinking the alcoholic or the non-alcoholic version. This is a significant issue. It is unfair on workers and on licensees. In a way, it is an unintended consequence. My biggest issue with non-alcoholic versions of well-known branded alcoholic drinks is their cost. As a State, we need to examine how we can bring that down and how that can be encouraged. It is ridiculous.”
“While we have outdoor seating, it is important that those who operate in the hospitality industry have guidance from the Minister on the proliferation of non-alcoholic branded beers, which is a good thing. I spoke about this recently. Publicans and people working in the industry are selling non-alcoholic beers to adults with no issue. However, there are well-known alcoholic brands with a non-alcoholic version that is being sold to adults who are giving it to children. I asked the Minister a parliamentary question on this, and his response was: "The prohibition does not apply to alcohol free alternatives." We know who the brands are so I will not mention them and give them promotion, but in zero-branded beer there is a tiny trace of alcohol. That is the first issue. The second issue is for those working in the industry.”
“It was great. There were some changes in my local town of Nenagh, which were positive, and I implored the council to do other works that were complementary, which was great. I hope we will not end up here again and that the miscellaneous provisions Bill being brought forward will deal with this and regularise the whole situation, so we do not have to be coming in here talking about the obvious every six months. I know my former colleague, Brendan Howlin, used to love coming in here every six months when he was spokesperson talking about this and about the fact that there were 650,000 people out on the streets of Wexford during fleadhs and stuff. This really has to be regularised.”
“I know. He committed to it, but he kind of did not commit to it. He might commit to whether he is committing to it. Seriously, it has to be done because this is kind of ridiculous. To the public, outdoor seating and socialising is the norm now. We maybe need to slightly improve it because people have adapted. It is one of the few things resulting from Covid, where there was a positive, long-term consequence. There were of course other issues, such as work and so on. It was an outdoor consequence. In some towns around Ireland, it was actually transformative, in a positive way that would never have happened otherwise.”
“As part of a whole-of-Oireachtas plan, we should look at how to engage all the major sports organisations to work with each other and with us to put in place a plan for how we can promote healthy living and the type of societal behaviour and outcomes we want to see and highlight the dangers of drugs. I have attended meetings where people said they had spoken at events hosted by sports organisations. They had asked national sporting organisations to engage in a programme to encourage people to say no to drugs and to create a whole brand around this. They have not even received a reply. If the Ministers for Health and Justice could work on this, it would be extremely beneficial. This is a great programme. It should be supported by everybody. It does need more resources and community gardaí must have the capacity to engage.”
“In Roscrea in my constituency, the North Tipperary Partnership is involved in work relating to an early intervention initiative at the Roscrea Youth Service. That is the type of work we need in order to intercept young people at a very young age to prevent them from getting involved in a life of crime. I also feel that we need to work much more closely with sports organisations. Such organisations have a major impact and a huge pull. They have a capacity to influence young people way more than any of us in this Chamber or others throughout the country can. I honestly believe that sports clubs can have a significant and healthy impact on people's lives when it comes to the issue of drugs.”
“I am not sure anyone in this House would disagree with me on that. There needs to be a formality around this. Victims must have a say. In the context of the regulations and the legislation, they do not. We should change the regulations to ensure that certain crimes like that are not facilitated. I understand it is happening less since it was the subject of a report by "Prime Time Investigates" a number of years ago but there are certainly other crimes, not just those relating to sexual offences and rape, that should also not be covered under the programme. The Minister of State referred to how the programme has been extended to early intervention in relation to eight- to 11-year-olds. That is welcome.”
“It needs to be a no-wrong-door experience so that when kids go into this programme, they understand that they are in a programme where no matter which door they pick, there will be a different pathway for them once they go through it. I wish to raise a number of concerns that have been mentioned previously. There are certain crimes committed by young people, which mean they do not merit being put into this programme. It is unfortunate but it is real. I refer to rape and other serious crimes. In some cases people in the age bracket up to 18 have been put through this programme despite having committed such crimes. There is within the regulations the power for the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, or the senior Minister, to change those regulations to ensure that certain crimes are not facilitated as part of this programme.”
“Many of the gardaí who do this work have a vocation. It is a vocation that is slightly to other work in An Garda Síochána. The people who do this work have great patience and understanding. They have a sociological awareness of what they have to deal with. The respect that is generated takes time but it does happen. In many cases we need a multiagency approach. It is not just through the schools, An Garda Síochána and the other people involved. We also need to ensure that health agencies, social agencies and family groups across the country are all also involved. It is not a one-size-fits all approach. In many cases, we also need other supports.”
“This has started but there is a big gap. The programmes need to run seven days a week. Having them for just five days does not fit. It is necessary to have some form of interaction, monitoring and relationship seven days a week so that the kids in the programme do not feel that it is a Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. programme and rather it is an holistic programme that they are contributing to and that is having an impact on their lives. I have seen how young people in these programmes have changed their attitudes towards society and communities, and have changed their behaviour in how they respect public facilities. They have changed their attitude to sports clubs. They have changed their attitude to themselves and their self-worth. They have changed their attitude to An Garda Síochána.”
“Any advancements made with young people through this programme are lost because they are continually reintroduced; it is all part of their lives. They are socialised around this. They are trying to help family members. They are not fully aware of the consequences of their actions. Continually trying to intercept that is a big problem. It can also be formed in a sense through constant intimidation. The work of gardaí must go beyond what they do through the programmes by trying to isolate young people from some of the aspects of the community they are in. That is very difficult because many of the kids come from very difficult backgrounds, in some cases dysfunctional families and sometimes there are intergenerational issues. There needs to be a wraparound service for these kids to try to change their lives.”
“While the education side of things is fine for 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds, it may drift on to the stage where it has to be about employment. This comes to the issue of trades and the requirement for more people to move into trades. I have seen situations where young people who were going on a certain pathway ended up going on an alternative pathway, feeling of much greater worth and getting qualified in a trade. Is that not fantastic? Is that not what we all want to see where there is a positive impact on their lives, where they are contributing to society and where their sense of worth is huge? There is a significant issue with drugs, which are ubiquitous. Children are being sucked into being mules for drug dealers. Much of this is through organised crime.”
“I believe that community gardaí are incredibly important but the problem is that in many cases, community gardaí are being appointed but they are being taken from other areas of the force in the local division. The problem is that those positions are never backfilled. Gardaí are coming into community policing, which is totally necessary, but their previous roles are not backfilled because we do not have enough gardaí to do so. Every single TD in the Chamber is dealing with that. I come across it all the time in my area. We also need to improve the outcomes through education dramatically. That is why integrating school programmes with the youth diversion programme is so critical. Many schools do great work with young people.”
“That is a problem at times but at least we now have the one organisation running this for both areas. I believe we have more than 113. This has been surveyed and the analysis has shown the very impressive improvements it makes in young people's lives. However, the success rates vary in different locations. There are major issues in areas with higher levels of crime and social deprivation. Statistically, it has been shown that the programmes cannot cope. We genuinely have a problem with the number of community gardaí. The figures and facts show they are down. I have engaged a lot with the Minister on increasing recruitment and I hope we will be able to deal with that.”
“This is a very important issue, which goes beyond political tit-for-tat stuff. The achievements that can be made for young people in this area if it is properly resourced are unique. I acknowledge that there has been a dramatic increase in funding in this area, which has gone from €21 million or €22 million up to €36 billion in a short time. There was a gap in fulfilment across the jurisdiction affecting my area of north Tipperary and east Clare. I am not claiming east Clare but I wake up every morning and see east Clare, so there is a crossover. They were the two areas that were left. In fairness, in February of this year there was an announcement that Foróige would run the programme in both areas. North Tipperary and east Clare come under the one policing jurisdiction.”
“I am really concerned about whether the Garda Commissioner fulfilled his statutory obligation under section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act in respect of the investigation into this matter. I have referred to defective ammunition, how privately owned firearms were brought in by Garda personnel and how the importation of a firearm component potentially was done in such an underhanded way that a Minister was deceived. These all had impacts on the Vote. They all had impacts on funding being given to An Garda Síochána. This was the standard that was there. Please ensure that the structures in place now will make sure that these types of occurrences never bloody well happen again.”
“Why was there repair and servicing for privately-owned firearms by An Garda Síochána? These were firearms that were brought in which were not for An Garda Síochána; they were snuck in. They were for the use of a hunt and pony club based in Kildare. The taxpayer is paying for this. We are talking tonight about the Vote but it is the taxpayer who pays for this. I know the Minister is aware of this too because I said it to him. The Department is also aware. It is mind-boggling how a firearm component was brought into the State. I have supplied information on this matter to the Minister. The Minister for Justice was potentially deceived by way of a false instrument being placed before the Department, because it had to sign off on this coming in. I have also given all the details on this to the Minister.”
“Is the Minister aware or can he confirm that quite a number of rounds of defective ammunition were purchased by An Garda Síochána in 2017 and 2018 and that these ended up being destroyed? This was at a loss to the taxpayer. This was .416 mm ammunition. Will the Minister indicate what happened in this instance? Will he find out and send on the information? Why did we bring in this ammunition at a cost to the State only for it to end up being destroyed? More importantly, why did we allow it to be out with An Garda Síochána for a considerable period, thereby putting gardaí on duty at risk? The Minister is well aware of this issue because I have tabled parliamentary questions on it. One or two of them actually got past the Ceann Comhairle. I say that in jest.”
“The first person may very well have already been appointed. GSOC was not bloody well fit for purpose. Imagine being in a coroner's office when a garda finds out that he is to be prosecuted. I raised that matter in the Dáil. I had a window of about six days to raise before the garda in question was charged. I had to. That should not happen. The whole system relating to how gardaí in Limerick and some gardaí in Dublin are being dealt with is outrageously wrong. I am not saying that people did not do some things that were wrong, but proportionality has to come into this. I also want to raise some other issues relating to the Vote and how funding has at times gone askew in the context of An Garda Síochána.”
“The Minister has not made any public statements about these matters or in respect of defective holsters. The Minister believes that what I put on the record of this Dáil was accurate. It was accurate. There is also the matter of how 8 kg of drugs were found in Garda headquarters, as well as the issues relating to firearms. I understand the Garda Commissioner went looking for these firearms. It was a bit late to do so. Given all these things, there is a serious issue around the structures being in place. The structures were not in place in the past, so these structures have to be robust enough into the future to ensure all of those matters are dealt with. There will be ongoing issues. I am delighted that GSOC is gone. I hope the new structures will work. They will if the right people are in place.”
“There is an issue historically whereby An Garda Síochána, at a certain level, has a certain culture, which is that it does not tolerate anybody who steps out of line when it comes to protect the public interest. I refer to people whistleblowing, making protected disclosures or just trying to do the right thing. We saw the farce regarding the issue with a bicycle last year. There are also a number of other issues, which I have raised in this Dáil with the Minister in the recent past and on which I am assured he went to the Commissioner.”
“Why would the Department of Justice be involved in day-to-day management of An Garda Síochána in the first place? Every response to parliamentary questions I have sent to various Ministers for Justice tells me that he or she has no role in the matter. To put that into a memorandum says a lot. The Department of Justice should not be involved in the day-to-day management of An Garda Síochána. The structures that are put in place have to be robust enough, otherwise the Oireachtas will have a job to do to ensure that standards are maintained and that there is accountability. I have concerns about the way in which the board will operate. I also have concerns regarding senior appointments in An Garda Síochána and how they will operate.”
“The proposal to turn the Garda Commissioner into a CEO in order that he or she will be the Accounting Officer is very interesting, especially in light of the issues we have had in the past. What were Garda Commissioners doing in the past? What we should have done is allowed the Policing Authority, which was bedding in, to continue and given it additional further powers. When we debated the legislation, I read the memorandum relating to it. I was shaken because the memorandum states that the legislation "will facilitate the Minister’s Department in pulling back from involvement in day-to-day management of An Garda Síochána while also providing objective assurance to the Minister in relation to governance standards within An Garda Síochána".”
“There has been a bit of a delay in commencing this Act. That is not completely the Minister's fault, but there is a concern as to why it took this long. I have no issue with passing these Votes. The Minister explained the position quite well. I do have concerns about how we got here. I am coming at this from the Eddie Molloy version of the original report, that is, the second version. Handing over the powers of the Policing Authority to the Garda Commissioner is wrong. If I was sitting where the Minister is sitting, I would reverse that immediately. I have to be honest about that, particularly as this is how we ended up with all the issues, tribunals and everything else previously.”
“Whether financially in grants or in other ways, there has to be a way in which we can intercept and help these people as they advance in life for the sacrifice that they are making for their family members. We need a whole-of-government approach across all the issues my party and others have raised. Let us, once and for all, get to a point where we recognise the work young carers do in this country.”
“As for what we are going to do, tens of thousands of people are affected here. We need a detailed programme of supports across Government. We need, primarily at the very beginning, to identify who these people are because they are not categorised. Whether it is young carers under the age of 18 or young adult carers, we need targeted programmes. We need to ensure that they are not impacted in respect of social protection allowances because of what they are doing. We need targeted healthcare supports for family members. The Minister of State really should take up the following proposal. If we are not going to provide them with some form of allowance for the work that they do, somewhere along the way we should help them with their educational requirements.”
“That is a fact. The State is letting them down because we do not have the appropriate facilities in terms of health provision, education provision and other provisions, for the people they are caring for. When it is parents, often it is necessarily elderly care. We are trading on their emotional commitment to their family members. We are almost robbing them of the same opportunity of people of the same age. By doing so, we are preventing them from having the same enjoyment of life or educational opportunities and from the capacity to be ambitious for themselves and to live their lives in a way which may be different to the way they are doing it. We really need to deal with this. As this is not mentioned in the programme for Government, I would really like the Minister of State to take out of this the following points.”
“I thank my colleague, Deputy Wall, who has been advocating this for some time, as did his dad before him as well, and I acknowledge the work of Family Carers Ireland. This is a unique and neat motion. This is a group that cannot stand up for themselves. I was a bit disappointed in the Minister of State's response and in the Minister's response because we have discussed carers in here quite a bit. We have never really gone into the depths of discussing young carers and their difficulties - there are tens of thousands of them - and really need to do that. The impact it has on these people and their health, education, future and opportunities in life is dramatic and can continue long beyond their youth. Somebody needs to say this out loud so I will. As a State, we are trading on their emotional commitment to their family members.”
“Trainee gardaí are coming in who are not fully vetted and, in the end, they are told they cannot become gardaí. How much is that costing the State? The Department cannot answer that question, which I have asked. It is not able to answer how much it costs to train a garda in this country. If that is all accumulated, it is obviously a loss to the taxpayer. These people have access to a lot of information, training, uniforms, guns and arms. Many of them are very fine people, and I represent the constituency that includes Templemore, but they need to be fully vetted. If people need be fully vetted for Tusla, the HEA, education and everything in healthcare, they surely, in the name of God, need to be fully vetted for An Garda Síochána before they enter Templemore.”
“What the Minister said is simply not factually correct. Garda trainees are going into Templemore who have not been vetted to the standard required. That is the bottom line. This was done last November. The Minister is also failing to acknowledge the fact that unattested trainees are often training under supervision but are not fully vetted. The Minister knows that as part of their course they are out during certain phases and are not fully vetted. Trainee gardaí who are not fully vetted are out on patrol throughout the country. That is a fact. The Minister cannot deny that in the House. Gardaí of various ranks all over the country are disgusted at this and believe it is totally wrong. The Department also fails to acknowledge this.”
“The people who enter Templemore need to be vetted to the same standard as they always have been. At the end of the day, the Garda does the vetting. If it cannot maintain those standards, what hope have we regarding everyone else? I have asked this question of every Department and agency throughout the country. Not one has come back to me and said that it is changing its vetting standards, but An Garda Síochána can. The public is not buying this. People are worried about it.”
“This is Comical Ali stuff. The Garda Síochána press office has stated: "... the highest standards for all ... Gardaí will be maintained. Vetting standards for Garda trainees remain the same." They do not remain the same. They are different. Similar to the housing statistics, this was done as a political ploy in order to ensure numbers got bumped up and trainees were taken in last December, which I pointed out last year. It is not the same standard. The Minister needs to guarantee on the floor of the House that people are not currently training in Templemore who should not be. Gardaí and their representative bodies, who are very concerned about standards not being maintained, have come to me from across the country on this. We also have to think about the people who are training and working with trainees at Templemore.”
“As the Minister is aware, the Garda Commissioner informed his Department last November that full vetting would no longer take place prior to trainees entering the college at Templemore. This sent shock waves across many organisations, including the GRA and other representative bodies, because the Garda do the vetting. If gardaí will not be fully vetted before they enter Templemore, how can standards be maintained?”
“What is the Government doing to protect our communications from spyware, particularly the use of WhatsApp, which has now been compromised in many jurisdictions?”
“Yesterday, again, on "Prime Time", journalist Joe Galvin raised the issue of the Israeli company Cellebrite used by the PSNI to crack the phones of journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney. There has been an overlap in personnel between the PSNI from that time and An Garda Síochána since then. It has also been reported that Meta, which owns WhatsApp, announced that up to 100 journalists' phones were compromised by another Israeli company, Paragon Solutions. This is right on our doorstep, up North and across the water. Will the Taoiseach guarantee to this House and the public watching that no journalists, public representatives or members of civic society are in any way being targeted with the use of such technology by any arm of the State?”
“There was astonishment among serving and retired Garda members at the Taoiseach's comments on Garda vetting last week in response to a question I had asked. To put back on record what the Taoiseach said, he asked what vetting actually means and what it actually produces. He stated, "It is quite limited in what it actually does." I have been contacted by a number of serving Garda members who have been back in Templemore and are concerned about what is happening there. In light of the Taoiseach's comments last week, is this lack of full vetting of trainee gardaí going to continue? Is it now Government policy, across all Departments and State agencies, that there will be a laissez-faire approach to the full vetting of people before they gain employment in State agencies or Departments?”
“I fought for this for years. The people of Nenagh have huge affection for this. People who were residents and who have passed away had fought for this unit and wanted to move across to it. Their families have been left without ever getting their loved ones across to this unit. There is an inherent contradiction here. I take the Minister of State's word. He is an honourable Member and an honourable Minister of State. I take his word that this is happening this summer and what the HSE have responded to in my parliamentary question will not happen but that it will do what he says and that moreover, the issue of Bartra looking for people for 12 months also will not affect the movement of the residents by this summer and all the staff will be in place.”
“I take his word that will happen. I must point out to the Minister of State that the company, Bartra, is advertising 12-month contracts for clinical nurses in Nenagh. If it is advertising for clinical nurses in Nenagh for 12 months, it must expect it is going to stay there a bit longer. By the way, at the end of this I want to see the total amount Bartra was paid for doing this because I expect it will be colossal. Why is it advertising for multiple posts in Nenagh on 12-month contracts if, as the Minister of State says, this will be handed back to the people of Nenagh and surrounds this summer? I have huge affection for the people involved here. St. Conlon's, the saving of St. Conlon's and the creation of this new CNU are central to everything I believe in politically and everything for which I have fought for years.”
“I accept the Minister of State's honesty and directness in this and I appreciate his response. I have to ask, though, why did the HSE send me this response to a parliamentary question within the past few days saying it did not have a date and did not know? If the Minister of State can confirm to the House that it is happening after 12 months, which is this summer, what is going on? Why are parliamentary questions not answered honestly? The Minister of State has stated on the record of the Dáil - and I accept it - that it will be within 12 months, which is this summer.”
“This contradicts what the clinical lead said a week before. Will the Minister of State answer to the people of Nenagh and its surrounds, and all the residents, their families and all the workers, on whether our nursing home will be open this summer as committed to by the HSE, the previous Government and this Government? Are we in a situation whereby it will be reneged on and we will not be in a position to trust the HSE or this Government on elderly care in Nenagh?”
“We were told it would be handed back as a residential facility by this summer. Then it was linked to the 96-bed block in Limerick. This is the famous block for which the Minister of State and I both fought for many years, and which is being built at rapid speed to be fair. On Tipp FM a week or so ago, Dr. Hennessy, the new clinical lead in UHL, was asked whether it would honour opening the nursing home in the summer of this year. He said he had been assured by the REO before he went on the show that it would be open this year. That was all fine until I received a reply to a parliamentary question asking the exact same thing. In his correspondence to me, Ian Carter, CEO of mid-west acute and older people services, referred to my correspondence dated 21 February 2025 and told me no date for the initiative has been agreed at this time.”
“Conlon's have never got to transfer to the facility and many of them have passed away since. The staff never got to transfer. Recruitment never happened for local staff. I have had to fight to get people into nursing homes throughout the mid-west and further afield, in Galway, Laois and everywhere, you name it. We have had to fight to get people even though we have a 50-bed state-of-the-art unit, which is the best in Ireland, sitting right beside the hospital and our new primary care centre in the middle of the town. It is not acceptable. What the former Minister said, and what the regional executive officer, REO, of the HSE said, was that it would be used as a step-down facility for one year to get us over the winter. The winter is gone and we are now into spring.”