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 you listen to the Inspector of Prisons, I think he is on a different track from the Minister. I know the Minister has plans to bring in 1,500 extra prison spaces but if you look at the practice in the UK, you will basically be chasing them. The prisons will end up full again but you are not dealing with the issue. The conditions of the prisons in our country are an absolute disgrace to successive governments. The way they have been left is a disgrace. While I understand the Prison Officers' Association have views on this, the idea we will bring in such capacity into prisons is creating a huge amount of risk. I am concerned about that. I am also concerned about it because we have not had an analysis done in the form of a risk assessment. It will be piloted but we have not done a risk assessment. This is bizarre.”
“A number of us here are on the justice committee. We did not even go through some of these in pre-legislative scrutiny because we did not know the Minister was doing this and he did not provide anything. This is not good practice. I know the Minister is only in his post a year but he is experienced. This is not the way to do things. The Minister should not be doing these things. It is an indictment of him and his Department that he is coming in here and throwing all of this at us, while bringing in a whole range of other amendments we have heard about in the media as well. I will try to run through a number of the issues as quickly as I can. On the issue of pepper spray, our committee was pretty adamant that bringing in a tool like this into a prison service is not exactly good practice.”
“On this occasion, he read it verbatim. The reason he read it verbatim was he has to be very careful about what he is saying on a lot of these things. From a legislative point of view, it is very tricky. This is not good practice and I am surprised at the Minister for behaving in this way in this House. This is so diverse. It includes pepper spray, community service orders, counselling records on sexual offences, sex for rent, changes to bail, remote hearings, electronic documents for court, DNA analysis, issues with outdoor seating for public houses, face coverings and an issue I truly welcome, namely the disregard of convictions relating to consensual same-sex activity. That is as diverse as you can get. It is crazy to do a Bill like this. A few of them I can maybe understand but a number of them deserve to be Bills on their own.”
“I will be sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Conor Sheehan. I do not like to criticise the Minister or his Department but bringing in a Bill in this way is crazy. There is so much in it. It is all over the place. That is why we wanted the Minister's speech. He said he spoke off the cuff. Frankly, most of the time he does.”
“We in the Labour Party are bringing forward this Bill to deal with this once and for all. We cannot have a situation where An Garda Síochána is going around the country trying to chase mobile phones it cannot get its hands on. It is not resource-practical. We need to cut it out at the e-commerce publisher level and this Bill does that. I ask the Government to please work with us to ensure it can be brought in in the coming weeks. I do not care if the Government brings it in or I do but somebody must bring it in.”
“I thank the Tánaiste. I am worried when I hear him talk about the Irish European Presidency. That is five months away but we do not have five weeks. He mentioned the volume of cases. How many will end up going to the very end to a prosecution? We have a situation whereby if we do not bring in legislation, this continuous sexualisation without their consent of women and men and the sharing of those images will continue and will not be prosecuted, unless we act now. That is a fact. That is why we are bringing this forward. It does not have to be our Bill but ultimately if we do not deal with this in a timely manner people are going to end up suffering. We were given evidence yesterday that since she went forward the amount of times this image has been shared has multiplied.”
“I am calling on it to engage with the legislation. We do not have time for this to go on and on. I ask that in the coming weeks, working collectively with us and whomever else wants to be involved, we bring into law a change to deal with this lacuna and ensure the publishers - the e-commerce companies - will be dealt with by the law for facilitating such behaviour.”
“Third, and crucially, borrowing from law on child sexual abuse, it makes it an offence to knowingly facilitate the generation of such images for the purposes of publication or sharing. This is critical legislation. It will deal with the e-commerce companies as publishers. Yesterday, the testimony was that when Gráinne Seoige went to the Garda, at the end of all the chasing, gardaí came up against an individual who would not give over their phone. Ms Seoige would have had to look for a court order. How long was that going to take and was it practical? Ultimately, this needs to be dealt with at publisher-e-commerce company level. This legislation deals with the individual but it also deals with the company. I do not care whether the Government takes this Bill and changes it, improves it or whatever.”
“We in the Labour Party believe there is a lacuna in the law, particularly regarding how AI- or computer-generated sexualised images of adults are being created and then distributed. We have decided as a party we need to bring in legislation to deal with this. Today, I am publishing the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences (Amendment) Bill 2026. It is basically an update to Coco's Law, which our party brought forward and which a Minister sitting opposite finally got through the Oireachtas. It provides amendments to Coco's Law to change the definition of intimate images to include AI- or computer-generated images. It also creates a new offence of creating such an image of a person without the consent of that person.”
“Yesterday, at the media committee, we had testimony from Gráinne Seoige in relation to her experiences during the general election and subsequently. It was harrowing and I thank her for coming forward. We have all heard of many other cases of what has happened to many people, mostly women, in regard to AI tools and social media companies. In fact, I would call them publishers. They are not platforms; they are actually e-commerce companies. They make money and this is how they make money. We need to think about how we are going to deal with this. People have come to me and to many others in this Chamber as well. We need robust legislation. The simple fact of the matter is that technology is moving so fast, it is very difficult for any Legislature, including us, to keep up.”
“In some Departments and some organisations, the pull back into work is high and some of the people who are late for work this morning are people who are working for the State. We all know that some people cannot do flexible work and cannot work from home, but for those who can, we should encourage it as much as possible to avoid the issues we are dealing with. There are other practical measures that need to be done with park and ride, bus lanes, frequency of trains, integrated ticketing and transport hubs. How come late night bars and nightclubs can have staggered closing times but we cannot have staggered times for work so that people can travel at different times as regards their work hours? Practical changes like that would help alleviate the gridlock that we are seeing coming into Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and everywhere else.”
“Some people who worked here moved down there. A huge reason was the great train service. The biggest issue was where people could park when going to get the train. Now it has gone down as far as Roscrea and Nenagh. There is not the rail line capacity or the frequency of trains. There are not even the services because the service on the Ballybrophy line is so dire. I would use that to commute to Dublin but I cannot because I cannot rely on it and it does not meet my requirements. That is not acceptable. We also need to ensure that this gradual push towards pulling people back into work stops. The right to flexible work and the right to work from home must be enshrined. Where it needs to be enshrined most quickly is with us and the public service.”
“Accidents do happen and it is crazy that there are not emergency vehicles from TII on the slip roads and the hard shoulder, parked up and ready to get vehicles involved in incidents moved immediately. In any other jurisdiction, that is normal. We need it not just on the M50 - we need more on the M50 - but we also need it on the M7, M8 and all other orbital routes into Dublin. We also need it in other areas such as Galway, Limerick and Cork. From my area, getting into Limerick at certain times in the morning and coming out of it in the evening is chronic even though it is only a short distance obviously because of the volume of people using cars and the lack of public transport options. The lack of public transport options is real. Over a decade ago, Portlaoise became a hub for commuting to Dublin. Lots of people moved down there.”
“I commend my colleague Deputy Mark Wall on bringing this forward. For anyone watching us discussing a motion on congestion and the requirement for flexible work, it is absolutely ironic that a man who left his house before 6.30 a.m. is walking through the door of Dáil Éireann at 10.05 a.m. Why? It is because there were accidents on the motorway and everybody across the commuting areas of Kildare, Tipperary, Laois and other areas were held up because of it. This was not planned but it is some statement to prove why we need to deal with this issue in the short term, not the medium term or the long term. What is going on is insane. The motorways into Dublin and the M50 are car parks.”
“From a healthcare point of view, it would ensure we do not have situations whereby every weekend if you go into University Hospital Limerick, South Tipperary General Hospital or many other model 3 or 4 hospitals across the country you will have a range of children, in particular, who will have burns on their faces and hands because of the misuse of this substance. There are also neurological and reproductive issues because of this. I ask the Minister to do the right thing. This Bill is not perfect and I do not think Deputy Ward said it was perfect, but it deserves to go to Committee Stage. I expect the Government to change its mind and do the right thing. We can all work on it then and at least it will be in the process of being legislated for and will give hope to people who know this is the right thing to do.”
“It is not good enough. I think the Minister is better than that. I think he has the capacity to deal with this very quickly through the various Stages of the Bill whether it is Committee Stage or Report Stage. This would ensure that the children of Ireland are not left open to this and do not have the opportunity to use this, that those who are involved in this at a criminal level have the legs taken out from them, that gardaí are empowered to seize these within reasonable reason in relation to what they are used for and that the law will protect that decision making. It would also ensure that communities across Ireland do not have the spectre of Tidy Towns groups going around every weekend picking these up canisters all over the place.”
“It is at that extreme where young kids are going out at night or at weekend and using this. We are not necessarily talking about those who are involved in other activities later on when they are 17 or 18; we are talking about children who are 13, 14 or 15 years of age. I am really disappointed in the Department and the Minister because this is not something we should be having any form of political toing and froing on. This can be dealt with quickly. As someone who I think has the potential to change his mind for the right reason on the floor of the Dáil, I urge him to do so. If Sinn Féin had not brought in this Bill, we probably would have brought it in, to be honest. I encourage the Minister to accept it and not take the run-of-the-mill action whereby he just signs off on it and leaves it be because it is downright lazy.”
“They are then distributed and young children are using them. There are a whole range of neurological impacts from them, which have been outlined by many Deputies already. I have heard stories in my own office in relation to people who have been pretty severely affected with severe burns as a consequence because they do not know what they are doing. There are addiction elements and a whole range of other elements. All of this is avoidable, if we had the regulatory process in place, if we had the licensing in place and if we had the enforcement capacity in place to allow gardaí to do their job. I have had gardaí speak to me about this. It has been raised with me that in particular parts of my constituency, the volume of it coming in is quite extraordinary. I am from rural Tipperary. We have a lot of towns, but still.”
“Why will the Minister not let the Bill through? Why can he not ensure, through working positively with the Opposition, that we deal with these issues on Committee Stage and protect our young people? I presume this will take more than nine months. If any situations happen within the next nine months, if serious incidents or accidents happen or, dare I say, if a death occurs because of this, we may replay this back to the Minister. This issue is glaringly obvious. It is not complicated. It has to be dealt with. We all know there are uses for this in catering, healthcare and a range of other things. What is going on now is you walk through any estate in every part of Ireland and you will find these canisters. The canisters are being brought into areas by criminals who are selling them.”
“I do not understand the following: we know this issue has to be addressed, and he says he needs nine months to consider it. Why has his Department not been considering it before this? It is glaringly obvious that this issue has to be dealt with. I know the Minister has had a lot of change in his Department and has a whole range of issues coming over from the Department of children, but surely within the relevant section his officials knew this was an issue. I think the Minister's response is downright lazy. It is lazy. It is also lazy from his Department to take nine months. If I was in the Minister's shoes, I would think that this is a pretty simple Bill to draft. He goes on about regulation and how the gardaí would enforce this, etc. They are all pretty minor things that could be dealt with on Committee Stage.”
“Before the Minister leaves, I commend Deputy Ward on this Bill. This should have been brought in years ago. The issues with nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas to the common man and woman, have been causing damage for years. However, what has happened in recent years is that it has become a component of criminal activity. I am sorry, but the large-scale canisters have little use in this country in the professions the Minister spoke about. While I understand, in fairness to him, that on other occasions he has not opposed different legislation being brought in by the Opposition and let it go through, I cannot for the life of me think why he would not do the same here. This Bill may not be perfect, but certainly it is worthy of going to Committee Stage where he can bring in all of the amendments he wants.”
“Will the Government bring in emergency legislation in relation to the issue of the sharing of AI-generated images of adults, which is obviously a gap in the legislation?”
“It is quite obvious to me that as a country we need to go ahead and deal with the issues relating to AI, Grok and X. The Taoiseach had a high-level meeting last night with various Ministers. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, on her work to date. I will ask the Taoiseach two questions that are outside of political rivalry in here or anything like that. Will he help me as Chair of the media committee by asking X representatives to turn up at our meeting next Wednesday? Google, Meta and TikTok representatives are turning up. Will he contact X representatives to ask them to turn up and say that it is imperative that they does so to be answerable to the people of Ireland?”
“Where we as a country require infrastructure for housing, we will develop that infrastructure but it will be too late for this Government because of the decisions made by past Governments not to invest in what was right. In this Chamber, politics has failed the people of Ireland. It has failed the young people of Ireland who needed that foresight and needed infrastructure to be put in place to provide the houses they require - social, affordable and private - which will not be in place because of bad decision-making and bad politics in this bloody Chamber.”
“It is impossible. This House, previous Governments, bad politics and short-termism have ensured we have the housing crisis we have today and that the young and not so young people of Ireland cannot afford housing. We cannot build it because politics has failed, this Chamber has failed, the Minister of State's Governments have failed and his party has failed. It is as simple as that. We have never put in the investment we require. In my town of Nenagh, we have a project of 1,000 houses which I helped to be built. The project for wastewater has been pushed back for one year to 18 months to be profiled. Tipperary County Council was treated disgracefully by not being told this was being profiled and pushed back. The reason it was profiled and pushed back was there was not the investment to actually do it.”
“I was sad to see the senior Minister leave but the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, knows full well what I will say. It is over for him and the senior Minister when it comes to providing housing and developing the level of housing required in this country. I refer to what I predicted on 27 April 2012 in this very House. I encourage the Minister of State to go back and look at the speech. It still stands. All the investment the Minister of State likes will not catch up. Going from €300 million to €1.4 billion or even now, as the senior Minister said, €11.7 billion will be great for a government in two terms' time but it is over for this Government because the lead time is five to seven years. If you do not have the infrastructure, you cannot build the houses. It is like someone trying to perform operations without oxygen or blood.”
“Policing and Community Safety Authority Ireland reported on performance levels in An Garda Síochána today and has said that unfortunately, it is failing in 11 of the 18 areas the authority made recommendations in. Recruitment and retention, which we have spoken about often here, is a major issue. However, the authority complimented and pointed out how high visibility policing is working in the capital but it is not working in Roscrea and many other towns in Ireland. How is that we have a situation where we have a Minister from Dublin and high visibility in Dublin? If you walk out of here, you will see them all over the place, which is great. However, you will not find them in Roscrea. Why is there high visibility of gardaí across Dublin this Christmas but there is not in Roscrea?”
“I encourage the Government to provide a capital plan to deliver that, along with the upgrades to Nenagh and Ennis, including pathway changes, diagnostics being moved and everything else. Ultimately, unless there is an increase from the Department of public expenditure in relation to the capital provision for the HSE, with the best will in the world, the Minister cannot deliver this without the money being given by the Government.”
“I thank the Taoiseach for that, but he has to answer the question. Will the capital allocation for the Department of Health - HSE capital spending - be increased dramatically to deliver the project? It cannot be delivered at the moment. This decision cannot be executed. It is impossible. There is not enough money there, particularly if we look at the existing commitments relating to elective hospitals and everything else. In reality, option B should become option C. That is the quickest and best solution for the people of the mid-west. I respect that the Minister will never want to discuss sites, and rightly so. What we should do is acquire a site and deliver option B and then wrap option C around it in stages in future years. That is what the mid-west really needs.”
“Without that financial capacity, this plan, with all the goodwill of the Minister and everyone else, cannot be delivered on. It is impossible. It just does not add up. Will changes be made to the capital plan of the HSE in order to deliver this for the mid-west and end the discrimination that has been happening to us?”
“In principle, what has been announced today is very welcome, and the engagement the Minister has had with us, particularly in the last two weeks, is also something different and very welcome. There always is a "however", and the "however" here is the detail. We will support the Minister on this decision. The reality is that we need close on 600 beds in the mid-west by 2040. However, the capital envelope for this is too small. It is €9.2 billion up to 2030. Our capacity as a country to deliver on this is not there. My question to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Minister for public expenditure, if he is going to be still there, is this: will the Government give the financial capacity to deliver on this plan?”
“I have spoken about how care is thought of in the mid-west and the discrimination that has happened to all of us in Tipperary, Clare and Limerick over the past 20 years since the Government made the decisions on downgrading hospitals without the infrastructure being put in place. In the south east, they have four model 3 or model 4 hospitals, in south Tipperary, Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny. We have one. We have one accident and emergency department for 450,000 people. It is shocking. It is discriminatory. Along with my colleague, Deputy Sheehan, and all our representatives, I very much welcome what the Minister has announced today. It is very rare that somebody in opposition will stand up in Leaders' Questions and say that but it needs to be said.”
“Sympathies from this side of the House also to those affected by the terrorist attack in Sydney. There was an outstanding piece of journalism, which I keep referring to, in the Limerick Leader two weeks ago. I have in my hand the front page of the newspaper, which shows the faces of four young women who lost their lives because of the health issues in acute care in the mid-west and University Hospital Limerick. They were Aoife Johnston, 16; Niamh McNally, 16; Eve Cleary, 21; and Leona Cusack, 33. It was an outstanding piece of journalism by Sandra Quinn. The issues in relation to acute care in the mid-west is the topic I have spoken about the most in my political career. It is probably the reason I got into politics. I have had to tell personal stories in the Chamber in relation to my dad, my mother, even my wife and my neighbours.”
“I have no issue with option B as long as that decision to create another 100 beds has a hospital wrapped around it in years to come. The Minister for public expenditure is from the Minister of State's party. I urge the Ministers for Health and public expenditure, Deputies Carroll MacNeill and Chambers, in the next week before the Cabinet decision is made - it has to be made because the Minister has promised it - that this decision will be long term and that we will create a new model 3 or 4 hospital in the mid-west to end the discrimination and fear. There are people who will not go into UHL because of the fear they have and the situation we have been left in.”
“We cannot fail the people of the mid-west continuously as we head into Christmas again, with people who live alongside me afraid. We cannot fail the families of these four poor women and others. I could give the Minister of State hundreds of examples of issues there. The Minister of State spoke about the volume of beds required, which I absolutely accept but how in the name of God can we create those beds without creating a new hospital? I am not even arguing for Nenagh, Ennis or wherever; I just want a decision that we need a new hospital in the mid-west - an access point with beds and critical infrastructure. We cannot go on the way we are. We need that ambition and I am afraid this is being choreographed, that the decision being made next week will be options A and B but not C.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her response and I acknowledge the improvements that have happened in UHL in the past couple of years. However, we have serious issues when it comes to staffing and high-level consultants as regards attracting them, given the situation the hospital is in. Politics has failed the people of the mid-west on this issue. I am not going to start blaming certain parties but politics has failed across this House. Consultants helped drive the agenda to close the units in Ennis, St. John's and Nenagh. Then, they disappeared off the face of the earth and were never found again. Politics now has to come back and fix it. This Chamber has to fix it; the Minister of State's Department has to fix it.”
“I urge the Minister of State to give the Christmas news everybody in Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and even parts of north Cork want to hear and that is that we will do all the short- and medium-term planning and we will look again at the pathways regarding minor injury units and open them up as well as open up community services but for God's sake, we need another hospital in the mid-west. It is as plain as the nose on my face. Any other decision is discrimination and is totally wrong. I will be the first person to stand up and congratulate the Minister of State if she delivers it.”
“The only decision that can be made next week, along with option A of the 96-bed block and option B of building a 100-bed unit nearby, is to make the decision long term. We need ambition to have a model 3 or model 4 hospital in the mid-west. Anything else will continue this discrimination and I will not be part of another generation of politicians who stand up in this House and accept that. It is discrimination. My phone was ringing all weekend about cases in Limerick. Despite the new 96-bed block, the numbers there are 110 on trolleys and 31,000 on waiting lists. We have a worrying situation where consultants, because of the working conditions, are leaving.”
“Unfortunately, for some reason, Deputy Sheehan and I were not invited so I must raise the issue on the floor of the Dáil. The HIQA report was not necessary, but we have it because Mr. Gerry Burke, who was the former lead clinical consultant in UHL, did all the statistics ten years ago. The situation has only got worse. Even in terms of the HIQA report, the census data is out of date. We are totally discriminated against. If you look at the south east, which the Minister of State is very familiar with, there are three model 4 hospitals in Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny. There is also one in south Tipperary. We have one. That is not sustainable. The idea that the people in Clare, Limerick and north Tipperary have only one accident and emergency for 450,000 people is insane.”
“I will say something of the Government with all the positivity I can. I know what I am talking about. I have spoken about my family in the Dáil on numerous occasions. I have spoken about my dad, the anniversary of whose passing was two days ago. He did not want to go into UHL. I have spoken about my neighbours and friends. I spoke recently about a situation where I had to ring and somebody in the HSE told me once I got on the motorway to go to Portlaoise hospital, which I did. That was an emergency and the patient got fantastic service. The Government has a huge decision to make. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has said she will make that decision next week. She met mid-west Deputies and Senators two weeks ago.”
“I thank the Minister of State from being here. She is from the relevant Department, and I appreciate it. That should be the norm in this House. It used to be. An exceptional piece of journalism was published last week by the Limerick Leader . The front page article spoke about the catastrophic failures in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, which we have discussed in the House. No other topic have I discussed more in my political career. The picture on the front page shows four young women. I compliment the journalist, Ms Sandra Quinn, and the Limerick Leader for what they put out. Sometimes a visual says more than words. The story is about Ms Aoife Johnston and Ms Niamh McNally, both 16, Ms Eve Cleary, 21, and Ms Leona Cusack, who was 33. They all died because of what is going on in UHL.”
“Will the Minister guarantee that the answers he gives to questions from Opposition spokespersons will be accurate and he will not mislead the House in the future?”
“He said a narrow interpretation of my parliamentary question was taken, but am I meant to basically second-guess all answers now as being narrow interpretations? How is it possible the Minister was not aware of this issue? I have a deep concern about how policing is administered from the Minister’s Department, as opposed to other sections. I have said to him that any of three things could be happening regarding these questions because I cannot, as an Opposition spokesperson, continue to ask questions and receive narrow interpretations. It is either incompetence or a deliberate act or the people answering the questions genuinely do not know at this stage what is accurate or inaccurate. Any or all of them are deeply worrying for this House.”
“Why was this hidden for seven years? That is a real question. Second, other candidates were not aware of this accommodation scenario. Was it, therefore, a fair competition? This is not the first time that I have submitted questions to the Minister’s Department that have not been answered. When the Minister commenced in his role, I asked questions regarding holsters. The Minister wrote to me in that regard, but his response was inaccurate. On that occasion, I went to him and he wrote to me again but, again, the response was inaccurate and I had to tell him that. The Minister had to write to me three times on the one question. I am also the Member who had to tell the Minister about the arms in the boot of the car in the Evan Fitzgerald case. The Minister was not aware of it.”
“Why did An Garda Síochána look for a house in 2017 prior to a Commissioner even being appointed? The head of the OPW at a meeting of the public accounts committee two weeks ago said it had actually been leased in 2017. Is that accurate? Will the Minister also confirm whether there were any other costs during those seven years in relation to this accommodation that were, in any way, met by the taxpayer?”
“I thank the Minister for correcting the record. Only for my party colleague Deputy Eoghan Kenny, asking questions in the Committee of Public Accounts, we would not have found this out. I asked numerous questions about this. I spoke to the Garda Representative Association today and was told about so many gardaí who are resigning because they cannot afford to pay rent. The Minister is probably aware of this. Accommodation was provided to a Commissioner and the rent was not indexed. There was a considerable loss to the State where, basically, the rent was not being paid. This is the Accounting Officer for An Garda Síochána and it is low rent. Why was this arrangement not advertised as part of the package when we were looking for a Commissioner? Why was it not part of the job evaluation afterwards once it was awarded?”
“As the Minister is aware, I asked a number of parliamentary questions regarding the remuneration of the former Garda Commissioner but the information provided to me was not accurate. It was misleading. There was a deal with the former Commissioner in relation to his accommodation and that rent was not indexed, so there was a loss to the taxpayer. Essentially, his rent was subsidised and paid for. Is the Minister going to provide the full details? Will he apologise and correct the record? In future, will he ensure his answers are not misleading to this House?”
“While supports to help people are provided through various organisations, through ourselves and so on, many people will unfortunately just not face into it. There is another very pertinent point that needs to be made. If you have financial well-being and capacity, you may be able to get through this a lot more easily than those who do not. In a republic, that is also unacceptable. While I welcome the Minister's words, I have to tell her straight that she will be judged by her actions and not by her words.”
“The way trans people are being treated in healthcare, the inconsistency in that treatment, the invasive way in which they are being questioned, the process they have to go through to get healthcare, those abroad having to start the process of invasive questioning all over again, and, as my colleague has mentioned, the issues that arise when people change healthcare professional are all completely wrong. The inconsistency, the lack of decency and the manner in which people are being treated really need to change in a fundamental way. To put it simply, the national gender service is not fit for purpose. That needs to be said. It needs to be completely and utterly changed. In our country, those who are strong enough will fight and go through this current system, but those who are not strong enough will not. That is a huge issue.”
“The Labour Party has a very strong tradition in this area. I am the only remaining Member who was a Cabinet Minister in the Government that brought in the Gender Recognition Act 2015, although my party colleague Deputy Nash was a Minister of State attending Cabinet. The Minister has spoken. Words are one thing but it has now been ten years and actions are now far more important than words to many people across this country who are in real need of compassion, support and a pathway to healthcare to help them. To speak frankly, what is going on in our country in this area is not compassionate. The pathways we all hear about through our work with a great many people, including some of those in the Gallery, and the stories we hear from them are simply not acceptable.”