Alison Comyn
Nominated by the Taoiseach · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“I know we are on the cusp of the summer recess but I want to talk about school for a moment. I raise a matter for a future debate or possible Commencement matter with the Minister for education about the inclusion of philosophy as a leaving certificate subject.”
“I believe this proposal sits naturally within the broader reform of the leaving certificate currently being championed by my colleague Senator Shane Curley. As we reimagine and modernise senior cycle education, we should not only be asking what students need to know, but how they should learn to think for themselves.”
“I especially compliment the staff who work in the background for me, including my assistant, Anna Brennan, who I have many times introduced as my right-hand woman. I would not be able to manage without her. I hope she has a very restful week. The work will go on here.”
“Despite all the technological change, people still value the reassurance, convenience and trust that comes with the local post office. That is why this investment is so important.”
“For those people, the post office is not just a convenience; it is an essential service. As a spokesperson for communications, I believe this debate should be about the future, rather than simply preserving the past or what we have at the moment.”
“Croke Park was a sea of red on the day. Many of us wanted to take public transport and it was under immense pressure. However, that was not just because of the semi-final. Dundalk and Drogheda railway stations are under serious pressure every day. One of the main reasons is the lack of parking.”
The complete record
Every one of 413 lines we hold for Alison Comyn, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 9.
“Before I begin, I send my deepest sympathies to Andrew and Mary Rogers, the parents of Marie Claire Rogers, a young nurse who died tragically and very suddenly in Australia. She was just 24 years of age and was from Togher in County Louth. My sympathies are with her family, friends and teammates in Naomh Fionnbarra. There is a GoFundMe page set up to repatriate her back from Australia and I urge people to support that. I just got off the phone to a young mum - Emma - in Bettystown County Meath, who was very distressed. Her son Alex, who is 12 years of age, has autism and has no secondary school place. It took her four years to try to get a primary school unit for him in County Meath and she is now going through the same process again. She has tried four local schools and is on a waiting list as they are all full.”
“It will be a state-of-the-art stadium, with 6,000 seats in the first phase. Of course, once we have taken the cup, we will need many more seats. With respect, I ask the Leader to invite the Minister with responsibility for sport to come to the House. The first round of funding has just been announced but in a debate in the House, I could put the begging bowl out and talk about the second round of funding for the stadium so that Louth has a fully fledged stadium. An Lú abú.”
“I second the amendment to the Order of Business. I admit that I stand here as a woman torn. I have somewhat divided allegiance because I live in a place that straddles two counties, Louth and Meath. I speak, of course, of the senior championship game which took place over the weekend. Louth saw off Kildare, so commiserations to my colleague, Senator Fiona O'Loughlin, and Meath saw off Dublin. Now we will have a long-awaited showdown. It took 15 years for us to be able to see it again. I wish both teams great luck. Do I wear the red and white of Louth, where I was born and bred and now live, or do I support many of my family and friends in east Meath? On the day, I will just say may the best team win. Speaking of Louth, I congratulate Louth GAA on receiving funding for a long-awaited stadium in Dundalk.”
“One reason for some these public order incidents, according to local community and outreach workers I was speaking to over the weekend, is the lack of a HSE outreach worker. There is somebody who is out on leave. I spoke to representatives of a local drugs and addiction service, The Red Door Project, and they said €20,000 would cover the position for four months. That would make a huge difference, allowing people who are now at a loss out on the street to engage with an outreach worker. It would be great to see if funding is available along these lines. We have many security issues at the moment – they may fall under the Department of Justice or the Department of Health – so I would appreciate the opportunity for a debate on them. We are coming into the summer and they could escalate.”
“Another area I will raise is Laytown Garda station, which is one of the feeder stations for Drogheda. It is a tiny bungalow in a small housing estate in a village in east Meath. It was promised eight gardaí a couple of years ago, but it has three gardaí and is a part-time Garda station. The then Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, visited in 2022 with the Commissioner, Drew Harris, and they assured people this station would go into a ten-year Garda plan and a new location would be found for it, a search that is looking at a very wide area. There are 17,000 people in the Laytown area. These stations service Bettystown, Mornington, Stamullen and 50,000 people, so the garda numbers are not sufficient.”
“I thank the Leader and support the Order of Business he has proposed. I will raise a couple of topics. We have a lovely bit of sunny weather but with that, unfortunately, came a rise in public order incidents in the Drogheda area over the weekend. I received a number of disturbing videos of serious public order incidents in daylight. We are talking about 2 p.m. This raises something I would like to debate with the Minister for Justice, namely, garda shortages in that particular area. Drogheda is the largest town in Ireland with approximately 50,000 people. In 2022, there were two sergeants and 14 gardaí. I got these figures from one of the senior gardaí yesterday. In 2025, we have one sergeant and five gardaí, which is not ample for the number of people.”
“I thank the Minister for attending and responding. We are at a very advanced stage and the plans are ready to be submitted. I would like to invite the Minister to come down at some stage to see those plans and to see just how vital this will be to the community. I thank the Minister for his further consideration on that.”
“Recent data has identified three additional areas in the north Drogheda area where this hub will be based as falling within deprivation index. While public funding has significantly expanded the front-line service's staffing, securing capital funding for premises remains critical. The fundraising efforts continue, but timely reinstatement of the CCIF for new community centres is essential. A successful funding application would not just build a much-needed facility, but transform lives, offering families and children in the area a much brighter future.”
“They are currently all shoehorned into little houses in the community. They are in dire need of this new hub. There is no room for expansion. I worked with these groups for years in my former role as a journalist. They do incredible work providing invaluable services. Their weekly food bank is always well attended and well supported by the community, and they pioneered a local period poverty scheme so no young girl or woman would ever go without. Tina Kearney has been a mammy to thousands of children in the community crèche over the years, giving local parents an important chance to either work or go back to education or training in order to get jobs. Moneymore estate is home to the existing front-line service. It is classified as one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country.”
“Having achieved these successes, the team members are now trying to raise the required matched funding before they can apply for the capital grant scheme, now available from the Department of Rural and Community Development. The hub is planned for north Drogheda, an area going through a massive urban expansion, and will receive a rapidly growing community. There are 7,500 new households in development. The local population, which is currently over 18,000, is expected to rise by an additional 21,000 residents. However, much of this growth is happening in areas facing significant social and economic challenges. The new community hub will have four anchor tenants: Moneymore Community House; Connect Family Resource Centre; the Foróige CABLE youth diversion project; and the Moneymore after-school project.”
“The project is estimated to cost €6 million in total and the group gratefully received €80,000 for preparatory work, with the community needing to raise €300,000 in matched funding to progress the project. I am going to take part in the first Drogheda 5 km, which is the Easter 5 km on Easter Monday, to help raise funds. I encourage anybody who has not signed up yet to do that. It will be a drop in the ocean but certainly every little bit helps. The team, under the guidance of Cliodhna Cunningham and Valerie Atherton, has secured land for the hub in Roaches Lane, The Twenties, which is close to the port area northern cross route, PANCR, and has received funding from the Department of Justice for the design and the Department of Rural and Community Development for the planning permission.”
“I thank the Minister for attending the Seanad to hear this important message from the people of Drogheda and south Louth more widely. The Moneymore Townland Community Hub is set to become a vital space for families, children and young people, a safe, secure and purpose-built facility where the community can come together and access essential front-line services, which are currently being provided by the Connect Family Resource Centre and CABLE youth diversion project. However, to make this vision a reality, support is needed to reinstate the community centre investment fund, commonly known as the CCIF, for new community centre builds, allowing the community hub to apply for crucial capital funding.”
“There is no impetus I can see for local authorities to bring back into usage many of the vacant properties they have. We need to really push the vacancy and dereliction grants to get vast areas that are quite empty back into use rather than using new housing. Let us get our ducks in a row and get the utility services up to par so we can deliver the homes we need for now and into the future.”
“It needs to be secured as soon as possible in order for this vital road to be completed. This will unlock land for the necessary houses to be built because right now there is no access to that land. I realise this is all very cart-before-the-horse stuff, but our housebuilding will grind to a halt otherwise. There is also a need for more affordable houses in these developments given that an entire layer of our younger workers is being priced out of housing. One of the developments I referred to earlier is Ballymakenny Park in north Drogheda, where there were just ten affordable housing units out of 97 available homes. I agree with my colleague Senator Noonan, who mentioned vacancy and dereliction. We have a huge amount of that in Drogheda and all across north Louth.”
“Eventually, it will have to stop building to wait for Irish Water to deliver on infrastructure. I know this is not unique to Louth and the east coast and that hundreds of private, local authority and one-off developments all over the country are suffering due to a lack of infrastructure. It is critical that we continue to invest additional capital in Uisce Éireann to support reaching our new housing targets. We must prioritise water and wastewater infrastructure to deliver the capacity to facilitate housing development in all our towns and villages. Once again referring to the massive development taking place in north Drogheda, it is mainly springing up close to the port access northern cross route. The first phase was completed last year and the second will hopefully begin soon. National funding for the third phase, though, is crucial.”
“Last year, it almost completed 370 homes in Kellystown in Clonsilla, Dublin, which has potential for a further 400 homes. Speaking to the reporter Killian Woods from the Business Post , Castlethorn's MD, Ronan Columb, said water and electricity are the biggest issues for them and the entire industry. On all the developer's sites, there is either an electricity problem or a water problem. He singled out the east coast, saying the infrastructure on the eastern seaboard "isn't robust enough to take additional units". This is slowing down building. The article mentioned the site in Drogheda where the 1,400 units are planned. Even though several hundred of those units are complete, the developer knows it will come to a point, for example with Irish Water, where there is a capacity constraint.”
“Where I live, south County Louth, is experiencing what can only be described as a building boom, with housing units being completed at a rapid rate, filling the need for homes from the growing population. One of the developers responsible for many of the houses and apartments being built, especially along the new port access route, is Castlethorn, yet its managing director recently went on record explaining how it wants to build 20,000 new homes but the Irish infrastructure is not robust enough. This is not an advertising section for Castlethorn, but it has been tasked with ramping up output to deliver 20,000 homes over the next ten years. As I said, it has several hundred homes started on a site on Drogheda, with capacity for up to 1,400 units. It is also active in Shankill, building 312 units, with a further 370 planned.”
“I thank the Minister for coming in today. He has an unenviable task, but he is meeting it with a head-on challenge and we appreciate that. I will keep it brief as there is quite a bit of repetition today. We all know the issues. We are in the thick of a housing crisis, the likes of which we have not faced before. With the population growing at a phenomenal rate, the demand is constantly outstripping supply. As has been said, Fianna Fáil in government is absolutely committed to building more homes and ensuring that great needs within our society and economy are met. In this regard, Housing for All sets out a comprehensive, multi-annual programme to accelerate and significantly increase the delivery of new homes, which the Minister outlined.”
“If that is putting men off working in the sector, it shows that it must be improved for women. I would like to see a campaign to attract young men into this profession, be it through community employment, CE, schemes to get them started or enhanced tertiary courses. This would need to work in tandem with improving working conditions in the early years sector which is something we are all working hard to achieve. These people do such important work and deserve to be paid in a way that reflects that hard work and dedication. With all this talk of toxic masculinity, it is high time for more positive male role models. We need to elevate them and celebrate them. Encouraging more men into this career in childcare would go a long way to improve that narrative.”
“Even though mums, grannies and grandads do mighty work, the difference a man can make in a parenting role can be immense. Back in 1996, the European Commission network on childcare set a goal that by 2020 at least 20% of childcare workers would be male. Fast-forward to now and in Ireland that number is closer to just 1%. Childcare is still overwhelming seen as women's work. It is not just an Irish issue. In the UK, approximately 3% of childcare workers are men. Even in Norway, which is often praised for gender equality, the figure stands at just 10%. Breaking down deep-rooted social stereotypes is proving to be a real challenge. The benefits of having more men in early childcare are well documented so why is this profession seen to be women's work? One reason is cited as poor pay and working conditions.”
“We hear a lot about gender balance, employment equality and inclusion in Ireland these days. Thankfully, these are not just buzzwords anymore. Kids growing up learn now that girls can do anything that boys can do and of course it should be vice versa . In the workplace, women are encouraged to aim high, achieving just as much, if not more, than their male colleagues. However, there is one sector where gender equality still lags far behind, namely, early years childcare. While children are growing up in a society that is focusing more and more on equality issues, many of those in full daycare are left in a situation where they have no contact with men between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Having gender balance in a play setting can be a great support to children of lone parents.”
“Just recently, we spoke about one staff member who made an impact, especially on my son and some of the other young lads. Of all the fantastic women who cared for the children, one young man, Alan, came to work for a time and apparently, he made a huge difference to the dynamic in the crèche. We have all begun vital conversations on the messages boys and young men are receiving in the current era following the airing of the Netflix drama, "Adolescence". Terms like "the manosphere" and "toxic masculinity" are suddenly in all our vocabularies. The need for healthy male role models in children's lives has never been more important. Where better place to start than with the early years? Sadly, a large percentage of children have little contact with men and some do not have a positive male role model or presence in their lives.”
“It is encouraging, as the Minister outlined, that many of the issues are being addressed in the programme for Government, with Fianna Fáil set to reduce parents' fees to €200 per month, establish a national childcare price register to ensure transparency in fees for parents and continue to increase pay for childminders and early years educators through the employment regulation order instrument. A sum of €69 million has been allocated between 2023 and 2025 to the early learning and childcare sectors under the revised national development plan. Tús maith leath na hoibre. When I was a working mum, I was blessed that when they were young, both of my children were so well looked after in the Peter Pan crèche in Drogheda, County Louth. They have happy memories.”
“I thank the Minister for taking the opportunity to hear our statements on childcare. When I was knocking on doors last year during the election campaign, we heard time and again from young families and workers about the struggle for good, affordable childcare. We also heard about the cost of fees, early years in childcare waiting lists and staff shortages. We all know there are several areas of the country where early years and school-age childcare places are at a premium and in huge demand. This is impacting on parents’ working arrangements, careers and incomes.”
“Decisions made locally are always better because local representatives understand their communities. Centralising power has harmed many towns, especially Drogheda, which needs a full-time senior executive to manage services and ensure proper funding. The return of a town council and to the days of the old town clerk or town manager would ensure quicker decisions, less vacancy and better services all round. The local democracy task force will propose ways to devolve more powers to local authorities, enhancing and strengthening councillors’ roles in managing local budgets and services. More than a decade of harm has been done since Drogheda lost its local government. We cannot afford any further delay in restoring its town council and installing a dedicated manager alongside those in Dundalk and Ardee.”
“This Act, as Senators may remember, led to the abolition of 80 town councils and five borough councils, including that of Drogheda, which was centuries old. If its aim was to improve local government and save money, it did the exact opposite. I am therefore pleased that the strengthening of local democracy is now part of the programme for Government and I am eager to see the promised local democracy task force formed. I request, through the Leader, that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Browne, or the Minister of State for local government, Deputy Cummins, attend this House to discuss its urgent convening. As we all know, local government is the beating heart of democracy, providing essential services, such as housing, roads, planning, fire safety and much more.”
“Before I begin, I also welcome the announcement of the date of the commencement of the fair fares scheme in Drogheda, County Louth, on 28 April. It is a Monday. It will be a good day for people who commute as they will save up to 50%. I will speak about another date, though. History buffs will recognise the date Oliver Cromwell and the new model army laid siege to Drogheda in 1649. Almost 400 years later, the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, left his own indelible mark in a very different way. A central theme of my election campaign last year was the restoration of local government, which was plundered in the foolhardy Local Government Reform Act 2014.”
“At present Navan has a waiting time of eight months and Dundalk has a five-month waiting time. Some of the reasons given for locations in Drogheda, County Louth, not being suitable were heavy traffic and speed ramps. I respectfully suggest these are the ideal conditions to carry out a driving test. We now have young drivers and learner drivers having to travel to various towns in the area where they have not taken lessons and they are not familiar with the routes. I would love to find out whether we have an update on the RSA finding a suitable location for a driving test centre in Drogheda, County Louth.”
“I request that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, come to the House to debate the standing of a driving test centre for Drogheda in County Louth. We had a temporary driving test centre between 2021 and 2023, which had the longest waiting list in the country. A total of 14 different locations were checked by the RSA when looking for a suitable location to relocate the centre. It did not find anything and we lost the driving test centre. At the time, the centre had a waiting list of 2,200 people. They were moved to nearby locations in Dundalk and Navan where, unfortunately, the waiting times are some of the longest in the country. I understand the Department and the RSA would like waiting times of between ten and 12 weeks for people to be invited to get a driving test.”
“As we speak, no definitive steps have been taken to address this issue. In the meantime, these men, some of whom I met last week, and hundreds more, continue to live with the trauma of their experiences and many questions are unanswered. Victims and survivors are understandably sceptical but are still very hopeful about whether they will ever get the answers they need through an open and thorough commission of investigation. At this juncture, a debate with Minister for Justice, Deputy O’Callaghan, would be a crucial step in rebuilding trust and showing a commitment to meaningful action on a commission of investigation.”
“Shine continued to practice, having access to young boys in the hospital, in his private practice and in a local orphanage. His victims feel that there has been no full and effective statutory investigation into who knew of the sexual abuse, when they knew and how it was allowed to take place. Last year, exhausted from lobbying, six men namely, Gerard Murray, Larry Torris, Peter O'Connor, Ian Russell, Ian Armstrong and Cianan Murray, felt they had no option but to go public and tell their upsetting stories of how they were sexually abused by Michael Shine, to encourage Government action. In response, then Taoiseach, Deputy Simon Harris, prior to the election late last year, said that action would be taken in relation to this "vile paedophile" within the lifetime of this Government.”
“I am requesting a debate with the Minister for Justice, Jim O'Callaghan, on the need for a commission of investigation for victims and survivors of Michael Shine. As of today, there are 363 known victims and survivors of Michael Shine, the former surgeon and convicted sexual offender who abused young boys, teenagers and young men over a 30-year period in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. I met last week with some of the victims and survivors and they say they have had piecemeal justice. They have lived through decades of lengthy civil cases and have seen him receive a criminal conviction and a sentence of four years, of which he served three years. Despite reports of sexual abuse first made in the 1960s and 1970s, Dr.”
“She said despite the plan's promise of 16 specialist and dedicated inpatient beds, the reality is only three inpatient beds are available. I am happy to be their advocate and call for action on this. As we celebrate International Women's Day, it is encouraging to see such a leap in recent years on better healthcare for all women and a broad selection of women in positions of power here to lead the charge and implement the changes necessary. Finally, I started with a quote from Tammy Wynette so I will finish with one from Dolly Parton, "If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader."”
“An update on that would be really valuable as well as the national framework for endometriosis that has been mentioned as well. I would like to see where we stand with that framework. However, an area that I have been told is still falling short in Irish healthcare is the treatment of eating disorders, the most common being anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating. Girls and women are at greater risk of eating disorders and the core symptoms that come with them such as body weight, body image, shape concerns and binge eating. In a presentation last week to Oireachtas Members, Paula Crotty from Caring about Recovery from Eating Disorders, CARED Ireland, said the lack of progress since the HSE's 2018 model of care for eating disorders is very disappointing.”
“I thank the Minister for coming in today and affording us this really valuable opportunity to discuss women's health. I am loath to quote Tammy Wynette in the House but I do agree that "Sometimes it's hard to be a woman", especially in the context of women's health. I will not sing that. I applaud the fact that the Minister mentioned some of the fantastic initiatives that have happened over the years around period poverty, menopause in particular and free contraception. I have spoken at length in the Seanad about my personal issues and what has happened with the shortage of HRT products. It affects many women. I welcome the Minister's comments that she will engage with the pharmacists' unions and try to address those shortages.”
“Its total cost is €59,000 per month, which is not very much when compared with some other major charities and suicide prevention helplines. I am asking for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to come to the House to debate the status of the SOSAD application for funding and how we can assist it. While the messaging service may have gone, the helpline is still available on 1800-901999 to anybody who needs to talk.”
“I think we all agree that we are living in very turbulent, worrying and anxious times. It has never been more important to have somebody on the end of a phone to help us with our mental health and to listen. I speak today in favour of the organisation Save Our Sons and Daughters, SOSAD, a suicide prevention helpline. Unfortunately, yesterday it had to cut its messaging service which costs €4,000 per month but has saved countless lives. SOSAD has 187 volunteers and was started in my home town of Drogheda almost 20 years ago by Peter Moroney who lost his son Simon to suicide. It now has six offices in the north east, in Navan, Cavan, Dundalk, Monaghan, Drogheda and Laois, saving thousands of lives. It is subject to applying for a service level agreement, SLA, but it needs interim funding to keep it going in that time.”
“I note the response from the HSE saying that if patients are very sick or feel they are in an emergency situation, they should of course come to the emergency department, but other than that, please use other resources such as the minor injuries units. Unfortunately, people feel at this stage they cannot call an ambulance. We need to see whether emergency departments can be opened up around the rest of the north east. I call on the Deputy Leader to have a debate with the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, on this topic.”
“Unfortunately, if paramedics in the north east are called, they cannot bring a patient to anywhere other than Our Lady of Lourdes, despite Navan having a small emergency department just half an hour away and there being a minor injuries unit in Dundalk. When people call an ambulance, they need to be seen. If you have a minor injury, you can go yourself, but if you call an ambulance, you will be taken to Our Lady of Lourdes, and the overcrowding there is at a breaking point. On 2 January this year, 16 ambulances were parked outside Our Lady of Lourdes. None of those paramedics could be called anywhere else; they had to be called from around the rest of the country. That is despite an ambulance bypass only three days before.”
“I raise a serious situation at Our Lady of Lourdes emergency department in Drogheda, County Louth, which reached breaking point over the weekend, as outlined by a report by my former colleague, John Kierans on the front page of the Drogheda Independent this week. Paramedics are being left up to five or six hours with people they are bringing to Our Lady of Lourdes emergency department. It is a huge waste of resources, unfortunately, because if somebody calls an ambulance, they cannot leave. Over the weekend – it went into Monday – there were more than 200 people waiting to be seen or admitted, which means the paramedics had to stay with them. If a person was admitted at 2 o’clock on Monday, that person was not seen until noon on Tuesday.”
“During the week I met Brian Hanratty and Kevin Enright of the commuter north rail users group in Drogheda to discuss this possibility. There is huge support from local chambers and business communities throughout the county. I hope this is something that can be seriously looked at as a plan ahead of the third phase of the northern cross route, and that this vital and valuable opportunity is not missed.”
“It would encourage new users to the port facility, generating new industry and jobs for the locality. A new IDA Ireland business park is ready to open close to the link road, Drogheda United is planning state-of-the-art football ground, and it would also be the ideal place for a much-needed hotel for Drogheda, our largest one still being used to house international protection applicants and asylum seekers. The location on the northside would open up easy access to the M1 and has the potential for thousands of new rail users from the entire north east and midlands area on a daily basis. It could become a transport hub, serving thousands of commuters, residents and students in south and mid Louth and parts of Meath, as well as tourists to Louth and the Boyne Valley area.”
“A second rail station for Drogheda was included in one of the national plans a number of years ago but it was excluded from subsequent plans. The Minister is very familiar with Drogheda and how it is expanding, and how we really are in need of more infrastructure to go along with the amount of housing. Northern Drogheda will have an extra 20,000 people living there within the next decade. The ideal location for the northside rail station would be adjacent to the port access link road. The second phase involving the construction of a tunnel and overpass is due to begin fairly soon, and the reopening of the rail line would coincide perfectly with the third phase of the port access route. Its location would also assist in routing port traffic and heavy goods vehicles away from the centre of town.”
“The town centre location of the railway station in Drogheda means the roads are completely clogged with traffic crossing at peak times. My house on the north side of the town should be a 13-minute car journey from the station. This may happen at 4 a.m. It is also a 42-minute walk. At peak times it can be a 45-minute drive in a car. Once it took me 52 minutes on the bus link. People do not make it on time. It would be faster to walk and probably healthier. Between the lack of parking spaces and heavy traffic congestion, this is the ideal time to examine the possibility of opening a second railway station for Drogheda, based on the northside of the town. I realise I am being a little bit greedy. Senator Nelson Murray is looking for just one train station while I am looking for two but I ask the Minister of State to bear with me.”
“The latest was in September last year. I welcome the fact we are hearing it will be imminent as commuters may have already purchased their monthly or annual tickets. As we are also discussing accessibility, I must say the train station in Drogheda is under serious pressure. The DART+ works are very welcome and I am glad to hear the commencement and completion dates for this Drogheda service are coming along. The hourly Enterprise trains between Dublin and Belfast have been a real bonus but I must say there is a serious lack of parking for commuters at MacBride Station. It is completely full by 6.45 a.m. Laytown, which is the next station, is not really any better. All this does is force people to go back on roads.”
“I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for attending today to answer the very serious concerns we all have regarding the public transport system throughout the country. I welcome that the Minister touched on one of my first queries, which is the delay on adding my home town of Drogheda to the Dublin commuter rail pay zone. For years Drogheda and east Meath commuters have been hit with much higher rates than those closer to the capital. It is often double the fare for what is just a few minutes down the track. Being included in the fair fare scheme would significantly reduce travel costs, by up to half in many cases. As we know, commuters, students and all sorts of workers and families are in dire need of some financial relief and this really will go a long way. A start date has been promised many times in the past.”
“As in Senator Duffy's area, in my area, we have the likes of desperate dereliction and vacancy, which means that our streets are not safe and they are dark and not well-lit. We just simply do not have enough businesses but that is a matter for another day.”
“As I said, anything that can take them off the streets should be looked at. When we are talking about knife crime, it is unfortunately not like gun crime in that knives are readily available everywhere. We all have knives in our kitchens. What I would probably focus on is the likes of these zombie knives and the sickles, swords or machetes that are being used in many of these cases, as these are not so readily available. Is it possible to check whether there could be tighter controls on the importing of these and on websites? It is quite possible some are being legitimately bought, but can we tighten up on any sort of law on importing those? This is about trying to get as many as we can off the streets. I thank the Ministers for their engagement here today. There is so much that we can do within our communities.”
“This is where we need to be going in the rest of the country. Looking towards some of the more welcome statements of leadership we have seen from Ministers in the past week or so, I really do welcome the likes of the stricter laws, the tougher sentences that are being mentioned and the stopping and searching. At my peril, I have to slightly disagree with my colleague, Senator Keogan, when it comes to the likes of weapon amnesties. I will rewind again to when I was a news reporter working in the UK. I was sent to Sunderland, where they were experiencing some very serious street crime. I am of the opinion that we should look at anything that gets these weapons off the streets. They had amnesties there where knives and guns were handed in anonymously and without consequence and they received thousands.”
“There was a scoping exercise by Vivian Geiran which provided 70 recommendations on how to improve what was happening in Drogheda and the north east. That gave way to the Drogheda implementation board, which did incredible work to try to bring in some of those recommendations, many of which concerned investing in our local communities and giving the necessary funding in order to make the changes. Of course, that has given way to, as Senator Fitzpatrick said, a local community safety partnership. I urge that this be rolled out across the country, because this is where it gets to the heart of where the problems are. I wish all the best to Gráinne Berrill, another Drogheda woman, who is now the director of the National Office for Community Safety. These are pioneering schemes and we have seen them work in one part of the country.”