Anne Rabbitte
Nominated by the Taoiseach · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“On Ireland's most popular pornography website, almost two thirds of the video titles indicate content of concern, including sexual violence, extreme misogyny and material that mimics child sexual abuse. This is not on the fringes of the Internet; this is mainstream, free and one click away from every child in this country.”
“I also acknowledge the role of Deputy Cathal Crowe in the Lower House and that of Senator Rónán Mullen whose Bill, which was before Seanad Éireann last week, spoke to this very issue. It is something we should all get behind and support to ensure we have the law to protect our young people. I also wish to bring up Skyclarys.”
“I am wearing sandals today. Good afternoon to everybody. I warmly welcome the Minister for justice's bringing his memo to Cabinet where he seeks to criminalise extreme violent pornography. For too long, this has been a glaring gap in our criminal law.”
“He said that we should not deny his son the chance to hold onto his voice, even if it is just to be able to ask for a glass of water. That is the parent of a child with Friedreich's ataxia, who has already lost a child to Friedreich's ataxia. We have 200 such patients in this country.”
“Where we have rural depopulation - and there are great reports coming from the GAA - the one thing we want to do is ensure a sense of community. That sense of community circles around a few things. It can be the church, school, post office or the pub.”
“The Senator also said, as did Senator Murphy O'Mahony, that if we can be anything in this world, we should be kind, and that is one thing Martin Naughton was, and it is one thing we should always remember. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. We think of him today. Senator McCormack raised the issue of active travel.”
The complete record
Every one of 482 lines we hold for Anne Rabbitte, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 10.
“We have great Local Link services in Galway and are very pleased with them. They provide phenomenal support. One of our best providers has approximately 15 of the routes. He comes out to Portumna, which is a great hub for Local Link services. He goes to Ballinasloe and Loughrea and even across the bridge to Nenagh in Tipperary. However, he cannot go green because we do not have the three-phase electricity. It is at the Garda station. If we could connect to the three-phase electricity and put in that e-charger, he could run his green buses.”
“In the olden days - when I say "olden days", I mean the last number of years - we used to have a PSO service from Galway to Dublin. It used to go through Craughwell, Athenry and Loughrea and then on to Aughrim and Ballinasloe. Where we have centres of education and a lack of housing, including on the routes to Limerick, Galway and Athlone, we need to look at having a PSO service where we do not have transport infrastructure or rail currently. Bus Éireann's PSO service from Cork was withdrawn a number of years ago, my sources tell me, and now we have three service providers, so do not tell me it is about competition. The NTA needs to set down the criteria for servicing our communities outside Dublin. I think that is one of them. I wish to refer to e-charging for Local Link services.”
“By the time it gets to Ardrahan and Senator Murphy's area, there are approximately two seats left on it. By the time it gets to Kilcolgan, it is full. By the time it gets to Oranmore, there is no capacity whatsoever on it. It is an efficient, well-run and much-needed service, but we need more capacity on it. If Bus Éireann ran a double-decker or there was a change in Limerick that facilitated more capacity, it would be welcome. Running another service from Limerick is another solution. A number of young people who attend day services are dependent on the bus. Unfortunately, if they cannot get a seat on it by the time it reaches Ardrahan, they do not get to the day service. Likewise, we do not have a PSO offering from Galway to Loughrea.”
“If we had a park-and-ride facility in Gort, Athenry or Headford where people could rely on efficient and flexible public transport, it would really work. There is enough of a shoulder on the M6 to allow people to be brought in and out from Athenry and enabling that swift movement of people. My colleague and the Minister of State's colleague, Senator Kyne, spoke about how the city was choking. Most of the traffic comes from the east. Senator Curley, Senator Murphy and I have a responsibility to ensure that we propose workable solutions to the Minister of State. The park-and-ride option is a workable solution. We are grateful to the people of Cork for sharing Bus Éireann with us when it does its daily routes from Cork to Galway. By the time the bus gets to Gort, there are approximately ten spaces left on it.”
“We have businesses locked out for four hours and ten minutes each day. There is a solution, namely, a passing loop like in Oranmore. The funding for that loop from the previous Government was welcome, but we need a passing loop in Athenry to prevent our businesses being locked out. I wish to focus on park-and-ride hubs. While we do not have a ring road around Galway city yet, we need to put in place operational methods to support people in accessing the city while also letting the city breathe by not clogging it up. The city needs to breathe. People need to be able to travel in and out for their hospital appointments without having to leave an extra hour ahead in case they get stuck in traffic.”
“I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad and look forward to working with him. This debate is on one of my pet subjects, specialising in transport as I do because I come from east Galway where we have many transport issues. I have written them down so that I do not forget any of them. I was delighted to see that we have focused on fairer fares in this motion because if one travels one way from Athenry to Galway, it is €5.10. We are trying to take cars off the road. It is not a fair fare. We look after people in Dublin and its commuter belt but we have problems in Galway because of the capacity of our transport infrastructure, not having a road around the city and not having park-and-ride facilities. It is difficult to believe that the gates at the railway station in Athenry are down for four hours a day because of passing trains.”
“We need to look at our day services and how we ensure that our pharmacies, GPs and day centres all have that generated response. If they cannot send emails or process the emergency medicines that people rely on a daily basis, we have to look at that element within the community. Forestry right across Galway is decimated, from Portumna to Derrycrag at Woodford and from Coole Park at Gort down to Monivea in north Galway. Our forestry system has been flattened.”
“One of the stories I have, which I will share very quickly, was when a 999 call went in for the ambulance service to attend to get somebody from their home because of an emergency. That person had to wait one and a half hours for somebody who was trained to come to cut the tree to get the ambulance in. That is not good enough. A colleague of mine, Joe Sheridan from Dunmore, said that people had generators in the early 1900s. His area was the first where the lights went out and the last where they came on - they did not come back until 10 February. To be honest, they went from standing up a community response to getting to neighbouring areas, where they really identified the issues around social isolation and not having a very good, informed list of who was where. There is also the issue of the food response.”
“They have not been trained in how to check for all the wires and everything else, although they did a fantastic job and cleared the roads. I know from talking to Senator Goldsboro that a chainsaw licence can be used in County Tipperary. We need a standardisation of approach. That is just how the retained firefighters respond to an emergency. How they are called up to respond to an emergency needs to happen. This is especially the case where there is a city and county council dynamic, as there is in Galway, and that co-ordination between the two CEOs. They are two fantastic gentlemen doing a great job but it is about how the city and county respond to an emergency. That needs to be standardised.”
“Where I live on the banks of the Shannon, we are always prone to flooding from excessive rain and everything else. We need to look at what the emergency response is from our local authorities and whether it is co-ordinated at a local level. The Minister of State will find it hard to believe that retained firemen in Galway County Council cannot use a chainsaw. When there was an extreme weather event, like the one we have just experienced, we relied on volunteers and farmers. We relied on people to take the authority into their own hands to go and cut trees. I have no doubt they had no qualms about using their chainsaws but at the same time, there has to be an approach to that. There is a risk element in that farmers were putting their own lives at risk.”
“However, our council staff and full-time emergency staff really stepped up, including all across Uisce Éireann, the ESB and many more, as did our volunteers and community response. It was phenomenal. I come from County Galway, which is quite big. It is like County Cork. We are the second biggest county in the country. We have a real dynamic. I live on the banks of the River Shannon at Portumna, but the Atlantic borders the other part of my constituency, believe it or not. We were blessed with this particular storm in that it happened at night, at high tide, and because of its wind direction. If there had been the merry mix where there could have been that high tide and a slightly different wind direction, Galway city, Kinvara and all the way in would have got coastal flooding. There is no doubt about that.”
“My colleague who is over there, Senator Noonan, happens to agree with me and we have spoken about it. This is a debate I called for, along with many other Senators. It was great to have the senior Minister earlier and I welcomed his contribution, especially where he said there will be much to learn from. He said we are fully out of the response stage in respect of it and that the strategic management framework overseen by the Office of Emergency Planning in the Department of Defence will be reviewed through the Government task force on emergency planning. That is very welcome because a lot of key findings will come out of this. One of those findings will be that people suffered. There is no denying that whatsoever.”
“The Minister of State is very welcome to the Seanad. I think it is his first time here and I wish him all the very best in his role. If ever there was one person who was fitting, he is the person for it.”
“It is really unfortunate that minority groups that have an equal need for inclusion within their communities would not be able to access active travel. We need to look at the safer routes to school and active travel programmes within communities to ensure our most vulnerable people, who attend day services or stay in respite or residential housing, are also brought into that piece. Active travel was really well subscribed to and very well funded, but we now need to look at it benefits ensuring day services in Portumna and right around the country.”
“I ask the Leader either to bring the relevant Minister before the House or to have statements on safe routes to school. Active travel was incredibly positively received when it was originally launched. However, it got curtailed along the way, in 2022, when the definition of active travel and safe routes to school meant just the schools but did not take into consideration day services or respite houses that could be along the same pathways. For example, in Portumna we have a lovely development consisting of a respite and day service but it does not come under the safe routes to school programme, which means its footpaths cannot be upgraded, which in turn means that it cannot have a wider footpath, as part of active travel, to bring the people to the Shannon banks where Waterways Ireland has spent €3 million on upgrades all along the canal.”
“We still, after eight years, have not achieved our purpose of having a detection dog in the west of Ireland. We borrow the dog to do a raid. I know it sounds farcical. It goes back to early intervention. If we had a drug detection dog in Galway, we could go into the schools, do the talks and do the early detections. The dog could be walked up and down when people are queuing to go into whatever pub or disco it might be in Galway. It could be used as a deterrent, not as a means of trying to prosecute. I was really delighted to see the reference in the programme for Government to training more dogs. I would like to see a dog arrive in the west of Ireland. We need an understanding as to what is the number of detections of heroin in Galway city. We do not have a statistic on that at this time.”
“If there is early intervention in regard to drugs and alcohol use, we will prevent addiction and the cost of rehabilitation further along the line. Early intervention initiatives, including the Planet Youth programme, must be stepped up and stood out. The information must be shared more with parents, who, as well as teachers, need to have a clear understanding of what percentage of children are engaging in substance abuse. In 2017 or 2018, we opened a new regional Garda station in Murrough, where people can train to use guns and there is also a kennel. We have never put a dog in the kennel. The drug detection dog has never landed in Galway. We borrow the dog from Cork when we need to do a raid. The last dog the gardaí got really could not be trained.”
“I will not say it for the purpose of anyone who might benefit, but there will be a number of nights in any given week where there is no second Garda station open in the constituency. Not only are CCTV cameras needed but also more gardaí and not just replacing those who are retired. They need more high-powered vehicles so they can do their jobs. On youth and intervention, there is a fantastic programme called Planet Youth in Galway. It is all about early intervention around drinking and substance abuse. It has been rolled out by the HSE in conjunction with An Garda Síochána. We need to share more of the information coming back from schools in order that we can work collaboratively with An Garda Síochána, the HSE, teachers, parents and young people on early intervention.”
“It is past time for GDPR and sharing dual access between the local authority and An Garda Síochána to be addressed. For too long, we have been ravaged by the gangs which come down the motorways, breaching Ballinasloe or who come through Gort if they are coming from Cork. If they are coming from the east, they will come in at Nenagh. They come across, circle and come out again. They will never be glimpsed. The population in the south of east Galway is around 40,000 but the Garda station, which is opened 24-7, is based in Gort. It is 40 minutes away from the bridge at Portumna, 50 minutes from the bridge at Banagher and 30 minutes from Killaloe. If a car is out on a night when the four gardaí are based in Gort, there is no second car because the Garda station cannot be left unmanned.”
“The Minister of State is very welcome. I thank him for being here. I know what a strong advocate he is. He first introduced me to the Fianna Fáil Party when he was holding a meeting on rural crime. It gives me a great opportunity to speak about keeping communities safe while also focusing on the rural issues. No different to Senator Scahill, one of the biggest issues in east Galway is our strategic location. We are on the bridge of the Shannon. Portumna is on the bridge, so our entry point is on the bridge but the other entry to the constituency is through Banagher and the other exit point is at Killaloe. We are surrounded by the Shannon but none of the bridge crossings have CCTV because Galway County Council cannot agree who will take ownership or who will man it and what the position is regarding GDPR.”
“I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to raise the matter of digital and cyber safety for children. I note that in the programme for Government there is a substantial paragraph laid out on digital safety for young people. I would like a discussion to take place between the Departments of Health and Education to determine which Minister will fund and support the online safety programme for schools, giving them more flexibility in how they use it. One evening last week, I attended a cyber safety workshop in Clarinbridge attended by around 250 parents. Parents are looking for support and I am interested to learn how we are going to fund digital safety communication to help both teachers and young people. A real conversation is needed around up-skirting, down-blousing, sextortion and catfishing.”
“As I get older, I would like to think there is an eye on older people to ensure our rights are protected because with dementia and capacity issues, we need to ensure that the most important thing for people, the roof over their head, is protected. Having a Minister of State for older people within the housing brief, as well as in the health brief, is really important. That increase from 20 to 23 has been very targeted and there has been a lot of learning from the previous Government as to the key factors to delivery and ensuring all elements within society are protected. Within the Department of disability and youth, the responsible Ministers, the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, can now focus solely on disabilities and on ensuring the services are funded and provided for.”
“Finally, the older person piece is really important. Senator Casey outlined it very well. I saw how hard the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, worked with older people. I also saw the huge need among older people for access to transport and to housing, and in terms of older people who go into respite or a nursing home but who are afraid of what will happen to their houses while in respite or in a nursing home or whether they will lose their local authority house. What are their rights? That support and having a Minister of State with a foot in both Departments is really important to bring about that policy shift and to work with the various advocacy groups and agencies to ensure the voice of the older person is heard. We have a growing demographic of older people in this country.”
“I worked in the Department for the last five years and I saw how hard the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, worked and what a difficulty it was to have it all embedded within childcare and disabilities. Plucking it out, making it a sole responsibility and giving it that laser attention is imperative to ensure that people who are seeking asylum and are immigrating here are addressed in a timely, orderly fashion and we do not find ourselves in the situation which Senator O'Loughlin talked about this morning of not having that go-to contact. That is really important. That responds to the community's needs as well as the individual's needs. It is about working in tandem with our local authorities. It is also about working with our justice system and our childcare system. It is about working on the whole-of-government cross-departmental piece.”
“I welcome the TY students here this afternoon. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, is very welcome to the House and I am delighted to stand before him in support of the legislation he has brought forward. This legislation is really important, with the view of extending the numbers from 20 to 23. The key point of this is to improve cross-departmental working. When we look at the marine, we have not had a Minister of State with responsibility for the marine since 2011. Since then we have had Brexit and we need to protect our shores. It is important the industry has somebody specifically to go to who can work in tandem with the Minister who can ensure their voices and their policy needs are responded to. It is the same situation when we talk about asylum and immigration.”
“I ask the Leader to arrange for us to have a conversation in this House with whatever Minister he believes has the responsibility as to how to put the learning into operation.”
“What were really vulnerable were our daycare centres for older persons and those with additional needs. Our health hubs and primary care centres, pharmacies and GPs were also vulnerable and left exposed. Something else that was exposed was our lack of community centres. Loughrea does not have a community centre. Kinvara has a small community centre but it did not have PE hall that could have been used. We saw in Dunmore that if they had had the kVA generator they had in 1937, they would have been further on than they were in 2025. Ten miles up the road from where I live is Lowertown in Woodford, where people only got their electricity back last week. The storm really exposed rural isolation and people living alone. While we do have network of vulnerable adults and families, GDPR stood in the way of sharing a lot of that information.”
“I congratulate Senator Kyne on his role as Leader and I look forward to working with him during his term. I, too, want to discuss Storm Éowyn. In County Galway, where I come from, not only was the impact felt while the storm was going through the county, but it lasted until last Monday when the last person in Galway, in Dunmore, had their electricity reconnected. That is far too long to wait. We have to reflect and learn from this. Learning is great but we have to operationalise that learning. That does not fall to one Department or one Minister. It falls to many of them. It falls to the responsibility of local government, social protection, communications and health. While there was co-ordination, it also exposed how vulnerable and weak we can be within our communities.”
“Since then, not one Minister of State who has held that role has been re-elected. One would have to ask why. During my next term, I look forward to working with all Senators regarding people with disabilities and persons with additional needs to ensure that we embrace the pathway of supporting our local authorities. As Senator Bradley said, they need the tools and the design manual for urban roads and streets, DMURS, to understand how to use their funding to ensure compatibility in our structures and environment. Sometimes, disability is not just the disability you have, but the built environment that disables you more. That is my final contribution. I look forward to working with the Cathaoirleach and with Senators in the years ahead.”
“Jim O'Callaghan, Jack Chambers and I wrote the Gambling Control Bill in 2016. We saw that pass last year. I have seen what happened in childcare following my work in the Lower House in 2018. It was always down to collaboration, engagement and consultation. When you have those pieces, including the most important piece of all, which is respect, you can achieve anything. Any mountain can be climbed, but having collaboration, consultation, engagement and the respect of all is the only way we can bring about change. That is the one thing about this House. We leave politics outside the door and work together for the betterment of delivery and scrutiny. An important statistic that I, as a former Minister of State for disabilities, want all Senators to take on board is that the Disability Act was passed in 2005.”
“The reason I chose public service was that I believed it showed us all that I could be that politician. I could be that female who could be a single parent who could take on a role and bring about the change that would impact me on a daily basis. I was in Opposition for four and a half years, where I sponsored 13 Bills. Over the past five years, I have seen some of them be enacted. That is why female local authority members can now, for the first time, take maternity leave whereas in the past they had to produce sick leave certificates. We know all about it here in the Oireachtas, where Members could not avail of maternity leave. They would have to avail of a pairing system. It was in the Seanad that the legislation had its final approval and passage and received the scrutiny it well needed.”
“I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on acquiring the role. I look forward to working with him. The title of father of the House is one that will suit Senator Wilson very well. I look forward to working with each and every one of the Senators. Some of them I know already and others I look forward to getting to know. My career path to the Seanad has taken place over the past 11 years. I worked in local authorities, I was a member of the opposition for five years, and I have been in government and served as a Minister of State. I am honoured to have now been appointed by the Taoiseach to the role of Senator. Some may not realise that my career was fulfilled in banking long before this. I served 25 years working in banking. I chose to leave that to go to work in public service.”