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 8 of 10.
“That landowner has incurred serious stress and upset over ten years. I raise this today because we have just completed submissions for a national development plan. We all talk about wanting to invest in, develop and improve our infrastructure but there has to be an element of trust in the process. All those in the process have to be good actors. That is how you bring people to the table and ensure development can happen at pace. Is the case I am raising an outlier? I have not mentioned the local authority or any individuals. I would love the Minister for local government to tell me how many notices to treat are in excess of the 12-month period where the landowner is waiting for payment. That is important information.”
“The compulsory purchase order, CPO, system is there to support development. I wish to raise a road that was developed in Galway, the N63. When a local authority serves a notice to treat, that is when it has entered into an arrangement, on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, or the National Transport Authority, NTA, to purchase land to develop it. In this instance, the notice to treat was served in 2014 but, to date, the landowners have not got paid. They have made numerous representations regarding what they perceive to be the value of the land and the loss of sites but, regrettably, the local authority has not made an offer to date. The landowners have made a freedom of information request, which, unfortunately, was initially refused. It is hard to believe it was refused.”
“I thank Senator Harmon. I welcome the Crumlin-Drimnagh group to the Gallery. I also see John Bourke, chairman of WALK, which is a fantastic disability organisation. He is accompanied by Deputy Ardagh. This also gives me the opportunity to thank Sarah Benson, the chief executive of Women's Aid, for being here for all the contributions today on the Bill and the very important amendment. It is great the Government has accepted it. Most speakers have used Women's Aid statistics in the context of their local area. I thank Sarah Benson and all her colleagues for their work within Women's Aid.”
“Thank you very much, Senator Kelleher. I welcome Norah Patten. I think that is her in the green in the corner. She is very welcome. She is Ireland's first woman astronaut and is the special guest in our Visitors Gallery. I thank her for joining us.”
“With an ageing population, though, I think the Minister of State has the biggest job of work to do in these Houses because we are all getting older and I think not one of us ever wants to find ourselves or a loved one in this position. We are getting closer to that age bracket. We need to ensure we have more space. Today is the last day for submissions to the NDP. If I were to appeal to the Minister of State, I would say we need to double our community nursing homes' capacity immediately. We should not build them with 40 beds or 60 beds. They do not need to be campuses or institutional settings but we need to build more of them. At the same time, we need to balance that with supporting our family-run nursing homes where when someone rings the doorbell, he or she knows that the manager answering is a local person.”
“Maybe we are putting pressure on some nursing homes to support more disability discharges into nursing homes, which is inappropriate. More than 1,350 under-65s are in nursing homes because we do not have that transitional care pathway. We have been a long time talking about it. There is a road back again to the HSE as to how it is managing to support that transitional care pathway. With the complex cases, it is no longer a question of people going in because they just do not have loved ones. Maybe the care and support are very expensive to provide, but we should ensure they are delivered in a person-centred way in the people's own houses. I thank you for your leniency, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. A lot of good work has gone into nursing homes and older persons when we look at the meals on wheels scheme and see the home supports.”
“It is a family relationship when a family member goes in. The whole staff get to know the individual. I therefore want to be balanced in my contribution but I also know the coals HIQA hauled these homes over to achieve that standard and I do not feel that the same standard was applied uniformly across all providers. I welcome the Minister of State's remarks about the statutory home care scheme. I will support him in all he wishes to do in that regard but I also think the cases that are presenting to family nursing homes are getting more complex because of our discharge policies. We do not have that transitional space to be able to support people either to return home or to find their way into rehabilitation. Our disability providers have more of a social model than a medical model for intervention.”
“We as politicians do not work nine to five and I do not expect our statutory agencies to do so either, but they have an obligation in terms of compliance and regulation. As for this idea of making a phone call to call in, it is not a cup of tea, nor do I take lightly their job. I feel, however, that they have shown leniency or tolerance towards certain groups. At the same time, it is very important to be balanced in what I say. I want to be balanced about a lot of our family-run nursing homes. We have seen a loss in our county of Galway where it has not been sustainable for the family-run nursing home of 30 or 37 beds. The average to be sustainable now is 70. I talk about Portumna Retirement Village, the Holy Family Nursing Home in Killimor and Rosemount Nursing Home in Gort, which provide 100% care and diligence.”
“Are we afraid, because over 80% of all nursing homes are now in the private sector, that it is too big to fail? It should never be too big to fail. We are funding it. We can take it over. We took over nursing homes during Covid. We should be able to take them over again. We should at all times ensure that the rights of the individual come first and be front and centre and never come second. A person's rights should never be a compromise. I completely agree with Senator Kyne, and everybody else, when he asked "How absolutely degrading". How degrading for a grown man to arrive at 80 years of age and to be told to - I will not repeat the word because I find it horrific - go to the toilet in his bed. How dare they? That goes down to management but it also goes down to the failure of the watchdog.”
“I thank the Leader of the House for ensuring we are having statements on this today. They are timely. I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to appear before us to allow us the opportunity to speak about what we witnessed on "RTÉ Investigates". It is unfortunate that we have to rely on a television programme to do the job of HIQA. If we are to talk about the elephant in the room here, it is HIQA. It is the statutory body. It is the eyes and ears that protect the most vulnerable, the staff, the residents and their loved ones. As far as I am concerned, it failed in its job and has questions to answer. Why did it allow admissions to continue? That has to be the question. Is the private sector too big to fail? I asked that the last day and ask it again today.”
“The reason I stand here is to ensure that funding under the RRDF programme continues. It is only now that our local authorities have attracted the skill sets and stood up their teams. It is only now that they are able to address these projects with pace. It is only now that they have a supply of builders with the skill sets to ensure our historic buildings are preserved to a high standard, where we can partner the past with the present and, at the same time, look to the future. In that vein, since today is our last day for submissions to the NDP, it is important we ensure that, with the funding that has been laid aside for them, the strategies and projects under the RRDF and URDF be allowed to come to completion. In addition, other projects that could come on stream play a vital role and we should be wholeheartedly behind them.”
“Yesterday was a proud day for us in Portumna, where we opened the historic courthouse. That was thanks to the investment of rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, moneys. Some €3.2 million was spent on it, of which €2.9 million was allocated from the Department. This goes back to the then Minister, Michael Ring, fighting hard for recognition of the need to invest in rural Ireland. It continued under the former Minister, Heather Humphreys, and under the current Minister, Deputy Calleary. Reinventing these buildings brings them back to life and allows art, community, enterprise and cottage industries to come alive on the main streets of our towns and villages. That cannot happen without the work of the local authorities. In our case, it was Liam Hanrahan, Ronan Conway and their expert team at Galway County Council.”
“I thank the Minister. I really appreciate his remarks. While he was speaking, I could not but reflect that four fifths of this Seanad is made up of rural Senators. Just one fifth is from in or around the Pale. The Minister has put out the offer of working with the Seanad and the Seanad with open hands wants to work with him. That was clearly demonstrated. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. When is it proposed to sit again?”
“It is time the HSE made a decision as to who it is awarding the tender to and in order that a project development manager can be assigned to whoever holds the lead tender.”
“I thank the Minister of State. In the one minute allocated to me and her response, I would like to know that the €650,000 funding secured in last year's budget has been ring-fenced for the revenue spend and staff development piece related to the equine therapy development at the Toghermore regional campus. That would also cover Mayo and Roscommon. That €650,000 funding fell under respite and there is an annual spend of €1.3 million. It is very important clarity is brought to that. The second part relates to HSE estates. They clearly engaged in good faith, as did I, that this funding for revenue would be the pathway for HSE estates to ensure this. That is why there was a tender document done at the time so providers could show an expression of interest, of which two applied.”
“There is also the opportunity for creating employment in the old units with a coffee shop, etc. As the Minister of State knows, when the HSE speaks to a project it will say the revenue spend needs to be acquired before the HSE can do the capital appraisals on it. I am hoping the Minister of State will bring the news and clarity that the revenue spend sought under the last budget is still secured and ring-fenced, and that the doubting Thomases will hear there will be funding for a regional equine centre to be developed in Tuam. Then we can talk about the tender process. We do need a regional equine centre. The other ones I mentioned are in Cork or Meath. We have nothing west of the Shannon. We have nothing in REO 1. We have nothing for children and equine disability progression. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.”
“Also, Tuam Athletics Club does not have its own venue, nor does High Cross secondary school. There is a collection within the site. Could we develop the site to be disability-led and disability focused, which would make it the first of its type in the country? For example, the playing pitches could be marked and maintained by people with additional needs, creating employment opportunities. Working with Pierce O'Callaghan, the upkeep of the running track could create employment opportunities. The Toghermore site is more than a site. It is one of the most beautiful places around. Rupert Isaacson from the Horse Boy Foundation visited it recently and said if it were to be approved, it would probably be the best designated site to deliver equine therapy in the British Isles. That is what we are looking at.”
“The site is slightly more 40 acres. As the Minster of State will be aware, there was a lot of conversation at home in Galway about what would happen with that site. That site was gifted to the people of Tuam to ensure it would remain available to them and those who are more vulnerable, be that disabilities or mental health supports. At that time a meeting was convened with a lot of stakeholders, including the HSE. It is important to acknowledge the work of John Fitzmaurice and Mary O'Halloran, Joe Hoare and Gráinne Cahill at HSE estates, along with the other stakeholders in the town. There are more than just disabilities that are marginalised in Tuam. There are women in sport who are marginalised in Tuam, where they do not have their own pitches. They are continuously at the begging bowl locally.”
“I thank the Minister of State for being here this afternoon and showing her commitment by taking this Commencement matter. I also thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting it. The question relates to the development of an equine therapy centre on the Toghermore House site. When we talk about equine therapy and children with additional needs, it is important to realise the value it provides as a form of respite and regulation. That is what we have heard through the horse boy method. When one looks around at what good looks like, one can look to Liskennett Farm, which is part of the Saint Joseph's Foundation, on the Cork-Limerick border. It is phenomenal. We can also look to the developments taking place at Kanturk and what has been developed in Kilcloon, under Stewarts Care. The Toghermore House site was becoming vacant two years ago.”
“We did not have a pool, so we travelled, but we were a small town. In a town the size of Loughrea, it is incumbent on all stakeholders, including the local authority, the rural development company and anyone who has a stake, to ensure we support our youth and our wider population.”
“I am talking about Loughrea, there are many Loughreas around the country where large urban centres do not have access to the basic skill sets derived from accessing a public pool. The shovel-ready funding required when the feasibility is done will be approximately €3 million. We need to put infrastructure in place so that our young people can have skill sets. When we lose 120 people annually because of tragic drownings, we have to question if we have the necessary infrastructure to ensure awareness, understanding and, most importantly, the skill set to survive. Coming from the banks of the River Shannon, I learned to swim when we went on a bus every Saturday evening to either Nenagh or Ballinasloe. That was 20 km away. I am now at the level of a lifeguard, believe it or not, and my children have learned that.”
“All of the children are missing out on the opportunity of learning how to swim as part of their curriculum. There is a fantastic lake in Loughrea but, unfortunately, one cannot go there in the middle of November, December or January to learn basic skill sets like water survival and how to be safe in the lake. Regardless of that, the wider catchment area of 12,000 young people would say there is a need. Building on that piece - I have no doubt that I will be helping the groups with its LEADER application - I acknowledge the relentless work of Mr. Colm O'Donnell and what he has done, but Galway County Council will need funding as well. That is why I call on the Minister with responsibility for local authorities to ensure this is in his budgetary submissions.”
“I wish to raise the issue of swimming pools. Before we broke for the June recess, I spoke about water safety but today I wish to speak about the need for swimming pools. In my constituency, there is a good active group in Loughrea trying to get a pool for the area. One of the biggest issues when we were out knocking on the doors was the fact that a population of 6,000 people did not have a pool. Due to the good work of the committee, its expression of interest was accepted by LEADER last week. Now, the group is going to make an application for capital funding to determine the feasibility of a public swimming pool in the area. Of course there is a need for a public swimming pool because at the end of the day, we do not have a publicly funded and owned swimming pool in south Galway.”
“I thank the Minister for taking the time and making it a priority to be here this afternoon to listen to the lived experiences of all those who have advocated on behalf of Sheila and Catherine. It is really important that the people who are watching this debate online this afternoon see the Minister present and the priority her office and team have given to this. The Minister has the floor.”
“Before the Leader replies, I wish to raise a point of order. I am not happy about the way Senator Craughwell spoke earlier. I thought his attitude was jarring. When somebody commits a criminal offence and the DPP has it overturned because of domestic violence on the streets, where a woman is beaten to a pulp, I do not think any of us should condone the behaviour involved. What was said was unforgivable and unacceptable.”
“The other piece we need to have in that conversation relates to 50:50 workforce compliance to ensure that all nursing homes can have the proper permits to ensure they are able to meet the needs of their most vulnerable.”
“At the same time, they accept - we all accept - the scrutiny that is brought to bear on local, private, family-run nursing homes because it is the care of our most vulnerable. Time and again, however, there were ample opportunities for HIQA to stop admissions to the nursing homes in the programme. Between the two nursing homes, there is no doubt that they received in excess of €15 million in 2024. I would welcome it if the Minister appeared before the House to have a broad conversation around the care of our most vulnerable - our elderly - where we did not just focus on nursing homes. We have to look at all models of care, including home care, day services and meals on wheels.”
“There was massive investment by the previous Government into home care, day care and meals on wheels, and 24,000 hours of home care were delivered last year. The problem is that the care of older people was privatised for many years and 15 companies now care for 10,700 beds. Of all nursing homes, 87% are compliant. The question I have relates to HIQA. Is HIQA afraid to challenge those who are too big to fall? I saw it far too often as a Minister of State. This narrative has to be challenged and questioned. Where I come from in rural east Galway, Killimor nursing home has 100% compliance. It is a 70-bed nursing home. Portumna Retirement Village has nearly 100% compliance.”
“Last week, most of us in this and the other House watched the “RTÉ Investigates” programme on nursing homes. I want to start by welcoming the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell's statement today that he will meet with representative bodies of the private nursing home sector. He is expected to provide an update on actions undertaken by the Department of Health and HSE in recent days and an interim report to be delivered by HIQA. What we saw last week was harrowing and scandalous. As a public representative, I was humiliated to see what was going on. However, balance needs to be in the conversation as well because 87% of all of our nursing homes are compliant. The fair deal scheme is not the problem. Fair deal works. If people earn less, they pay less and if they have more, they pay more.”
“I want them to take heed of the flags and I want them to always swim near a lifeguard and to swim with a buddy, check with the lifeguard, use sun cream, obey posted signs and flags, keep the beaches and water clean, learn to understand various currents, and always, which I only learned last week from Shane Coogan, if people decide to jump or dive in their local river, it should always be twice their depth.”
“Sometimes we consider viability and the role of local authorities and there is no doubt that pools are expensive facilities to run. There is also no doubt local authorities struggle to run them but at the same time we have to weigh up the need for education. This should form part of the educational curriculum. We should be providing the external opportunity for children to learn to swim, particularly when they live in areas with lots of lakes and rivers and, at the same time, the statistics show there are 110 drownings every year. There is no way one week's water safety classes can ensure that people will be safe. I want everybody to be safe coming into the summer season.”
“Aside from that, in the south there is nothing other than swim week during which Irish Water Safety does phenomenal work, led by Galway County Council and Shane Coogan who covers that area. During the off-peak season there is nowhere for people to learn to swim. One of the best times to teach children to swim is when it is part of the school curriculum. Normally it is taught in second and third class and children look forward to that opportunity of learning to swim. Regrettably we cannot afford that to our children in our area. It is fantastic that Ballindereen will have a pop-up pool later this summer, which will meet some of the demands of the children of south Galway. However, with a growing population and with such demand, it will not service everybody by any manner of means. There is a group in Loughrea looking for a pool.”
“Tragically an average of 110 people drown each year in Ireland. Irish Water Safety says this is unacceptable considering most of the fatalities are avoidable. We are entering into the bank holiday weekend. It is normally this weekend that our local authorities put the swimming guards on duty at all our open lake areas and wherever there is a blue flag, including on our beaches. Unfortunately, in my own constituency and that of Senator Murphy, we only have one public pool in our area and that happens to be in Tuam. While there is one in Ballinasloe, that is in the Galway-Roscommon constituency. There is a need for a pool in the south of our constituency. We depend on Kinvara, which is on the Atlantic, we have the lake in Loughrea and we have the River Shannon in Portumna.”
“I would welcome the opportunity for a debate in the House on that with the Minister of State with responsibility for apprenticeships and FET.”
“It has been delivered in St. Gabriel's for a long number of years, with phenomenal success. I genuinely believe that our ETBs need to be able to make that model of health and social care available to ensure that we have a balanced regional approach in the delivery of health and social care supports. We see the impact of SNAs, but we also need to realise that health and social care need supporting. While we have fantastic clinicians who can write up fantastic programmes, they need to be delivered by assistants who actually have the time and the training. An apprenticeship model was put in place at Tusla. We now need to look to an apprenticeship model for OTs, physios and speech and language therapists throughout the country.”
“I raise an issue relating to the education and training boards. Over the past number of years, we have seen the magnificent work that was done in the ETBs, particularly in respect of apprenticeships. I must applaud the previous Ministers of State with responsibility, Deputies O'Donovan and Collins, for the work they did to ensure there was an expansion of delivery, particularly for the trades. We also need to look beyond the trades at health and social care. We need to look beyond SNAs and towards the training of occupational therapist assistants. We need to look at the training of speech and language assistants and physio assistants. There are some very good models of where this works. The Leas-Chathaoirleach will be aware that Limerick has some really good models for the training of physio and occupational therapy assistants.”
“I apologise to everybody in the House for the noise of my phone. I welcome the guests of Senator McCarthy in the Visitors Gallery: Gerard and Virginia Lane from the Philippines, former Irish honorary consul to Indonesia; and Stephanie Woolard from Melbourne, Australia. Also most welcome are the following visitors in the Public Gallery, whom I did not introduce properly earlier: from All Together in Dignity Ireland, Tara Doherty, Craig Byas and Nessan Vaughan; from the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland, Paul Ginnell; and from the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Rebecca Gorman. I thank them for being here for the entire proceedings this afternoon.”
“It is upon us to make time to discuss it again. It is precious time that needs to be allotted to allow us to discuss our most vulnerable. As I said, in the context of safeguarding, we do not have to mention the name or the report, but a conversation about safeguarding needs to happen.”
“I raise an issue that has been the subject of discussion in the Lower House, namely the Grace report. Two days have been afforded in the Lower House to discuss that report. It falls upon us in the Seanad to also discuss the Grace report and the wider context of safeguarding for our vulnerable adults. We owe it to those who have no voice. We owe it to Grace to recognise that a 2,000-page document was produced that found for nothing. We are not judges in this room, but we should have the opportunity to discuss it from all quarters so the voices of those who cannot speak are actually heard. The Grace report, which was 2,000 pages, took a long, limited time. Its last chapter, which took three years to produce, was supposed to be on the care piece. The care piece did not produce what it was supposed to.”
“At the same time, we need to have ETBs and education more on the pitch because we do not all learn the same way. Some people may never have got a diagnosis of dyslexia or ADHD. Everybody might respond a little bit differently. How can we retrain people? We can do it with people with additional needs. We should also be able to do it with young people falling out of the education system and finding themselves in a life of crime.”
“Christy used to be involved with the Courts Service and had to take some of the offerings from the box to give to the youth projects to ensure they could deliver some of their functions. One of the biggest things I picked up from talking to Martin recently was that sometimes they need to go on excursions. They need to be taken out of their environment and given the opportunity to be children, play and enjoy a game of football without feeling the peer pressure they might feel in that environment. If the Minister of State brings the energy he brought to his speech to funding for more Greentown projects, I would certainly welcome it. I would plead for one in the likes of Galway. I commend the youth workers working in the youth projects and the gardaí who support them and do phenomenal work on it.”
“In the past, youth project workers were able to go in and work with the secondary schools from where a young person had fallen out or had been given time out. Now it is like expulsion on the first go and there is no route back in. That is very unfortunate and it makes the youth projects really hard and it makes it hard for our social workers. In Ballinasloe we have the junction project. Senator Gareth Scahill and I know well about that project. Martin Dolphin is leading it out down there, a good Portumna man. He is in charge of it. Christy Browne, the Garda member, did so much work in recent years. It is great to see funding in the past five years has gone from €18 million to €36 million.”
“As they are both similar-sized counties which are rural with a city; why does Cork have nine and Galway have three? What I like about the Greentown project is that it is evidence based. It is about breaking that link between the child at the centre of the family or community and that continuous cycle of crime, the dependance on it and the sense that it is the only way out. One of the biggest parts we have to put into our youth diversion projects is to bring people back into education. If you are educated you can build a way out of that world. Our youth development workers are working hard on the ground but I often hear they are finding it hard to link back into education and back into the secondary schools.”
“I thank the Minister of State for being here and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this. I thank Senator Flynn for her personal contribution and for sharing her lived experience with us. It is important for us all to acknowledge that lived experience. I was doing research in advance of coming in here and I agree with Senator Gallagher; the Minister of State's opening statement was very welcome. Like many colleagues, I was not aware of the Greentown project. It is based on pillars, facts and evidence. My question is: when can we see more of these rolled out? When researching for a debate like this, one would check how many youth diversion programmes there are around the country and I would always check how many there are in Galway first. There are three in Galway. When I researched Cork I saw there are nine.”
“We are trying to keep our businesses open. Let us consider the online market. We are trying to keep local clothes and shoe shops open. I saw a report on "Crimecall" the other night about a case where somebody went into a shop and walked out with two pairs of runners very easily. It was captured on video but there is probably very little follow-up on that. I again commend Senator Fitzpatrick, and thank her for bringing this forward and giving us the opportunity to speak. I have two children. A local supermarket gave them independence and a first opportunity to meet people. It has played a pivotal role in sculpting my children into the people they are and how they engage with everybody.”
“We also need greater Garda visibility in retail areas, stronger employer supports, and a cultural shift to recognise and respect the vital role that workers and the employers play in our community. Earlier today I was talking to Senator Alison Comyn from Drogheda about her high street. She said an exercise was done where the local Garda put the van outside a shop on the main street, and shoplifting went down by 60%. That is what my local SuperValu and Gala stations are telling me, that they do not take on the crime, because where will it go? The other side of it is that when you live in the community, you are open to victimisation if you take on somebody and you could be open to the defamation piece of it. Communities are very small. People walking down the street, having challenged somebody, could lose trade.”
“The recruitment and retention opportunities that these employers provide for parents but also for the young people are phenomenal. As my colleague Senator Comyn has said, something changed after Covid. I think people got a little bit sharper in their approach. When we send our children out to work for their first opportunity, we do not expect them to become the fall-guys for abuse. No employer, none of the shop owners, wishes to put people in the way of that experience. That is why this Bill is so essential. It is essential to protect and respect the employer and the staff. That is why I welcome this real opportunity to set down a clear marker and message that attacking a retail worker is not a minor offence but a serious crime.”
“The Minister is very welcome. I am delighted he was here to hear the entire debate. I am delighted to speak in support of the Bill and to commend Senator Fitzpatrick, who has introduced it today. The conversation so far has been very open and engaging. It also widened my perspective as to other pieces that may be within the Minister's grasp to include within the cusp of the Bill. In rural Ireland, as my colleague from Roscommon said, the local shop is where our children get their first job. The local SuperValu or Gala filling station will give the child an opportunity to learn about sales and interaction with people. It is the money that sends our children to college. Sometimes I think shops in rural Ireland play a huge role supporting families in getting education all the way through.”
“I also thank all his staff who work for him at the local offices because they provide us with immense support. Our challenges, however, are great.”
“That will start backing up. We must ensure there is a cross-departmental urgency placed on how we will salvage the trees from a drainage perspective. I know this is not under the Minister of State's remit but I know he can bring to bear on this how we will support Coillte to ensure that it makes sure that its drainage arteries are cleared within its own areas. I do not know if it has the mechanism, the manpower or the machinery to do this. If it does not, when we do the Shannon raises on one side, it will be backed up on the other side and we will maroon people in the centre. I am not unique in that regard; that will happen in lots of other areas right down along the Shannon basin. I wish the Minister of State the very best of luck.”