Cathal Crowe
Clare · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“The Oireachtas education and youth committee, which I chair, recently compiled a report on school meals. It is a fantastic scheme led out by our colleague, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and was hugely supported by the Minister, Deputy Foley, when she was at the Department of education.”
“If I can illustrate what imbalanced regional development looks like in the aviation realm, tomorrow, starting early in the morning and right up to about 9.30 p.m., 13 direct flights will depart from Dublin Airport heading to Amsterdam Schiphol, which is recognised as one of the principal and most important European airport hubs.”
“Although it is not in the spine of this legislation, I think there need to be addendums and a new national aviation strategy brought in in the autumn, because the current one is outdated and deals with a time, pre-pandemic, when aviation was going well. It has floundered since and recovered since.”
“There have been some major events in Irish aviation over the past four or five months while this legislation was evolving. I believe there was scope for those to be added in by way of miscellaneous provisions. Perhaps the Minister might bright other legislation before the House in due course.”
“We now need to get to a point where Shannon Airport's and other airports' primary radar and secondary radar are protected by insisting that all wind energy zonings within a five- to eight-kilometre radius must be removed. It is not safe. It has been deemed that by the aviation regulator and by AirNav Ireland.”
“In nearly every Government decision, whether it is on the provision of healthcare, housing, water or sanitary services, there is usually a reference to balanced regional development and other hubs outside of the capital. There is not in this legislation.”
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“I want to raise the issue of the possibility of an air ambulance for the mid-west. There was some good news for the north west the other day, as it now has an air ambulance based out of Sligo. There is real need to have one in the mid-west. Recently I was part of a delegation of TDs from the region who met the National Ambulance Service. It costs it at around €4 million per annum to have an operational service. It is really needed. For many people in the western and northern extremities of County Clare there is no golden hour. They are simply too far away from University Hospital Limerick. I cannot hide my personal disappointment that the new hospital site for UHL was chosen in Raheen in Limerick and not in Clare. We very much need something that deals with the peripheral parts of our county.”
“Earlier this afternoon, I attended an event down the street organised by Limerick Chamber of Commerce about the scope for developing renewable wind energy along the Shannon Estuary and up along the coastline of Clare. The panel of speakers spoke about the huge opportunities and the bright future for this area but they also dealt with some of the risks that this involves, delays that could be encountered and the non-configuration of some of the ports along the west coast. What potential does the Taoiseach see? Are there any timelines for when all this could be advanced? It is a game-changer. For a county that led the way with Moneypoint and Ardnacrusha and that has huge kV lines crossing it, the potential is massive. However, we really want to see it go from being a pipeline aspiration to something tangible that happens.”
“We continue to be outliers in this country. I hope we can change the status quo in that regard. It is a little taboo because by diagnosing a child, adolescent or adult with FASD, we are basically saying that, at a certain time, the mother or father were on the bottle and, as a consequence, the child now has FASD. It is taboo but as a nation we have to be more mature about alcohol and many other issues. We need to own up to it. I thank the Minister of State for everything she is doing. Hopefully, some of my suggestions can be taken on board tonight.”
“At the moment, all of the good people working with FASD Ireland, which happens to be headquartered in my constituency of Clare, are in Canada, where there is a world conference. Ireland is an outlier nation because we are one of the few nations that does not recognise FASD. Yet, there is a belief among practitioners and people who are experts in the field of FASD that Ireland could be among the most prevalent nations for this particular disorder. Of course, it is linked to the consumption of alcohol at the time a mother is pregnant. We thought it was just linear like that but now it has been proven scientifically that if the male is also consuming alcohol at the time of egg fertilisation and sexual intercourse, it can impact how the embryo develops from its early stage. It is something we need to recognise as a disability.”
“They are willing to adhere to the laws that are coming down the tracks but they make the point that people occasionally call to their shops and tell retailers they have the product they need, but they must pay cash for it. We need to watch that sphere, as well as the online space. We need to watch how these products come in from overseas in larger quantities than they should. Our Customs and Excise people need to be more watchful of that. In my remaining time, I will raise another issue that I think falls within the remit of this debate. I hope the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will allow it. The Minister of State and I have had many chats about foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD, in the past. It is also something we should be concerned about from a public health point of view.”
“I recently received an email from a constituent who was shocked to see people vaping at a bingo event. They presumed it all came under the one Act but it does not. We need to go further in this regard. I do not believe such a provision is in this legislation. We need to go further and ban vaping in public spaces. It is quite disgusting for people to have a plume of awful, rotten vape blown across their face just as they are about to tuck into a lovely meal. It is passive so it cannot be avoided. People slugging drinks all night can be avoided, but a vape cannot be avoided and it goes into people’s lungs. Some of the retailers have also made the point that counterfeit vape juices are being sold online. They are being brought over the Border and coming from other jurisdictions. Retailers are finding it quite difficult.”
“Tobacco was tobacco for centuries. I think it was Sir Walter Raleigh who brought it to these shores, although I am open to correction in that regard. It has been the same product for years. The only difference is how it was rolled into cigarettes or sold over generations. Vapes have changed utterly in the past seven or eight years, however. People first told us they were a wonderful way to wean smokers of cigarettes, but they very quickly took over, with all these liquids and fruit-flavoured vapes. The vape off them is vile. While I began by saying that people cannot smoke in public places, there is no cut and dried rule when it comes to vaping in public spaces. I get the train to the Dáil every week. People cannot vape on the train because Iarnród Éireann has rules around it. In other spaces, however, people can vape.”
“One issue I mentioned privately to the Minister of State over recent months is how some of these products are sold on the high street in mixed retail units. When I am out and about with my children, they are drawn to the American candy stores. While there are American candy, phone cases and phone chargers in those stores, there is also a whole wall of vape juices, vapes and disposable vapes. It is immoral to have those positioned alongside sweets and candy, which are very much marketed for young people, particularly candy that has come from overseas intended to lure children into the shop in the first place. I know this measure is in the legislation. The sooner it is prohibited, the better. Some people who work in the retail sphere say that limiting flavours should not happen, but I think it should. It has become a novel thing.”
“People realised they could go to their coffee spot, restaurant or bar and have an enjoyable evening without going home reeking of tobacco for the next few days and having to fling their jacket on the clothes line to freshen it up again. That was a positive measure. Of course, products have changed utterly since then. I only recently became aware of nicotine pouches; maybe I have been living in a cave. I thought they were little packets of loose tobacco, but they are not. A lot of kids are bringing them into schools, certainly at secondary level. The sooner we curb that, the better. I am glad there are some strict age restrictions built into this legislation. That is certainly a good thing.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this positive legislation. Well done to the Minister of State for leading it in her Department. She has hit the ground running. I will make a few points. First, regulating nicotine products is essential. This is reminiscent of the time of the smoking ban, led at the time by the then Minister for Health and current Taoiseach. There were protests at that time. It could have been around the time of the 2009 local elections in which I was a candidate. The Minister of State may have been a candidate then as well. It was hot on the doors and it became apparent very quickly that it was a popular measure.”
“Things are going to gear up quite a lot over the coming weeks as we prepare for the EU Presidency, which will be a very proud moment for our country. I look forward to different events taking place around the country and I thank the Minister of State for the effort he has put in so far with his opposite numbers across the European bloc and here in Government channels to devise a positive programme from an Irish perspective. I conclude by reiterating my point on the parameters of taxation and what we can do with mother ship Europe. We need interventions on the home front as this crisis continues. All of that needs to be very much spotlighted. As I said, close to 20,000 Ukrainian children are missing. There have to be answers. When something goes out of the media spotlight it filters away and no longer becomes a source of discourse.”
“It is perverse in any conflict that children who have been taken alive from a front-line war situation are held against their will and that of their families. The correct word to use is "kidnapped". They have been kidnapped by the Russian state. Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands. It is perverse and wrong that almost 20,000 Ukrainian children are in Russia. I have not heard this discussed sufficiently by any European leader in many months. I ask that the issue be spotlighted from an Irish position when the Minister of State is next in Brussels. I refer to the recent attacks in Lebanon, which were discussed. The welfare of military personnel, be they Irish or other nationalities, should be of utmost concern to us and attacks on them should be condemned.”
“The figures from the Ukrainian Government state that 19,546 Ukrainian children were effectively kidnapped or rehomed during the early months of the war and have not been brought back. Some have been domiciled in Russia for four years. I do not know under what circumstances that has happened. I have tried multiple times to find out what is going on there. We refer to front lines, Zaporizhzhia, power plants being banned and drones going into the sky, but 20,000 children, which is a huge number, are missing. We do not know where they are, how they are being cared for or how many have been repatriated with their parents. There have been prisoner exchanges throughout the war. Russian and Ukrainian prisoners have been handed back. When I examined this issue a couple of months ago, the figure was around 19,000. What the hell is going on?”
“If that is the case, it will require more interventions by the Government and State. It will also require more interventions by other European governments. We need to know how rigid the European Commission and eurozone's parameters are and what more can be done by the European bloc. The Ukrainian conflict is repeatedly spotlighted in Europe. We speak about it through one lens, but I have heard from countries on the eastern flank of the European bloc that they fear the conflict in real terms. They have had huge budgetary shifts whereby they have moved spending programmes from certain fields to a military spend. It is alarming how militarised the eastern flank of the European Union has had to become. Last month, President Zelenskyy and his cabinet published figures which Russia has said it disputes.”
“While we all knew it, although it does not always directly stare us in the face, and it was a concern during that week, was that some of the parameters of our taxation regime when it comes to fuels and VAT rates are controlled by the European Union. The European Union bloc needs to reflect on that and have more flexibility at this time. I note that Poland and Spain were reprimanded in words, but we do not know to what extent they will be reprimanded thereafter. I do not know what the outcome of that discussion was, but we need more certainty because this war has become so uncertain. It is a very fluid situation. The Government's responses will have to be fluid, as will those of other European states. If everything we hear in the media today is true, this is going to continue beyond the month of April and possibly through the summer.”
“I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute on post European Council statements. The discussions at the meeting were very much dominated by the war that is still going on in the Middle East. It is an impossible thing because it is changing by the day. A meeting of the European Council could be convened, and all terms could have changed by the evening time. Nearly all of this is outside the control of the Government and the European Union bloc, but how we respond to it is within our control. I, like other Members, went out two weeks ago and met with protestors regarding the fuel prices. I met some of the best of people there and their concerns were very legitimate, and a package was eventually agreed by the Government.”
“We have to give space to the criminal justice system, but for someone flaunting our laws, abusing communities and being a thug, what mechanism is there to send him back? I think he has lost all right to be here in this country. The quicker we get him back the better. People have a right to be here, but this is not a right. This is an abuse of a right. This is criminality.”
“I want to ask the Taoiseach about a situation in the mid-west at the moment. I am one of the first people who would be out defending the rights of people to come here under international protection and beneficiaries of temporary protection coming from the war in Ukraine. They have a right to be safe and a right to be looked after. However, I want to tell the Taoiseach about someone who has been in this country three months and who at the weekend committed his eighth crime. He has been charged with his eighth crime. This is a man from Ukraine. Many people have that right, and I would defend the right of people to be here, but this is somebody holidaying here and on a crime spree at the expense of the taxpayer.”
“I look forward with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, to bringing him to the clubs of County Clare. I hope he will deliver for a lot of us as the year goes on.”
“There are so many clubs across Clare. In the southern belt of the county, some play in the Limerick district soccer league while many more play in the Clare league and even in the Tipperary league. It is fantastic to see youngsters on Saturday and Sunday mornings kicking the ball up and down the field, learning skills from coaches who give up their time. Like others, I commend the volunteerism. I ask that, going forward, we might have some budgetary package for that. For any clubs watching, the man I am addressing these comments to is the Minister of State with responsibility for sport, Deputy Charlie McConalogue - may it be repeated again and again over the coming months. He will be visiting clubs throughout County Clare and other counties.”
“The package to have academies affiliated with League of Ireland club was significant. It allows the next generation of Troy Parrotts and Katie Taylors to start at grassroots level. I am concerned, though, because League of Ireland is the elite structure of club football in Ireland but there are many counties, my own included, that do not have a League of Ireland club. There is Treaty United down the road, Galway and clubs in neighbouring counties. Not to take from that budget announcement, which was fantastic and long may it stand, but it would be great to have an additional layer of local development teams funded by the Government or local authorities leading out the counties as well. I am not going to get into naming all clubs or players; my young lads played with Corbally United up until recently. It is a fantastic club.”
“I ask that, when the Minister of State has any budgetary opportunities, whether it is on budget day or within his Department with allocations of sports capital funding, that he take cognisance of that journey that players, their parents and their coaches are making to bring women's sports to a level playing field. As I mentioned on budget day, on the most recent budget day, the Minister of State made a positive announcement that there would be €3.5 million allocated to academies affiliated with League of Ireland clubs. That was fantastic. I do not know how the dates aligned but there was bad news around then that club development officers were being given redundancies. All except development officers affiliated with the women's senior, men's senior and men's under-21 teams were offered redundancy.”
“I was born in 1982 and grew up thinking Ireland would always reach World Cup quarter finals. It was not so but the joy it has brought again in recent times has been absolutely incredible. It is lovely to see children going around wearing jerseys with "Parrott Number 7" written on them and Katie McCabe jerseys as well. What is wonderful is that, when I was growing up during the eighties and nineties, there was just men's sport. There was only one Irish football team to get behind. There has always been an Irish women's team but it is televised now. The names are household names. My daughter and her friends know the players and are behind them. Men are watching them and women are watching them. It is a sport for all, and long may that continue. Yet there is still a long journey to go in terms of women's sports.”
“I am glad of the opportunity to speak on these statements tonight. Soccer gives this country great joy, similar to all sports. In fact, I attended the opening of a new stand at Cratloe GAA Club in County Clare the other day. I had to deliver a speech and I asked the crowd, if we did not have sport, what would we have. It is such a way of life for people, whether they are playing it, being actively involved or volunteering at the local clubs. Then there are those whose playing days are over. They may be bringing their kids to training and they are getting immense joy from that, whether it is watching the local teams or the county teams. Then there is soccer and the joy it has brought to us, particularly recently, because there have been bad days in Irish soccer.”
“The processes are under way but I think an inquiry is required to look into how it was that gardaí, particularly in the Limerick division, which covers part of Clare, were suspended. They have all been acquitted. It has been costly to the State but there needs to be a deeper drilling down into that issue to understand how we got to that point. That should have been an internal disciplinary matter. It should not have blown up in the courts.”
“I would love to hear from the Minister of State when he makes his concluding remarks what kind of timelines we can expect in that regard. I also want to speak about some geographical imbalances. A few years ago, Garda divisions were realigned. The Garda division that covers my county also covers County Tipperary and six of the superintendent positions are based in Tipperary with just one in County Clare. Similar imbalances can be seen across the country. We need to be cognisant of that going forward. I have often risen to my feet in this Chamber to speak about the 108 gardaí who were at one point suspended. That figure has dropped a little bit now. We need to know at all times that this Government and this country has their back.”
“We want them out there doing core policing duties. A lot of good stuff is happening. I would love the Minister of State to outline a proposal in the programme for Government - one I would have submitted at the time negotiations were under way to form a Government - to reintroduce the electronic tagging of prisoners. It was there in the past and the legislative basis for it is there. It flopped. It was costly, was not used properly and was not used effectively in the past but I think it can have a real place now because it is devastating for victims of crime to see people walk out of the court system or worse again go into prison for a few hours only to be sent out the back door and home in a taxi. That is not good enough. Other jurisdictions use electronic tagging of prisoners very effectively and we should be doing it too.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I start by commending the Minister, who has really grasped the nettle here with the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. We are down to core policing issues because that is what really matters to people. People do not want fluff; they want to know that there will be gardaí on the street, that people feel safer and that there is high visibility so all of that is important. I really welcome the fact that in the past year, 794 new recruits have gone through the gates of Templemore with many of them already attesting and joining the ranks. I also welcome more visible patrols, which I have seen in my county. One sees gardaí on the street. That is where people really want them. We do not want them behind desks doing administrative work.”
“If they get into acute chest pain and collapse on the floor and someone in the household phones for an ambulance, it can take nearly an hour and three quarters - up to two hours - for that ambulance to get back there. They probably will not make it to hospital. Of all the things I have seen happen here over the past six years, if there was one thing that should have happened, it would have been more cognisance of geography in this decision, but that did not happen. I am running out of time-----”
“It is overwhelmed and needs more resourcing and support. It would be remiss of me not to mention the news announced in the past week and a half regarding University Hospital Limerick and the choosing of a new site for that hospital in Raheen. I heard about it on the airwaves. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, was down there with all her colleagues. She ignored six of us who are colleagues of hers in government, but we tuned into the radio and found out what was going on. I cannot hide my disappointment. This was to be a new hospital campus chosen for the region. It will alleviate the pressures felt at UHL, those incessant trolley times and waiting times, but it does damn all for the people who live in the extremities of west and north Clare. For those people, there is no golden hour.”
“I was low on vitamin D; I need to get out in the sunshine. That is quite typical. However, I, as a politician, was alarmed to hear that the laboratory in University Hospital Limerick could not test for vitamin D. It was "overwhelmed", was the word I got. I will get over the vitamin D deficiency with an over-the-counter tablet and going out in the sunshine; that is fine. However, it is worrying to hear a laboratory that is tasked with detecting so many illnesses, deficiencies and diseases, and which is the gateway where many people find out they have cancer, is overwhelmed to the point that certain tests referred on from a GP practice cannot be followed through. I think that merits further investigation by the Department. I am not here to fault that laboratory; it does fantastic work.”
“I am glad to be able to participate in this debate. We have all been in community halls across the country and in our constituencies talking about road traffic issues when someone at the back of the hall pipes up and asks, "Does it take someone to die?" Unfortunately, when it comes to cancer care, there have been far too many deaths. In particular, several very high-profile women were on the national airwaves and leading campaigns here at the front of Leinster House right up to their final hours. It has taken many deaths to get cancer care further progressed and it is still not where we need it to be. As many people have said tonight, there are many objectives of our national cancer strategy that are not being met, and that should be of huge concern to us all. Just the other day, I was at my GP for a routine check-up and they took bloods.”
“This is a very cost-effective way to operate. I think it is strategically important for Ireland. I hope the Taoiseach might be able to accede to the request for him to convene the various Departments to lead out a group that could look at this. Unfortunately, we are currently the outliers in Europe as the only EU country without a national laboratory for robotics. This is strategically important to Ireland Inc., to the Department of the Taoiseach and to many other Departments. I ask the Taoiseach to work with Professor Toal's group and co-ordinate a cross-party interdepartmental group to lead this forward.”
“Last November, I brought the Taoiseach to the University of Limerick, where he visited the centre for robotic and intelligence systems, better known as CRIS. The CRIS laboratory is led by Professor Dan Toal. When we were there, he saw the huge array of cutting-edge and cost-effective technology, including submersibles, drones and all sorts of equipment. On the day we were there, from that laboratory in the University of Limerick, they were monitoring with an robotically powered undersea vehicle a wind turbine off the Portuguese coast. There is huge potential here. This potential transcends many Departments. There is the potential to monitor shadow fleets, subsea cables, gas lines and offshore wind energy; to survey ecological and habitat areas; and to tackle the trade of illicit drugs. That is only the start of it.”
“A threshold needs to be established whereby some matters should be dealt with under internal disciplinary processes and others should be dealt with in the context of criminal law. Not everyone can be suspended, dragged over hot coals and have their careers destroyed. There has to be some method of investigation beyond these court cases. There has to be an inquiry into all this.”
“I want to raise the issue of the suspended gardaí in the Limerick Garda division, which straddles some of County Clare, who were recently acquitted of wrongdoing. That was the right decision, but I am conscious that quite a number of more junior ranking gardaí are still under a veil of suspicion. Over the years, they have had laptops, mobile phones and other devices confiscated. It is important. The process has to conclude, but there are far too many people caught up in the net. During the term of the previous Dáil, at one point 108 gardaí across the entire country were under suspension. At that time, I read into the record a letter from one of those gardaí - I recently reposted it on social media - in which they talked about ending their life because of the huge strain that had been put on them.”
“I think we need to look at that model. I will speak briefly about Carrigaholt post office. A GoFundMe page has raised a huge amount of money there. That is to be commended but that is not where things should be at. This annual fund needs to be more than an annual fund. We need a sustainable pathway for post offices. If you want to see what that would look like, Councillor Tom O'Callaghan submitted an incredible template for how that could work, policy wise, for the Government. I hope that can be taken on board.”
“We need to do a little reset on that because the numbers stack up to 250 closures over the past decade alone and 78% of those closures are in rural Ireland. I am glad to see the annual subvention for post offices in the programme for Government. It is something I campaigned for quite rigorously alongside Councillor Tom O'Callaghan, a colleague of mine in County Clare. That is in the programme for Government and it is happening but, in itself, it is not enough. There are other models of post offices globally we should be looking at. Under the incredible Kiwibank model in New Zealand, a whole range of services bring people in beyond the doors of the post office to buy more than stamps - they bank with them, save with them and do all of these fabulous transactions. That is what keeping things sustained there.”
“When the application of that rule came into play, we saw the closure of many post offices, including those in Carrigaholt, Cratloe and Broadford. Even urban post offices are closing. It is to the absolute detriment of the community because post offices are hubs where so much activity goes on. In addition to carrying out financial transactions, buying stamps and collecting pensions, people go to their local post office as a form of social interaction in rural Ireland. To see these post offices closing is absolutely devastating. There is a bit of a lottery to the 15 km rule. If the postmaster or postmistress becomes ill or wants to retire, the post office becomes a target for closure and you can start to draw your 15 km circles around it. That is the reverberating impact of all of this.”
“I thank the Minister of State for taking this debate today. Like other speakers, I commend our local post office network in County Clare and the huge number of postmen and postwomen around this country, one of whom is my brother-in-law, Gearóid. They do an incredible job. You would want to see Gearóid's phone at times and the text messages that come in with appreciation or asking how he is doing. He has formed a great relationship and rapport with the people whose doors he drives up to and walks up to each day to deliver post. That is so typical of what happens right across rural Ireland. The consolidation of post offices has utterly failed over the last few years. An Post brought in a rule whereby every household in rural Ireland should be theoretically within 15 km of a local post office.”
“That is wrong, and that is a legal point the Government will have to grasp because it is central to this issue we find ourselves in.”
“It needs to be overhauled, and I would hate to think that it would still be in existence this time next year. Finally, SENOs do a fine job. Many of them are very good, but I have come across very many cases where SENOs are overriding the expert opinions of educational psychologists. That would not happen in any other sphere. Not one of us here would go down the street to one of the acute hospitals in Dublin, walk up to the surgical theatre and start telling the surgeon how they should be doing their job or overriding their expert opinion. That does not happen in any field. There is a legal point to this. We cannot have someone who is not an educational psychologist pick up a report and diminish what it actually involves.”
“We want to know when all these reviews will happen and when Circular 0030/2014 will be reviewed. We need to hear those timelines. SNAs need certainty. Before becoming a TD, I was a primary school teacher, and many moons ago I worked for a year as a special needs assistant. This has to be a reset moment where we define properly and put proper value on the work of SNAs in all schools throughout the country. The schools I have visited this week are in Flagmount, Feakle and Kilfenora. Many more are affected by this and they want certainty going forward. Crucially, we need to deal with Circular 0030/2014, brought in by the Labour Government in 2014. It is not working and does not reflect what is going on in schools throughout the country.”
“I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this. Stopping the cut to SNAs in schools was the right thing to do and I think it has given some people reprieve. I have been out to visit several schools this week, sat in staff rooms and helped schools with their appeals. I met parents and some students who benefit from SNA support. SNA support is a key enabler in Irish education. It allows people to fulfil their schooldays in a happy, supported way. To take that away can be devastating for the child and the parent, and then there is the uncertainty that brings for the SNA. Many feel that this is just a reprieve and they are looking for certainty beyond today as to what will happen next and what will happen in the new school year. I refer to timelines in particular.”
“I say that as a former teacher, as someone who formerly worked as an SNA, and as someone who has a person quite close to them who benefited from special education. It is so myopic to say "complex care needs". These children need access to education every day of the week, not just toileting, feeding and medicine. We need to scrap that circular at the same time this cutback is paused. Please scrap the circular and rewrite it.”
“I raise the issue of SNA cutbacks. While I am delighted to see the Minister hit the pause button on that, many schools such as Feakle National School, Flagmount Central National School in my own county and many more lie on tenterhooks, not knowing what is going to happen. I have had some very heartfelt letters from children who have benefited from SNA support in their school. It is an enabler for them to access education. We need to know what lies ahead, apart from the pause button being hit. Circular 30/2014 redefined how SNAs support children. It said from now on support is based on complex care needs. That is so myopic and does not take into account the whole spectrum of needs children in a classroom can have in day.”
“Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Cíosóg. Michael Cusack primary school. It is a scoil lánGhaelach. There were 452 pupils enrolled last September and 480 are projected for next year. This school was designed for eight teachers. It has prefabs. It is a fabulous school with lovely education going on. I was there yesterday and got a tour of the school. Curtains have to be pulled so that one class can be taught alongside learning support. School meals are being prepared in an area where an autism class being taught. It is quite chaotic. The school has planning permission for a new build project and has gone through all of the statutory phases. It kills the school to think that it will not get that new build of seven new mainstream classrooms, autism classes, SET support rooms-----”
“The same principles are probably interchangeable in this regard. If people want to own a horse, they must be responsible. No one has a God-given right to own an animal, tie it up wherever they want and let it do whatever damage it wants. We need to get equally tough with urban ponies and horses as we are now getting with scramblers.”
“I join others in sympathising with the family of Grace Lynch. It is an unbelievable tragedy. It is right that the Taoiseach has moved quickly to close out some of the legislation. Well done. I will be glad to read about what that will entail today. Those same legal principles need to be extended to urban ponies and horses. We must be one of the only countries in the world that has strict laws when it comes to horse control but implementation and enforcement are not that high. A lot of children have been injured in the past year by being kicked by horses on green areas. For those who wish to own a horse, they should own or lease land or pay for a livery. The idea of having horses tethered to metal poles outside shops and, in some cases, living inside houses is absolutely absurd. We need to get a lot tougher on this.”
“We need people who understand the spirit of policing by consent and the spirit of discretion that is so central to Garda policing. Those are just my own thoughts but I hope it might be factored into the next appointment.”