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there need to be addendums and a new national aviation strategy brought in in the autumn, because the current one is outdated and deals with a time, pre-pandemic, when aviation was going well.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 welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. It is good that there has been a review of the NPF. The previous planning framework was introduced too hastily. It is good that we slow down a little, take stock and review where all of this is going. I know there is a different term used in government but I welcome the appointment of this "housing tsar", as it is being dubbed in the media. It is important that someone in the Department gives a high-level briefing to the Minister of State and Minister so that decisions can be taken to really move this forward. The judgment will be how many houses have been delivered by the end of this Government's term. It is really important that headway is made.”
“I might explain this trí mheán an Bhéarla. We have had a discussion already on all the amendments to section 5. We are now discussing section 5 overall before I put the question to the Members very shortly.”
“To be fair, this has nothing to do with the Bill. I will keep the debate between the posts. If the Deputy would like to speak about section 5, she would be more than welcome. If it involves Gaelcholáistí, it is a different Minister, and the Deputy might take it outside the Chamber.”
“We should use every voice here in unison to support the position of the Government and the European Union. I would be disappointed if there were any voices in the Chamber in the course of the debate which might say something very left field that would be picked up very quickly by media beyond our shores.”
“This Government is only in place a few weeks but the previous Government, and I was proud to be on this side of the House for those five years, showed during the Covid pandemic that it had huge ability and agility to quickly react to scenarios to ensure things were stabilised, jobs were kept safe and if people lost jobs there would be the safety nets of social protection there. That is something on which the European bloc can pride ourself collectively. The European Union member states are largely western liberal democracies. We have good social protection systems. We can lean on each other and the European Central Bank. Soon enough Donald Trump will have to rethink his tariffs. Ireland very much needs to move as part of the European bloc on this.”
“We do not live in a perfect world - we spend every waking and living moment here in this Dáil Chamber speaking about the problems our country has and how we would like to fix them - but free trade has benefited this country hugely in job creation and prosperity. It has lifted all boats in this country and across the European Union bloc. I place full trust in the coming weeks in the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Cabinet on how they approach this, but the approach needs to be one in full step with our colleagues across Europe and have its focus on jobs and livelihoods.”
“I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this issue. It can be that less is more in these scenarios, instead of having all sorts of suggestions from Opposition benches and backbenches on what course of action the Government should take. This is a very delicate scenario which is evolving by the minute, unfortunately. It is really important that we place full trust in the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Cabinet and negotiators who will attend meetings in Europe and also talk across the Atlantic with our counterparts in the United States. The imposition of tariffs is very retrograde and backward. The last time we would have seen this was probably some time back in the 1930s. The world has embraced free trade since then, and how the world has taken off.”
“I believe a cap of between 2.5 million and 3 million passengers per annum would be within state aid rules. It would also allow those airports to grow and compete more effectively for market share. It is in the gift of the Government to do that. The new programme begins in 2026. I would love to see those airports grow. I do not see why we should allow Dublin to grow to the detriment of other airports. That the national airport should have such dominance - 91% - over other airports is extraordinary among EU member states. While we call it a regional airports programme, we take pride in Shannon Airport not being a regional airport. It is an international airport of the highest calibre.”
“Dublin Airport currently has a dominant position, accounting for 91% of all inbound and outbound air traffic. This means Cork, Shannon and Knock airports have to grapple and fight it out for the remaining 9%. If the Government is going to raise the airport passenger cap for Dublin, a little bit more could be done for the regional airports. I would love to see the regional airports fund cap raised. As I said, this is in the gift of the Government and it would hugely-----”
“I raise the regional airports fund. This programme has been run by the Government for the past number of years. The current regional airports programme runs from 2021 and expires this year. The Government has reviewed it. The programme benefits airports which have fewer than 1 million passengers per annum. Shannon and Cork airports became beneficiaries during the Covid years when the numbers travelling through those airports dropped significantly. The ask of these airports, particularly Shannon Airport in my constituency, is that the Government raise the 1 million passenger cap. This is possible under state aid rules and increasing it would allow Shannon and Cork airports to have a regular and steady income stream each year. This would allow them to improve airport infrastructure.”
“We are doing all the right stuff with youth diversion and leading people off the wrong path, but more can be done, particularly for young people who have gone through addiction therapy services. There are fantastic services but there seems to be a drop-off when they leave that support network and return to the home environment.”
“The east Clare youth diversion programme that the Minister of State has established will go some way towards addressing that. One alarming thing I recently encountered was the case of a young person, not yet 18, who had gone through addiction services. When the young person returned to the home environment, the very people who were trying to sell that person drugs for a long time reappeared. When people are treated for drug addiction, they remove themselves from the sales market, a client is gone and a sales base is gone. In this particular instance, I was told that the person refused several times to buy the drugs that the person had been weaned off of during the treatment period. The young person was eventually held to the ground and injected by a gang of thugs.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. This is a priority area in the programme for Government. I see at home how important youth diversion projects are. The newest one just started in east Clare in the past fortnight. This is the first time that the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, has been here leading a debate. I congratulate him on his new role and wish him the best in the Department. We have a good man leading the youth diversion area. It is important that we broaden the service even more. I note that is in the programme for Government. It generally tends to locate in big towns but we have seen in recent years that the problems young people face as they navigate those difficult adolescent and teenage years are not just confined to urban street settings. Many children and adolescents in rural areas are also struggling.”
“A planning fix here could allow for these new 96-bed blocks to go a few storeys higher and accommodate more wards and beds. It is a technical issue, and is something the Minister for housing will hopefully have to fix, but that planning fix could be transformative. It would mean not having to dig new foundations or build new towers. We could build up on a building that is fully load-bearing. It can go higher, and we can provide more beds.”
“Deputy Aird might give me some time now. I was recently given a tour of the new 96-bed block that is under construction at University Hospital Limerick, UHL. It will be completed by the end of May, and by September for patient occupation. It is modern, and will help hugely in terms of public healthcare. As we reached the top floor, the builders pointed out that is where the new 96-bed block will go, and further back in the carpark they aim to build another 96-bed block. I made the point to the builders and HSE management that they should just keep going up and up,but they were told and advised that the current planning regulations mean they can only build a 96-bed block at a time. Anything exceeding that has to go through the strategic infrastructure development route and An Bord Pleanála, therefore making it longer and more arduous.”
“When I speak about County Clare we are not lacking in zoned land and road networks but the basic stuff we lack would be water and sewerage infrastructure, the very constraints that make housing very difficult to achieve and deliver. The Minister's Department has approved a pilot scheme. In County Clare we are waiting for schemes in Cooraclare and Broadford to progress. Will the Minister's Department push these forward? Without those schemes houses cannot be built. We are ready to house people in County Clare but we need the basic infrastructure. I thank the Minister.”
“It is important that when they go home, we immediately look at the 112,000 accommodation units they are taking up and look at bringing in people on work visas to backfill our construction sector. We are totally lacking people, particularly in the wet trades but also in skills like block laying. This is a huge impediment to getting houses. Imagine if we were to grant 112,000 work permits to people with skills to come into this country and build houses. Over many years we have sent trade missions overseas for the Irish dairy sector, the Irish beef sector or the tech and pharma sectors. It is time that our Ministers go overseas looking to bring in a workforce here that can backfill where we have shortages. There is another important point, which others have mentioned in the course of today's debate.”
“-----Members to avail of this because we have a democratic mandate as well. There were a hundred issues that I would like to have raised last week but I got two minutes speaking time in the entire Dáil week to speak about legislation from the 1820 to the 1850 period. How irrelevant when I want to speak on topics like this. I am glad that anyone who is watching at home can look at the screen and see what is happening here today. We show up here every single day of every single week. I will now speak to the matter we are debating. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Browne, that it is conceivable that in the next 12 months, many of the 112,000 Ukrainian war refugees who are in this country will go home when peace is brokered, whatever that peace deal looks like.”
“This issue underpins the need for a new hospital and 24-hour accident and emergency department, a campaign led by Friends of Ennis Hospital, including a mutual friend of the Minister of State and I, Angela Coll. We need to do something dramatic to address the shortcomings in healthcare. Many wonderful things happen in our hospitals each day, but people who live in the peripheral areas of north and west Clare need better ambulatory care. Moreover, they need better access to acute hospital care. I hope the HIQA report that comes out next month will reflect that fact, because there can be no turning back. I do not want one of these families to endure what we endured on 2 November. An acute situation on the roadside can very quickly become a tragedy where a family gathers around a graveside to bid farewell.”
“Unfortunately, it is a loaves-and-fishes scenario with ambulances and there can be many calls to the dispatch centre. Someone has to triage which call is attended to first. The Minister of State mentioned that the National Ambulance Service had to deal with the highest acuity calls. I outlined two episodes, one in Doonbeg on a roadside following a road traffic accident and the second the case of a woman who was unresponsive in her home. At least in Doonbeg, first responders and the fire service were able to relay, through emergency terminals, how things were. When something goes wrong with someone at home and that person is unresponsive, though, what level of acuity is that given? Only one thing will fix this. We need an extra ambulance base. I understand there are plans for one in Kilrush. I would love to hear some detail on that.”
“I thank the Minister of State sincerely for her response. She comes from County Waterford, a big county. I live on the southern extremity of County Clare, close to the Limerick border. The village of Cross, near Loop Head, is about one hour and 40 minutes from where I live. I could get to the Kildare Village retail park as quickly from my home. That shows how vast the county is. It takes people living in that village an hour and 40 minutes to travel to UHL. When someone has a cardiac episode, the first 60 minutes is crucial in terms of protecting the heart, salvaging whatever you can and keeping someone alive. That so-called golden hour simply does not exist geographically for people living in rural regions. Therefore, they depend on the National Ambulance Service.”
“I hope the Minister of State can provide some news and hope to people in those parts of County Clare because they panic when something goes wrong.”
“Ambulatory care should have brought the woman to hospital. UHL and the crisis in emergency healthcare in the mid-west is highlighted here every week. For many people, the entry point to emergency care is the arrival of an ambulance. I reiterate for the record, lest it be misconstrued, that I am not criticising the fantastic men and women of the National Ambulance Service or the Clare fire service, which provides ancillary cover until an ambulance can arrive. I am just pointing out that if someone lives at one of the extremities of my vast county in west or north Clare, which are at the polar ends of the county from where I live, that person is a long way from acute care and, as the evidence I provided today shows, from ambulatory care.”
“I do not know of any country where someone would have to wait three hours. The following day, 25 March, there was another incident in west Clare. An elderly woman was unresponsive, with low blood pressure, a history of cardiac issues and diabetes. Her daughter, a nurse, came upon her. The daughter knew, given the vital signs, that there were a lot of red alerts and made a 999 call. She was told an ambulance was on the way. For the next 90 minutes, she heard nothing. There was no update on when the ambulance would arrive. She phoned 999 again and was told she should only ring the number if the situation deteriorated. Eventually, the daughter drove her mother to the hospital. She was freaked out and panicked, driving in traffic from rural roads to join the M18 motorway, knowing that her mother was unwell in the car.”
“Emergency services, including the Clare county fire service, arrived and were outstanding, as they always are, but she had waited on the roadside for a three-hour period before being taken from there. That is unforgivable. I am not blaming the National Ambulance Service - it was run ragged that day and had to respond to several other incidents in the county - but that response time was not good enough. It speaks to undercapacity in County Clare. These matters are time critical. Thankfully, the woman is home and has recovered well, but in the moment following the road traffic accident, nobody knew what her state was, whether there was damage to her spine or whether she would have a cardiac episode. The situation was time critical and a three-hour wait is not good enough.”
“Unfortunately, my family knows this all too well. Today is 2 April, and exactly five months ago today, my mother-in-law was killed in a road traffic accident on the main street of Charleville. Out of respect for the late woman, I will mention her name, Mary Fehilly. We are very grateful as a family for the ambulance service in north County Cork and the air ambulance that brought her to CUH. Unfortunately, the outcome was not a good one and she passed away. Everything is time critical. I want to illustrate two examples where, in the past week alone, ambulances have not arrived on time in County Clare. The first was on 24 March, where there was a road traffic accident in Doonbeg in west Clare. An elderly woman got out of a car and sat at the roadside. She was very sick and had a headache. She was not fully coherent.”
“Before I get into the important issue, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for taking this Topical Issue. By way of illustration for anyone watching this debate, I sought to raise this, the most important issue in County Clare at the moment, last week in the Dáil, but it was not selected due to the rigmarole. I only had one speaking slot last week, on laws from the 1820 to 1850 period. People in Clare heard me talking about the Great Famine and everything else when there were pressing issues I needed to address. Thankfully, I have speaking time today and will progress this issue. I want to speak about delays in ambulance care in County Clare. In the critical time following an accident or incident in a home, how quickly an ambulance arrives and then brings someone to an accident and emergency department is crucial.”
“That was done so adeptly during Covid, there surely should be some plan now. This is not to overburden schools. It is just something that at the start of a new academic year, each teacher might have to submit a little template on how he or she might do things.”
“There was a big national debate on homeowners of new houses - many Members were on local radio about it - with their fabulous air-to-heat systems. These are incredible systems that are the envy of all of us, yet Storm Éowyn was a disaster for those people. They had no way of heating their homes. There was a national debate but then there was suddenly radio silence. I would love to know whether there is a Government position going forward on what we can do to help these homeowners to make it a little easier. I will raise two issues relating to schools. There should not be any obligation on schools to make up days they were closed due to storms or snow. Schools should be encouraged to have an online teaching plan and if we get three or four consecutive days of bad weather, they should revert to it.”
“For an oncoming motorist, it is a life or death situation when a tree falls onto a public thoroughfare during high winds. On the farming community, I am very disappointed to see - I am a farmer so I have skin in the game - that TAMS does not provide for stock-proof bovine barbed wire fencing. Every type of electric fencing, such as pig and sheep fencing, is included but no standard barbed wire fencing is covered under TAMS. At the moment, every ditch around rural Ireland has trees down on fences and there are cattle break-outs. It is just a simple thing that could be included in TAMS so that farmers could have their outer boundaries stock-proofed, and cattle would be retained in the farm and would not be out on public roads or climbing over fences that fell during the storm.”
“The wind can run through them and, mostly, they will not fall. It is high time we say that we are not importing any more saplings of these awful trees that have no purpose here. Let us get rid of them. They only came here 20 or 30 years ago. We cannot claim that they are anything native or bring some natural heritage. They certainly do not. There needs to be some support for farmers in respect of ash dieback. At present, 40% to 50% of ash trees have either advanced or early onset ash dieback. Farmers need to be supported to fell those trees or someone at least needs to do surveys of the roadside trees. I have seen what they are like. They are hollowed out and with a gust of wind, they just snap and fall over. It is not so much that they fall into a field. These trees fall onto roads with trucks or cars.”
“It is good to see the Ceann Comhairle back in the Chair. I have full confidence in her. Let us now drive on with the work we need to do in this Chamber. This is a very important debate. I have quite a few bits to say. I have three minutes so the Ceann Comhairle might remind me when my time is up. I will speak about the issue of trees, as other speakers mentioned. Leylandii cypress trees are imports that were brought to Ireland in the 1980s. They were fashionable and were planted around bungalows and as windbreakers around farmyards. They offer nothing for wildlife or habitats. They are ugly, shapeless trees that catch wind and are the first trees to fall when we have a storm. If we look at what Mother Nature gave Ireland, she gave us ash, beech and birch trees that lose their leaves in winter.”
“I hope the Deputy will be writing to the Ceann Comhairle tomorrow in that regard. Deputy McDonald assumes we on this side have collective amnesia but we have waited two years to hear about her connections with convicted criminal Jonathan Dowdall. I guess, like Slab Murphy, he is a good republican and so gets a pass. We would love to hear about Deputy McDonald's connections to him because that is grubby. There are many issues that the TDs and Senators of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann need to get working on. Tomorrow's tariffs from the United States are principal among these. Once this evening's orchestrated stunt has been dealt with, it is really important that we get down to the serious work of Dáil Éireann on behalf of the people of Ireland.”
“The Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann, Deputy Murphy, is above the politics of this House. I was appalled to hear Deputy McDonald say earlier today speak of her "eagerness to get the job done for Government". That comment was outrageous and should be withdrawn.”
“I express my confidence in the Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Murphy. Instead of having these statements, a number of TDs should be on their feet offering apologies and retracting statements they made last week. It is a good thing the microphone did not pick up some of those comments because they were outrageous, but they were very much heard in this Chamber throughout the debate last week. It was plain old simple schoolyard bullying. The collective Opposition crossed the Rubicon last week and debased the precious democratic structures of Dáil Éireann, our democratically elected Parliament that was hard fought for and hard won. Shame on each and every Member who tried to rip that apart, on each and every one who tried to deny backbenchers speaking time in this Chamber and on each one who is trying to depose the Ceann Comhairle.”
“They are the laws that shackled our people for hundreds of year and by which many of our forefathers were judged to have been criminals when their only crime was keeping their loved ones alive.”
“Someone should go to prison for crimes that are befitting of a custodial sentence, certainly not for crimes to keep their young offspring alive. That is all I have to say. I have thrown a bit of a curve ball at the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, but she is busily taking notes. There is smoke rising from the Minister of State's pen which tells me she will carry this note forward to her colleagues in Cabinet. I would ask that some day, here in this Chamber, the Taoiseach or Tánaiste or, ideally, both of them might devote time to making some statements on this. These laws are at the bottom of the staircase leading to the Dáil Chamber. They are old books, as I said, covered in dust. They are leather bound.”
“It would be fabulous if some day the Taoiseach could reference the laws that these people were supposed to have broken and that they would be pardoned for all of that. In the spirit of this, I will mention my great-great-grandfather. His picture hangs in my office over in LH2000 - he being John Hargrove who lived in that townland of Gallows Hill. He was a Land League leader. Like many people, he spent time in prison - prisons in Galway, Clonmel and Limerick - during that period, standing up for the impoverished and those who were struggling. In the spirit of this, people who were imprisoned during that period for standing up for tenant farmers, for those who were impoverished and for those who were starving should be posthumously pardoned. It is not nice that they have prison records.”
“This has happened in other jurisdictions. I believe posthumous pardons have been given in Australia. It is high time that this happened in Ireland. If the Minister of State is ever in County Clare I would be delighted to show her Gallows Hill, or the Carrick as we call it locally. It is quite close to my own farm. There are still footholds on top of that hill where the gallows stood 150 or 170 years ago or thereabouts. Dozens of people were killed there for crimes committed just to help their families to survive. This was a hotbed for death and emigration during the Famine period. Dozens of people from my community who did not make it to the soup kitchen or the workhouse perished on that hill for trying to keep their families alive.”
“In my locality there is a beautiful hill called Gallows Hill. The Minister of State can imagine what happened there. It is in Cratloe. The townland is Gallows Hill and the actual hill where people were hanged in the 1800s is known locally as the Carrick. About 200 yards from that is another hill called Cruac-a-Bairile, Barrell Hill, where people were rolled down in a barrel during penal times for theft of sheep, cabbage and basic food items to help a family to survive. These were all crimes committed under these so-called secondary laws from the 1820 to 1860 period. Of course this was the time of British rule. I am not saying that the current State that we enjoy here, the independent Irish State, is responsible for that. Certainly however, as the custodians of this country we have a moral obligation to do something for these people.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. Fianna Fáil welcomes and supports the Statute Law Revision Bill 2024 which will simplify and improve accessibility to legislation. There is a whole raft of legislation that I would say is unknown to us. It is buried in the depths of archives covered in dust and cobwebs. It is right to start revising some of this, pulling it forward and making it more modernised. Can I speak in the spirit of the latitude that is sometimes allowed in this Chamber, if the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will allow me? We are talking about lots of secondary legislation for the 1820 to 1860 period. I raised this point before with the Taoiseach in the previous Dáil. It is time that we posthumously pardoned people who were convicted in this country for crimes of hunger. There is one for the Minister of State.”
“I mo cheantar féin, Contae an Chláir, tá fadhb againn maidir le Gaelcholáiste an Chláir. Faoin am seo, is aonad in Ennis Community College í ach teastaíonn ó na múinteoirí, na daltaí agus tuismitheoirí na ndaltaí go mbeadh neamhspleáchas ón community college ag an scoil. Mar Theachta Dála do Dháilcheantair an Chláir, aontaím leo. Táimid ag lorg tacaíocht ón Rialtas freisin, go háirithe ón Aire Oideachais. Caithfimid níos mó tacaíocht a thabhairt do na húdaráis áitiúla chun feabhas a chur ar logainmneacha. Táimse féin as sráidbhaile beag i ndeisceart an Chláir darbh ainm Mileac Chillian, logainm a chiallaíonn "low marshy ground", cur síos an-chruinn ach litriú an-neamhghnách.ar na chomharthaí ar na bóithre áitiúla.”
“Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire. Is onóir an-mhór é a bheith roghnaithe mar Aire Rialtais. Ba cheart dó féin agus dá mhuintir a bheith fíorbhródúil as an éacht seo. Tá áthas orm labhairt sa díospóireacht seo. Tá sé fíorthábhachtach go bhfuil Seachtain na Gaeilge againn gach bhliain agus go bhfuil ráitis tiomnaithe di sa Dáil. Chuala mé píosa gairid ar "Drivetime" ar RTÉ inné. Bhí Caitríona Ní Chualáin, láithreoir le TG4, ag rá go raibh sí ag streachailt chun cead pleanála a fháil ó Comhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe chun teach a thógáil ina ceantar féin, is é sin, i gConamara. Níl ciall ar bith le seasamh na comhairle. Má theastaíonn uainn go mbeidh an Ghaeilge ina teanga bheo, teastaíonn polasaithe uainn a ligeann do chainteoirí Gaeilge maireachtáil ina gceantair Ghaeltachta féin.”
“We will close with a statement from the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy. I missed the opportunity to congratulate him when I was speaking earlier. We all wish him the very best in his new role and congratulate him again.”
“While the fitness test standard for An Garda Síochána was lowered in the past 12 months to allow a greater age cohort to get in, the eye examination standard has increased, which is not fair.”
“In a rural county like mine, some Garda fleet vehicles are ten or 12 years old. I have put down parliamentary questions to ascertain their service records and some of those vehicles have been off the road for six or seven weeks of the previous year because of malfunctions and not being up to date. I will mention the programme for Government because it proposes to reintroduce electronic tagging. This was a suggestion I made in my own party. It is a no-brainer. The legislation for that passed in 2009. If our prison system cannot accommodate prisoners, at the very least, they should be shackled to an electronic tagging system at home so An Garda Síochána can know where they are. I have a few seconds left. The Garda eyesight check needs to be changed.”
“As Deputy Coppinger leaves the Chamber, I will make the point that she misrepresented how this part of our work functions. This is a statements session. She said that only three Government Members bothered to show up. She is now leaving when I am speaking. She should not misrepresent how statements work for the sake of a social media clip. Off she goes into the sunshine. The new policing structures overly concentrate activities on Dublin to the detriment of counties like Clare. I will not name the date but there was one evening in the past month when there was only one garda covering the entirety of west Clare up to the Galway border. To look at the fleet of vehicles, when An Garda Síochána Headquarters in the Phoenix Park buys new vehicles, they are nearly always concentrated in the city divisions.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I am sharing time and will use three minutes, if that is okay. I have long represented the issue of suspended gardaí here in this Chamber. At the moment, a total of 112 gardaí are suspended. Some are suspended for very good reason and some may have done things that merit being kicked out of the force. However, many of them are suspended unnecessarily for very simple things like squaring road traffic fines. Imagine if some of those could be brought back into the force to fulfil the front-line service of An Garda Síochána. The number suspended at the moment equates to approximately half of the total Garda force in my own Garda division in County Clare. That helps to quantify the issue. Many of them are at home and being paid to fulfil this role. It is unheard of.”
“It would be better to have an in-school census whereby a principal or board of management would file annually, or biannually perhaps, a profiling of their school in terms of socioeconomic deprivation, Travellers, children from other jurisdictions and children who have English as an additional language. I think there could be a better mechanism and ask that the Cabinet subcommittee would examine this. I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his election.”
“I wish to raise the issue of DEIS. The previous Government made huge inroads in modifying and overhauling DEIS but even more can be done. I will give an example of Shannon town in County Clare. There are five primary schools and two post-primary schools, all of which are within a few hundred yards of one another. Two of the schools have DEIS status but the rest do not. In a town such as Shannon, there is high level of transience, with many people renting. The most recent census, which gathered the data used by Pobal to classify DEIS schools, did not take account of the fact that there have been wars in Ukraine and Gaza, or of the transience of the rental market and the fluctuation in prices. There needs to be a better mechanism for assessing DEIS.”