Charles Ward
Donegal · 100% RDR · Ireland
“I thank Deputy Kenny for bringing forward this motion. As a parent, I have seen the costs relating to sending children to school skyrocket over the past ten years. The situation is absolutely out of control.”
“Uniforms are supposed to represent equality, but they have become another financial burden on families who are already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis that has been going on for a very long time.”
“Those who were previously on particular school bus routes no longer have the option of using those routes. As a result, parents are forced to engage in long commutes and to cover the costs incurred in this regard. I welcome the motion.”
“She did not receive the substantial person-centred supports she desperately needed to rebuild her life. Support has to be extended beyond crisis intervention.”
“Domestic abuse is increasing and becoming more and more complex. I spoke in depth with Jessica Gallagher, who is clinical director of the Uplift Project. She works alongside women who are affected by domestic abuse, coercive control and sexual violence in Donegal. She said that demand for the service demonstrates the scale of unmet need.”
“I welcome Jennie's law. The publicly available register of judgments will be a life-saving resource, as people in relationships or considering relationships will be able to see whether people have histories of domestic violence convictions.”
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“Israel has stripped the Palestinian people of the opportunity to play, watch and enjoy football, yet there are no consequences for this. UEFA sits back and allows Israel to engage in sportswashing in an attempt to distract from its crimes against the Palestinian people. Israel is not a normal state and should not be treated as a normal state. It is often said that there is no place for politics in sport but sport is inherently political. Sport reflects the shapes of wider social, economic and political realisation. Countries and sporting bodies use the likes of the Nations League and the World Cup to promote their national identities. Playing the Israeli team is a political act and it normalises the violation of international law. Israeli teams must be excluded from sporting events by the governing bodies UEFA and FIFA.”
“He said, "It's awful, it is extremely sad and it's a very difficult position for the players to be in." It is ridiculous that the players have been put in this situation and have to come out and answer. UEFA's Equal Game campaign states that everyone should be able to enjoy football regardless of who or where they are or how they play the game. The hypocrisy is staggering. The Palestinian people have not been given the freedom to enjoy football or any other sport. According to the Palestinian Football Association, Israel has killed 1,007 members of the Gaza sports community. Between October 2023 and February 2026, 184 sports facilities, stadiums, halls and headquarters were completely destroyed and a further 81 facilities were partially destroyed. Meanwhile stadiums have been turned into shelters for displaced people.”
“I thank Deputy Joanna Byrne for bringing forward this motion from Sinn Féin. I am proud to stand with my constituents in Donegal and countless people across the country and wholeheartedly support the Stop The Game campaign. After more than two years of watching Israel commit genocide against the Palestinian people in real time, we cannot allow Israel to use sport to normalise its crimes. This autumn's Nations League game between Ireland and Israel must be called off. Poll after poll shows the majority of people in Ireland do not want to see this game played. Instead they want sanctions against Israel for the horrific crimes it has continued to commit and the genocide that is still ongoing. Even players do not want to play this game. As Donegal man Séamus Coleman said, players have a heart, they know what is right and what is wrong.”
“How can this be described as a safe decision when the family are being asked to accept the decision without actually seeing the technical evidence?”
“The State recommended an external wall remediation only in a home where an internal wall was already cracking and carrying specialist hoist equipment used every day to lift and move a paralysed woman. The family were then refused access to see the full technical report so as to understand whether it was a safe decision to only give an outer leaf remediation. My constituent's home was adapted in 2017. She was paralysed after a car accident and it is designed entirely around her needs. Where the hoist is system is used, inside the walls are cracking, not just the outside. Internal cracking has already been identified in parts of the structure holding the equipment that supports her getting out of the bed, to the bathroom and to the wheelchair.”
“I thank the Taoiseach for that. I have another issue regarding IS 465. We were told the revised IS 465 was due in April or May but now we are heading towards June. The scheme is meant to be the biggest in the history of the State. It has been delayed and delayed. Will the revised version of IS 465 be published in June? The Tánaiste could tell me on the last occasion that publication would be within weeks and now I am asking the Taoiseach, some five or six weeks later, whether he can tell me whether the revised IS 465 will be published in June.”
“My question is simple: what safeguards are in place to ensure no other person in the scheme will be told they have secured full remediation only for the decision to be withdrawn the next day as an administrative error? That level of failure is simply unacceptable. This is meant to be the biggest scheme in the history of the State but the failures are starting to show up day after day.”
“The woman affected followed every single rule of the process and compiled everything in the right order for years, knowing her home had deteriorated and praying and hoping she would get through the process, only to have a decision made and reversed on the same day. I am not questioning the independence of the appeals panel. That is definitely not the issue here. The issue is that those running a State-administrated scheme dealing with unsafe homes confirmed, in an official written communication, a full demolition and rebuild outcome and retracted that communication hours later. That should never happen in a system dealing with people in a vulnerable situation like those we are dealing with in Donegal and throughout the country.”
“On 18 May at 9 o'clock in the morning, she received an email from the appeals board stating her appeal had been upheld, the Housing Agency's decision had been annulled and option 1, demolition and rebuild, was directed. That was presented as the outcome of her appeal. For those living in structurally unsafe homes, it is about something as simple as being able to move on. My constituent thought she could move on and that there was finally an answer. Hours later, however, she received a second email that stated the first communication was sent in error and did not reflect the decision of the board. It apologised for the confusion caused. This is not a minor administrative correction; this is a life-changing communication issued by the State, through the body that withdrew its decision on the same day it made it known.”
“I want to raise the matter of how the State is communicating life-changing decisions to people in the defective concrete blocks scheme. A constituent of mine applied in 2022. Her home was assessed by an IS 465 engineer on the Housing Agency's list. The conclusion was clear: scientific and engineering principles dictated that full demolition and rebuilding was the only safe option to restore this unsafe home. The Housing Agency did not accept that, however, and it downgraded the remediation option to option 2, which retains defective material within the structure, despite extremely low compressive strength levels and readings, and clear evidence of ongoing deterioration inside and outside the house. My constituent appealed that decision and that appeal took years.”
“These people are not going to be able to afford to move. Their mental health is down the drain, and we are not talking about one, two or three people. I have had five, six, seven or eight people come into my office since the day I was elected, and I am representing them. The Government needs to take this seriously. It needs to do a study on people with disabilities who are living in defective concrete homes, because they are not being treated properly. Their human rights are being violated. They have been violated for far too long. They have not been given the opportunity to be listened to. I plead with the Minister to start engaging with the families of people with disabilities who are living in defective concrete homes over the next few months.”
“People may have equipment that they need to bolt to the wall but they cannot do so. I deal with these people every day of the week and am trying my best to help them. We tell them that help is coming and that the has said that it is going to help. However, they have been left waiting time and again. It is significant that they feel desperate in their circumstances and in extremely poor conditions in which they live. As we move forward, the Government needs to start engaging with people who have disabilities and who live in defective concrete homes. Those people need to be heard. They need to feel that they have a voice. They feel that they do not have a voice and that they are not being listened to. It is bad enough having a disability, but imagine having a disability and being stuck in a home that is crumbling around you.”
“They are not getting equality and households with disabled members require 41% to 93% extra disposable income to meet their standard of living. When it comes to it, the significant additional costs faced by disabled people are not being met by existing social welfare programmes. We can see that through our constituency offices when we are applying for stuff and trying to help people. Numerous studies have shown that costs are continuing to rise significantly. We need to step up as a State. We need to promote equality and help people. In particular, we need to step up to support disabled people who have been impacted by living houses built using defective concrete. Can the Members imagine having a disability and living in such a home? The costs to run the home are already astronomical because of the structural failures involved.”
“The cost of disability is between 52% to 59% of disposable income. The average weekly household disposable income for a disabled household is around €944, which means disability costs between €488 and €550 per week. That is another mortgage for people. The Government has to take responsibility and help these people, because as people in every constituency office will confirm, we are constantly inundated. People with disabilities are €1,400 a year worse off because of the removal of essential supports in budget 2026. That is a fact. It is not surprising that the risk-of-poverty rate is much higher for disabled people compared with their able-bodied counterparts. The risk-of-poverty rate has risen to 24% for disabled people. This compares with a rate of 10% for non-disabled people. The situation is ridiculous.”
“More than 20% of the population are living with a disability. Despite making up a fifth of our population, however, those with disabilities are often left behind. In the context of accessing services, these people are three times more likely to be at risk of entering poverty. That is an absolute disgrace in this day and age. Those to whom I refer have twice the risk of developing conditions such as depression, asthma, stroke, obesity or poor oral health. According to Social Justice Ireland, two in five people with disabilities are unable to afford essentials such as heating and clothing. One in five people with disabilities lives in constant poverty. The ESRI has found that households with disabled members have a lower standard of living than those that do not have disabled members.”
“I thank Deputy O'Reilly and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion on the cost of disability. I reiterate what Deputy Doherty said about the situation that Aaron Langan and Diarmuid O'Sullivan are in. The situation is that a year ago we were in the audiovisual room along with Diarmuid and his parents. Diarmuid's story is that he has DMD. His brother also has it and is on a trial which means that he has the medication while Diarmuid does not. That is serious issue. Diarmuid is up against it in the context of time. Aaron Langan is also up against it. Aaron lives in Laghy, which is ten minutes from Belleek in County Fermanagh where the relevant drug is readily available. I plead with the Minister to get something done about this. A year has passed. These children are losing time, and time is muscle. I will move on.”
“Recent polls show that 71% of people think Irish neutrality should be added to the Constitution. We should start to listen to people. We can start listening to people tonight by supporting the Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill 2025 tonight.”
“Sanctions are important measures in holding these perpetrators accountable. They have a far more meaningful impact than abandoning our neutrality would have. If we keep on going the way we are going, we are heading for an almighty dark era in our country. Abandoning our neutrality only serves to facilitate wars. It does nothing to support victims. We always have been and always will be outspoken on international matters. As a country, we have always cared deeply for colonised and displaced people across the world. People in Ireland have always been most vocal, particularly when we are supporting Gaza. We absolutely can hold our neutrality while also standing for human rights and dignity. The Government likes to tell us that this is not the case in one way or another. The Irish people have long valued and supported policies of neutrality.”
“We have nothing to offer in terms of military power but we can offer much more than other countries can. Our strengths have always been peacekeeping and speaking out against injustice and oppression, not military might. This is something we should be proud of. Maintaining our neutrality does not mean that we remain silent or condone the atrocities occurring across the world. Neutrality should not be mistaken for indifference. We must continue to stand firmly for human rights, international law and protection of innocent people while doing everything within our power to sanction the countries that are against human rights. The Minister of State has the opportunity to do the right thing tonight by voting in favour of Deputy Boyd Barrett's Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill 2025.”
“We can honestly say that increased military intervention and increased defence spending in the EU and on an international level has brought no closure to conflicts - absolutely nothing. It is clear that many interventions have contributed to further escalations of human suffering, prolonged conflict and diverted focus away from the most important issues of diplomatic solutions and productive dialogue. I am not convinced that the countries staging such interventions are motivated by peace or humanitarian concerns. Strategic interests, economic priorities or outrageous displays of power often shape international responses in conflict. Why would we want to play a part in this? We would threaten our reputation as a neutral country by being involved in this. It is much better to be a peace builder.”
“As a country we have the experience and skills to offer peace building, diplomacy and dialogue. At a time of deep division, these are the qualities that are most needed. However, we can only play this role from a position of neutrality where our voices remain credible, independent and focused on peace. Neutrality fosters trust. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. I cannot understand why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are so keen to undermine our neutrality, particularly in recent years. What do they think can be achieved by this? Nothing, as it will not help us in any way. A military approach has repeatedly failed to deliver lasting peace in many of the world's conflict zones. It has done nothing but deepen divisions and cause further suffering.”
“I thank Deputy Stanley and his staff for bringing forward this motion in defence of neutrality. Maintaining our neutrality has never been more important. From Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan to the escalating tensions in Iran and the wider Middle East conflict, we are facing an era of overlapping conflict, instability, displacement and humanitarian crisis. Millions of people are being affected by war, famine, instability and devastating consequences that extend far beyond borders. Rather than becoming desensitised, now more than ever we must stand in solidarity with the communities impacted by conflict and support all efforts towards peace and resolution. At a time of growing instability, our voice is more important than ever. Our longstanding experience of conflict resolution can play a vital role.”
“We need to stop playing political games with it and realise that in the next year or so, 7,000 will become 10,000. That is the reality. My constituents in Donegal are facing this every day. While you are looking at filling in for a scheme and going forward with your family and 100 or 200 people go forward, where are they going to go? There is nowhere for them to rent and there is nowhere for them to go so they have to stay in their houses that are crumbling. We have been saying this time and time again and it has to be listened to. The Government needs to put emergency legislation in place. It is clear that it needs to be introduced because if it is not introduced now, the Government is going to be introducing it within the next year or two anyway. It should take control of the situation. The Minister of State is in the Government.”
“They are not going to be able to own homes. An entire generation is reliant on rentals and now they are facing the situation where eviction will become reality. The situation in Donegal has gone beyond desperate. We already have a defective concrete crisis in Donegal, where we are trying to help tens of thousands of people to rebuild their homes. There are 35 properties in Donegal for rent today at, on average, €1,600. If we get 100 people going tomorrow and their families moving forward in the defective concrete crisis, where are they going to rent, on top of what is coming ahead? There is nowhere; the scheme grinds to a halt. Homelessness becomes normalised and that is what has happened. We are facing homelessness on an unprecedented scale and it has to be addressed and looked at as an emergency.”
“The fact that 7,000 households across the country have been given an eviction notice in the first three months of this year is terrifying, and we do not know where they are going to go. Behind every eviction is a person or a family who is seriously at risk of homelessness because there are simply not enough houses out there for them. There is already a severe shortage and the more pressure that is put landlords to leave the market, they are leaving the market, and it is going to become unbearable. We should not be surprised because the Minister of State has been told time and time again. Instead of protecting tenants, the new rental laws introduced in March have ultimately hurt them in the long run. People are already stretched to breaking point. Every young person I talk to says ownership feels alien to them.”
“The HSE's failure to update the ambulance workers' pay scales to reflect changes in their responsibility and workloads over the past 20 years is shocking. We must do all we can to support them. Two weeks ago, I was in the accident and emergency department in the middle of the night with my youngest child who had a high temperature. I received fantastic treatment there. One of the Indian nurses came in and she was magnificent. She cared for my child like it was her own. We need to recognise this but we also need to recognise that we have to look after our nurses.”
“At last week's INMO conference, an emergency medical nurse who worked in Letterkenny hospital for 22 years described how she left due to stress, anxiety and the physical demands of the job. She said she would go back in a heartbeat except her health was so damaged. She was one nurse potentially looking after between 30 and 40 patients in a busy emergency department. The shifts are physically hard and demanding. These are 13-hour shifts where you are on your feet and it is constantly go, go, go. It also takes a significant mental toll on their health, and they suffer from burnout. This is pushing them to the brink until they can physically and mentally do no more. We must support them and support their jobs. We must also support our National Ambulance Service.”
“Despite this the nurses were observed being courteous, attentive and respectful in their interactions with patients. The report said they were aware of this and demonstrated commitment to providing care and dignity and autonomy in delivery of care, and they retained a calm reassuring presence despite the pressures of a busy department with long waiting times. This is consistent with many reports you hear about Letterkenny hospital. Despite this and the many challenges they face, the nurses are exceptional in their work and the care they provide. I do not think they get the recognition they truly deserve, and I am glad we are taking time to recognise them today. They deserve far more recognition, and the Minister of State knows this.”
“Nurses play a vital role in caring for patients in hospital and healthcare centres. Their work and their impact extend far beyond medical treatment. They are often the first people patients see. They are the ones who spend the most time providing care and comfort for the sick and injured. They are often the ones who provide emotional support to families during extremely difficult times. They do all of this while juggling immense workloads and dealing with overcrowded hospitals, staff shortages and long working hours. The physical and emotional pressures they come under caring for patients every day cannot be underestimated. This is reflected most in the HIQA report on Letterkenny University Hospital where risks were identified in the emergency department, particularly with regard to overcrowding.”
“There is currently a capital advance leasing facility application for 60 new homes in Carndonagh in County Donegal. I cannot overstress how important this development is for Carndonagh. Families across Donegal are desperate for the opportunity to secure an affordable home and build a better future for themselves. The cost of houses has risen, soaring rents have left many unable to afford suitable accommodation and thousands remain on the social housing waiting list. New housing development can play a vital role in easing the housing crisis and provide people with a safe secure place to live. I ask the Minister to encourage her colleagues to look at the 60 applications in Carndonagh and to review the 17 houses in Milford that have already been refused.”
“Will the Taoiseach explain the arrangement that it can be conceived without informed consent, where homeowners must agree to a process before seeing the evidence for the determination, and why access to evidence is left to FOI and data protection processes after the decision is required?”
“Will the Taoiseach address the position confirmed in writing by the Government, the Housing Agency and Donegal County Council that homeowners in the defective concrete scheme are required to agree to a remediation determination for their home without first being provided with full engineering evidence, including petrographic and material testing, on which it is based? The Housing Agency has confirmed it has no issue with sharing the engineer's report and stated it could be accessed through FOI or data protection processes. Donegal County Council confirmed the report is issued to the applicant once it receives it and made available on the portal. However, the Government's position is that the report is not provided to the homeowner at that point of the determination and the issue does not form part of the decision stage.”
“We need the Minister to acknowledge that, and we need him to put proper protocols and testing in place to make sure this never happens again.”
“Right now, people are stuck in them. They cannot sell their houses. They cannot move on with their lives. They are stuck in the same way that I am stuck and that everybody else involved is stuck. We are depending on the Minister to make sure that this scheme, that is coming following the review of IS 465, is done in the proper way. To give him figures in respect of the scheme, I hear from Micheál Martin every time I ask about this that we are spending €250 million. I understand all that, but I also understand that there are tens of thousands of houses to be built. At the current rate, it will take generations to complete the work. We have to accept that it was Government regulation and quarries that caused this. The latter produced materials that were defective and that were put into blocks that were sold on the market.”
“As we speak, there are defective materials coming onto the market. When we should have scientific laboratories taking samples from every quarry in Donegal and measuring them to make sure that this does not happen again, nothing is happening. The approach to this appears to be "Close your eyes and let us hope things get better". This is not the fault of the homeowners. The homeowners have done nothing wrong. Anybody in Ireland who is affected by defective concrete has gone through a journey that you would not wish on anybody. This has been going on 14 years. We have two failed schemes. We are in the middle of a scheme right now under which work on barely 300 houses has been completed. A number of those were the subject of remediation work, which is a patch-up job. The work on these houses will have to be done again.”
“This is about whether it will deliver for families, and when will it be rolled out and whether that will happen in stages. There is real apprehension out there with regard to what is happening. We have 3,000 people caught in a scheme, and 300-plus houses completed and 300 more to come. At the rate we are going, it will take decades to rebuild the 3,000 houses. The real number of homes involved in Donegal is, at a bare minimum, between 10,000 and 20,000, because we know the potential for this is there on foot of all the affected materials that came from a certain quarry. The damage threshold might not come through yet, but people are living in houses with plastered up walls that only contain sand. There are no blocks there any more. The reality is that to this day there is no proper testing of quarries.”
“The suggestion has been made that those of us with concerns are afraid to enter the scheme. People are waiting. There has been no review of IS 465, and there is apprehension. People who are going into the scheme are out thousands and thousands of euro. People are not raising the issue for political advantage; they are raising it because they are dealing with this in their own counties along with their family and their friends. Families in damaged homes do not need their motives questioned. They need systems to function properly. They want a scheme that works. That is why I will continue to raise this matter, to challenge and to push to ensure that this is delivered at the pace and scale required. This is not about disagreement within the scheme.”
“It shows how slowly homes are actually being completed. As more areas are added, the pattern becomes clearer. This is not because the problem is new but because the system has not changed. What exists is a process that prepares and pauses and then releases in stages rather than a system that moves smoothly, with readiness, to completion. The issue is not whether Fingal and Wexford should be included; of course they should be included. The issue is why inclusion requires repeated administrative steps when the groundwork for delivery has already been done. In that context, the actual work has to be done. There is no reason for families to be kept waiting. At this point, the real issue is not eligibility; it is the distance between preparation and completion.”
“That is happening now; it is not something that might happen in the future. These pressures will not stay in one area and they are likely to become very significantly troublesome in the areas of Fingal. This is what the current experience in Donegal is showing us. There are practical barriers within the scheme that affect whether homes can be built, even after approval. People are dealing with sequences of work, managing multiple-stage construction and coming to terms with how to fund the works upfront even before they begin, and their shortfalls are significant. Approval does not always mean progress on the ground. Only a few hundred homes have been fully completed under the scheme so far and some of those are remediation works. The scheme will run until 2037. At the current pace of delivery, that date does not reassure families.”
“Freedom of information material has come to light which shows that there is a very clear framework for chartered engineers who were not just planning the theory but were also actively being put in place for multiple counties from 2024 to 2025. This is significant because it shows that preparation is happening in advance. However, there is significant delay before preparation is turned into delivery. As the system prepares to deliver, families wait for years and the preparation translates into action on the ground, but the gap is now defining and the scheme is experiencing significant delays. As the Minister is aware, the pyrite remediation scheme provided true 100% redress. This scheme does not. The financial pressures emerging within the scheme are clear. The gap is already leading to shortfalls in County Donegal.”
“I support the inclusion of Fingal and Wexford in the defective concrete scheme. This motion exposes how the scheme is being delivered on the ground. Delivery is still happening in stages. Counties and areas are added one by one, often after long preparatory work has already been completed. This creates delay that is built into the system rather than delay caused by chance. The delay is shown in how slowly the scheme becomes available and how we are separating the tendering and designation processes for each county. The gap has not been occasional. It has been consistent throughout this whole scheme. I am not speaking from distance. My home is within the scheme, and I have been caught in the scheme for six years.”
“There is a reality going on here that this scheme is only at 2% capacity. When it starts to move and to crank up, we acknowledge the money is being spent, but only 300 homes have been built. There are 3,000 people caught in this scheme and thousands more are currently waiting. My colleagues in Donegal are all dealing with this and we know what is going on on the ground.”
“With respect, there have been 300 homes built in the past five years. There are 3,000 people currently trying to go through the scheme who are stuck in the scheme. Families are waiting for the basics. Side-by-side building is where you go onto an acre of land that could have a house on one side that is defective and a house on the other, and then pull it down and keep the family in this house until the other house is rebuilt, and then pull the defective house it down and move them over. That is what we are waiting for. That is what people are waiting for if the capacity is there to do it. The family I am talking about in Carrowkeel have a child with a severe disability who has basically been waiting to move for three years on the scheme and cannot get side-by-side building.”
“I am dealing with a family in Carrowkeel who have a child who is severely disabled. They are currently dealing with electrical issues with their house because it is structurally unsound and is moving. That child, who will be 18 next week, is on an air mattress and when it goes down she is prone to ulcers and back sores. Her framework cannot be bolted to the house because the house is not suitable, so the family is waiting to go. They are in their house but the house they are waiting to build is out in the garden. We are waiting for approval but we need approval and we need answers. When will this scheme commence and when will homeowners who have the space and capacity to carry out side-by-side rebuilding be able to do so under the scheme? Will it set out clearly when this will be operational?”
“I am dealing with families directly and speaking to them every single day and their cases are coming through my office, where people are trying to understand how they are meant to proceed. There is a significant number of people affected and they are older homeowners and disabled homeowners. Side-by-side building is a way for them to move forward. There are consequences for the delays being put in place at the moment for the rebuilds to move forward because it is time-sensitive. It would also avoid moving disabled and older people out of their communities when they can build side-by-side if they have the land next to each other and can proceed. Families remain on site, there are no rental payments and there are no storage costs. Everything is there and it is fiscally responsible. It allows them to move on.”
“I have constantly raised the issue of side-by-side rebuilding under the defective concrete scheme through amendments, a motion in the House and parliamentary questions. This is happening in people's homes right now. For many families, side-by-side building is the only workable way to rebuild while staying within their communities in Donegal. The Government has indicated that it will be available in certain, limited circumstances but those circumstances are not clear and the provision is not yet operational. Families still do not know how it will apply to them and the uncertainty is causing real difficulty in planning and rebuilding for families to actually move forward.”
“That there is nothing more in the Government policy document feels like a hollow, empty promise. There needs to be some form of implementation of these policies. I hope that future documents will be more realistic and more reflective of areas such as Donegal. Without meaningful sustainable investment, the gap between rural areas and others will widen. The Government must act and implement fairer policies.”
“These structural disadvantages have led to a severe population decline in our rural communities. Stagnation in growth is part of this. We wonder why people in rural communities are forced to take to the streets when there is something like a price hike in fuel. It comes down to the fact that it is their source of heating. If they have to pay double what they had to pay a few months ago, they will protest. People are forced to travel long distances to access essential such as healthcare, work and school. There are fewer employment opportunities and most of them are lower paid in nature. Rural areas in Donegal have the second lowest disposable income per person in the country, at €24,686. That is 18% lower than the national average. Our Rural Future seems to do very little to address any of these issues, which are absolutely massive.”
“As someone who lives in rural Ireland, it is evident to me that the Government has fallen significantly short in providing the infrastructure resources and investment needed to support and develop our communities. As a result, those who live in these communities are unfairly left to pay the price for Government neglect. The lack of significant investment is reflected in many aspects of our daily lives, from limited public transport to poor broadband. There are towns in Donegal that only received access to fibre broadband as recently as yesterday. We are informed about this all the time, and we are so far behind everyone else. We are a decade behind Dublin. As well as inadequate access to healthcare, education and employment opportunities are limited.”
“I welcome that the Minister undertook public consultation to further inform the development of the next rural development policy. It is important to view our rural communities. What matters most for rural communities is that the people in them are considered. I also welcome the fact that the consultation was done online. The latter is very important in order that everybody in the communities can have their say, particularly those with disabilities. It is important that their voices are heard, that the voices of young people are heard and that there is Government collaboration on this. I hope that many more consultations will be done in this way. That is very important because it will provide a great opportunity to inform future decisions relating to rural Ireland.”