Chris Andrews
Labour Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I want to move an amendment to No. 1 on the Order Paper, proposing an orderly winding down of the accommodation recognition payment scheme in a way that is fair and efficient. I note today is the last day of Dáil and Seanad sittings before the summer recess.”
“The Government can point to housing and claim that there are huge successes. There is only success for the wealthy, the well-off, the developers and the landlords. They are all delighted with Government policy.”
“Government will say, "Look at the positives", but there are a huge amount of challenges. You need not look any further than the housing crisis. Of course, the Government will point to an increased number of housing developments. However, those housing developments are for the very well-off.”
“We supported the development of housing on the Glass Bottle site. We worked hard to ensure to get more social housing. Unfortunately, the Government would not do that. Now it seems that the so-called "affordable housing" on the Glass Bottle site will be unaffordable.”
“I move amendment No. 14: In page 7, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “Annual report 11. The Minister shall, within the first six months of the year, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining the application of this Act, providing an update on— (a) how many successful actions were brought under section 14…”
“I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “ “settlement service” means a service provided in whole or in part within a postal code or relevant occupied territory to which this Act applies;”.”
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“A constant stream of soldiers and weapons has passed over us and through our airports and this has accelerated with Israel’s war in Gaza and now the war against Iran and Lebanon. Other EU countries have been very firm that they will not enable the transit of arms to Israel or the use of their airspace to support the war against Iran. Spain and Switzerland have both banned US military aircraft participating in the war against Iran from using their airspace. Ireland, however, has so far refused to take any similar measures with our Ministers preferring to stick their heads in the sand and pretend this issue does not exist, while simultaneously granting thousands of exemptions for US military aircraft to pass over our country.”
“Honestly, you could not make that stuff up. The Opposition has been saying for years that our airspace and Shannon Airport, in particular, have been used by the United States to support its wars in the Middle East and to directly assist in Israel’s genocide in Palestine. Now, the Government has always insisted it is fully aware of the foreign military flights given permission to travel through our airspace and has given assurances that inspections regularly take place. This failure, though, clearly shows the inability of the State to manage how our airspace is being used. The reality is that Ireland, because of our geographic position, is a crucial link in the logistics link between America and its bases and proxies in the Middle East.”
“It is disgraceful that the occupied territories Bill has been dropped by this Government and that the Ministers are unable to condemn the illegal war of Netanyahu and Trump in Iran. If Ireland is unwilling to take a stand against Israel’s wars, the very least we should be doing is to make sure we are not complicit in them. This Bill would prohibit the transit of Israeli-bound weapons of war through our airspace. It is simply an obvious step the State urgently needs to take and the Government should be moving quickly to prohibit Ireland’s airspace from being used to transport arms to illegal wars across the globe. This has been made crystal clear in the past week with the revelations that 248 US military flights over Ireland went unreported by the Department of foreign affairs as the result of an administrative error.”
“Practically the whole world has stood idly by as Israel commits unspeakably evil acts in Palestine daily. This is despite the claim that there is a ceasefire. There clearly is no ceasefire. Only Spain and South Africa seem willing to lead by example and to take a stand for human rights on the global stage. Ireland, shamefully, has done next to nothing to stand up against Israel’s fascism, besides offering empty words of sympathy for the Palestinian people and a hugely belated recognition of Palestinian statehood. The Government is constantly gaslighting us about its efforts to stand up for Palestine, but the reality is that it has completely failed to provide leadership on this issue or to deliver any meaningful results.”
“Sinn Féin fully supports this Bill and the amendments. We commend the Civil Engagement Group on bringing this legislation forward and on progressing it through the House. This Bill needs to be urgently enacted and it would be simply wrong if the Government chose not to support its passage here today. Israel, alongside the United States and Russia, is one of the greatest threats to peace and stability. It threatens to return the world to an era in which might equals right and where human rights are not worth the paper they are printed on. Its genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people has made a hollow mockery of international law, with thousands killed and displacing many more, while facing next to no consequences from the international community.”
“In what world does that make sense? The hypocrisy is beyond staggering. Is the Government going to security-screen the players and management? Is it going to allow the members of the team and management who were active in genocide enter the country? It is extraordinary and it is shameful. What is the FAI doing in considering to play a match against Israel? The CEO of the FAI does not live under a rock. He knows what Israel is doing, yet he is happy to play a team that is part of its sportswashing efforts. The FAI congress believes Israel should not be in UEFA but the CEO is ignoring Irish football and ignoring their own FAI congress.”
“I am actually not sure what I was supposed to have said there. The Minister with responsibility for sport, while critical of a few idiots and threatening sports groups and clubs about playing, has no issue about playing genocidal Israel in an international match. Israel has killed over 70,000 or 80,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 20,000 children. How can a Government Minister stand over playing genocidal Israel when clearly the country is out of control? How can the Government on the one hand talk about suspending the trade pact with Israel, yet at the same time also welcome apartheid Israel over here to play an international football match with open arms? The Government says it is going to pass the occupied territories Bill but at the same time it is willing to play genocidal, apartheid Israel.”
“----over idiots throwing flares onto a pitch in Dundalk. He started threatening to pull funding and to ban clubs from playing. It was hysterical. Yet, the same Minister has no problem playing a team that represents a country-----”
“We need to have the Minister for justice and Minister for Transport in this Chamber to outline why sulky racers are exempt from the law and what steps the Government will take to end the abuse of these horses and the danger posed by unregulated sulkies on the public roads. What is happening on the roads is unbelievable. It is unacceptable that horses, or any animals, would be treated like this. There have to be consequences for them. There have to be measures put in place by the Government to ensure that the Garda clamps down on sulky racing.”
“The Government has given an exemption from the normal rules of the road to sulky owners, who appear to be under no obligation to hold insurance or abide by safety standards on public roads. They can do what they want and they seem to face zero consequences. It is completely unacceptable. The sulky racers must be held to account. The Government has also given an exemption to the sulky racers for brutalising the horses in their care. They face no consequences for abusing their animals. They say they love their horses but there is no evidence to suggest that is the case. How many more horses have to be abused to death before the Government acts and deals with the sulky racers?”
“I would also like to support Senator Keogan's comments in relation to Senator Flynn. It is another week, and another week of carnage on the roads and deaths of horses at the hands of sulky racers. There was another dead horse in Clonmel, where a sulky horse collapsed and died of exhaustion. Clonmel seems to be a hotspot for these animal abuse cases by sulky racers. In another incident, there were two horses racing up the N7 dual carriageway while the lanes were all blocked by cars following behind them. This, ultimately, is the responsibility of Government, which has allowed this lawlessness to continue. Horse and animal rescues, like My Lovely Horse Rescue, are left to pick up the pieces.”
“It is an eight-minute bell and has been ringing for three minutes. Senator Scahill can use his minute and then the Minister of State can take his, after which we will move on to the Order of Business.”
“Before the Minister of State commences her reply, I welcome guests of the Minister, Deputy Calleary. They are very welcome to the Seanad. I am probably pronouncing it wrong. They are from Behy ICA. May they enjoy their day. It is a great place to visit.”
“Before the Minister of State commences, I welcome guests of Deputy Duncan Smyth from Swords Community College. They are all welcome and the tradition is that they do not have any homework for the rest of the week. I hope they enjoy their visit.”
“We will resume now. I thank the Minister of State for rushing back. Before we start our next item, I welcome Bernie and Eamon Smith and Cyril and Lavina Jordan, who are guests of Senator Nessa Cosgrove. They are very welcome and in very good hands. Senator Cosgrove is always welcoming and is one of more hard-working Senators. Everyone is very welcome. I call Senator Sarah O'Reilly.”
“I ask that the Minister meet with Pearse House residents and the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group to ensure their voices are heard too. Residents in Ringsend and Pearse Street have been let down by the State for long enough and the least the Minister could do is show respect to the residents in Pearse House and the inner-city communities in Ringsend by meeting with them and ensure their issues are highlighted and worked through. The homes in Ringsend are not going to be affordable purchase, they will be affordable rental. The cost of that rental is going to be exorbitant and the local community will not be able to afford to live there. The communities will then be divided and people will have to move out, and that is very unfair and disrespectful to any community.”
“Government is not building communities but dividing them. Due to the cost of new homes being built on the Irish Glass Bottle site and around the city families cannot live there so communities are being split up and people are having to move further afield. I ask that the Minister meet the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group. Like I said, the group has been through four Ministers for housing in its time. The Government talks about building communities but the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, has also refused to meet the residents in Pearse House, even though he pulled a regeneration plan which is desperately needed. He has put in a new deep retrofitting plan, which is effectively a lick of paint and some maintenance work, which is of course welcome, but it is not what the residents in Pearse House desperately need.”
“I concur with Senator Conway. It is objectionable that we are sending live cattle to Israel. We should not be trading with Israel in addition to the animal welfare issues. I raise the matter of the Irish Glass Bottle site. There was a commitment to put 350 new public homes on that site. There are 550 affordable ones. The Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group has been fighting with the State for the last nine years. It has gone through four Ministers for housing. Deputy Browne is the current Minister and the group representatives have been looking to meet him but he has refused to date. I find it amazing the new Government housing policy is entitled Delivering Homes, Building Communities. The policy is not delivering homes for families living in the communities of Ringsend, Pearse Street and Kevin Street.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that very helpful response and offer to follow up. Ringsend boys' and girls' school is fighting on and working on another issue at the moment. The Department of education looked at its student enrolment for 30 September 2025 as two separate schools rather than one. They had 280 pupils combined on 30 September and its retention figure is 279. Even though they are amalgamating and there will be one school for all of these pupils, the Department of education looked at them as two schools for the purpose of allocating teachers, resulting in the loss of a teacher as the girls' school was just short of the retention figure. That is far from ideal. It would be okay if they were not amalgamating but they are. They were counted as two separate schools when they should have been counted as one.”
“We will have to see that this work is done and that the amalgamation will go ahead. It has other issues that also need to be addressed which include teacher allocation and the fact that Ringsend boys' and girls' school has not received DEIS plus designation. That has to be addressed as well.”
“Without the work on the toilets being carried out, amalgamation will not be able to go ahead. If this school was in Foxrock or one of the affluent areas, I doubt these really important works would have been refused. However, pupils in Ringsend are required to tolerate Dickensian conditions. We need to know why it took so long to reply to the original application. The application was sent in July 2025 and the school did not get a reply until February 2026. That is pretty extraordinary. The school is upset by that as well as the work not being done. Why was it not flagged months ago that it should have been a summer works application? That should have been flagged ages ago. The school is of the belief now - I was speaking to the principal yesterday - that the work will be done which is welcome but I am not convinced.”
“I am sure there is somebody in the Department who is just ticking boxes. The Minister needs to intervene and show some common sense to get this resolved and get the school up to the proper standard. Just down the road from CBS Westland Row is Ringsend boys' and girls' school. This school is going to be amalgamated, so certain works need to be carried out to facilitate the amalgamation. In January, representatives from the building section of the Department visited the school and saw for themselves the dire state of the toilets. "Grim" was the word used to describe them. They are grim. The school principal in Ringsend was told that the toilets issue would be addressed during the summer to allow for the schools to be amalgamated in September as planned.”
“There was money allocated to the school to do some remedial work on the downpipe. There was a certain amount provided, so the immediate job will be done. However, the school is a very old building. It is naturally showing, like the rest of us when we get old, signs of ageing and creaking and it requires a lot of work just to make it safe and hygienic to work in. The school was assigned funds for other works previously and not all of that was spent. The money is there, and it needs to be reassigned to fix the serious works that are required. We need to see some common sense around this. The money was allocated for maintenance work. Some of that was spent. There was some left over. Why is that money not reallocated to the school to do the really important emergency works that are required there?”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming in and taking this important Commencement matter. There is an increasing problem whereby schools are facing serious structural issues and they are not being allocated the resources to get things right and function properly. I raised in this House a couple of weeks ago the issues that CBS Westland Row has. As I am sure the Minister of State knows, that is not too far from here; it is a short walk. In that school, there is a defective downpipe and it has caused mayhem. It has closed the boys' toilets. It has also made many of the classrooms unsafe and unhealthy for teachers and students alike. That, understandably, is affecting the morale within the school. This is a school that is working with some of the most disadvantaged and diverse communities in the country.”
“I welcome the Flemish minister for agriculture and the environment. I also welcome the Belgian ambassador. They are all guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. They are very welcome and I hope the Minister of State is looking after them.”
“I do appreciate it is not the Minister’s responsibility but they do fantastic work with young people. That is an aside but I think it is important to acknowledge the role played by volunteers not only in boxing but in all sports clubs. When we are talking about youth and youth services, it is crucial to focus on the housing crisis, on payments and on the need to get students from the inner city through college so they can learn the skills that are required for youth work.”
“That is youth work, although it does not fall under that remit because it is a sport. The work that boxing clubs do is absolutely incredible. The volunteers that are there are absolutely incredible. It would be great to see some way that those clubs could get more funding. I know it is not directly related to the Minister's responsibility, but Nutgrove Boxing Club, the Dublin Docklands Boxing Club and Baldoyle Boxing Club do incredible work. Out in Baldoyle, Christy Dunne, Ronan and Graham do absolutely incredible work with young people. They are there during the day for all-Irelands or the Dublin leagues. They bring them to sparring sessions. They do absolutely incredible work and they do it for nothing. Those clubs should be better resourced. I think of the conditions some of those clubs are in.”
“It has nowhere from which to work. Those involved never know if they will be able to find somewhere to rent and there is no certainty around it. The organisation finds it difficult to recruit and retain staff. Housing is so expensive in the inner city, particularly on this side of the inner city. People are competing with others whose wages come from Google and the other high-tech companies. That is who is renting all the new, modern premises. Youth workers, on youth worker salaries, are not going to be able to compete with those whose wages come from Google and the other high-tech companies. We need to get more people from the inner city though college and then they can work with the young people who are here. I have a family member who is involved in boxing.”
“There should be more funding for outreach to ensure that those kids who are harder to react to or engage with are engaged. That is not happening. I know that on the north side, there are quite a number of youth clubs. Because of the Mulvey report and the north-east inner city, NEIC, initiative, funding has gone in there, as the Minister will know, to ensure there is funding for youth clubs. The same cannot be said about the south side. They are effectively one community. I know the river divides them, but the north and south inner city are effectively one community. There are lots of family connections and interactions. They have the same issues. Both areas have been left behind by the State. Investment has not gone into the south inner city. As I said, Talk about Youth does amazing work and is really committed.”
“Andrew's Resource Centre. It is a brilliant youth club. There is also the South Area Youth Service, SAYS, club off Mercer Street. Neither of them has its own space. They have to rent space. They do not have the resources to work with the kids. The spaces they can rent often are not big enough. That has a huge impact on the kids, who require certainty to engage in the youth work. I know that Ms Eileen Nalty in Talk about Youth and Mr. Brendan Dowling in SAYS, as well as Robbie, Louisa, Carmel and Lisa, do incredible work with the young people in an area that is being left behind. It is a very difficult area to work in. We saw the riots that happened down there. We have seen a lot of antisocial behaviour. Many kids are hard to reach and hard to work with, and they do not have the resources. As I said, they do not have the spaces.”
“I thank the Minister for coming to the House. As has been said, it is important that we invest in young people and our communities. One of the issues that comes up when talking to youth workers around the inner city of Dublin is the impact of housing prices and accommodation. As Senator Tully mentioned, recruitment and retention are issues. If a youth worker is living close to the city centre or around the city centre, it is not a problem. Youth workers would like to invest and work in their local communities. It is about ensuring that more people are going through college. There is a community development and youth work course in Maynooth University. We want people working through that course. We want to produce more students from the inner city. I am not sure if the Minster has visited the Talk about Youth club at St.”
“The Government sold off Camden Yard when it was under the Department of education's brief. The buyers went bankrupt and now it seems there is public housing going to go on that site. Why did the Government not just put public housing on it in the first place? The Government does not have a commitment. It does not have a handle on addressing the homeless crisis.”
“The only community it seems to be building is a homeless community. There are 5,000 children in homeless accommodation as a result of the failures of this Government; 5,000 children who have no home to go to and have no prospect of a home under this Government. We have a situation where the Minister for housing has not met the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group. The group has gone through four housing Ministers and this Minister will not meet them. He has refused to meet the residents in Pearse House, even though he pulled the regeneration programme there. Homelessness is solvable - it absolutely is solvable - but it is not solvable if there is no commitment to invest in public housing and to developing social housing. The Irish Glass Bottle site was a perfect example of a site where the Government could have put public housing.”
“When we look at 17,000 people homeless, the evidence suggests the Government has given up trying to solve the housing crisis and the homelessness crisis because its members talk about levers, commitments and plans, but the reality is the people sleeping in doorways around the city and down along the quays do not see any delivery of homes. The Government talks about affordable homes. A total of 550 homes were due to be delivered on the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend. It claims those 550 homes are all going to be affordable - that is debatable - but there will be affordable rental. Families, almost certainly from the area - ordinary working families with average pay - will not be able to afford to live in those so-called affordable homes on the Irish Glass Bottle site. The other part of that housing policy is building communities.”
“I thank the Minister of State. It is really important to have statements on homelessness and the new housing policy, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. The people I meet and the people who call my office every single day, some of them crying, upset and requiring additional support services, do not see any delivery of homes. We just have to look at the family hubs. In the north inner city you can see the huge number of hotels and the family hubs. They are all behind the statistics the Minister of State came out with. There is no sense that homes are being delivered.”
“The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, was looking for Coimisiún na Meán to carry out a probe into the national media. This is the same Minister who, when it was requested that there be a review of the coverage of the genocide in Gaza, said it was a chilling and outrageous attack on press freedom. What a hypocrite he is. People have lost confidence. As was said earlier, we are the messengers. If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have confidence in themselves, let us go and have an election.”
“Those families have been let down, time and again, by the health system that the Government has overseen. Yet it is highlighting people who are delayed getting to the doctor, which, of course, is unfortunate. Senator Clonan mentioned the Minister for justice calling out the Army. Anybody with a cursory knowledge of Irish history would know what that was going to do and how it was going to be perceived. Calling out the Army for civilian protests is unbelievable. It is unbelievable that any Minister would think that was okay, and that it was going to be well-received. The Government and the Minister should apologise to the Irish people for threatening them with the Army. It is unacceptable that the Army would be considered at all. We have a very good police force. It should be allowed to do its job and be resourced to do it.”
“I heard one of the spokespeople of the protests complaining that they had spoken to Senator Brady. Senator Brady apparently made multiple calls to a Fine Gael Minister, and the Fine Gael Minister ignored him. What hope do ordinary people have if the Minister is ignoring Senator Brady? It highlights how out of touch and elitist this Government is that its members would not even return calls from Fine Gael Senators. I hear that the Government is focused on unfortunate individuals missing doctor’s appointments. Of course, that is far from ideal. However, that is coming from the same Government that has overseen the destruction of the health system. Spina bifida patients are queueing up waiting for operations. Tell that to the parents of little Harvey Sherratt.”
“I agree with Senator Collins. Sinn Féin has no confidence in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents who are propping up the Government. They are clearly opposed to the interests of ordinary people. It is interesting, as has been said, that Fianna Fáil Senators are complaining about Fine Gael Ministers. That may be payback for the Fine Gael Minister complaining about the Fianna Fáil Minister for calling out the Army. In some ways, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has orphaned the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and left him on his own, high and dry. Clearly, the Government parties do not have confidence in each other. The protests across this country in the past week are an example of frustration and anger. People are really frustrated that they have not been heard.”
“They should be holding Israel to account because after years of outright genocide and decades of apartheid and economic suffocation, the people of Gaza have a non-existent healthcare system and continue to be denied foodstuffs and basic necessities. There is no ceasefire. Israel has not ended its collective punishment and starving of individuals. It has not stopped. It has continued to bomb Lebanon and create world havoc. I wish the participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla success. It is important that the Irish Government offer this flotilla protection unlike what it provided for other flotillas. It is really important it provides protection for the Global Sumud Flotilla and its humanitarian mission.”
“I also extend my condolences to the family of Brian O'Shea. I will highlight that in the past weekend the Global Sumud Flotilla has once again set sail from Barcelona to break Israel's illegal siege of Gaza. The flotilla will consist of over 70 boats carrying thousands of participants from over 100 different countries. They will be carrying medical aid and medical professionals to bring supplies into Gaza, where aid is still desperately needed. Every boat represents a failure by government of implementing international law and human rights. The individuals on the boats are looking to open up a humanitarian corridor and governments - the Irish Government, European governments and world governments - should be supporting this.”
“Before I call the next speaker, I welcome the pupils from St. Andrew's College. They are here with Senator Clonan. I hope they are enjoying their visit. The Houses is a really interesting place to visit. They have no homework for the rest of the week. That is the tradition. That is what they say, although a couple of people there do not look like they are of the age for homework. They must be the teachers. They are very welcome anyway. I call Senator Byrne.”
“Before I call the next speaker, Senator Margaret Murphy O'Mahony, I want to welcome guests of Cormac Devlin: Eamon de Valera, whose name is obviously recognisable in this House, Lily Cummins, Cormac Kavanagh, Lily Mae Fahy, Cian Bermingham and Lily Wade from the US. You are all very welcome and I hope you are enjoying your visit. You are in safe hands. I hope Cormac will buy you lunch later. Next is Senator Murphy O'Mahony.”
“How much more death and destruction of horses is needed before sulky racing is banned? When will the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, stop looking away and do something? I ask that he come before the House for a debate on sulky racing and animal welfare. Week after week, there are horrific events like this happening.”
“What about the people in those cars and the 13-year-old involved? How many more near misses, injuries or deaths are we going to accept before something changes? Only recently, a horse named Anne and her unborn foal were brutalised to death on the Ballyfermot Road. Where is the accountability? Where is the enforcement? Where is the protection for these animals? Enough is enough. Sulky racing is like a cancer on society. We need real action. There needs to be proper enforcement. There also needs to be a dedicated Garda animal crime unit to tackle animal cruelty like this, because silence is part of the problem. Staying quiet means that it will happen again. The Minister for agriculture clearly does not give a damn. The evidence suggests that he does not give a damn.”
“Yesterday, another video containing the distressing image of a horse being killed in Clonmel, County Tipperary, was circulated. The video, which is absolutely sickening, shows a horse terrified and out of control being forced to run on a public road with a child no older than 13 years of age in charge. That child obviously had no training or protection, and there was no regard for life. The video ended the only way it could end in tragedy, fear, chaos and the brutal death of a horse. That horse ran for hundreds of metres in panic, crashing into cars as it did so. Imagine the terror and pain experienced by that animal as it lay there suffering, its blood gushing out onto the pavement and street, and waiting for help that came too late. This is cruelty - pure and simple. It is not just the animal that paid the price.”
“This amendment was spoken on briefly by one of my colleagues earlier. It seems reasonable to expect that the interests of the child shall be a primary consideration in the carrying out of procedures in respect of minors under this part in accordance with Article 14(1) of the Eurodac regulation. It is important that the rights of the child are protected. I am interested to know why the Government would not support this amendment.”
“I move amendment No. 26: In page 31, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(14) The best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration in the carrying out of procedures in respect of a minor under this Part, in accordance with Article 14(1) of the Eurodac Regulation.”.”
“I move amendment No. 25: In page 29, after line 30, to insert the following: “ Matters concerning minors 14. The best interests of the child shall be primary consideration in the application of this Act, and the Minister shall have due regard to this principle in respect of all matters concerning minors.”.”
“The Minister needs to come to the House and outline how he will address the crisis in the coroner's office, which is having serious implications for families who are already distressed.”