Claire Kerrane
Roscommon-Galway · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“For carers and the loved ones they care for, respite is really important. It should not be beyond us to ensure that respite is guaranteed and consistent rather than having a situation where service providers go year to year looking at lists of people in terms of who they can and cannot give respite to due to funding implications.”
“Approximately 160 of the 13,000 to 15,000 childminders in the State have signed up. There is clearly an issue. No matter how hard the consultation was in terms of its significance, it clearly has not worked. There is a major issue and there is a huge job of work to be done.”
“The Minister's amendment also speaks about parent's leave and benefit, maternity leave and the leave available specifically to two-parent families. There is an ongoing anomaly, which I have raised many times, for one-parent families. It would cost a small amount of money.”
“It is as though we are reading two different motions. Contrary to what both Ministers have said, the motion is not just about affordability and accessibility. In fact, in that first €10 a day childcare plan in 2024, I ensured it was not just about affordability and accessibility, as I have done with this motion.”
“There has not been one year where the Minister has not had to go out of her way to get the JLC to the table to actually deliver on pay. Most times, they end up in the Labour Court. I cannot fathom how that can be in any way called an effective approach to pay. There are educators who would earn more in a supermarket in many cases.”
“I met some who said to me that they find it difficult to do a four-year degree and come out to earn an amount of money per hour that they could earn in the local supermarket. That is no level of respect for these professionals, without whom we would have no childcare sector and would not have to worry about places or cost.”
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Every one of 397 lines we hold for Claire Kerrane, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 8.
“In 2015, Leo Varadkar, the then health Minister, restated that a rapid response vehicle crewed by an advanced paramedic providing 24-7 cover in Roscommon was one of the significant improvements made in Roscommon because of the closure of the accident and emergency department. He went on to state his intention that there would be further improvements because we had no accident and emergency department and we were farther away from the next emergency department. Instead what has happened, and I have been raising this for about a year, is that the advanced paramedic roster on the rapid response vehicle has been filled by a paramedic instead of an advanced paramedic.”
“First, by way of background, the accident and emergency department in Roscommon was closed in 2011. On the back of that, a commitment was made that there would need to be much better ambulance cover for Roscommon because we are farther away from the next nearest emergency department. Both Fine Gael, which was in office at the time, and the HSE committed to ensure there would be advanced life support. It would always be provided given the accident and emergency was no longer there. At that time, a separate roster for advanced paramedics on the rapid response vehicle was put in place. Until 2023, that had been in place for 12 years.”
“I have spoken to a number of young gardaí who have been forced to leave their roles. They did not want to but they could no longer continue. They may be driving up and down on long commutes, renting somewhere and trying to build a house at home, so they look for transfers but get no information on when they might be transferred. I appreciate gardaí cannot be in their own backyard. Most of them do not want to be anyway. I have said to the Commissioner that a person could have the opportunity to transfer after a certain number of years away, even within their own division or even within an hour from home. We have an issue with recruitment and retention and yet we are losing good gardaí because they cannot plan their futures, build a home and build a family in their area. It is a major issue that should be dealt with.”
“I ask the Minister that communities would be better supported in terms of community alert. There are some supports, but we need to do a great deal more to build that relationship between local gardaí, who are typically not from the area, and the local community. Much of that has been lost and it is important we get that back. I ask the Minister, as I asked his predecessor, for a specific policing plan for rural Ireland when it comes to prioritising those areas where Garda stations have closed and where Garda numbers are down. A specific rural Garda plan would be really important. I take this opportunity to raise an issue with the Minister regarding Garda transfers. This is an issue I have raised with the Commissioner on many occasions but, unfortunately, he does not seem to see an issue with the process that is currently in place.”
“As I rise to speak on statements on policing and community safety, I take the opportunity to remember an Independent councillor, Councillor Anthony Waldron, who died suddenly last month. Councillor Waldron had established the Enough is Enough campaign against rural crime in County Roscommon and it was an issue I had discussed with him at a number of events he held. I remember him here this evening. Garda numbers are falling and continue to fall across Roscommon and Galway. There is a lack of visibility across all of our rural towns and this is leading to a dramatic rise in both antisocial behaviour and, in the case specifically of west Roscommon and north Galway, an ongoing issue this past year in terms of the number of burglaries, which has been rising all of the time.”
“She also told us of remarks made to her to go to Africa and see the starving children and to just eat. We really need to see training for all healthcare professionals on this. Cared Ireland came with some very specific asks and a clear message. It wants to see more inpatient beds. There are three beds in the State and there have been three for a very long time. There was a plan to open 20 new beds between 2018 and 2023 but they were never funded. Will the Government please fund these beds?”
“Yesterday, I attended a briefing by Cared Ireland. It highlighted the long-running crisis in care, supports and services for people with eating disorders. We heard directly from a mother whose young teenage daughter is about to age out of the very small supports she has been getting as a child. These are supports that have, in her mother's words, kept her alive. We also heard from a mother whose daughter died almost two years ago because of her eating disorder and from a young woman living with an eating disorder who detailed her own experience in a system that has had absolutely nothing work right to support her. This is a system that put her into an adult psychiatric ward at the age of 16 and gave her a psychiatrist without any expertise in eating disorders.”
“I make the point again that if we want a functioning early years service for parents, children and the professionals who work in it, we have to get pay right. The JLC and pay talks granted, the last time, 65 cent, which to me is insulting, to the early years educators in the sector. If we do not get that right, we will continue to have issues with recruitment and retention and capacity. We already have about 30,000 children on waiting lists for places. In many cases, they are on waiting lists for places that do not exist and will not exist. It is not good enough, given the crisis we have in the early years sector, especially with the educators, to leave it to the JLC when it comes up with 65 cent for the early years educators, based on the fact we need a functioning early years sector for parents, children and for the professionals.”
“I am concerned about the inefficient use of the money that was announced in the budget and how it comes to pass in terms of these talks.”
“I thank the Minister. The review into core funding in the programme for Government commitments is very important. I am concerned that the money being earmarked for pay is not being reflected in the pay deals. I spoke previously about my concern regarding the pay talks and the JLC process that is in place because of the way in which it is designed in terms of pay increases for early years educators. The last pay increase for early years educators amounted to 65 cent. It took 14 months to negotiate that and it ended up in the Labour Court because agreement could not be reached. My concern is about the level of funding and the percentage of core funding that is supposed to be earmarked for wages and pay, and what is coming out of that process, because it does not add up given the previous pay increase of 65 cent.”
“I want to ask the Minister about the total value of core funding and the amount of it allocated to improving pay. That is very important because we know the issues with capacity whereby some providers have the physical space but they have to close rooms because they do not have the early years educators. We have an issue with recruitment and retention. Pay is key for staff and we must make sure the early years educators are paid properly.”
“These children are on the waiting list for the assessments of need. Parents should not be told their children will be taken off the waiting list if they do not respond to the HSE and confirm they want their children to remain on it. I would be concerned that children would be removed if this is what the HSE is doing. I have seen the communication. I ask the Minister of State to please ensure no child is removed from the waiting list for assessments of needs because their parent did not respond to this request from the HSE.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Regarding those on the waiting lists, and this is an issue I have written to the Minister of State about, I take the opportunity to flag a communication issued by the HSE to parents with a child or children on the waiting lists for assessments of needs in the last couple of weeks. It told parents that if they did not respond to say their child still wanted the assessment of needs and to remain on the waiting list by a certain date, they would be taken off the waiting list. I raise this issue here because parents are already under enough pressure. I do not think it is right for the HSE to put it back on parents. I have seen the communication. It states this action must be undertaken to progress the application, which really does not make any sense at all at all.”
“It is then typically necessary to move on to another list for whatever therapy is needed and children may actually end up on a number of waiting lists. We must, therefore, be very careful in terms of how we speak about the increase and what it means. If the Minister of State does have the opportunity, I would like if she could expand on her final comment on the AON administration hubs and what this means.”
“On the very high figure of more than 14,000 children and the demand increase, this is fine and part of it, of course, is related to population. I would not say, though, that part of it is parents exploring all options for their children, particularly if they can go through the CDNTs without an assessment of need. We must be really careful in terms of the things we say concerning this matter because, for those children who are on a waiting list, and their parents especially, waiting and waiting is extremely stressful and worrying. The parents know the situation all the time as long as the child is waiting and waiting. We must be mindful too that the waiting list for an assessment of need is only step one.”
“Before asking this question, I wish the Minister of State well in her new role because I did not have an opportunity to do so earlier. This question is to ask the Minister of State about the number of children on waiting lists for assessments of needs, the average waiting time for the children on the waiting lists and, more importantly, I suppose, the measures she intends to take to tackle these very long and record-level waiting lists.”
“He was a resident in Temple Hill from when he was four weeks old until he was one year old and then he was adopted. That institution is excluded from the scheme because it is deemed to be a hospital yet his mother paid 5 shillings a week to keep him there and he was adopted out of it. Therefore, it was not a hospital. He and others like him cannot get any justice, any support or anything from the scheme. If there is an underspend again this year, that really should be looked at.”
“I thank the Minister. On the figures, I chaired the committee meeting last year in which Revised Estimates were gone through and there was an underspend of €158 million. It was listed as a saving and it was money brought back in this scheme. In fairness, it was expected a lot more would apply in the first year and that was fair enough. If there is such an underspend of the €100 million that is there for 2025, I really would ask that it would be looked at. I appreciate the reviews are there and are laid down in legislation but in the case of the institutions excluded, these survivors are passing away. They are not getting the opportunity to get the justice they deserve and many of them are being excluded from the scheme. I have told this story here before of meeting Michael Grant last year.”
“It is very hard to tell people that because they were not in a particular institution, they do not get the support. Those excluded institutions is what I would like looked at in particular.”
“I thank the Minister for that. There are a couple issues here I had raised with the Minister's predecessor in terms of the scheme. The number of applicants applying and the number of payments issued to date have been quite low. That is dependent on the number applying, so clearly more work needs to be done on that messaging and communication. I know that is being done abroad but it needs to be looked at again. Approximately 34,000 people are eligible to apply. To date, just over 6,100 people have applied to the scheme. Regarding those institutions that are excluded, I found that quite odd. The exclusion of the institutions has been based on a list that was investigated by the commission of investigation. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has stated this is flawed in terms of the institutions that are excluded.”
“I ask the Minister about the mother and baby institutions payment scheme, the review due to take place by mid-2026 and the issues raised, particularly around those excluded from that scheme. Will the Minister bring forward that review?”
“I know of parents have paid for private assessments, even though they did not have the money, and who then went to CAMHS. In a particular case, a child was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and CAMHS said that supports could not be provided because the diagnosis was made on the basis of a private assessment. When parents opt for private assessments, we have to have a bit of leniency and make sure they can get supports on the back of that those assessments, particularly where they have been waiting too long on the public list. There are major issues more widely in counties Roscommon and Galway with regard to respite. I received an email from a parent on respite. The tagline was "respite plea". Parents are begging for support in terms of respite waiting lists in Roscommon and Galway.”
“I wrote to the Minister and to the Minister for Health asking them to make sure that no child is removed from the waiting list because a parent did not respond to a communication from the HSE. It would be great to see the HSE put effort into tackling the waiting lists rather than, as we have seen previously, trying to find ways around the legislation and the six-month requirement and, now, putting it back on parents by stating if it does not hear from them, they will be removed from the waiting list. It is not acceptable and it is not the way that parents should be treated. Recently, I was made aware that child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, do not accept private assessments when it comes to accessing supports.”
“We need the Government to give serious priority to and to take action on reducing these waiting lists. I want to raise a recent communication from the HSE that came to my attention last week. This was a communication to parents whose children are on the waiting list for assessments of need. This letter asked the parents to let the HSE know if they still want to remain on the waiting list and stated that if it did not hear from them by a certain date, they would be removed from it. Parents have enough to deal with, particularly when they have children with additional needs and when everything in the State is a battle, whether it is in the context of education, therapies or access to supports.”
“In my area, it has been a real struggle to staff the teams. This is still an issue. Children have been left with nothing. They had been getting little support but now they are getting nothing. Their parents have to watch them regress and see the impact it has on their development. We know that for any child being on waiting list is detrimental to their development and to their well-being. We have more than 13,000 children on waiting lists. Children are waiting for first contact from CDNTs. More than 9,000 of them have been waiting for a year. Similarly, there are record levels with regard to waiting lists for assessments of need, with more than 14,000 children currently waiting. More and more parents are struggling. They are battling the State and taking legal action against it. This is totally avoidable.”
“We can never again have a situation in this State where our most vulnerable are left totally isolated and on their own. We will have more storms. In that context and on behalf of our most vulnerable citizens, I ask that the provision of generators to those reliant on medical devices be considered by the Government. Unfortunately, it will not be considered by the ESB. I want to focus specifically on children with disabilities and those with additional needs. Sadly and for a long time, children with additional needs in the State are being failed each day, whether as a result of waiting lists for assessments of need, primary care or CDNTs. I have met parents whose children were getting a bit of a service from the Brothers of Charity previously, but the rug was pulled entirely from them when the CDNTs came into place.”
“I congratulate the Minister on her appointment. As my party's spokesperson on children, I look forward to working with her. Before I begin, I take this opportunity to mention an issue I have raised a number of times regarding the recent storm and its impact on people with electric wheelchairs and those who are reliant on electric beds and certain medical devices. Unfortunately, I feel I am hitting against a brick wall. Our most vulnerable people, who were on the vulnerable customers list, were left at sea during the storm. There was no priority. There was nothing for them. Their place on the list was, frankly, irrelevant. The ESB tells me to speak to the HSE and those responsible for disability in terms of my ask for generators for people reliant on medical devices. I appeal to the Government to look at this.”
“In 2025, in one of the richest countries in the world, parents are put in a position whereby they have to ring around schools and lobby TDs and the Government to find a class place for their child to get them an education. In some cases, they are put under huge pressure to do that. It is not normal. It should not happen, and it is an issue we should be more than able to overcome. It is something that needs to be a priority now.”
“It is hard enough to go in and have those additional needs when you are that young and that age, to then be made feel that you are different by the Department. That is an appalling way to treat any child. It is not appropriate or acceptable and it is not the way the Department should act. The Department of Education encourages schools to open special classes. We remember that it was naming schools that were not doing so. If the school is not supported to open the class in the first place, however, then that is not working either. It is not outside the remit of the Department to plan for and forecast these children's needs. We had a Bill seeking to provide that the NCSE and the Department would work together to forecast and plan for these children. It is not impossible. Let us take a step back and look at this.”
“Last year, a school in my constituency was requested by the NCSE to open a special class. It was happy to do so and had 24 children seeking a place in a rural school. It applied to the Department in plenty of time for additional accommodation to make this happen and to make sure it could meet the needs of those children in their community. It was told by the Department of Education to use its GP room. For young people and children, it is hard enough to start off at school - as it was for any of us - without shoving children into the GP room and setting up a class. Can the Minister imagine how different that makes a young person or child feel going into a school, where they are told to just use the GP room and a kind of makeshift classroom?”
“I, too, rise in support of this motion. It has become an annual issue and we have already started hearing from parents in respect of next September. There was a particular issue last year, in south County Roscommon, in my constituency, with 18 children and 18 sets of parents run ragged trying to ring around schools and ask for a place, an education that meets their child's needs. It is a horrible and extremely stressful situation to put parents in, and it infects their entire families. A child with additional needs, no matter what those needs are, should be able to access an education in a local school. They should not have to travel long distances or be split up from their brothers and sisters who are attending the local school. We also hear annually from school principals.”
“I am very concerned about the silence from the Taoiseach and the Government in terms of seeking action from the ESB. It is majority owned by the Government. People in my constituency across counties Roscommon and Galway have had 19 days without electricity. In some cases, they have also been without water and heating. Will the Taoiseach seek that the ESB suspends standing charges and the PSO levy and provide a goodwill payment to its customers impacted by the storm? I appreciate that the storm was not the fault of the ESB but it has to take responsibility for not securing its power lines in respect of forestry, especially in my constituency, and for the lack of resilience in our electricity infrastructure.”
“That is the very least the CEO of the ESB should do. His attitude to date is really disappointing and has caused great anger among those affected.”
“Supports are needed that are still not in place 19 days later, which is not good enough. I heard from a farmer yesterday who spent €6,000 repairing a shed after the last storm and does not have €6,000 to put in again. The insurance companies need to be taken to task by the Government and to be told that people who make a claim through no fault of their own should not have their premiums increased next year. Last and most important, storms are storms and are not the fault of the ESB but the ESB has to take responsibility for the lack of resilience in the electricity infrastructure and for trees falling on power lines. It is its job and responsibility to secure its power lines. It failed to do that and it has caused devastation. The ESB needs to play its part, provide a goodwill payment and suspend the standing charges and PSO levy.”
“The Department's reply goes on to tell me the programme for Government includes a commitment to an extreme weather event assistance scheme, that this will be looked at to be delivered within the timeframe of the current Government and that it is still to be fully worked through. This is of no benefit to, nor could I hand it to, any business in my constituency that is without supports. Something specific needs to be put in place for businesses and it should have been done a week and a half ago. In relation to farmers, I rang the HAS phone line and was told sheds for farmers were covered. I made that information available to a number of farmers and then it became apparent they were not covered after all. This is what happens when the Dáil does not sit as it should sit. There is misinformation and confusion, and nobody knows what is what.”
“Today, people in my constituency of Roscommon-Galway are on day 19 without electricity. In some cases, that means no heating in their homes and no water - for 19 days. I take this opportunity, following on from the statements we made last week, to raise a number of continuing issues, particularly for businesses, farmers and customers affected by the power outages. There continues to be confusion about supports for businesses. I contacted the Minister for enterprise and his Department. The second point on the reply referred to the humanitarian assistance scheme. Then the section told me it was not providing supports to businesses. Now I have got a further reply from the Department of enterprise telling me and businesses about what insurance does. Of course, businesses are more than aware of that.”
“There is a commitment in both the election manifestos of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to deliver pay parity. The programme for Government does not mention section 39 organisations or pay parity at all. Will the Tánaiste mandate the Department's officials to implement the WRC agreement in full? Will he deliver the pay parity for these section 39 workers?”
“Workers in disability and GP out-of-hours services are among the hardest working healthcare professionals in this State. Without their commitment, so many of the services relied upon by so many simply would not exist, yet these workers are being paid less than their public sector counterparts for doing exactly the same work. They are being paid not marginally less but by 15% or more. In October 2023, through the WRC, the Government recognised workers in the sector were underpaid and it committed at that time to fully dealing with the issue. We are now more than a year later and there is still no resolution. We know talks broke down late last year because it became clear that the negotiating team on the Government's side was not given a mandate to actually implement the WRC agreement and deliver pay parity.”
“We had to say to people with genuine questions, concerns and queries about supports that we would contact the Minister or the Department and come back to them when we got a reply. We had to leave those people there. It has been unacceptable. I cannot imagine another emergency in this State that would impact so many people where the Dáil would not sit. It has been totally unacceptable. Most of the time, people in the west and north west feel forgotten about and left behind. That is exactly what this Government did to them last week. I would say that is the message from the people in Roscommon-Galway and the people I represent.”
“I ask the ESB to look at providing generators to all those on its vulnerable customers list and to do so ahead of any future storm because those vulnerable customers need to be protected. I ask insurance companies to give a guarantee that they will not raise premiums on the back of claims made at the end of all of this. Forestry is a major issue across Roscommon, Leitrim and other parts of the west. It is an unavoidable mess. The ESB needs an urgent action plan in terms of protecting its power lines. The wayleaves are in place in the vast majority of cases for it to do so but it has not done so. The worst part of the Dáil not being recalled last week - let us face it, we have had 13 weeks of no Dáil business - was the position we were put in.”
“It is about time they put their hands in their pockets for the people who have been left without electricity for all of this time, and especially those who have been, and remain, without power today. There are so many more issues to raise. Homes without chimneys have been put in a particularly vulnerable situation, not only without electricity but also being cold. We have learned that the vulnerable customers register - a list of 97,000 people - is meaningless when it comes to a storm. People who rely on medical devices to live and devices to move, people in wheelchairs and people with electric beds were left at sea during this storm. They are registered as vulnerable but it means nothing.”
“He was asked about compensation and supports for his customers and his response was, "No, no, no." It was as if he almost felt he would give them enough by restoring the power for them and that would be good enough. It was almost like it was a favour to provide a service that customers are paying for, and will pay for regardless of whether they have the service. That was the response. The Government needs to be pushing hard on the ESB. The PSO levy and the standing charges should be suspended for any customer who was without power for whatever length or period it was. Customers should receive a goodwill payment from the ESB. The company is making record profits. Its last full year of profit, 2023, was €868 million.”
“I rang the Department phone line on Sunday for somebody. I was told that sheds - turf sheds etc. - are covered but that anything for agricultural use is not. We need clarification. Farmers need clarification on that. I commend the ESB staff on the ground, the Uisce Éireann staff on the ground and the local authorities. I thank each and every one of them for the work they continue to do, and sometimes in very difficult conditions. I also commend all of the communities who stepped up, who set up the hubs and who have done so much in recent days, especially those across Roscommon and Galway. I have never been prouder to represent them here in this House. Yesterday, I listened to the CEO of the ESB on the radio.”
“I welcome the clarification and confirmation from the Minister, Dara Calleary, today. Those people who got cheques by post for €150 have panicked because that does not even come close to covering their costs. It is so important that we communicate to people, that they get a letter to explain to them: "This is for your immediate need - food etc. More will follow where you have more costs." It is so important that we communicate that because there has been an awful lot of confusion. I have dealt with people who have spent so much money over the last six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11 days, they are worried about how they are going to afford to pay their mortgage this month. That is the level of cost this has caused for so many households. There has also been confusion in terms of farmers and the HAS2 form and what is covered under it.”
“This scheme has been in place for quite some time; it is not something the Government put together in a hurry. It would not want to be, given the time it has taken to get us to this point. There have been mixed messages repeatedly in terms of these support payments and what they are actually for. I have constituents who filled in the form. One handed it in to a social welfare office on behalf of her elderly parents. She was told her elderly parents needed to come in and present themselves. Another rang the Department phone line over the weekend and was told the HAS1 form was means tested, even though it is not. The means test has been suspended. Another was told she could not apply because her power was back - again, not correct. That is before we get to the forms at all.”
“I called for the Dáil to return because it was the right thing to do, and it was on the back of the anger, the anguish and the pain that was felt by the people of Roscommon and Galway who I am here to represent. This Government has let those people down. It took eight days for the Government to announce that costs for accommodation would be covered. Even though it took eight days, the Government still managed to get it wrong. One of the first questions I was asked was, "I have no money to pay upfront for three or four nights' accommodation. What am I supposed to do?" I have had to say: "I will email the Minister and I might get a reply tomorrow or next week and I will let you know, and you just wait." It is not good enough and not acceptable. There are two existing humanitarian assistance scheme forms.”
“The Ministers are about 12 days too late. We are having statements on the Government response to a storm that happened 12 days ago, and the Ministers return here as the vast majority of homes are reconnected and, for many, the outages are over. Shame on this Government for ignoring the call I made two days after the storm that the Government should have come here to answer the questions and to put the supports in place much more quickly than they were put in place. The Taoiseach's response was to come down to County Roscommon to get his photograph taken and then to tell us on this side of the House that we were playing politics. I have been in this House since 2020 and I have never played politics on any issue, ever.”