Danny Healy-Rae
Kerry · Independent · Ireland
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about post offices. First of all, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and the Government for giving them financial assistance this year because they do need it. Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network.”
“People should not be sent elsewhere to bigger towns because there are no longer banks in villages and it is very important for people to meet. Social interaction is so important with people. People are becoming very lonely in rural places because they do not meet as much as they used to at the creamery, the shop or the pub.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill and giving us the chance to discuss the possibility of a united Ireland. Since I was a young fella, all I ever heard was that was what we needed and that we could not stop until it was achieved. There is so much involved in this.”
“We hope that we will retain the post offices because as has been said here, the post office, the school and the GAA club are so vital for retaining the identity of parishes throughout the length and breadth of rural Ireland. We hope we will retain the post offices in Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk.”
“We want that for the people of the North of Ireland as well but we must have the conversation as to what will be the story for all the different things. We must be united in this Chamber and the people of the Twenty-Six Counties must, by and large, be in favour of reunification. We need to hear their views.”
“We must be united here in this Chamber for a start, each and every one of us. We cannot be throwing Scud missiles across the Chamber at each other. We need to have a united front. This is a serious business. We need to know where this will lead us.”
The complete record
Every one of 737 lines we hold for Danny Healy-Rae, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 15.
“We want that for the people of the North of Ireland as well but we must have the conversation as to what will be the story for all the different things. We must be united in this Chamber and the people of the Twenty-Six Counties must, by and large, be in favour of reunification. We need to hear their views. There is so much we could be doing as it is. We should be inviting people from the Northern Assembly down here - its elected members. Whether it is with local government or the UK Government, we should have more interaction to hear and sense their concerns so we can move halfway. We must go halfway to meet everyone if we are to achieve agreement. I think a vote tonight is a bit premature. We should work more together and have more discussion rather than falling out with each other now.”
“We must be united here in this Chamber for a start, each and every one of us. We cannot be throwing Scud missiles across the Chamber at each other. We need to have a united front. This is a serious business. We need to know where this will lead us. We know the problems that we have here in the Twenty-Six Counties with housing, the cost of living, energy prices and all the different things. What will happen? We need to know what the end result will be and what we will achieve. Where will England be? I do not hear them saying anything about it. We must respect the unionists' views as well. They were here in the South of Ireland and they are working with us now. They are very welcome here and we appreciate them for the way they carry on their work and living normal lives.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill and giving us the chance to discuss the possibility of a united Ireland. Since I was a young fella, all I ever heard was that was what we needed and that we could not stop until it was achieved. There is so much involved in this. As I grew up, I saw the Troubles of the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. Every morning on the news you heard how many people had been killed during the night. There was The Miami Showband and all the people from the different sides killed in the mayhem, murder and slaughter every day. We are glad the Good Friday Agreement has moved us away from that, and I want to thank all those who created the environment where people North and South can at least go to work every day, feed their families and continue with a normal life. I can see it even here.”
“When you talk about going to the city of Cork, it is a day's work to go to and come from there, if you were to do business that far away. I thank the Minister of State for this great effort.”
“I again thank the Minister of State for recognising the post offices and ensuring they keep going for the present time. Like I said to him, we must ensure more business is directed through the post office to ensure its viability. We appreciate the parcel service it has at the present time. It is second to none. There is stuff coming out of vans every day coming to our door and it is the same right through the parish, including on Saturday. It is a great service and each and every one of us most do our utmost, and it is incumbent on us, to ensure we deal with the post offices, especially for that great service as well. It means so much in a rural community where people are out on a limb and where it is so far away to go to the bigger towns.”
“It is sad to think that there are shops closing all over County Kerry, including in Killarney at the present time. It has been told to me that the cost of commercial rates has gone up since the rates review. The cost of paying the rates has gone way up. It is hurting and causing businesses to close. The Government must recognise this and we, the Members, must highlight it and bring it forward to the Government here because maybe it is not known as much as we elected Members know about it as we are on the road every day and know what the problems are. We must look at the rates and how they are applied and charged for many businesses. Many businesses are now afraid to open their doors because they will be liable for a rates bill from that minute onwards.”
“We must try to retain what we have and what we had. The school in the locality is very important to retain the identity of that locality. Then there are the pubs and shops, as we all know. In Kilgarvan at one time, we had 26 shops. Now we have just two. That is replicated throughout many parishes in Kerry. Even Gneevgullia does not have a shop. The last place to close was the post office and the shop that went along with the post office. It is so important to subsidise post offices or give them an opportunity to remain open. To remain open, they must be profitable for the owners because there are a lot of costs and overheads. There are so many different things. The one thing that is hitting every kind of an outlet at the present time is rates and commercial rates.”
“People should not be sent elsewhere to bigger towns because there are no longer banks in villages and it is very important for people to meet. Social interaction is so important with people. People are becoming very lonely in rural places because they do not meet as much as they used to at the creamery, the shop or the pub. In tougher times, we had post offices everywhere and a Garda station. We do not have a Garda station in Kilgarvan now. Many parishes do not. We had a doctor's surgery in every parish and a social welfare office. There were several small schools in a parish but in the late fifties, they directed the smaller schools to close and sent them to a central school. That was a very sad thing and it hurts me at times when I see people in areas passing their own small, local school and going into a bigger school in town.”
“We hope that we will retain the post offices because as has been said here, the post office, the school and the GAA club are so vital for retaining the identity of parishes throughout the length and breadth of rural Ireland. We hope we will retain the post offices in Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk. They are the nearest ones to me at the present time and we appreciate the great work they do. The Government, however, should advise people on social welfare payments more to draw their payments through the post office rather than going to the bank. Over the years, we have had enough done for the banks. Payments should always be directed to the post office because it is on each transaction the post office gets paid and to ensure business is kept in them, we should do as much transactions as we can in the post offices.”
“That is how trusted, secretive and dependable the people who work for the post office are. They retain the confidence of the people and that is why. At the present time in Kilgarvan, we have a great operator. He has been there for many years now and he is a most reliable person, Padraig Sweeney, and we are proud to have him running and operating the post office in Kilgarvan. We have lost post offices, like I said, in Clonkeen, Gneevgullia, Headfort, Blackwater Bridge and different places. Invariably, they were at the centre of each locality. If the post office is not there, a place loses its identity. We are in trouble now with so many shops closing in rural areas. In many rural villages, there is nothing left but the post office.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about post offices. First of all, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and the Government for giving them financial assistance this year because they do need it. Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network. I am sad to think that so many post offices have closed around us over the years. I remember the previous postmasters in Kilgarvan, Denis P. O'Sullivan and his brother John O'Sullivan. Before them were Bridie and James Cronin. She used to send her brother out with the telegrams. My uncles told me a story - all of them are long passed - that they met him one day going up the road with a telegram. He asked them if he had much further to go. They asked him where he was going and he told them to mind their own business and tell him how far he had to go.”
“Too many people are dying from cancer all over the country. Many young people are dying just three to six weeks after being diagnosed, at very short notice. Young mothers and fathers are leaving behind young children at such short notice. Blood tests going back even for 12 months do not seem to have shown up anything in many people. Then it is too late when the cancer is detected. People are asking if a high-level investigation could be carried out by senior medics to see if there is any connection between Covid vaccines and the fact that blood tests are not showing up cancer until it is too late. I ask that this be done.”
“I will say it again to the Government; it is taking in more and its expectations regarding the tax take have doubled over the last number of months. At the same time, it was so slow to react to the protestors and the people who were outraged that the prices at the pumps were going up each day. I told the Government that in this House on 24 March, when it offered 3 cent on green diesel and home heating to the people. It offered 3 cent and 2 cent per litre, when it was costing people 70 cent or 80 cent more per litre. At the same time, it was able to give €40 million to Ukraine and €125 million to Zelenskyy when he came here. The Government put the country down for the almost €2 billion that it borrowed for that.”
“I have stated in the House several times that there is no sign of a regulator. Every day since Bord na Móna closed, the cost of electricity has gone up. People in Kerry are outraged at the amount of money they are paying for electricity. Especially businesses cannot keep going and with commercial rates on top of that, people are being driven out of their long-standing businesses that have been operating even in Killarney and in places like Castleisland, Currow and Cordal. In all of those places, shops that were there forever, going back ages, are closing. They are gone now and more of them are set to go because the rates have gone mad. The demands that people are getting for commercial rates are totally outrageous altogether.”
“I thank the proposers of the motion. I am delighted to get the chance to talk about the cost of living. The increased cost of living is in everyone's mouth, and everyone is saying that their wages are being eroded by the cost of living. I believe the main driver is the cost of fuel and energy. For every litre that is purchased, more than half of the cost, approximately 95 cent, is going to the State coffers. There is room for manoeuvre. It is time to get rid of carbon tax, full stop. Fuel is dear enough. I want to talk about rents. People are out of their minds about the cost of rent. In most cases, the Government is taking 52% in tax out of each person who is renting a property just to provide a roof over their head. Businesses have to deal with the cost of electricity.”
“I said 1740, not 1840. There were two famines. There was the second one that the Deputy is talking about with the potatoes. The 1740 famine was created by rain that never stopped falling for two years. Those are the facts and that is the truth.”
“We could be doing a lot better and a lot more in respect of the cost of energy. We have oil off of west Cork and gas off the Kerry coast. We are not being allowed to tap into either. If we bring it from the nearest point, the poor people at home will pay for it. It is time we copped on and listened to other people, because there are things other than climate change that need to be addressed. It is fine if everything else is sorted out, but people are being driven into the ground with the cost of living. No matter how much they earn, they have nothing left for to pay for houses and for the energy to heat them or for the costs related to getting to work.”
“At least we will have it. If people can come forward with other ideas for creating energy, they should please do so. No one here is stopping them from doing that, but do not make people pay any more for energy than what they are paying for it at present. It is going up by 16% and 18%. Then, just to prove that there is no regulator, some other company dropped it by 12%. There is no law or order in the regulation of the cost of electricity at present. The poor people who go on the road in the mornings are paying a massive amount as a result of carbon tax being added to the cost of fuel. Those people go out on the roads to get to work or to deliver stuff in lorries, whether it is materials for housebuilding or foodstuffs for supermarkets, and it is costing them massive money.”
“We narrowed a national secondary road a while back. As Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae said at a recent meeting of Kerry County Council, we have made a bohereen out of the national secondary road that starts off in Killarney and goes around the Ring of Kerry. Two vehicles of any kind cannot pass each other on that road now without their wing mirrors striking each other. That is what we have done in the name of climate change. These are the ridiculous things. I especially want to recognise the fact that Shannon LNG has been given the green light after so many false dawns. Many individuals and companies have put so much money into that over a number of years. Those involved invested €60 million in it. That was money that people were prepared to put into it and that they had worked hard for. They saw that this was a way of helping our country.”
“It is a fright to God to think that old people are afraid to put sods of turf on the fire. At the same time, bombs and drones are going off every day and lighting up the skies in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia. We are telling people here that it is wrong to be burning or cutting turf. We have gone stone mad out of our minds altogether when we are telling the people those kinds of stories. In case that the Deputies do not know it, people are talking about climate change and all the money that is going into it. We are narrowing roads for the sake of climate change. We are widening footpaths and building cycleways. No one is cycling because after they travel a few hundred yards or a mile on these cycleways, they must go onto an ordinary and narrow road to get to their homes. That does not make any sense.”
“It will mean a lot of employment and help to encourage people to stay in Kerry and Clare and, more important than anything else, to stay in our country and to vote confidence in it by staying here. We need other options for energy. Until we have enough wind power and ways of storing the energy that is created by wind turbines, we need an alternative in the meantime. People are under savage pressure. Members of this House cannot say, on the one hand, that the cost of living has gone up and, on the other, ask what the Government or anyone else is doing about it. The cost of energy is the cause of all the trouble. People on the roads are buying petrol and diesel. People at home are buying home heating oil and gas to keep themselves warm. People are entitled - this generation is as entitled as any to stay warm.”
“Humans could not be blamed for the activity that changed the weather. A lot of people would want to realise that. A report has come out from some scientist in Europe. I do not see the Government coming forward with it. It depicts that a lot of what the climatologists are saying is wrong and that the figures they are going on are totally and absolutely wrong. I will bring that report to the House as soon as it is put into my hands. I do welcome, after many false dawns, that Shannon LNG will get the green light to move ahead. That will mean a lot for Kerry, especially the northern part of the county. It will also mean a lot for parts of Clare that the Minister of State represents.”
“In the 12th and 13th centuries, it changed from warm to cold. In the 15th and 16th centuries, massive amounts of rain fell. In the 1740s, we had a famine. A third of our people were wiped out because it never stopped raining for two years. There were no combustible engines at that time. There were far fewer cattle. In 1896, 12 acres of bog were washed down 12 miles into the lakes of Killarney from Gneevgullia and blocked every bridge on the way down. In the 1890s, there were 11 men in a field in the Clydagh Valley making up hay. Before they knew what they were, they were all washed down the river in a flash and into the lakes of Killarney. Those are true facts. There have been storms and nights of big winds at all those different times. I have the dates. They are facts. There was no human intervention at that time.”
“The Sweeney's in Kilgarvan generated their own electricity back in the mid-1930s, and the O'Shea's in Kenmare generated it for the town of Kenmare around the same time. We are not allowed to go near a river to do anything like that now. We cannot do anything like that now. What is happening here in case people do not know is that for the past number of years, we have been buying gas at its dearest price, because it is only coming from one route, from north east of us. That is why we are paying more for electricity. The other reason is that we have an energy regulator that is not accountable. Talking about climate targets, I know and many people know, although they are afraid to say it, that no matter what we do on this Earth, we will not change the weather. The weather has been changing for centuries.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to welcome that Shannon Energy has got approval to bring in and store gas, and to give us another option. We have a duty to the taxpayers and the people in every county, including Kerry, to deliver energy to them at the cheapest rate possible. I have said here to the Minister of State on many occasions that since we closed Bord na Móna, the cost of electricity has gone up each day. The worst mistake that any Government made was to close it down in one go before we were assured that we had enough energy options, such as more wind turbines or whatever it is. We could be deriving more energy from our rivers. We are deprived of and stopped from doing that.”
“It would not be a day's work to dig them out and order concrete and a few steel bars to build them up again. They will go off in a couple of days and people can start afresh. A house has to have good foundations when starting out. There is no point in taking chances and saving that amount of money. There is more time spent talking about them inside here and in that time a lot of them could be fixed. The people are worried. They have children and they are worried what will be the end of all this. Some of the houses have been done, but there are a lot more to be done. For God's sake, will the Government come out and sort it for once and for all? It is no bother for me to support the people of Donegal, but we should not be having to do this day after day.”
“Building a home is the biggest venture that a young couple will ever put themselves through given the cost and worry involved in getting it up. It is terrible for people to find their homes are falling asunder like they are. The faster this is remedied, the better. I welcome the people from Donegal to the House. I know they have plenty of other things to do. It is a priority for them to ensure that the people with defective homes in Donegal are sorted out. When Bridie Gallagher sang a song about the homes of Donegal, we never envisaged that this would be happening to the homes after she sang that song that so many people were glad to listen to. The Minister of State should not put the people through having to come in here again. If it is down to the foundations and that is all that is at stake, just dig them out.”
“I am glad to say a few words in support of Charles Ward's motion. He has raised it many times inside here since he was elected, as others have done. I cannot understand how this is taking so long to resolve. There has been quibbling about the foundation. It is only a day's work to put in a foundation. Often it is done much quicker than that if the concrete came - proper concrete - and it is organised on time. Something must have been lacking with Government regulations or if there was a regulator. Like all the regulators, maybe he did not want to be seen at all. For any regulator we are depending on, there is no account of him. He is either asleep or gone missing because all of the regulators we have are being paid for doing absolutely nothing.”
“Every dentist cannot be wrong. They all have the same story - it is not paying them to do it. We are not coming in here and making this up. I am telling the Minister of State the God's gospel truth. Every day and every week, we have people in our office looking to see can they get a tooth pulled, but they cannot find a dentist who will take the medical card. That is the gospel truth. I am asking the Minister of State, for God's sake, to do something about it because it is time he did.”
“I ask the Government to do something about funding the dentists properly to ensure these people can get treatment locally rather than travelling outside the county of Kerry. The Minister of State knows the effort to travel outside the county of Kerry and if you live in a place like Dingle or Cahersiveen, you have to travel two hours before you get to the county boundary to go to Limerick or Cork. It is not right. We have great dentists in Kerry - very good, professional people - but they cannot afford to do teeth extractions, not to mind fillings, for what they are being reimbursed by the HSE. What is the HSE doing with the funding? Is the Minister giving the HSE enough funding? This is what we need to ask. If we are, then what is the HSE doing with it because it is not giving it to the dentists? There needs to be a re-evaluation.”
“It is some distance from Kerry but I cannot say where it is because they would be overpowered with people coming to them and maybe then, they would not treat my patients. This is terrible. John Reilly, the publican across the road from us, was a great man to summarise things. Any of us know children have trouble with teeth coming but he used to say, they are trouble coming and trouble going, that is the story with teeth. People have a lot of pain. When a person is in pain and a tooth needs to be extracted, if they have a medical card and do not have the funds to pay for an extraction themselves, surely we should be able to do that for them. Any person in pain, whatever pain it is, it hurts them and drives them crazy. A toothache would drive you insane, out of your mind with pain when it goes on for days and days.”
“It does not work because the medical card does not cover the cost. Is the Government giving enough to the HSE? Are we, as taxpayers, giving enough to the HSE to pay dentists properly? They cannot all be wrong. We have great dentists in Kerry, including Killarney, but they say it does not pay them and they have to put on more staff to cover public patients but the money they get to do it does not cover them. That question needs to be addressed. Does the HSE have the money? Is it going elsewhere with it like it is doing with a lot of other things? That question needs to be answered. Many elderly people have to travel outside the county. I found two dentists - I believe they are both elderly - who would take patients and have taken the patients from Kerry.”
“They do not go out in the evenings, at 16 or 17 years old. They felt they did not look right and they should look better. They were waiting for this treatment but they did not get it. I do not know if the Minister of State is listening to me but he would want to listen to me about this. Maybe he will listen to other Deputies. We all have the same story. There is something wrong. Children are not getting the treatment they should get at 12, 13 or 14 years of age. When they go beyond that, they are gone beyond the time the braces and the work would have any genuine effect on their problems. Not all parents can afford to pay for dental care. It is extremely costly and a lot of parents cannot afford it. This has life-long adverse effects on children. I cannot find any dentist in Kerry who accepts the medical card.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this serious and important motion to the Chamber this evening. I have encountered many people looking for orthodontic treatment for their children as well as elderly people looking to get seen by a dentist when they only have a medical card. More than 2,000 people, mostly children, are waiting for dental and orthodontic treatment in the south-west region, Cork and Kerry. Deputy Michael Collins came at it from his side. Children are waiting for braces for more than two years. We all know if they do not get the braces when they need them, children can outgrow the possibility of the braces ever working or having the desired effect. I dealt with a number of young girls who lost confidence and would not leave their rooms. They barely go to school and after school they have no interaction with their friends.”
“-----that Kerry people can travel to this match. We are playing Tyrone on Saturday at 6.15 p.m. It is not a great time for Kerry people who will be trying to get home, maybe leaving Croke Park as late as 9 p.m. I ask that enough trains be put on for that event to make sure the people of Kerry can get up there and get back home again. I have to say to the Minister it is unfortunate Kerry people and elderly people cannot watch this massive game on TV when RTÉ got millions of euro - it got €725 million - to keep it floating, the very same amount the people of Ireland got-----”
“For both Kerry and Shannon, which is a regional airport with a long and great tradition, more needs to be done to help the mid-west. Many of my uncles and aunts travelled through Shannon coming and going to America. Four of them made their lives over there - my father's brothers and sisters. It was through Shannon they had to go when they were coming and going to America. Likewise, we are very close to Cork Airport but Kerry is the one we support and we ask the best for it all the time. There is an issue this weekend. Kerry people may be disenfranchised if the Minister does not do something about the trains to ensure - I hope he is listening to me-----”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this Bill. There has been a lot of talk about Dublin Airport and the cap. I know residents are concerned about it but Ireland has to move on. We need to open it up a bit anyway, give some relief there and give the operators like Michael O'Leary, who has been making a lot of sense about it, a chance to keep their flights and their business going. Until Ryanair came along, it was very expensive to travel in and out of this country. At the same time, I ask that Shannon and the regional airports not be forgotten, starting with Kerry Airport. It is very important to us. The more flights we can get in and out of Kerry, it would be a great help to people in Kerry who need to travel for work and many different things.”
“I am very concerned that we might in some way hurt the users of legally held guns in the countryside for the protection of farms and their livelihoods.”
“All parts of Kerry are completely overrun by deer. If we were to hurt those who are trying to keep the numbers down - we really appreciate the great work they are doing - it would be very wrong. I believe we have not had enough debate on this motion and I am very concerned about it. We all know the great work the gun clubs do and they are completely above board. I am also worried about the change relating to lead bullets and that this would in some way speed up getting rid of the lead cartridges we have had for years and years. I am very concerned about how little debate we are having on it this evening. As I said at the start, we are all worried about drug lords, the use of guns and the deaths especially here in the capital and also in other parts of the country.”
“I, too, wish the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, the very best in her new position. I am concerned. Every one of us would support the objective of protecting people from the threat that guns or illicit firearms pose to people’s lives. To reach this general objective, it is important to reduce the number of illicit firearms and the activity of the illegal firearms market in the EU, to reduce the discrepancies between EU member states, to harmonise firearms-related offences and penalties across member states, and to enhance the overall picture of the threat posed by firearms by improving the availability and quality of data. However, I am very concerned about the ordinary people in Ireland who hold firearms, whether rifles, shotguns or whatever, for the protection of their farms and to keep wildlife a reasonable distance away.”
“Massive amounts of taxpayers' money are being spent to address this issue, but it will fail because it is not possible to change the weather. No matter what we do here, we do not have the power to change the weather. We cannot do lesser things or things closer to home or to the needs of the people. We cannot achieve those things. I will just mention one thing. We do not have enough houses for the number of people coming into the country and the way our population is exploding. Then there is this carbon tax. People are being charged massive amounts of carbon tax. Farmers should be completely exempt because they are sequestering more carbon than they are emitting. Growing grass sequesters carbon. They are planting hedges and trees, and they are sequestering more carbon.”
“With all these ideas that the Government has about the climate, I honestly say that no human being here can have any effect in changing the climate and never will. We have the highest ESB charges now simply because we are told we cannot buy turf or burn fossil fuels, yet Germany has opened two new coalmines. It is in Europe as well. I wonder what the Minister will say about that. In 2019, there was a vote here on the targets for 2030. I believe I was the only TD who voted against those targets at that time because I knew then, as I know now, what it would mean to hard-working people. It would put pressure on them financially. This is what the Government is trying to do now in every sector because of climate change.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this topic, even though I have only a couple of minutes. I could talk for a whole day about it. I do not agree with many people here. The climate is changing but the climate has always changed. It is not man-made. We are not causing it here on this Earth. The climate changed back over the centuries, and those are the facts. History will show that to us at different times. We had periods of severe cold and severe rain. A famine in the 1740s was caused by two years of incessant rain, when one third of our population and most of our cattle and sheep died. If we all walked off the island of Ireland today, it would only mean a difference of 0.13% of 1% in the whole worldwide context. That is another fact.”
“No one knows or could imagine how much they would contribute to the world and to their families and the difference they could make. Too often, I see couples who fail to have children. Would it not be nice if they could adopt a child if the mother does not want to hold onto it? I cannot vote for this Bill. I could never consider doing so.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to talk on this. I cannot support Sinn Féin's Bill nor did I support the Social Democrats a week or so ago. It is my firm belief that the birth of a child is a wonder. It is better than anything. The child is entitled to the right to life, like we got a chance at it. On this three-day wait, it surely is not much to have to wait when the birth of a child is at stake - a human being who has a right, once they are conceived, to be born and to live. Three days more cannot be that much and it could save the life of the child, and it has done so. A girl or a woman should get a few more hours to reflect on it and to look at options other than destroying the life of a little baby, a boy or a girl.”
“In the context of the costs we have today with other things, that is a minimal amount of funding. I do not know how that can be effective or adequate. A total of €3 million in capital expenditure has also been allocated for the building of an IT system necessary to connect to the EU decentralised IT system. I must make way for my colleague, Deputy Carol Nolan.”
“It should not be down to goodwill as to whether they give the evidence or not. It should be mandatory that they give it. I am just talking about drugs and the desperate situation that we have in our country at the present time. We know the Garda is doing very good work in apprehending big amounts of drugs but that only tells you the amounts that are getting through. The disruption caused and the harm they are doing to our youngsters is terrible. More and more cases depend on electronic evidence, so any improvements in this process is welcome if it ensures criminal investigations can be progressed in a timely manner. My concerns, however, relate to the total cost of implementing this and running it each year. So far, the financial implications amount to a budget allocation of €73,000 for pay costs in 2026.”
“It needs to go further than that. We need to have the same co-operation with countries outside of the European Union. Every one of us here knows they are coming from every part of the world. My worry, as I have said to the Minister here before, is our exposure along our coast. In many places even Kerry, we no longer have Garda stations. I worry, and many people worry, that drugs are coming in along the shore at night when they know nobody is monitoring or knows what is going on. We need more surveillance for that reason alone. That is a very important reason. We know the existing means to get the electronic evidence needed for criminal investigation is slow and complex, and depends on the goodwill of service providers. When we are in the vein of apprehending criminals, we should not be impeded in any way.”
“I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. I welcome the introduction of this Bill which will ensure that electronic evidence needed for criminal investigations can be requested by law enforcement from service providers. What I am thinking about is the apprehension of drug lords who are ruining our society and causing so much mayhem in families. We see youngsters committing suicide and the disruption of families. As I said, the mayhem it causes is terrible. I support any way that we can apprehend these people rapidly because they have our society completely ruined. It is happening in most rural places, villages and towns, and of course our cities. The effect it is having on family life is desperate. In relation to international co-operation, is this only with countries within the European Union's jurisdiction?”
“Garda vetting is an important process to ensure the safety of children in many settings, such as schools, creches and sports clubs and, in the case of bus drivers and escorts, school buses. It takes at least three to seven weeks in some instances to get Garda vetted. Could this process be streamlined? Many people find themselves having to be Garda vetted three or four times if they are driving a school bus or working with schoolchildren, even as a volunteer. People working in creches have to do it if they want to work in different creches. Going back to the school buses, I could have a driver who is Garda vetted but cannot drive for the fella down the road who might be stuck for a driver of a morning because he would need to be Garda vetted for that person as well.”