Dee Ryan
Nominated by the Taoiseach · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“Employers cannot take on people unless they have a car because their particular place of employment is not serviced by public transport. Workers are frustrated that they cannot get to work on a bus. They would like to be saving some money with the cost of living by using public transport.”
“Having heard my account of what is going on the ground in Limerick, the Minister of State will understand why I am really disappointed with that response. The NTA will be publishing an implementation plan by the end of this year. Is she joking me? What in the name of God is going on in the NTA? Clearly, it has no interest in Limerick.”
“I am nearly even afraid to say it out loud but in the last month, I have heard that it could be 2030, which is unthinkable. Can the Minister of State please tell us what is holding us back and the reason for the delay? Has the local authority completed all the works it needs to do to run the system?”
“I am out on the doors in Limerick every week and frustration with the public transport service in Limerick comes up everywhere and repeatedly. I have parents complaining that they cannot give their teenagers a little bit of freedom and let them off to go somewhere on the bus, so they have to play taxi.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take my question. She is very welcome. I am standing here to ask her if she can, and I really hope she will be able to, clarify for the people of Limerick what is going on with Limerick BusConnects.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that excellent update. It is great to hear that the Department envisages that the pilot will be live before the end of this year.”
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“We estimate that approximately 20,000 adults are living at home with their parents in Limerick city and county and there are approximately 500 individuals living in emergency accommodation in Limerick. This is a pressing issue for us. It is crucial, therefore, that where the State owns land and has responsibility for the delivery of those homes, those projects are fast-tracked and delivered as quickly as possible. I ask the Minister to make inquiries, as I have done, on the status of a very important project for new home delivery in Limerick, that is, the partnership between the Land Development Agency and Limerick City and County Council to deliver 181 homes in Mungret for affordable purchase. This very welcome and much-needed project is particularly significant because planning has already been granted for the development.”
“It is crucial to raising the level of delivery and achieving the numbers we need that private investors come into the market across the country, not just in Dublin and parts of Cork as we have seen to date. The State alone will not be able to fund or build all the homes we need in Limerick. It is estimated we need more than 2,500 new homes to be built per annum in Limerick. While the numbers are going in the right direction - in 2022 circa 800 new homes were built in Limerick, circa 800 new homes were built in 2023 and in 2024 the number rose to 1,000 new homes being built - the numbers fall short of the 2,500 new homes we require. I thank the Minister for his focus on that with the different stakeholders in Limerick.”
“It has been very successful in Limerick and it has allowed us to stem the tide of families being made homeless through engagement with their landlords to purchase the homes, allowing them to continue their residency as council tenants. I thank the Minister for the €15 million of funding going into that in 2025 alone. It is only a combination of these multiple different strategies to activate housing that will see us emerge from this crisis. I commend and acknowledge the significant efforts being made by the Minister's Department, our local authorities and private sector stakeholders to get homes delivered. I welcome the comments on driving and incentivising private investment he made at the beginning of this debate.”
“During those engagements, the Mayor raised and outlined his innovative plans for meanwhile-use of State-owned lands that are due to be developed at Colbert Quarter in Limerick and highlighted the opportunity to bring forward modular homes for people in advance of the phased development of permanent homes on the same site. I thank him for his engagement on those innovative proposals. I know he is open to receiving all types of new ideas that may help in tackling our housing challenge. I look forward to the Mayor and his team following up with the Minister with more detail on how we may take that project forward. I also acknowledge the €15 million the Minister announced this week for second-hand homes to be purchased in Limerick. The acquisition of those second-hand social homes, including under the tenant in situ scheme, is crucial.”
“The Minister is welcome. I thank him for his time in the Chamber to discuss this critical issue. I also thank him for the time he gave last week in Limerick during his visit with the Taoiseach. The extensive, in-depth and candid interview he gave to our local radio station, Live 95 FM, was excellent and is available as a podcast. I also thank him for the time he spent with local councillors to discuss specific issues they raised and for the more than two hours he and the Taoiseach gave to focusing on all matters in Limerick with the new directly elected Mayor, John Moran, at the first Limerick mayoral and Government consultative forum.”
“Unfortunately, the developer has not engaged and seems unwilling to address the safety issue in this interim period before the estate is completed and handed over to the school. A serious hazard persists for the 500 students, who are age three in the naíonra and up to age 12 in rang a sé, and who are walking this route daily, as well as for the children living in the new homes at the Mills in Castletroy. I urge the Minister of State to intervene in order to see what can be done to support the local elected representatives, including councillors and TDs, as well as Senator Maria Byrne and I, who have addressed this matter locally. I ask him to support us in having that route made safe for the students and children who use it.”
“The Mills is a housing development that has been built around the greenway but, unfortunately, the greenway and the pedestrian and cycle lanes there are not clearly delineated for users. As a consequence, cars and vans are driving on the greenway and on the walking and cycling routes between the SuperValu car park and the school. Drivers cannot even be blamed for this dangerous error because there are no bollards to block access or wands or other safety measures in place to indicate to them that they cannot access this route. I have raised this matter with the active travel unit in Limerick City and County Council, which advises that it cannot do anything to address the situation until the estate has been taken in charge by the council. The school and the parents' council have raised the matter with the developer directly.”
“Will the Minister of State outline what can be done to bring forward the work on the junction upgrade and indicate whether there are strategies that might be employed in advance of work on that upgrade being completed? Will he also address similar issues of road safety in other areas in light of the increased busyness of all motorways across the country? The second matter I wish to raise relates to a serious road safety concern for schoolchildren and pedestrians at Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh in Castletroy. I refer to something that makes the Castletroy greenway extremely hazardous and that makes a mockery of the concept of safe routes to school. I have been approached by the school and members of the parents' council who are very worried about the complete lack of safety measures along a section of the Castletroy greenway at the Mills.”
“It is a worrying part of the daily commute for parents dropping their children to school and creche before travelling on to work and for workers travelling from one part of the city, the Raheen and Dooradoyle area, to the Castletroy and Annacotty area. I have raised the issue with both the NTA and Limerick City and County Council. They will be bringing forward plans to upgrade this busy junction at the Mackey roundabout and implement a park-and-ride facility in the area. However, the indicated lands for the park-and-ride facilitate will not alleviate the tailbacks on the motorway. In addition, no clear timeline is defined for the major works that will be required to upgrade the Mackey road junction.”
“The first is an extremely dangerous junction close to the M20 at which lives may be being put at risk. Motorists travelling on the M20 motorway and the M7 motorway at Limerick in the direction of Dublin have raised concerns about safety at junction 28, the Castletroy exit. This is a very big exit serving two business parks, a university, a secondary school with 1,200 students, five primary schools and a shopping centre. There are thousands of people living in the immediate vicinity. During periods of high traffic in the morning and evening, tailbacks at the junction are so long that drivers who are trying to safely exit the motorway are forced to move to the hard shoulder to join the queue to get in the lane for the exit while high-speed traffic - cars, trucks and other heavy vehicles - zooms past. It is an accident waiting to happen.”
“I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for taking the time to discuss road safety in the House. I wish him and his Department officials well in the important work ahead of them in delivering on the ambitious goals in the programme for government. It was an issue of concern at virtually every door I knocked on during the general election campaign. The condition of local roads, the desire and appetite for more speed ramps and the concerns and real fears around speed on our roads were issues that came up time and again, as the Minister of State is well aware. I wish him and his Department officials well in the important work they are doing on our behalf. I want to highlight two specific road safety concerns for people who live, work, study and commute in the Limerick city area.”
“Will the Leader call on the relevant Minister in the Department of Transport to address the House on the critical need for us to update national aviation policy to ensure that regional airports, such as Knock, Shannon, Cork, Waterford and Kerry airports, have the same opportunity to grow and increase their connectivity into their regions and support economic growth and opportunities for the populations in them?”
“The Government has committed to balanced regional development through Project Ireland 2040 and envisages the spreading of economic opportunity, including homes, jobs and prospects for people, throughout our country. Critically for an island nation, air access, in allowing us to welcome both visitors and trading partners into the country and to ship our goods out of the country, is a vital component of that economic opportunity. Unfortunately, Ireland's national aviation policy predates Project Ireland 2040. I have raised this issue with my colleagues in the Government, including the Minister for Transport, and I raise it again today.”
“I raise the issue of the recent disruption at Heathrow Airport and the impact it had on air travel in the UK and right across Europe. The prospect of similar disruption at Dublin Airport, and the oversized disruption that would, God forbid, cause in Ireland, should set alarm bells ringing for the Irish aviation authorities. While Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK, with 79.2 million passengers in 2024, it is still handling only 34% of all air traffic in the UK, whereas Dublin Airport, with more than 34 million passengers last year, which breached its allowed cap as per planning permission granted, accounts for 86% of all air access into the country.”
“I stand ready to support the Minister of State and the Minister in government but I wish to get an update on the HIQA report that was commissioned last year by the then Minister, Stephen Donnelly, on accident and emergency capacity in the mid-west. I wish to discuss the matter further at the next opportunity.”
“When I hear the Minister of State call it all out as he has just done it sounds very impressive but ew were already at a significant disadvantage in terms of hospital care. The efforts made those for have not yet brought us to a par with the rest of the country. Without second emergency department in the region I fear you H will remain overwhelmed and the situation may worsen as the population ages and grows. While patient flow improvements are necessary and while we need more consultants to adopt the new roster, these measures alone, however, will not address the reality of a lower number of ED beds per capita in the mid-west than any other place in the country.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the update. I acknowledge the extensive investment the mid-west received in the course of the previous Government. When I heard the Minister of State call it all out for us, it sounded very impressive, but the mid-west was already at a significant disadvantage in terms of hospital care and the efforts made thus far have not yet brought it to a par with the rest of the country. Without a second emergency department in the region, I fear UHL will remain overwhelmed and the situation may worsen as our population ages and grows. Senator Dee Ryan: I thank the Minister of State for the update. I acknowledge the significant investment the mid-west has received in the course of the previous Government. It is extensive.”
“What immediate strategies is the Minister planning to ease pressure on the emergency department in UHL, which, regrettably, is a factor for us every day of the week and not just at weekends?”
“A surgical hub for elective procedures has been commissioned and given the go-ahead for Limerick. We have seen a 41% increase in staff numbers at UHL since 2019, and a 44% increase in the budget has been given to UHL to deliver services to the people of the mid-west. While these investments are very welcome and much needed, the demographics and population growth projections tell us they will not be enough on their own. I ask the Minister of State to convey to his colleague, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, an invitation to come and witness the crisis for herself and to hear directly from the management and staff in UHL about how bad things are. I have one more question for the Minister of State this morning.”
“Is he aware that UHL stands alone in the country as the only model 4 hospital without a second emergency department in its catchment area supporting it? Is he aware that, of the five hospitals with increased trolley numbers in the country, UHL was the only one that saw a further increase last year and not a decline in its numbers? I acknowledge the progress made in the term of the previous Government. The first of multiple new bed blocks - a 96-bed block - is under construction on the UHL campus and there for all who are passing to see, with further bed blocks planned and in design. Perhaps the Minister of State will be able to provide us with an update on it. Recruitment has commenced for when the new bed blocks are ready to open, which is welcome.”
“We are fed up with constantly hearing for more than a decade that we have the worst hospital overcrowding in the country. As I stand here, I am conscious of the heartache and suffering of families affected by this crisis. In particular, we cannot discuss emergency department overcrowding without remembering Aoife Johnston, whose tragic and avoidable death at UHL must be a wake-up call. UHL is a model 4 hospital. There are nine model 4 hospitals in the country. They are top-of-the-range hospitals, with expertise and facilities to cater for large catchment areas. Is the Minister of State aware that every other model 4 hospital in the country has at least one model 3 hospital with a 24-hour emergency department supporting it?”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. It is great to have him in the Chamber and I thank him for coming to discuss the matter I have raised, which is the chronic shortage of accident and emergency capacity in the mid-west. The situation at University Hospital Limerick is simply unacceptable. The 420,000 people in Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary must rely on one overcrowded and under-resourced emergency department. This morning once again, UHL has the highest number in the country of people sitting on trolleys awaiting beds. The people of the mid-west are fed up. We are fed up with the dangers our loved ones face. We are fed up with the intolerable situations and conditions that our nurses, doctors and other hospital staff are working in.”
“I would like to discuss further with the Minister of State and his Department why this is the case. I acknowledge the support of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, for development in Limerick during the previous term when he was the Minister for housing. We look forward to welcoming him to Limerick very soon for the signing of the contract for the appointment of the new contractors to the Coonagh to Knockalisheen road. This is critical local road infrastructure that will open the whole of the north side of the city for further housing development and for what we hope will be the development of economic opportunities and, of course, critically, it will open the area of Moyross, linking it better into Limerick city and giving it better cycling, walking and road connectivity into the city and beyond onto the motorway network.”
“The port requires this infrastructure, along with the reopening of the Foynes to Limerick railway link for freight, to facilitate the retention of its TEN-T status and to facilitate the development of something we in the mid-west have great ambitions for, namely, the delivery of floating offshore wind generation from the Port of Foynes. It will also allow us to make better use of the increased public transport services being delivered through Local Link and allow our important commuter towns in County Limerick to flourish and develop as we would like them to. I flag this vital infrastructure as something we need to see advanced delivery of. There is talk of not commencing the project, despite it having received its planning approval, until 2026.”
“This omission, therefore, which I have flagged previously and which I am committed to continuing to raise during my term in the Seanad, is putting our local business park, the Annacotty Business Park, consisting predominantly of Irish-owned Limerick businesses, at a disadvantage compared with other business parks and locations for employment in the Limerick metropolitan area. It is an issue I am passionate about seeing rectified. The other issue I raise with the Minister of State concerns some critical road infrastructure we require in Limerick. I am, of course, thinking of the Foynes to Limerick road. It has been planned and approved and we urgently need to see it advanced and delivered. It is a vital infrastructure for the Port of Foynes.”
“It is as plain as the nose on your face that the people working in this business park should have access to public transport as one of their options to get to and from work daily. Equally, the businesses based in the business park, which are predominantly local, Irish-owned Limerick businesses, are actually constricted in their ability to expand their facilities due to our planning regulations which insist it is necessary to have a particular number of car parking spaces where there are no public transport links.”
“I must highlight, however, that there is much frustration felt locally that, during the consultation with the NTA on the plan for Limerick BusConnects, a very important local focal point for employment and an important economic area, the Annacotty Business Park, was omitted from this critical public transport plan for Limerick. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the Limerick Chamber, other business representative bodies and, indeed, many councillors at the time to have the business park included, the 3,000 workers commuting daily to the Annacotty Business Park, which is a stone's throw from the IDA national technology park in Castletroy, several educational sites, housing and important road networks, has been omitted from this plan. I put it to the NTA consultants myself that it is vitally needed.”
“The first is the matter of Limerick BusConnects. I acknowledge the important role the NTA has played in funding the improvement to Limerick's O'Connell Street project. This concerns phase 1 of upgrades to the premier route through Limerick city centre, where we are undertaking much-needed works to facilitate the greater frequency of buses envisaged under Limerick BusConnects phase 1. This work has now been completed. We look forward locally to the councillors and the Limerick local authority delivering on phase 2 of these important works to facilitate the delivery of those buses under the Limerick BusConnects project.”
“I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for joining us today for this important discussion. I appreciate his time. I want to highlight a number of matters critical for us in Limerick. It was music to my ears earlier to hear the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, commit to the next five years being dedicated to delivery. As a Limerick woman, I am pleased to tell Senators we have ambitious and worthy plans to improve our public transport and connectivity across Limerick and the mid-west. We have worked on these in a consultative way with stakeholders, public representatives and our colleagues in the council chamber over recent years and we are very anxious for the rubber to hit the road and to move forward with delivery on these plans. I will just highlight two pertinent ones to the Minister of State today.”
“I believe we will learn a lot and I hope it will be an example that we can roll out to the rest of the country. My colleague, Senator O'Loughlin, highlighted the need for an expanded Judiciary. My colleague, Senator Clifford-Lee, and many other Senators in the Chamber highlighted the need for increased refuge spaces for women and children. I must highlight the urgent need for parallel investment in prison spaces. We need dedicated facilities to meet our growing population numbers and the growing incidence of crime unfortunately associated with that. We need increased investment in youth diversion strategies and increased supports for drug and alcohol addiction. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.”
“We must recognise that policing alone cannot solve these challenges. I am pleased to highlight for the Minister of State and the Minister an innovative programme being piloted in Limerick city. The community access support team, CAST, is a partnership between the Garda at Henry Street and the mental health services at HSE Mid-West to put gardaí and mental health nurses into a squad car, so that after an emergency call is triaged and a response is dispatched, there is both a mental health response and a Garda response in the vehicle to deal with whatever is unfolding when they arrive at a situation. I commend the officers in Limerick who brought forward the initiative. I wish them well in their important work with CAST. We look forward to the results after the trial period.”
“Many of my colleagues have today expressed the need for compassion to be at the centre of dealing with those struggling with complex issues and addiction, which I understand. Equally, however, there can be no tolerance for aggression of intimidation in our city streets. I commend the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, for their no-nonsense, straight-talking approach to tackling crime since taking up office. Indeed, the clear stance taken by the Minister following recent violent and fatal incidents in Dublin sent an important message, but that message must be matched with action. We need increased Garda numbers and community policing in our urban centres and streets. We must ensure that growing residential areas, such as Castletroy, have the policing infrastructure required to meet their growing needs.”
“Significant efforts are being made by our locally elected councillors, our executive, the workers at Limerick City and County Council, our new mayor and a host of other stakeholders in civil society, including resident groups, Tidy Towns groups, cycling groups and pedestrian groups. They are all focused on improving the liveability of our fabulous city centre. Like many urban centres around this country, there has been an increase in antisocial behaviour, open drug taking and drug dealing. It is being done by a small minority of people but in very public spaces. It draws fear, frustration and intimidation from passers-by. This is threatening the positive work being done by very many people.”
“It is home to the National Technology Park, the Annacotty Business Park, a thriving retail and hospitality sector, multiple primary and secondary schools and the University of Limerick, all of which draw in further thousands of people daily. It is a truly vibrant and growing area. In order to support this rapid population expansion and the projected continued growth in the area, we need a dedicated and fully resourced Garda station at Castletroy. I take this opportunity to raise the issue with the Minister of State. I will also raise with the Minister of State the concerns of Limerick city centre residents and businesses. Limerick city is undergoing an exciting urban renewal with significant investment in buildings and public realm improvements.”
“The Minister of State is welcome. I thank him for facilitating this important debate on community safety. Throughout the recent general, local and mayoral elections I canvassed in, people voiced their deep concerns about Garda visibility. Whether I was speaking to young families, elderly residents living alone or business owners in city centres, the message was clear: people want more visible policing in order to feel safe and supported in their communities. I will take this opportunity to highlight to the Minister of State two critical issues for us in Limerick. With a population exceeding 18,000, there have long been calls from residents for a Garda station at Castletroy in the east of Limerick city. It is one of Limerick's fastest growing suburbs and a major economic hub.”