Denise Mitchell
Dublin Bay North · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“It is because she is a lone parent caring for her daughter who has high support needs. She fears that while she is recovering, she simply will not be able to care for her daughter. These are the kinds of choices people are being forced to make.”
“I welcome the motion. Many families in my constituency contacted me ahead of this debate. Listening to their stories, it is clear they go above and beyond for their sons and daughters. Many of their sons and daughters have moderate, serious or profound intellectual disabilities.”
“One of the best ways we can address the cost-of-living crisis for families with young children is to bring down the cost of childcare and make it more accessible. In my own constituency of Dublin Bay North, we have a lot of new housing estates with young families and the waiting list for childcare places is simply huge.”
“SIPTU's report found that 86% of early years educators identified low pay as their biggest issue and two thirds also raised the problem of extra pressure due to staff shortages and stress. Everybody in this House will agree that the people we entrust to educate and care for our children should feel valued and that starts with fair pay.”
“As has been said, this is a fantastic school. It serves a disadvantaged community. As has been said as well, 40% of the students in the school are from the Traveller community. This school has children attending from Darndale and the wider community around Priorswood. The decision that has been taken, therefore, is absolutely ridiculous.”
“I am frustrated by the Minister of State's response. St. Francis school was mentioned only in the last two paragraphs that he read. I cannot understand how the Minister can award a school DEIS plus status and then, on the other hand, remove a teacher. This was resolved in 2020, and the five TDs here are asking her to do so again.”
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“All this can be done in a matter of weeks and at a cost of up to €1,000. It tells you how desperate people are if they are availing of this option. Waiting times must be addressed as a matter of urgency. Clearly, we need more capacity. That means more driving test centres and more permanent testers. What is happening is having a hugely negative effect on families, workers and students so can we finally have a degree of urgency in respect of this matter?”
“During that period, her workplace had moved back from allowing people to work remotely to having them on site four days a week. The fact she could not drive and had to take two buses instead added an extra ten hours to her commute each week. That is completely unacceptable. If there is a surge in demand for services such as driving tests, it is the Government's job to provide additional resources. It is really not that difficult. This is merely another example of poor planning and poor management, and it has been dragging on for years. We are even seeing companies popping up that are facilitating applicants taking driving tests in countries like Georgia that have short wait times and that allow tests to be taken in English. When they pass the test, they can exchange their licences for Irish ones.”
“The delays relating to driving tests have been going on for far too long. What is happening is causing huge stress for workers and is resulting in some having to turn down jobs or delay their starting dates while others, including college students, have longer commutes each week. When these delays started to become a serious problem a few years back, the excuse was that the backlog was due to Covid. That does not wash any more. The delays at the Raheny test centre in my constituency have jumped from 20 weeks in January to 32 weeks now. One constituent applied for a driving test in July of last year. She was informed that her test would take place in November. It was then pushed back to this month. That is a ten-month wait for a test.”
“On top of that, the staff in the sector are mostly women. It is no surprise that a sector consisting mostly of women happens to be one in which staff are underpaid. The programme for Government gives a commitment, for the first time ever, to public provision in this area. It promises to build or purchase State-owned childcare facilities. That is a huge step forward but we need to see the action plan urgently. We need commitments on a timeframe for delivery. The situation cannot be dragged out any longer. An affordable, accessible and high-quality early years sector benefits everybody. Delivering it needs to be a priority for the Government in this term.”
“We all want to see an early years sector that works for society. We want educators to be paid fairly. We want enough capacity to ensure children get places in their local community. We want to see childcare fees that are affordable for families. To do all that, we need the State to take the lead and not just leave it all to private providers. In my constituency of Dublin Bay North, we have seen a lot of new homes being built, which are mostly filled by young families. There is then a scramble to secure childcare places with local providers. Some providers in my area are charging parents €800 as a deposit for putting their children's names on a list. The Minister will agree that is outrageous. As we all know, the majority of caring falls to women. Where a parent needs to give up a job to look after a child, it is mostly women who do so.”
“I move: That, pursuant to Standing Order 205, the Bills which lapsed on the dissolution of the 33rd Dáil and are set out in the Schedule to this motion, shall be restored, at the stage specified in the Schedule below and notice of them shall be published pursuant to Standing Order 37.”
“I was on the protests, marching with communities who faced down these charges. I have no doubt that any attempt to backtrack on water charges by the Government will be met with the same opposition as back then. If the Government is really concerned about conserving water, we need to see investment in our public water network. Leaks need to be repaired and the old system needs to be brought up to standard, but we are not seeing this being done. The reality is that once a blanket charge comes in, it is very difficult to get rid of it and the bill to the household never goes down. This is very simple; if the Minister is not planning to reintroduce water charges, he should support this Bill.”
“The last thing households across this State need, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, is another unfair bill. This proposal by Sinn Féin is very simple. It removes the option of this Government or any future governments to reimpose domestic water charges down the line. It is as simple as that. We all saw reports in the media last month that the Government was examining the possibility of bringing in the so-called excessive-use charge. The Minister was very quick to downplay these reports, but the reality is that the public does not have any trust with this Government when it comes to water charges. This Bill will give certainty. It will scrap water charges once and for all. Like everyone else in the Chamber, I remember the real anger on the streets when previous governments attempted to bring in water charges.”
“That works but it takes resources. I commend the work of the Garda youth diversion programme and urge the Minister to ensure that this programme is expanded and resourced. We all know, from all walks of life, that early intervention works and is so important. To do that, we need more community gardaí who are out and about, talking in our youth clubs and talking to residents and business. In Coolock, for example, we currently only have eight community gardaí whereas in 2015, we had 16.”
“We have also seen the benefit across communities of ensuring that young people have spaces they can socialise in that are accessible outside school hours at weekends and in the evenings and that do not come at a cost. I have noticed, particularly in the context of many of the new estates being built in my constituency, that there are houses but that we do not have communities. We should not have to wait years until we get the community centres, playgrounds and all of the other facilities communities need. Another major problem and one that contributes hugely to criminality is drug and alcohol addiction. Supports and services need to be in place for drug and alcohol addiction. On top of all of this, we need policing that can identify young people who are at risk of offending and steer them away from that path.”
“If we want to divert young people from becoming involved in criminality, we need a dual approach. The first is ensuring young people have proper supports, services and amenities in their areas, that they have hope and that they feel they have the opportunity to meet their full potential regardless of their backgrounds. The second is that we need a community approach that steers young people away from crime. The last thing any of us wants to see is a young person ending up in the courts and going to prison. A criminal conviction can do serious damage to a young person's future prospects. We need the Educational Welfare Service to be given the resources necessary to ensure that children attend school regularly and to support families that need it.”
“I echo what my constituency colleagues said. Will the Minister of State visit the school in order to see the difference between the prefabs to which he refers and what a permanent school building would offer? We need a timeline for the delivery of permanent accommodation. This is not the Minister of State’s brief; it is that of the Minister for Education. We need a timeline for when a permanent school building for this special school will be delivered. The Minister of State needs to be fair to the parents and people in the area. You only need to look up the road to Gaelchólaiste Reachrann, where children have been in prefabs for 24 years on the grounds of another school. Nobody wants to see that repeated.”
“I want to be very clear; we need a special school. We have all been contacted by parents who are having to fight for their children to get appropriate places, and I want to make it very clear that we are all on the same page. The compromise solution put forward by Belmayne Educate Together, which will see a special school housed temporarily in its permanent building, makes sense. Nobody wants to see a special school going in to prefabs. This school can house this special school temporarily in a permanent building while it awaits its new build. We need an explanation as to why this compromise, which is very fair, has been rejected by the Department.”
“We need to see this legislation enacted quickly. In the meantime, as we wait for this to pass through the Houses, it is important to make sure those people are looked after. Those who are waiting for this legislation to be passed need to not wait that long. People are suffering significant financial issues so maybe there is a way we can look at supporting these people while we wait for this Bill to pass. It is really positive to see this Bill before the House.”
“I understand the need to have a specific start date but I put it to the Minister that bereaved partners and their families who are not entitled to that pension are caused real and significant financial problems, whether that be with regard to housing costs, the cost of childcare, or even a parent having to give up their job. I urge the Government to examine the possibility of some sort of mechanism or a group to examine these cases and particularly the cases where there is significant hardship involved. Treoir, which represents unmarried parents, has been largely positive about this Bill but has raised some concerns around consultation. Treoir, of all people, would have better insight into particular scenarios that the Minister or I would probably not consider. Consultation with the group is really very important.”
“I welcome the Bill. The move to address a long-standing inequality in the law is positive. It is a pity that it took a court case to force the Government to make these changes. I commend Mr. O'Meara on taking that case. The loss of a loved partner is the same if a partner is married or unmarried. The grief felt by the family is the same and therefore the rights and entitlements should be the same. It is more important than ever that these rights are enshrined in law for cohabiting couples simply because it is far more common today for couples to cohabit than to marry. I am concerned that the Bill will only backdate payments to the date of the court ruling in January 2024. For years before that ruling, many people found themselves excluded from the widow's or widower's pension.”
“I want to raise the issue of policing. In Dublin Bay North, we have a very fast-growing population and Garda resources are already stretched. In 2019, the then Minister for Justice had a photo op outside Coolock Garda station, during which he announced a new station that would be a regional headquarters and would cover Belmayne, Clongriffin and the surrounding areas. This population is expected to hit 50,000 in the coming years. It is currently covered by Coolock Garda station where Garda numbers have remained stagnant. The number of community gardaí has been cut by half in the past ten years. I want to acknowledge the great work that gardaí are doing in the area. When are we getting the new station? When can the people expect this to be up and running? We are looking for clear answers because we have been waiting for six years.”
“We want to continue to work under the current rules and we want to make sure that local authorities have the staff to process the applications. I ask all TDs in this House to vote for the motion and give local authorities the funding and the flexibility to operate this scheme. This scheme would prevent other families going into homelessness. Please support this motion.”
“This woman's landlord was happy to go down the tenant in situ route, but because of the delays in funding for her application with Fingal County Council, it has now been put on pause for six months, leaving this family in limbo, which is not good enough. Now the Government is restricting who can apply. Single people and couples without children will not be able to avail of it. It also appears that these changes will mean that local authorities will not be able to refurbish homes they buy under this scheme. This reads like an attempt to do away with the scheme by making it totally unworkable. However, this scheme has been proven to work. In the last two years it has prevented 2,500 households from becoming homeless. We in Sinn Féin have made a proposal for funding of the scheme to allow for 6,500 homes to be purchased in a five-year term.”
“The housing and homelessness crisis has been getting worse under successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, so this decision to further restrict the tenant in situ scheme, which has prevented so many people from becoming homeless, is bizarre. On top of these new restrictions, we also have delays on applications going back months because the Government could not get its act together and agree new funding levels and targets for 2025. I will give an example of what these delays mean. A mother in my constituency with two children who has been living in a home for ten years has been waiting since last August to find out if they are going to have to leave their home, the only home those children have known.”
“One thing I know from my years as a community activist is that community policing works. We see this all the time. A community response works. When communities and local organisations have built up relationships of trust with the gardaí, they feel more confident discussing other problems in the area, be it antisocial behaviour, vandalism or more serious crime. We all see that early intervention can make a genuine difference in a young person’s life. May I just ask the Minister of State-----”
“Back in 2019, when the constituency of Dublin Bay North was facing very serious issues with criminality, the then Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, arrived at Coolock with hand-picked Government representatives and told the media he was to build a new Garda station for the region and, indeed, regional headquarters in Northern Cross. Six years later, we still have no Garda station. I ask the Minister of State to get us an update on this. One of the main issues raised in my constituency office is Garda response times. People are often apologised to because there is only one Garda patrol car out in their area at the time in question. That is simply not good enough. Our gardaí need to be resourced with the equipment they need to do their job properly.”
“It is a very challenging time, particularly in Dublin, when it comes to policing and justice. We hear stories every week about assaults and violence on our streets, and people simply do not feel safe. The fact is that we do not have enough gardaí. Back in 2009, in my local Garda station in Coolock, for example, there were 123 gardaí. Today, the number is slightly lower. Between 2009 and now, the population covered has increased dramatically. The Belmayne and Clongriffin population alone is now estimated to be 30,000 and is expected to hit 50,000.”
“Chaith sí an t-am ar fad in prefabs. She is now heading into her second year of university and the students in Gaelcholáiste Reachrann are still sitting in prefabs. How many more generations of students, cé mhéad glúnta eile, have to experience that? Planning permission was given eight years ago but it lapsed. The school applied again and got permission again but there is still no school building. Rinne na daltaí a gcuid. Shiúil siad amach ón scoil. Tá fearg orthu. Rinne an Rialtas dearmad orthu. Since 2013, the Minister's Department has spent €400,000 on new prefabs for this school. That money could have gone towards a new permanent building. Cá bhfuil an scoil bhuan nua? Will the Minister commit to visiting Gaelcholáiste Reachrann to see for herself the conditions that the students and teachers have to put up with on a daily basis?”
“Labhróidh mé leis an Aire faoi Ghaelcholáiste Reachrann i nDomhnach Míde. Cuirfidh mé ar an taifead go bhfuil Gaelcholáiste Reachrann i measc na nGaelcholáistí is fearr in Éirinn. Is scoil í atá tar éis duaiseanna a fháil sa cheol, sa drámaíocht, sa pheil agus san fhiontar. Téann an chuid is mó dá ndaltaí go dtí an tríú leibhéal. Thosaigh an scoil le 36 dalta. Anois tá 500 ann ach tá siad ag úsáid prefabs i scoil eile. Níl aon halla, leabharlann ná bialann ag an scoil. Like all parents, when my eldest daughter was in fifth class, we went to visit different schools in the area. We picked Gaelcholáiste Reachrann. One reason for this decision was that there was talk of a new school being built soon. Like so many other students, my daughter has gone through the whole of secondary school being taught in prefabs.”
“Our team published a fully-costed five-year mental health action plan. All of us in the House are interested in ensuring people get their treatment in a timely fashion and we all agree people should be able to reach their best potential. We want to work with the Minister of State and the Government to make a real difference in this area. I am hopeful and I really hope the Government and others will stop the talking and get down to action to deliver for people who are really in need.”
“I am sure we are going to hear a lot talk again about the progress that has been made on the provision of mental health services, yet compared with five years ago we still have fewer CAMHS inpatient beds. We do not have any extra. What we have more of is children waiting for their first appointment with CAMHS, children waiting over a year and children waiting on psychology waiting lists. I think the Minister will agree the list is way too long. Next week is Irish Eating Disorders Awareness Week and I was pretty shocked to hear we only have three adult eating disorder beds in this State. Between 2018 and 2023 there were supposed to be 20 new beds opened. This never happened so I ask the Minister of State where the extra beds are. As she knows, I do not just come in here to criticise. My party has solutions and we also have proposals.”
“It is very welcome to see the issue of mental health up for discussion again in this House. However, one thing I have noticed over the years of being in here is that there has been a lot of talk about mental health and very little action. Plenty of people are sick and tired of the talk. They want the Government to provide the services that they need and that should be in place for them, particularly in a wealthy State like ours. They do not want to be stuck on waiting lists for months and months while their mental health deteriorates. In the most recent European Commission report on mental health, 44% of people surveyed in Ireland said either they or their family members had encountered issues when it came to accessing mental health services here. That was the highest in the EU. The most common issue was being stuck on long waiting lists.”
“Who is he listening to? It is certainly not the Opposition, the housing experts or commentators. Nor is it the Housing Commission, which stated clearly that a “radical strategic reset of housing policy” is what is needed, including a large increase in social and cost-rental units. He is certainly not listening to those in homeless accommodation or those who are languishing on housing waiting lists for years. He is listening to the vulture funds who told him they want rent pressure zones scrapped. It is time the Government had a reset in order to make sure we deliver housing for people who are in crisis.”
“By that, we mean building more affordable homes. In other words, homes that are affordable for ordinary workers. The Government's actions have benefited the developers time and again. They have inflated already high house prices and left renters out in the cold. My colleague Deputy Ó Broin produced the most comprehensive plan ever from an Opposition party. It sets out precisely how we can ensure that we have enough homes – private, affordable, social and cost rental - but the Government did not want to know. Instead, we have had Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael spokespersons in radio and TV studios gaslighting the public on how many homes were being built. They could not even own up to the fact that they were nowhere near the Government's already low targets. It appears that somebody in government is listening. I refer to An Tánaiste.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this very important motion. For years, the housing crisis has been the defining crisis in this State. It has left thousands of single people and families, including children, growing up in emergency accommodation. It has seen huge numbers of young people leave our shores to live in Australia, Canada and elsewhere because they feel they will never be able to own a home of their own or start a family here. It has disrupted the lives of so many people across society. During this entire time, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have completely and utterly failed to get to grips with this crisis. The Government has made the crisis worse with its plans failing year on year. Those in opposition, housing experts and many others have been telling the Government that a radical reset of housing policy is needed.”