Eoin Hayes
Dublin Bay South · Social Democrats · Ireland
“As this is my final time speaking, I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all of the staff in the Oireachtas, including the ushers in particular who take such good care of us and everybody who makes this place work so well, for all that they have done. I hope that they get a good and well-deserved break.”
“It seems only proper that this new united social protection system would do the following from a principled way: establish a shared prosperity and proper social protection supports to underpin a properly functioning economy and society; ensure that no individual is worse off in a united Ireland than they were under partition; and ensure t…”
“In a united Ireland, the Six Counties' economic future should be a prosperous one, and in that it has to be properly supported and transformed.”
“There are challenges in these principles, challenges of politics and reconciliation most of all, but there are practical considerations as well.”
“While the project of integrating these systems will be significant, it is imperative that we take the opportunities to create a better life for all, North and South, where people do not just survive but are given the means to thrive and contribute, and where a system of public services supports that.”
“In that vision, we will have to give people in the Twenty-six Counties and in the six the confidence that a united Ireland will work for all against poverty, unemployment and deprivation, and that we will challenge these scourges that are felt regardless of community or background, for poverty has no religion, unemployment no flag and exc…”
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“Are we building an economy and society that will thrive on scientific progress rather than eschew it? I thank the Government for making time to discuss this important issue. There have been many positive developments recently, in particular with Ireland joining CERN last month, so I congratulate the Minister and everyone in his Department who worked on that in the hope that it represents a more considered effort to establish Ireland's position as a leading science nation. I affirm my strong support for the development of the sciences in the House.”
“Relatedly, a poor understanding of statistics leads many in the public discourse to poor conclusions and poor critical thinking. A core part of me wonders whether it is a lack of scientific understanding or education that has led us to this point where people can be so easily susceptible to the inaccurate and misleading. Therefore, my major request is for the Minister of State to think sincerely about how our education and public information systems can address this lack of knowledge and understanding and how we can take the time and space to impart an appreciation of scientific thought to young and old like. Are we investing sufficiently in scientific curricula at earlier education levels? Crucially, are we catching older populations up? Are we arming our workforce with the skills they need for the climate action era?”
“We need more scientists, not fewer. We need more engineers, not fewer. We need more technologists and mathematicians, not fewer. Our economy depends on it, but more crucially, our environment and planet depend on it. Other countries, most notably Germany, the US, India and China, have invested heavily in scientific development and it has yielded significant economic and environmental benefits. I am also extremely concerned that scepticism of science has crept into our public discourse and society. I have consistently heard from people in my constituency about such conspiracy theories as chemtrails and weather manipulation by world governments, anti-vaccine propaganda and climate change denial, a belief in things that are fantastical and defy all logic.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on Science Week and the importance of the sciences to our country and to humanity. I first qualified as a chemical engineer, seeking that course because of my love of the sciences and mathematics. That education gave me much understanding of our world. Interestingly, it is helping me to analyse our wastewater treatment and energy systems in my work as a TD and I am proud to be able to bring some insights to bear for my constituents. I am conscious that people with a science education are in a minority in the House, which is not always a bad thing. However, I wonder whether our education system is broad enough to arm all of us with the crucial knowledge of the arts and sciences. I am concerned more generally about the lack of esteem for the sciences in 2025 in our country and in our world.”
“I am also particularly conscious of the fallout for those franchisees. Are there any legal routes for them in recouping the moneys that they spent as a result of the franchisee arrangement they had with Fastway? If the Minister can give clarity on that, it would be helpful.”
“I thank the Minister and his officials for creating a task force for the Fastway workers. I am conscious that we are not just talking about people who are in typical employment situations. We are talking about people who are self-employed, who are contractors and who are franchisees. According to the information I have, about 1,000 people are in that category as opposed to the 300 who were employed by Fastway directly. When we think about the self-employed provision that is available from the Department for people who will never be paid again, who are out of pocket, in some cases by tens of thousands of euro, there is a huge shift in our employment more generally towards the self-employed population. Having appropriate social protection provision for those people is a key issue we need to solve in this phase of employment.”
“How will it be possible to ensure those 750,000 individuated accounts would be treated as a larger pension scheme guided by the State so it will be possible to ensure there will be lower volatility for investment returns for those individuals and the pension provision is secure for the future?”
“That goes to the heart of the question here, which is around the digital literacy of the individuals we are putting into this scheme. I am very concerned there is no plan for what we are going to guide people with in terms of the lump sum they will get at the end of the scheme. For those people in their 50s or 60s approaching retirement age who will get that lump sum, there seems to be no pathway to how they would account for the pension provision or ensure they are not taking risky decisions or making inappropriate use of those funds. There is also a question around the overall structure of the fund and I want to keep an eye on that over the course of its implementation. I completely accept the NTMA could not handle 750,000 individuated pension scheme accounts. There is a question, however, around the pooling of risk.”
“If these fees are charged on the dormant accounts, it will compound the reduction of the contributions the individuals have made. It would be very concerning if this were to be the case here as well. If the My Future Fund mirrors what is happening with the NEST fund, it would create a huge problem for individuals. The fund in the UK currently has a deficit of £1 billion and we have lower economies of scale here. Does the Minister have any comparison with the UK experience and does he understand whether the fees will be applied to the dormant accounts?”
“I thank the Minister. I very much hope the fees will be under 0.1% of assets under management. It would be extremely concerning if they were anywhere near that. My understanding from the Minister’s answer is that the fees have not been detailed, and this goes to the heart of the question of whether the State is adequately prepared to introduce auto-enrolment on 1 January as the Minister said today he would be doing. As it stands, about €100 billion of pensions are in private occupational pension schemes. The Minister is planning on the State mandating a significant increase to that without there being any clarity on the fees for those affected. Importantly, in the UK, about 75% of the accounts of the national employment savings trust, NEST, scheme are dormant.”
“My question is about administration fees and charges being imposed as part of auto-enrolment. My understanding is that these fees have not been agreed or released publicly. I have some reservations more widely about whether it is still the case today that the Department and Government are sufficiently prepared when this scheme goes live, which is just a few short weeks away, as the Minister said yesterday.”
“In this, every party must pick a side - not a leaning, not an incrementalist approach but a deep structural commitment to transforming the State from one that has left too many people behind and instead, to one that lifts people up, supports them to thrive and enables every person - every person with a disability, every carer, every parent, every child and every older person - to reach their full potential. That is who the Social Democrats are, that is who I am and that is who the Government has shown through this Bill that it is not.”
“We promised the electorate major change in the general election a mere 11 months ago and in our first alternative budget, we articulated how we would make many of these structural changes within the first year. Notably, we have proposed a fully funded abolition of the means test for carers. We honoured a commitment in the programme for Government that the Minister did not deliver. It is my view and the view of my party that a society will and should be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable, who it stands up for and how it includes rather than excludes.”
“Rather than giving tax breaks to foreign shareholders, we in the Social Democrats sought to take a higher proportion of their huge profits. Rather than giving gambling companies, banks and commercial property a free ride, we said they should contribute more. We articulated a vision for a Republic that, crucially, lives up to its name. It is often the accusation against my party that we are not serious about governing. Well, here is your proof that we are, making the "hard decisions" to tax banks more so we can protect pensioners from the cold. I would even go so far as to say we are more serious about governing, about reshaping our country for the better, than this current Government.”
“We promised we would extend the parent's benefit, suggesting the largest increase of any party and bringing total paid parent's leave to one year - over one year - per child and we funded it in our budget. We promised to increase parental benefits to €350 per week in our first budget. We were the only major party to suggest increasing funding for the hot school meals programme to make it more nutritious. We committed to eliminating consistent child poverty by 2030 in our manifesto - eliminate it, not reduce it. This Government, however, has set a target of 3% to 2030. To put that in context, that means the Government is aiming at the close of its term to leave over 30,000 children in consistent poverty. That is its stated, explicit aim. Words genuinely fail me to articulate the callousness of such a goal.”
“I have severe reservations the current Government's policies do not keep up with inflation in these areas to ensure people are not worse off next year, when compared to this year or the year before. By contrast, the Social Democrats proposed in one budget, a strong suite of structural, social interventions in the lives of the most vulnerable; the most comprehensive suite of measures put forward by any major party in this Chamber. We promised we would abolish the means test for carers in one year. We proposed that in our alternative budget, one of the only major parties to do so. We promised we would introduce a cost of disabilities payment, again proposed in our budget. We promised we would introduce a second tier of child benefit - costed, proposed and fully funded.”
“It is quite difficult to see the Taoiseach declare this is the year to tackle child poverty and then mere days later, have his Government deliver such a weak policy response, the details of which we now see in this Bill. I am extremely conscious that behind all these facts and figures there are people who are reliant on the support of the State for their living and to combat rising costs. In particular, I am conscious that energy prices, grocery prices and the cost of housing have increased very significantly in recent years, far beyond generalised average rates of inflation that the Government tends to quote. Furthermore, auto-enrolment will have very significant effects on post-tax income for working lower-income households.”
“We understood what the PBO has since confirmed, which is that poverty levels will increase as a result of this Government's budget, as well as the failures in this Bill to address key factors driving child poverty. We understood all of that and responded accordingly. Crucially, we responded proportionately. Our alternative budget set out an €870 million package for tackling child poverty. That is more than double what the Government has set aside. We have completely restructured the approach to deliver a highly targeted, evidence-based policy that will obliterate the scourge of child poverty by integrating the child support payment into a modified working family payment. That is the only rational response - the only humane response - to this problem.”
“Tinkering around the edges of existing welfare payments, a continued emphasis on incrementalism and a total failure to grasp the enormity of the problem and the moral stain it represents for our society. There are in this Bill at least some increases in the income disregard for the working family payment, which I welcome, but there is no substantive proposal here which recognises the enormity of the problem. That is the theme of the parties in government in health, in housing and here in child poverty. The reason we in the Social Democrats have continued to bring up the child poverty issue again and again is because we saw those numbers and we were horrified by them. We understood what those children were facing and what too many families are facing.”
“It is something my party colleagues and I have been bringing up relentlessly since they were published in the summer. I have spoken about it many times and I have brought it up with the Taoiseach. My party leader brought up the figures again on "The Late Late Show" last week and we will not shut up about it. Those figures have shocked us. The amount of money in this country and child poverty has doubled in a year. That is a monumental failure, by any measure, for one of the richest countries in the world. What has been so frustrating about the Government's response is all the hot air, the tones of hushed concern and worry, including in the Minister's speech today. The Taoiseach even took to writing in a national newspaper in the lead-up to the budget to say that now is the time to tackle child poverty. What do we get?”
“By contrast, the Social Democrats proposed to increase parental benefits by €61 per week to €350 to better reflect the enormous costs of raising a child in modern Ireland. We proposed extending parental benefit to 13 weeks per parent, the largest extension proposed in the history of the State by any party. This means that under the Social Democrats, the amount of paid time off for parents would amount to a total of more than one year per child, which would represent a significant milestone in our social policy and how we think about childhood. Importantly, we also sought to include fostering in the State contributory pension. On this side of the House, we may sound a little like a broken record when it comes to the child poverty figures.”
“What Government worthy of its voters would abandon them as the seasons turn and the energy companies hike up their prices, when an election is not looming? The Social Democrats have a different vision. We sought a larger increase to the State pension in fuel allowance. We wanted to keep our elderly warm, well fed and nurtured. Along with energy credits targeting the bottom 40% of households, a huge proportion of which would be pensioners, and a large reduction in prescription costs, we sought to give those who have earned old age the financial room to live it to the full. At the other end of the age spectrum, the Government did very little for new parents, increasing parental benefits by €10 per week.”
“The Social Democrats have always been and will always be on the side of those who care in our society and we will not be found wanting. It is also worth noting how the Government's budget supports the other big vulnerable part of our population, namely, the 800.000 people who are reliant on State pensions. It is the great success of the welfare state that we have taken care of our elderly and older people but I fear this Government has chosen to turn its back on too many of them facing the worst poverty with a €10 increase in pensions, when grocery bill increases far surpass that and a fuel allowance increase of €5 when electricity and gas prices surge to wipe out hard earned savings. There is no relief on energy bills. What well-minded person in our Republic would see an elderly person cold in their home this winter?”
“Furthermore, changes to thresholds for means tests only make weak efforts towards proper recognition of all carers' work. By the Minister's own estimates, he chose to purposefully exclude 30% of carers from carer's allowance. Tens of thousands of people who care for the most vulnerable in our society found no back-up from this Government and will be left wanting. The Social Democrats had a different approach. We put forward a fully costed plan to abolish the means test, bringing those tens of thousands of carers into the social protection system to honour their work for the hard work that it is. Furthermore, we proposed a €15 a week increase to the carer's allowance and carer's benefit - 50% more than the Government - and an increase to the carer's support grant often used for respite to €2,150 per year.”
“As a new TD, it is quite eye-opening to see the level of political commitment in this Chamber and have the experience of sitting here a few weeks ago listening to voices from every party and none speak in support of the Social Democrats motion to abolish the means test, for the Minister to say he would not oppose it and, just a few days later when it came time for Members and parties to deliver their budget proposals, it was noticeably missing. Thanks to the work of Family Carers Ireland, we know that carers are disproportionately affected by social and financial hardship, face increased isolation, stress and difficulty in balancing caring responsibilities with paid employment. Again, a €10 increase in carer's allowance will barely keep the lights on.”
“We cannot penalise the employers committed to employing more people with disabilities on a sliding scale like this. One cannot mention the difficulty of disabilities without also mentioning some of the best of us in our Republic - the carers who do monumental work on behalf of the State to care for some of the most vulnerable in our society. The Government had a choice in this budget to firmly find itself on the side of carers, to support and advocate for them and end the gross unfairness of a system that treats them so poorly. Instead, it mostly ignored and dismissed them, taking its cue from a then Taoiseach in Kanturk.”
“We provided for relief on energy bills and even for the too-long delayed reinstatement and reform of the motorised transport grant and mobility allowance, which went completely unmentioned in this budget despite the promises of the past two years. On the issue of disabilities, I also raise the serious anomaly of how the increase in the wage subsidy scheme is applied, as we heard from Rehab Enterprises, which was alarmed to find that the announced €1.20 increase in the scheme would result in just 55 cent for it. The scheme, if implemented efficiently, is a very targeted economical way of supporting people with disabilities in employment and would allow us to address our embarrassingly low rate of employment of people with disabilities compared with OECD peer countries.”
“As the Disability Federation of Ireland said, people with disabilities will be €1,200 worse off a year next year as a result of this budget. Instead of introducing a cost-of-disability payment worth over €1,000 a year to soften the difficulties, increasing the fuel allowance more to keep up with energy cost inflation, giving relief on energy costs or properly increasing the disability allowance, the Government chose to leave people with disabilities and their families behind. That is not even to mention the means testing. The Social Democrats had the courage. We provided for that cost-of-disability payment and ensured the disability allowance and benefit caught up by significantly surpassing inflation.”
“It would mark a fundamental departure from incrementalism and a shift in the way we treat unemployment and think about our workforce, both employed and unemployed, as essential and productive human capital and, ultimately, as human beings deserving dignity. When I am out meeting people door to door around Dublin, the most difficult situations I encounter are the individuals and families experiencing deprivation as a result of how our Government and society treat people and children with disabilities and illness. Parents are at their wits' end and people with disabilities are seemingly permanently socially excluded by the Government. There was no courage in this Government's Bill to stand up for people with disabilities.”
“We understand the vast majority of people on jobseeker's are using their entitlements to these benefits for a short period and will spend their whole lives contributing to the economy and this country, and while they spend this difficult time availing of their just entitlements, they deserve to live with dignity. That is why our increase to the core rates was 50% higher than the Government's and why, as we stated clearly, such an increase would represent a commitment to moving towards core social welfare rates being pegged to the minimum essential living standard. That has to be the goal for our welfare system. I know the Minister shares that particular goal.”
“Certainly not far enough to keep them out of poverty or deprivation or to provide some basic dignity. Why do we think unemployed and underemployed people should be forced to live below the poverty line? There seems to be a determination in the approach of this Government and, indeed, preceding Governments to only deal in increments. It is an over-reliance on minimal indexing and top-ups if you are lucky and there happens to be an election in a given year, with more generous and cynical splurging. There is always a failure to see the bigger picture, the need for real structural change and a bold vision when it comes to social and economic policy. In the Social Democrats, we think differently.”
“Many, particularly young people, are not unemployed but underemployed, still finding their feet in life while trying to make ends meet. Of those who are not working, huge numbers find themselves in that position for the first time in many years, thrust into a moment of unique precarity and insecurity in their lives through no fault of their own off the back of redundancies or liquidations, which are on the increase, or cruel market circumstance. The core social welfare rates, including jobseeker's, are only increasing by €10 per week in this Bill. I think of the struggling young person already burdened by the housing crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and rising energy bills now finding themselves unemployed or put on reduced hours in hospitality or retail. How far is €10 going to go for them?”
“I strongly urge the Government to consider how it will ensure proper assessment, governance and oversight of the scheme in this Bill as it makes its way through the House. I acknowledge the adjustment in the Bill and the amendment on the Pensions Authority review. There is a narrative, which the parties in this Government have indulged in at times, about jobseeker's benefit and allowance. It is a narrative that is not accurate or fair. That narrative portrays jobseeker's benefit and allowance as luxuries afforded to individuals by a generous State at best, or at worst as a dole payment to people who do not get up early enough in the morning, as a former Taoiseach put it. A great many people on jobseeker's are working. They work part time or in unpaid roles, are transitioning to care work or engaging in voluntary work.”
“Those individuals will see their take-home pay drop by between €300 and €1,200 per month in some of the most significant financial restructuring of personal finances in this country in many years. I am concerned that the Government has not sufficiently prepared for this large societal change. At its peak, the Government is planning to increase investment in pensions to the tune of €4 billion per year, or nearly 4% of the country's private occupational pension landscape, on supporting auto-enrolment, yet it has crucially never commissioned any independent assessment of the scheme. This is deeply concerning; a lapse in governance akin to building a city the size of Limerick without consulting a professional planner, if one were to use the same proportions. It gives me great pause.”
“On the other hand, as important as those real points of difference and rate increases are, we also in our policy, which this Government has completely failed to even consider, tried to begin a radical transformation of the social protection system. Our alternative budget was not one of mere one-upmanship with more resources put into core rates, even though we did increase them. Fundamentally, we tried to address the structural problems in the social protection system with the real, innovative and forward-thinking policy solutions that were so necessary in this country. I am conscious that this Bill introduces some non-financial measures. About 750,000 people will be auto-enrolled into pensions called the My Future Fund in the new year.”
“An itemised list of exactly who this Government has chosen to leave behind - the carers, those facing redundancy, unemployment and underemployment, people living with disabilities and the children living in desperate, degrading poverty. The overarching problems I have with the social welfare Bill are twofold. On the one hand, the increased rates of social welfare payments do not go far enough in themselves to address inequality and the colossal cost of living for people on low incomes. We in the Social Democrats went further in our alternative budget on almost every point in this Bill. We went further by as much as 50% on most payments.”
“It has been a little over a month since the Minister for Finance and Minister for public expenditure stood in this Chamber and delivered to the country this Government's budget for 2026. We heard on that day all about the choices this Government was making - which industries it wanted to give tax breaks to, which boardrooms would be popping Champagne, and which food chains would see bumper profits next year under its watch. We heard all about the great choices this Government wanted to make while the cost of living, energy, groceries and housing skyrocketed. On a quiet Wednesday afternoon a month later, with much less fanfare, we get to the stark reality of the flipside of those choices. Now, we get to the detail in cold, hard print.”
“This Government does not have the same commitment. We need to do so much better. If we do not, we will see an exacerbation not just of loneliness but of all those social costs. Young men will turn to blaming women, immigrants and people from the LGBT community and we will all be suffering from that. History is littered with memories of young men doing harmful things to themselves and others because of these kinds of deleterious effects. I encourage the Government to focus on it.”
“In this moment, as we are coming to the close of 2025, we went through the Covid pandemic, which I think exacerbated the major risks of loneliness for many people. The social media environment is not helping for young men. The housing crisis and inequality in our society have exacerbated the loneliness that many people are feeling, to the point that 40% of 16-to-24-year-olds in this country experience some strong level of loneliness. Marry that with the highest difficulty in the EU of accessing mental health services. I know the Minister of State cares very much about that and she is working hard on it, but we need to do much better. In the context of that, the last Government had an action plan on loneliness and did not deliver it. It had committed to that in its programme for Government.”
“I will discuss an epidemic in this country that one in five of us experiences, which is loneliness. A report recently came out from the European Commission that said that Ireland was the loneliest country in Europe. The effects of that on young men and older men are significant and have far-reaching consequences. The former US surgeon general said that loneliness was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. That is how damaging it is to our mental health and our social health. There is a strong correlation between the loneliness that young men often experience, the antisocial behaviour that sometimes occurs on our streets, and the massive social costs that we see across our country.”
“Despite the efforts the Minister of State has described, I wonder if the Department and the Government are doing enough of the boring hard work of making sure the teachers are there, the lights are on and that schools are well-built, delivered on time and warm along with the new innovative things like changing curricula or announcing the hot school meals programme.”
“The existing faculty do unbelievable work in supporting children in the most unimaginable situations. I plead for resources to be increased as much as possible in that context. I am concerned by some of the operational hurdles the Minister of State mentioned, which many schools in my constituency are facing at the moment. One parent reported to me that a school in Ballsbridge lost 80% of its teaching staff in one year because of the pressures of the housing crisis. Another reported fundraising to keep the lights on and the heat up in the school. There are acute problems in staffing and proper operational supports for many schools.”
“I toured the school with the principal last week. He highlighted plumbing problems, old electrical wiring and other structural works required for the new merger between the girls' school and the boys' school, which share a building but are not connected, up and running. It is a major priority for me to see this school and its students supported by the Department of education and that it gets the capital investment it requires. In the past, this school has also been threatened with losing teachers and SNAs because of arbitrary thresholds on student numbers. In one sense, I understand the logic. Resources must go where the needs are. However, I assure the Department and the Minister that, from my own personal experience, I know this is a school full of children who need more investment, not less.”
“I hope the Minister of State will relay my thanks to the officials in the Department of education for the hard work they do in the prioritisation of capital investment in developments in south Dublin city, which she has just described. My view is that education is a silver bullet. Schools should be palaces. In past centuries, we built cathedrals. I propose that our schools should be the cathedrals of the 21st century. I hope the Government shares that vision. As a son of educators, I insist on no less. I will raise the case of a specific school, which might be illustrative. My constituency is home to some communities that have been left behind for far too long by the powers that be. One of those communities in Ringsend has a national school that is badly in need of capital investment works to upgrade its old 1960s building.”
“Many of the people I represent would like to see a commitment to more secular and non-religious ethos education schools in south Dublin. More generally, I am concerned that the Department of education is not sufficiently focused on wider capital development needs in a broader sense, including sports facilities, canteen facilities, childcare co-location and safe access points for school goers. In particular, there is a severe - I do not use this word lightly - lack of availability of all-weather, properly lit, multimodal and publicly accessible sports facilities for children's teams in my constituency. While I sought last year to have Dublin City Council take a lead on developing such facilities, it does seem the Department of education could play role in this regard also. I would welcome the Department doing so.”
“I recently received emails from concerned parents at that school reporting their children are learning in a small cramped area 1 m from the school's toilet facilities because current building works have not been completed. Despite the school leadership's best efforts, capital investment was not sufficiently forthcoming or properly managed by the Department of education, and I am concerned this happens far too often, especially where prefabs are used as a mediocre replacement for school building works. While the Educate Together schools in Harold's Cross and Sandymount are very welcome, they are, as secular schools, a minority available to parents in my constituency. My view, and the view of many others, is that there are far too few.”
“If this practice is occurring, it would be an egregious exacerbation of social isolation for children already at risk of social exclusion. I must object to its practice in the strongest possible terms and ask the Department to investigate. This is not to say investment in special schools and special school places is not also warranted. It is imperative that we provide the proper and comprehensive educational pathways for each child to achieve their potential. I was delighted last year to see works commence on the Harold's Cross Educate Together school and it was very welcome. However, like many projects run by the State, the completion of works has dragged on far beyond what was promised.”
“This is, of course, their choice but I am also frequently asked by many parents in my constituency why it seems it is their only choice. The monopolisation of second level education in south Dublin by exclusive and often extremely expensive fee-paying institutions seems out of kilter with a progressive republic. I request that the Department further explore the capital development of non-fee-paying alternatives in my constituency in south Dublin. One of the core side effects of the fee-paying school environment is that the exclusivity extends beyond just merely the socioeconomic. I have heard reports recently from many parents of children with autism, and parents of children with special needs more generally, who are not as readily accepted into fee-paying institutions and are instead encouraged to go elsewhere.”
“My constituency of Dublin Bay South is unique in many respects. We are standing in it right now. It stretches over approximately 10 km² in this wonderfully south-easterly corner of our capital. About 125,000 people live here, about 20,000 of whom are under the age of 18, and there are in and around 12,000 families. There is a relatively high proportion of people with no religion or a religion that is not Catholicism. I am giving all this context so the Minister of State can understand some of the unique educational needs in my constituency, which has been a topic raised with me repeatedly by young parents who would like to educate their children in a particular way. It would not be a secret in Irish society that many families in south Dublin choose to send their children to fee-paying schools.”
“Ten years ago this country proudly affirmed marriage equality through a referendum. The LGBTQI+ community in the United States also won equal marriage rights in that same year. I have been deeply concerned by the rising anti-LGBTQI+ sentiment there and elsewhere. One couple in my constituency were married in the United States and are particularly worried that if a state or US court invalidates their marriage they may lose legal recognition or protections in Ireland or in other countries. What happens to those couples if those marriages are deemed void by the state which granted them? Could I get assurances from the Taoiseach and the Attorney General that marriage equality will be upheld here in all circumstances and that the Government will ensure Ireland will be a safe haven for all, even if threatened elsewhere?”