Erin McGreehan
Louth · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“The Tánaiste might have heard that there is a bit of excitement in Louth at the moment. I do not know if anyone has missed it, but Louth is into its first All-Ireland football semi-final since 1957. This is not just one brilliant season for Louth GAA, however. Louth GAA is on the rise and, thankfully, so too is our stadium.”
“Our stadium is becoming a field of dreams for all of us Gaelic lovers and sports lovers in County Louth. The county board, players and supporters are all doing their part and we ask the Government to finish the job.”
“It is great to have the Minister in the House this morning. I very much welcome the opportunity to have a discussion of a practical nature that will solve this issue and have really positive impacts on patients, staff and the wider health service across the north east.”
“The unit's reputation is such that people regularly travel there from well beyond Louth. There were lots of Dublin accents to be heard in the accident and emergency department when I was there last Saturday. They did not even know that Louth was playing on Sunday. It was all about Dublin.”
“There is one significant limitation, however. That is why I am speaking here this morning. It is slowing down or delaying some of the excellent work that is being carried out. At weekends, the X-ray department only operates from 12 noon until 8 p.m.”
“Every patient who can successfully be treated in Dundalk is one less patient for another hospital to treat. Extending X-ray availability across the entire opening hours of the minor injuries unit seven days a week would improve patient flow, reduce waiting times, enhance the patient experience and further reduce the pressure on the emerge…”
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“I thank the Minister of State for her response. The modular buildings, I have to attest, are high-quality buildings, but they are separate to the school. They are not part of the school. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could get one of her officials to visit the Monksland school to see the incapacity in the school when trying to fit the students into where they are working. The principal's office has to double up as an ICT room. They have no staffroom. It really is unacceptable in this day and age that teachers would have no staffroom because it was taken up. What was the staffroom is now a classroom. They are working under huge constraints. The Minister of State referred to the reduced student numbers but these have doubled over the past decade.”
“It is either inappropriate or it does not make sense for them to match up with a sports club to build a hall and to access grants under the sports capital grant. They need the Department of Education and Youth to support them to help them create those facilities. They really want a school that feels like one school and one community as opposed to one building and modular buildings alongside it. It is a fantastic school. I know many of the teachers and indeed I went to school with many of the teachers. The children in there are thriving but I think they can do better under better conditions and additional accommodation.”
“There is no space for teachers to sit to have their break. I believe that staff are often sitting in their cars. Again, growth should be seen as a success story but it has led to hardship. It is not just about the minor inconvenience of this. It is a basic failure to provide acceptable working conditions. The school has no general purpose area. It has no PE hall. That deficit has existed since the building was constructed in the early 1960s. As a result, pupils cannot fully access PE or well-being curriculum requirements, particularly during the winter months when outdoor activity is most unsafe. The crux of it is that we need permanent classrooms, we need a staffroom, and we need a PE and general purpose hall. This applies particularly for those isolated schools that cannot link up with a sports club.”
“That growth should be a success story but instead the school is operating under pressure in conditions that most not definitely need to be improved. A few years ago the school had approval for additional accommodation. Due to delays, however, modular units were installed as temporary accommodation for much-needed and much-welcomed autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes. These were never meant to be a permanent solution to the overall accommodation solutions that are needed for the accommodation shortfall of the school. I fear the Department seems to be treating the school as if its accommodation needs have now been met. They certainly have not. Every room in the original school building is now used for a classroom. There is no staffroom to accommodate 12 teachers and ancillary staff.”
“I thank the Minister, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, for taking this matter. It is great to have her here this evening. I congratulate the Minister on her new position and I wish her the very best of luck in the term ahead. I raise this Topical Issue matter on behalf of Monksland National School in County Louth, a local school to me and just down the road from where I live. I raise this because the same queries could be replicated in many schools across County Louth and across the country that are struggling for space for facilities and for permanent solutions. Monksland National School is an example of how temporary solutions quietly become permanent through the delay and what often feels like a lack of accountability. Like many schools in County Louth, it is a growing school. Enrolment has doubled over the past decade.”
“If we are talking about a regional plan, particularly in the Border region that has been economically disadvantaged over the last century, we need to be a little bit more innovative, potentially with a cross-Border focus to see how we can co-operate cross-Border in relation to those 11 counties across the Border region to make sure we are really benefiting from the capacity and what we have on the Border region, particularly in counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan.”
“I absolutely agree with the Minister of State. It is really important that we look at that inter-county connectivity between the counties in each region but also at how, in this new plan, we can utilise what we have in each area. I refer to our higher and further education institutions and investment in driving innovation and research, not only in the bigger companies and IDA companies but also in our small SMEs to see how we can make them more efficient and support them to scale up.”
“It has strong transport connectivity, a deep manufacturing and agrifood base and a growing innovation ecosystem anchored in Dundalk. Its higher education and research capacity, the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence in Dundalk and the connected health and well-being centre in Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, have positioned Louth as a leader in digitalisation, advanced manufacturing and health innovation.”
“I thank the Minister of State. It is very encouraging to hear all the work that is going into the new plan. The previous plan for County Louth and the rest of the region demonstrated a real commitment to multi-agency co-operation between Government enterprise agencies, local authorities, higher education institutions and the private sector. We see that when they work collaboratively, we get results. I will repeat that Louth, in particular, has unique strategic opportunities that need to be reflected in the new plan. As I said previously, the newest university in the country - an all-Ireland university - will be situated in Dundalk. It is central to the Belfast-Dublin economic corridor. Louth is a most important county. It is in the mid-east and north-east plans, which shows us how integral Louth is.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that overview. As he knows, jobs matter. Our previous speaker, Deputy Fleming, spoke about jobs in Laois. Jobs matter to families, communities and to the long-term viability of each region. I am particularly talking about Louth. Distribution of IDA-supported employment across Louth, Meath, etc., is not just a statistical exercise; it is a test of whether regional development policy is working. It was mentioned previously that IDA companies employed over 4,000 people in Louth. That is a lot of people. It would be great to get an update on the plans the IDA have in Drogheda, County Louth. It has been granted planning permission for construction of offices and industrial spaces. This will be of huge significance to the area and county. Louth sits at the heart of the Belfast-Dublin economic corridor.”
“How many jobs in each county in the mid-east region did the IDA support in 2025? How did this compare with each county in that region in 2020? Will the Minister of State make a statement on the matter?”
“We rightly call on the Government to release all files and be honest about its role in the perpetuating the Troubles. I want guarantees that this State will do everything to ensure justice for the victims of the Dundalk bombing.”
“I join my fellow colleagues in wishing everyone a very happy Christmas. I thank everyone for their collegiality, co-operation and friendship over the year. I also thank our staff of Leinster House who keep the show rolling all year. Tomorrow marks 50 years since the Dundalk bombing that claimed the lives of Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters. Many more were injured. Half a century later, their families still wait not just for justice but for basic answers. Investigations remain but let us be honest: as the Tánaiste knows, this has led nowhere, no one has been charged and we are no further on. The Denton report has highlighted that investigations were not adequate. Garda files were disorganised, chaotic and incomplete. What will the Government do under the joint legacy framework with the Irish and UK Governments to improve the situation?”
“When people are out sick, that brings down the volunteering hours, and these things happen in organisations. I thank the Minister of State for his engagement because this is hugely important. I say this constantly: if the volunteers in Ireland stopped working, the nation would be at a standstill. From Covid to flag days to looking after Ukrainian and other refugees across the country, it is volunteerism that brings us together and raises us up. It is a core pillar of our community life and brings people together. Every single cent is well spent. As I said, 40,000 volunteering hours were contributed in County Louth last year and this was the equivalent of €1.3 million of an investment. I am sure that not even a percentage of that amount was delivered by the Government to volunteering in Louth.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I am glad to hear of the ongoing work and I appreciate he cannot pre-empt the second national strategy. I reiterate that we want to be ambitious about what volunteerism is and can be and to future-proof it. It is not just about standing in a gap, standing collecting money or standing ushering crowds. There are many different skills that we need now, including digital skills for community groups, sports clubs, etc. An incredible amount of intellectual capacity in our communities. If we provide the framework for people to be able to deliver those to community groups, sports clubs, etc., I think we can be hugely successful. I reiterate the need for an innovation fund, for the KPIs and to ensure staffing stability, including temporary cover when absences arise.”
“I am asking the Minister of State to set out how the new national volunteering strategy will deliver fair and transparent resources across all volunteer centres, if it will introduce a standardised national reporting framework with common KPIs, if it will include a dedicated innovation fund to support modernisation, and how the Department intends to ensure staffing stability, including temporary cover, when absences arise. The people running these centres are doing phenomenal work with limited tools. I know the Minister of State has engaged heavily with them. They are delivering far more than their funding suggests. What they need from us now is ambition. This ambition needs to be backed by those resources, clarity and the new strategy that will be implemented. Ireland's volunteer sector is one of our greatest national assets.”
“These are exactly the types of focused, practical support that work. Isolated wins, though, cannot replace structural reform. There is talk about innovation and volunteering is changing. People want flexible roles, skills-based roles, short-term opportunities and digital volunteering options. Centres are eager to pilot these ideas, but without a dedicated volunteering innovation fund, good ideas remain stuck in the "maybe someday" drawer. This is not how we future-proof a sector. Volunteering is not just a hobby for Ireland; it is a core pillar of community life. This applies to our festivals, sports clubs, Tidy Towns groups and local response organisations. Volunteering keeps people connected, develops skills and strengthens local cohesion at a time when this is badly needed.”
“Let us be honest, in that the last national volunteering strategy did leave a lot of gaps. We still do not have unified data tracking despite 29 centres independently collecting their own figures. We still do not have common key performance indicators, KPIs, making national comparisons impossible. We still have not invested in the kinds of modern system that would allow us to capture, measure and communicate the true value of volunteering. When proposals were made, like reviewing the national database or creating shared staffing supports, these did not progress. We need clarity because volunteer centres cannot plan on the basis of guesswork. There have been positives. The Louth Volunteer Centre received €70,000 from the community recognition fund to purchase a minibus, which is something genuinely transformative for outreach and mobility.”
“I appreciate the chance to raise an issue that deserves far more national attention. It is the future of volunteering in Ireland and the need for a national volunteering strategy that delivers for communities and for the country. I applaud my local volunteer centre in Louth. It does incredible work. Our volunteer centre recorded 40,000 volunteering hours last year, an equivalent of €1.2 million in economic value. The team in Louth, like many across the country, is outperforming the investment the State provides. It is navigating staff absences for sickness, or whatever, rising operational pressures and a funding model that does not match the output. Some centres receive significantly higher allocations than others with the same or even fewer numbers of volunteers. This kind of disparity undermines the very idea of a national strategy.”
“By the time the Government launches its pilot scheme for age verification and digital wallets, the damage may already have been done. Damage has been done to so many of our children already. As a parent and a public representative, I am deeply concerned that the horse has already bolted. In Ireland, we see waiting lists for mental health supports ballooning, increasing demands for CAMHS, growing reports of teenage loneliness, anxiety, self-harm and poor mental health. Our children and young people are under unprecedented pressure and now they are being preyed upon by social media algorithms that treat their vulnerabilities as opportunities.”
“Multiple peer-reviewed studies link problematic use of TikTok with increased rates of anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance and lower self-esteem among adolescents. I am sure it is the same for adults. One systematic review concluded that while robust evidence remains incomplete, there is a consistent finding of an impact across studies of youth mental health and well-being. As other members have highlighted, sadly, online discourse leads to horrendous, despicable crimes in real life. Beyond the clinical, there is a feeling that algorithms on TikTok do not treat children with the care we expect for minors. As described by watchdogs, the "For You" feed is designed to funnel children towards content that is dangerous, encouraging self-harm, distorted body image, addictive scrolling and mental health deterioration.”
“Online dangers are not abstract but are absolutely real. It affects us all in our real lives. The truth is that so many treat it as a remote thing, as academic and as someone else's problem but as I said, it is real, and the harm is absolutely happening to all of us, not only to children. I agree with other speakers. The culprit is not just social media but the business model behind it, the personalised, algorithm-driven platforms pushing content to children and vulnerable adults, not because it is good for them or for us but because it maximises engagement, data collection and profit. Bad news and angry voices travel far faster than anything positive. Recent research on TikTok and platforms like it is really stark.”
“I would like the Taoiseach to outline whether the Cabinet committee discussed the cross-Border economy, particularly in counties such as Louth where these issues are felt most acutely. Will there be specific actions in relation to tax and administrative complications facing cross-Border workers, including the differentiations between the pricing of alcohol and fuel between both jurisdictions and the impact of that in the distortion of local trade and the undermining of businesses and broader communities? I support my colleague Deputy Smith in relation to the bombings. I also highlight that it will have been 50 years this December since the Dundalk bombing where people tragically lost their lives.”
“The Minister is absolutely correct. I ask for mental health supports alongside the framework and fertility education and counselling for women who are not ready to have children. I am blessed that I have four children. I bucked the odds. I am eternally grateful my body was able to do that for me. We need that GP training and dedicated research funding. This is an autoimmune disease. In Ireland, we have quite a lot. Women are more inclined to have autoimmune diseases. We probably do not have a test bed because of the island are. We could be doing clinical trials and looking at research funding for endometriosis and autoimmune conditions in women. I cannot tell the House how important it is to move forward - go big or go home. The Minister is improving women's health and families. When a woman is sick in their home, it impacts the family.”
“I am an endometriosis sufferer. It is physically, mentally and emotionally draining. Some days I come into this House and I am in absolute agony. I negotiate how I sit down and I am afraid I am not fit to finish the day. As the Minister knows, our job is demanding. It is people-facing. It feels like a knife-fight is going on inside you quite often. Many women and girls have to tolerate that pain and agony day in, day out. It is chronic and absolutely exhausting. I am grateful for the Minister's work and that it is recognised and that we have a national framework. I feel emotional about it because it is so important. I was diagnosed and I was absolutely alone. There was no space. I am grateful to the Government for recognising women's health is specific and deserves specific frameworks.”
“I am really heartened by the Minister's really positive response because, as he said, culture belongs to us all. It is not just for people who are able to get access or enjoy it. I look forward to seeing the Minister bring that attitude to practical policies and ensuring that all our people can enjoy our culture and cultural experiences because we have much to offer and a lot of people are not getting access to it.”
“Under the national human rights strategy, we have an opportunity and an obligation to really drive forward all those ambitious things mentioned by the Minister. It is about making sure we have an clear and ambitious plan to expand and prioritise capital grants specifically for accessibility upgrades. The Minister mentioned the new capital plan on which the Department is working. So many of our theatres are accessible but they are just accessible. The Minister mentioned disabled artists. We have forgotten about disabled artists in many ways. We need to be ambitious in our plan. Disabled artists deserve rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and stages they can actually use. An Táin is accessible but is it comfortable for disabled patrons? I am not sure, so we need that funding for a really dedicated and ambitious plan.”
“I wish to ask the Minister about his plans to expand and prioritise capital grants for accessibility upgrades in arts centres, galleries and theatres in County Louth and nationally with a particular focus on improving facilities for disabled performers and disabled patrons and whether additional ring-fenced funding will be made available to support essential works such as accessible backstage areas, adaptive performance spaces, sensory-friendly infrastructure and improved mobility access throughout these venues.”
“I am confident she will bring this to a conclusion. I know she is committed to ensuring that families and children finally get the timely and proper care, as well as the answers, justice and decency that they deserve. While none of this is easy, the Minister has the determination to bring it through.”
“Clinical governance has to be tightened, not on paper but in practice. No child must ever again be removed from a list without explanation and capacity must continue to expand so children are treated before harm becomes permanent. I acknowledge the significant structural reform under way. In September, the Minister confirmed her intention to integrate Children's Health Ireland into the HSE. The decision follows careful reflection on the governance structures underpinning our health system, engagement with stakeholders and discussions with Government colleagues. It is really important. During previous contributions, Members spoke about how our faith in CHI had diminished. Finally, I wish the Minister the very best as she takes on this work. This crisis was not of her making but it is absolutely in her hands now.”
“Multiple reviews are under way, which the Minister highlighted them in her contribution. They will be important but reviews alone will not heal the trauma. Families need the truth, they need justice and they need a system that will not hide from the convenient ambiguity of fractured governance. That is why I am delighted at the Government's decision to move ahead with the full statutory inquiry, beginning with the facilitator to scope its terms of reference. It is not just welcome; it is essential. It must be thorough. It must place the voices of children and parents at the centre. We owe parents nothing less and we owe every family living in fear nothing less than reform. Reform cannot pause while the inquiry proceeds. Failures in communications must be fixed. The Minister noted these in her contribution as well.”
“Now families across the paediatric spinal services understandably ask whether this will ever change. I know the Minister is committed to that change, to rebuilding that trust, to ensuring that our children receive the care they deserve. Progress has been made, additional clinics and a ring-fenced theatre, increased activity with 446 spinal procedures this year, reduced lists of long waiters. More children are being seen sooner. These reforms matter. I acknowledge the extraordinary staff who are pushing beyond all reasonable limits every day. However, numbers will never balance the scales where there is the loss or ill treatment of a child. They cannot ease the fear, stress or the anguish families feel, watching their children deteriorate while surgery seems endlessly out of reach.”
“The country now knows of the heartbreaking story of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a nine-year-old boy removed from an urgent spinal surgery waiting list without his parents' knowledge or consent. Parents were begging for answers that never came. Now those same parents live with their unthinkable grief. No parent in Ireland should ever fear that their child has simply vanished off a waiting list. No parent should be forced to battle a system that feels faceless, careless or evasive. No child should ever be left to suffer because of a broken system that could not protect them. That is exactly what happened. In my previous contributions in this House, which I firmly stand over, I said that when the State asks families to trust us with their children, we must be worthy of that trust. In the case of Harvey and so many others, we were not.”
“It important to speak on this issue on behalf of children and families who have been let down. I am devastated for them. Deputies across the House are angry and upset because what unfolded in our paediatric spinal service is not just some abstract policy failure. It is a human tragedy. It is a breach of trust. It is so profound that any parent would question how they would ever rely a system that left their own child waiting in pain again. I am glad the State is confronting this horrendous situation fully and, in particular confronting how we allowed children to suffer under our watch. I appreciate and respect the work the Minister is doing. She is clear and unapologetic in her statements.”
“There have to be synergies and opportunities there that we can look at with Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry and even further afield in Dundalk. We can start looking at how we can look after the communities in the Cooley Peninsula, Carlingford and Omeath, and how we can reflect this in our usual daily life and health care. They do not match up at the minute and we can do more.”
“The shared island unit has real potential and has had real results and benefits for County Louth and the country, as the Taoiseach said, in terms of the arts, emergency services and biodiversity. Yesterday's announcement that Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, will gain university status alongside Queen's University Belfast is incredibly exciting news. It will be transformative for the north east, and will be a really complementary match-up with Queen's University as well. This is a huge opportunity for the shared island unit to invest in the future, to invest in our young people and to invest in our economy and our industry. I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the investment in people and about deeper health care co-operation with our neighbours in the North.”
“Research was published recently in a local newsletter spelling out clearly issues around repeated sewage discharge and wastewater plants operating beyond capacity, with visible waste near Blackrock and protected habitats being steadily damaged. People are seeing it, smelling it and living beside it. As the Taoiseach knows, I raise these concerns regularly and I get very dismissive responses from Irish Water. I often feel almost gaslit by them. I hope that when the Cabinet committee is working on water quality with the infrastructure Department that it will consider fast-tracking projects to make sure our water quality is up to standard.”
“Along with my constituency colleague, I want to pay respects to those poor five souls, the young people who lost their lives in the car accident at the weekend: Chloe McGee, Shay Duffy, Alan McCluskey, Dylan Commins and Chloe Hipson. It is a desperate loss for their families, friends, work colleagues and everybody. I only hope their families can find the strength to walk along the pain and agony that comes upon a family when they lose someone so tragically. It seems almost futile and frivolous to mention it during a discussion on water quality. I have raised on several occasions the state of the water and rivers around Dundalk Bay.”
“This is for the Department of Health and the HSE. Again, it is the same answer about the HSE national service plan 2026. The reality is that County Louth has no neuro-rehabilitation teams. I need one, my constituents need one and the patients deserve proper care close to home, exactly what the HSE and the Department of Health clearly state.”
“It is a pity the Minister is not here this morning because the Minister of State is reading out a response I have received several times to parliamentary questions. I know all this stuff. I also know that Louth does not have a community rehab team. I deal quite regularly with people who have acquired brain injuries, MS, FND or Parkinson's disease and they are not being cared for. The rationale is that they should go to Dublin, but the exhaustion of having to travel to Dublin from north Louth, south Louth or indeed mid-Louth is not acceptable. The stress of that is not good for health outcomes. The Minister of State said that we need to have the best outcomes or care pathways "as close to home as possible". The HSE is not even doing what it is recommending or what it is putting in replies for the Minister of State to say.”
“When I ask through parliamentary questions whether existing neurological services in Louth will be expanded or integrated, the answer is that we have to wait for the national service plan for 2026. When I ask about monitoring this, the reply is "details to follow"; when I ask about staff and recruitment plans, it is "not yet available". There is no timeline, no commitment or no clarity. It is completely unfair to the patients in County Louth and the people of County Louth that they are continuously waiting for this. We cannot leave families continuously waiting while the rest of the country moves on. There is no equity in that system. We cannot pretend that a region of nearly half a million people does not need what the HSE itself describes as essential population-based rehabilitation services.”
“Right now in Louth, that recovery depends entirely on a person's postcode, a system that is failing us. In reality, for every month Louth patients wait, they lose more function. For every year the team is delayed, more function becomes permanently lost. That cost is inaction, and that is what patients are dealing with. Meanwhile, other areas, such as Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Dublin south, Wicklow and Kildare, have received funding for 12 whole-time equivalents and teams are progressing with recruitment. We have been left behind in the north east. The HSE has confirmed year after year that it has submitted estimate bids to fund the CNRTs for the regions with nothing, including mine, and those bids have not been delivered.”
“Louth has stroke survivors trying to relearn how to walk and speak with no specialist community rehab team to support them. People with acquired brain injuries are being discharged from hospitals straight into a vacuum. Families are caring for loved ones with progressive neurological conditions without any structural follow-up. Patients are travelling across counties or simply giving up because the service or the medical team recommended to them does not exist. We are not talking about a luxury service; we are talking about physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychology and medical rehab oversight. Those are the fundamentals of recovery and these are supports that determine whether persons regain independence or lose it permanently.”
“I am standing up here for the people of Louth because my constituents, neighbours and families are being denied essential neuro-rehabilitation services that most other regions have or plan to have. Let us be very blunt about it: Louth has no community neuro-rehabilitation team, CNRT, - not one. That is not because the need is not there; it is because one has not been provided. The HSE has confirmed to me directly that HSE Dublin and North East which includes Louth, is one of the only regions in the entire country with no operational CNRT and no funded team. That has been written n responses to my parliamentary questions, in black and white, and it has real and devastating consequences for the people of my county. Let us humanise this because it is not just about a line in the national service plan.”
“Fianna Fáil will continue to fight for exactly that because rural Ireland cannot be asked to carry the risk of trade while trust at home has already been undermined.”
“If this is how the Department operates on a domestic scheme, why would farmers trust them with something as consequential as Mercosur? Fianna Fáil's position is straightforward. We support trade but not at the expense of Irish agriculture. We recognise the export opportunities in services, engineering and life sciences but not at the cost of the farmers in the north east or anywhere else. The programme for Government is explicit: Ireland will stand by like-minded EU countries to defend our farmers and oppose any Mercosur agreement that does not deliver binding commitments on climate, biodiversity, deforestation and fair product standards. That remains our position. Farmers want honesty, consistency and a Government that keeps its word.”
“If farmers cannot trust their own Department, they are not going to trust Brussels. The recent handling of the sheep welfare scheme proves that point. Farmers were told they would receive €13 per ewe. They planned around it and they budgeted for it. Then the Department cut it to €11.50. This is not a minor tweak. It is a disgrace. When the State moves the goalposts after farmers have already committed, how can any anyone realistically expect them to have confidence in a European safeguard system affecting their livelihoods? If this is how the Department operates a domestic scheme, why should farmers trust them-----”
“The Commission has now confirmed that the 10% threshold is not a hard trigger, that the 7% to 9% rise in imports or fall in prices already counts as a market injury, that provisional safeguards can be imposed in 21 days, that a member state's requests must be answered within five working days and that investigations must conclude within four months, not 12. These improvements are direct results of Irish pressure, but they do not change the basic reality that 99,000 tonnes of beef quota has real consequences for real farms. In Collon, Ardee, Dunleer, the Cooley Peninsula, Castlebellingham and all across the Boyne Valley, farmers are operating on razor-thin margins and cannot absorb the price collapse driven by lower standard imports. That leads to a central issue of trust.”
“I welcome all the farmers' organisations in the Gallery here this evening. The Mercosur trade agreement is moving very quickly towards a qualified majority vote. That means Ireland cannot rely on an imagined veto. We need clarity, conviction and a firm defence of Irish farmers. Fianna Fáil welcomes this debate but let me be very clear: unless this agreement contains real enforcement protections, Ireland cannot and should not support the Mercosur package. Barry Cowen MEP has done detailed and difficult work on this. He met privately with the DG AGRI officials, who design and enforce the safeguard mechanism. What he brought back matters deeply to the farmers across Louth and the north east and all across the country.”
“We have to wake up to the reality that we have to make sure we can defend ourselves as a neutral state. I will support the new Minister for Defence when she is investing in our Defence Forces and investing in our radar and our capabilities because we must ensure that we protect ourselves.”