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 wish the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, the very best in their hugely important roles. They have a massive responsibility, with thousands of people across this country relying on their success. We have made some progress in the provision of disability services. I commend the Minister of State's predecessor, Senator Anne Rabbitte, on her work and on her dedication to people with disabilities during her term in office. This is a whole-of-government problem and a whole-of-society issue . Every Department and public body must abide by the law and fulfil its public sector duty to ensure that people are not discriminated against. Unfortunately, day in and day out, people are disabled not by their condition but by the restrictions put on them by the State, by society and by our built environments.”
“I very much appreciate the Minister of State's offer to initiate my policies. The script he provided states that there are 98 ASD classes in County Louth - 75 at primary level and 23 at post-primary level. There is a clear inequality. We must be focused on ensuring we have classes for our primary school students through to their transition into second level. As the Minister of State well knows, there are far too many parents in limbo. We must work tirelessly to increase the number of ASD classes from 23 to ensure that every child who is in sixth class now has a school place in September.”
“I ask that County Louth will get some of those classes, in particular, for second level schools. I believe there are only six ASD classes at second level in Dundalk and with a population of over 40,000 people, when one looks at that, it is unsustainable. It is a brief question. As the Minister of State well knows and has been thrashed out throughout this evening, parents are at their wits' end. They are incredibly worried. Education is a right. It is supposed to be a special, wonderful time, particularly that transition between primary and secondary school where parents are looking towards the future, looking towards what schools they would pick for their child and what suits the child best. When you have no options, that is basically it; you have no options. You struggle to place your child in any class. It is a terrible time.”
“First, I wish the Minister of State the very best in his role and congratulate him. It is a hugely important brief and out of all the Members I know across the Houses, he will take it on with sincerity and gusto. I wish him the very best of luck with it. This evening, I am asking for an update regarding special ASD classes in County Louth, both at primary and secondary school level. I have many parents contacting me quite regularly, particularly in relation to second level schools. They are at their wits' end and are afraid their child will not have a school place come September. I acknowledge that the previous Government doubled the special classes. It introduced 11 new special classes. As the Minister of State said in his speech in the previous debate, there are 400 new classes to be allocated for the school year of 2025.”
“That is not something for the Department of Health but it is something for society, education and parents to build that resilience into our children and young people so they are fit for the craziness of this world. However, many of us need treatment and therapies and support and we must help people there and then when it happens. I wish the Minister of State the very best of luck.”
“Very often it happens very soon after. If we are to change things, there are things we can improve on. One is signposting. Anyone looking up the HSE website for crisis mental health will find emergency services, of course, but then it is GP services. Where can a person go? The emergency department will not be a safe place for them. They cannot go there and sit in all that chaos. They need a place where they can go and be taken care of. I am a mammy of four young boys. My eldest is 12 and I am afraid. I see so many young boys and young men struggling for many different reasons. We can bring it back to early years where we have to build in that resilience.”
“If there is one thing we in this House, the Departments and the HSE must do in the next couple of years, it is that we must ensure that when those crisis trauma moments come along in a person’s life, there is a safe place for them to go to which is signposted and the person is taken care of, minded and not let go out to take their own life. That has happened so many times. Very often, I hear from people who have been patients in mental health services who feel they were not heard and there was a lack of kindness. They were seen as a number on a sheet. They were discharged and put in taxis to be sent home, even if it was not known whether there was someone at home for them. There was not even a care for them as they left the hospital where they were asked if they felt suicidal. They might not have but what about five or ten minutes later?”
“I feel as though we are on the edge of a cliff hanging off. So many young people, older people and people of every age are struggling. We heard in the House about young men and women who have taken their lives and died by suicide. It would be remiss of me not to mention one person in particular. I have been dealing with his family and a group that has grown up to support the family and fight for improved mental health services. I speak of Mark Kavanagh. He died by suicide last year. He was an incredibly popular, well-known young man who was synonymous with Dundalk Football Club and the town of Dundalk. That put shockwaves through Dundalk, whether it was people who knew him, people who had heard of him and people who could see themselves in him and saw their families in him.”
“I am glad we have this opportunity to speak about mental health so soon in the term. It shows the Minister of State’s conviction and the importance she places on this. This is something I am very worried about. Like the Minister of State, I have regular constituency clinics and I know it is a huge issue. We knocked on doors from last summer until November. I do not know how many doors opened where, door after door, I spoke to parents, wives, husbands, sons and daughters who are struggling desperately with their mental health. They are struggling for various reasons. Some are struggling to access help and trying to get out of a situation. Some are stuck in a place where they may be self-medicating because they do not understand their condition or they might not be getting the help or therapies they need.”
“The shared island unit is fantastic. I only have to walk a few miles from my house to see the work that has been progressed on the Narrow Water Bridge. I am incredibly ambitious for what the shared island unit can achieve. I ask the Taoiseach to consider that the shared island unit should look towards schools North and South and create a project almost along the lines of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition to discover what future young people on this island - North and South - want to see. If the brains of our young people are engaged on projects and innovation on how this island can work in future, we will be onto a winner.”
“I also seek an update on what conversations were had relating to the legacy Act. As Deputy Smith rightly said, the contents of that Act are deplorable, despicable and absolutely unacceptable to every victim and family of those victims in Northern Ireland. The Taoiseach spoke about the just transition and putting this on a sustainable footing. Has there been a conversation with British authorities about co-operation in the area of building offshore windfarms? We do not have ports that are sufficient to be maintenance ports for the building and maintenance of offshore wind turbines. Is there potential co-operation between Scotland, Belfast and the Republic?”
“I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Ardagh, on introducing this critical and important legislation on the right to be forgotten. I wish it was passed in the last Dáil but here we are today to ask the Government to bring this forward. It will deliver equality in financial products for those who go through cancer and survive it. More than 220,000 people in this country have survived or are living with cancer. Unfortunately, today's laws are prejudiced against them. Cancer survivors can be prejudiced against and not get health insurance or mortgages. This is unacceptable and we have the ability to clear that up. We need to stand up for cancer survivors and protect them to ensure they can get access to financial products.”
“If we do not take care and enhance and protect our communities, we fail. If we do not take care of the most vulnerable, we fail, and the Government will fail. The new programme for Government aims to address a range of priorities crucial for the well-being and prosperity of the country. It is comprehensive and outlines key proposals and strategies for various sectors, including disability, mental health, education, health, crime, infrastructural deficits and the economy. We must deliver this. I wish the Ministers all the very best in their terms of office. This nation and the people of it rely on their success.”
“We need another train station in Louth. Dunleer is there but it is not used. The Ardee bypass must happen. Ardee is struggling. It is drowning under a constant traffic jam. There will be a DART extension to Drogheda. Why not look at bringing it to Dundalk and Dunleer? We need more adult and child respite services. I want the Government to finally invest in Louth GAA stadium. Work will begin soon and I want the drawdown of the large-scale sport infrastructure funding to happen in the next few years. There must be investment in policing and safe communities. I am fed up with seeing empty Garda stations and gardaí struggling to protect and look after our communities. There is an inextricable link between social and economic prosperity and they are by no means exclusive concepts.”
“There is an endless to-do list that I will bring up in the House over the next few years. We have infrastructural deficits in our water services and electrical grid and issues with childcare places and school places. We need to overhaul, support and fund our youth sector. The Narrow Water bridge must be finished and the roads around it must be upgraded to take the extra capacity. Carlingford ferry needs to be supported and a sustainable funding mechanism must be found in an overall cross-Border tourism plan for the loop of the lough. We have so much to offer but we need the area to be supported to deliver it. Public transport needs to be improved drastically with bus routes. Access for people to use bus transport needs to be enhanced the length and breadth of the county and not only on national routes.”
“Louth is integral to the economic output of this country and the Government needs to make us a priority. We need to continue to grow our thriving economy and provide opportunities in all sectors, including agriculture, aquaculture, manufacturing and fintech. We must continue to focus on attracting new businesses, supporting existing enterprises, investing in innovation and technology to drive growth and create jobs, building houses for the diverse and growing population we have and looking after the engine of our local economies and our communities. We must reduce the cost of doing business for our small and medium enterprises. Our retail and service sectors are struggling. Many of the costs placed on our businesses are taxes and costs imposed by the State. If we are serious about our SME sector, we must be serious about reducing costs.”
“These include access to healthcare. There is large issue with the emergency department in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. It does not have the capacity to deal with our ballooning population. Louth County Hospital in Dundalk is underutilised. It needs to be adequately equipped to take the pressure off Drogheda. We have children with additional needs who cannot get the therapies and supports they require. Some have no secondary school places even though they have been in school for almost eight years and no one thought to forward plan. Children with disabilities and their families exist in a State-sanctioned vacuum where they feel unheard, unhelped and truly exhausted. The focus the Government has put on disability must be actioned and delivered.”
“It is a rare beauty when, as an adult, you can speak to your seven-year-old self and proudly say, "We did it. Stay bold, stay ambitious, keep working and keep believing. Do not let them create a path for you, create one for yourself". I was an ambitious young girl and now I am desperately ambitious for my county and my country. Over the next five years, day in and day out, I will fight unapologetically for things that matter to my constituents. In the programme for Government there are many plans that must come to reality and work for all of Louth. Louth is a unique county with unique challenges and opportunities. It is along the Border, with two larger towns in Dundalk and Drogheda, a thriving agricultural sector, a rich coastline and the finest people. We have many difficulties stifling us as a community.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle. Is mór an onóir dom labhairt anseo inniu mar Theachta Dála do Dáilcheantar Lú. Is é seo mo chéad chaint sa Teach seo agus ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le mo theaghlach, le mo chairde, le mo lucht tacaíochta agus leis na baill d’Fhianna Fáil i gContae Lú a d’oibrigh chomh dian ar mo shon. Táim fíorbhuíoch díobh as a n-iarrachtaí. It is a huge honour to be standing here as a TD for the constituency of Louth. It is my first proper opportunity to speak in the House. I thank my family, friends and supporters, Louth Fianna Fáil and all those who worked so hard. I am very grateful for all their efforts. I do not know if I could ever articulate how immensely proud and honoured I am because this is a wee girl's dream.”
“I am seeking an update on the waiting list action plan. We have a strategy in place. I raise this matter in light of the crisis situation at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. The emergency department is continuously in surge capacity and appointments are constantly being cancelled. We have two hospitals in County Louth, namely those in Dundalk and Drogheda. The hospital in Dundalk is under-utilised. There is capacity there that is not being used. Surely we can come up with a plan that will allow us to increase capacity in Dundalk, reduce the need for Drogheda to be continuously going into surge capacity and support patients in County Louth?”