Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin
Wicklow-Wexford · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“This is Groundhog Day in terms of school transport. It is the same as last year. The only thing that has changed in the school transport system is the families affected. We are still inundated with emails from frustrated parents from Rathdrum to Kilmuckridge. Children who have always qualified have suddenly been refused tickets.”
“Children in Coláiste Bhríde, Carnew, who had always received transport were told no service was available, but when we contacted the provider, it said that a service was available. The waiting time to hear back from Bus Éireann is unacceptable.”
“Irish author Emma Donoghue stated, "They are robbing us in hopes of replacing us." That is a shocking statement. Irish artists, writers, musicians, actors, composers and performers are being ripped off by big tech billionaires through plagiarism or, to give it the proper term, theft.”
“They tell our stories and shape national identity. However, they are now forced to take on some of the world's largest tech companies simply to vindicate their rights. It is creating a dystopian nightmare. We have to stop it.”
“Higgins, Joseph O'Connor, Gerry Adams, Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín and Sally Rooney. We need to see action on this in Ireland and at a European level to protect artists' rights and income, respect their creativity and defend their livelihoods. It has to stop now.”
“I highlight the serious case of a ten-year-old called Poppy, whose experience is a compelling example of a wider service failure for children in my constituency of Wicklow-Wexford, which covers south Wicklow and north Wexford.”
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“Access to a doctor is a necessity and a basic right for people, especially when they are sick. However, a GP shortage in south Wicklow and north Wexford has reached crisis point. I ask the Minister to intervene. People are desperate. They are travelling more than 20 km but still cannot find a GP who will accept new patients. One practice in a small town in my constituency has a waiting list of 200 people and that list is currently closed. We have seen rapid population growth, particularly in north Wexford, the Gorey-Courtown corridor and parts of south Wicklow. I ask the Minister to consider introducing interim measures immediately to ensure people can access basic care. I had a recent case of a woman with a high-risk pregnancy. She came in desperation to my office because she could not secure a GP anywhere. This should not be happening.”
“It issued a quashing order in respect of the planning exemption granted to the hotel. That was another very good example, and vindication for the residents and all the groups. It was cross-party politics. I could cite several other examples, but I will not waste time. It was a masterclass in how to make money quickly for speculators and get rich quick cowboys and in how to divide communities. This is a really constructive, sensible proposal on how to take the heat out of this and go about it the proper way, basically, to do a community impact assessment based on the Pobal deprivation index, etc. Therefore, I plead with the Minister to at least back this. If he is not going to back the other amendments like earlier, he should at least back this one.”
“The case of the 300-year-old Dundrum House Hotel in County Tipperary was another classic example. Brogan Capital Ventures Limited was involved. Again, this was a huge flashpoint. We all remember the scenes on TV of what happened at Dundrum. That could have been avoided. This hotel was the centre of the village. It was the centre for births, christenings, marriages, the afters of funerals and everything else. It was the only hotel in the village, and then someone decided it could be flipped over. It was vulture capital at work. The number of people being put in to that hotel exceeded the population of the village. It was a classic example. Last November, just before Christmas, the High Court ordered the centre, which was basically an unauthorised centre, to be shut down.”
“They said that five years ago, there was a rundown place with approximately 100 vacancies in it and they were getting €80 per place per night, or €8,000 per night. I spoke to a woman who said her brother was running one of these centres. He was getting €8,000 per night. The only requirement was to provide cornflakes or another cereal in the morning. It was basically a licence to print money. As Deputy Carthy mentioned, €1.2 billion was spent on this area last year. In the case of Rosslare, the village did not even have a doctor. We were saying we had to provide health services for people arriving into Ireland, yet there was no doctor in the village. Rosslare was being earmarked for a centre but, thankfully, people power stopped it, which was a sensible decision. I could mention several other examples around Ireland.”
“It caused absolute chaos in the village and there was cross-party opposition to it. I was delighted to march with the people down there, as were representatives from across the spectrum. People said if there was a wrong way to go about things, this was it. This was the reward the village got for being so accepting. People said we should spread the locations among the different counties and communities. As Deputy Carthy and others mentioned, the concentration has been in deprived rural areas and working-class communities. If we wanted a masterclass in how to divide an area and turn people against each other, this was a classic example. This amendment is a good, sensible option to take the heat out of this situation. I spoke to various providers.”
“Likewise, I think this amendment is helpful, constructive and sensible. To take a similar area in County Wexford, Rosslare was a really deprived village. It had two IPAS centres and was probably the most welcoming village in Ireland. It is the gateway to Ireland and Europe. People there raised over €100,000 immediately for the Ukrainian response and took in over 70 Ukrainians. It was one of the first villages to take in Ukrainians. What reward did this extremely deprived village get? It had the Great Southern Hotel, which was earmarked in planning to be a nursing home. The Pobal deprivation index shows the village has a very high percentage of elderly people, so people were waiting for this nursing home to come along. What happened? A developer flipped the property and said he was going to put 400 people into it. That was the plan.”
“The absence of Irish unity makes what we just voted on unworkable. On the passenger name recognition, PNR, data that is used, it is already used for the common travel area by both Britain and Ireland for tracking criminality. Can that be used to get a clearer picture of who has left the State? Both countries have passenger name recognition data.”
“It certainly does not suit our needs given our unique circumstances and we are at nothing trying to deal with these challenges. If we sign up in full to this pact in the absence of Irish unity, it simply will not work. It would be a crazy idea to give carte blanche to, and say we agree with, everything that does not suit our circumstances. I ask the Minister of State to consider that. It goes against everything his party believes in as well. It would be crazy to sign up for the full package.”
“This State is supposed to be independent, sovereign and should not be beholden to Europe on matters we can resolve ourselves, such as these, as Deputy Carthy and others have pointed out. There are many aspects of the Bill that do not recognise the unique situation on the island where we have an open border with a non-EU state. It is absolutely necessary we advance towards Irish unity but this Bill does not recognise the fact that every day there are taxis coming down from Belfast and Newry arriving outside the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street. People can see it openly. It is something that cannot be sorted out under the present arrangements. We should not be doing all this as a package because one size cannot fit all the countries in Europe.”
“Anything that would deal with that would certainly give more credibility to the Government. An Irish Government is best placed to make these decisions in the interest of the Irish people rather than faceless, unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. That undermines our democracy and sovereignty. The people whose statues are around the Chamber were people who stood for sovereignty. The patriot dead we think of coming up to Easter were people governments saw fit to honour here, so we should be thinking of sovereignty, which is our ability to control our own affairs. Obviously an Irish Government elected by the Irish people, regardless of who they vote for, is in the best place to do that but our attitude has been to be the best boys and girls in the class in the EU for years and that does not serve us well all the time.”
“These aspects are good and we support certain aspects like giving communities back their hotels and community spaces. It will be good if it leads to quicker processing of successful applicants and if it will do away with the trafficking industry and especially child trafficking which is something that existed long before Jeffrey Epstein. It is something that has been going on. It will be good if it means we have the faster return of those who have been refused asylum. We want a system that is fair, efficient and enforced because we have not been enforcing so far. What we have done up to date is not apply our own rules. We have made a laughing stock of the country in front of the world. The whole situation of the passports in bins, which was going on for years, made a mockery of the system.”
“I want to be constructive. I would welcome any Government policy that will deal with the present chaotic system of IPAS processing and enforcement. However, we should make the decision. That is fairly obvious. Based on our own circumstances on a divided island, this issue cannot be addressed in the present system. The system to date has not been fit for purpose. I want to be constructive, as I was saying. We need to see faster processing of the claims and more efficient decision-making in terms of Eurodac with biometric data and the screening at border checks. I welcome the enhanced screening brought in at Rosslare Europort. I was down at the opening some months ago. We need to see less time spent by applicants in State accommodation, which is enriching cowboys, basically, to the tune of €1.2 billion last year.”
“In Greek mythology it is a monstrous multi-headed dog guarding the entrance to the underworld. It is a very fitting name for a vulture fund devouring the dreams of our young people. I am asking all TDs, especially Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ones in Wicklow and Wexford to support Sinn Féin's motion to stop vulture funds buying up family homes.”
“I have spoken to many young people who are doing everything right. They are working hard, saving every month and scraping together a deposit. Prices are rising and the goalposts keep getting moved. Why is this? One of the reasons is the Government has failed time and time again to keep its promise to stop investment funds bulk-purchasing family homes. Over 2,000 of these homes have been bulk-purchased since the Government introduced measures it claimed would put an end to this practice. These vulture funds can buy up to nine houses without triggering higher stamp duty and face absolutely no restrictions whatsoever on purchasing apartments in bulk. Consequently, we have the US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management swooping in on distressed properties to a total of $19 billion. The name "Cerberus" is quite ironic.”
“Vulture funds are robbing many of our young people of the opportunity to ever have a home of their own in their country. The Government is still allowing these vampires to snap up properties in bulk across the State and rent them back to people at inflated prices. How can families, young couples or first-time buyers outbid these massive investment fund? They simply cannot and it is wrong, disgusting and goes against everything represented by our founding fathers whose statues look down upon us in here. The Government is failing an entire generation who are despairing, resigned, and see no future for themselves in Ireland. Who could blame them? In counties Wexford and Wicklow, grown adults are living with their parents in box rooms, forced to move back into those homes because they have no other option save risking homelessness.”
“As the road funding to local authorities is being finalised this week, I ask the Government to reconsider the crazy decision announced today to reduce funding to County Wexford, where roads are already disintegrating and really dangerous. I ask that the decision be reconsidered. I suggest that the funding be based on road condition rather than road length, which is the existing policy, because it is completely failing County Wexford and south Wicklow. Everybody is saying that these roads are really unsafe and horrendously dangerous. Thirty-four councillors in County Wexford and eight Oireachtas Members are saying it. There is cross-party agreement on this. Today's decision is really a kick in the teeth.”
“The rural roads of County Wexford and parts of south Wicklow are deadly dangerous. They are literally disintegrating before our eyes. It is not a recent problem, as they have been at the bottom of the list in intercounty studies for the past 30 years. Recent floods have completely wrecked them. Despite this, it was announced today that County Wexford is now going to receive less funding for roads than it did last year. I want to the draw the Taoiseach's attention to the Civil Liability Act 1961, which says that there is a duty of care to maintain roads in a condition that is safe to all users. These roads are completely unsafe.”
“These schemes need to be moved on and progressed straightaway. People in Wicklow-Wexford are hoping and praying they will not have more storms while the Government dithers and has photo ops but takes little meaningful action. I ask the Government to please get on with these schemes now because people cannot wait any longer.”
“The Arklow scheme was originally supposed to cost €28 million but it is now estimated to be €57 million after years of delays and redesigns. We heard from the chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, Wicklow TD, John Brady, that millions of euro allocated for the national flood forecasting warning service were handed back, with €13.5 million handed back out of €19 million. That is absolutely crazy. Yet the Minister, Deputy Browne, was quick to point the finger of blame last week regarding where this money could have been invested in proper forecasting and warning systems. Deputy Brady also brought in the Flood Insurance Bill 2021. This Bill needs to be pushed immediately. Flood relief schemes are planned for Arklow, Aughrim and Enniscorthy but there is little or nothing for Bunclody.”
“People in Bunclody, Enniscorthy, Aughrim and Arklow are still trying to pick up their lives after the recent floods. The cameras have gone, the spotlight has moved on, and the Minister and the Taoiseach have arrived to tell the people the money is there, these things take time and there is no magic wand. I think people in Wicklow-Wexford know that. They have been waiting for decades while the Government did nothing. Little attention has been paid to Bunclody. Enniscorthy has flooded 16 times since 2001, and going back as far as 1924. Arklow has had six major floods since 2000. The Arklow flood relief scheme has been talked about for four decades, so when the Taoiseach says these things take time, it really infuriates people.”
“We must also ensure that An Garda Síochána has the personnel and resources to hold offenders to account and to ensure that social media companies face the full force of the law. This Bill will criminalise the non-consensual creation of intimate images through AI and strengthen penalties. We call on all TDs to support it.”
“Government inaction has left a clear gap in the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020. The recent Grok nudification scandal shows the consequences. A total of 85% of generated images were sexualised and during the Christmas period, an estimated 3 million sexualised images were produced, including 23,000 that appear to depict children. AI and big tech are really destroying the minds of a generation of children. That is quite shocking. We must do everything we can to stop it. In my constituency of Wicklow-Wexford, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence continues to rise. Sexual assaults rose by 44% in Wicklow and 120% in Wexford over the past two decades, so we need zero tolerance for violence against men, women and children, which is often related to such imagery.”
“We have seen a flood of deepfake sexual images generated by AI, often depicting children. As we know, Coco's Law criminalised the non-consensual recording or distribution of intimate images. However, it remains unclear whether the 2020 Act covers the creation of such images. It is important that the law keeps up with technology. In that context, the Government has been moving at snail's pace in many ways. We in Sinn Féin have three straightforward amendments to Coco's Law. One is to explicitly criminalise the non-consensual creation and generation of intimate images and videos using AI. The second is to extend the Statute of Limitations from two years to five for summary offences. The third is to increase the maximum penalties upon conviction.”
“The Minister's own quote is "the objective is to allocate funding to eligible local authorities on [an] equitable a basis ... taking the length of the road network into account." It is the complete wrong metric to approach-----”
“They are so neglected now that the head of engineering in Wexford sent a document to the Oireachtas last year saying we would need €190 million to bring these roads up to what would be classed as a passable state. Just under 30% are in need of complete reconstruction. This is the elephant in the room that nobody is talking about in terms of road safety. We are anxiously awaiting the funding announcement to local authorities. I was raising this for ten and a half years on the council. I have been writing every week as a TD to the Minister's office. It will be like the lad in "The Shawshank Redemption" - I will write twice a week if I do not get a reply soon. I may have to hold people back. People are so angry over this because nobody is listening.”
“When I meet oncoming traffic at night, say if I am coming from Leinster House or wherever, I am on narrow, winding, uneven back roads so I have to make a split-second decision as to whether to swerve across the road to avoid a massive pothole that will burst my car's tyres, wreck its rims and knock off the tracking of the steering. We do not bother doing tracking any more because it is a pointless exercise. There are deep, sharp craters with jagged edges on them and most of them are hidden beneath pools of water because there is a huge amount of surface water. It is absolutely infuriating that the Government does not view this as a primary road safety concern. It is all down to Government funding because there has been a deficit of €66 million since 2008 in County Wexford. We have 2,000 km of tertiary and secondary roads.”
“This debate is on road safety. I will tell the Minister of State all about road safety in County Wexford and the area of south Wicklow where I live. We have been forced to drive on deadly, dangerous roads for three decades now. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will verify this. Roads are disintegrating in front of our very eyes; I kid you not. Even today, on the East Coast FM news, an engineer said he had to close many roads in south Wicklow for safety reasons because they had been washed away, and they were like this before the flood. County Wexford was at the bottom of the intercounty roads comparison study back in 1995. Three decades later, we are still at the bottom.”
“It should also put an end to the process by which the State has been taking local community facilities and buildings, imposing systems on local communities without consultation and dividing communities. This is something that definitely has to end. We have been clear from the beginning that if a person is not entitled to be in Ireland, they should be returned safely to their country of origin and the deportation order should be both enforced and tracked. We also need to have the powers to immediately return those who are not entitled to be here. I believe an Irish Government is best placed to make these decisions in the interests of the Irish people, not these unelected bureaucrats in Brussels or faceless EU institutions that make the decisions for us, which undermine our democracy and sovereignty.”
“I look up at the statues of all the patriots around this building. To be giving our sovereignty away to the EU is a betrayal of these people, who we are supposed to be honouring in here. I had previously written to the Minister's office and the Department of justice separately in relation to deportation orders. I was told the following: As there are no routine exit checks at Irish borders, it is not possible to accurately provide the number of people who are currently in Ireland subject to deportation orders. There you have it. On the cost, the State has spent an estimated €1.2 billion on IPAS for the past year. That is an estimation for 2025. It means a large portion of that money - that €1.2 billion of the public's hard-earned money - is going to speculator cowboys throughout this country. If it puts an end to that, it would be welcome.”
“I would also welcome it if it deals with a faster return of those who have been refused to their country of origin or a previous EU country. I would welcome the Bill if it was to deal with these because, to date, the system has been quite farcical and reckless. The State simply has not been bothered to apply its own rules. We had the farcical situation of knowing about people arriving and flushing or shredding passports down the toilets in the aeroplane and going into airport bins, which was widespread. The State was ignoring its own rules. If the Government started to deal with the application of the rules, it would be welcome. That said, I do not think it should be something that is imposed on us by faceless EU bureaucrats. The people of Ireland should be making these decisions.”
“I would welcome any Government Bill if it will deal with the present chaotic system of IPAS processing enforcement, as well as the speculation that is going on in villages all across this island. We definitely need to see faster processing of asylum claims, a more efficient decision-making process and less time spent by applicants in State accommodation, which is enriching cowboy developers and speculators all over this country, with systems being imposed on local communities. I would welcome it if it sees quicker processing for successful applicants, and if it stops the trafficking of many unaccompanied minors. This is something I raised with Tusla in the committee. Many of them end up in Tusla or many go missing. Over 30 of them went missing last year.”
“A local man who came to my office told me that most of his wages goes towards the €1,400 per month charge for childcare, while his wife's income goes towards their mortgage of €1,600 per month. In view of the high cost of living on top of these charges, how are families supposed to cope? Many of them are fighting through traffic gridlock and floods to get to Dublin today, having dropped their children off at childcare. How are they supposed to survive?”
“In Gorey, Erika's Fairy Wood crèche has only seen a 7% increase in early childcare and education, ECCE, capitation in the past 16 years. The ECCE only covers for 15 hours per week, but service providers cannot claim for welfare for the 14 weeks they are closed. The administration and box-ticking bureaucracy that is strangling so many groups across Ireland is forcing childcare staff, in effect, to become unpaid admins for the Government, Pobal and Tusla. Erika offered her business to the Department as part of its plan to nationalise childcare. Unfortunately, the Minister's office declined the offer. Sadly, Erika's really great crèche in Gorey will be forced to close in June, after 19 years looking after children. Government policy is destroying our childcare sector.”
“As the Minister knows, childcare costs are completely out of control. Many people are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage. Shockingly, nearly 1,000 childcare providers have closed their doors over the past six years. That is incredible. The Federation of Early Childhood Providers stated that childcare facilities are closing because of rising costs and the lack of funding from the Government. Childcare costs in County Wicklow average more than €11,000 per year per child. In Wexford, they are more than €9,000 per year per child. Now, we are talking about as many as 40,000 children on waiting lists for childcare across the State. Shockingly, the Government’s increase in core funding was a paltry 5 cent per child, which is tiny.”
“It is the source of all life. Our communities depend on crystal clear, clean water, and not heavily fluoridated, heavily chlorinated, cloudy, terrible tasting liquid. Protecting our waterways is not optional; it is an absolute necessity.”
“In County Wexford, both Ferns and Camolin urgently need new wastewater treatment facilities. Existing plants are at capacity, blocking desperately needed housing developments and also affecting local school numbers in Camolin National School and putting additional pressure on the River Bann and local waterways. Camolin residents have spent more than 20 years waiting for proper wastewater treatment infrastructure. A new plant in Ferns with increased capacity to serve Camolin must be a priority for the Minister of State, so I hope he will take note of that. We cannot ignore the growing pressure on our rivers and estuaries such as the River Cloghoge at upper Avonmore, and the Avoca river estuary, which continues to have excessive levels of copper, zinc and cadmium. These are all affecting the environment. Water is so crucial.”
“Connecting the remaining areas to the system must be a priority for Arklow. The Arklow community groups, watersports clubs and young people who use it deserve to have clean, safe water and not sewage. Meanwhile, the beautiful village of Aughrim has long needed a new wastewater treatment plant to support future development in housing. I have been working with some local business owners for some time on the issue and thankfully there is progress. Uisce Éireann has confirmed to me that the Aughrim project is moving forward to a final design with a planning application expected within the year. Following this positive news, we had the recent purchase of the historic but derelict Lawless' Hotel, which once redeveloped will breathe new life back into the village as well as the wider community of south-west Wicklow.”
“Data from the EPA makes for frightening reading in terms of the quality of our water and the need for proper wastewater and water treatment plants. Avoca, in my local area, is one of 15 locations in Ireland where raw sewage is still being discharged every day, as identified by the EPA. Avoca must be prioritised as a village for upgrading. We were also promised progress with the long-awaited new state-of-the-art treatment plant in Arklow, yet it has now emerged that part of Arklow Harbour is not connected to this new plant. As a result, high levels of E. coli are still being detected in the river, so raw sewage continues to flow directly into the harbour and the River Avoca at Arklow. I have contacted Uisce Éireann on three separate occasions seeking answers, but a satisfactory reply has yet to come.”
“On the morning of Echelon's launch, we officially opened the Arklow wastewater treatment plant nearby, which will allow for badly needed housing development to take off in the town, which could not take place previously. What guarantee is there that these future homeowners will be able to connect to the electricity grid? Who will be given precedence, the local Joe or Josephine Public, or a multibillion euro corporation? Of course, Government politicians will not mention that inconvenient truth, because Ireland, is in effect, getting prostituted out for the interests of big tech corporations.”
“We know that an AI search consumes between ten and 30 times the amount of energy of a normal Google search and that one data centre alone can consume an equivalent amount of electricity to the city of Kilkenny on a daily basis. Meta uses 3.1 billion litres of water for the cooling systems of its data centres each year. Numerous groups and even senior departmental officials, in a confidential memo, warned Government Ministers that Ireland's rapid growth in data centres to facilitate AI is using up electricity capacity and adding to the risks around energy costs and climate targets. They estimate that these centres, to power AI, will devour 31%, or just under one third, of Ireland's electricity by 2030 and that this will affect homeowners in getting connections to the electricity grid.”
“The multimillion euro corporation Echelon is planning to install two such centres in my local area, just outside Arklow. However, data centres and AI come at a high cost to the local consumer. I attended its glitzy reception in the Arklow Bay Hotel last year. However, Echelon conveniently did not tell us about the cost, nor do politicians who seem fanatical about AI and the rolling out of such data centres. They are okay with proliferating a vast network of centres in Ireland so that we have to bear the burden and process an ever-growing load of social media content from much of the world's population. They talk up and greatly exaggerate the supposed benefits but conveniently do not mention the high cost to upgrade our electricity network, a cost borne by Joe and Josephine Public in their electricity bills.”
“While AI has many benefits for convenience, it is not a force for good, and therefore must be regulated, as Grok's widespread generation of sexually explicit images of children has proven. Grok is run by the platform of X and the European headquarters of X is just a 20-minute walk from this Chamber, so there is no excuse for the Government not to act immediately. While AI is a form of high-tech plagiarism, and certainly makes life easier in a range of areas, convenience generally comes at a price. It is a kind of Trojan horse that we invite into our lives. The infrastructure that makes AI possible is a network of data centres. AI has significantly driven the demand for the roll-out of such centres across Ireland. These centres service the needs of transnational corporations and their profit models first and foremost.”
“On a similar note, ba mhaith liom uasdátú ar Ghaelscoil an Inbhir Mhóir agus Gaelcholáiste na Mara. I would like an update on the commencement date for Gaelcholáiste na Mara and Ghaelscoil an Inbhir Mhóir. When will there be shovels in the ground for their new campus at Kilbride? I appreciate the Taoiseach might not have the answers now but I ask that he get them for me. Pupils in the schools have been 27 years in prefabs. I visited the school two years ago. I met sixth-year pupils who had been at the sod-turning ceremony when they were in junior infants. Tá sé sin scannalach agus is cúis náire amach is amach é. When will there be shovels in the ground and when will pupils actually start in their new facilities?”
“However, Talk to Tom has not received one cent in statutory funding since it was set up. It organises local fundraisers. It is crazy that a local, voluntary group feels that it must step in to fill the gaps left by the State, a state that is awash with money. I was just looking at figures today showing that over €4 million was spent on security for a facility that was going to be used by IPAS across the border in County Wicklow. That is just one example but I could list hundreds of other examples of where money could be better spent. It is completely inappropriate to be wasting people's money. Some people say that it is not practical to have an acute facility in County Wexford. I disagree with the Minister of State's previous statement that it is not practical to have a facility in every county.”
“This is a county councillor in Wexford who will not mind me saying this because he has raised it publicly himself. I am just saying that the setting is inappropriate. That is his view. He has been campaigning on mental health for many years and has said that it is completely inappropriate for children. I also believe it is inappropriate. It is not a proper setting for someone in crisis. When people in mental health crisis present at Wexford General Hospital, the staff there do not have the training, resources or expertise to be dealing with them. I applaud the absolutely incredible work being done by groups like It's Good 2 Talk and Talk to Tom up in the north of the county. I have been dealing with Talk to Tom for years and have often referred children to it because it does brilliant work.”
“I acknowledge what the local teams are doing. They are doing brilliant work at Tara House, Arden House and lots of other places. I am glad to hear that the Minister of State accepts that there are no acute beds in County Wexford and that she will look at that this year. I am just reflecting what every politician in Wexford is saying and what the people coming to me are saying. They are saying that the facility in Waterford is not appropriate. I am not disparaging the work that they are doing. They are doing brilliant work under very difficult circumstances. I know this from a local county councillor who was bringing his own son. He said that it was so difficult. It was not possible to bring him by car because he was likely to jump out so he had to be brought by ambulance to Wexford.”
“There are partners, parents and carers struggling to navigate a fragmented system while supporting loved ones in crisis. They require accessible counselling, education and practical supports to help them to understand and manage the challenges they face. The Government has paid lip service to mental health provision and well-being. It has failed to deliver A Vision for Change and Sharing the Vision. The result is that many of facilities are in a state of emergency. Funding has stagnated and reform has stalled. What plans does the Minister of State and the Government have to address the mental health crisis in County Wexford? I know all about Waterford and the overall budget, but the money does not appear to be going to Wexford in any meaningful way. I would be grateful if the Minister of State could comment on that.”
“I ask that funding be allocated through the HSE capital programme for the development of a mental health unit attached to Wexford General Hospital. This issue is regularly brought up on South East Radio. All the Deputies present will agree with this proposal. All 34 councillors in County Wexford agree with it. It comes up at practically every meeting of the county council and there is cross-party support for it. We need to see movement on this unit in 2026. It is urgently needed to ensure that people in acute mental health crisis can access timely, appropriate and safe care close to their home. County Wexford has repeatedly been left behind in terms of mental health services. This is not only failing the people experiencing the crisis, but also their families. We need a whole family support and wraparound service.”
“In my office, we received far too many reports of patients waiting and being referred to an antiquated psychiatric department in Waterford city, only to be discharged or often refused services within hours due to a lack of staff or lack of space. I am sure the Minister of State will agree it is completely unacceptable to have these circumstances in 2026 in a country that is awash with money. My background is primary teaching and I am involved in secondary schools. The Minister of State will accept that this antiquated psychiatric unit in Waterford hospital is a completely inappropriate setting for children in a mental health crisis to be sent to, especially if they are travelling long distances, for example, from anywhere in Wexford or even south Wicklow. The Minister of State has responsibility for mental health.”
“The response showed that over 1,000 people had presented to Wexford General Hospital's accident and emergency department in mental health crisis between January and October 2025. Over the past five years, Wexford's accident and emergency department has seen 5,105 patients presenting in mental health crisis. It is incredible that 877 of those who presented to the hospital in mental health crisis were children. What is truly terrifying is that these thousands of people had no dedicated mental health facility available locally. I live on the Wexford-Wicklow border. It is a long way from Waterford hospital.”