Jen Cummins
Dublin South-Central · Social Democrats · Ireland
“However, there is an advantage if their family can buy them one and they can continue their school work at home. It is not good enough to say that schools can make up their minds about that. The Department needs to actually decide and give guidance like it does for other things.”
“Circular 0032/2017 has been in existence for almost ten years and in most parts is not enforced. There is no point in issuing a circular if nothing is going to be done about it. I am delighted the Minister has said there will be a working group to review and hopefully strengthen that.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely. These are the summer months when parents start to think about how we will we stretch our finances to autumn, get everything that we need to ready and then still maybe take a holiday, organise summer camps, etc. The motion is, as stated, very timely.”
“I see it as an absolute disgrace that such a number of people need that support. I welcome that that funding and support is there for those families but I am still shocked that this affects 233,000 children, which is a lot of children, aged between two and 18. I think it goes up to 22 in some cases. There is a digital divide.”
“When parents were told, they had six weeks to pay but most people do not have such a flexible budget to allow them to pay the €160 or however much it is. When things are being reintroduced time needs to be factored in for that. There was an increase in the cost of school transport for families.”
“I will go through a few of the things that I think still present challenges. The capitation grant for schools was increased last year but has still not reached a level which will mean that schools are fully funded. It has not reached the level where it needs to be. In addition, it does not take into consideration the level of inflation.”
The complete record
Every one of 807 lines we hold for Jen Cummins, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 17.
“While I do not want to eat into too much more of Deputy Hearne's time, I want to wish everybody on the education committee, the Minister, the Minister of State and those who speak on a regular basis about education a very nice summer. It has been a very difficult year for everybody. It is important to recognise that everybody is trying to work hard. We will keep pushing the Minister and the Department from this side of the Chamber but I hope they have a good break.”
“However, there is an advantage if their family can buy them one and they can continue their school work at home. It is not good enough to say that schools can make up their minds about that. The Department needs to actually decide and give guidance like it does for other things. The Department needs to say they either do not need it or they need it and if they need it, it needs to provide the support money for that. My next point continues on from the digital divide. Some children with disabilities do not have access to digital devices to help them with their learning in school. Their schools might only be granted one or they might only be able to have access to one or two assessments. That needs to change. Every child who needs digital support for learning needs to get that as a priority and it needs to be available to them.”
“I see it as an absolute disgrace that such a number of people need that support. I welcome that that funding and support is there for those families but I am still shocked that this affects 233,000 children, which is a lot of children, aged between two and 18. I think it goes up to 22 in some cases. There is a digital divide. The digital divide has been seen from Covid time, in particular. My own project in Ballymun, the anseo school completion programme, provided laptops and broadband. I know people still do not believe me that we provided broadband to families but we did because they did not have broadband at home and that is still the case for families around the country. There is a growing divide even though the Minister is saying that children and young people do not need laptops.”
“Circular 0032/2017 has been in existence for almost ten years and in most parts is not enforced. There is no point in issuing a circular if nothing is going to be done about it. I am delighted the Minister has said there will be a working group to review and hopefully strengthen that. I would love if nobody had to spend hundreds of euro on a uniform. There should be iron-on or adhesive logos on a generic uniform that would not cost so much money. The reason we know things are so difficult for parents is that the Minister for Social Protection has said that he is going to give 126,000 families the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. That equates to 233,000 children in this country who need support for their clothing and shoes to go back to school. I do not see it as a great achievement that we are supporting them.”
“When parents were told, they had six weeks to pay but most people do not have such a flexible budget to allow them to pay the €160 or however much it is. When things are being reintroduced time needs to be factored in for that. There was an increase in the cost of school transport for families. I know the Minister said the numbers look very small but for parents with a number of children and on a tight budget any increase will put them in difficulty. I have mentioned school uniforms several times. Sinn Féin had a motion earlier in the year dealing with school uniforms. I put on the record that I think the uniforms for some children are very challenging. I would probably have a different view as to whether we should impose uniforms on children but again that is for a different day.”
“It is available to all primary schools but not all of them take it up because of the administrative burden on the principals and not all parents take it up because of the nutritional value. That needs to be rolled out, to be fully functioning and to be nutritious so that every child is able to have a nutritious meal in primary school. I would love to see that rolled out in secondary schools but that is a different day's discussion. The reintroduction of the examination fee six weeks before it had to be paid was an absolute disgrace. If at the time of the budget in October the Government knew that was going to happen, parents should have been notified that it was going to be reintroduced in the springtime.”
“There should never be reminder letters telling parents they have not paid their contribution fee or the kind of passive one stating, "For those parents who haven't paid..." They should just be banned because the State should fully fund the school. We need to get rid of that and the sooner we do that the better. The issue of hot school meals has been a focus of the education committee for a long time. I introduced my first Bill a number of weeks ago with regard to the nutritional value of hot school meals. That is available because there were children who were hungry coming to school. It was introduced to combat that, to make sure that no child in primary school would be hungry. That needs to be rolled out to all primary schools.”
“Parents should not be offsetting the costs relating to the upkeep of schools that and schools should not have to wait for an extremely long time to get the buildings they so rightly deserve. Voluntary contributions should be banned outright. The payment of such contributions should not be allowed by any schools. There is an app that parents often have on their phones. There is a payment section in the app, and there will always be a little notification mark in that section to say that there is a payment outstanding. When people click into the section in question, they find details of the voluntary contribution. The word is "voluntary" and so that should not be allowed to feature on any app whatsoever.”
“However, some parents like to fundraise for things that give schools a bit of icing on the cake but not for the bread-and-butter stuff. There should be no parents' associations, etc., fundraising to pay for the cost of insurance, toilet rolls, which I heard about from a few schools, or anything else that should be covered by the State. There should be no parents coming in to fix a shelf that constantly falls down or a hole in a floorboard because material in a prefab is rotten. That should not happen in our schools. Our schools should be fully functioning, fully kitted out and fully workable. The people who work in schools and the students who attend them should be able to do so in buildings that are modern and fit for purpose.”
“I will go through a few of the things that I think still present challenges. The capitation grant for schools was increased last year but has still not reached a level which will mean that schools are fully funded. It has not reached the level where it needs to be. In addition, it does not take into consideration the level of inflation. As a result, parents are offsetting the costs that the schools do not have the money to meet. Fundraising is happening, particularly in primary schools. I reiterate what I have said on previous occasions, which is that parents are not fundraisers for schools. They send their children to school and that really should be the end of the transaction. If education is truly free in this country, they should not need to fundraise.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely. These are the summer months when parents start to think about how we will we stretch our finances to autumn, get everything that we need to ready and then still maybe take a holiday, organise summer camps, etc. The motion is, as stated, very timely. I thank everyone involved for their work on it. It has been very interesting to listen to the contributions so far. Everybody recognises that there are challenges in the country in the context of poverty. Ultimately, this motion stems from the fact that hundreds of thousands of children in this country are living in poverty. The Department is trying to implement measures to combat that, but there are differing views in terms of where the support is coming from and how effective it is.”
“We should not celebrate the fact it will now make money by selling it on the private market and who knows what will happen. I am cross on behalf of my constituents because here we go again in Dublin 8. We will have more student accommodation, more hotels and more really expensive apartments.”
“We have enough of these and we do not need any more of them. We need proper housing. We need young people to have a youth service in there or workers giving essential care to people not only in Dublin 8 but throughout the city and country who come from all over the place to James's Street, the Coombe and the new children's hospital. Here we are again. This has been going on for a really long time, whereby we have beautiful buildings that no other State agency wants to take on. The HSE has to be called out for letting it go into such disrepair that now it will cost so much to bring it back up. That happened with the hospital on Baggot Street also. There have to be better fines for this. We should be fining the HSE for how it allowed the building to fall into disrepair since it got it.”
“I appreciate that the HSE has gone through all of the steps it needs to. The challenge is that the country has a problem with housing. If we are giving away State-owned buildings and State-owned land - not giving it away but selling it on the open market - where are we going to start to develop things? There is fear in my constituency. The building should really be protected as an historic building and it should also be used either for healthcare accommodation needs or affordable housing in a housing crisis. Why do we need to keep giving away and selling really valuable assets? This does not happen in other countries. That building is so beautiful. What will happen to it when it is sold on the open market? Will it become more really expensive apartments, which Dublin 8 is already littered with, or co-living or student accommodation?”
“There are plenty of places and if we were going to house healthcare workers, this would be a fantastic location for them. There is a housing crisis and people cannot afford to live in the city. They are choosing not to live in the city and we see this in the education system. I really hope something can be done from a central government funding perspective so the HSE can hand this over to whoever will use it but with an injection of funding to be able to resource it so it is successful.”
“I know negotiations went on with the Peter McVerry Trust but it does not seem to have been possible. The Solas Project, which works with young people, has also been in negotiations to have the site transferred to it. It supports many young people throughout Dublin 8 and beyond but I am speaking about Dublin 8 right now. It does not have a permanent premises. This is a huge disadvantage for it. If we want to tackle issues that challenge young people and their ability to thrive, having a proper fully decked-out space for them would be fantastic. We are in a housing crisis and we do not have enough homes. This is a ready-made home. Why are we not using it for healthcare workers? There is St. James's Hospital, the Coombe hospital is just down the road from it, around the corner is James's Street and we will have the new children's hospital.”
“No one wants it because it has been vacant for so long and it has been left to go into a state of disrepair and it will cost a lot of money. Originally, from 1903 to the 1970s, it was used for nurses' accommodation. From the 1980s onwards, it was used by the HSE as an overflow for mental health facilities linked to St. Brendan's Hospital. In 2021, the remaining residents were relocated from the area. It has been vacant since then. It is a very beautiful building. Beside it is a very precious Quaker burial site. In Dublin 8 when we celebrate culture, this is one of the buildings that should be celebrated. It is one of the buildings that could bring a huge amount of joy and peace to people living in the city centre. Campaigners are looking to see whether it can be used for housing.”
“This part of the city is very historic and a lot of tourists come to see things in Dublin 8 but Dublin 8 has a real challenge when it comes to providing community spaces and permanent homes for the people who live there all the time, and not transient accommodation for students who pay a huge amount in private student accommodation or, indeed, hotels. There is a campaign called No More Hotels because what we need Dublin 8 are homes for people who live there all the time. We also need community spaces. What I would like to discuss this evening really is the fact that the Weir Home is now owned by the HSE, which has decided it will not be able to do anything with it and so it wants to give it to Dublin City Council but the council does not want it.”
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak about James Weir nurses home on Cork Street in Dublin 8, only a stone's throw from where I live. This building was built in 1903. It was originally built by James Weir, a Scottish-born merchant and philanthropist. It was built for nurses working nearby in the fever hospital, which was also called the house of recovery. It accommodated up to 50 nurses, who were able to stay there. Only around the corner, about 20 years later, the first tenant purchase scheme was built by the State in 1922 in The Tenters.”
“Deputies Paul Murphy, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, John Lahart, Seán Crowe and Ciarán Ahern - to discuss the feasibility of continuing MetroLink from the city to south-west Dublin. Deputy Thomas Gould - to discuss the bus service in Cork city. Deputy Darren O'Rourke - to discuss the Government response to the rejection of the workforce development plan proposals by SNAs. The matters raised by Deputies Sinéad Gibney, Jen Cummins, Rose Conway-Walsh, Michael Cahill and Colm Burke have been selected for discussion.”
“Deputy Jen Cummins - to discuss the future of James Weir nurses' home, Cork Street, Dublin 8. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh - to discuss wind farms in County Mayo. Deputy Rory Hearne - to discuss the cessation of the financial contribution scheme in Dublin North-West. Deputy Mark Wall - to discuss the provision of youth services in Newbridge, County Kildare. Deputy Pa Daly - to discuss measures to prevent the spread of harmful content on social media platforms. Deputy Colm Burke - to discuss use of lands in Glanmire, Cork, leased to the FAI by Cork County Council. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - to discuss a potential State purchase of the Bessborough site in Blackrock, Cork city. Deputy Louis O'Hara - to discuss the need for a 24-hour rapid response vehicle at Tuam ambulance base.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Sinéad Gibney - to discuss the closure of Carlow College. Deputy John Connolly - to discuss the provision of appropriate public housing for families that provide foster care. Deputy Michael Cahill - to discuss delays in payments to subcontractors to Uisce Éireann. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú - to discuss issues being created in the court system by the new legal aid model. Deputy Tom Brabazon - to discuss the proposed new Garda station at Northern Cross. Deputy Barry Ward - to discuss removing the means test for carer's allowance. Deputy Séamus McGrath - to discuss the State acquiring the Bessborough site in Cork city to provide a memorial.”
“I have been really angry with family and friends, asking why they did not call him out on that behaviour, and saying to my family and friends they should call him out on that and not to let him behave like that. The full weight of the State needs to be put on men who think that behaviour is in any way acceptable because it is not. Whatever the mechanisms we need to ensure this happens, whether it is education, a register, more laws or more punishments, let us do it.”
“In a previous job, I worked as a designated liaison person for child safeguarding. When a child has witnessed domestic violence and been subjected to child abuse as part of that toxic horrific relationship they also need to be protected. It is very challenging to report parents to Tusla for this. Tusla is very overwhelmed and sometimes people may not get the support they need. Helping young people to understand their mammy and daddy's relationship is very challenging. Encouraging them to keep talking about it and to keep saying the things they need to say so they get the support they need is really hard. I have also been at the family court supporting family and friends who were seeking protection orders and barring orders. I have seen the shells those women became.”
“I am so glad to see youth workers around this country working so hard to talk about consent and positive relationships with one another. Our schools could be encouraged quite strongly to do more in this case. Families could be really supportive in how we support one another to educate our young people on what is a healthy relationship and what is not, and what will happen and what needs to happen if somebody finds themselves in a relationship that is absolutely horrific for them. I pay tribute to Jennie Poole's brother Jason, who is here. I am sure this is an absolutely horrific time for him to come in here again. I am thinking about his poor sister. I would like more men to be like him. I would like more men to call out this behaviour and to challenge this behaviour so we do not have this situation.”
“What happens to a woman in a relationship - if we can call it that - is that she is broken down to nothing. It corrodes everything, including her self-worth. It removes her independence and it removes every relationship she could possibly have with anyone who might be able to help her out of that situation. I said here last week that we need more people around those women to call out this behaviour. We need men to call out men on this behaviour. We need our men to tell other men to stop behaving like that, to ask them what they are doing and to tell them that is not how to treat women. We need to have an education programme for men and women to say this is not how we go on with one another and to explain what a healthy relationship is.”
“I welcome this register. It is important that we send a very clear message in this country that there is no place for domestic violence or gender-based violence. I read with interest that others want it broadened to include more things. It is very important that the register exists. The more we talk about and call out behaviour that is not acceptable, that is costing people their lives and that is ruining people's lives, the better. I worked in a domestic violence project in London back in the 1990s. I was struck by the number of people from all walks of life from different projects supporting women. I stated recently in the Chamber that I do not know whether there is more prevalence now or more people reporting now but what I will say is that my clinics are constantly full of women experiencing horrific abuse in their homes.”
“I know if you go to the HSE sexual health clinic, you can get them there. That should be brought in. Condoms are priced around €5 or €6 for a packet of three - I did a quick search before I came in here. That is a lot if you are a student or are on a low income. If we include other things, we should include condoms as well. It is important to expand the scheme to as many women and people who need it as possible.”
“A vulnerable cohort of people come here to seek protection and to be helped. They are in a vulnerable situation with regard to contraception. I am sure it would not cost that much money to include them in the scheme, so I call for that to happen. I read in a report there is low awareness among women with disabilities and Traveller women. Why is that? We need things to be accessible to people. We need the message to be out there among disabled people that this is available to them if they are in that age group. I was concerned that condoms are not included. Many other things are included, which is fantastic, but condoms are often used. They are quick and easy, etc. I know from being around third level institutions that you can get them there but not everyone goes to third level institutions and they might not be in a youth service.”
“I read with interest of this item on contraception. I cannot help noticing it is happening on the day the decision on Bessborough has been made. Considering the whole mother and baby scenario that happened in this country and the devastation faced by so many people born in Bessborough or who had children in Bessborough and do not know where their children are, it is poignant to have this conversation today. It is fantastic that women aged 17 to 35 can get free contraception. That is excellent but I agree with those who have said it should be extended to whenever child-bearing age ends. If it is 40 for me or 50 for you - whatever it is - that is what it should be. It should be based on the individual. I agree with the previous speaker that it is very disappointing to learn migrant women are not included in this.”
“I also had to try to explain to my children what was going wrong with Oma. She was German. My husband is German, as I am sure I have said 100 times here. The point is that many people, many of my neighbours, colleagues and friends, have experienced this. We need to make sure the person with dementia is able to live at home for as long as possible and be supported by professionals; that the family members are supported by professionals; and if and when the transition to full-time care needs to come, that the place, as Deputy Whitmore described, is inspiring and welcoming because often for people with dementia, it is about feelings and how they feel comfortable in their environment. Therefore, we need to make sure it is the best we can provide.”
“It is so valuable to listen to how other people have experienced dementia in the lives of their family members. What unites people in this Chamber is our desire to make sure anyone who has dementia is supported to the best ability this country can provide and to support family members and loved ones around the person with dementia. As has been so eloquently said, it is important because it is such a confusing time for the person with dementia but also the people around them. My mother-in-law had dementia. She died in 2023. She ran her own business, a hotel, and she was a tailor. She was an incredibly capable woman who loved having the chats. As her dementia progressed, it was utterly heartbreaking to watch her and to see how it was affecting my husband, his siblings and my father-in-law.”
“Will the Government issue a compulsory purchase order to buy it? I know the Minister said earlier that his heart is broken. We can say that but we have to have action, and we need to make sure that something happens. There needs to be full understanding of what will happen now and how the Government can step in to prevent this from happening.”
“I am heartbroken to be standing here today having learned of the disgraceful decision to continue with the plans to build in Bessborough. For 923 children, being born in Bessborough was a death sentence, and the burial sites of 859 of those children have never been found. If this development goes ahead, their remains could be lost forever. I pay tribute to Councillor Noelle Brown and everyone who has been advocating to prevent this from happening. This decision is unfathomable and we need the Government to step up on this. Last week, Deputy Cairns asked the Taoiseach what would happen if it was granted and if it should be compulsorily purchased. He said a decision would be made afterwards. What is that decision? What will the Government do? A decision has been made to grant that permission.”
“If we do not move along and have this issue sorted, and if we do not have proper dignity and not have people coming here and sharing their private, personal stories, there will be a State apology. I will say that again - there will be a State apology about this issue and how we institutionalise people with intellectual disabilities. We need to get this right. We will keep pushing the Minister of State. We hope she will listen and do all in her power.”
“They need options but they are not freely available. Everything has to be a fight. All those things are set out in the UN conventions. There are protocols, but there is basic decency that we need to be providing in this country for people with disabilities. I am very happy and quite relieved that the Government is not opposing this motion we have put forward. As the previous speaker, Deputy Farrelly, said, it is important this is not seen as a political point-scoring situation. This affects everybody in this Chamber and outside this Chamber. This is a human decency issue. We need to be able to move that forward and work together. We will push the Minister of State. She should please accept our pushing. We are doing it in a respectful way, but she should please accept it.”
“It is an utter disgrace that anybody would have to feel they are pushed to that limit and that is how they would view the situation. We have let them down so badly. I want to praise the Before We Die campaign. Those people have had to come into this House and to the Seanad to tell personal stories and private things. They should not have had to do that. They should not have to do that. The structure should be there. Their children are adults, but they are their children. I have adult children. I still call them my children. The fact of the matter is we should have a stepping stone in this country for them when they leave school to say this is their employment, this is their education and this is what they want to do, and here are their friends and family and this is their neighbourhood. They need a choice in that.”
“I thank and congratulate my colleague, Deputy Quaide, for the work he has done on this topic. Since he was elected to Dáil Éireann, he has been relentless in getting information and making sure that people who are vulnerable are represented in this Chamber. He has done so well to get this prepared and has worked so well with the Before We Die campaign. The numbers have already been stated. There are 2,300 adults with an intellectual disability living with their parents who are aged over 70. Of those, 500 are living with parents who are over 80 and then there are people living with parents who are over 90. All of us who have spoken today have talked about the fact it is heartbreaking that any parent would have to say, "I hope I die before my child because I do not know what is going to happen to them". This is 2026.”
“The fact of the matter is that we need a united Ireland. That is what we have all said we want. However, if we are dancing on the head of a pin and deciding who owns it and whose great idea it was or which Bill it is or is not, that is a waste of time and excludes people. It is no example to the people we are trying to encourage to have an inclusive, evidence-based and respectful dialogue. I request that people try to work together in this House and that we go outside it to try to have dialogue that is inclusive and respectful of everybody.”
“We need to get a grip. We all need to be part of the conversation. Playing politics and bouncing a ball from one side to the other is really unhelpful. I grew up in a mixed household. I grew up in a household with one Republican and one person who just wanted peace. My dad grew up in a mixed household. My grandmother was the daughter of a British navy man and was Protestant and my grandfather was a Catholic man from Cork who fought in the IRA during the War of Independence and the Civil War. My family is a mixed family. There are lots of mixes. There are lots of things we need to do, but what we do not need to do in this House is spend our time bouncing ideas around and dancing on the head of a pin in talking about Northern Ireland, the Republic, a united Ireland or who owns the idea. It does not matter who owns the idea.”
“The measures include the creative connections programme, the RISE programme and the brilliantly named t-rex programme, which have the objective of improving educational attainment, reducing disadvantage, increasing collaboration between schools and third level institutions, encouraging student exchanges and building relationships between people across communities and jurisdictions. I am sure that is replicated in other areas which receive funding. When I was preparing to speak, I did not think it was very useful to use this debate as a political game. This is not a political game. It is an important issue. The respect and inclusion that I spoke about start in this House. Playing politics with this issue is not acceptable. It is disrespectful to the people who have lived through trauma on this island because of that history.”
“It is with great pleasure that I speak about this Bill. I congratulate Sinn Féin on the work it has done in putting the Bill forward. It is a very timely conversation. Preparations for a united Ireland need to start. It needs to be respectful, evidence-based and inclusive. The Social Democrats have called on the Government to establish formal structures to examine the practical implications for reunification. In order to have genuinely inclusive and respectful dialogue, it is vital that there is a framework to establish that evidence. The evidence will come from the establishment of a citizens' assembly or other such structured consultation. In my brief of further and higher education, it is great to see the shared Ireland initiative bringing so much positivity to education on the island of Ireland.”
“It is the perpetrator who should be leaving the home and the woman should be safe in her home. He should have to leave or she should have to leave - whoever the perpetrator is, they need to be ostracised, not the woman and her children.”
“Speaking last week on the Order of Business, I said we needed an urgent debate in this Chamber about domestic violence because there are not enough spaces. There are supposed to be 500 refuge spaces in Ireland but there are 172. That is clearly not enough. The moment a woman decides to leave is one of the most dangerous times. She may have nowhere to go and is then stuck living with that person. We all know the outcomes for the women who have been killed in Ireland in recent years. Recently discussed in this Chamber was Women's Aid. Its report from 2025 said there were 62,275 disclosures of abuse, of which 4,755 involved children. We need to make sure any woman who needs a refuge space has it. I will say again that is not good enough that a woman has to leave her home with her children because of domestic violence.”
“It will allow us to be part of working party meetings and help us develop EU policies on violence against women and participate in EU positions under the convention. I worked in a domestic violence project and this is really important for me. We need to explore every available option to make sure the policies and structures are in place for us in Ireland and throughout Europe and to make sure whatever we need to do on paper - structures, frameworks, all those things - is done because there is an epidemic of domestic and gender-based violence in this country and throughout Europe. When we want to put all those frameworks in place, we need to have the mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators and protect women and to make sure there are enough domestic violence refuge spaces. I am sure previous speakers mentioned that already.”
“The Council of Europe convention is quite a technical document. I was reading it today. For people listening in, I will explain a little bit about it but then I will talk about why it is so important we have it. It is a leading international treaty on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The four pillars are prevention, protection of victims, prosecution of perpetrators and co-ordinated government policy. Ireland signed the convention in 2015 and ratified it in 2019. It informs our zero-tolerance strategy - the four pillars are in that. This motion will allow us to opt in to council decisions - one does not require us to opt in; the other does - and that allows us to do things in the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.”
“I am sure that other Bills are going to come forward in the next little while about many different animals. This is something that other countries have banned. It used to happen in Australia. New Zealand, India, England, Scotland, Wales and the US used to all have hare coursing and they do not now. We should not have it either. We should follow the example of people who have evolved. We should move towards that. I would be concerned about it going underground and the illegal coursing that might happen but then let us make sure we have enforcement, and the gardaí making sure they are doing it and all the agencies are put there to make sure that it does not happen. If it is illegal it is illegal, but that does not mean we should not go after those people who are doing those illegal things.”
“If we were explaining to a young child that hares are protected but we are going to let them be captured, and we then run them around and get a dog to chase after them, but then hopefully they will know how to get out and off they go, and thank God the dogs have the muzzle because then the hares will not be mauled to death because we have evolved from 2013 and evolved to moving that on, that child would look at us and say, "What? That makes no sense." Again, when we are looking at how we treat things that are more vulnerable than us, we need to be able to stand over that. There is no standing over that. I do not wish to use all my time because I am probably saying stuff that other Deputies have said. I am conscious that it is a Thursday evening and people are busy. Ireland needs to show a little bit of leadership in animal welfare.”
“I am sure others are getting emails about hare coursing and asking us to support Deputy Murphy's Bill. I ask that each party has a free vote and that we are able to vote with our conscience. I ask Deputies to think about it deeply. What does this mean? If we are not protecting an animal, which is a protected species, what does that say to us? If we were explaining this to a young child, how would we explain that? If we cannot explain laws in simple English like that to a child and it does not make sense, then it is not making sense and it needs to move on.”
“I was struck by the Minister of State's comment that things had changed and evolved in the Act of 2013. I think 13 years on we might change, evolve and move to banning it altogether. We have a biodiversity crisis. Native species like hares are vital to the continuation of biodiversity. We have to look at the climate crisis that we are in at the moment and see what we are doing to preserve our future. People might say that it is only a hare. This is a balance. It is a very fine line. Deputy Aird spoke so well about how there is that line of animals, where they fit in and how it is the natural part. As Deputy Whitmore said, when we come as humans and interrupt that balance, that is where the problem is. As others have said, a free vote is important on this issue. The reason for that is people need to vote with their conscience on this.”