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.”
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“At what point will we be able to eliminate that altogether and be fully funded? I totally appreciate everything that has been said about budgets-----”
“Some of the parents in our school system are having to act like fundraisers because the schools are not fully funded. I know the Government has increased the capitation grant, which is welcome. However, having spoken to many different schools, DEIS schools in particular, I know that fundraising is very difficult because families are struggling with general day-to-day costs. The same is true in special schools. Parents are exhausted from the level of care needs. At what point in the future will we be able to get rid of these voluntary contributions altogether? They are there to help schools. We would love for the funding raised to pay for the icing-on-the-cake stuff but it is the bread-and-butter stuff the money is covering, including the heating, lighting and all that stuff.”
“As you might hear this morning, I am a little bit at my wits' end because my inbox is just so full and I do not know what to do. I do not know whether the Government knows what to do. I do not have trust in the situation or trust that there is a proper plan in place. I would love to see a proper plan in place. As my colleague said, we have put forward solutions. We have a housing expert here but no one is listening. I implore the Minister to please do something concrete and do it fast.”
“To reiterate what my colleague said, children growing up in the homes we are providing for them as a State is a disgrace, if they even have a home. Look at the number of children who are growing up in homelessness in this country. There is then hidden homelessness. Mothers contact me saying my child is doing the leaving cert and we are going from couch to couch. How are they able to do State exams? The State exams are over now but their search for homes and for somewhere to live is not over. We will then have the student accommodation problem in the summer when people will go to third level and yet we have no solutions there. It is like we are the only country in the world who has ever had a housing situation and we cannot learn from other countries.”
“What gets me is the fact we have these wonderful social homes, we have homes like the Oliver Bond flats that were beautifully built and yet they are falling apart because we do not maintain them. This the problem I have. It is bad from an environmental point of view as well. Letting everything disintegrate so that people are living in mouldy homes, drafty homes and homes not fit for habitation by a human is allowed in our social homes. Why do we not maintain them? Other countries have social homes and they maintain them. The Ballymun flats were built in the 1960s, for example. They were maintained and were built in a model based on a German example. When I go to Germany to visit my family, those homes are still fine. Why can we not have that here? We do not maintain them.”
“This motion comes at a time of deep concern for the people of Ireland but particularly for my constituency of Dublin South Central. Our capital city is at breaking point. The housing crisis we are living in is dire. Every single clinic I have is jammed with people who are in desperate situations. They are coming to the clinic, the phone never stops ringing and the emails are full. When we reach this point, what else needs to happen for genuine action to follow? As a politician and a person who lives in my constituency, I cannot understand why things do not move. I am here seven months now. Things do not move. Houses and apartments do not seem to get built. There is delay after delay. My constituency has five regeneration projects. They have all been delayed for decades.”
“As politicians, we need to rebuild trust that seems to have been slipping away. We must ensure the people who vote us into this House see we are using our voice here to represent them, and we must ensure we are doing what is right for everybody in this country. We must also ensure people get out to vote. People have told me, and probably several other Members, at the doorsteps that they did not vote because they did not believe it would make any difference. We all know it does. It makes a difference to individuals and communities and it will make a difference to this country. Whether an election is local, European, general or presidential, it is important that people get out to vote.”
“A recently published Electoral Commission report starkly showed there are legacy accuracy issues, with hundreds of thousands of names on the register that should not have been due to death, emigration and people moving between local authority areas. The register even exceeded the estimated eligible population in 11 counties. I welcome my colleague Deputy Aidan Farrelly’s electoral (amendment) Bill, which would see the voting age reduced from 18 to 16. This is not a novel idea. In 1972, the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18. Including people in voting is so important in our democracy. We must fight to keep our democracy. We see all over the world that democracy is being eroded and erased. We see people being othered and rights being removed from people who fought so hard to get them.”
“The lowest was 47.77%, in Dublin Bay South, and Wicklow had the highest, at 67%. In my constituency, Dublin South-Central, the turnout for the general election was 49.1%, which means over half of people eligible to vote did not do so. Therefore, it is important that we engage citizens to vote and engage with our democracy. There are cracks, however. The independent Electoral Commission was established in February 2023 under the Electoral Reform Act 2022. What is really great is that it has oversight and sets out a clear roadmap in respect of a national register, audits, public information campaigns, binding accuracy standards and, crucially, a dedicated budget and staffing for local authorities, which are so badly needed.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this motion. The Social Democrats will support it. Democracy is something we must strive to keep in a world where we see it being eroded and erased. Voting in elections is fundamental to democracy. The decision to extend voting rights to people has been a battle, particularly for women, over the past 100 years. Last year was a bumper year of elections. We had local, European and general elections. I do not need to tell anybody in this House about them; we all know about them. Every candidate knows the importance of getting people out to vote. I am sure there were voter registration drives in every constituency, and there was also voter education, led in particular by our wonderful adult education services. Despite these, the turnout in some constituencies was very low.”
“Someone needs to be championing these staff members to ensure they are on the correct rate and are given the right amount of money. It is about ensuring community training centres are given the right amount of funding centrally to be able to do that and making sure those staff members are valued, appreciated and paid correctly.”
“They were brought under the ETBI, put at Youthreach scales and are all being managed like this. If we are going to value staff members, we need to do everything we possibly can to bring them under the umbrella. While it is totally fine for there to be local arrangements and for the boards to manage them, there is no reason funding cannot be allocated to the centres which covers all things to do with pay, recruitment, retention and industrial relations. If the central budget does not reach that, they are going to lean into other things they are also struggling with. Every other organisation in the country is struggling with the need for multi-annual funding for all the increased insurance and all the things that go with a project.”
“I thank the Minister of State. It is great to raise this issue. It is great that the Minister of State is visiting these centres because they are amazing. While I understand that boards are responsible for the pay and conditions of each staff member, the funding given centrally to the community training centres is not enough. Although the staff are supposed to be put on the same pay and conditions, or pay rates, as Youthreach co-ordinators, the funding is not there to pay them at that rate. If they are supposed to get paid whatever that rate, increment or point on the scale is, boards will not be able to pay it if the funding does not come centrally. The board can decide to pay a certain rate, ultimately. We have a situation where school completion co-ordinators, for example, have had the exact same problem for the last number of years.”
“The staff working in the CTCs are incredibly skilled at instilling confidence back into these young people so they can learn and get back on track. The cost of living in this country is extremely high and, therefore, people on wages poorer than those found in other agencies doing similar work are not on a par. This means community training centres are not attracting the staff they need so much. I urge the Minister of State to please consider what can be done to support these staff members in community training centres.”
“The work of the CTCs has become increasingly difficult since Covid. There has been a huge increase in the number of students attending CTCs with more complex needs than ever seen before. The Government needs to recognise and value the work being done in these centres and pay staff accordingly. The community training centres were made promises but these promises have not been kept and the staff are feeling undervalued and despondent. It is just not good enough. When the staff working with really vulnerable young people are themselves vulnerable in their pay and conditions - I have said this not only concerning workers in this sector but those in several other sectors in the education system too - they are not able to support young people who are coming back into second-chance education and do not feel valued as learners.”
“CTCs are funded by their local ETBs and have been since 2011. Prior to then, CTCs were funded by FÁS and the salary scales were linked to FÁS salary scales. When FÁS was dissolved, all the staff moved to the ETBs and were placed on public sector pay scales. They have, however, been left in limbo and - without consultation - this pay link was broken. In 2023, CTC staff were given a 5% increase, which was the first increase of its kind since 2006. It was accepted with the agreement that CTCs would be linked to the Youthreach pay scale, but this has not happened. CTCs are under the Youthreach umbrella in terms of training and education but not in terms of pay and conditions. Without this link to the public sector pay agreements, CTCs will have to continually try to argue with governments for just the crumbs they will get.”
“I have seen first-hand how these centres bring young people into a learning environment that is caring, practical and learner-centred. The staff are absolutely committed to the young people. When young people leave school early, their reintegration into education can be very complex and there needs to be patience, kindness, structure and acceptance. CTC staff are experts at this, but the CTCs are finding it challenging to recruit and keep staff as a result of the substandard salary scale they are on. To put this into perspective, points 1 and 2 of the clerical scale available to staff in the CTCs are below the minimum wage. Managers of the community training centres earn approximately €10,000 less than the Youthreach and SCP co-ordinator salary scale, and yet they are supposed to be on the same scale.”
“Community training centres, CTCs, provide an excellent education to young people in second chance education. There are 31 community training centres located around the country. Young people aged 16 to 21 who have left mainstream education before the leaving certificate can attend these centres, which provide a range of training and other supports to them, achieve QQI levels and progress to further education and employment. I have the pleasure of being on the board of directors of one of these community training centres, Ballark community training centre in Santry. I have worked closely with this centre for several years. It started when I was the co-ordinator of Ballymun Anseo school completion programme, SCP, located very close to this centre.”
“When will the Government increase the capitation grant to a sustainable level for schools to pay the bills, have a buffer for emergencies and enhance teaching and learning?”
“Many schools across the country are struggling to keep the lights on. That is not my opinion; that is fact. A new survey has highlighted the huge increase in the costs that schools are grappling with. In the past five years insurance costs have increased by one third, while utilities soared by 50% and cleaning costs by 80%. However, funding for schools has not gone up. The capitation grant they have is the same as 2008, nearly two decades ago. How are principals expected to pay costs for 2025 with 2008 budgets? A record number of schools are applying to the Department for financial assistance. Many schools still have to ask for voluntary contributions. Principals are spending all their time worrying about how they will pay the bills. It is causing a huge amount of stress and burnout.”
“When we have schools, which are expert at working with children and bringing them to the best of their ability educationally and socially, and all the other things that come with special schools and mainstream schools, we need to ensure that is protected.”
“To that end, could we pause that for this September so that those schools can be engaged with further by the Department and the Ministers to allow them to negotiate a timeframe for those students who are already in the school but also for students coming in? I want to make clear I do not want to delay any child getting a school place for September. That is not my intention and I know it is not the intention of any of those schools because I accept we are in dire straits for those children. However, I am fearful for those children who are thriving in those schools as to what happens if they go back to mainstream schools or if we have children who are in mainstream schools who are not coping and would not have a place to be. We cannot be experts in every aspect of education.”
“They provide excellence in education for those students who may not have the same opportunity in mainstream schools. I fear that if those children have to go back to mainstream, they may not thrive as well as they are in special schools. I understand completely that children should not be passing schools locally and I get the Minister of State's point in that regard, but could we not have both?”
“I accept there are children who will pass by special schools to go to other schools because there is no capacity for them in that school, whether that is because of the admissions policy or because of what they are catering for. Notwithstanding that, could we not as a country, seeing as we are quite rich, have schools that cater for mild general learning disabilities as well as schools that cater for more complex needs? Do we have to have catchall special schools? That is the phrase that is being used. Could we not have schools with expertise for those mild general learning disabilities and also schools that cater for more complex needs? I have visited these schools. My party colleague Deputy Whitmore is working very closely with New Court special school in Bray and colleagues throughout the country are working with these schools.”
“I wish to ask about schools that cater for young people with mild general learning disabilities. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Scoil Eoin in Crumlin in my constituency and seeing the absolute care and love in that school for those students. I was really taken with how well they are provided with an excellent service for their education but also for their future. What will happen now with regard to this school having to broaden its admissions policy?”
“We also need to have a living wage for PhD students and a clear post-doctoral pathway. I would love to see a national centre of research excellence for all things STEM. I congratulate the Minister and all of those involved in this. It is a great day and we can only improve on this. I am not criticising here. I really just want to say that it is a great day and let us try to make it even better.”
“The Social Democrats are delighted that we are going to have associate membership of CERN, and while we are very proud of that, there are a number of things we need to bear in mind. If we are going to continue with CERN into the future, we need to get our own house in order. What we are looking for is modern science laboratories in every school. I would go so far as to say that we have to start at primary and pre-primary level because the exploration of STEM is so important from as early an age as possible. That is how people become passionate about it and when people have passion for learning, we will have great minds and great people involved. We need to have fully qualified teachers for all STEM subjects and a sustainable funding model for third level education on a multi-annual basis.”
“I am aware of an institute called the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Dresden in Germany. My son visited it as part of transition year for science. It was an amazing institute for a young person to visit to explore the things they are doing there. He described it as being life-changing for him. That is the path he wants to go on. I know this opportunity is not available for every single child in this country but would it not be fantastic if we had a zentrum or an institute like that here so that children do not have to travel? We would have it here so that transition year students who think they might be interested in getting to do STEM would have that opportunity to explore in a real institute and a real laboratory what is going on. When they are able to engage on a real rather than theoretical level, that is where the love will come from for them.”
“Instead, many third level institutes rely heavily on external and private sources, sometimes at the expense of independent, long-term academic inquiry. It is not just about the infrastructure; it is also about the PhD students. We need to address how PhD students are furthering research here and how they are being paid for that. We need to review that model. These students are so important to research and we cannot treat them as an afterthought. We really must ensure their terms and conditions are put on a suitable standing. Then there are postdocs. The postdoc land is so important. You can get a doctorate but it is what you do with that afterwards. What are the possibilities for those postdocs? How are they resourced? What are the opportunities to further that sort of research? We need to do that further.”
“If we are going to compete and have the brilliant minds we have here going to places like CERN, they need to have those laboratories in the classroom when they are starting on their scientific journey. They also face a shortage of qualified STEM teachers. The Teaching Council's own data shows consistent recruitment difficulties, particularly in physics and computer science. If we cannot find staff for our schools with these specialist teachers, we are narrowing the pipeline of people going on to university and third level to study STEM. Our universities punch well above their weight in global rankings but the system is under increased strain. Core public funding remains below the EU average and has not kept pace with the rising number of students or the demands of high-impact research.”
“When we look at, for example, our current school system, it really struggles to cultivate the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. An example of that would be the leaving certificate, in respect of which reform is overdue. It is still driven by rote learning and leaves little space for experimentation or cross-disciplinary thinking, skills that are really necessary in this modern scientific innovation. The recent ASTI ballots highlighted frustrations around workload, school infrastructure and limited resources for STEM teaching. According to a 2023 survey of the Irish Science Teachers Association, over 40% of Irish secondary schools lack dedicated laboratory facilities.”
“Countries of a comparable size to us such as Norway and Portugal have reaped significant rewards for their involvement. They have not only seen the scientific benefits but also the commercial and reputational gains. Their universities attract more international talent and their students gain exposure to frontier science. Their industries secure contracts and research and development partnerships that might otherwise be out of reach. However, if we are serious about competing on this stage, we must look at our own house because international partnerships are only going to get stronger as the domestic system supports them. To that end, we need to look at the fact that science is not just in laboratories; it starts in our classrooms here at home.”
“Today's motion is a very important milestone in Ireland's journey as a modern knowledge society where research, innovation and international co-operation are placed at the centre of national development. The decision to seek associate membership of CERN is not just a symbolic act; it is a declaration of intent and a clear statement that Ireland sees itself as a serious player in global scientific research. It aligns us with over 20 European countries that recognise that investment in science is not a luxury but a strategic necessity. It is a gateway to opportunity for our universities, our industries and, above all, our students and researchers. It opens the door to participation in groundbreaking projects, collaborations with some of the brightest minds in the world and access to world-class infrastructure.”
“My question is about flood risk and insurance. A number of people have contacted me because they are not able to get insurance in the first place, or when they want to switch to a different insurance provider they cannot because of the risk of flooding. With the rising possibility of floods in the future, what can the Government do to ensure homeowners and potential buyers are able to secure insurance? The reality is that if it is not covered by insurance, the State is going to have to pay out if there is a flood, as happened in my family's home in Germany.”
“We will be despairing. We will be desperate and the deaths will continue, just as they are continuing in Gaza. This motion is not symbolic. It is very clear that we do not want our money to be used for this. We do not want the silence to continue. To facilitate Israeli bonds is to invest, quite literally, in the machinery of occupation, apartheid and annihilation. We have a choice; the people of Gaza do not. I ask that every Deputy vote with their conscience this evening and support this motion.”
“Thank you. As I was saying, hospitals, homes and humanity itself have been reduced to dust and they will read about a world that watched. They will ask every one of us, "What did you do? What did Ireland do?" I ask every Deputy here what they will say in response. As a mother of four, I really struggle to watch the television. I struggle to see those dead children and babies wrapped in cloths. I saw a photograph of a mother in a newspaper today. I thought I might break down crying here today but I will not. The look on her face not only reflected the death of her child but the death of humanity. We should be under no illusion - what is happening in Gaza can happen here. It can happen in this country and we will be pleading with the international community, saying, "Please God, do something for us. Do anything." They will be despairing.”
“I am here today with a very heavy heart, and I have an unwavering sense of duty, not only to this House but to the generations who will read about what is happening right now in the future. Someday, maybe in 20 years or 30 years, school children across Ireland will open their history books and they will come upon a chapter entitled "Palestine". They will read about the tens of thousands of people killed, the children pulled from the rubble and the people starved under blockade.”
“They have never seen anything like this in Germany before and that is what we face here. I am giving a deeply personal experience because it has lasted. When we arrived two weeks later, the place was devastated. We were there at Christmas and it was still devastated. This is four years on in a country like Germany. That is what we face if we are not proactive.”
“The River Poddle flood alleviation scheme includes plans for underground storage tanks, channel upgrades, flood defences and so on. Dublin City Council and South Dublin County Council are working collaboratively on those measures, which is really welcome. This relates to my constituency. I am sure everybody here has their own experience of what it needs to do. We really need to learn from other countries. It has taken Germany, a country renowned for being organised, technical and practical, four years to ensure that businesses are back up to scratch and got the full amount of funding and bridges are being rebuilt. If we are not pre-emptive, prepared and proactive, we face that here with the devastation it brings to communities. This will last generations.”
“That is what happened in July 2021 in the Ahr Valley in Germany, where my husband's family has lived for generations. Four years later, the buildings, bridges and train services are still being rebuilt. The horror of that night not only left a scar on the landscape but also scarred every single person who lives there or has visited there, including my husband, children and all my German relatives. That is what the future looks like if we do not mitigate climate change; if we do not, as my colleagues outlined, look at rivers and do the things that need to be done. Dublin South-Central has a history of flooding by the Camac and Poddle rivers. While those rivers are not huge in comparison with other rivers in this country, their flooding causes damage.”
“I ask colleagues to imagine it is a mid-July night, it is bucketing rain and there are warnings of high river waters and potential flooding of 1 m. A few hours later, the warning changes to 3 m of flooding and then to 5 m. Eventually, when it is dark and cold, there is an 8 m river flowing through the valley, destroying everything in its path and killing 135 of your neighbours. Thinking you are going to die, you sit on the roof and drink your best wine. The only thing you have to drink out of is the toothbrush holder you grabbed on the way out of your home. Eventually, when it becomes brighter and the water subsides, you go down and see your village is absolutely destroyed. It looks like a bomb exploded there and every single thing is destroyed. That disbelief lasts months and years.”
“What can we say to a teenager who is suspended for lashing out, when what they really need is a trauma-informed space and appropriate supports to help him or her? What can we do about the invisible system that only sees behaviour, not the person? Inaction is not neutral; it is a choice. It is a political choice that leaves children behind, entrenches inequality and prioritises budgets over lives. We in the Social Democrats choose that no child should be left behind. We must be brave enough to imagine what the education system Ireland can be for young people most at risk to ensure that they have an equal start, constant support and a bright future.”
“I am delighted to see that there will be a roll-out of how DEIS can be improved, as it really needs to be. There are young people outside the DEIS model, however, who are just lost. We need to bring them in and make sure that they are protected. Alternative education is still treated as a last resort or dumping ground by some people but, for the young people with whom I worked, when they returned to education in an alternative education setting such as Youthreach, a community training centre or iScoil, they were seen for the first time. They were heard and understood. That is when they started to believe in themselves and think that they might have a future. That should not be the exception; it should be standard. What is the plan for any child who loses a parent and is expected to sit through a history test, for example?”
“I get frustrated when I see the Department rolling out strategy documents with well-meaning language and everything, but when it comes to implementation and real system-wide change, the strategies are often found wanting because there are no resources behind them. The other point I wish to make is that there is no coherent strategy for trauma-informed education. Teachers are not being systematically trained in how to understand or support children in distress. The school completion programme, a programme that really works, is forced to scrape together resources each year. It is never sure of funding and does not have enough to reach things. The DEIS schools provide vital support. The Minister and Minister of State know this; I am preaching to the converted.”
“Adverse childhood experiences directly impact the child's cognitive, emotional and physical development and increase the risk of early school-leaving, mental illness, substance misuse and chronic disease later in life. The more trauma a child experiences, the more his or her ability to learn and participate in school is compromised. We must approach education in a policy that operates to support and protect them. What I find frustrating is the fact that we see pilot projects here and there, some of which are brilliant, but they are underfunded, under-resourced and often cut short.”
“They just gave me detentions." This is the Ireland we are responsible for, an Ireland in which a child in trauma is more likely to be punished than supported. We talk often in this Chamber about the importance of education, but education that ignores trauma is not education; it is endurance. It asks children to carry grief, fear and instability on their backs as well as their bags, to sit in school - through double maths, perhaps - and perform as if nothing has happened. That is not resilience. I hate saying that children are resilient. It is not that. That is survival and it is morally indefensible. The science and evidence are there.”
“Those young people are not statistics; they are teenagers who are traumatised. They are navigating poverty, bereavement, the loss of a parent to prison or death and perhaps they grew up in care or homelessness and with violence and systemic neglect. This system that we have does not fit, and is not built for, those students. We have to do something about that. We need to protect these young people and provide for them in our education system. A young person who is experiencing adverse childhood experience, ACE, does not drop out - that desperate phrase - but is pushed out, not always by intention but certainly by design. They are labelled disruptive, difficult or lazy when they are, in fact, surviving unthinkable adversity. A young person once told me, "Nobody asked me why I was angry.”
“The best way to see that is to visit any school in a disadvantaged area and then go to a private school and see the differences in resources, supports, outcomes and expectations. It is staggering. That is not equality; it is systematic injustice. I spent almost three decades working in youth work and education, as well as in teacher education and the school completion programme. I thank the Minister for mentioning school completion so many times in her speech today. I know that my colleagues will be absolutely delighted about that. I have seen first-hand the failures for these young people. I have also listened to those young people. In my doctoral research, I sat with young people who had left mainstream school early, before the leaving certificate. They had gone back to alternative education, which I will come to in a while.”
“We do have a world-class education system, broadly speaking, in Ireland but our system is failing many of our young children and young people, and particularly those facing disadvantage and trauma. I have so much to say but I want to be very specific in my speech today. It is about those young people, the ones we do not capture all the time. When I am talking about education disadvantage and young people facing trauma, I want to be very clear that this failure does not lie with the child, the young person or their families and communities. We, as legislators, and policymakers need to ensure that every single one of them is supported in the best way we can. I urge the Government to take this on board. There are deep inequalities in our schools.”
“The Tánaiste said he will bring a memo on the occupied territories Bill to Cabinet next week. This is a long overdue but welcome step in aligning Ireland's trade policies with our values on human rights and international law. Not a grain of rice, drop of water or vial of medicine has entered Gaza for months. A trickle of aid has now been allowed in, but the Israeli Government is preventing it from being distributed. We all see the distressing images of emaciated children and their desperate parents every day. Gaza is a hellscape and the relentless slaughter and suffering is just incomprehensible and unbearable. All this is happening while we are waiting for the Government to publish the occupied territories Bill, which does not ban the trade of services. Why is the Government diluting the occupied territories Bill in this way?”