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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“This Bill will ensure that the nutritional standards of any school meal served is of a high standard. That is important because a child cannot learn if they are hungry. Equally, they cannot learn if they are not nourished properly. Some of the food that was sent to me was a challenge in that regard. This programme is universal because if a child is hungry and everyone gets a meal, no one knows who is hungry. Everyone is eating the meal and, therefore, no one knows who the hungry child is. That is the huge benefit of this being universal. When it comes to the nutritional value of the meals, some of the meals sent to me had no vegetables. They had no balance or colour. They were unpalatable. I showed some of those photographs to members of the education committee, including to Deputy Darren O’Rourke, who is in the Chamber.”
“All of us in this House who have children know the challenge it is to do this work every single day. I thank them for being there and putting up with me. I will now move onto the Bill. The hot school meals programme came into place because there were children in this country arriving to school every day hungry, and that is not acceptable in this country in 2026. A number of years ago, a pilot was started. Anyone who has heard me speak about education before knows I am not a fan of pilot schemes but that pilot scheme came into place and it was subsequently rolled out. It is now on offer to every primary school in the country. While it also exists in some secondary schools, I am not going to talk about that today. That is another day’s work.”
“I have worked in a number of communities throughout his city. I have worked with the children in Blanchardstown youth theatre, Cabra youth service and Ballymun Anseo school completion programme. I also worked with children and young people for my doctoral research. Those young people taught me that this country has a lot of problems that need to be changed, and that is why I am a politician. I could not change them out there, so I came in here in the hope that I could change something. While we are going nice and slowly, I am still going to keep marching on. I wish to thank my family. My dad and husband, who have worked in the food industry, are sitting in the Public Gallery. I hope I am not going to cry. I thank my children who have to put up with me never being there and talking about stuff that I am sure they do not want to talk about.”
“It has been an absolute pleasure to get this over the line today. I thank the wider Social Democrats membership as well as the parents, school staff and children who contacted me about their experience of the hot school meal programme. Without their input, I would not have had the impetus to move this forward. I thank the members and the secretariat of the education committee. We spent a number of weeks talking about hot school meals and published a report. We also had the opportunity to go to Finland to experience the hot school meals programme there. I particularly thank the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, which drafted this legislation. The office is such a help, particularly for new TDs who need that help and guidance. I thank the children with whom I worked since the late nineties.”
“I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide for the making of regulations by the Minister for Health providing for nutritional standards and related requirements for school meals provided under school meal schemes funded by moneys provided directly or indirectly by the State or local authorities; to provide for the enforcement of such regulations by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland; and to provide for related matters. As this is my first Bill in Dáil Éireann, I am both very proud and nervous. It feels like my maiden speech all over again. It has taken 16 months of work since I was elected in November 2024 to bring this forward and I will thank a few people first. I thank my team, who are in the Public Gallery. They are diligent, hardworking and great craic to work with.”
“That space is now about as undramatic and uninspiring as a place can be. It is absolutely disastrous. It is an affront to people like me who live in the area, and to the people who came to the area to go to the theatre, to see what has been left in its place. Some of the places I have mentioned are in Dublin Bay South and I do not want to rob anybody from Dublin Bay South of their places but in Dublin South-Central, in a very short time, we have seen many more hotels being built, more short-term lets and more student accommodation. We do not need more hotels in Dublin 8, we do not need more short-term lets and we definitely do not need more student accommodation. We need to have a city where people who live there are the ones who are able to enjoy markets, venues, theatre, going out and being with our neighbours.”
“It has been brought back up to a certain standard that meets health and safety requirements. What is going to happen with it afterwards? Can we not be like other European countries, or even like Cork? I went down to the English Market recently. We need that in Dublin. It is such a magnificent thing to have, not only for tourists but for the people who live there. The Liberties is renowned for weaving. The Liberties Weavers were born from that whole tradition of weavers we have in our community. The group meets but it does not have a permanent place. We certainly have enough spaces to be able to provide for those people who are doing amazing work. It is fantastic. The Tivoli Theatre was torn down. Anyone who went to the panto at Christmas or to any of the many different events in the Tivoli will sadly miss it.”
“That is not the only place where there is a difficulty. Newmarket was a thriving market for years. A requirement, as part of the planning permission for one of the buildings in the regeneration or redesign of the area, was that a market be provided in that space. The applicant agreed to that and said anyone can use Newmarket as a market space for €67,000 per year. That is totally unacceptable. I want to know what will be done to make sure a market returns to Newmarket. I have been asking that question of the Department for a very long time and I have been given the wrong answer. I am still asking for an answer to that question. I would really appreciate if the Minister brought it back to the Department. The Iveagh Market lay derelict and in bits for decades.”
“Dublin 8 is a magnificent place of history. It is where I live. I am very proud to live there and am extremely proud to represent the area. There are so many places in Dublin 8 that tourists come to visit, including St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christchurch, Kilmainham Gaol, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, IMMA, the Guinness Storehouse, Dublinia, Marsh's Library, the Liberties and the National War Memorial Gardens. I could go on because there are loads of them. We are really lucky but not every part of the history of the Liberties has been preserved. These include places like Kilmainham Mill which is centuries old. It was brought to a certain standard but it has not been completed. People can go and look at it but it is not functional. I happen to know the person who is a descendant of the people who owned that mill. It is a crying shame.”
“If the match were to be moved to Croke Park, which is bigger, the capacity would be 69,100. Neither of those stadiums would be big enough to hold the number of people dead because of the genocide. If people can picture that in their minds, they will realise the importance of making sure that this match is stopped. The world can see exactly what is going on with the genocide on the Palestinian people and what the Israeli Government is doing. Having that flag flying at any stadium in this country is not acceptable. Just because the match may be moved to a different country, out of sight will not be out of mind.”
“People are saying that politics and sport should not be involved together and have nothing to do with each other. Politics is everything. Sport is everything to many people. Of course, they are naturally intertwined. It was not an issue when Russia invaded Ukraine. International sporting bodies acted swiftly. Sanctions were introduced and its teams were excluded. Political leaders at that time were not shrugging their shoulders as they are now. There are moments when silence is not the right thing and this is one of those moments. I want to consider some numbers. Some 75,000 Palestinians have been murdered and 170,000 have been injured. The Aviva Stadium holds 51,700 for a football match. That is for a football match, where people are seated. That is not the capacity for a concert. I am talking about when people are seated.”
“I thank my colleague Deputy Gibney for the work she has done on this motion. I congratulate Deputy Ennis on his maiden speech. It is a great honour for people to be able to come here and I congratulate him. Football is important to many people. This game has involved many people who would never watch a programme about politics or tune into anything to do with politics. This means a lot to people. The roll-out of this game in this country or another country has ignited a flame for many people who probably just go to football matches and never think about politics. I have been struck by that over the past while. The Government is trying to hide behind the FAI by saying this is not its issue. That is a problem because it can do other things with other organisations. It can provide funding. It is a wishy-washy argument.”
“There are continuing problems in the area of special education in this country. We now have an issue with summer provision, which used to be called July provision. There are children who are still locked out of that. They will not be able to attend school by day because of staffing issues. They will also not be able to apply for home-based provision because that portal has closed. We need an urgent debate in this House about what is going on in special education.”
“You would want to be looking very clearly because it is very smart marketing. That is what we are looking to address here. It is about not being outsmarted by that marketing for 0.0 because it is obviously not about that; it is about the full alcohol. I commend Deputy Rice and his team on their work on this. I would like Government to reflect on what we have had to say here. I am not sure how that goes with removing amendments, but perhaps that might be something that would be considered.”
“I know people my age with children where this is a difficulty. You are at social events and your child wants to drink a 0.0 beer. It is about looking at that part of it and not sliding around the other part saying, "Well, there is no evidence to say there are health implications with 0.0 beer." I am little disappointed in the Government for taking that angle. Often when we come here to talk about health things, and it seems to always be on a Thursday, whether it is vapes or alcohol or whatever, there is massive lobbying going on about this. It is unacceptable. We should look at our conscience. This is also an ethical issue. Is it right to advertise beer, whether it is 0.0 or not? I agree with Deputy Rice that if you look at the adverts that are put up on our social media today, you would not know the difference.”
“What is the big deal?" Years ago, we used to talk about gateway drugs. This is a gateway - this is saying 0.0 is fine, so you can drink it. We need to have a debate here because what we are doing is showing young people they can drink 0.0 because it is fine, but we do not want them drinking beer at all. How do we know they are not drinking 0.0 one minute and then drinking the full thing the next minute? At what age do we say that is too young? Is it at ten that they can drink 0.0 beer? Would you give your six-year-old a 0.0 beer? The conversation here has slid a little. The reason we should not be advertising 0.0 is not because it is zero alcohol and it does not have the effects full alcohol has, it is because young people see it and go, "Sure I can have one of them. Can I have one?" For parents, it is a difficulty.”
“In fact, some people would say it is not fully formed until they are about 25, so even drinking at 18 has detrimental effects on brain development and other parts of the body. Of course, as we all know as adults in this building and everywhere else in this country, alcohol also makes you do mad things, if you drink to excess. We know the harmful effects of alcohol on everybody and young people do too. As someone who has worked with young people for a very long time, I do not want to see any alcohol advertised to them, especially when they are in sporting facilities or outside a school, as Deputy Rice said. That is why those bans are in place. Even if it says 0.0 beside it, young people see through that; they know exactly what is going on. I have been told by many young people, "Sure I can drink a 0.0 beer. There is no alcohol in it.”
“I thank my colleague, Deputy Rice, for bringing forward this legislation. The angle the Government has taken in opposing this legislation is that there is a lack of evidence that 0.0 beer has any health implications. This is a misunderstanding of why advertising 0.0 beer is not appropriate near schools, crèches and in sporting facilities. It is the same as when it was banned for full alcohol or whatever the levels of alcohol were. The difficulty for me, as someone who has worked with children and young people for close to 30 years, is we are trying to discourage young people from drinking beer and taking substances that harm their brain development. We do not want them drinking alcohol, for the reason that the brain is not fully formed.”
“If people do not know whether they are going to have their jobs come September, that is really unfair. Relationships and building relationships with young people, particularly in special schools, is important and we need to make sure that if any staff are to be reallocated elsewhere, it happens in a timely manner so that that relationship can be brought to an end and new ones brought in for the next year. What is the delay and when will they know?”
“I have been contacted by special schools in my constituency that have said that they have not been given their staffing allocations for next year. It is 28 May. It is very late. My understanding is that mainstream schools got their allocations in March and, on that basis, are able to plan for things like classroom allocation and supports. However, special schools do not know at this late stage when it is coming into the trips and all those things that go on in June and they will be very busy. They have not had time to do staffing allocations, so they cannot do timetables or classroom allocations. They are wondering what the delay is. I am aware that one in school in particular did not get its allocation until September last year. That is wholly unacceptable. There is also a knock-on effect for staff.”
“If the Department has a handle on this and is able to work with every family, it gives me great solace coming into the summer to know that every family will have a place for their child come September and that if a school building is not ready or there are glitches, there is a plan.”
“It is good to hear that the Minister of State is using section 37A. It is important that all schools take their fair share of caring for children in their communities, particularly in areas where there might be a high number of fee-paying schools. If it is a fee-paying school that is located nearest to a child, the child also needs to be given a place. It is the same with every school. As we move towards a model where the local school is where the child goes, we still have a long way to go to get there. I am glad that the portal is creating options for parents to know what the situation is, because that was the whole plan the Department had. I am glad it is working out. I would obviously like more information, particularly as I am in opposition and am contacted by so many people.”
“Why are parents applying via the portal? I know they have to notify the Department, but is there a box on that portal that they can tick to indicate that they do not need a place and are fine or do they have to trawl through the whole thing, which creates a lot of difficulty? Would it be better to have a box for them to indicated that they do not need a place and are just letting the Department know their child has an additional need?”
“I am delighted that there is portal methodology and all of that. It will allow us to get a handle on what the picture is. In the context of children who have not yet got a placement, the question remains as whether the schools involved need new buildings. If they do, how long will that take? Where will the children involved be housed or educated while that is happening? Did the Minister of State have to use his powers under section 37 to ensure that schools open appropriate places? We still do not know what the number is. I could use the power of deduction. I am not great at maths, but it would be really helpful if we knew what that number was. Why did the Minister of State refer to the number who applied as opposed to the number who do not have places? Anecdotally, there are children who do not have appropriate school places.”
“I would like to have a conversation about the Minister's plans to publish information on the number of children awaiting appropriate school places on a regular basis. This would be similar to how the relevant Department issues the homeless figures every month. It is in order to show transparency as to where the Department of education is with regard to being able to tell everybody how many children throughout the country do not have appropriate school places.”
“We need to have people who are trained, have the capacity and passion to work with people of all ages who have mental health problems or disabilities, and are supported to reach their best potential. I could not leave this conversation without saying that. While a lot of what I have said is about the pharmaceutical industry or technical aspects, but at the end of this, we need to make sure that every person in this country has the capacity to learn and work to the best of their ability. We need to ensure there are all the supports around that.”
“Regarding disability and other support services, as education spokesperson, I daily hear about the number of children who are identified as having additional needs. We are far behind where we need to be with support services for children and adults who have disabilities. We need to make sure that we are training occupational therapists, OTs, speech and language therapists, SLTs, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and all of those people who can make sure that the disabled person is getting the supports they need. We have a huge issue in this country with mental health and we do not have the support services we need. There are huge waiting lists. In terms of skills, we need not only everything on the technological side, but also a human perspective.”
“Since I have come into this role, I have met a number of people who are working in that industry. We need to support them much more but there needs to be link, not just between people who are working in that industry and third level, but also back to second level. It starts in second level. In fact, I would say it starts in primary school. There are two final points I want to make. All of that said, there are two areas that are really important. None of this will be of any use to anyone if we are not making sure it is inclusive and there is social mobility within it. We cannot leave behind anybody because they live in a socio-economically disadvantaged or rural area, they are a mature student or they have been displaced by AI or automation. We need to make sure we are focusing on that.”
“If we are not using now as the catalyst for moving into all areas of climate, we will really fall behind. Part of that is looking at what technologies we need and where we are with regard to renewables, sustainable construction, the circular economy and all of that sort of stuff. There is a student who has been on work experience with me for the last little while. She will be heading off to do a master's degree next year in an institution in this country. It will cost €9,000. If we want to have things like that, master's programmes cannot be that expensive. That is prohibitive for many people. We are very strong on pharmaceuticals in this country. We need to look at biotech and the capacity there with regard to life sciences, automation and robotics.”
“We need to ask if it can be online or hybrid. There is the mid-career change issue. There are several of us sitting in this Chamber who have changed jobs mid-career to become politicians. That is the same for everybody. People change careers. It is not like years ago when you started, went into a job and stayed in it for 45 or 50 years. The other things I want to talk about are research and innovation ecosystems. How do we do that? How do we have start-up incubators? Where do they fit within that? Somebody mentioned the regions earlier. We need to move out of Dublin; we do not all live in Dublin. We need stronger technological transfer supports within that ecosystem. We have talked about green skills and the climate a lot and the fact that we might miss those targets now.”
“We need to make sure that industry and education are connected, not only in the technical universities or the further education training centres, but also at apprenticeship level. Coming back to lifelong learning for a second, we need a modular basis for learning that is also stackable. I had the pleasure of opening the exhibition for the students in the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, RHA, the other day. They can do modules or they can do a two-year course. I will come back to the Minister at a later stage because the RHA does not have Higher Education Authority, HEA, status and there is something amiss there. It was fantastic to meet those students because they told me that they could come in and do one module and, later, they could do another. It fits into their lifestyle, which is important.”
“There is also software engineering, cloud computing and digital skills for all sectors - small- and medium-sized enterprises, but also for the public sector. We are in here. How are people dealing with it in the Civil Service? How are we dealing with all of these things? The Minister mentioned industry and education collaboration, which is really important because we need those partnerships. One cannot exist without the other. We cannot be training and running loads of programmes at third level that have no relevance whatsoever. In a way, we have that in second level. There is stuff that is not relevant to anything. It is outdated, outmoded and we have done it for years. We need to change that, and that is what is good about the leaving cert reform.”
“Adult education services and organisations like the National Adult Literacy Agency, NALA, are there to make sure people are at the appropriate level because they cannot be left behind, yet they have been for a long time. On that basis, some of the skills we need to be looking at come under one of the Ds the Minister mentioned, namely, digital and AI skills. Whether we like it or not, the reality is AI is here and we need to find a mechanism to be able to use it to our advantage and make sure that everybody is using it in all different sectors but in an appropriate and ethical way. With that comes cybersecurity and data analysis training. What does that mean in all of the different sectors we will be working with?”
“People can learn to work with horses, including equine therapy and working in stable management. That is the sort of practical skills that CTCs have. It is the same with Youthreach and local training initiatives, LTIs. I could not come in here and not say that we need to sort out the contracts for CTCs and LTIs. Organisations are working to assist young people who found mainstream education did not fit how they learned, which is ultimately what the difficulty is. I refer to adult and further education. Community education is important to make sure that anybody who has not had the opportunity to go to third level straight after school has an opportunity to go back and learn. In this country, we have a massive issue with people who still do not have appropriate numeracy and literacy abilities.”
“The easier we can make the transfer from second level to third level and into apprenticeships the better. At a meeting of the further and higher education committee when young apprentices explained the process of applying to be an apprentice I was struck by how complex the process is. Everybody else fills out a CAO form, which is not easy and which is quite complex. For a parent it can be quite daunting, in particular a parent who may never have applied through the CAO. We need to make the apprenticeship process more streamlined. As another Deputy stated, we need to take account of young people not in employment, education or training. I talk about community training centres quite a lot. I will speak about one I visited during the week, namely Cherry Orchard Community Training Centre. It has tied-in equine services.”
“When it comes to learning at third level, we have to examine a number of things. The Minister spoke about broadening first year post-leaving certificate and post leaving certificate applied courses and making them more general. I would love to see that. I often speak about the love of learning, which is something I am very passionate about. The rest of this contribution will probably be about where we are, the skills we need for an economy and so on, but my fundamental starting point on education is the love of learning and passion because that is what will drive us forward. When somebody works in a job they love, they will do really well. It is the same when they are studying. We need to examine what we are offering. I agree with what a previous speaker said. The Minister's focus on apprenticeships is most welcome.”
“That is exactly it. We now have the four Ds. I agree with many of the points the Minister made. We are educating our children and young people leaving secondary school. In terms of where they go on, the starting point is what level people are at when they do the leaving certificate or leaving certificate applied. Many do not know how to open a bank account, change a tyre on a bike or car or do many practical things because we have put them into a system from which they almost have to be deprogrammed. They have to develop critical thinking skills in first year in college. My daughter had to do that in order to start to think about real-life things as opposed to what is taught by means of the leaving certificate syllabus. That is for a different Department and another day.”
“I was late for the Minister's speech because I had to be somewhere else. I have read it and I like the fact that reference was made to the four Ds. I am sure some people in this building will remember the three Cs or whatever the other letters were years ago in education. The three Rs-----”
“We can see the number of students who leave mainstream education because they cannot cope in a system that does not work around them. We need to look at that to see where we are letting children fall through the gaps. It is through no fault of their own, or for want of learning. It is the way our system is. We need to make sure that we are able to fully support them in that way. When it comes to computers and so on, we need more resources for every school. There are students who do not get that funding, and they are missing out. We need to make sure they do not miss out.”
“In primary school, I think that we are doing excellently, and we are able to identify it. In secondary school, the initial teacher training education, the SNA training and the continuous professional development really need to focus on dyslexia and other disabilities. I do not think the expertise is there. They are subject teachers. I am not in any way being disparaging to any teacher. As the Minister of State knows, I love education, and I love the people who work in it because of all the passion they bring to it. However, we can do this better. There needs to be an inspectorate for the services provided to students with dyslexia. The reason for that is to make sure that the standard is there and that every child is getting the resources they need. Many students come to me saying that they cannot read or write.”
“I appreciate that the Government is putting a lot of resources into this, and I know the Minister of State is working tirelessly on it. I accept that. However, we can always do things better. It is my job in opposition to always hold the guys on the other side of the House to account, and I like doing that. There are challenges. We do not have enough reading schools. Dyslexia Ireland is saying exactly what the Minister of State is saying, which is that we want to mainstream everybody, but if we do not have the expertise in every single school, we cannot do that. That is why children need to go to specialist services, like reading schools, for a couple of years. We need to rapidly upskill every single member of staff in primary and secondary school, particularly secondary school.”
“The process for getting reasonable accommodation here is an absolute nightmare. There are two more things I would like to talk about. What students want when they go to school is proper support not just for reading, spelling and all that sort of stuff but also for how dyslexia affects every part of the body and brain. It is about how those supports can be understood by the students. I want to mention NCPD but I will come back to that.”
“We are not keeping on top of what the biggest research is saying, which is to move away from reading recovery and more towards structured literacy. I also want to address the extra ten minutes in the exams. That debate was very heated in the education committee with the NCSE and the State Examinations Commission. They wanted extra time to decide whether they were going to give our students with dyslexia extra time. The irony was not lost on anybody. In other jurisdictions exam support far exceeds what we have. There is a lot more flexibility. We have an extra ten minutes coming in for the papers. In other countries candidates are allowed an extra 25% exam time. Other countries also allow access to word processing, computers and all that sort of stuff. It seems to be a lot easier.”
“That means teaching explicit skills. It is not asking a child what they think is going to happen in a particular sentence or what they think a given word is about. That is useless for a child in the long term. It is great for there and then if they are reading Ann and Barry . I am aware they do not read Ann and Barry any more. It was Ann and Barry in my day and that of the Minister of State but they read more interesting books than that now. Those pictures are relied on so much, whereas the explicit nature of teaching in structured literacy programmes leads to a longer-term understanding of words, structures, etc. It is systemic, sequential, cumulative and has a diagnostic way of looking at literacy. It is really important the Department starts to explore whether we are behind the curve here.”
“As I am sure the Minister of State is aware, it is a programme used for children early on to help them learn how to read. The mixed research is basically saying it is not as effective for the long term. It can be quite effective immediately but the meta-analysis has come back saying that over a long time reading recovery is not as effective as structured literacy programmes are. On that basis I asked how much money has been spent on reading recovery over the last five years. We are talking about figures of just over €248,000 to almost €370,000. That is a lot of money on a programme that is now being looked at by academics, especially in Australia, as not being an effective use of supports for children with dyslexia. I am very interested in the Department's view on moving more to a structured literacy programme.”
“I thank the Minister of State for taking my questions and facilitating the change. It did not suit both of us at the time so I appreciate him being here. We have discussed dyslexia quite a lot at the education committee over the last while and over the time since the committee started discussing it I have been contacted by so many parents, support teachers and students about dyslexia and the supports available in our schools at primary and secondary level. Today in The Irish Times there is an article about a mother whose child needs a reading school but there is no place available for them. I want to discuss a number of things. I asked a parliamentary question about reading recovery because there is new research, though perhaps not that new, about the effectiveness of reading recovery.”
“The Government amendment refers to additional SNAs bringing the total to 24,900 which is welcome but that is thanks to the uproar that happened when there was a threat of cuts to SNAs. We have all these SNAs but they still do not have proper contracts, they do not know about redeployment and the workforce planning has not been published yet either. We can throw all the money we want at disabilities and stand up here and say all sorts of things but the reality on the ground is a different situation altogether, one where disabled people are ignored and failed.”
“I had worked as a support worker for people with disabilities in London for a short time and there was a difference in how people with disabilities were treated in the two places. This Private Members' motion is on costs but I want to highlight the human cost of ignoring and sidelining people who are disabled. The Government's amendment highlights what has been spent by the Department of Education and Youth on disabled people and the additional 860 people for special education. What it fails to say is the allocation for special education teachers was made for mainstream schools in March but, unfortunately, special schools like the mild general learning disabilities schools have not been given their allocation yet, on 26 May. Why is that?”
“I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. The Social Democrats have been vocal about disability rights for a long time. Before the last general election, one of our red-line issues was having a Minister for disability. That was because in this country people with disabilities are failed so badly and we want to protect their rights and deliver what they have identified that they need. The Disability Federation of Ireland is made up of several organisations and its report sets out a stark situation for anyone with a disability. One of the organisations involved is the Irish Wheelchair Association. When I came back from London to Dublin, I worked in that organisation as a personal assistant for a number of people.”
“As a cyclist, I must say that I have never learned as much about buses as I have in the time since I was elected. The reality is that we need to do better. It is vital that the Minister for Transport is responsible for the NTA. I cannot understand why it does not report to him. I am sure it is not called a "quango" but whatever it is called and whatever the relationship is, it must fall under the remit of the Minister for Transport. It must report to him because if it does not, I do not know who it will report to. The Minister needs to get a grip of what is going on in the NTA, particularly in Dublin South-Central and any other place it is going to.”