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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“I know the package of supports is not the HAA card. I would caution that I am aware that for people who were in mother and baby homes and have a HAA card, it does not always work out like it is supposed to be. Where things are supposed to be free of charge, they are being charged but I can come to that at another time. The health liaison officers are still not in place. When will they be in place? It is really a matter of when. I am looking for more specific details than it will be in the near future.”
“While that is welcome and the survivors, with whom I have spoken, are happy the things being outlined are going to happen, the problem is around when they will happen. When will there be the apology from the Government about the criminal records given to these children? The Taoiseach promised these things in the letter in November. When will the apology from the Government about the boarding out of the children happen? Has the circular to the local authorities gone out as promised? With regard to the social protection that would give financial assistance, when will that happen? Some of the people who have been on hunger strike have been suffering financially because they are living in local authority situations that, I have to say, are not great. Before Christmas, I was quite worried about one in particular.”
“I congratulate the Minister on her role. I have not seen Deputy Naughton in the Chamber in this capacity. I wish her the very best of luck. I wanted to discuss those people who were on hunger strike for 51 days before Christmas. Lots of promises have been made and negotiations have happened but there has not been much action. I want to remind people why they were on hunger strike. It was because when they were children, they were boarded out. They were part of industrial schools or reformatory schools. They were physically abused, mentally abused and sexually abused. They were unloved, underfed, beaten, spat at, kicked and punished for years and years. I want to know what are the Minister's plans to make sure that everything they requested and that was negotiated will now come to fruition.”
“The other thing we need to look at is where we build homes and businesses. Floodplains are not something that should be meddled with. They are called floodplains for a reason. On that basis, we need to be cognisant of what future flooding will do. The insurance issue is one that we really need to get a handle on. It is not just flood prevention; it is also what happens afterwards when we do not have the flood prevention methods that we should have already in place.”
“Sandbags were issued, but they are only a temporary solution. A permanent solution is definitely needed. Flooding of a business or home is devastating. The Minister of State may not know, but my husband's family experienced flooding in Germany a number of years ago. All of the homes in the villages around the area where they live were destroyed, as were all of the businesses. A total of 130 people died. Following that was the realisation that many people were not covered by insurance. The German Bundestag is now discussing how to ensure that every property has natural hazard cover, which can be opted out of but which has to be provided. It is time that this happened here as well. We cannot have people left in dire situations. Flooding destroys every part of a home. It also destroys people’s lives.”
“I have spoken many times in this Chamber about flood prevention and future planning. Climate change means that Ireland will be more prone to flooding due to adverse weather conditions. In my constituency, there are a number of rivers that have either caused or threatened to cause flooding. The River Poddle flows through Kimmage, Crumlin and Harold's Cross. I am happy that a flood alleviation scheme is happening there at the moment. Work on that is ongoing. It cannot happen fast enough, particularly in view of the weather we are having. The River Camac in Kilmainham and Inchicore is in need of culvert repair, embankment reinforcement and other flood prevention measures. The River Liffey flows through Chapelizod, where residents were recently in fear of flooding due to the non-stop rain.”
“What was a right attached to childhood becomes a discretionary adult immigration process. In practical terms, it means a child could do everything right by engaging with the system and complying with every requirement and still be permanently prevented from being reunited with parents or siblings because of an arbitrary waiting period. That is not an unintended side effect. It is a foreseeable outcome of the proposed policy. A policy that operates in this way will not only delay family life for children; it will deny it altogether. If we are serious about protecting children, we cannot design a system where the clock will be used to quietly strip them of their rights.”
“The Minister should be honest this. If the numbers are small and the impact on the system is negligible, the only remaining explanation is that this policy exists to look tough, rather than to work well. In that case, the right thing to do would be simply to drop it. There is an additional serious consequence, which has received far too little attention, for unaccompanied minors. A three year waiting period effectively operates as a denial of family reunification altogether. Children who arrive in Ireland at 15 or 16 years of age and are recognised as refugees will then be told they must wait for three years before applying to be reunited with their families and will likely age out of the system before the waiting period expires. Once that happens, they will lose access to child specific protections that apply to unaccompanied minors.”
“It is also worth stating clearly that many families seeking reunification are children or young people and when siblings or parents are prevented from joining family members here, it is the child who bears the emotional cost. None of this is required by the EU asylum and migration pact. The pact sets minimum standards. It does not oblige Ireland to impose waiting periods, financial thresholds or additional barriers on recognised refugees. This is not about compliance. It is about political signalling and the signal being sent is that, even after the State accepts people as refugees, even after they have proven their case, their right to family life remains conditional and fragile. That approach undermines integration. It undermines trust in the system and undermines Ireland's long-standing commitment to human rights.”
“People who are reunited with their families are more likely to work, settle and participate in their communities and more likely to rebuild their lives after trauma. Prolonged family separation has the opposite effect. It deepens isolation, worsens mental health, delays language acquisition and employment and keeps people in a state of permanent uncertainty. Being separated from one's family has to be utterly hard. From a human perspective, being separated from those you love because the computer says "No" must be absolutely devastating to every element. I am speaking as a mother. Being separated from children because I am in a different country seeking safety, whatever cruelty I would have experienced to get here, is ongoing cruelty after I have arrived.”
“It is a choice to prolong family separations long after the State has accepted a person cannot safely return home. It is also important to say clearly that this policy does not address any of the real pressures in the system. Preventing a few hundred people from reuniting with close family members does nothing to solve accommodation shortages, reduce processing blockages or improve reception conditions. What it does is target a marginal group of people, precisely because it is small and its members dispersed and it is politically convenient to do so. That is why this feels like performative cruelty rather than a serious migration policy. Family reunification is one of the strongest predictors of successful integration.”
“The starting point has to be numbers because the political debate has become completely detached from reality. Last year, Ireland granted family reunification to just 669 relatives of people with international protection status. That is the full scale of what we are talking about. These are not people who arrived yesterday or who have bypassed the system. These are people who have already met one of the highest legal bars in the State. They have been formally recognised as refugees after a rigorous process that often takes years. Yet, instead of supporting integration at that point, the Minister is signalling a policy that would deliberately delay family reunification for up to three years, potentially with a layer of additional financial requirements on top. That delay is not neutral. It is not administrative.”
“I ask Government Deputies to really look at their constituencies and other constituencies, like mine in Dublin South-Central, where things are not great for everybody, and to identify the things that are really important to people. That is living properly, sustainably, living a good life and not struggling with poverty all of the time.”
“She was not only being badgered about the mock exams, but she was also being badgered about the not-so-voluntary voluntary contribution. This woman was being put under so much pressure. It is not acceptable. Last week, the Social Democrats had a Private Members' motion about an emergency winter payment for disabled people. As has already been said, the Minister claimed we were gaslighting him and that there was no such thing as choosing between heating and eating. We are not making that up. We are hearing from people in the three agencies involved in getting that motion recognised. This is not made up. People in this country are struggling. I am very thankful to Deputy Healy for bringing this forward.”
“Unfortunately, however, schools are not able to be funded to the level they want to be. I know there was an increase but there needs to be more. A woman contacted my office recently. It is just before the mock leaving certificate exams; I have a child doing them at the moment. It is a tense time in households. The school her child goes to was badgering her for the fee for the mocks. She did not have the money at all and she said she would have to borrow the money from a family member. The school told her that if she did not get the money in, the child could not sit the mocks. What the heck? I do not want to curse but I am getting close to it. That is a disgrace. Other mechanisms in the school can be used for that; whatever it is, use it.”
“They go on to first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth year and they are still hungry then. I really want to see that programme rolled out to secondary schools. We need to make sure the food that is provided there is nutritious and is something they want to eat. Getting that balance, as anyone who is a parent will know, is also a challenge. We need to work hard on that. There is the cost of education itself. Voluntary contributions should have their name changed to "not voluntary at all, depending on the school and how much pressure they put on the parent" contributions. Some schools will respect the fact that it is voluntary and will not chase parents for it because what they are looking for are the nice things in the school that maybe the school cannot provide.”
“The fundamental difficulty with then stigmatising a child who is poor in giving them a meal has always been a difficulty, but the hot school meals have been fantastic in making sure that no one feels stigmatised and every single child gets a hot school meal. The shame of poverty is something else. Only those who experience it can truly describe what it is. The hot school meals programme will make sure that every single child in this country gets a hot school meal, but especially children who are hungry. Not a single child in this country should be hungry at school, whether that is primary or secondary school. I look forward to the scheme being rolled out in secondary schools because there is also a huge need there. Children do not stop being hungry after sixth class.”
“There is no need for it and there are solutions, but unfortunately they are not being implemented. Poverty really does affect children's learning. As my party's education spokesperson, I have spoken so many times about the young people I worked with over the almost 30 years when I was involved in youth work and a school completion programme. It affects their daily life in terms of their learning but also their thriving in society. It is the same for adults. There is a lot of conversation at the moment about the hot school meals. They were brought in because there are children who are hungry in our schools. They were there before and they are still there. When you are hungry, you cannot learn.”
“I thank Deputy Healy for bringing forward this motion. It is timely that we are discussing a cost-of-living Private Member' motion. The Social Democrats have brought forward a number of measures to try to support people with the ever-increasing rise in the cost of just existing, due to the cost of so many things. I want to focus on a number of areas and the first is poverty. We have been hearing for a very long time about the number of children who are living below the poverty line. It is one in five, or 225,000 children in this country who are living below the poverty line. The effects of poverty are lifelong. Poverty affects not only the generation experiencing it but the generation that comes after it. There is absolutely no reason anyone in this country should be identified as living below the poverty line. We are a rich country.”
“I may have skipped a step because how will they get out of their childhood bedrooms to get to rent somewhere or to buy somewhere? A colleague of mine, who is 26 years of age and an administrative assistant in this House, can no longer afford the rents in the place where they live and has moved back to their family home because the rents are so unaffordable. That is a colleague of ours in this House. I am really concerned about students travelling up and down to apprenticeships, universities and technical colleges around the country who cannot afford the rents there. They are spending a long time travelling because they cannot afford to live there. This Bill is deeply flawed. I am very concerned not only for the current people who are renting but also for the people in the future.”
“It was built by the fledgling State, between 1922 and 1924, at a time when we were not rich. We had our centenary recently. We were a fledgling State trying to get up on our feet. We were able to produce these homes, which are of a really high standard. If we could do that then, why now when we are so wealthy can we not build homes? Yesterday, my colleague, Deputy Hearne, launched the State construction company proposal that the Social Democrats are offering as a solution to the Government as to how we can do this. We cannot just rely on private investors and private developers for the housing situation because that is the problem. That is the place we are in now. The last thing I will say, before my colleague comes in, is that I am concerned about how young people will ever get on the property ladder.”
“We hear time and time again about teachers, particularly newly qualified teachers, who are unable to afford to live in Dublin and pay their rents. Every single week, my clinics in my constituency are inundated with people in absolutely dire housing situations who are being evicted through no fault of their own and literally have nowhere else to go. People who are approved for HAP, for homeless HAP and for everything cannot get somewhere to live because they just cannot afford it. As I have already outlined, given the average going rent today in Dublin South-Central, it is no wonder they have nowhere to live. Then they turn up in homeless situations. I live in the Tenters in an area called Fairbrother’s Fields. It was the first tenant purchase scheme that this State ever built.”
“I do not know who can afford this. I do not think this Bill will do anything to protect anyone who is in this situation. The Minister has openly stated that the goal is to stop long-term rents from falling behind market rents, but this means that all renters will eventually pay an unaffordable rent. The Bill fails to protect against evictions of current renters. When they are evicted, how will they then afford the rents in newer places where rents are really high? People will be locked out. They will be left in renting for the rest of their lives, if they can get somewhere to rent. It will make home ownership impossible for young people. It will create unaffordable rents for key workers, which I am very concerned about as my party's education spokesperson.”
“Each time they are reset, I will be particularly concerned about those who are already vulnerable in paying the rent at the rate it is currently at. When that rent increases to a higher level, they will not be able to pay it. I am also very concerned for students. Students move regularly because they rent for ten months of the year and then they move somewhere else. They are subject to this change as well. It means it is not safe for them. Of course this Government does not build affordable student accommodation, which means students have to rent on the private market. Before I came into the Chamber, I looked at daft.ie for rental properties in my own constituency. A one-bed apartment in Crumlin is advertised at €2,266 per month. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, which is advertised as a family home, is €3,200 per month in Chapelizod.”
“This Bill is deeply flawed. It says it is going to protect security of tenure, but it is like I am living in a parallel universe. I am hearing two sides. The Minister's story is one thing and the reality for our constituents is different. The suggestion is that the Bill will protect existing renters from rising rents. Apparently, it is going to protect renters and set rents at market rates. It promises the sun, moon and stars but the reality is that it will not deliver what it purportedly sets out to deliver. New tenants will face immediate market rent increases. There are no guarantees that people will not be evicted. The rents are set at market levels that are so high that I am really concerned.”
“It is a two-way road but it is only wide enough for one car and cyclists often bear the brunt of that. St. Cillian's National School in Bluebell has been begging for road safety measures outside the school. They have still not been implemented. That is an accident waiting to happen.”
“I would love to say it is scrambler city but I am sitting beside Deputy McAuliffe and scramblers are in his area and many other areas. I was coming home from work the other day and going towards Christchurch Cathedral and there was a scrambler doing a wheelie all the way up the road. This was a few days after that poor young woman in Finglas was tragically killed by a scrambler. Scramblers are a mode of transport for many young and older people. I am glad we are putting measures in place now but it has taken the death of a young person for that to happen. My heart goes out to that young woman's family and friends and all who loved her. I am a cyclist and the mother of cyclists and my heart is in my mouth half of the time because of the absolute state of the cycling infrastructure in this city. Kilmainham Lane is one example.”
“Road safety is an issue in every part of the country. In recent weeks and today, we heard of yet more tragedies. I welcome any measures that can be taken to make road safety better but I will not hold my breath. These are some examples from my constituency, Dublin South Central. Calm Crumlin Road was set up a few years ago because of the absolute danger zone that road is. Two years ago, a woman was tragically killed on her bicycle and two years later - recently in November - another accident almost identical to that one happened, so nothing is happening in that area to make it safe for people to use it. The absolute tragedy of the intertwined lives that were impacted by that woman's death was recently spoken about on "Liveline". This is echoed throughout the country. Dublin South Central has scramblers.”
“We would prefer if Deputy Coppinger did not mention any company that is not here and cannot defend itself. Others have not done it, so it would be great if Deputy Coppinger could also not mention company names because they are not here to defend themselves.”
“What can we do to make sure that this €150,000 goes back into this community? The reality is youth services were cut drastically in austerity - really badly. They are inching their way back up but they are not back to the level they were before those cuts. Funding has certainly not been adjusted for inflation. On that basis, with this youth service asking for this pittance in comparison with the size of the budget we have, I ask the Minister to reconsider it and please visit so he can see how brilliant the work is.”
“Receiving a grant of €4,000 under the youth club grant scheme is fantastic, as is receiving €28,000 for the summer hot meals programme. In order to run the summer meals programme, the service needs all of the staff it currently has to deal with the 1,700 children who come through its doors. Losing three staff will mean fewer children will be fed in the summer months. As we know from the last few weeks, the hot school meals have been fantastic for young people. The delivery could be improved, and that is what we all want, but youth services being given that job during the summer is exactly what should happen. However, if the Ballyfermot service is down three staff, fewer young people will be able to engage in that programme. I feel like I am at an auction. Can we go higher? Can the Department give more money?”
“I am delighted to hear that the Government values the work being done in Ballyfermot. If the Minister of State or the Minister ever gets an opportunity to visit, they should take it because the model there is fantastic. I spoke to the community garda in Ballyfermot who said that Ballyfermot Youth Service safeguards vulnerable young people. The role it plays in diverting young people from crime and anti-social behaviour cannot be overstated. We have heard a lot in the Dáil in the last week about the scourge of scramblers in this city and throughout the country. Places like youth services, where young people can be, can learn pro-social skills and can be involved in things they like, are absolutely transformational, not only for the young people themselves but also for their communities.”
“The need is there, so we need to be able to move the service in with the other mainstream funding services. The sum involved is €150,000, which is not a lot of money in the grander scheme of youth work provision. We need to make sure the investment in youth work in Ballyfermot is not lost as a result of losing those youth workers. We need a prevention model that takes the long-term view of what can be done for families in the area. We need to mainstream this and make sure that the service is available all of the time. That means that the allocation for 2026 needs to be adjusted for this youth service so that it is able to bring this into the mainstream part of the service to become part of the furniture. It is not the icing on the cake but is now part of the bread and butter services provided by Ballyfermot Youth Service.”
“Tonight, I will be attending the community safety forum in Ballyfermot, which will be attended by representatives of Dublin City Council, An Garda Síochána, youth workers and people who live in the community. They are the pillars of our community, the people who hold it all together. What can be done here? I have written to the Minister about this and the reply I got just told me about all of the funding that the service gets already. The service is delighted with that funding - do not get me wrong - but it is going to lose three workers in this project because the long-term impact of having them now is not being considered. This is the problem when youth services and other services around the country rely on one-off funding. They become reliant on it to provide services.”
“What is at risk now is the employment of two youth workers who were employed under that funding stream, as well as a psychotherapist who supports young people. When people grow up in an area of disadvantage, psychotherapists are like gold dust but they are really needed. There is intergenerational trauma and poverty and young people in areas like Ballyfermot really need to have mental health supports that are often not available. There are queues for everything in this country, particularly when it comes to youth mental health, so to have that service on site is absolutely vital. This is a basic service and one that every youth service should have. A long time ago, I worked as a youth worker and I have to say that youth work changes lives and saves lives.”
“The service has been able to expand into many different areas, including having a fantastic outdoor pursuits programme under which it brings young people down to Wicklow. For anybody who grows up in the city centre, going somewhere outside where they can see the stars all night, where they can see cattle, trees and hedgerows, is very different. To have that facility in the youth service is absolutely amazing. Ballyfermot Youth Service has received funding from the community safety innovation fund but that funding is coming to an end. The challenge is that it has not been mainstreamed, so it is not being taken into consideration along with the other sources of funding from the Department of Education and Youth.”
“I am raising this issue on behalf of Ballyfermot Youth Service, which I visited recently. It has a fantastic facility in Ballyfermot. I am not sure if the Minister of State has ever been to Ballyfermot. It is an area of Dublin which has faced a lot of difficulties over many decades but there is a great sense of community in it, and that can really be seen in the skate park facility that has been built there. It is absolutely fantastic. Youth service staff lock it up every night and open it up every morning. There are staff members and youth workers there to make sure that young people who are doing what they do best in a skate park, living their best lives, are supported in whatever way they can be. The challenge faced by the youth service is that it is so successful that more and more young people are coming to the service every year.”
“At the same time, special schools are facing redesignation and we are still being told that children do not have a school place despite being told that there are plenty of spaces. Why are the NCSE and the Department of Education and Youth running parallel systems? They seem to be running in parallel. I am being told different things and children are being locked out. It is causing confusion and it is very concerning.”
“Despite repeated assurances from the Government, there is still a crisis in special education. Children are travelling miles outside their communities and some are still without a school place. Assurances were given to me that the closing of the portal on 1 October would not mean that any child would be shut out. However, children are being shut out because the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has failed to engage with them. Only 7% of post-primary schools have opened with the target set by the Department of education. In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, Clogher Road Community College was told by the NCSE last academic year that it would open, but it has not been on the sanction list.”
“I am happy to see the Minister has put resources into mental health because, as we know, at third level, that is important, as are other aspects of health, for those young people who are estranged and living an independent life at a premature age in terms of what they need. As we know, being in your early 20s is still quite a challenging time for many young people.”
“We hear from students and groups who support them that the current system cumulatively creates hardships for those students. It is bureaucratic and burdensome. The proof requirements are narrow and assumptions about family supports perhaps do not match the student's reality. Given that there are so few of these students, could a body be set up to meet these young people and take a trauma-informed approach? I am not talking about the over-23s. I am really talking about finding a way to support those at undergraduate level who have come straight from school and are aged 18, 19, 20 or 21. The SUSI grant is one part but there are other grants.”
“The number of people involved is not huge. I accept that in cases where people might be taking advantage of that potential, it would have to be ruled out because we have to protect taxpayers' money. However, I am focused on the small number of people who are estranged from their parents, for whatever reason. There has to be a trauma-informed mechanism in our education system and through the SUSI grant to support those students. What I mean by that is, if you are estranged from your parents, something awful has happened. I am aware of students who live in the same household as their parents and their parents have nothing to do with them. AMLÉ, formerly the Union of Students in Ireland, has made a number of suggestions to simplify proof of estrangement. The system still needs to be robust and broader reforms need to be brought in.”
“I would like to discuss a sensitive issue with the Minister. How is he planning to support students who are estranged from their parents? How can such students access SUSI grants and other supports on campus? A number of students who are in quite challenging situations due to estrangement from their parents have contacted me. Their circumstances leave them financially vulnerable and potentially prevent them accessing third level education. The current system is bureaucratic and difficult to navigate. Sometimes the systems are seen, not the people.”
“With regard to what the Government is saying about flood planning in the future, can anything be done for councils around the country that are dealing not only with fixing the problems from the floods but also with preventing them in the future? It is about funding for councils to deal with the effect of flooding and rainfall on council housing.”
“Following Storm Chandra in the past few days, many homes around the country have been destroyed. I have stood in this Chamber previously asking about flood alleviation and what will be done in terms of planning. As I told the House on those occasions, I have personal experience, with my German family, of the effects of flooding. Four years later, things are not great from a building perspective but also from an emotional and psychological perspective. Things are very difficult and that is echoed in any society where a flood has come and caused damaged. In Dublin South-Central, Dublin City Council homes cannot be maintained because there are just not enough maintenance crews and this brings so many issues.”
“We love giving our solutions away because we have solutions that are costed, focused and evidence based. We are working with people in the community in this country and we know that things are not as good as they should be. I ask the Minister to consider what we are saying.”
“I really hope I am just being uber-cynical and that this will not prove to be the case. In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, I meet people who are struggling to pay bills, eat healthily and heat their homes. They really need this extra money. As I said earlier, no one in this country should be struggling or falling below a safety net. They should be allowed to live their lives with dignity. This motion gives the Government a solution. The Taoiseach regularly stands where the Minister is sitting now during Leaders' Questions and tells us that we do not offer solutions. Here is a solution. It is very practical. As Deputy Whitmore said, it is not going to cost the earth but it will mean the world to people with disabilities. This is an easy solution. Please take it.”
“The programme for Government contains a commitment regarding the introduction of "a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment." However, when it came to budget 2026, there were tumbleweeds. Nothing was included. The Government has come out with this new mantra that this is year one of a five-year budget. That is no use to people with disabilities who cannot pay their bills now. As my colleagues stated, they are choosing between eating and heating. They are choosing whether to turn on a dialysis machine and to live their lives with dignity. The cynical part of me wonders whether the Government is saving up money in this year one of a five-year budget until just before the next election, when there will be a big splurge. I really hope I am wrong about that.”
“When we have all of the budget surpluses we have, I am lost for words that we always choose to forget the most vulnerable in our society. The need for a cost-of-disability payment was identified as far back as 2004, only a couple of years after I came back from London, when I was working with people with disabilities. That principle was reaffirmed by the State-commissioned Indecon report published in 2021. In 2022, the ESRI produced a report, Headline Poverty Target Reduction in Ireland and the Role of Work and Social Welfare, which found that "working-age ... [people] with disabilities ... experienced distinctively high rates of income poverty, deprivation and consistent poverty". It is mind-boggling that working people would still face consistent poverty.”
“This motion requires the Government to do the right thing for disabled people. I worked with the Irish Wheelchair Association in the late nineties as a personal assistant. Just before that, I worked as a personal support worker for disabled people in London. I was a newly graduated young person and I was very happy to do that work and gain an insight into the perspectives, practical needs and care needs of people with disabilities. At the time, I noted that services and supports for disabled people in London were far better than those for Dubliners. I am not sure that Dubliners are now in a better situation than they were in the late nineties. Things are equally as bad. This country needs to make sure that all vulnerable people are protected.”