Jennifer Whitmore
Wicklow · Social Democrats · Ireland
“The Minister for justice recently brought in reforms for the criminal justice legal aid system. While we all recognise that there is a need for reform within the system, the reforms that the Minister has brought in are ill-considered, not backed up by data or evidence and have led to absolute chaos in the courts system.”
“Hundreds of jurors were recently told that their services were no longer required. Many vulnerable people in the legal system are falling through gaps.”
“A hosepipe ban will come into force in a number of counties on the east coast from tomorrow. I completely understand that because we are seeing record temperatures and are in the middle of dealing with the climate crisis and climate change.”
“In 2024, 1,000 incidents of antisocial behaviour were recorded on Dublin Bus. That was nearly double the figure recorded just a few years earlier. Unfortunately, this is not just limited to Dublin. We are also seeing instances of this in my constituency, Wicklow, on Go-Ahead services.”
“More than 1,000 people died in Spain due to heat-related causes in June of this year alone. By early July, Spain had 14 major forest fires and 50,000 ha of land had been burned. Across Europe, more than 10,000 excess deaths associated with the recent heatwave were recorded in a single week. These warnings have to be taken seriously.”
“As a family member, you wonder if the person is getting care, whether they are being fed properly and whether they are being looked after. There is no visibility. There is a dementia care home in Shankill that a lot of people from my constituency use, St. Joseph's. It is incredible. I visited it recently.”
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“At the same time, carriages that could have been applied to that Wicklow line have been set aside and are going to Drogheda. When that system and those carriages go to Drogheda, it is making an already good line even better. Whereas Wicklow, which has an incredibly poor line with absolutely insufficient rail services, should be brought up to some level of standard. That should have been the priority and not an already well-serviced and functioning line. I ask the Minister to look into that because people need to have proper rail services available to them.”
“Where we could quite simply roll out these sensory carriages, I ask the Minister to look into it. That is the least commuters deserve. I will take a moment to talk about my own constituency of Wicklow. It has been raised here already but the train services in Wicklow are beyond bad. We have seen improvements year after year on all the other routes but for some reason, despite Wicklow's increased population and the fact so many people commute, we still have a single line and only six trains going from Wicklow town to the city. It is not acceptable. There have been promises of a battery electric DART to Wicklow town. Previous Ministers said that was going to happen in 2025, but then it was 2026. It is now targeted for 2029.”
“They also serve commuters, patients, students and remote workers - anyone who needs a bit of quiet space to rest or work in peace. They make travel time more productive, reduce stress and support the flexible workforce. It is a low-cost, simple measure that could be put in place, and is already in place on the Cork-Dublin line, on which it works very well. When I contacted the Minister, and I am not sure if it was the Minister of State or the line Minister who responded, apparently they are not going to be rolled out across all lines. They are being considered for the Dublin to Belfast route. However, there are no plans to expand quiet carriages beyond that because of capacity concerns. Instead, passengers with sensory issues are being offered a pair of sunglasses, headphones and a fidget spinner. That is not inclusion; that is tokenism.”
“Abandoned lines like Claremorris-Sligo are being left untouched. One of the biggest issues is that the plan has no deadlines, urgency, ambition or accountability. We need a transport system that meets climate targets and serves communities, and we needed it yesterday. This is not just about having rail in place. It is also about the experience of using it. I have contacted the Minister on this because it is not just about where the train goes but what it is like to be on that train. That is why I am calling for quiet carriages on all intercounty trains. These carriages support our neurodiverse passengers and create a calmer space for people with anxiety, PTSD or sensory issues, and they ensure equal access to public transport for all, which is really important.”
“I welcome the all-island strategic rail review. It is a vital step towards connecting the unconnected throughout the country. Ultimately, however, it is a missed opportunity because it is not ambitious enough. Even if it were fully implemented, the review would still leave us behind the Ireland of 1906. It is not often that we look back at the country 100 years ago and say, "Jesus, if we were only there now with all those railway lines and rail services." That fact alone is damning. Fermanagh has been entirely excluded from the review, Donegal is barely included and towns with a population of under 10,000 are ignored. This really limits future growth and opportunity. It is shocking that there is no mention of coastal erosion in this document. We are developing a 25-year plan while ignoring the rising sea.”
“I propose an amendment to the Order of Business in relation to statements on LNG. It was reported today that An Coimisiún Pleanála has written to the Minister seeking a clear position from Government on commercial LNG. It is time for the Government to stop talking out of both sides of its mouth with regard to LNG. We need clarity on that.”
“Can the Minister please make sure that review happens now, so this school can be equipped with the care and support it needs for the students in the coming school year?”
“I raise with the Minister the issue of a special school in Bray, County Wicklow. It is Marino special school, which caters for children with complex needs. It is critically overstretched when it comes to its SNA allocation. An exceptional care review was to be conducted on 18 June. That was cancelled on the evening of 16 June by the NCSE and the school was told that care review would happen in the next school year, which is no good to Marino. I was surprised that this is actually happening. Marino special school has never had a review of its care needs. Interestingly, in September 2024, the school made four urgent applications to the NCSE in relation to four students. It never heard back from the NCSE, and another ten similar applications are sitting on a desk, which were to be discussed at the review.”
“If we could see exactly how problematic this is, the difficulties it is causing and on what routes it is causing them, in a more real-time fashion, that would be very useful.”
“I thank the Minister for that. I acknowledge that there have been improvements, but some routes have been particularly hit. I believe they are those routes in Wicklow. This is one of the problems. When a bus does not show up, it requires the person left standing there to email the NTA, Go-Ahead Ireland or a TD. They usually come to a public representative and say there are problems. When we see that there are multiple problems, we raise the matter here with the Minister. What would be really useful is transparency when it comes to what is being missed. No-Show Bus in Cork was set up by a student there, and there is one in Dublin that was set up by Dublin Inquirer . If we had some sort of system like that, it would bring greater transparency in respect of this problem.”
“I raised the matter with the NTA, which stated that this is not to be allowed at all. We have had multiple instances of it, so there are still major problems.”
“The roll-out started in January, and there were major problems when it started. It has got better. Unfortunately, there are still problems on many routes, including the L2, L1, L3 and L15. The reality is that people who go to get a bus need to know that it will show up. They need more than to think that it might show up or that it will show up most of the time. A bus needs to show up every single time or else people will not use buses and will not be able to trust the service. Unfortunately, that is what is happening in Wicklow, with buses not showing up, buses being late and elderly people having to wait for two hours for an hourly bus that just did not appear. I have had two instances this month of the last bus of the night being cancelled. It is completely unacceptable for that to happen.”
“Is the Minister aware of the ongoing issues with the provision of Go-Ahead Ireland's bus service in County Wicklow and the fact that its contract is up for renewal? I extend an invitation to him to come to Wicklow and stand at a bus stop down there with me and wait for the bus to come, seeing as invitations are being thrown out this evening.”
“The building of 106 social homes in Blessington was halted recently, which makes no sense to me during a housing crisis, where money is apparently not an issue in this case and the homes had planning permission. Will the Tánaiste explain exactly what happened with these homes and when building will start? There is no clarity as to whether or when building will start.”
“They will emigrate and bring their skills with them. We will train them here and they will move overseas. Those are the facts. Our GPs are crying out for support. Our patients are crying out for medical assistance. Will the Tánaiste please take his head out of the sand and deal with this crisis before it becomes insurmountable?”
“The name of the programme in question was GP Care for All. Unfortunately, last year they had to come to the Dáil to campaign to be kept open. Clearly, that small proportion of GP services that follow the model we want, and that was agreed under Sláintecare, have to fight to stay open because the Government has not been supporting them sufficiently. I will give the Tánaiste some statistics in response to those he provided. Six in ten GPs across the country cannot take on any new patients. They have closed their books. The measures the Government has brought in only scratch the surface and have not resulted in the changes we need to see in the number of GPs. Of those who took up the 350 new entrant positions the Tánaiste talked about, 30% will go to Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand.”
“The concept of salaried GPs is something that most of those in opposition agree with. The introduction of such GPs is also the subject of a commitment in the programme for Government. In light of that, what exactly is holding this up? Successive Governments have talked about the reform of GP services for decades, but the GP contract has largely remained the same for 40 years. At what point will the Government stop talking about it and start doing it? When will it start taking the GP crisis seriously and when will we see the introduction of salaried GPs?”
“It is blindingly obvious that we need more GPs. We know what the barriers are for GPs. Why is the Government not taking action to address the shortfall? A critical reform that must be rolled out is the introduction of salaried GPs. This is where GPs would be directly employed by the HSE. When GPs go into medicine, they do so because they have a passion for making people better. They did not necessarily go into medicine to be businesspeople, accountants or employers. What they want is a better work-life balance. Having a salaried position provided by the HSE is the answer to that. I must also address the issue of the GP "deserts" across the country, particularly in rural areas. These are places, where we are unable to get people to set up their own practices.”
“The Government is sleepwalking us into a disaster because it is not treating this with the level of urgency it demands. A new report this week states that we will need at least 940 GPs over the coming 15 years in order to meet the demand that exists. Where is the Government's plan to deliver these GPs? I acknowledge that some new training posts have been created, but that is just scratching the surface of what is needed. We need instead a sense of urgency. However, there has been nothing but foot dragging. The most recent example of this is the strategic review of general practice. This review started in 2023 and was supposed to be completed that year. More than two years later, there is still no sign of it. How long more will have to wait for action? We do not need more reviews. We know what the issues are.”
“GP services around the country are at breaking point. They are oversubscribed and understaffed. It can often take two or three weeks before people get to see their doctors. I spoke to a 90-year-old woman recently. She has to wait three weeks when she needs an appointment. She has a history of dizziness and falls. Oftentimes, she ends up in accident and emergency, which sends her back to her GP. We see the problems there. I also dealt with a child in the constituency the Tánaiste and I represent who needed chemotherapy but the GP list in her new home area was two years long. As a result, she could not get to a GP to get a referral for chemotherapy. This is a ticking time bomb, and it is about to go off. GP services are the foundation of our health service. If they crumble, everything else will collapse.”
“They are the ones who cannot afford rents. They are the ones who cannot afford their own home. They are the ones who are retired and are worried about whether they might be made homeless. Those people can see exactly what the Government is doing and failing to do. They will not forgive it for that.”
“Yes, the Government is taking decisions, but it is taking all the wrong decisions. That is the problem and that is what we are saying to it. It needs to completely rethink its policy and needs to start prioritising people who want to be homeowners, people who want to be able to afford the rent rather than the investors. That is the crux of the problem. The Government's policies are being directed by the investors. The Taoiseach spoke about never having a real opportunity to tease things out here. That is because every time he comes into this Chamber all he does is spend his time deflecting, gaslighting or blaming the Opposition when it is his responsibility to put in policies that meet the needs of our people. People are not being fooled because they are the ones who are living through this housing crisis.”
“I am acutely aware that every time we discuss housing in this Chamber it feels hopeless and that is because we are usually discussing failed policies of the Government. It does not have to be like this. The problems we are facing now are because of the wrong political choices being made, but the Government can make the correct political choices. However, that will mean it will have to admit that what it was doing was not working and agree to a complete reset of policy where the Government prioritises people who want to own their homes and not investors. It is clear that not once was that mentioned. Of all those rental homes the Government is proposing will be developed, none will be able to be purchased to be someone's home. I urge the Taoiseach to listen to the Opposition. We have concrete solutions.”
“The truth is that the policy is a shambles and the Government is making it up as it goes along. It has no coherent plan and just one guiding principle, that is, to design a housing policy that extracts the maximum profit for investors. The Land Development Agency was set up in 2018. Now, seven years later, the Government is finally talking about giving it greater compulsory purchase powers. The Social Democrats demanded this from the outset but successive governments preferred to have a toothless tiger, a Land Development Agency that was prevented from acquiring the land it needed. Once again, the Government had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing the right thing. It is completely unclear now whether these powers will be accompanied by a new budget. Perhaps the Taoiseach could clarify that in his response.”
“That is because driving record rents even higher, according to the Government, is somehow going to bring rents down. Make that make sense. No wonder the Taoiseach's Cabinet colleagues are utterly bewildered. The Taoiseach has claimed repeatedly that housing is the Government's biggest priority. Yet, when it comes to policy announcements, they are chaotic and sloppy. Even today, the Minister conceded that students and those on short-term rental contracts will not be protected from the rental reset, which is an absolute disgrace and it goes against what was said last week. The Taoiseach also said the Government wants to extend the rent pressure zones across the country, but it did not even have the legislation ready last week to do so and he did not have the answers last week when he was asked in the Dáil about it.”
“When it comes to housing, can the Government get anything right? It has been planning these rental reforms for months and yet it made an absolute hames of them last week. Even the Taoiseach's Cabinet colleagues could not make sense of them. They were quoted in the media talking about not understanding the rules. For the avoidance of any doubt, there was one simple thing these reforms were to do, and that was to drive rents higher.”
“There are children who still do not have a place in a mainstream school in the north Wicklow area for September. The mainstream schools in our area do not have capacity. I do not know where these children are going to go. Wherever they go, we need to make sure they have the supports they require. I ask the Minister of State to revise this and meet some of the schools.”
“I do not know what level of conversation or consultation has been done with the mainstream schools. I imagine it would be very difficult for mainstream schools to get the level of support needed to assist and help these children. These children will not be going into any of the autistic spectrum disorder, ASD, units or anything like that. They will be going straight into mainstream classes, but they will need supports. We have not seen in the policy or heard in any of the discussions how we are going to make sure those secondary schools have the actual supports they need. How are we going to make sure they have enough places? I am still dealing with children who do not have a school place for the coming September. Our educational welfare officer has disappeared and will not be back until September.”
“My understanding is that children with mild learning disabilities will not be able to enrol in any special schools under this programme because they will not have the sign-off, approval or letter of eligibility from the NCSE. The plan is for all of those children to go to their local mainstream school. I absolutely agree that no child should have to travel for two hours to get to their special school or to get education. It is absolutely not acceptable. Every child should be able to be educated within the local community. We should increase the capacity of the special schools, rather than just moving children from a special school into a mainstream school and then putting other children into the special school. It is more of a displacement than an inclusion process.”
“Rather than displacing one set of children with disabilities with another set of children with disabilities, we need to provide spaces for all these children in the settings best suited to them. The schools in my area have 1,000 students in them. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be for a child with a mild learning difficulty to go in and settle and fit into that kind of environment. It would be incredibly difficult. New Court is a school in my area so I am raising it but my colleague, Deputy Jen Cummins, has been raising the wider policy issue. I hope there is an opportunity for some flexibility in the policy.”
“If they are put in to a mainstream school, are trying to keep up with their peers and are unable to do it, the stress, anxiety and not feeling part of the school will make life very difficult for them. Maybe it would work for some children but we need to look at the children's needs and ensure that we find a school environment that suits them and that there is choice for them and their families. I know there are many children with complex needs who cannot get school places. That is a scandal we have seen happen year after year. However, we need to ensure those children are accommodated and children with mild learning disabilities are also accommodated and get special education if they require it.”
“When you walk into it, there is a feeling of love, happiness and support. It has around 80 children, some with complex needs, but previously it primarily focused on children with mild learning disabilities. It provides a loving but individualised care and education model for the children. The children really thrived in that environment. Unfortunately, with these plans those children with mild learning disabilities will no longer be able to go to New Court and will have to go to their local mainstream school. Many of these children were in mainstream schools, could not thrive there and therefore ended up in New Court. Also, I just do not think the one-size-fits-all model will work. I am worried for these children who find it difficult to keep up with the pace of a mainstream class.”
“I am sure the Minister of State is aware of the Department's plan to redesignate special schools so they no longer cater for children and students with mild learning disabilities. This will apply to approximately 30 schools across the country. I understand, in part, the rationale behind it. The Minister wants an inclusive model of education where children with mild learning disabilities can go to a mainstream school, and that will free up places in special schools for children with more complex needs. However, as is often the case with policies, there are unintended consequences and when you look on the ground, you see the policy does not fit and is not the right policy. I bring the Minister of State's attention to a school in Bray in my constituency, New Court special school. It is a fabulous school.”
“Anything like this would need to be done while being cognisant of fishing groups and communities that have fished this species legally to date. Even they would understand and appreciate that if we do not manage this resource, this fishery will not continue and all of the other fisheries that rely on this fishery will not continue. I ask the Minister of State to examine that.”
“We need to start valuing this species. A ban on boats over 18 m was mooted in 2018. The process is taking quite a while. We have seen considerable increases in fishing. There is a risk that we might have gone past that point and a more drastic approach may be needed on an interim basis in order to get this stock back up on its feet. There have been calls for a moratorium, rather than a ban, until the data is available. If the Minister of State wants to ensure the species is protected, in the absence of any data, monitoring or management, we need to take a precautionary approach. We need to be very risk averse. There is merit in considering a moratorium to see whether that is something we could be doing instead. It could be a short-term thing.”
“If we do not have sprat, we will not have cod. Similarly, if we do not have sprat we will not have seabirds, whales, dolphins or marine tourism. Recent media reports have stated that, unfortunately, Colin Barnes is pulling out of whale watching because of the impact of overfishing on marine mammals. It is fundamental and we need to start valuing it for the ecological services it provides. From that perspective, I understand that the Minister of State is awaiting the outcome of the consultation but will also take into account legal considerations. In parallel with all of that, it would be very worthwhile to mandate the Marine Institute to start doing stock assessments and begin the process of determining the stock levels. We do not have a real understanding of that aspect of fishing. The Minister of State could mandate that pretty quickly.”
“Whatever the outcome, I know he wants to make sure that is known before the summer and can inform the September fisheries. I have a number of concerns about this. From reading the documentation on the consultation from the Marine Institute, I noted one of the things it said was that even if we banned vessels above a certain size there is nothing to say that sprat would not be taken up by smaller vessels because there is no management. This is a species that, to date, no one valued. We do not value it from an ecological perspective, but there is also no financial value on it. Only 2% is used for human consumption; most of it goes to fish food. As the fish was so undervalued or unrecognised, we ignored it. The reality is that it is important for everything else that happens. Our fish, including cod or hake, feed on sprat.”
“It may not necessarily deal with one spot on a map but rather a particular current and the aquatic life that current upholds. That is what should be protected. If the Bill is done well, and we need it to be done well, it will be a very complex piece of legislation. I am worried about being caught up with any other processes. There are risks with that. It would perhaps be worthwhile for the Minister of State to come back to the committee at some stage, assuming that the Chair and committee are in agreement. When he knows what he is thinking of doing, perhaps we could work that out and assess it because it would be important to have those discussions. I also want to discuss sprat fishing. I acknowledge the work the Minister of State has done in this area.”
“He spoke about perhaps co-ordinating with the national DMAP process. I do not know what that could look like or what discussions there have been to date on that, but it is raising alarm bells for me. Similar to what I have said, the marine protected areas Bill has to be the basis of what we do and must inform DMAPs and other policies. I hope it will be intensive. The plan was for it to be an intensive and robust, but also complex, piece of legislation. It is not a matter of simply drawing a few lines in our marine areas and territory and deciding that something is a marine protected area. It will have to involve regulations and enforcement. It also needs to be designed with a mind to what the environment needs and the environmental constraints. Ideally, marine protected legislation would be quite dynamic.”
“That has to form the basis of all and any other policies coming after it. If we do not protect our environment and fish stocks and ensure there is a future for our environment and the marine, there will not be a future for fisheries or our coastal communities. I said to the Minister of State earlier that I was pleased to receive a response from the Minister for housing that the marine protected areas Bill is at an advanced stage of drafting and it is intended to finalise the draft as soon as possible and seek Government approval to publish the Bill this year. That is very welcome. He went on to say that the draft Bill is intended to be a Bill in its own right and is not amending legislation. When I asked the Minister of State about this earlier, I am not sure whether his response was that the remit has not been transferred to him yet.”
“I come at this from the basis that in order for us to have a sustainable fishery where people can pass their skills, knowledge and vessels on to family members and know that they are handing them something valuable their children and grandchildren will want to be involved in, we have to make sure they are being treated in a sustainable manner. We need to do a large piece of work in Ireland because I do not think we have done that to date. In many instances, whether from a national or European perspective, there has been overfishing and a lack of management in different fisheries and stocks. We need to move away from that approach. The best way to do that is for us to take a holistic look at our waters and introduce the marine protected area legislation. That has to be key.”
“I do not think anyone looking at how Europe divvies up the quota would say that Ireland has ever got its fair share of our resource and of those quotas. That is something that is very difficult to do but I would like to see the Minister and the Government push much harder for that, so our fishers have a fairer share of that shared resource. There are also things we can do as a nation. We need to prioritise the smaller fishers and low impact fishers to assist them as much as we possibly can. They are probably the ones struggling the most, whether it is regulatory, political or, indeed, environmental pressures that we see impacting our fisheries at the moment. That is something I will be raising with the Minister of State. Today I will use my time to talk about a couple of issues.”
“We had a very interesting conversation this morning at the fisheries committee. I welcomed this morning, and I welcome here, the fact that not only do we have a Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries and the marine but also a committee that is dedicated to it. I think it will make a big difference and, hopefully, we can work closely with the Minister of State to progress the many issues that will be coming our way. I do not think anyone argues against the fact that as a shared and a dynamic resource that our fisheries need regulation and to be managed. That is cross-jurisdictional too. What has been clear for many years is that there must be a level of fairness within that system.”
“The future demands that we take action. When we look back and see what our role was and where we stood on this, we should be able to stand proud and know that we reflected the views of the Irish people, did what was right and stood by international law and the people of Gaza in the face of these horrors.”
“It is not fair that any backbencher would have to vote against this motion, which is a relatively simple motion that gives the Government control over how it manages the measures within, when other Independent Members who swore they were going to support the Minister's Government through the good and the bad can listen to and represent their constituents and know that they did what they could in the face of this genocide. The Irish public deeply wants us to take action. They have seen this go on for far too long. They are starting to take things into their own hands. A number of Irish citizens will be marching to Gaza in the coming weeks. People feel very strongly about this and they want us and the Minister to do more. The Palestinian people need us to take action. They cannot withstand this any longer.”
“I ask him to ensure that all Government TDs have a free vote on this issue and that all those backbenchers who support the Minister in the decisions he and his Cabinet colleagues make every week be given the opportunity to reflect their conscience in this vote and to reflect what their constituents, their family and their friends want them to do. I ask that they be given the same opportunity the Independent members of the Minister's Government have been given.”
“We hope that, at some stage, we will get the momentum that there is a level of accountability for Israel that we have not seen to date, and that Israel recognises that people and countries will stand up and say, “We see you; we see exactly who you are; we see what you are doing; we will not stand by and allow it to continue; and we will do everything in our power to uphold international law.” If we do not have international law, what do we have? Where is the safety for anyone? I ask one thing of the Minister today.”
“Everyone in this Chamber knows we have a major responsibility here to deal with it and to try to stop it. We all know what our constituents, family and friends feel about it. However misguided the feeling is, everyone in this Chamber thinks we are doing everything we can, but we are simply not. Today’s motion is a relatively small action to stop the Central Bank approving bonds that are being awarded in the face of a genocide that has been recognised by the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach in this Chamber. We hope that this small action - that sense of bravery - from the Irish people will lead to other countries doing similar.”
“Week after week, for 20 months, we come into this Chamber and talk about the most recent act of depravity that we have seen rained down on the people of Gaza by Israel. We talk in this Chamber about children who have been shot in the head, children who have been shot in the chest by snipers, children who have had to battle their way out of fires while their siblings and parents burned behind them, and children whose parents write their names on their bodies because they are conscious that if the family is wiped out, they want their child to know their family name so it will live on with that child. It is absolutely horrific. Every time we talk about it in this Chamber, we think it cannot get much worse and Israel cannot go any lower, yet it does. I know everyone in this Chamber feels this and is horrified by what is happening in Gaza.”
“On the face of it, it would indicate Ireland was not fighting as hard as it should against the agreement if there was a general acceptance within the Department that it was not as bad as it could be.”