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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“The Minister is correct that I am being told a different story by people on the ground. I will come back to him directly on this. I am worried about how no-shows are being recorded. I am being told there are no-shows, yet the NTA is not recording them or they are not being recorded in the systems as no-shows. I will speak to the Minister about this because it may require a more in-depth conversation. The Minister knows I am a big fan of public transport but it also needs to be reliable. If it is not reliable, there is no point to it. I know there have been issues with mechanics, the fleet and drivers. To be fair to people in Wicklow, they have given Go-Ahead a really good chance to get these things right but they are still not right. That is a big difficulty.”
“I hope the Minister will give people in Wicklow some positive news as to how he will make sure that Go-Ahead provides the service it is being paid and is contracted to do. It has not done so since it received the contract a number of years ago. We need a proper service in Wicklow.”
“However, there has to be a mechanism to deal with any such behaviour on a bus. It cannot simply be the case that where is an instance of antisocial behaviour, teenagers are just not picked up from then on. It is not acceptable to leave teenagers behind. Three teenage girls were left at the side of the road one day when the bus went past indicating it was full. It was not full. There are major problems with this service. I am talking specifically about the L2 but I have been told by a mother that the L1 has been repeatedly late bringing her child to the nearest school. The service is so bad and so unreliable that this mother is looking to change her daughter's school because she cannot rely on the child getting to school on time. This is no kind of service to be providing.”
“I was told this issue had been resolved but clearly it has not been resolved. Yesterday, on St. Patrick's Day, there were three successive no-show buses between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. On certain days, these no-show or cancelled buses mean people are left waiting up to an hour for the next bus. A wheelchair user is one of the frequent contributors to my Facebook page. At present, his bus does not show up about once a week. We can see there is a major issue with the reliability. People are not going to get a bus if they are not sure it will definitely arrive. To be told by Go-Ahead that the problem had been solved is just unacceptable. There is also still the issue of drivers not picking up teenagers on the side of the road. When I raised this with Go-Ahead it indicated there had been some antisocial behaviour issues on the buses.”
“I have said previously to the Minister that there needs to be a level of transparency about bus services in general. As TDs, we find that a lot of people come to us to raise specific issues. Some people go to Transport for Ireland, TFI, and other people go to the various bus services. There needs to be a more transparent mechanism of dealing with it. I set up a Facebook page for anyone who has any issues. People also have to go to TFI directly but they detail the issue on the Facebook page. It is clear that the problems faced by service users on the L2 service in Wicklow still exist. Last week, on one day, Friday 13 March, eight L2 buses skipped the same five stops on Sea Road in Kilcoole. Overall last week, I had more than ten reports of buses on the L2 route skipping this particular road.”
“I raise the issue of Go-Ahead Ireland services in Wicklow. We have seen consistent problems with the service being provided by Go-Ahead. I raised this issue in the Dáil most recently a month ago. There were instances when Go-Ahead buses were not travelling the entire route and were skipping a number of stops. In one instance a young woman who has intellectual and physical disabilities was on the bus and it did not bring her down her road, which it was meant to do. She ended up being brought to the next village and was put out at the side of the road there. I have raised with Go-Ahead this issue and other instances of Go-Ahead buses not picking up teenagers on the route. Go-Ahead said it had dealt with these particular matters and that everything was resolved, yet I was still getting feedback from constituents.”
“The public can see the connection between global conflict and the price they pay at the pump, at the supermarket checkout and on their energy bills. They know Ireland is more exposed than it should be, and they know the Government's decisions have contributed to that vulnerability. Today I ask the Tánaiste to take action to address that. l am asking him to support struggling households immediately with timely and targeted supports, not with reviews and not with promises. l am asking the Government to roll back on its eager LNG plans and follow the recommendations of its own committee before making a €1 billion mistake. I am asking the Tánaiste to take the carbon tax revenue and put it into building a secure, renewable and publicly-owned energy future that will insulate us from the volatility we are living through right now.”
“We are calling for the entirety of the carbon tax to be ringfenced and used for energy security measures, and not just the increases. We urgently need a Government that understands what real energy security looks like. What it does not look like is shipping in LNG from across the world at enormous cost. It looks like building up infrastructure that we control here at home. It looks like investing in wind, storage and grid resilience. It looks like ensuring that Irish households are protected from the next geopolitical shock, not left exposed to it. Right now, instead of giving people certainty, the Government is giving them higher prices, higher risks and a long wait for supports that may or may not arrive. That is just not good enough.”
“We really have not seen it. The Tánaiste will be well aware of the Arklow Bank wind farm. That is no longer generating any offshore wind. Ireland has zero offshore wind being generated at the moment whereas 20 years ago at least we had some from the Arklow Bank. We have less now than we did 20 years ago and that is a crazy situation for us to be in. We could nationalise and build a 1 GW offshore wind farm costing just over €2 billion that would power 1 million homes. With €1 billion per year coming in from carbon tax revenue, is that not exactly what the funds should be used for? We are not as a party saying we should stop the carbon tax because it is an important revenue that needs to go back into ensuring people at risk of energy poverty can be supported to deal with that.”
“When Russia invaded Ukraine, the energy security analysis was updated to reflect that and it needs to happen again. It also needs to be honest about what is possible and what we are able to achieve in Ireland without an LNG facility. It needs to look at alternative fuels and at battery storage and at what we could do in that instance. Instead of pouring €1 billion into an LNG terminal, why is the Government not putting that money into accelerating renewables? What we have seen when it comes to this LNG facility is a real sense of urgency. We have seen emergency legislation coming in, we have seen significant changes in Government policy to facilitate it, and we have seen a commitment for a €1 billion piece of infrastructure. Why have we not seen that same level of urgency when it comes to developing renewables in this country?”
“At a time when families are already struggling with arrears, that is unacceptable. How can the Government continue to justify exposing households to even more volatility and more costs if this LNG facility comes into play? The climate committee’s report on the Government’s LNG Bill was clear. We warned of the gaps and called for a new assessment of geopolitical risks, renewable deployment, battery storage and demand reduction before the Bill proceeds, and that was before this crisis escalated. The need for that assessment is now an absolute necessity. I ask that the energy security review be updated to reflect what is happening in the Middle East and what could potentially happen if relations with the US continue to become as volatile as they have been.”
“The decision to fast-track legislation to allow the State to build a near-€1 billion LNG import terminal is the perfect example of backwards thinking. The Government says it wants energy security yet it is proposing a system that exports our security to international LNG markets. It is clear that there is no stable LNG market. Whether we are talking about what is coming from Russia, from the Middle East, or what could possibly come from the US, there is no security and no certainty with any of those markets. These markets are unstable, volatile and now heavily disrupted by war. Reliance on LNG will not bring us energy security. It will not bring us national security. The new LNG facility has an estimated cost of €900 million over ten years yet there is no clarity at all on how this could impact energy bills.”
“We propose that would happen because we cannot have a Government that is profiting on the backs of people really struggling at the moment. This is a critical and a very time-sensitive issue and the Government should be supporting people now. I want to talk in broader terms as well. What has happened in Iran and the resulting disruption to our global oil supplies has to be a wake-up call - without a doubt. I think we said it the last time when the war on Ukraine began. Unfortunately, we did not put in the measures and the framework we needed then but this has to be a wake-up call. Everyone in this Chamber knows that Ireland is energy insecure. However, instead of addressing that vulnerability, the Government's current strategy risks deepening it.”
“What I suspect is happening is that it is trying to hold out as long as possible just to squeeze a bit more out of that time and money but families really cannot wait any longer before support is given to them. Not just in this term but in the previous term when the energy credits were being given out, the Social Democrats has consistently said that any energy credits should be targeted at those who need the money most. We remain steadfast in that call for a €400 targeted credit for people who really struggle. I ask the Government to please not turn around and give another €100 million, or whatever it was the last term, to the electricity meters of holiday homes. Will it please target the money and not waste it? I also ask that we would reduce excise.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this motion. It is, unfortunately, very timely. We are witnessing the worst oil crisis the world has ever seen. It is worse than the oil shocks of the last century and worse than the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which we can all remember very clearly. However, for Irish people, this comes during an existing cost-of-living crisis. People are already struggling and this is compounding that struggle for them. While people are watching their rent climb, their mortgage interest eating deeper into their monthly income and their grocery bills rising week after week and with 320,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills already, it is clear that something needs to be done. The Government keeps on saying it will do something, that it is under review and that some measures will be put in place.”
“This man just slipped in right behind. It was incredible. Girls and young women in this country are made to feel unsafe all the time. They have to make themselves small and unseen. They make excuses when they are treated in that manner. Now, that chap was convicted. He was given a six-month suspended sentence. Part of it was because he had had 14 pints. I do not care how many pints he had. You do not follow a young woman, you do not take your belt off and you do not threaten someone. It is disgraceful. We need to look at all these instances and ensure there is accountability for what happens. There can be no excuse. All that does is it makes every other woman's life in this country smaller and smaller as they try to make themselves disappear so they do not suffer gender-based violence. I ask the Minister of State to look at that video.”
“A man followed her into her hotel, into the lift, took off his belt, stood behind her, made sort of gestures with the belt and then, essentially, got out on the same floor in her hotel. If it was not for the fact that her mother was in the room when she knocked on the door, she is convinced something awful would have happened to her. If we look at that video, we will see how scared she was when she was relaying the story. What was really stark to me was how she kept on saying that she did not want the story to be about her and that she wanted everyone to know she did absolutely everything right. Her friends went out and made sure they saw one another get into the taxis. Her friend got into a taxi and stood by the door of the taxi watching Chloe go into the hotel to make sure she got through her hotel door safely.”
“There was an article about the Ana Kriégel murder. There was an article about Ashling Murphy's murder. There was an article about the doctor who was jailed for eight years for raping a nurse as she slept. There was an article about the Natalie McNally murder trial. It was article after article, and they were all saying the same thing: that there was a huge problem in this country with gender-based violence. It is a huge problem and we are not tackling it. I would recommend that everyone have a look online at the site of an influencer called Chloe Koyce. A number of months ago, she put up a video that showed someone following her. She was on a night out with her friends.”
“The older I get and the longer I am in politics, the more frustrating I find it when International Women's Day rolls around every year. We come in here and people from all the benches say the same things. We talk about the challenges women face and the progress being made. It sort of seems, though, that everything is just set aside for that day, and then we all go back to our business. Those fundamental structural and cultural changes that we need to see really have not happened yet. Last Friday, when I was thinking about what I was going to say in this speech, I went onto The Irish Times website and was blown away as I went through the different news articles. There was an article about the family of a woman murdered by her husband in Dublin being distressed after the killer was granted day release.”
“My understanding is that this is a big issue in the west of Ireland where these types of small shops might be performing this function. It is really important that we enable them to continue that. I wanted to raise that with the Minister of State in case she was not aware.”
“They are an important part of west Wicklow. Surprisingly, they receive a commission of only €70 a month for providing that service, which I was quite surprised by. It is a very small amount of money, but they recognise the importance of the service. A 93-year-old man visits them every week to get his social welfare payments but has the chats and meets people. It is a really important part of his week. This postal agency is very worried because there is not an alternative for them to perform this service. They are now doing it with paper because the machine is not working properly. An Post is trying to work with them to find an alternative, but I ask that the Minister of State make sure that happens. We really need to keep open this agency and, indeed, other agencies.”
“I echo my party colleague's sentiments on the importance of post offices to our local communities. Everyone in Ireland appreciates the work of our postal workers and, indeed, those who man the post offices. I want to raise with the Minister of State a specific issue about Daly's postal agency in Hollywood in west Wicklow. They are a small shop but they perform certain postal services. Their mini-Riposte system is incompatible with fibre broadband, and when we moved from copper to fibre, it stopped working properly. It has been slowing down over the last number of years and now it is barely holding on. It could stop working at any minute. They have been offering the service of social welfare payments for over 20 years to the community and they administer 50 various social welfare payments per week.”
“When will the Government do more than just talk about the extortionate cost of energy in this country? We have 320,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills and as the war continues things will get much worse.”
“The war in the Middle East is spiralling out of control and the impacts are already being felt. Prices for home heating oil have already shot up by 40% which means people having to find an extra €250 or €300 for a 500-litre fill. Who has that kind of money? Gas prices are also skyrocketing within the UK, with the UK recording a 100% increase in wholesale prices in just two days. That is the biggest ever 48-hour increase since records began. We are particularly exposed to these extortionate price rises in this country because we already have one of the highest prices of electricity and energy in the EU. Electricity and gas prices are still 60% to 80% higher than they were before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Government has done nothing to investigate this gouging.”
“Éadha was a much-wanted and much-loved baby. There is no protocol for coming home. There are so many gaps. We need to ensure that the 28-day time limit is reviewed. There also need to be support for women-----”
“Eight years ago, the Irish people voted to repeal the eighth amendment. Many people voted because of the tragic stories they heard about women who were forced to the UK to have their terminations. Unfortunately, eight years later, far too many women still have to go to the UK for those terminations. My niece is one of those women. She bravely told the story of what happened to her on this morning's episode of "Today with David McCullagh". She was pregnant and her baby had a severe brain malformation. She was told by all the consultants that termination was the right way to go but none of them would actually sign off on it and let her have that termination here in Ireland. She went to the UK and was looked after so well in Liverpool. When she was leaving Liverpool, the consultant told her to hide her baby in the boot of the car.”
“There is no panacea to this. There are many issues involved, and the Minister is right that driver behaviour is one of them. However, the reality is that, as we have seen, some driver behaviour is very poor and unless there is enforcement and a fear of being caught for this behaviour on the road, it will continue. While there a lot of actions are needed, the absolute priority here is enforcement and the Minister of State barely mentioned enforcement in his response. We need to ensure we have sufficient Garda numbers in the roads policing unit. In recent years, we have seen a 40% reduction in the roads policing unit. What conversations has the Minister of State had with the Minister for justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, on dealing with that issue? That is the crux of the matter.”
“It seems that every day, or every second day, when we wake up there is the most tragic news that another person has lost their life on our roads. Each of those lives lost is avoidable. I would imagine the worst thing possible for any family is to get that call or that knock on the door to let them know their loved one has lost their life. It feels that it is getting worse and worse. It seems that we are hearing of more people, and more young people. We had, unfortunately, another two young lives lost in Donegal, and my condolences to their families. Already this year, 25 people lost their lives on our roads. Six of them were teenagers. We need to hear from the Minister of State what he is going to do to address that loss of life. This is within the Minister of State's remit. He has set a plan to have zero deaths on our roads.”
“We have seen an incredible loss of life on our roads over the past few days, never mind over the past year. Can the Minister of State let me know if he intends to set a road death reduction target for phase 2 of Vision Zero and will he make a statement on the matter?”
“The reason Sinn Féin can get away with sending that message is because the Government has failed. It failed to prepare. It failed to respect people's dignity, and it continues to do so. The Government created this situation where there is a vacuum of information and supports and that is feeding what we are seeing now. When we talk about social cohesion, the Minister is absolutely right, there is a real risk to social cohesion here but we can get this right now. We really can, but the debate we are having on this Bill is not the answer to getting this right. I ask the Minister to reflect on that. We all need to reflect on what kind of leadership we are showing here, the message that we are sending and what we would like to see in our communities. Some of us need to be more responsible in how we are dealing with this issue.”
“What the party was communicating last week was that IPAS and asylum seekers are nothing but a big problem and communities cannot be expected to integrate people or to work with them. That is wrong, because it sends a very clear message to many people. We know that a lot of people are going to take that message and run with it. They will terrorise and carry out racist attacks. The words that are spoken in here carry weight. We have to be so careful with the message we send.”
“They bring a lot and they are working in our communities. A lot of the people who are in the IPAS centres began to work the second that they could apply for their work permit. Before they could get their work permit, they were out volunteering. They wanted to get involved in their new home. They wanted to participate and to contribute. Many of them are still working and living in Wicklow. They have built homes for themselves, started families and made lifelong friends, including the friends that they made among the locals who taught them English. They are still in contact with those people. These people who are coming into our country seeking refuge bring a lot and add an awful lot of value. I did not hear that last week from Sinn Féin.”
“People were working with those within the IPAS system and getting them involved in Tidy Towns. They were out painting railings. There were groups like Bray Welcomes, Wicklow Welcomes, Blessington Welcomes and Newtown Together - so many groups and people within communities who recognised that this situation was a difficult one and that there was no perfect answer, and that actually the best thing to do was to just try their best despite the Government making such a mess of it and making it the worst possible start for people. A lot of people in the community tried their best to make things better for those people in asylum centres. Something that was also not mentioned last week by the Sinn Féin TDs is that the people who are coming into our communities seeking asylum bring a lot to us.”
“If I look at my own county, I see the number of people who were quietly, often secretly, working in the background because they were afraid when there were really heightened tensions in the community. There were so many people working quietly in the background providing English classes and lifts, collecting clothes, and setting up the Sanctuary Runners.”
“What was not said last week by Sinn Féin was that in many areas the communities came out and supported those centres and they really got behind them. If I was someone who had been through the asylum process or who was currently in the asylum process, the impression I would get from TD after TD who spoke on it was that having asylum seekers in your community is the worst possible thing to happen to a community. That is the message I would have picked up from what Sinn Féin was saying. It was being seen and represented as a blight, putting huge pressure on communities. What Sinn Féin failed to do was to understand that, in many situations, a community can take on and really open their arms to people within the asylum process and to IPAS centres.”
“A lot of the difficulties that we saw within communities were fuelled by the Government - public representatives who did not back the Government's policy and spent most of their time out in communities arguing against it and creating division. They really did not show any leadership in this. There was also a big problem with misinformation, whether online or in public forums. That was never countered either by the Government or by those public representatives. There were a lot of problems in how the Government has handled the issue. There was a lot in what the Sinn Féin representatives said last week. When you are trying to communicate something, you do not just communicate by what is written down and what you actually say; you are communicating by your tone. You also communicate your message by what you do not say.”
“Last week, I sat in and listened to much of the debate on this particular amendment. I agreed with a lot of it. I agree that Government made an absolute mess of this entire issue. There was a lack of preparedness. The Government did not take on board repeated warnings and repeated recommendations as to what it and the country needed to do to house and process asylum seekers. I absolutely agree that what the Government has done is to funnel huge profits to developers rather than build the public services and public facilities that we need. I agree that the lack of communication we have seen caused huge problems in communities. It could have been handled much better. Once an IPAS centre went into an area, there was a real opportunity to bring in supports for that area, but that did not happen. That certainly would have assisted.”
“If I were to go to the GP with more serious medical issues, they would also involve long consultations, but I would not be charged extra. I do not understand why menopausal women have to pay twice or three times the amount a normal GP clinic charges. That is inherently unfair. I acknowledge the free HRT. It has been a lifesaver for so many. When times are tough and family budgets are tight, however, I know women will not look after themselves. If that means not getting a GP appointment because it will cost €150 or €200, they will sacrifice their health so that their family can be looked after. That should not be the case. I ask the Minister of State to take that on board and look into those unfair costs for menopausal women.”
“For women wishing to go on HRT, however, they must first be assessed. In order to be assessed and receive a prescription, they have to go to their GP. If they go to their GP with any symptom that could be related to menopause, they will be charged extra. They will be charged €150 plus whatever else it costs for the blood work. That is just for one consultation relating to menopause. I do not know of any other medical condition for which people have to pay extra to be seen. I have spoken to GPs about this and the rationale is that they are longer consultations. That is fair enough. There is probably an argument for that. However, if I were to go to my GP with a mental health issue, it would require a long consultation but I would not be charged extra.”
“We heard from Deputy Rice about the extortionate cost of GP care for families all across the country, which ranges between €50 and €100. Not only is that incredibly expensive, but woman will probably pay double that to get basic healthcare once they are premenopausal or menopausal. GPs will charge between €120 and €200 or, perhaps, €250 for a consultation when it comes to menopausal clinics. That is an incredible amount of money. We are in a lucky situation where we know a lot more about menopause. We know the symptoms. A total of 51% of the population will experience menopause. Some will sail through it, while others will find it more challenging. For those who find it challenging, there are medical interventions available. I welcome the hormone replacement therapy, HRT, initiative the Government came out with. That is important.”
“I ask that the Minister of State look into seeing whether there is a way to develop a programme for inshore fishermen using that fund whereby they can still participate in their fisheries but also perform more management functions and biodiversity protection and for that to come under a nature scheme. We obviously have the nature restoration laws coming down the road and there will be requirements on us from a marine perspective, but there is an opportunity there. There is money set aside in that fund. We tend to forget about it when it comes to biodiversity, but I absolutely think that is something the Minister of State should look into, and I ask that he do so. As I said, we need to ensure that the inshore fishermen are not pushed to the verge of extinction here, including our environment. I ask that he support that.”
“I know there is work under way on an income stabilisation scheme, which is really important, and I absolutely support the Minister of State in that. We need to make sure there is a financial safety net for fishermen. If we are trying to encourage people to move from tangle nets to pot fishery, pots cost approximately €100. That is expensive. It will require funding, but it will ultimately be for the greater good. I mentioned one thing in our most recent committee meeting. I do not know if it has really been discussed in the context of this, but €3.5 billion is being put aside for the climate and nature fund. That is a lot of money being set aside specifically for those issues.”
“If we do not get this right, not only could we potentially force these species into extinction, but I also think we will be forcing the fishermen themselves into extinction. If you are putting all of your eggs into one basket and fishing solely for crayfish, that fishery is going to come under pressure. It may not be obvious now but there is only so much that any fishery can withstand. If all the effort is being put on one particular species, that is just not going to work. We need to have sustainable management of this. The fishermen are certainly on board to work with the Marine Institute, the Department, which was in today, and with the scientists to try to get that done. I ask that the Minister of State give as much support as possible to that. It will require finances. This is not going to be free.”
“I know that this, again, is a difficult one because, as a small player on the EU stage, if we want to get a bluefin tuna quota we have to get it from another country. That will be really important. There has to be pressure, and we have to do everything we can diplomatically to get that because it is only through the diversification of the inshore that we will be able to address a lot of the environmental issues the inshore is facing. Inshore fishermen need alternatives and at the moment they do not have them. They are being pushed into crayfish and brown crab which has its own difficulties. That impacts our environment and means species like angelfish will be gone and we will be responsible for it. We are one of the few countries that still has this species.”
“Unfortunately, they are bearing the brunt of an EU-wide system that just is not fit for purpose at the moment and they are absolutely being squeezed by it. The one thing I know from talking to them is that they want to be part of the solution, and they are putting forward solutions. What we need and they need is a fair share of the quota. We need to be looking at ways they can diversify. We know with mackerel being hit the inshore fishermen recognise that the chance of their getting a greater quota than 400 tonnes is probably off the table for a number of years. However, we need to start looking at other species. We have discussed bluefin tuna and I think there is a real opportunity with that.”
“It is clear from talking to those inshore fishers that what constantly happens is that when we do not get things right at a more national level, when we do not get things right at an EU level, when we have countries fishing for species that would traditionally be Irish quotas, it puts pressure on those fishermen, which in turn is like a domino effect, and it in turn impacts our inshore fishermen, who are the ones getting squeezed out of existence here. When we talk about the fishing industry, and if people were to close their eyes and picture it, it is the inshore fishermen we are talking about and that is what we see. It is where the majority of the boats are and where the majority of the local involvement and the employment happens.”
“While this issue is closely tied to tangle nets and inshore fisheries, it also sits within the wider quota context that frames every decision an inshore fisher makes today. We had a very good debate today on this issue, and inshore fishermen want to do what they can. They understand. They, probably more than anyone else, know the difficulties that the inshore environment is in at the moment, the challenges and the pressures that are put on it.”
“Today, in the fisheries committee, we had a very interesting meeting on the sustainable management of the crayfish fishery. The Marine Institute's latest four-year study on the tangle net crayfish fishery in Tralee and Dingle shows us with absolute clarity what is at stake if the crayfish fishery continues to operate as normal. The substantial by-catch of angel shark and flapper skate as well as grey skate and numbers of other protected species will push these species further towards extinction. It is not a hypothetical risk; that is what the data tells us. Angel sharks, a critically endangered species, simply cannot absorb additional mortality. If we allow the tangle net fishery to continue unchanged, we are effectively pushing this species closer not just to local extinction but actually to global extinction.”
“Yes, the schools want to deal with this themselves. They are looking for guidance from the Department of Health about nicotine pouches specifically, but the legislation also needs to incorporate this.”
“I ask the Taoiseach to look into it. The principals' association has twice requested guidance from the Department of Health on this issue, and I do not think it has been forthcoming.”