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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“It certainly should not take that long to put in place. I ask the Minister of State to talk to the NTA because it is not a good look for the Government that the NTA is not giving it those dates.”
“When will that service plan be complete? We need to give people some idea. This is obviously about connectivity and it is really important that these services are put in place but we are really starting to see a lack of trust in the Government's ability to provide public transport. The NTA said nearly a year ago that the funding was available, that the route had been awarded and that it was a priority but we still do not have a start date. This is not only impacting people lives because they cannot get a bus, but it is also undermining people's trust in the bus service, in the NTA and in the Government's ability to deliver. This is not a large infrastructure project. It is not the metro. We are talking about a Local Link bus from Glendalough to Bray. It really should not be that hard.”
“I really was hoping the Minister of State could give me a start date because we are not getting the information from the NTA.”
“I was hoping that, when I came in today, the Minister of State would give me a start date for this service. It was meant to start in September of last year. As I have said, the NTA told me in May that this was a priority route and that funding had been allocated. Everyone is ready to go with this. Along with other public representatives, I have been trying to get information about this route and to find out exactly when it is going to start. There are many communities - the people in Glendalough, Laragh, Roundwood and Kilmacanogue - waiting for this bus route so that they can have direct access to shops, doctors and schools in Bray and to the DART. The fact that we have now been waiting for nearly a year for a tangible response as to a start date for this is incredible.”
“I am looking for an update on the Glendalough to Bray Local Link service. This is a hugely important route. In May 2025, the NTA said it was a priority and the funding had been allocated. The contract has been awarded to a bus company and a driver is ready to go. The bus company is ready to go with this but we still have no detail on the actual start date. If the Minister of State could provide an update on that, I would be very appreciative.”
“This related to the LNG facility. It is more about the importance of pre-legislative scrutiny, in particular when we are discussing energy. In that instance, I would be very concerned and would not agree with waiving any pre-legislative scrutiny for any aspect of LNG legislation. There is such concern about this publicly that the process needs to be transparent and there needs to be a debate in the Dáil. As legislators, we need to be given the opportunity to do our job in that regard. I wanted to mention that to the Minister. The Social Democrats will support the Bill. It is important and I ask that things are sped up. We have been waiting for this for quite a while. The Bill is important. It is also very important that the CRU has the resources necessary for it to do its job.”
“As I said, I read the discussion on pre-legislative scrutiny in the previous Dáil. It was a good resource to use to identify previous discussions on this issue. It provided an important opportunity for the previous climate committee to bring the regulator in to discuss the Bill and have discussions be transparent and publicly available. Sometimes the Government has not given the pre-legislative scrutiny piece enough value. I am concerned because I have received emails from environmental organisations which are worried about the potential of pre-legislative scrutiny being waived in respect of LNG legislation.”
“I heard from a family member of a woman in a wheelchair who had to make a decision not to power her wheelchair because the family needed to use the money to heat the home. I am more than happy to speak to the Minister about that. This relates to emergency payments for people with disabilities. I was shocked by that story. The woman has sat in her wheelchair for a number of months and cannot get out of her house. There is a question about the CRU. It has a large remit. We need to know why it is not exercising its remit on those very important issues and whether that is a capacity issue. If it is, that is something that can be solved. If it feels it should not have been doing that work without direction, that is a problem. It has a responsibility to focus on individuals and customers and ensure that we avoid energy poverty.”
“I raise this in the context of the ability of the regulator to focus on the important issues that impact people on a daily basis, including energy affordability. The Minister has spoken to the regulator and directed it to carry out an investigation into price gouging, which is really welcome. The regulator has had the powers to look at that. It is already in legislation. The affordability task force identified that as a key piece of work it should be doing. The question for me is why the regulator has not examined that. Why has it not examined the disparity between wholesale and retail prices? Irish consumers pay three times more at a retail point than the wholesale price. In winter, many people struggle with costs.”
“I understand in December last year, Jim Gannon told the infrastructure committee that the regulator was under capacity to serve the policy needs of the coming years and would need to double the number of staff. I do not know whether there has been any progress on that but the CRU will have additional responsibilities and new remits it will need to cover. The programme for Government has committed to prioritising a review and reform of the legislation underpinning the CRU. I would appreciate if there was an update on that. The reason I am raising capacity issues in respect of our energy regulator is because the question is whether the regulator has enough staff to do its job or whether the legislation is there to enable them to do the job.”
“The CRU has done a lot of work on this and managed to bring these premises and any risk potential under its umbrella, even though the Bill has not been in place. There was consultation in 2019, 2021 and 2022. This has been an incredibly long process. When we talk about safety, I am quite worried about the length of time it has taken to get here. As I said, the CRU has a list of inspections based on this to try to mitigate any risks. It is important that we move on the Bill and it should have been prioritised prior to this. The question is whether the CRU has capacity to deal with any additional responsibilities coming out of the Bill. It has requested additional resources.”
“Even the pre-legislative scrutiny has not been mentioned. I read the pre-legislative scrutiny. The Bill is quite important. It is limited in scope but important in terms of what it does. When we carried out pre-legislative scrutiny on the Bill, the CRU and Jim Gannon came to discuss it with us. At the time, he made the point that about 100 LPG distribution networks were currently being operated by unlicensed parties. I understand about 1,000 residential properties were impacted by that. It is not a large number but from a safety aspect it is important that the Bill is passed. I found how long this Bill has taken interesting. It was first identified in 2016 and there was pre-legislative scrutiny in February 2024.”
“I welcome the opportunity to have this debate. As others have said, this is a technical Bill, one that has been in the pipeline, to excuse the pun, for quite a while. When I did research on this, I looked at the Oireachtas page where Bills are listed. I was aware I was familiar with the Bill but I could not remember seeing any previous debates. It is not listed on the website. There are no debates, but I know we had pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill in 2024. It is something the Department may be able to look at. I am not sure why-----”
“We are the only country to get it. I am just wondering what we gave up in order to get it. I know that, as a country, we gave up our water quality. That is the unfortunate reality. Hopefully, my fear is not correct but I think it is the case. I wonder what we gave up as a State. I think we gave up our beef and poultry sectors. That is a very unfortunate way to be. I absolutely agree with the Sinn Féin calls. Aontú has an amendment as well. It is important that Deputies of all parties vote against this deal and that the Government continue to strongly fight it. It is not over yet. There is still an opportunity to actually make a change with this. I ask that the Minister of State do so.”
“I see this as being a similar sacrifice that Ireland is expected to make at the table of the European Union and its trade ambitions. In ten or 15 years' time, parliamentarians in this House will be asking how the hell did we sign up to this. The downsides to this deal are so great at this stage that we cannot accept it. I cannot see it being changed or made better at all. I have concerns about whether some deal was done in relation to the derogation. This issue has been mentioned a few times. Obviously, when it comes to trade, there are negotiations and countries have a certain amount of leverage. I fear that we have seen another situation where beef farmers are the poor second cousins of dairy. I want to put that on the record. A significant amount of political capital was spent fighting for the derogation.”
“I also believe farmers and indigenous communities in Brazil are being sacrificed to get this deal through. That is not good enough. I said this in the previous debate and I think it stands true. As the Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries, Deputy Dooley will be well aware of the legacy our fishermen and marine sector have had to deal with because of mistakes that were made and sovereignty that was given away during the negotiations on the Common Fisheries Policy. A similar type of deal was done then. Ireland was told that if it gave access to its seas and fish, the European Economic Community would support Ireland and give it money to build its roads. That was a trade deal and we lost out hugely as a result.”
“Trade is really important. I get that the world is difficult and fractious at the moment and I understand the real urgency and need for Europe to come together, have this trade deal and show strength on a global front. It is, however, even more important during these very difficult global political periods that we hold to our standards. It is important that we have standards, whether for our farmers, workers and communities or for animal health and welfare and the environment, and that we hold to those standards. Unfortunately, this trade deal does not do that. What we are seeing is that Ireland, as a small player in the broader European economic framework, is being sacrificed and farmers here are being sacrificed in order to get this deal through.”
“That smacks of performative politics. It appears there was a lightbulb moment just before Christmas when the Government realised this was a big issue and people were not going to stand for it. At that stage, the Government decided to take a very small measure to try to tell people it was on their side all along. People will not fall for that. Farmers and environmentalists will not fall for it. Indeed, families who are struggling to feed their families high-quality produce at the moment will not fall for it because this does not just impact farmers, as the Minister of State is well aware. It is not just an issue for beef farmers or poultry farmers. It is an issue when it comes to health standards, toxins and how food is produced and it is an issue from an environmental perspective. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, spoke about trade.”
“It is nearly a year since I first asked the Minister whether Ireland would formally submit its opposition to the deal. Following that question, I regularly asked what countries the Minister was working with and who he was talking to? We knew there were a number of like-minded countries and a number of countries that may have been on the fence. From this side of the House, it seemed nothing was happening and there was no robust attempt by the Government to form alliances. That is what people find most frustrating. For the past year, and prior to that because this has been an issue for many years, people saw a lack of action on the part of the Government. During that time, they repeatedly called for support and help and for the Government to stand with them, only to see the Government's U-turn just before Christmas.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. This is a very important and timely debate. A huge number of people are very worried about the Mercosur deal. I am sure the Minister of State is well aware of the large number of people who attended the meeting at the weekend to express their concern about what could potentially happen to them and their families in the future. They are also extremely disappointed with the Government and how it has handled this issue from the get-go. It has been said a number of times that Ireland could have stopped the Mercosur deal. I do not know if that is the case. We are a small country. What I can say is that Ireland could have tried much harder to work with like-minded countries to try to put a halt to this deal.”
“We need to deal with this like it is an emergency because it is from a biodiversity and nature perspective and from a tourism perspective. We are seeing now that the way of life of fishers who rely on this for their livelihoods, as their fathers and fathers and fathers and fathers did, is at risk. It is important that we protect it. The marine protected area Bill is the way to do that. I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's comments. I acknowledge the work he has done. I know he went over there with the absolute intention of being firm and strong and winning that debate. It appears, unfortunately, that our European neighbours were not willing to work with us on that, but there are other things we can do to push it as much as we can.”
“There are so many examples we can look at where it was done well and so many examples where it was not done well. It is important to learn from other countries. Interestingly, I have engaged a little with some people in the marine sector in Florida. A simple change in the size of particular fish that were eligible to be caught has resulted in such life being brought back to the coast of Florida that it is just incredible. This was driven by anglers. They pushed for this legislation. The state is now able to free up or lessen that regulation a little bit because it has brought those seas back to life. That is the thing; we need to look at MPAs in some instances as more of a short-term or emergency measure to allow those areas to get back to where they were and then, potentially, look to allowing more fishing or other activities in.”
“For inshore fishers and the islanders, it is a core part of who we are and who we were. As a nation, we have turned our face away from the marine far too much. We need to start appreciating and valuing our marine resources and making sure they will be available not just to this generation of fishers but also to the generation after and the generation after that. There is so much of our cultural heritage tied up in those communities. We cannot allow them to be diminished any further than they are. The Minister of State may be able to fill us in when he is responding, but we need to know when the marine protected area legislation is coming to the committee and when we can start the engagement with the different stakeholders on it.”
“Only through marine protected areas will we protect our fish, fish stocks and our inshore and offshore fishers. That is the only way. If we do not have fish, there will be no fishermen. That is just the reality. It is really important that those inshore fishers are incorporated when the legislation is being developed and that it is very much a partnership with them. Similar to when we talk about farmers, they are the ones who are the custodians of our marine resource. They are the ones who have the knowledge. When I chat to fishermen and hear their stories, they are so in tune with what happens at sea and what is happening with different stocks. They can give the reasons for the changes in the different stocks and the shifts in the dynamics. It is important that we work with them. There is a cultural element to this.”
“One of the impacts we are going to see from this, which the Minister of State mentioned, is the squeezing of our inshore fisheries. We have to be really conscious of that. I understand the Government is coming up with a package that will be available and very welcome for the larger fishers. It is really important that inshore fisheries and people who fish inshore are protected and that there is not a further reduction of what is available to them because they are already being squeezed. We are very aware of that. It is way past time that we see the marine protected area legislation. It has been promised for a long time. I know the process has been changed and it will be pulled in under the designated maritime area plan, DMAP, legislation, which I do not agree with. We really need movement on that legislation.”
“When Europe is estimating the overall number and quota of fish, it absolutely has to be led by science in that regard. Within that framework and the umbrella of what is available, Ireland has never received its fair share of that quota. However, I absolutely accept that there needs to be a quota system that stays within the biological limits of the populations because it just makes sense. If we overfish and there are not enough mature fish in a population, there will not be enough young fish coming along. That is a key element. What we are witnessing now is the impact of overfishing by all countries. Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland have access to those stocks as well. We are being squeezed from that perspective and it is regrettable. For years we have ignored pure population realities when it comes to fish stocks.”
“We need to see a return of the Hague preferences to Ireland and we need to see it now. We really cannot accept this from Europe and I hope the Minister of State will fight very strongly for that. I also want to discuss what really underpins our fisheries, though. It would be remiss not to do so. Earlier this week a TD said that one of the problems is that for the first time, Europe has actually accepted the scientific advice that was given to it, which squeezed the quotas even further. For years, Europe has not accepted the scientific advice and has given out quotas that were way larger than what populations could withstand. That is one of the reasons we are in this situation. There are biological limits as to what we can fish.”
“We need stricter monitoring of foreign vessels, real-time reporting of catches, and enforcement that ensures compliance with sustainability standards. Ireland should push for renegotiation of quota sharing arrangements so that benefits flow back to Irish communities, not just to multinational operators. Investments in our own processing capacity and small-scale fisheries would create jobs and keep value local, rather than exporting it along with the fish. At a time climate and biodiversity crises demand urgent action, continuing to allow industrial fleets unfettered access is indefensible. Ireland must stand up for its marine resources, its workers and its environment. Stronger controls are not just a policy choice; they are a matter of justice. The survival of our coastal communities relies on them.”
“The triggering criteria were met for the Hague preferences, yet a group of EU member states with larger fishing fleets than Ireland blocked it. This represents the first time the Hague preferences were blocked in 50 years, blocked by our neighbours. This is an issue of sovereignty and fairness. Coastal communities in Donegal, Galway and Cork depend on fishing for livelihoods, yet they are squeezed by policies that prioritise corporate interests and international deals over local resilience. Rural Ireland is hollowing out. Clubs cannot field teams and young people are emigrating because Government after Government has sacrificed fisheries for short-term gain. Better controls do not have to equal isolationism.”
“Our own fishers face strict quotas and shrinking margins while foreign super trawlers, some the size of football pitches, extract enormous volumes of fish from Irish waters. This is not just an economic injustice; this is an environmental and a social one. Industrial-scale fishing puts pressure on stocks, disrupts ecosystems and undermines the sustainability commitments we claim to uphold. The Hague preferences, which exist to protect our fleet when there are periods of severe quota downturn, should have been invoked for Ireland at this meeting. I acknowledge the work the Minister of State has done at Europe to try to get our neighbours to invoke them. As others have said, unfortunately he could have done with more support from more senior levels but I appreciate the work he put into it.”
“That betrayal unfortunately continues today. Just this week, Irish fishers learned that they will forfeit even more of their already depleted quota, another blow to rural and coastal jobs caused by Government and, particularly, EU indifference and EU deals that serve everyone but us. At the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting last week, a deal was struck that will see Ireland lose 57,000 tonnes of quota for 2026, a loss valued at around €94 million rising to €200 million in knock-on effects, threatening approximately 2,300 coastal jobs. These foreign fleets often target high-value species like blue whiting and mackerel, operating under quota arrangements negotiated at EU level. While these deals are presented as reciprocal, the reality is that Ireland gains little compared to what we give away.”
“Irish seas have been sold and our coastal communities are paying the price. Our seas are among our most valuable natural resources, yet they are being exploited under a system that fails to protect coastal communities, marine biodiversity and the long-term sustainability of our fisheries. The presence of Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroe Islands vessels in Irish waters is a stark reminder of how weak our current controls are and how urgently they need reform. Foreign fleets now catch approximately 85% of all fish landed from Irish waters. Despite controlling about 12% of EU waters, Ireland receives less than 6% of the quotas. For decades, successive Governments have treated our fishing industry as expendable. When Ireland joined the EEC in 1973, our marine resources were traded away so that other sectors could benefit.”
“Perhaps it could be done through a regulatory framework rather than it having to be done through legislation all the time. Any nicotine products should be able to be dealt with quickly by the Minister for Health if she deems it appropriate and if that is what the health recommendations are. I thank the Minister of State for considering that. I will follow it up. I would really like to see movement. In particular, it would be a good move if the Minister could get the guidelines out to schools.”
“I ask that the Minister deals with the issue in this Bill. It is not just a question of dealing with the age limit, because my understanding is that when she spoke about the Bill, it was primarily to ensure that tobacco pouches cannot be sold to under-18s, but similar to vapes, it is not just the question of age, it is the flavourings, accessibility and the designs on them. They are very attractive products to a young person. I ask that the Minister would examine all those issues. Pouches are very similar to vapes. As we are dealing with the vapes, I urge her to please deal with these other products. Not only that, but will she please future-proof the legislation because, as we can see, the innovations from the tobacco industry are just being pumped out so we need to get ahead of all these things?”
“Principals have asked for guidance from the HSE to be sent to schools because they are sort of in a limbo land with this. I do not believe that guidance has been sent, but that is something very simple that should happen immediately to assist school communities deal with this scourge. I also have major concerns about promotions by different companies. It is possible to get vapes for free by logging in online with these companies. They will send out a free sample. They can also be accessed free at concerts. These companies promote concerts. There is a lot of money going into promoting vapes because they know there is a huge market of young people that are willing to utilise their products, but those young people will pay a very high price for this. That is something we need to address urgently.”
“There are no controls over the usage or sale of nicotine pouches. I am really concerned about the impact on young people in particular. The Minister of State mentioned during the summer that she was very keen to deal with these products. I really welcome that but I ask that it be done at speed. They have been available to students for two years now. We have a whole cohort of students who have become addicted to them over that two-year period. We cannot afford to allow that to continue any longer. I recently had a 17-year-old tell me that they had not taken a nicotine pouch for eight days and they were so pleased with themselves. That is what we are talking about. This is something I have seen in schools in Wicklow, but I know it is an issue across the country. The principals association has repeatedly raised this as an issue.”
“They are being marketed really aggressively at students. They can be bought in any corner shop. They come in cool little packages with very funky designs and, similar to vapes, they are flavoured to appeal to schoolchildren. These products are incredibly strong, with a single pouch having up to 30 mg of nicotine. This compares with a single cigarette delivering 1 mg to 2 mg of nicotine into the smoker's system. One pouch could be as strong as an entire pack of cigarettes. There are students buying them and using them throughout the school day. It is nearly two years exactly since I first raised this issue with the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. He said at the time that pouches were not really an issue here and the matter was being looked at by the EU. Two years down the road, nothing has been done.”
“I welcome the Bill but it is too slow in what it proposes to implement. The tobacco industry is very quick at coming up with new and innovative ways of delivering nicotine to individuals, getting them addicted to its products and keeping its bottom line very healthy while everyone else suffers from those products. Rather than waiting years to deal with these issues, we need to be much more proactive. While my colleague has spoken specifically about vapes, I will focus on nicotine pouches, which should be incorporated in the provisions of the Bill. As the Minister of State knows, these small pouches are placed between the gum and inner lip. They are very discreet, which is why a lot of students like them. They can use them during school time and can very easily hide them from their parents.”
“On a point of order, I am just wondering when we are discussing this, can we just ask the Deputies to state whether they have any financial involvement in hunts or the provision of services for hunting?”
“You would only be going onto farmers' lands if they want you on it. There is no cruelty involved. I ask them to find an alternative to fox hunting. The Minister said that people should not only be listening to the loud voices. The reason there are loud voices is that there are so many people in this country who do not want fox hunting. Rather than dismiss those loud voices, I ask the Minister of State to listen to them. He should be led by his constituents. His constituents have been on to me asking for this practice to be banned. I thank Deputy Coppinger. I welcome the fact that Sinn Féin has finally been placed in a situation whereby it has had to declare its position on the issue. It is disappointing. The mask has slipped for Sinn Féin in this regard. I will pass to my colleagues.”
“If you have a fox on your land that is causing problems to your livestock, there are alternative methods, such as shooting, that will be a lot more efficient than calling on packs of hounds and hunters to come through your land, through your ditches, wrecking your fences and crops and disturbing all the farm animals on your property. That is no argument whatsoever. I accept that there are a small number of people who have done this over many years and that there could be an impact on their livelihoods. However, change happens and we have to move with the change. I ask those people to find an alternative to fox hunting. Drag hunting will provide the same job opportunities, the same tourism opportunities and the same opportunities for local hoteliers to get business. It is a controlled method that means you are not wrecking farmers' lands.”
“He also mentioned the harm to horses, cattle and sheep that no one talks about, and attacks on domestic animals, such as household pets, which have happened. Hunts, in fact, tell you to lock up your pets. I do not know who the Minister of State listens to when he purports to represent rural Ireland. Those are the voices from rural Ireland that I am hearing. They are the voices to which I will listen. The argument about this being a good means of controlling foxes is crazy and ridiculous. It is the most inefficient means of controlling foxes.”
“Someone from a farming background in Cork told me that the notion that fox hunting is a method of controlling the fox population is ludicrous. They said that fox hunters do far more destruction to farming land and the countryside. A zoologist in Wicklow, who is also from a farming background, said that hunting with hounds is one of the least effective methods of population control. Farmers have told me that their livestock have been traumatised. Another man told me that he lives in rural west Cork and there are a couple of practical points that sway him totally against fox hunting. He said that no insurance company will give cover. He said that damage is done to farmers' land and property by fox hunting.”
“This is a debate on animal welfare and what we consider to be acceptable in Ireland. Interestingly, since I have been talking about this, a huge number of people from rural Ireland have contacted me, as I am sure they have other Deputies, to express their outrage at fox hunting. They want it banned. A sheep farmer in Cashel said that many farming neighbours agree that the days of having large numbers of horses galloping through farmland in the wettest months of the year are long gone and that fox hunting as a means of curtailing the population is a fallacy. A Wicklow constituent told me that a hunt passed through their local area and the hounds entered their garden. They split apart and savaged their beloved little dog, Isabelle, killing the dog on my correspondent's property.”
“Let us go through the different arguments. The Minister said that the fact that Deputies who support this Bill have never met anyone who has been on a hunt undermines our case. I do not need to go on a hunt to know it is cruel. I do not need to go to a bullfight to know it is cruel. I do not need to go to see badger-baiting or to attend a dogfight to know they are cruel. If something is cruel, it is cruel. There is a fundamental basis for animal welfare that we should be applying in this country. It is incredible that the Minister referred to that in his speech. I will move to the matter of rural versus urban Ireland, and this is a matter that the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, has put forward on numerous occasions. This is not a rural versus urban debate.”
“I thank Deputy Coppinger for this really important Bill. It is very timely, so I thank her for her work on it. The Social Democrats will 100% support her in the Bill and her efforts to ban fox hunting. I will be very clear. Fox hunting is wrong, fox hunting is cruel and fox hunting has no place in the Ireland of today. I was really disappointed to hear what the Minister, Deputy Heydon, said in his speech. I expect the arguments put forward by the Government to be more rational. There was an incredible amount of misinformation provided in the Minister's speech. To be honest, it is something I would have expected from the Independent Members whom I have been debating on this issue over recent weeks. I had thought Fine Gael would provide something with a bit more humanity, a bit more compassion and a bit more rationality.”
“Some 300,000 people are in arrears on their electricity bill with 187,000 of them in long-term arrears. In October, the Taoiseach spoke about price-gouging by energy companies and since then, all we have seen is price hike after price hike. Staff of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, was on "Morning Ireland" today and advised people to shop around for their bills or to put their electricity on at cheaper times of the day. That is completely tone deaf when we are in a situation where people do not have enough money to turn their heating on to keep their house warm. Will the Taoiseach direct the regulator to conduct an investigation on price-gouging? It is long past time that retail companies were held to account for the extortionate prices they are charging people.”
“This is a blister pack. This is the safest way to organise medications for older people, those with dementia and vulnerable people. Access to these blister packs is not optional; it is a life-saving measure. This blister pack is as important as the medications that are held within and not provide funding for this from January is dangerous, callous and mean. I ask that the Government would sit down with the pharmacists and work out a deal so that people know they will have their blister packs in January. This has been raised repeatedly with me by constituents. The County Wicklow Network for Older People is very concerned about it. I am sure this is an issue right across the country. It is not okay to make people who cannot afford this to go without it because it is life-saving.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his confirmation that a nine-month timeframe will be set on the Bill and that he will work closely with me and my party. I have some other suggestions. I think it would be appropriate at this stage to see if additional funding can be provided for rescues that are dealing with what is a crisis at the moment and to examine the possibility of establishing a special committee to get this Bill across the line as soon as possible. I thank the Minister of State very much for the change and I look forward to working with him. I hope to hear from him, the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and indeed the Department shortly about next steps on how we can progress this Bill.”
“I thank the Minister of State because I have just received notification from him that he is prepared to move to a nine-month timeframe, which would be sufficient to get through those consultations. I am really pleased with that and the Social Democrats will accept it. We want to work closely with the Government on this issue, which we are passionate about. It is important, on issues like this, that the Social Democrats work constructively with the Government. People want to see action on this issue, regardless of which party they support. Whether it is the Social Democrats, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or Independents or whoever else, it does not matter because people want to see this actioned.”