Joanne Collins
Agricultural Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I am going to speak to amendments Nos. 2, 4 and 8. Amendment No. 2 makes it absolutely clear that the strategic emergency gas reserve is exactly that: an emergency reserve. It cannot become another source of gas for day-to-day commercial supply or market management.”
“(3) The Minister must mandate that the CRU carries out an assessment on the impact of the expenses incurred on household bills under this Act and all future Acts relating to construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of a Strategic Emergency Gas Reserve.”. I will keep this very brief.”
“I move amendment No. 6: In page 10, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: " State-led 5 . (1) The Strategic Emergency Gas Reserve constructed, operated and maintained under this Act and all future Acts relating to its construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning will be a State-led asset.”
“Yes, I am not going to give out. Regardless of what is said to me I am going to be nice today on our last day. I echo what is being said about everybody enjoying their break and the thanks to all the staff in here. It can be very daunting when you first come in but everybody makes you feel like you can do it. It is great to work here.”
“I move amendment No. 7: In page 10, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: " Gas demand 5 . (1) The Minister shall ensure that a Strategic Emergency Gas Reserve established under this Act and all future Acts relating to its construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning does not lead to an increase in gas demand.”
“I move amendment No. 10: In page 10, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “Decommissioning 5. The Minister shall, within 12 months of the commencement of this Act, outline a plan for decommissioning any Strategic Emergency Gas Reserve constructed, operated, maintained or decommissioned under this Act and all future Acts relat…”
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“The Government can keep throwing money at the problem - and Sinn Féin completely agrees with increasing the borrowing limit, as set out in the Bill - but unless the Government increases its targets, it is going to keep failing. Of the 10,000 new-build social homes that were promised for this year, just 1,804 were completed in the first six months. Of the 2,350 cost-rental homes to be delivered this year by the local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency, only 640 were built in the first six months, and of the 2,100 affordable purchase homes that are targeted for delivery this year, only 358 were completed by June 2025. I know June is only halfway through the year and while those numbers do tend to increase in the second half of the year, it does seem like we are going to miss the targets again this year.”
“Emigrants are telling us before they go that they are leaving because of the housing crisis. They just cannot afford to live here. The biggest problem for many young workers is that the Government's vision for affordable housing is not actually affordable. Rents in many cost-rental developments still exclude those who earn too much to qualify for social housing but not enough to afford to rent in the private sector. They are excluded from the cost-rental market because rents are too high and they fail the affordability test. A sense of urgency on the part of the Government to tackle the housing crisis just seems to be missing. While we have seen more housing delivered in recent years, the housing disaster still continues because the Government is lacking in ambition. The problem lies with the targets, which are too low.”
“I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Bill is fairly straightforward and I thank the Department for the helpful briefing note that was provided to everybody. The financing of houses, social housing in particular, via the local authorities and the funding of approved housing bodies, AHBs, is most definitely of huge importance. There is a dire need for people on housing lists to be homed more quickly, for people who are working to be able to get a mortgage before they are too old to qualify for one and for more affordable rental units to be available for younger workers and families before we end up losing thousands more to emigration. As of June 2024, 103,080 people who were born in Ireland were living in Australia. For the first time since the 19th century that figure has exceeded 100,000.”
“This is not just an economic issue; it is a matter of gender equality, of community survival and of giving every child in Ireland the best possible start in life. Childcare cannot be another broken promise; it must be the foundation of a fairer, more equal Ireland. I have to say I completely reject the amendment put forward by the other side of the House. It is crazy to stand up and say how brilliant the Government is. It is giving extra money, but it is not looking at the fundamental side of it. It can throw as much money as it wants at this situation, but until it has the staff to take up those positions, and unless it looks after the staff it will not be able to make more places.”
“Services are closing, especially baby rooms for children under the age of 12 months - we have seen this a lot - because they cannot keep them staffed. Early Childhood Ireland said it very clearly when it stated the 2026 budget missed an opportunity. Yes, €125 million was added, but it falls short of what is needed to bring the system to what it truly needs to be for the children, the families and the educators. We need meaningful reform, not piecemeal schemes and press releases. We need a public childcare model that is properly funded, properly staffed and accessible to every family; urban and rural, rich and poor. We need to stop talking about childcare places as if they exist in isolation from the people who actually make them possible: the educators, overwhelmingly women, who deserve decent pay, respect and stability.”
“It is far too easy for graduates to pivot into teaching or take SNA roles as those roles offer better pay, shorter hours and 14 weeks off a year. Even if we reach pay parity, early years educators will never have those additional benefits. We are losing them faster than we can recruit them or replace them. The Government talks about creating new places through the building blocks scheme. When we have 40,000 children under the age of three on waiting lists, those places barely make a dent. The real question I would have on those places is how they are going to be staffed. Providers across the country are saying the same thing. They have space to expand and they have waiting lists stretching past 100 children, but they simply cannot find the staff.”
“Core funding, which was introduced later to cover rising costs, was never meant to replace ECCE increases, yet here we are seven years later. Providers are trying to cover 2025 costs with 2018 rates. The AIMS programme, which supports inclusion for children with additional needs, promises extra hours for families, but services cannot staff those hours. The result is frustration for parents and burnout for staff. Services were given just ten days' notice before the implementation of the new ERO rates. They could not even apply for the additional funding until the day those rates took effect. No graduate funding was provided. As one manager said, we cannot compete because the reality is that qualified early years graduates are choosing not to enter this sector at all.”
“When we listen to those working on the ground, we hear about a system that is creaking under pressure. A community childcare manager in my own area put it very plainly: the national childcare scheme penalises parents for using fewer hours. Funding is allocated based on attendance, not on booking. That means parents pay the same fees even if their child attends less. If they use fewer hours, they actually lose their subsidy. One parent saw her weekly bill increase by over €50 simply by collecting her children early. The system effectively forces children to stay in the service for longer so that parents can afford to pay the fees. Meanwhile, the ECCE funding, the foundation of early education, has not increased since 2018.”
“It is not working for parents, for the providers or for the women who make up the vast majority of the workforce. Ireland has the highest level of private childcare provision in the OECD. It is a system that puts profit above public good, and a system that will never meet the needs of a changing society. Parents are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage, yet they face long waiting lists and uncertainty. In too many homes, mothers are being forced out of the workforce simply because childcare is unaffordable or unavailable. Sinn Féin has been clear all along that affordable and accessible childcare must not be thrown on the scrapheap of broken election promises. We are committed to the public model of childcare, one that puts children, families and educators at its heart.”
“I am here tonight not just as a Senator but also as a mother and as chairperson of a community-run crèche. I have seen from all sides what is happening here. We have heard a lot of talk about investment in education, which is absolutely welcomed. The budget announcement of 1,700 new special needs assistants is welcome, but with such promises comes deep concern. According to the Department, 38% of the SNA workforce holds an early years qualification. Expanding the SNA workforce without addressing the conditions of the early years sector risks drawing more qualified educators out of the childcare sector and into schools, a move that is only going to worsen critical staffing shortages. Our early years and school-age care system is in crisis.”
“I then have to go from Limerick station to Dublin, get off at Heuston Station to travel to Connolly Station, and then get a connection to Sligo. It takes seven hours to go from Limerick to Sligo by train. It is not right or fair to people living on that side of the country. It is crazy to think you would have to seven hours travelling to Sligo if you wanted to go there to see family or for another reason. It is no wonder people are still driving. We need a rail system that suits every part of this country.”
“Having the Dublin–Belfast economic corridor as the northern spine for transport and opportunity means completing the western rail corridor to Sligo, reopening the Navan line and giving cities like Limerick the same level of investment and ambition that Dublin has enjoyed for decades. I do not often take the train. The first time I took a train, I was 15 years old, and the second time I took one was in February of this year to come to Dublin. I drive everywhere because I live in County Limerick. There is no public transport that can get me to where I need to go. If I want to go to Sligo from Limerick by train, I first have to drive for 45 minutes to get into Limerick city because there is no train station near me.”
“The Minister of State is going to be sick of me saying that. Budget 2026 included no new capital funding for rail. There was even talk of fare hikes. Raising fares while failing to expand regional services is not policy; it is punishment for living outside Dublin. There is a theme to my speech. We need to maintain the fare reductions and at the same time extend them to rural and regional services so no community is left behind. Sinn Féin’s vision is a rail system that connects every part of this island – from Foynes to Derry, from Cork to Collooney and from Belfast to Dublin.”
“The Foynes–Limerick line could be the backbone for the mid-west commuter network, linking people to jobs, education and Shannon Airport eventually. The Dublin–Belfast economic corridor shows what ambition actually looks like: six ports, two airports, strong road and rail services, and growing cross-Border co-operation. Investing in high-speed rail along this corridor could reduce congestion, cut emissions and open up opportunities North and South. That is the real meaning of an all-island economy. However, to achieve balanced growth, that same ambition must reach Limerick, the west and the north west. Since the review was published, the Government has had several chances to act, yet the national development plan review contained nothing new for regional rail. The only big announcement was MetroLink but, again, it stops at the M50.”
“The review identifies routes such as Limerick–Galway, Limerick–Cork and Limerick–Ballybrophy, but until we have new rolling stock and proper investment, those ambitions will remain promises on paper. We are told that additional trains will not arrive until 2027 because the DART+ project will take priority. Once again, it is to stop at the M50. Limerick commuters already face overcrowding. Their link to Cork is irregular and the link to Dublin is painfully slow. A rail link to Shannon Airport is only a concept on paper, yet Dublin Airport, even with all its resources, will not see heavy rail until the 2040s. After decades of campaigning, the Foynes line is finally reopening, but only for freight. Passenger services will have to follow.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on the all-island strategic rail review and to put on record the needs of Limerick and the greater mid-west when it comes to rail. I also welcome the all-island approach taken by the review. For far too long, transport planning has stopped at the Border, and too often it has actually stopped at the M50. For decades, successive Governments have presided over line closures, chronic underinvestment and a transport policy that overwhelmingly prioritised Dublin and its commuter belt. That is not balanced development; it is centralisation by neglect. Limerick has the potential to be a true rail hub for the mid-west, connecting the western seaboard, the south and Dublin.”
“I ask for a debate in the House on the services provided in this country, including charity services, which are run by volunteers and need to be recognised for the work they do and what they supply to our communities. I could not name all the counties but CRITICAL is in counties Limerick, Cork, Galway and Donegal, and there is a big base in Dublin. It trains volunteers and supplies go bags and vehicles to volunteers so they can respond to calls the National Ambulance Service cannot get to, whether because it does not have enough staff on the ground or there is an overflow. It would be nice to have a debate in the House and recognise the services that play a role in this area.”
“I want to raise something I noticed last week. The National Ambulance Service was in before health committee last week to take questions. Its representatives stated, and it was reported in TheJournal.ie , that the service would be interested in having doctors going out with its crews. I found it quite amusing, considering there is a charity that works under the National Ambulance Service called CRITICAL which practises this. It has doctors on its books. The only difference is CRITICAL personnel are volunteers so they do not get paid, whereas the National Ambulance Service would pay doctors if it was to bring them out. The service is speaking about going to Scotland to look at best practices, which I find quite unusual considering we have the practice on this island already.”
“If it was the case that it came up to the same price as cigarettes or close to it, I probably would go back on to cigarettes because I gave them up for cost as opposed to health reasons. I just want to make the point that it would be nice to have this looked at to see whether the price has to double or whether the level of the increase can be reduced.”
“In terms of the cost of living, for somebody who is giving up cigarettes for a cost reason and not a health reason, to double the cost of their bottle of juice is going to be very hard for them to swallow. They are giving it up for a reason, namely because they cannot afford it. I have never in all my days of watching budgets and price increases seen a tax go on something for the very first time to make it double the cost it currently is. That is quite unfair. It is not going to affect everybody, and it is not going to be at front top of everyone's mind, but there is a good chunk of the population who gave up cigarettes for health or cost reasons. They have moved to vaping. I will hold my hand up; my vape is the only reason I am not still smoking.”
“I welcome the Minister. I have a specific query. I made the same query on the Order of Business earlier. It is not something that everybody would think of, but as a reformed smoker who uses a vape, it is definitely a bone of contention in my house. I gave up cigarettes seven years ago because I just could not afford to keep smoking as a result of the fact that the tax on cigarettes was increased every year. I switched over to vapes. A bottle of juice for the vape contains 10 ml and costs €5. As of 1 November, 50 cent per millilitre will be added to the price, which will bring it up to €10. That is double the cost of what it will be come 1 November.”
“It is absolutely crazy to double the price of something just for the sake of taxing it. It is going to be unfair on people who are trying to get off cigarettes, rely on a vape and cannot afford to go through other measures. I do not agree with the tax going on them.”
“It was not for health reasons, but because of the cost as they increased in price every year. I discovered the vape, which helped me to get off cigarettes. I had tried to get off them for many years. I could not do it cold turkey. I found the vape, which I find really good to keep me off cigarettes but, more importantly in terms of the cost of living, it is unbelievable to be able to afford and still have that little luxury in my life. Not many would call it a luxury but I hold my hand up - I do call it a luxury because I quite enjoy my vape. However, from 1 November the juice for vapes is going up by €5. To buy a bottle of juice today is €5. It is going to be €10 on 1 November. I have never in my life seen a tax put on something to double the price of it in one go.”
“I wish to start on a positive note. We had the announcement over the weekend of Ireland and, more important, Clare and Limerick winning the bid for EuroPride 2028. I congratulate those who went forward with the bid, including Limerick Pride, QuareClare and The Outing Festival, with the help of Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, UL Events, Mayor John Moran, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. This is fantastic to get for the region. Not only will we have the Ryder Cup in 2027, they reckon that this event in 2028 is going to be even bigger than the Ryder Cup, with more than 200,000 travelling to Barcelona last week for this year's event. I have some props with me. This is a box of cigarettes. I was smoking for 25 years. I gave them up about seven years ago.”
“We need a cancer service that is comprehensive, equitable and properly funded. We need to end the recruitment embargoes that are paralysing care. We need multiannual funding and planning so that services can recruit, train and retain the staff they so badly need. We need to invest in regional capacity so that no patient is left behind because of where they live. This is about dignity. Delays in treatment or rehabilitation are not statistics; they are life and death for patients and their families. The Government must stop treating cancer services as an annual budget line and start treating them as a national priority. Sinn Féin will continue to press for a fully funded, regionally balanced and patient-centred cancer strategy, one that delivers for every community and not just those within the M50.”
“The human cost of this neglect is devastating. For every four-week delay in starting treatment, the risk of death increases by 9%. These are not abstract numbers. They represent people who could have a better chance - mothers, fathers, sons, daughters - but whose lives are being cut short because our system is moving too slowly. This is happening at a time when public patients are being outsourced for private treatment, which is a far greater cost to the taxpayer. That is not efficiency; it is failure and we are paying twice for it. Sinn Féin fully supports the motion, but we also need to state clearly that the issue raised here today is not confined to dental oncology. It cuts across the entire cancer system from screening and diagnostics to surgery and radiotherapy and recovery.”
“The national cancer strategy was launched with ambition in 2017, yet eight years on it has only been properly funded for two of those years. Of the 23 objectives it set out, one has been achieved. We have a workforce crisis in cancer care. Radiation therapists, radiographers and oncologists are stretched to breaking point. Up to 70 of the 240 radiation therapy posts nationally are vacant. Life-saving equipment sits idle while professionals burn out or emigrate because of low pay and poor progression. These shortages are not felt evenly. The postcode lottery in cancer care remains stark. Patients in the west, south and north west are still travelling hundreds of kilometres for diagnosis or treatment. Centralisation has a place for specialist services, but it cannot become an excuse for the permanent neglect of regional capacity.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I thank my colleagues in the Independent Group for tabling this important motion forward, and especially Senator Craughwell for his heartfelt and to the point graphic, but needed, speech. It is great to hear the lived experience. I also welcome all those in the Gallery. The motion highlights what too many patients and family already know, which is that cancer services in the State are in crisis. The focus today is on head and neck cancers, in particular, the lack of pre-radiation dental oncology and rehabilitation supports, but, in truth, these are symptoms of a much deeper systemic failure to deliver timely, equitable and safe cancer care right across the board.”
“I completely agree that we need childcare places. It is great to see the Government putting that into the budget but where is it going to get the staff to provide these childcare places? In Limerick last year, 98% of graduates in the childcare programme went on to do an extra year to go into primary school teaching. In other words, 98% of people who were going to go into childcare left childcare before they ever started it. Pay and conditions need to be looked at. The bottom line, from what I can see, is that budget 2026 was for landlords and developers. I can only imagine that all of those who stood up today and said they welcomed the budget, or welcomed it yesterday, must only have landlords and developers living in their constituencies.”
“That is putting more parents in cars. It is increasing diesel and petrol costs which people cannot seem to afford. These costs are getting higher and higher every time. Senator Rabbitte spoke about our alternative budget and our election promises. Our election promises were based on five years; the alternative budget was based on one. In the year on which we based it, in order to bring the cost down to €10 per day we focused on crèches and childminders who are registered with Tusla. To get everyone into it would take more regulation because, as the Minister of State will know, not all childminders are regulated or registered with Tusla. I wish to make it clear that the cost for 2027 would have been higher than the cost in this alternative budget. I want to touch on reducing the cost of childcare, which is great.”
“It is not just about economics anymore; it is about dignity and the right to live and work in your own community without having to choose between paying for fuel and paying for food. People across the island are at breaking point. They were at breaking point last week and they are even worse this week. Budget 2026 cannot just be about figures on a page; it has to be about fairness. It should have been about reconnecting with real Ireland. If this Government continues to turn its back on rural Ireland, it will break not just counties like Limerick but also the hearts of people who have built them. Last year in the budget, school transport accounted for 173,000 seats. This year, it accounts for 170,000 seats. We are losing out in the budget for school transport at a time when we are at breaking point with school transport in rural areas.”
“Young people are tired; they have had enough of promises that do not reach their towns and villages. Our small towns are at breaking point and our villages are hollowing out. We cannot keep young people in our communities. They want to stay, raise families and build their lives but how can they do so when there is no affordable housing, no reliable transport and no jobs close to home? For those who must commute into Limerick, Cork or further afield, the situation is becoming impossible, with rising costs, higher carbon taxes and still no viable public transport alternative. People are being punished for simply trying to get to work or college. In the Limerick County constituency, we have a Government Minister and a Minister of State, yet on the ground the reality is that people feel abandoned and unheard.”
“I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for giving up her time to be here. In the past few weeks, Senators on this side of the House and across the floor have raised the lack of basic public transport services in our rural communities. I spoke on the Order of Business about the transport difficulties in rural Limerick caused by the lack of capacity and unsuitable times, but I could just as easily have been speaking about countless counties in Ireland. The story is the same everywhere: bus services do not exist and do not run when people need them, communities are cut off and young people have no choice but to leave or start driving. We are told that a record investment is being made but those investments are not being felt on the ground. Rural Ireland is being discriminated against.”
“We are still in the same situation, with a lack of capacity and timings that do not work for people who need to be at certain places at certain times. On the brighter side, I want to give a shout out to Local Link, which is absolutely amazing for a certain age group. If you are looking to get somewhere at a certain time and be back at a certain time, Local Link does not work. It is more for the middle of the day and it does not go to all locations where people need to go. For college and work, we mostly rely on Bus Éireann. We also use Dublin Coach because it goes down to Killarney but it is unreliable at the moment between capacity and timings.”
“The same thing is happening in west Limerick with the Killarney bus, which passes through Abbeyfeale, Newcastle West and Adare on its way into the city. By the time it hits Abbeyfeale, which is the first town it reaches in County Limerick, the bus is full. The next bus does not arrive for another two hours. Anyone trying to get into college or work for 9 a.m. does not have a choice. These young people are looking at having to buy cars and get car insurance. We all know how much car insurance is for young people. These students, and the workers, are trying their best to commute but the services are just not there. I raised this with the NTA at the transport committee before the summer recess. Its response was that it would look at capacity. Nothing has changed since.”
“I want to raise public transport, particularly in County Limerick. I have received a couple of emails from commuters in east Limerick who travel from Kilfinane to Colbert Station, which is the train station in the city. They travel from the east of the county to the city for work or college. I am informed that every day, there are between 70 and 80 people trying to get on a 52-seater bus. This means that at least 20 people are standing at a bus stop somewhere having to wait for the next one, which might not come for two hours or might not turn up at all. These people are finding it very difficult to get into work or college. College students who cannot afford to rent in the city and are staying at home and trying to commute in and out.”
“She fought for two years solid and got a Portakabin put outside. It is not ideal, but at least those parents do not have to walk up to that neonatal ward. I ask the Leader to take this back to the Minster for Health to prioritise improvements in this area, even if it is just separate entrances for these parents who are going through one of the most traumatic times of their lives.”
“It is a little unfair that a woman who is miscarrying feels a sense of relief just because she does not have to go back to a hospital. It just seems as if there is something missing. The majority of staff in maternity hospitals are unbelievably caring and compassionate, but the structures around them seem to be failing. Parents experiencing miscarriages deserve privacy, dignity and care, not the grief that is compounded when they have to use the same entrance or go onto the same ward where they can hear babies crying. At the very least there should be separate entrances. There was an amazing grief counsellor in University Maternity Hospital Limerick. The grief counselling used to happen in the room next to the neonatal ward where many of the parents would have lost their babies.”
“I raise the issue around the treatment of mothers and families who experience miscarriages. Too often women going through the most devastating moments of their lives are placed in the same wards or have to use the same entrances to the hospital as parents leaving with their newborn babies. It is an extra agony they have walking in to the hospital. For those grieving the loss of a pregnancy, it is an additional and unnecessary trauma. A mother who contacted me after her own loss felt unseen and said that she did not receive the same treatment she would have received if she had her baby. She felt it was cold and callous. When she became pregnant for a second time, she sadly miscarried again. The only saving grace for her, which gave her a little relief, was that she did not have to return to the maternity hospital.”
“I thank the Minister of State very much. I am delighted to see this area is being looked at now. I have one request while it is being looked at and this is to take into account the fact that sometimes one party may be entitled to legal aid and the other is not. If that is the case and if proceedings are being drawn out by months and sometimes years, could this aspect be looked at again for that person who is not entitled to legal aid at the start to see if they may be entitled to it halfway through? The Minister of State knows it could cost €1,000 each time it is necessary to get a solicitor to go to court. If what I have described becomes the case during the trial or whatever the different proceedings might be, I ask if eligibility for a means test for legal aid can be revisited at that point.”
“I ask the Minister of State to take this back to the Department to clarify whether financial abuse will be recognised under the exceptional circumstances, whether victims of financial and coercive control will be explicitly included in the legal aid framework, and that the legal aid board staff receive training to identify financial and coercive control in their triage model.”
“It creates three failures: a barrier to justice, where victims cannot safely separate or seek protection without legal advice; a misrepresentation of means, joint assets and shared income which hides the real power imbalance; and a failure under the Istanbul Convention and the CEDAW. Ireland must guarantee access to justice for all forms of gender-based violence, including financial abuse. As I said, domestic abuse is not just physical or emotional. It is often financial, yet our legal aid framework still treats income as if victims can freely access it.”
“There is also another side to this that is far too often overlooked. The abuser, often employed or declaring minimal income, qualifies for legal aid while the victim, working and trying to stay independent, is deemed ineligible. The abuser, represented at the State's expense, can drag out proceedings with adjournments and repeated applications. The victim, paying privately, eventually runs out of money and is forced to withdraw. This is not justice. This is a system being used as another form of control. If implemented as drafted, the new framework risks perpetuating exclusion rather than ending it.”
“The civil legal aid review group's report published in April, proposes a major redesign but barely touches domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. Domestic violence is only mentioned in passing and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence appear in the glossary but there is no substantive discussion or recommendation. Crucially, there is no reference to financial abuse, economic abuse or coercive control at all. The proposed means test measures income and assets, not access to either of these. Even the exceptional circumstances provision fails to mention domestic or financial coercion. Victims, whose names are on joint accounts or joint mortgages but who cannot touch a cent of what is in those accounts, are told they earn too much for legal aid. On paper they look secure but in reality they are completely powerless.”
“I want to raise an issue concerning domestic abuse. I want to highlight that it is not just confined to what we can see. It is not just bruises, shouting or visible harm; it also includes financial control and economic abuse. The abuser restricts access to money, sabotages employment or leaves victims appearing financially stable on paper, whereas in reality they control all the finances. This form of abuse traps victims' independence and prevents them from seeking justice. Yet our legal aid system, the very system that is meant to protect vulnerable people in these circumstances, still assesses eligibility by income and assets, not by who controls them. Despite recognising coercive control in law, financial abuse remains invisible in practice.”
“It was not only water from the river as there was sewage also coming up. These houses are uninhabitable at present and people are privately renting on top of paying a mortgage. The cost to these families and businesses is very high and a permanent solution needs to be put in place. I call on the Department to liaise with Limerick City and County Council to ensure funding for permanent solutions rather than quick fixes is put in place.”
“This is great but the worrying part is that it wants funding to carry out quick-fix works to alleviate short-term flooding events. What is needed for the town of Dromcolliher is a commitment for permanent solutions that will protect homes and businesses if this were ever to happen again. When we look over the past couple of years we see we have had spot flooding. We had it in Youghal the year before. I think it was Youghal; it was somewhere in Cork. It seems to be happening more often. If the drainage is not looked at correctly, and a permanent solution is not put into these towns, they are at risk of being flooded again. Businesses and homes will be ruined. A couple of homes in Dromcolliher were evacuated in July. These homes are still under construction to try to deal with the flood water.”
“Today I want to raise an issue that happened last July. A town in County Limerick had severe rainfall within a very short space of time and flooding occurred. The local residents and businesses had been raising the potential for flooding for three or four years with the council and through their local TDs' offices. I do not know whether it fell on deaf ears or was just put on the long finger but nothing was done to the drainage system in the town. I acknowledge that since the flooding Limerick City and County Council has responded. It has dredged the rivers and opened up the eyes of the bridge again. Last week it confirmed to a newspaper that it has made an application for minor works, through the OPW, and for an overall survey.”
“I thank the Minister of State. This is great that it has not yet been announced to the Department but I have seen the internal emails to the staff. It is very important that the families of those who may be made redundant are looked after. However, if it does come to pass and 200 jobs are lost, I plead that the businesses in the area also be taken into account because of the loss of traffic that will be coming through and how the loss of those jobs will impact the wider community.”
“That is great for some, but it depends on where these workers are travelling from in the first place whether they can go to Mallow. I ask the Minister of State if he could take it to the Minister and see what he might be able to do to try to save some of these jobs.”