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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“Carzone's 2026 motoring report found that more than half of Irish drivers saw their insurance premiums increase last year and that the average cost of motor insurance across the State rose by 9% to €623 in 2024. Successive national claims information database reports highlight the same stark fact: the single largest cost in insurance premiums is the portion retained by the insurers themselves - the industry's price-cost mark-up. We have a 24-page action plan with a long list of things the Government will do, yet nowhere in the document does the Government commit to forcing the insurance companies to pass on to customers the savings they are already making rather than just boosting their own profits. In fact, the document does not mention the profits made by these companies at all.”
“This would have forced the insurance companies to report to the Central Bank detailing how they have – or more importantly have not – passed on the savings as a result of the revised personal injury guidelines to consumers. It would have held the insurance companies and the industry to account and applied a downward pressure on prices but it was not supported by the Government. We are here to discuss a second action plan. What has changed for consumers in the meantime? Nothing to their benefit, as insurance companies continue to record grotesque profit margins. This is a fact they have tried to conceal by reporting their after-tax, rather than their pre-tax, profits.”
“They said that fraudulent claims were the reason for skyrocketing insurance costs, yet they have only reported 1% of the claims to An Garda Síochána, despite stating repeatedly that 20% of claims were bogus. During the pandemic, when businesses were on their knees with lockdowns and restricted openings, the first instinct of the insurers was to see how they could avoid paying out business interruption indemnity insurance. Their profits soared as they pocketed the supports intended for those small businesses. This was the backdrop of the Government's first action plan – one it launched while blocking critical aspects of the consumer insurance contracts Bill. More legislation introduced by Sinn Féin – the Judicial Council (Amendment) Bill 2021 – has also been blocked by the Government.”
“The truth is the insurance companies have been permitted to operate a licence to print money, aided and abetted by light-touch regulation and a Government looking the other way. A long list of shady practices are utilised by insurance companies in the Irish market. In the finance committee, Aviva admitted to using dual pricing - a practice designed to identify customers that were likely to renew and then to punish them by giving them higher premiums. Deputy Doherty then introduced the Consumer Insurance Contracts Bill to bring that to an end. What did the Government do even when this legislation passed through all Stages in the Oireachtas? It delayed it by two years at the behest of the insurance companies. For years, these companies have peddled lies.”
“I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the opportunity to speak on insurance. I probably come a close second to my colleague, Senator Nelson Murray. We are always bringing up some kind of insurance issue in this House. It is now six years since the Government first introduced an action plan on insurance reform. This was a move that probably would not have taken place if it was not for my colleague, Teachta Pearse Doherty, back in 2019, which kind of forced the hand of the Government to look at the issue of insurance in this country. We are a year into the second action plan, which leads me to the question of what has been the impact of the first action plan.”
“It comes in and is given the quality assurance mark but we do not know whether it is Irish. Just because it is packaged here it does not mean it is Irish. I would like to see the Government move quicker on this and not wait until September to ban Brazilian beef.”
“One of the comments made was that antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest public health threats of our time, which is quite scary when we think about it. We recently had 128 kg of this beef in Ireland and it had been consumed before we knew it was here. Given the fact the EU is now going to look at banning this from September, I request that the Irish Government moves before the EU, thinks about the public health in this country and, as of today, bans the import of Brazilian beef. One thing for sure is that I do not trust the meat in this country. I have never seen so many advertisements on television for approved Bord Bia products and approved Irish quality, but I know from committee meetings and reports that not everything packaged as Irish is Irish.”
“It is an Irish name - Réidín. I am sorry. There are a lot of e's and i's in it so I am not 100% sure. I will brush up on my Irish just to pronounce her daughter's name. In recent months, I have advocated against and given out about the EU's Mercosur deal. Sinn Féin as a whole has been against it for many years. Last night, it was announced that the Commission has an updated list of countries from which it will accept imports and Brazil is not on that list. It is going against the Mercosur deal that von der Leyen pushed through against the will of the MEPs who voted for it to go to the courts to see whether it was a deal we could take. With Brazil not being on the list for imports, it looks like that in the next day or two the Commission will bring forward a rule to ban imports from Brazil from September onwards.”
“I will start on a good note by congratulating Senator Nicole Ryan on the birth of her baby girl this morning. Mum and baby are doing well. I wanted to give the House this update. She is absolutely over the moon. The youngest Senator was born this morning.”
“They stood there for everyone. They wanted this reduction at the pumps. It was not just rebate schemes and schemes per sector; they wanted to see this across the board. Until I left Limerick county on Tuesday, I had not seen a price at a petrol pump below €2.10. I do not know if they think we are extremely rich in Limerick or something.”
“That means clarity, immediacy and, above all, fairness because our fishing communities deserve more and not to be seen as an afterthought. They deserve to see the future that they are building across all our coastal communities. I will not take a huge amount of time but I will say that when I was in Foynes for the week, every single protester I met - haulage drivers, contractors and building contractors - wanted a reduction for everyone. They were not just there for themselves. I know this is about fishing but I want to add this. Yes, they are happy the industry is getting the supports but I have received a lot of phone calls from crane drivers and lorry drivers. They said it is great that their business or the business they work for is getting a support, but how will their wife fill her tank when she has to take the kids to school?”
“Communities across our coasts have seen quota after quota stripped away. We have seen devastating EU deals which have slashed catch limits, putting jobs and livelihoods at risk and hollowing out our coastal communities. Time and time again, when decisions are made in Europe or at home, the fishing industry and sector is treated like an afterthought. To be clear, fuel is not an optional extra for fishing. It is one of the biggest operating costs that a vessel has. Without meaningful supports, boats simply cannot go out. When boats do not go out, incomes collapse, crews are lost and coastal communities suffer. What was announced yesterday acknowledges the pressure but does it meet the actual crisis that is here today? If this Government is serious about backing the fishing industry, it must go further.”
“We saw the Government come out finally yesterday and announce the fuel support scheme for all sectors – agriculture, transport and fishing. While the support is welcome, we have to be honest: the fishing industry still feels it is too little too late. There is a scheme of €15 million for the fishers which will be administered by BIM but fishers are still contacting me saying they do not know how much they will receive and how it will be calculated. There is a lot of uncertainty around it. I am not sure if it is just late going out from the Department or if they have not been fed through yet but it would be nice for them to get the exact details. The reality is that the fishing industry has not just been hit by a short-term fuel crisis; it has been systemically eroded over years.”
“We always know when he is behind something. It is a nice motion. It is not contentious but it is very important. We have organisations that look after dogs and cats, the nice animals that we can rehome, but you cannot exactly rehome a bat. You cannot go on a website and ask if there is anybody who can take this lovely bat home. There is a lot more involved in it. The motion is fantastic.”
“A lot of work goes into it, including veterinary costs, capture and release. Animal Magic is based in Kilmallock in County Limerick. It has stated that its costs are escalating every year. It is not just freeing or housing animals; it has veterinary costs and the cost of going out to collect animals, but also sourcing safe areas where it can release the animals. It is not a charity so it cannot fundraise or ask for donations. A scheme like this would be very helpful to it. I am delighted to see it is multi-annual funding because stability is needed when running what is not a business but a vocation. It is definitely key that the funding would be multi-annual. I will not take up much time. I just wanted to say "Well done". This is an absolutely fantastic motion. I knew it was Senator Noonan's motion.”
“I commend and thank the Cross-Party Group on bringing this motion forward. It is a very important one. The rehabilitation of our wildlife is very important. It hits the heart of rural Ireland and what it is. We are be able to drive down the road and see all these amazing animals. I leave my house and I see deer. Unfortunately, one of my daughters does not know much about animals and she told me one of them was a teenager. I do not know how she figured that one out, but they have decided to put labels on them. In County Limerick alone we have Bat Rehabilitation Ireland, based in Bruree. It has captured, rehabilitated and released over 2,000 bats since the centre opened in 2019. It looks after all of Ireland. It does such great work but, again, it has to fundraise for everything.”
“We can continue down the current path, which is inequitable, unsustainable and increasingly risky, or we can choose a different approach that puts our citizens first, invests in renewable capacity and secures an energy future. Sinn Féin is clear - the public interest must come first. That means reining in the reckless expansion of data centres, prioritising grid access for essential needs and accelerating the development of offshore wind with strategic assessment and assets like Shannon Foynes Port at the heart of it. If we get this right, we can deliver affordable energy, meet our climate targets and build a resilient economy for the future. However, if we get it wrong, ordinary people will have to pay for it again.”
“It requires a Government willing to plan, invest and prioritise long-term national interest over short-term gain. I know the designated marine area plans, DMAPs, are progressing at the moment. It would be nice to see them progress faster and if they had started on the west coast where Shannon Foynes Port has a plan in place, it would come in before the next stream of funding ends. Instead, we have seen a reactive approach that rolls out the red carpet to data centres while failing to build the infrastructure needed to support sustainable growth. The consequences are clear - pressure on the grid, rising costs for households and increasing risk to our energy security. Ireland stands at a crossroads.”
“If properly harnessed, offshore wind can transform Ireland from a country worried about energy shortages to a net exporter of clean energy, but it requires urgency, co-ordination and investment. In that context, the role of Shannon Foynes Port Company, with which I know the Minister of State is familiar, is critical. The Shannon Estuary has been identified as a key hub for offshore renewable energy, particularly for floating wind. With the right support, Shannon Foynes can become a strategic centre for the assembly, servicing and development of offshore wind infrastructure. It is not just about energy security. This is also about regional development, job creation and ensuring the benefits of the green transition are felt across the country, which includes the mid-west. This will not happen by accident.”
“This is a point Sinn Féin has raised time and again. Once again, it has been ignored. Where do we go from here? The first come, first-served basis must be ended when it comes to grid connections. It makes no sense for critical infrastructure like housing and public transport to be left waiting while energy-intensive data centres get a wave through. The framework that puts the public interest first needs to be prioritised, ensuring energy, affordability, housing delivery and essential services take precedence over corporate demand. The supply side must also be addressed. This is where Ireland has enormous untapped potential. Offshore wind is not just an opportunity; it is a necessity. Our Atlantic coastline offers some of the best wind resource in Europe.”
“According to the CSO, these facilities accounted for 22% of all metered electricity consumption in 2024 up from 5% less than a decade ago. The projections suggest that could rise to at least one third of total electricity demand by the end of this decade. To put that into context, data centres now consume more electricity than all of our rural households combined. At the same time, families struggling with the cost of living are paying twice as much for electricity as some of these large-scale users. That is not just unsustainable; it is fundamentally unfair on households. Workers, families and small businesses are effectively being asked to subsidise what is placing our electricity under so much strain. While demand soars, the Government has failed to keep pace with investment and generation capacity.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. Energy security goes to the heart of our economic stability, climate obligations and the basic fairness owed to our citizens. The recent warnings from EirGrid should set alarm bells ringing across this House. Its assessment was stark. Over the next decade, Ireland faces serious challenges in meeting overall electricity demand. A key driver of that risk is the unchecked expansion of data centres. This is not a new concern. Sinn Féin has consistently warned that the Government's approach in this area is unsustainable. Now, the State's own operator is confirming it. The figures speak for themselves. Since 2015, electricity demand from data centres has increased by over 500%.”
“We need to have a debate in the House to see whether we can get to the bottom of why these insurance companies are not being held to account.”
“Claims have gone down, the laws are in place and the payouts are smaller, so why is the cost of insurance policies increasing every single year? My party colleague Deputy Doherty submitted a Bill last year that was shot down. We need reform of insurance companies. We need to see exactly what their profits are and we need to see their rationale for what premium goes. My own broker told me that for someone living at one end of the village of Athea, it could be €400 while for someone living at the other end, which is only probably a quarter of a mile away, it could be €800. Where do they get the rationale for these premiums? It is quite unfair to see the costs going up by so much and the payouts going down when we are not seeing the benefit.”
“I said "not a chance", considering that last year I paid €450, so I went online, shopped around and got it down to €420. However, the day and the month got away from me and I completely forgot to take it at the lower price. When I checked online again the day before the deadline, the lowest price I could get was €890. It just goes to show that there was an option to get it cheaper but when they knew I was desperate to get my car insurance by the following day, the price jumped. That is not fair. There is definitely something wrong with the system and it needs to be sorted. Luckily, I had the back-up of my broker, so I could ring up and say, "Oh yeah, I'll take that insurance premium", but I had to pay €100 more than I paid last year, with no claims on my insurance policy.”
“I want to raise the issue of car insurance. We have brought up lots of different insurance issues in this House and I know there was a briefing yesterday in the audiovisual room, which I missed, but I am well aware of the issues involving motor insurance. In many of our towns and villages in rural Ireland, having a car is not a luxury; it is essential. To take children to school, to get to appointments and to get to work, a person needs to have a car and has to drive. The fact that insurance costs are going up seems to be disproportionately unfair on people in rural Ireland. My own car insurance was up for renewal this month. Luckily, I have a broker and got a letter last month saying my car insurance this year was going to be €550.”
“They are everywhere and I know that, because I see them everywhere. I do get that there is a waste disposal issue and that side of it. However, it is cheaper to buy a reusable cigarette. Senator Keogan was saying there are multi-use ones where you charge them but you do not fill them, which are cheaper again. They might fall through the cracks of this legislation.”
“I am sure people would be quite happy to put it into generic packaging and do what they did with cigarettes. That would allow people who came off cigarettes, whether it was for cost or for health, to go on vaping instead because they probably felt it was not as bad. We have to think about the adults who are going to be affected by this and we have to look at what could happen down the line. A full, outright ban will lead to a lot more smokers. Then we will have another problem on our hands and we will go backwards. The Minister of State needs to be very careful as to what she bans and what she regulates. I completely agree, I do not like to see children - only last week I was going through some of my old handbags and I found a couple of old disposables that I had thrown in there.”
“They should be enforced so that children cannot buy them. It is the same with bottles of cider. There is not just one flavour. It is not just apple, there is a strawberry and lime cider. I am entitled to buy it because I am over the age. There are different flavours. There will not be a ban on all cigarettes except for one flavour. We are not going to say that we are only going to smoke Silk Cut Ultra going forward in this country because there is less nicotine in them. We need to think fully and talk to all sides. I know about the Irish Heart Foundation and the waste side of it. Responsible Vape in Ireland make some very good points. They completely agree that children should not be buying them. They are not supposed to be marketed at children. That is the fault of the packaging.”
“We are going to have problem where suddenly more people go back to smoking cigarettes. I get that they are not for children but change the packaging. Put them behind a wall as was done with cigarettes. People know the flavours they want and do not need to see the colourful box to decide what they want. People go between a couple of flavours. They are fruit flavours. It makes me feel better having a fruit flavour than smoking a cigarette. I actually feel healthier for it. In any pub or off licence there are bottles of WKD, which are blue and fun to look at and there are the new West Coast Cooler flavours that look like Red Bull cans. A law is in place that children cannot buy them. It should not need a prohibition or outright ban for everybody. The laws that are in place should be enacted.”
“I have not smoked a disposable vape in probably two years until I got caught once when I left my rechargeable here one day and I had to buy one at the train station because I thought I would not make it home without my nicotine. I put my hand up, I love my vape. The banning of the flavours is the wrong way to go. I started on my vape on a nicotine flavour and it lasted me two-and-a-half days and I went back on cigarettes because it was absolutely disgusting. As horrible as they were, cigarettes were a hell of a lot better. Many people I have spoken to agree with me that if flavours were not available we would either go outside the State to get them, with the risk of getting something that is not up to the standard that exists here, or go back on cigarettes.”
“I will start by saying I am a vaper, so I am slightly biased on this. I do not use disposables. I used to until I discovered that the same flavour as the disposable can be bought in the bottle of juice and it is actually cheaper to use a reusable. That is one thing that Members have wrong; it is not cheaper to use disposables. If you were to smoke it like a smoker would smoke it, one reusable cigarette or vape will only last for a day. I completely agree this is not for children. It is not for under-18s. I would like to see the target age of smokers or vapers not being 18 to 25 or 15 to 25 but rather, I would like to see the figure at 15 to 18 years of age. On turning 18, a person is legally allowed to smoke cigarettes or vapes. The next Bill that is coming in was mentioned. I have no problem with banning disposables.”
“You can buy cigarettes but they are hidden away. They are not in the nice shiny packaging. There are lots of ways we could do this but a collective punishment is not the way to do it. We will have an awful spiral of people going back on cigarettes. I hold my hand up - I will be honest - I will be the first.”
“That was the only reason I gave them up. As I said, if the flavours are gone, it will not be against my belief to go back on cigarettes because it was a money reason for giving them up, not anything else. We need to enforce the law instead of punishing people. We will have an awful spiral of people going back on cigarettes. We have spent so much time trying to get people off them, with the smoking ban, all the health aspects of it that have come out through the HSE and all the campaigning. We will have an awful turnaround. We should provide for generic packaging, as we did with cigarettes. They should have generic packaging. Let us take away all those lovely colours and the shop fronts and put them generic. We should have them in behind the boxes, as we have the cigarettes sold in every grocery store and every shop corner.”
“I can guarantee 110% that if the flavours go, it will not only be me back on cigarettes; it will be a lot of people. I have been told that since the tax went on, people are buying tobacco pouches and making their own cigarettes because it works out cheaper now to buy a pouch of tobacco and make cigarettes than to buy the liquid for their vapes. The rationale behind it is to stop children vaping, and I completely agree. There is a law there. The law was brought in a couple of years ago. Under-18s cannot be sold vapes. We should enforce the law instead of punishing every adult who uses flavoured vapes to stop themselves from smoking tobacco, which, we have been told, is bad for us. I hold my hand up. I did not give them up for health reasons. I never had a health issue when I was on them. I gave them up for money reasons.”
“Today, I want to raise something that has been not only on my mind, but brought up to me a lot over the last couple of months. It is a Bill that will be going into the Dáil next week, on vaping and on the banning of flavours. I will give the Leader a rundown. My own story is a lot like many stories. I started smoking in 1992. The first time I ever tried to give them up was in 2012. I went into a vape shop and bought a vape. The first question I was asked was what kind of cigarettes I smoked. They matched you to your tobacco flavour. I lasted two-and-a-half days on the vape. It was disgusting. I could not continue and went back on cigarettes. Seven years ago, I gave them up when I found flavours. Since then, I have stayed off cigarettes.”
“To anybody who asks where the Government will get the extra funds, I would respond it is a full package of €750,000 between farmers, contractors and hauliers. Think of the couple of steps that were built for €700,000. Maybe we could stop building steps and security huts and start thinking about where it needs to go. I know the Minister knows because he comes from a farm and knows what it costs and the stress that goes with it every day. They need our support and we need to stand up here and fight for that support.”
“I know of one farmer in Mayo who is milking 400-plus cows. He gets five loads of urea every year at the start. He is paying an extra €30,000 or €35,000 this year. That is a huge amount to have sitting in a bank amount on the contingency you may have to pay it. I do not know how he will pass that cost on. I do not think there is a way to pass it on. Something will fall behind on his farm or in his life. We need to look at a full package; it cannot stop at fuel. We definitely need to look at fertiliser. Considering we had such a wet start to the year, it has only been going out for the last couple of weeks. Everything is late this year. Growth will be late and cutting will be late. Last year was slightly better but this year will be tough.”
“Go raibh maith agat. I have spoken to many farmers and contractors in recent weeks. When speaking about supports, they said their main objective was to see supports at the pumps, not a rebate scheme. I will not turn my nose up at €100,000 and I am sure nobody will, but they wanted it at the pumps as an instant relief on the cost they faced. I hope there will be enough staff put in to resource this. We have gone through ACRES a lot in committee and the Minister has assured us ACRES is up and running fine and the late payments are either up to date or are scheduled. I hope this does not go down the same path and that farmers and contractors do not have to wait until next year to see their payment come through. They cannot afford to do that. On fertiliser, urea was €520 per tonne earlier in the spring and has gone up to €800 per tonne.”
“The protesters felt that the only way they could be heard was to disrupt. As Senator Ruane said, protest is disruption. They are now being hit with these penalties on a day where the Mental Health Bill is coming before us. This Bill is going to be guillotined. There are over 300 amendments and the Bill is going to be stopped today. Our job in here is to make sure that the Bills that come through are scrutinised and come out of this place as good as we can make them so they do not have to come back in with more amendments to them. It is disgraceful to guillotine a Bill of this importance at this time when so many people are under so much stress. We need to extend the time for the Mental Health Bill and I will be opposing the Order of Business for that reason.”
“We had protests all last week around the country for fuel. Waking up yesterday morning, a lot of these protesters were receiving fixed penalty notices and fines in the post. My office has been inundated with phone calls and messages about the stress and mental health strain they are forced to put up with. They protested because they could not afford to keep their businesses running and now they are being handed fixed penalty notices with fines from An Garda Síochána. It is another slap in the face. These protesters told me that yes, they could walk to Leinster House and they could walk the streets. Nobody listens to people who do that. We had hunger strikers outside the Dáil for weeks on end and they were not listened to. We have had SNAs outside who were not listened to.”
“Look at your history. We are on opposite sides. We are not talking about that. I am talking about something that came up in the Seanad only in the past hour, where Fianna Fáil Senators were giving out about a Fine Gael Minister. I find it hilarious. I will leave it at that.”
“I can feel the pain. I stood there for the five or six days, and I watched grown men cry. I am sorry. It is very rare that I see a grown man cry, and it is usually at the funeral of somebody they love. They cried for their businesses. They cried for the fact that they could not continue their businesses, and that they were letting their families down and letting their customers down. To have a country that is so wealthy but where people are so poor, I cannot fathom it. I just cannot understand it. It is hilarious to hear Fianna Fáil Senators giving out about a Fine Gael Minister. I am sorry, but are they not all on the same side? They all voted with one another on the other side of this House. To hear, all of a sudden, that Fianna Fáil does not agree with Fine Gael because its Minister is in charge of something, I find it quite hilarious.”
“What happens to every parent who has to get fuel to take their children to school because they do not have a bus? What happens to the more than 700,000 homes in this country that use home heating oil? God forbid that the Government would think of anything outside the M50. That is how it feels. I can guarantee that very few of those 700,000 are in Dublin. They are spread out. A lot of them are isolated. A lot of them are elderly people who are living in one room because they cannot afford to heat their entire house. Again, not a penny has been taken off home heating oil. I cannot understand what is going on here. I will tell the Minister of State one thing for sure. That crowd outside is not going to die down. Those people are not going to lie down. They are not going to take any more. I, for one, will be back out with them.”
“There is a contractor who is a bus operator in County Limerick. Paudie Kenneally is an amazing person and a really good businessman. He announced on Sunday night that he is no longer running his bus operation. On Monday morning, there were kids who could not get to school. Children with special needs could not get to school on the bus. Their carers had to ring up and tell them there would be no bus tomorrow. What are they going to do? That is what this country has come to. Bus operators are stopping because they are on fixed contracts. The measures that have been announced and will be announced, which we have heard snippets of, will not cover everyone. The Government did the usual divide and conquer: let us give the hauliers a package and let us give the IFA a package. What happens to the contractors? What happens to the bus operators?”
“I am delighted we are having this debate. I raised the matter on the Order of Business. I reiterate that I stood in Foynes for the five days and five nights. I am very proud that I did because I stood with colleagues, friends and family. This did not start with the Iranian war. It has been bubbling for a long time. We have heard about it. We have heard about children not being able to get school places. We have heard about carers and special needs assistants marching the streets. Marching the bloody streets does not work because they are not getting anything. That is how these people felt. They felt that marching the streets was grand but asked what it was going to achieve. They have looked at everything that has happened over the past couple of years with the cost-of-living crisis, and nothing is working.”
“Enough is enough. They cannot take any more. It is not just about farming and fisheries contractors; it is also about building contractors who were there. It is about every person and they said that. They were there for everyone. When the deal came out for the hauliers, they said: "No, we are not walking away." When contractors were added to the deal, they said: "No, we are not walking away because this is for everyone." They stood there in solidarity, and I stood with them. By God, if it was at an edge of a cliff I would stand there again and I would stay there until it got sorted. I really hope that lessons are learned. I hear it every single time but at least we see, from what I can read, that Deputy Michael Healy-Rae has learned a lesson and has decided to vote no confidence. I really hope others follow suit.”
“I really wish to God that the Fine Gael Minister in County Limerick had the same compassion that they have today when he went on the radio and said that he could not wait for the Army to get into Foynes the quicker the better to pull each of them out. What kind of a Minister speaks like that about his own constituents? It was absolutely disgraceful. I had to video call my children because they were so afraid I was going to get taken away by the Army. He put fear into hard-working people in County Limerick, and it was an absolute disgrace to be threatened with the Army and water cannons. Those men and women did not want to be there but their voices were not being heard. They had absolutely no choice. They were pushed to the brink. Fine Gael Senators know because they come from that kind of background of farming and fisheries.”
“I know we have a debate coming up but I want to raise the fuel protests. I left my house at 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning and I returned at 3 p.m. on Sunday evening. I spent my entire week in Foynes Port supporting those I consider my neighbours, friends and colleagues. I slept a couple of hours every so often in the cab of my husband's lorry because I needed a bit of rest. Those men who stood there and cried on me that they could not afford to keep going did not want to be there. They gave up a week's work to be there. I am delighted some Fine Gael Senators agree that mistakes were made and measures were not taken.”
“We are not saying the payment should be stopped but that it should be means tested so the most vulnerable receive it and it is not a blanket payment.”