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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“However, we need to caution against allowing industrial-scale facilities to be imposed on rural areas without consent, particularly where traffic increases through small villages, digestate spreading threatens water quality or local farmers are left managing the downstream impacts. This Bill could significantly increase licensing for large anaerobic digestion plants. Speed may suit the investors but without strong safeguards it risks creating exactly the kind of rural backlash we have seen in the waste sector before, where communities are told the decision has already been made. That is not just transition; it is displacement. There is potential in the green public procurement provision, particularly for local food producers, short supply chains and lower emission farming systems.”
“Emergencies must never become a planning shortcut. This Bill expands powers to exempt certain projects from environmental impact assessments and to curtail normal participation procedures in so-called exceptional circumstances. Rural areas already host a disproportionate share of energy infrastructure, waste treatment facilities, grid developments and large-scale anaerobic digestion plants. If these emergency powers are used loosely, particularly for energy or waste infrastructure, communities will rightly fear that consultation is being treated as an inconvenience rather than a democratic necessity. That approach has failed before and we cannot allow these mistakes to happen in the future. Anaerobic digestion is often cited as a win-win for climate and farming, and it can be when it is farmer-led, co-operative and properly scaled.”
“This Bill places significant powers for the appointment and removal of senior EPA leadership in the hands of the Minister, with a removal threshold described as necessary or desirable. That is not a narrow test and it is not a high bar. While it may never be abused, legislation must be judged on the powers it creates and not the intentions of the Minister of the day. For those in rural areas, the EPA is often the only counterbalance when communities raise concerns about water quality impacts, odour and traffic from anaerobic digestion plants, pollution in already stretched catchments, and threats to fisheries and biodiversity. If confidence in the EPA's independence is weakened, community opposition hardens, legal challenges increase and everyone loses, including farmers and developers who want certainty.”
“The Minister of State is welcome. I want to approach the Bill from the perspective of rural areas and agricultural communities because that is where its consequences will be most keenly felt. Sinn Féin has always been clear, and my colleague Deputy Pa Daly has repeatedly stated, that strong environmental protection and climate action depend on public trust. That trust collapses when decision-making becomes centralised, rushed or opaque. The Bill is presented as technical and procedural but for communities living beside waste facilities, large anaerobic digestion plants or industrial agri-processing sites, procedure is substance. Sinn Féin has consistently warned against the quiet erosion of independent regulation.”
“I would love to have a debate in this House on the wastage of public money and how it can be used for the good of the people of Ireland and not for these CEOs. Some of them are doing a great job, but some of their companies are not being run the way they should be. If they were private companies, those CEOs would be gone.”
“They did not get letters, as the family carers who are struggling every day got a few weeks ago where Revenue were coming back to them stating they owed this much money. We have pensioners, carers and families at home who cannot afford their electricity bills. They cannot afford groceries. Some of them cannot afford to heat their homes with home-heating oil yet the State can afford to give these bumper pay increases to CEOs who are already on huge salaries. A lot of them are not doing what they need to be doing. A lot of these companies are not doing what they need to be doing. I cannot understand how these CEOs can get a pay increase when there are boil-water notices in towns and villages and while houses cannot be put into an area because of a lack of infrastructure at the treatment plant.”
“I want to highlight an unfairness and double standard that goes on in this country. The head of CIÉ got a bumper pay increase of €35,000, the head of Bus Éireann a bumper pay increase of €50,000, Irish Rail €75,000, the National Stud €60,000 and the head of Uisce Éireann a bumper of €100,000, and we have boil-water notices throughout this country. We have towns and villages where there is not enough infrastructure within the treatment plant to put any more businesses or houses on the scheme. I cannot fathom it. It came out a few weeks ago that ten Ministers had been overpaid. It was only in the media for a day, which was shocking considering no payment plan had been announced.”
“It is an absolutely amazing State company and it does unbelievable work abroad for us. Without it, our farmers would not be able to get into the markets they do but, without our farmers, Bord Bia would not be there. We have world class beef because of the standards we have to stick to. The 1% will not make a difference to these farmers. It is about the fact the chair is importing in for his private business while trying to promote Irish beef. There is a conflict.”
“It is a partnership, yes. The farmers must have faith and trust in it. Farmers see the chair of Bord Bia import from Brazil, which has been in the news recently with the callbacks and the recalls because we cannot trust it. We have seen this with Mercosur. We cannot trust what comes in from Brazil because it does not have the same controls we have here. The farmers in this country feel like they are being sold out for a cheaper product. It might not be about the price. It is about how they feel. The Minister has to see that, in the round, the farmers in Ireland feel as if they are being sold out because you can get a product that is not up to the same standard, bring it in for cheaper and sell it off as Irish meat. It is very unfair, whether it is being done that way or not. I have no problem with Bord Bia.”
“I ask the Minister not to let this go on any longer and to say that the position is untenable and that Larry Murrin should step down as chair of Bord Bia. The Minister should go see all the farmers who are protesting and who have locked themselves into a Bord Bia office. Farming is their livelihood and they have to meet certain standards. If the chair who holds them accountable regarding those standards buys his beef from Brazil, it is a complete conflict of interest and it needs to be addressed.”
“Farmers are not reacting emotionally; they are reacting rationally and justifiably to the blatant double standards that are evident. They are asked to meet ever-higher standards, absorb rising costs and protect Ireland’s reputation while seeing the standards ignored from the very top. Confidence has been damaged, and once trust is broken it is extremely hard to rebuild. International markets are watching this very closely. If Ireland tolerates conflicts of interest at the highest level of its food-marketing body, our claims of integrity ring hollow. This damages Bord Bia’s authority, weakens Irish exporters and ultimately hurts family farms, which depend on Bord Bia’s credibility to access premium markets.”
“It exists to champion Irish food, farming and produce on the world stage and to sell the story of quality, integrity, sustainability and trust. That story falls apart when the chair of Bord Bia simultaneously associates with business practices that directly contradict the standards Bord Bia promotes. This is not about perception alone; it is about a clear conflict of interest. Pretending otherwise insults the intelligence of farmers and producers. Conflict-of-interest rules are not box-ticking exercises. They exist because you cannot credibly regulate, promote or oversee a sector while benefiting from practices that undermine it. When the chair’s personal business model cuts across the very values Bord Bia is meant to defend, that position becomes untenable. There is no argument about that.”
“I thank the Minister for attending and for giving of his time to deal with this matter, which relates to the corporate governance responsibility and credibility of Bord Bia, and, in particular, the credibility of Bord Bia if it continues to have Larry Murrin as its chair. For nearly two weeks now, this matter has been allowed to drift. With every single day that passes, the credibility of Bord Bia, and in turn the credibility of Irish produce, is at risk. Ireland’s reputation internationally is being put at risk while this continues. As the Minister and I know, Bord Bia is one of the most important agencies we have when it comes to how Ireland is seen abroad. Its credibility is not optional; it is foundational.”
“We cannot have this deal go through. It will be detrimental to rural Ireland, our farmers and other European countries. For the health of our people, we need to know what is coming into the country and what we are consuming. We need to have this deal stopped. I ask for the Government and Minister for agriculture to do what they did not do last time and build a blocking minority. While I am on the subject of Brazilian beef, it is shocking to hear of the chair of Bord Bia. While in a State position to promote Irish food, alcohol and drink, he was at the same time promoting Brazilian beef in his own company. It is absolutely shocking. I cannot wait to see what happens at Bord Bia's meeting today. If he does not step down, I would expect the Minister for agriculture to step in and demand he does.”
“I want to acknowledge the achievement and work carried out by my two colleagues, MEPs Lynn Boylan and Kathleen Funchion, on getting the Mercosur trade deal referred to the European Court of Justice. I was disappointed that four Irish MEPs voted against that move. As we have spoken about here, Mercosur is not a good deal for Ireland. It is not a good deal for our farmers or for rural Ireland. This is not over. Just because it has been referred to the court, it does not mean it will not go through. The deal could be implemented on a provisional basis by the European Commission. It will need member state backing to do that, more than likely. The Government needs to do what it did not do last time. It needs to pull the finger out - excuse the expression - to get on to other European countries and get a blocking minority.”
“I urge all Irish MEPs to vote in favour of it today. The public, farmers and rural communities are watching closely. The House should be absolutely clear that the Mercosur deal must be stopped and every available legal avenue must be used to do so.”
“Many Irish MEPs have publicly stated their opposition to the Mercosur deal and today is the moment when words must be matched with action. If MEPs are genuinely opposed to this deal, they must vote in favour of referring it to the court. This referral does not delay justice; it seeks it. It ensures proper legal scrutiny before irreversible damage is done to Irish farmers, our environment and public trust in European decision-making. The Mercosur deal would undermine the livelihoods of Irish farmers by allowing in products produced to lower standards than those in place here. It would weaken environmental protections at a time when we should be strengthening them and send a message that trade trumps climate and human rights obligations. It is not too late to stop this deal. I urge the Government to actively support the referral.”
“Today is a critical day in the fight against the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, when the European Parliament will vote on whether the deal should be referred to the European Court of Justice. That referral is essential. It is about ensuring that the trade agreement is legally compliant with the European Union's obligations on climate action, sustainability, human rights and the Paris climate agreement. These are not abstract concerns. The Mercosur agreement raises serious questions about deforestation, environmental destruction, food safety standards and human rights protections. If the deal is incompatible with EU law, then there is no place for it to move forward. That is precisely what the European Court of Justice must be allowed to assess.”
“This is to ensure that when there are calls for juries, rooms in childcare settings would not be closed down to facilitate jury duty. We should show early years educators the same respect that is shown to primary and post-primary teachers receive in this area. These facilities do not have panels or the substitutes to backfill.”
“I raise an issue related to the childcare sector and early years educators, specifically jury duty. As the Leader knows, primary and post-primary teachers are exempt from jury duty. However, early years educators are not. As we all know, crèches are fairly tight as regards staff. When a staff member in a crèche setting is called for jury duty, the crèche does not have the luxury of having a panel or substitutes. As a result, it is more than likely that a room will have to be shut down and all the parents will have to be notified that their kids cannot go to the crèche that day because the staff member will not be available. While I know juries play a vital role in the justice system, I ask the Leader to contact the relevant Minister requesting that consideration be given to adding early years educators to the exemption list.”
“Fairness for workers must go hand in hand with sustainable employment. Ultimately, this Bill moves us toward an Ireland that works for all. If we value apprentices as workers, invest in them properly and support employers through the transition, we can build a fairer economy and stronger rural communities. It is stark to hear that 20%, if not more, of our young apprentices leave their trade before they are fully qualified. I find it a bit depressing and hypocritical to hear Senators on the other side of the House say we do not need to pay them and then, on the other hand, they say they will do everything possible to get us out of the housing crisis. However, they are not going to pay the workers who will get us out of this housing crisis. That does not make any sense. Well done to my colleagues for bringing this forward.”
“For many, these pressures make apprenticeships financially unviable, forcing talented young people out of trades we desperately need or, even worse, to emigrate abroad. Sinn Féin has always been clear: we support measures that improve pay and conditions for workers. Paying apprentices fairly is not only a matter of equality and dignity. It is essential if we are serious about addressing skill shortages and delivering the housing and infrastructure the country desperately needs. At the same time, we recognise that this must be done responsibly. Any changes must be accompanied by appropriate interventions to support the employers, particularly the small and medium enterprises, so that apprentices are not unfairly dismissed or passed over as a result of improved pay and protections.”
“I echo the show of appreciation to my colleagues beside me for introducing this important Bill in the House. I am going to focus on the apprenticeship side of this Bill. Apprentices are the backbone of our economy and, in many respects, the backbone of rural Ireland. They are the electricians, plumbers, carpenters and mechanics we depend on to build homes, maintain infrastructure and sustain local communities. Too often, though, they are expected to survive on wages that do not reflect either the value of their work or the cost-of-living crisis. This is felt most acutely in rural Ireland. Apprentices frequently have no choice but to travel long distances for work and training. They are being hit at every corner by rising fuel costs, increased transport expenses and higher everyday living costs.”
“Let us be clear about what this actually means. Ordinary people are being asked to subsidise the profits of large multinational corporations. That is not an accident or inevitable; it is a political choice. The Government refuses to challenge the price gouging by energy companies and it refuses to stand up to the large energy users. Sinn Féin has always been clear that the Government must intervene and stop these price hikes. Households should not be paying for the Government's inaction. I second Senator Harmon's proposal to amend the Order of Business.”
“Once again households are being dealt a blow through higher energy costs and once again this Government is choosing to stand back and not step in. We already have some of the highest electricity rates in Europe. Record numbers of people are in arrears and energy poverty is a daily reality for far too many families. Yet, at this critical moment, the Government has withdrawn the electricity credits which was the only meaningful support these families had. It now expects these hard-pressed households to shoulder the cost of the upgrading of the grid. This is absolutely indefensible. Households and small businesses will face increases in electricity charges of up to 28% while large data centres, which are already putting enormous pressure and strain on the grid, are set to benefit with a reduction in their charges of up to 20%.”
“If the staff get pulled from him, he cannot bring inmates in to look at their dental issues, so that is a full month that an inmate is going to be sitting there waiting with pain in their teeth or whatever their issue is. I would love to have a debate in the House on early intervention and the possible ramping up in all sectors, not just the justice sector but also health and education.”
“When they have to take inmates to court for little things like sentencing dates or pushing things out or adjournments, it can take them a whole day to transport them and get them back to prison. Prison officers have to travel with them, whereas they could do video links for these five- or ten-minute sessions which would not require any staff, but when those staff have to leave the campus, that is pulling the staff from the schooling and workshops they do and from the doctors and the dentists, so they cannot have a doctor or a dentist there. The dentist that was there yesterday told us he is only there once every two weeks.”
“We were told that if 80% to 90% of the inmates had been caught between 14 and 16 years of age and given early intervention, whether through youth diversion or for mental health needs they may have had, they would never have ended up in prison. It is fairly stark when we think it costs €97,000 a year for each inmate in Limerick Prison. That is a lot of money. Could we not look at investing in our children and in these early interventions, whether it is mental health or youth diversion? I know we have some really good youth diversion programmes. We have one in Rathkeale in County Limerick and they do amazing work. All these things need to be ramped up. We need to look at the start of the process and not putting them into prison and paying that kind of money. They also have staffing issues in Limerick Prison.”
“I went to Limerick Prison yesterday with the justice committee. We were given a presentation with some very stark numbers. It costs €97,000 a year to house an inmate in Limerick Prison. Between 4% and 11% of the general population in Ireland has a personality disorder. For inmates in prison, that figure is 60% to 70%. There is a trend there. The female prisoners in Limerick Prison have said they feel safer going into Limerick Prison because they come from domestic abuse and coercion in their homes. They actually feel like they are in a safe place when they get into Limerick Prison. A lot of the time the judges are sending them to prison as a protection. What I took from the entire visit was that early intervention is key in this country, whether that is on the justice side, the health side or the educational side.”
“No homeowner should be punished for entering a scheme too early. No social housing tenant should have to pay rent on a house that is actually falling apart around them. Families are not asking for anything, just fairness. It is time to deliver on that fairness and 100% redress.”
“Where is the urgency in this? Where is the actual humanity in all of this? This scheme has left people in the State in a state of ongoing trauma. They are people whose only mistake was trusting that the blocks they were sold were sound, and that the State would stand by them if they were not. We cannot continue with half-measures, arbitrary dates or rhetoric that pretends 100% redress is coming when it absolutely is not. The people of Limerick and so many counties in this country, like those affected in every county, demand equality, not charity. They deserve what those in Dublin received: a true State-delivered 100% redress scheme without hidden costs, without forced debt and without discrimination. No family should be told to find €50,000 or €60,000, and in some cases more, that they simply do not have.”
“How can it tell families in Limerick, Clare, Mayo, Donegal and Sligo who moved early, followed the rules and put their trust in this process that they are now too early to be treated fairly? Minister after Minister told us and told homeowners that nobody would be left behind, but here we are. Families are being left behind. Social housing is being left behind. Schools, childcare centres and community buildings with defective blocks are being left behind. Some people in Limerick have been waiting eight or nine months. I received an email from somebody just this week telling me that the core samples were taken in March of this year, and they still do not have that report back. How can that be acceptable? Where are the guarantees that the blocks coming out of the quarries today are actually up to standard and safe?”
“This is not equality, it is not fairness, and it is certainly not 100% redress. I have met families who are stretched to breaking point - young couples, older couples, people who built their homes with local tradesmen and pride. They are being told that their house must be demolished. They must take out loans they cannot afford or downsize the home in which they raised their children. The Government had the power to fix the caps immediately when the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, reported in March 2024. Instead, we waited month after month, watching costs rise while hope fell. Now, we get a chance, and we see it is still incremental, exclusionary and grossly unfair. The Government expects people to accept an arbitrary cut-off date of 29 March 2024. How can that be justified?”
“They had engaged with the State in good faith, and they were betrayed. The betrayal has echoed all the way from Donegal to Mayo to Clare and Limerick. The truth of it is that we have created a first-class and second-class system for our citizens in this State. When the defective blocks happened to be in Dublin or Leinster, the pyrite remediation scheme delivered genuine 100% redress, done directly by the State with no haggling with contractors, no labyrinth of paperwork and no forced debt. If people live in Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Sligo and many other counties, however, the message has been that they can have redress, but only some of it; their home will be rebuilt, but they will have to find tens of thousands of euro to support that building; their suffering is acknowledged, but it is not fully recognised.”
“I welcome the Minister. This legislation has been a long time coming, and while we stand here and speak about it this evening, there are families across the west and north west who are still living in houses that are cracking and crumbling and, in some cases, genuinely unsafe to live in. I have sat in kitchens in west Limerick, Askeaton and Abbeyfeale and listened to families tell me the same stories as my colleagues in counties Donegal, Sligo, Clare and Mayo. They have heard of people who did nothing wrong but who are now living in fear of the next Met Éireann warning and thinking to themselves if this will be the night the walls will move and shift again. I remember the day in 2022 when the original legislation was rammed through. The homeowners in the Public Gallery of the Dáil were absolutely traumatised.”
“It would be nice if we could have a debate in the House in order that we might be able to push something forward for these communities to get a bit of guidance on what is allowed in terms of the height, the setbacks and the areas in which they are going.”
“Last year, Government had the opportunity to allow legislation go forward for those guidelines to be published only for us to see them pushed out for another year - another year of communities being torn apart and uncertainty about whether the height of the wind turbines that are being put up are at the height they should be and whether the setback distance needs to be more. I have raised how future planning permissions in rural areas will be dramatically reduced because of wind turbines going into the wrong places. What really got to people most was Ministers attending public meetings in County Limerick, telling people in these communities they stood with them, but then voting against them last week. I wanted to put that on the record.”
“I raise an issue I have raised a couple of times here previously. I cannot even count the amount of calls I had on the matter over the weekend. I am standing here on behalf of hundreds of families in County Limerick who have voiced their disgust and anger at the Government's decision to vote down the Bill on wind farms last week. As the House will know, I have raised multiple times the fact that County Limerick has three proposed wind farms about to go up. New guidelines were drafted for this in 2016. That is ten years it has been sitting there and not published.”
“We are talking about 90-year-old legislation and I am sure that our climate has changed many times in those 90 years. We need to keep up to date with what our climate is doing and the changes that come about. I am not going to take up a huge amount of time. I thank the Senators for bringing forward this legislation. It seems on the surface to be a really good change to the legislation. As matters stand, we are quite happy for it to pass Second Stage.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. I echo the appreciation for Senators Rabbitte and Paul Daly for bringing this important Bill to the floor of the Seanad. Like others, I have stood here over the past couple of moths and complained about flooding in areas that do not usually flood. I have spoken about Dromcolliher, Newcastle West and Abbeyfeale in County Limerick flooding in the middle of the summer. I know that the Shannon lakes seem very distant from those communities, but the truth is that water management is interconnected. Blocked channels, restricted flow, outdated controls and slow response times all contribute to downstream pressure. When water cannot effectively find its own way, it makes its own path. When the flow is not being given direction, it will find its own path. A lot of the time, that takes it through our communities.”
“If bluetongue has shown us anything this week, it is that challenges, for the future, will not wait for political alignment. They demand co-operation now and unity in the long term.”
“A united Ireland, in whatever form it ultimately takes, offers something deeply practical: the ability to act together when a crisis strikes - one veterinary system, one vaccination policy, one island-wide plan for animal health, biosecurity and food security, not two competing regimes trying to chase the same disease across a Border that the disease itself does not recognise. Unity is not just an aspiration; it is a way to be smarter, safer and fairer. It means that for farmers in Donegal and Antrim, when the next outbreak comes - and it will come - we can respond to it as a one-island community, not as two separate administrations scrambling to co-ordinate under pressure. A united Ireland is not only about identity, it is about resilience. It is about the simple truth that we are stronger when we face into the storm together.”
“In the North, those vaccines can already be used if needed. Two farms maybe only a couple of fields apart are facing the same threat with different tools. That is the reality of division on this island. It is not a theoretical problem but one that could cost a family its incomes, its families and its future. When a crisis like this happens, farmers do not care about jurisdiction. They care about whether their animals can be protected. They care about whether their neighbours across the Border are facing the same rules, restrictions and risks. Surely we owe them better than a patchwork system where disease response depends on which side of the Border the wind blows the midge over.”
“When we talk about a united Ireland, people often imagine big constitutional debates and the big questions, but every fabric of our society is affected by constitutional change. If planned and prepared for, we can tackle it for the best outcome. An example of this can be seen today with farmers across the island who are looking at their herd wondering what is going to happen tomorrow. For farmers North and South, this week has brought real fear. Bluetongue, a disease spread by midges, was first confirmed in two cattle near Bangor. Now we are hearing that 44 more suspected cases are on the same holding. It does not affect humans but it hits animals and livelihoods hard, and it reminds us that nature does not see partition. Here in the South, we are waiting for vaccines to be licensed.”
“I really welcome the HIQA report but it was done as the result of pressure from the families of those who died and for no other reason. It was not the result of political will. I have a little show and tell. Sinn Féin wrote a plan two years ago. It mirrors the HIQA report. Is there something wrong with the Sinn Féin plan that meant nobody wanted to look at it to see what we actually need? That is two more years of waiting and of constant reports and plans but nothing is changing. I am sorry if I sound really cross today but I am cross because I have elderly parents who refuse to go to UHL. One of my parents refused to get into an ambulance because he would have had to go to UHL. He made me put him in the car and take him to Galway. There is crippling fear in the mid-west and it is time now to do A, B and C. We cannot wait any longer.”
“The plan we have been given says it will be 2029. The winter plan that comes out every year is great but it is a piece of paper and nothing ever seems to change. The hospital is still overrun with patients. It is constantly at capacity. It is great idea on paper to try to bring in GPs but we do not have GPs to put in there in the first place. People cannot get appointments with their GPs. Trolley numbers went down a little but they are jumping back up. Yesterday, they were at 75. Today, they are at 93. That is not good enough considering 96 beds just opened up. There was a study done that suggested that you will get one death for every 67 people who wait on trolleys in emergency departments for longer than eight hours. It is not good enough that the number has already gone back up to 93. Where is that going to leave us?”
“How many more lives do we have to lose in the mid-west before something is done to move this on a little bit more quickly?”
“What I got from the meeting was that we were getting options A and B and that, after Christmas, the Minister might look at option C. I just do not think she gets how serious this is. I could be wrong. I will go into some of the history, as my colleague did before me. Nearly 16 years ago, Fianna Fáil shut down three emergency departments in the area, those in Ennis and Nenagh and the one at St. John's Hospital. That Government promised we would get a centre of excellence. Between them, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have been in power, on and off, for the past 15 years and nothing has happened. We are getting 96-bed blocks and 16 beds here and there, but it is not good enough. The next 96-bed block is not going to be built until 2029. That is another three years.”
“My thoughts go out to all the families in the mid-west who have unnecessarily lost loved ones due to the clear failures of our health service in the region. I commend the staff of UHL. They get up every day and go to work in what can sometimes only be considered a warzone. They have talked about the stress they are under and about feeling that staff in the mid-west are not being seen. I thank the Minister for giving up her time for that meeting yesterday. I apologise that I had to leave early but I did catch up with my colleagues afterwards. I was a bit confused when I saw some of the headlines coming out reporting that some of our colleagues in the Dáil were saying that we were going to get a second hospital in the mid-west.”
“I move amendment No. 3: To delete the fourth paragraph under “That Seanad Éireann:” and substitute the following: - “notes the investment by Government in some ports, harbours and piers, under the Fisheries Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme and the Brexit Adjustment Reserve Fund;””