Joe Conway
Cultural and Educational Panel · Independent · Ireland
“I move amendment No. 73: In page 41, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: “Report on the protection of whistleblowers 63. The Minister shall within 12 months of the commencement of this Act lay a report detailing how whistleblowers who expose information related to artificial intelligence technologies can receive enhanced pro…”
“I want to be associated with the congratulatory remarks for Senator Byrne. I want to put on the record of the House the decorous and sincere apology given on behalf of the State by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, and attested to by the other party leaders, to the victims of the Kenneally abuse in Waterford.”
“Yesterday, I had a meeting in Leinster House with a visually impaired artist and a namesake of mine, Emilie Conway from Mayo. She was the recipient of an Arts Council open competition bursary, which she was delighted to get. She thought it would make a big change to her life. It did, but it also had a downside.”
“Chuala mé níos túisce ar maidin an Teachta Moynihan ag labhairt ar an raidió faoi chás na e-scooters agus an méid oibre atá déanta ag An Garda Síochána chun iad a bhaint de na sráideanna agus stop a chur leis an dainséar. It was a point very well made by Deputy Moynihan.”
“When we come back after the recess, we should have a comprehensive debate in this House with the Minister where we can ventilate our concerns about various road safety matters. I do not want to labour the point, but we can see that things are not getting better in relation to road safety.”
“Senator McCarthy talked about what happened at London recently. It is happening at airports all over the world. The resilience factor and regional airports are very important. There has to be a plan B if the big airport goes down. That is self-evident. I am happy to indicate those items that are of concern to me.”
The complete record
Every one of 675 lines we hold for Joe Conway, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 14.
“This divide is likely to get more pronounced according to a report from the International Energy Association. It predicts renewables will grow much less strongly than forecast in the US as a result of the policy of the Trump Administration. Coal, a major contributor to global warming, was still the world's largest individual source of energy generation in 2024, a position it has held consistently for more than 50 years, according to the IEA. However, in clean energy growth, China remains way ahead, adding more solar and wind capacity than the rest of the world combined. This enabled the growth in renewable generation in China to outpace rising electricity demand and helped to reduce its fossil fuel generation by 2%. In contrast, developed nations like the US and those in the EU saw the opposite trend.”
“Ba mhaith liom tagairt a dhéanamh inniu do dhea-scéal don imshaol domhanda. Go hiondúil, is annamh a thagann dea-scéal mar seo chun tosaigh. It is for that reason that I happily advert to it today. In the first half of 2025, renewable energy overtook coal as the world's leading source of electricity - a historic first. Electricity demand is growing around the world go forleathan, but the growth in solar and wind energy is so strong that it met 100% of the extra electricity demand in the year past, even helping to drive a slight decrease in coal and gas use. However, these headlines mask a mixed global picture. Developing countries, especially China, have led the clean energy charge, while richer nations such as the US and EU countries like ourselves still rely more than before on planet-warming fossil fuels for electricity generation.”
“Somebody in the area around the River Blackwater knows what happened but they are not telling. I know it does not sound nice, but a bounty should be offered to induce people to come forward and stand up for our environment.”
“It is hard to get your head around the fact that these are our own people damaging our own environment and not fessing up to it. The legislation bound up with fisheries is the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959 and the Inland Fisheries Act 2010. Among other things, these set out the type of fines that can be imposed on breaches of the legislation. The fines are really quite substantial. The 2010 Act states that a person or concern can be fined up to €100,000 for breaches that impact on sensitive environments. It is mind-blowing to think that sort of thing can carry on. If we do not give teeth to the legislation or put in place the mechanisms to detect, then we are at nothing. As the fines are so huge, I wonder would the Government consider amending the 2010 Act to facilitate the offer of a bounty or reward.”
“Although I am not a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy, I paid great attention to the massive fish kill in the River Blackwater on the Waterford-Cork border during the summer. It was an outrage. That is the only way to describe it. The best estimates are that around 30,000 fish died as a result. It was a very strange pattern of attrition among the fish. While that number of fish died, several other species of fish survived and remain perfectly healthy. It was a really unusual type of pollutant that got to them. The sad story is the officials told the committee yesterday that it is very unlikely that detection or resolution will be possible because the kill was not discovered until around 72 hours after the pollutant entered the river.”
“However, I hope we will not be tearing the eyes out of each other. It is very important that when that debate goes ahead, as it will do over the next few weeks and months, we approach it in a logical, clear-eyed and civil way”
“There is a series of programmes on BBC radio called "In Our Time", hosted by Melvyn Bragg, and one of the most recent programmes was about civility and, loosely described, if I remember it correctly, civility is the way we interchange with people we disagree with and do it in the proper way. In many instances we do lose civility in the way we debate things, and a lot of that was shown here in the past couple of weeks in relation to the nominations process. There is very little time left but I hope that people stand back and look at themselves and their contributions and the way they treat their opponents. We had a brief reference to European neutrality. I profoundly disagree with Senators Clonan and Keogan, my Independent colleagues, and the way they look at the triple lock and neutrality.”
“Tá an feachtas don Uachtarántacht faoi lán-seol agus tá sé tugtha faoi dearadh agam nach bhfuil á lán de na ráitis agus idirghabhálacha atá ag teacht uaidh daoine éagsúla ró-ghalánta. I am just concerned from observing the presidential campaign that a lot of the discourse is being degraded into what I would call fairly unseemly contributions. Here we are in a republic that is, technically, more than 100 years old, and in the throes of a presidential campaign we are still drawing attention to the religion and the Orange Order proclivities of one of the candidate’s families. In a republic, that should not be the way we carry on. A person's religion, or non-religion for that matter, should not come into it at all. It coarsens the presidential debate when people carry on like that.”
“He is the gatekeeper and the guard of the aid that is being given out now, supposedly to the Palestinian helpless and hopeless. What an inversion of morality and logic that is. I have a few seconds left so I just want to signal our group's manifest support for this motion and our support and admiration for the work done by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, and previous Governments, in speaking up for a section of humanity that has been poorly served by the humanitarian response in times past. We look forward to better times to come.”
“Then it is made more manifestly awful in that it is not just what we, probably in a derogatory sense, used to call Third World countries but a lot of this is bolstered by the fact that the humanitarian crisis in Palestine is driven by the world's leading power and one of its major allies in the Middle East, Israel. That is the United States. That is a fundamentally shocking admission for us as people of the First World who are, in many ways, very aligned to the United States. We find ourselves, however, shocked by the way they have taken aid distribution, for example, away from the United Nations and given it to a fellow from the Infidels Motorcycle Club called "Taz" Mulford, who has a long history of Islamophobia.”
“I would describe myself as a full-blown insomniac. It means that I lie awake a lot of the night listening to the BBC World Service. No other station will give you a greater delineation of the mess the world is in by outlining not just the conflict in Gaza but the conflicts in Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo, or natural disasters in various places such as Afghanistan, Nepal and Tibet. The list is endless but you wake up, if waking up is the proper expression in the morning, and realise that the world is in a great state of chaos. We are shockingly reluctant to address these things.”
“There is no proviso where you are considering your response to the humanitarian crisis by saying, "If you do that, this should be the case". Humanitarian aid and response is something that should be without condition. It just self-evident as one human to another. If there is an exigency in a humanitarian sense anywhere, then it should be the responsibility of human beings everywhere to try to address this. It is part of our global solidarity as a republican nation, and it shows an inherent respect that we have for international conventions, most notably the Geneva Convention, which tries to regulate the behaviour of human beings in the execution of conflict, war or strife. All of those things are, to some extent, falling down in the way I see the conflict and crisis in Palestine over the last while.”
“The essence of a humanitarian crisis or response is that it should revolve around compassion - not just compassion as verbally expressed but compassion in action. Not alone do we feel that there is something wrong but there is a human imperative to try to do something about it. As an Irish republican, I am very proud of the Governments we have had, doing what they have been able to do in being leading lights for the advocacy of the people of Palestine in their sufferings, none more so than the Governments since the October outrage on the other side of the coin, namely, the Hamas raid on the section of border with Israel. Humanitarian help, to me, is an essential part of being - it is a difficult phrase - morally neutral.”
“I would like to say a few words in support of the motion before the House this afternoon, and also to signal the widespread support of the Seanad Independent Group for the sentiments and thrust of the motion. The first thing I wish to do is make an observation I have regarding the conflict as it erupted in October 2023. It is so frequently before us in the media - on television, in the newspapers, in magazines and periodicals - that it is quite easy to find ourselves being slightly anaesthetised by the suffering and the horror of what is going on in Gaza. I suppose that is human nature. It is something journalists describe as overkill. We can get blinded or numbed to the fact that so much of this is going on and so many of the imprecations we make on decent societies and governments go with a bothered ear.”
“When we consider the notables who have addressed the Seanad such as Sir Horace Plunkett and William Butler Yeats, or in the latter years David Norris and Professor James Dooge, it would be terrible if the Members of this House were relying on AI to substantiate their contributions to the House. It is happening in another place as well.”
“I noticed in the last session of the Seanad that I was hearing the expression regularly, "I rise today to address" such and such a thing. Where is that coming from? I had never heard this when watching Oireachtas TV over the years. Then I twigged when I was listening to a report from the House of Commons when a Tory MP, Tom Tugendhat, was calling out Members of the Opposition and the Government for using "I rise today", which is a peculiarly American Congress expression developed back in the 1850s and since with Webster and Webb and other notable people then. It really does indicate that it is an American-based thing. I have strong suspicions, therefore, that it is being used due to AI or, more likely, ChatGPT.”
“I say this because back then it was execrated as a project in the same way as successive Governments have execrated the prospect of a regional airport in Waterford, which is backed by three councils: Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford. This airport was operating quite successfully but to continue its development it needed an extended runway. That is really the crux of the matter at the moment. The councils are investing in it but we cannot get the Government to commit to funding the airport. Suffice to say, it is the only region in the country that does not have its own international airport. It is a real spancel to the economic development of the south east. The next item I must treat with a certain amount of sensitivity because tá mé ag caint anois le mo theanga i mo phluc - a little bit tongue in cheek.”
“Next month, on 25 October, we will celebrate a fairly significant event in the tourism and socioeconomic life of Ireland, namely, the 40th birthday of Ireland West Airport. In the media reports back in 1985, it was variously described by journalists as being an airport built on the top of a mountain or on a bog. It was completely deprecated by the media and by the omniscient people of the Pale. Of course, 40 years later Ireland West Airport Knock is celebrating success after success and is getting on towards its millionth passenger per annum. It is a wonderful success story for the airport and the operation there.”
“Fundamentally, we have to admit it is a quarter of a century old and the whole thinking on mental health, mental health provisions and the enlightened attitudes to mental health and mental health provision have changed drastically in that time. So much of it is for the better. This Bill address those developing complexities and the responses. That is to be greatly commended. My focal scoir on this is about the diminution of the activities of An Garda Síochána in the more difficult cases. Does the Minister of State have any assurances regarding the deficit that will be created by taking An Garda out of the equation?”
“There is a section I worry about where the Circuit Court and the High Court are instanced. There seems to be a potential lag in the actual training that might be afforded to the members of the Judiciary and the legal profession. Will this be fit for purpose as things stand? What is the lag with getting people up to speed with the new provisions of the Act? Those are some of the layman's considerations I have. I am in awe of the complexity of the legislation. It is bewilderingly complex to me and I am sure to many people in the wider community. It underscores the grave complexity there is, especially dealing with what we define as "children" in this State, that is, people under 18 years of age, and the vulnerabilities and amazing complexities attached to that. The original legislation was enacted in 2001.”
“The first thing that was put to me was that the drafting and progression of this Bill breaches Article 44.3 of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which requires the full and active participation of people with disabilities, including users, survivors and receivers of psychiatry. Can the Minister of State give us some assurances on that? It is also mentioned that involuntary treatment can be begin before the Circuit Court decision of the appeals. Following from that, it struck me, as a pecuniary-orientated layman who knows nothing about the court system, that when people have to progress an appeal through the Circuit Court, who picks up the tab? Is there access to free legal aid in this instance or what happens in that regard?”
“I commend the Minister of State and her colleagues on the substantial legislation we have under consideration. I admit that only in the previous day or so have I become in any way acquainted with it, which is probably greatly to my shame. It is an amazingly complex area. I do not think anybody in this State does not have family members or people they know affected by mental health and that type of disability. I have received some correspondence about this. While I am commending the Minister of State and it is extraordinary proposed legislation, in some of the correspondence I was requested to ask a number of questions.”
“I wonder what is happening to these schemes brought along by the enthusiasm of local communities but for one reason or another ran out of steam. I would love if somebody could investigate why this happened and what can be done to regenerate the impetus. The older population is increasing dramatically and they will be sorely needed. There is also a spin-off that a lot of social housing could be freed up as a result.”
“Putin would not in any way be deterred from interfering with our undersea cables, for example, just because we fly the flag of neutrality. We have to consider, however unpalatable it might be, that there is a strong urgency to invest in our defence budget. I was gratified to see a quiet announcement by the Department in the past few weeks without any great fuss or bluster that we are transferring non-lethal assets to Ukraine. That is praiseworthy. I applaud the work of the Government in that regard. On matters closer to home, Senators O'Reilly and Scahill spoke raised sheltered housing and those sort of facilities for our older people. That was mooted in Tramore. The Minister who came down to give a feasibility budget was Jan O'Sullivan. That shows how long ago it was. It seems to be stillborn.”
“My mathematics say they spend 30 times more per capita than we do on their neutrality. We face an ever-present threat. I have said time and again in this House that the bad actors on the eastern side of the European Union are not going to be deterred or suppressed by soft talk and blandishments. History has taught us that tyrannical people in the Kremlin, Mr. Putin and his ilk, do not seem to respect the norms of sovereignty and independence of the people of the various republics in Europe. It seems there is an ever-present dimension of trying to destabilise the European Union and replace it with what they see as their hegemony. To counter that, we have to, no pun intended, bite the bullet of increasing our level of expenditure and integration with European Union defence and, if necessary, with NATO as well. Mr.”
“The reason I deferred to Senator Scahill, even though I think I upset the lineage, is I was unprepared and I was trying to marshal a few figures. I want to celebrate the fact that we have the opportunity to comment on expenditure and the whole ambit of what we are doing with our money and productively. I draw the House's attention not for the first time to the expenditure on our defence budget. The last time I looked, it was about 0.25% of the national budget. It seems to be the fashion of the day. Senator Cosgrove spoke about how billionaires are treated in Spain and I would like to mention how Switzerland treats its neutrality. As opposed to our 0.25% expenditure on defence procurement and the Defence Forces, Switzerland, a neutral country, spends between 7% and 8% of its national budget on defence.”
“Border Force will tell us that the traffic is negligible in the other direction, but there is a lot of activity coming South. What is the increase in the GNIB and the Garda resources to that problem? What is the status of the passport question over Yaxley-Lennon?”
“However, there have been concerns arising from his possession of the Irish passport because it is alleged that he provided false information on his immigration documents, and he also factually has a string of criminal convictions. What is the status of the investigation into the withdrawal of the passport of that person? Second, in relation to the 499 km of Border we have between Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle and the 270 roads the Border crosses, can the Minister of State tell us how much they have increased the Garda National Immigration Bureau, GNIB, and the Garda workforce on the Border to police and monitor and intercept the flow of immigration that is coming from the UK across our Border into the Republic of Ireland?”
“Before I go on to the downside, I just want to say that in my dealings with the Department of justice on immigration matters, although there have not been many, there is a new breath of life in the way both the Minister for justice and his Minister of State are dealing with the responsiveness to us public representatives, and I commend that. There are two items I have a concern about, and the Minister of State might address these for me. One relates to a gentleman called Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, otherwise known as Tommy Robinson, who was the leading light, shall we say, in the big protest in Trafalgar Square two weekends ago where 150,000 people were addressed by this chap. Although he was born in Luton in Bedfordshire, it is reliably reported that he holds an Irish passport.”
“I might instance the success of a young man called Josh Zeljkovic who won an all-Ireland minor hurling medal with Waterford this year. The Minister of State would know from the name Zeljkovic that his antecedents do not come from Ballygunner or Fourmilewater or other hurling strongholds. It is just wonderful to see both in education and sporting and community life how various people and teachers and people of a positive outlook and social mien are welcoming the new Irish into this country and making them an integral part of the current life and future life of the country.”
“Before I came into the Seanad in January, for the previous 20 years I had the privilege of going around primary school classrooms for the 20 years from 2005 to 2025. It is a matter of great pride in being able to report the widespread work that is being done by primary teachers in integrating the new arrivals into Ireland and the tremendous work that is being done in social, personal and health education, but most notably in the matter of how the new Irish are being integrated and facilitated in learning Gaeilge. It is very uplifting to go into a classroom and see children, black or brown or wherever their origins are from or their antecedents, and hear them joining in on the Gaeilge lesson with as much verve as the native Irish. That sort of transfers also into community groups and sports groups.”
“It just underscores something I have said often in this House before, which is that Russia must be shown up for what it is. It is an evil threat to the quality of life and the democracies that we love in these countries. It must be called out and shown up for what it is. I have my fingers crossed that the election goes in the West's favour next Sunday, 28 September.”
“The 2.75 million people there live in a country that does not know many of the infrastructural delights we have in this country. Next Sunday's election is going to be very significant because the pro-European Union Government of Maia Sandu is being seriously challenged by a pro-Kremlin opposition that hopes to destabilise Moldova's eagerness to join the EU. You can imagine the sort of hi-jinks that are going on. There is disinformation, intimidation and the buying of votes. I draw particular attention to one of the people sanctioned by the west, Ilan Shor, who set up a bank and then systematically withdrew the equivalent of 12% of the gross annual wealth of Moldova. He is now holed up in Russia and being protected by the Kremlin but he is paying people left, right and centre in Moldova to get the result that Mr. Putin wants.”
“I would like to be associated with all the comments in relation to Martin Groves and Bridget Doody, who have now left us. I also welcome the new Martin and wish him well in his time here with us in the Upper House. I will draw attention briefly not to the election that is uppermost in many people's minds, but to an election that is coming up on Sunday next in the Republic of Moldova. About 20 years ago, when I was a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, I had the privilege of going to Moldova twice to monitor elections. I saw at first hand the type of country it was. Even then, it was beginning to come out from under its domination by the Soviet Union but it was a very underdeveloped country and it remains so.”
“We need to signal a greater co-operation and closeness in defending, and being willing to defend, those European values. In a different Senate, a long time ago, a politician called Cato the Elder used to finish all his speeches with the ringing words, " Carthago delenda est ", which means "Carthage must be destroyed". We could adopt the same attitude in this and the other House in terms of the need to stand up to Russia. I have said so many times during the course of this term. Russia is an ever-present threat and that threat will not go away by reconciliation or mediation. It must be faced up to with growing efforts of deterrence and strength by the Europe we hold dear. Unless we do that, we will face the same possibility as that faced by the unfortunate people of Ukraine not so long ago. Well done to our European partners.”
“There has been a significant European dimension to the contributions this morning. I am happy to add my three ha'pence worth before we go our separate ways. I am charmed and warmed that a very important meeting is taking place this morning in London between Prime Minister Starmer and the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. It signals a rapprochement and closeness between two countries that were traditional enemies in times past. It also signals the urgency with which European leaders want to address the current situation, which is fraught with dangers all over the Continent, within and without the European communion. The Government should signal to all our European partners our ever-growing eagerness to stand up for what we believe in, which is European democracy and our way of life.”
“It is the profusion of advertising for gambling on all sporting occasions. I have seen colleagues in teaching lose their homes and marriages, all sorts of things, due to a spiral down into gambling debts. We have to take a serious look at the financing of a lot of the sporting activities and the big betting companies that are literally making a killing on this. We need to regulate the gambling industry. It runs contrary to the whole essence of sport, namely fun, spórt, scléip agus craic, the enjoyment of life.”
“The explosion of popularity in Gaelic games in the last few decades is largely attributable to the work done by Cumann na mBunscol in all the counties. They say here in Dublin that GAA is now the new rugby, the middle-class sport in Dublin. I am not too sure of that but it is very attractive for youngsters, and I applaud that. It would not be happening if it were not for the teachers of Ireland who for absolutely no reward invest their time and effort into putting children out on the field from September to June in all weathers and against all circumstances. Senators all around the House and probably the Minister of State will agree with me that there is one dark side of sport becoming much more prevalent. I see it the odd time I get a chance to watch something on Sky Sports.”
“The female cohort, as they get older, are statistically far less likely to be attracted back into sporting activities. A few weeks ago two ladies came for a cup of coffee with me in Tramore. They wanted to set up a pétanque club. Heavens to Murgatroyd, I did not know what pétanque was but they told me what it was and it is ideally suited to people of older years. I hope they are facilitated in every way with Sport for All and the Waterford Sports Partnership. I hope they get every success. I want to talk a little bit about the great contribution of my own former profession, the teaching force of Ireland, particularly the primary teachers and the work they do, in particular with Cumann na mBunscol all around the country.”
“We should not be overly proud of the resources we put at the disposal of the older section of the population to counter the great ravages that time takes on their minds and bodies in rural Ireland and in the towns and cities as well. I am making an appeal that we have more enlightened thinking about sport. We see it as competitive, driven. We see the clubs, the big three as Senator Ní Chuilinn mentioned. While it is wonderful to see all the work they do, I like to think about the people on the other side of sport who could get enjoyment, camaraderie and support from sport, and who would use it to defeat isolation and engender better health in their old age. All of those benefits would come from being attracted back into sport.”
“Admittedly there is much being done but when we take it in the round, I think about €79 per capita in Ireland is being spent, or 0.4% of the national budget, on sport. I think that is about half of the EU average of 0.8%. When I was trying to bone up on this last night, the most enlightened country I found was Iceland which spends 1.5% of its national budget on sporting activity in the main, with huge investment in those over 50 who may well benefit most from sporting investment. As we all know, when people get older they are more prone to osteoporosis, isolation and social and psychological complaints that may beset them after the loss of a partner.”
“Taking the whole island into consideration, the drop-off in sporting participation in the over-50s is seriously negligent in contrast to many of our European neighbours and the more enlightened economies, such as Iceland, which invests massively. I will talk about that in a second. Talking about the older sections in society, there was a grant scheme called age and opportunity in the national grant scheme, which gave out moneys to clubs and societies that were dealing with older citizens. In County Waterford, where I have been living for the last 40-odd years, I note the amount of money given to 22 or 23 clubs that deal with older people's activities was something like €6,000. That would not buy too many O'Neill's all-Ireland footballs for each club. The Minister is coming in today talking about the great investment in Irish sport.”
“There are indications of great growth in the sporting sector with tourism, the natural productivity that comes into the workforce, the decrease in mortality, the lowering of absenteeism, and the lower risk of communicable disease. Some 60,000 to 70,000 people are employed in full-time employment within the sports sector and hundreds of thousands of volunteers give up reckonable hours for sporting activities. In this country of ours we are getting on for a million people who are over the age of 65. In this regard and in sport we are falling down badly because the indications are that there is a huge drop-off after the age of 50 in sporting participation in this country. It is much more serious in the Republic than it is in Northern Ireland.”
“The fun, in many instances, is now gone out of it because there is so much of the driven in sport, there is so much of the performance, there is so much of the massive rewards for sports persons, and there is the huge investment in television and sporting events. It is easy to lose sight of what sport essentially is, which is for making people strong, well and happy. I am going to traverse a couple of the areas where I believe we are succeeding and where we might be leaving a lot to be desired in our attitudes to sport. As Senator Ní Chuilinn mentioned, sport is worth a huge amount of money to the Irish economy, probably standing at somewhere near €5 billion.”
“Everybody, boarder or day boy, belonged to one of those. You graduated up through the ranks in the toughest of winters, the most inclement of weather and the muddiest of midland fields, and at the end of it you were rewarded with a communal cold shower. That was sport in Ireland in the 1960s. Now we have a situation where sport has developed wonderfully but not all for the better I might say. If we talk to anybody in the Déise Gaeltacht they would describe a good night as "oíche le spórt, scléip agus craic" but when we talk about sport oftentimes we are missing, as the Irish idiom would have it, that sport is about fun and participation.”
“I would be delighted to take a small trip down boithrín na smaointe for a little bit of nostalgia. Admittedly, the whole world of sport in Ireland has gone through some significant development over the last few decades. I want to paint a small picture of what sport was like for somebody like myself who went to a boarding school in the midlands of Ireland back in the 1960s. Even though St. Mel's College in Longford was a diocesan seminary, it still harboured two distinct religions. One was the dominant one, which was Roman Catholicism, and the second was the GAA. As Caesar said about Gaul, Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres , which translates as "All Gaul is divided into three parts", St. Mel's College in the 1960s was also divided into three parts: the prep field, the junior field and the senior field.”
“He was not, however, the only one who murdered by the settlers; there was another young man, a 23-year-old, whose name escapes me at the moment. When he was seriously injured from a series of beatings, the West Bank mob gathered around and would not allow the first responders or ambulances to get to him. He died without getting to hospital. It is indicative of the skulduggery going on in the West Bank. For people to suggest that when we draw attention to this in our Legislature that we are somehow antisemitic is a bit rich. Yesh Din is a group in Israel that monitors these things. A little statistic is that 93% of crimes reported by West Bank people go uninvestigated or non-indicted. Of the remaining 7% that are investigated, only 3% end up in convictions. It is statement of the way things are out there.”
“I wonder if many in the House are familiar with the name Saif Musallet. Unfortunately, that young man’s name has been in the news quite prominently over the past few days, I suspect because he has dual nationality. He is Palestinian but he is also a citizen of the United States. He is a young man from Florida aged 19. He went in the springtime to visit his family in the West Bank and to express solidarity with them. Last Friday, he was the victim of a series of assaults by settlers and he was beaten to death. The fact that he has been in the news is largely attributable to the fact he is an American citizen. There was also an unlikely intervention by Mike Huckabee, who is the ambassador from the United States to Israel, who spoke up for him, unusually, considering some of his utterances in the past.”
“I am charmed and warmed by the Minister of State's outline of where they are going forward. It sounds like a to-do list,and when people are coming up with to-do lists, it usually implies that people have been asleep at the wheel. The Irish versions of the new EU legal materials are being produced in real time. However, the EUR-Lex website, where EU law is published, has most important historical EU legislation, for example, the working time directive, and this is not available in Gaeilge. They are available in every other language, including those with far fewer speakers in the EU such as Maltese. This is invariably and solely down to the lack of translation staff at EU level. What is being done or what is being proposed to be done by the Government to obviate these failures and shortfalls? It is not good enough.”
“As Ireland prepares to assume the EU Presidency in 2026, this diminishing presence in the EU institutions reflects poorly on the nation's commitment to and presence in the EU. After these sins of omission, as we once called them in the catechism, what of our purpose of amendment? At the stroke of a pen, the Government could go some way towards alleviating the shortfall by enabling and promoting Civil Service secondments to EU institutions and upskilling workers in EU languages. Why is the Government neglecting to do this basic work?”