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 11 of 14.
“Irish civil servants have been denied the opportunity to take up EU roles on secondment, forcing candidates to decline positions for which they are well qualified. Moreover, the Government has not implemented strategic initiatives to upskill individuals to take up these roles such as promoting secondment from the existing ranks of the Civil Service or training Irish speakers in a third EU language. This lack of strategic foresight risks an irreversible erosion of Ireland's influence at EU level. That is particularly true in the wake of Brexit. I contend that this has already diminished Ireland's soft power in Brussels. The Government's recent failure to nominate both a male and female candidate for the role of EU Commissioner, despite the Commission's request, has further damaged the State's credibility.”
“As the Minister of State and the Members know well, the recruitment process for EU civil service roles is rigorous and requires proficiency in at least two EU languages with a third language often necessary. For Irish-speaking roles, total fluency rather than just proficiency in both Irish and English is essential. The pool of candidates who possess perfect Irish and another EU language to a high level as well as the requisite skills, which often include legal qualifications, and who are willing to relocate to Brussels is exceedingly small. It is a lot of qualifications. We are probably talking about a figure in the low double digits, approximately 10%. Our Government's policy compounds this problem.”
“Approximately one third of Irish officials in EU roles are expected to retire by next year, 2026, yet the pipeline for replacements is seriously deleterious to efforts to deal with this attrition rate. For every four Irish officials retiring from high-ranking Commission positions, only one has succeeded in passing the EU recruitment process. This shortage is particularly acute among Irish-language professionals. Since our language achieved full official and working status in the EU in 2022, there has been a surge in demand for Irish-language interpreters, translators and lawyer-linguists. However, our European Union institutions report a critical shortage of qualified Irish-language professionals.”
“I feel that I am in a midlanders’ get-together today. It is the first time I have had the pleasure to meet face to face with the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, who I think hails from Ballinacarrigy, County Westmeath. Am I right? I am. It is not too far down the road from the village of Ardagh, County Longford, where I was born and raised, and from Colehill, where I lived for a little while. Of course, I also see Senator Flaherty here from Longford, who is another doughty character in the Seanad. I will get down to business. Ireland is confronting a significant decline in its staffing representation in European Union institutions, a trend that poses a threat to its influence and the status of the Irish language itself at European Union level.”
“It is to silence the naysayers in Cabinet who are not in favour of giving Waterford the go-ahead because of possible competition reasons. I am flying the flag for the local airport. It deserves to be given the funding. The land and the planning permission has been acquired and everything is in place. All we need is the few million. In contrast to the €200 million given to Cork, which I do not begrudge, one tenth of that would see us out through the gap and into the skies.”
“That is the extent of the traffic in Waterford. The south east is the only region in the country that does not have an operational passenger airport. I go back to the theme we have been debating over the past month, that of balanced regional development. How are we ever to aspire to this if the south east and Waterford specifically are left with an airport that is but a shadow of its former self? I appeal to the Minister of State to use his good offices on this. From the conversations I have had with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, in the past, I suspect he is well disposed towards Waterford and would love to see the airport operational. I sense from reading between the lines, however, that he is coming across an adverse wind in Cabinet and that is why the more robust business plan has been asked for.”
“The summer of 2007 was one of international flight in Waterford and showed what could be done. That summer, we had a successful service down to Malaga and Faro with a short take-off and landing British Aerospace 146 jet, which got in and out of Waterford gan aon stró ar bith. It was immensely popular with the people in the south east because they could avoid the hassle of going to Dublin or Cork and get on the plane almost directly and fly down to the south of Europe in a couple of hours. This was a short-lived facility because it did not go any further. Since then, we have been relying on dribs, drabs and scraps, with the airport having several carriers servicing the UK that come and go. We also now have the R117, the search and rescue helicopter, and the airport gets occasional visits from the Air Corps and executive flights.”
“I wish to speak for a few moments on the géarchéim that is attaching to Waterford Regional Airport. I have many misgivings following a recent meeting that took place between the Minister, local TDs, Ministers of State and the chief executive of Waterford City and County Council in Waterford. When we heard the Minister was meeting representatives and the chief executive, our hopes naturally spiralled high and we thought we were going to get good news. Alas, it was another damp squib. We were told the airport would have to produce yet another business case to promote the further development of the airport, which involves widening and extending the runway to accommodate passenger jets and mid-range jets, such as the A320 and Boeing 737, which are currently in use all over Europe.”
“It is not a very seemly manifestation of how we are planning for the housing crisis. In the few seconds left to me, I would like to pick up on what Senator Paul Daly said yesterday when he spoke up for farm safety. I did not get the time to do so yesterday, but it would be well worthwhile if we could give great publicity to that. I would say everybody in this House knows somebody who has lost a life on a farm. It is important that it be underscored.”
“To that point, I read an interesting article by Eoghan Dalton in The Journal this morning about 80 homes in Portlaoise that are ready, finished and impeccably turned out, but the people who have bought them cannot move in because of lack of capacity in the ESB substation in Portlaoise. We have talked a lot in the past few weeks about planning and balanced planning. That strikes me as the nadir of planning - that houses are fitted out and finished but the people who have bought them cannot move in. They are not sure if they will be able to move in for Christmas now, having been promised last January. I would like to solicit the assistance or interest of the politicians in the Seanad and the other House, particularly from the Laois-Offaly constituency, to get on to the ESB to see what the heck is going on.”
“We often have heard the expression than an Englishman’s home is his castle. If that be the case, many of us feel that an Irishman’s or Irishwoman’s home is their birthright. I think that is engendered by the fact that most of us were lucky enough to grow up in secure homes. They would not have been palatial, but they would have wrapped around us not just walls but the wall of love that we all grew up in. It distresses me when I talk to the younger generation and hear them say, with resignation in their voices, that they do not think they will ever own a home of their own.”
“They will demonstrate a haughty dismissal of rural Ireland by the Government. In fairness, I thank the Minister of State for being here to hear our pleas, from his own party colleagues, the Independents and Sinn Féin. Everywhere, the chorus will be the same. The fundamental bottom line when it comes to post offices is like the slogan that some chain of shops uses that we hear regularly on radio advertising: when they are gone, they are gone. There is no bringing them back. It is up to us to be wise enough to hold onto the jewel in the crown.”
“The pinnacle, and some would say the encouraging and caring nature of post office workers, was truly and inexorably shown during the pandemic. The thousands of hours of selfless service they gave can never really be quantified but, certainly, should never be forgotten. How much more trying and traumatising would it have been had we not had these doughty people in the post offices, who stood strongly with their communities, and sensitively in many cases as well? The bottom line is that it is €15 million a year for the next five years. Anything less will generate losses of service. For example, we can quantify it like this. Some €14 million will lead to 80 to 100 closures, with attendant losses. They will be permanent and damaging - socially, societally and politically.”
“Here again, the post office provides a familiar, recognisable and reliable locus for such services. We see time and again advisories on scams all over the place. However, none of those advisories is more focused or trusted than the word from the local postmaster. In rural communities, the post office is an immediate access point to the banks – AIB and the Bank of Ireland. Those two august institutions, as Members know, closed branches with literal abandon over the past decade and a half to assuage the greed of the institutions and fund managers. The institutions and fund managers drove those closures. We should not be in the driving seat of driving the closures of post offices for the want of a better investment. We can ensure the survival and prosperity of the post offices if we put the funding in place.”
“By contrast, the one remaining post office in the Waterford Gaeltacht closed last year. The local Spar owner Páidí Breathnach wanted to take it on, and An Post was offering him €21,000 a year to run it, but only after he put in €45,000 of his own money to fit it out. If there was a bit of flexibility there, it would not have been the inevitable. For a want of ha'p'orth of tar, the ship was lost. We are aware that the quantum of computer literacy with the older cohort is still significantly in deficit. Those people yearn for face-to-face advice rather than being told coldly to download an app. I refer to parcels and e-commerce. This growth has increased demand for parcel handling click-and-collect service points, another viable entity for the post offices. That all depends on a physical footprint that is trustworthy and welcoming.”
“It would be much handier if people who were dealing with Government forms could have them authorised or countersigned by a peace commissioner in situ rather than having to look up where the next peace commissioner might be – it could be anywhere in the county, according to the legislation. These are a handful of things we could look at. I wish to now take a little step aside – a little bit of a digression by way of an illustration. Is léir go bhfuil an-eolas ag an Aire Stáit ar na hoifigí poist ina dhúiche féin, go mórmhór i nGaeltachtaí Thír Chonaill. Tá oifigí poist i gCill Charthaigh, i nGleann Cholm Cille, in Ardara, i Dungloe, i Leitir Mhic an Bhaird, sna Dóirí Beaga, sa Fál Carrach, i nGort an Choirce, Milford, Ros na Cille, Árainn Mhór agus Toraigh. Is iad sin an dosaen díreach atá istigh nó gar do na Gaeltachtaí.”
“They are very willing to take on any new Government services possible or expand existing services, for example, in documentation generation for all Government forms, which stump many people of the older age cohort; PSC card ordering through their network; or augmenting the difficult register of electors forms, which I saw in Waterford coming up to the last local elections. We had to bring in a bunch of new staff to try to get the register of electors fit for purpose for the local and European elections. That could be done by the post office, or it certainly could be assisted in that way. I am a peace commissioner and it is high time we began to look at post offices as the locus for peace commissioners.”
“The essential services of post offices facilitate their 1 million weekly customers to support sustainable local enterprise, as well as assist in the ongoing fight against carbon pollution. The Grant Thornton report, entitled "Securing the Future: Sustaining Ireland's Post Office Network through Strategic Investment", outlines the need for an investment of €15 million a year for five years. Post office revenues, while somewhat static since 2018, have actually fallen by about 20% to 25% in real terms and when taking account of inflation. It is not that post offices are inflexible about new trends. That is not the case.”
“Our post offices are the jewel in the crown of our support and social mechanisms. They are a leading national asset playing a vital role in supporting communities across Ireland, not just economically, but socially and environmentally. Economically, they process more than €7 billion in social welfare every year, much of which is spent locally, for example, in the supermarket around the corner or the local craft shops. This is particularly true in rural and disadvantaged areas. The local post office, furthermore, provides a trusted face-to-face service that engenders social inclusion and reduces isolation, particularly for older and vulnerable people. Environmentally, too, local post offices' presence reduces the need for long-distance travel to access further post offices that may be necessary with the closure of the local one.”
“We were having a robust debate on balanced regional development at the time. A goodly number of Senators of all shades outlined their visions of what balanced regional development meant to them. The one common thread in practically all of the contributions from all sides of the House was the critical need to maintain communities in rural Ireland. Caithfear bánú na tuaithe a sheachaint. I will not boil my cabbage twice by rehearsing again what was said on 17 June but my message today is fairly straightforward. The post office needs €15 million in the coming and subsequent years to maintain its level of service to its 1 million customers. Some €15 million sounds a lot, but it is a paltry sum. It is, effectively, the cost of one cup of coffee per person in the State on one day.”
“Lonraím mo thacaíocht ar na hoifigigh phoist agus ar an dea-sheirbhís a thugann siad lá i ndiaidh lae ar fud na tíre ó Chionn Mhálanna go Dún Mór Thoir i gContae Phort Láirge agus gach áit eatarthu. Responsibility lies with all of us in Seanad Éireann and Dáil Éireann to help shape an Ireland where opportunity, investment and quality of life are shared fairly across all villages, towns and cities. This Government is committed to balanced regional development and supporting an Ireland where all regions and communities, both rural and urban, have equal opportunities to thrive. Let us ponder the words "both rural and urban, have equal opportunities to thrive". They are not mine, of course, but a verbatim quote from the address given by the Minister for rural and community development in this House little more than three weeks ago.”
“I was just thinking, as an ordinary layman, that it would be easier to make a judgment on bribery and fraud and on the hard evidence that is likely than it would be on the much more mercurial items that are brought up with regard to defamation and character. I have that reservation about that measure. I am not even out of time, which is unusual for me, but I want to say, mar fhocail scoir, that I really am delighted to see the Minister back in the Seanad again. He is a better attender than most of us, I would say, and I am delighted to see that he holds the House in such respect and that he gives an account of his work and labours, which are long and will hopefully continue to be fruitful.”
“If they do not like the colour of your hair, the shape of your face, the colour of your skin, the accent you use or the place you come from, or many other things that are open to bias and caprice, it will almost inevitably impact the way they look on a defendant in a case. The long-held treasured principle in common law areas that people are triable by juries is a magnificent defence and civil right that we should not toss to the wind. I do not think it is a much of a coincidence but when I was listening to the "Today" programme this morning getting ready to come in here, I heard that in our sister island across the main, the Leveson report was published today. The UK is also talking about doing away with jury trials but, interestingly enough, it has taken a much more measurable thing, namely, bribery and fraud.”
“Yes indeed, and it gets better because just at the top of my road, there resided a lovely man called Mr. Justice Hubert Wine. He is long gone now. In a chat I had with him once he cracked a good joke, I thought. He said one of his defendants said that he had been sentenced by "just a swine". The sobriquet was anything but appropriate for Mr. Justice Wine because he was an entirely lovely man. That leads me on to the point I am about to make. Judges are gifted with judiciousness but not with divinity and, as such, they are open to bias, bigotry, caprice and all of those things.”
“I will address one particular feature of the Bill, namely, the reservations I have about the delegation of defamation to judges only and the bypassing of the constitutional and long-held right of people to be tried by juries of their peers. I want to digress, maybe to add a little bit of levity to what has been a somewhat turgid session at times. When I was a much younger man I spent most of the first 12 years of my teaching life in the capital here and I lived just out the road in Ranelagh, in a place called Cherryfield Avenue.”
“The technical term they have for this is premillennial dispensationalism. To them, history is split into distinct eras, and they believe that much suffering will take place before the millennium. I will have to cut this a little bit short. Not surprisingly, Johnnie Moore is very close to Trump and is co-chair of Trump’s advisory group. The relief work, if it was to be done by evangelicals, would easily have been done by established groups such as the World Action Foundation and Samaritan’s Purse. It is important that Members of the House are aware - and that it be in the record of the House - that this dubious type of organisation is being used. Many people are dying because of ill-trained security and Israeli forces who are taking them out, as they say, because they are simply looking to be fed.”
“But it is a war of disinformation too, and all too often, the United Nations and other organisations are spreading a war of disinformation about our foundation. Johnnie Moore, for those who do not know, is a protégé of the televangelist Jerry Falwell Snr., a major figure in the religious right of the 1970s. Falwell brought Moore into his Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, in the early 2000s, when he was just 20 years of age. Moore set about organising student convocations and ended up being the gatekeeper to all Republican politicians and anybody who wanted access to President Trump. Moore espouses what he calls religious Zionism, which is at the basis of this movement. It adheres to the belief that the restoration of Israel-Palestine to the Jewish people must precede the second coming of the Messiah.”
“The latest figures, as of early July, show 743 people have been killed and 4,891 injured while waiting to get fed in Gaza by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF. That foundation, which was founded only last year, is an elusive enough entity. The headquarters were incorporated at an address in Delaware, just two weeks after President Trump took office. When the premises were visited by journalists to search them out, what they found there was a registration agency. The foundation did not physically or legally exist at the address. Despite all that, the US State Department is giving $30 million to the foundation as of today. The GHF is led by executive chairman and evangelical Johnnie Moore who said the following: We do not want anybody to die. We are feeding people in the middle of a war.”
“As such, it merits great support and being looked at as an antidote to the existential threats that are coming at Europe from many directions, from over as far as the Urals and many of the movements in our political partners in the European Union. It is remarkably sensible, inclusive and in line with what the European Union has put forward. As a sovereign nation we should be in there working with our partners to devolve the best system of immigration, third-country status and enlightened immigration policies that are needed at the moment. They are so needed but we have to tread very cautiously because we have to maintain the status of our European and democratic way of life. These things are singly important to all democracy-loving people on this island and across the Continent. Tugaim mo fhíorthacaíocht don Aire agus don Rialtas.”
“Is aoibhinn liom an Aire a fheiceáil ar ais arís. Tá sé de nós aige a bheith anseo go rialta agus, mar a dúirt an Seanadóir ansin, bainimid go léir sásamh as é a bheith anseo. I was somewhat of the hope that my colleague, Senator McDowell, would be here to ply his considerable wiles and perspectives on this question. I take it he is unavoidably held up so I will bat on as best I can. I understand there is significant and broad support for these measures among our group. Earlier this week, I spoke of the phenomenon in the seanfhocal i nGaeilge of being a “Taidhgín an dá thaobh”. Well, we are over 50 years a member of the European Union and we cannot be Taidhgín an dá thaobh. Either we are in it or we are out of it and I think this significant measure is very inclusive and very protective for the European Union.”
“The amendment should have the word "may" in view of the fact that the legal age for children is 18. The enforcement of the word "shall" is very dangerous from a legal point of view.”
“Unfortunately I was not here for Senator's Ryan's contribution, which I am picking up from subsequent speakers was poignant and harrowing. Agus é sin ráite, tá fadhb agam leis an leasú seo. I have a couple of problems with the language in this amendment. In this country the legal definition of a "child" is anyone up to the age of 18. I also have a problem with the use of the word "shall" in the amendment. I am going to paint for the House a brief scenario of a father effecting domestic violence against his partner or wife. They have one son who is aged 17. He is there to do his utmost to defend his mum. The way the amendment is drafted that child will then be considered as an aggravating factor in the domestic violence because the word "shall" is used.”
“Any of us in this House should celebrate the great cultural connection and ongoing and thriving cultural connection that exists between us and Japan.”
“I know Members are going on recess very shortly, so I am entreating them to come to Tramore and see these beautiful peaceful gardens, much unsung, much unheralded but nevertheless absolutely gorgeous and well worth a visit, as is Tramore, of course, in general. Lafcadio Hearn has a reputation in Japan as being the great interpreter of Japan for the western world. We had an extension of the garden on Friday last, appropriately enough on the 175th anniversary of Lafcadio Hearn's birth in 1850; he died in 1906. He took on the Japanese name of Koizumi Yakumo when he was out there. He married and had a Japanese family, many of whom still come to Ireland. His great-grandnephew comes to Tramore. It is a really wonderful story but it is one of total serendipity.”
“After three or four weeks, she asked me whether I realised that a very famous Japanese-Irish writer lived for many years in Tramore in County Waterford, and I had to confess my total ignorance of this. She informed me about Lafcadio Hearn and what an amazing personage he was in writing. She said that he would have the same sort of literary status in Japan as William Butler Yeats would have here in Ireland. Anyway, we had the Japanese ambassador down in 2004 to launch the Tramore Lafcadio Hearn society and on foot of that, one of the great dynamos in Tramore, Agnes Aylward, and her amanuensis Janet set about seeking to establish the Lafcadio Hearn gardens.”
“I want to reference in the short time I have this morning connections, economic and cultural, between us and Japan. Economically, Japan is our second biggest trade partner in the Pacific area, with an annual import-export of over €21 billion, a not inconsiderable amount. However, it is mainly the cultural connections between the two countries that I want to advert to, in particular with regard to a great Irish-Japanese personage called Lafcadio Hearn. Lafcadio Hearn would be unknown to many people in this House and was certainly unknown to me but for a bit of serendipity that happened back in the early 2000s. When I was principal of the school in Dunmore East, I had a Japanese intern in with me for six months.”
“It would have an ability to stay at sea for long times, to really address what is going on underneath the water and would offer a viable way of patrolling our exclusive economic zone.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his input. Is he familiar with a deal that was made with the French armaments company called Thales for a towed sonar device to be towed along after our naval vessels? As I was saying in the House last week, any skipper from Killybegs or Dunmore East will say that towing anything at sea is a pretty dodgy business. If they are towing something that is as precarious as looking after undersea cables or gas lines, those tow smart ropes, as they are called in the industry, are particularly vulnerable to salinity, currents, snagging, impact on rocks or on the bottom. There are so many things that can go wrong. In our new SAFE initiative, will any consideration be given by the Government to investing in a state-of-the-art diesel-electric submarine that would be built by our neighbours in Germany?”
“I ask our Government to set to work, in very close with co-operation with NATO, to engender a grown-up, fit-for-purpose unemotional debate on neutrality. If we do not, as I have said in this House before, a lack of defence will mean we are walking in our sleep down a road to doom.”
“Such a commitment is not easy for any state but, for a state like ours, starting from such a low base, it is a big ask. Such a provision is our best defence because deterrence is the best defence. We know from our history that bad actors are opportunistic. They will not engage with an opponent likely to defeat them. The 1930s showed the opportunism and brinksmanship of Hitler as he ramrodded his way across Europe through states that were ill-defended and war-weary after the Great War. Many of us in this country will know the expression "Tadhg an dá thaobh", which implies somebody who tries to serve both sides. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of it. The phrase reflects a position manifested in a country upholding its liberal stance but not taking the pains to defend it.”
“Many of our European Union partners are being systematically and surreptitiously destabilised by the dark and underhand dealings and machinations of these so-called bad actors. It was with levity in my heart that I read last Saturday morning in The Irish Times that we are to sign up to Security Action for Europe, SAFE, displaying at last a recognition of European realpolitik and its ancillary need to bolster our defences. I hope the Minister of State, in the absence of the Minister, will be able to outline the measures I have no doubt make this an initiative that will augment our risible measures for defence at the moment. They add up to about 0.25% of our spending. Only last week we witnessed a NATO commitment of 5% budget provisions for defence in the years ahead.”
“Is aoibhinn liom an tAire Stáit a fheiceáil arís agus é anseo in ionad an Tánaiste agus Aire Cosanta ag déileáil leis an Ní i dTosach Suíonna inniu, rud atá an-tábhachtach dúinn sa Teach seo agus sa tír. Since my election to this House, I have frequently made contributions urging our Government to seriously address our practical and moral responsibility for the protection of our treasured democratic way of life in Europe. It must be clear to all in this House and in the country at large that this is incrementally under threat from what might euphemistically be called "bad actors". The vicious and illegal invasion of Ukraine is a living example of this. Other sovereign states in Europe, for example, Moldova and Georgia, are in Putin's crosshairs as we speak.”
“I am not for a moment saying people on the Government side are not thinking for themselves, but this must be one time they could make that leap.”
“Do we know what we are really engaging in when we set about this whole game that is so often part and parcel of political activity, that is this awful practice of unnecessary can-kicking down the road? This is what we have here. We hear expressions like “life is wonderful", “life is cruel” and “life is for living.” Life is for living but when talking about the disability sector and people who are labouring under a disability, and their families who are trying to support them in the best way they can, all of that time, the clock is ticking. Life is for living. Who are we in this House to put a bac on, a stop to the necessary remediation these people deserve? I am harking back to another few lines. They are from Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore : I always voted at my party's call, And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.”
“I will not detain the House long but I have a few impassioned remarks to make in support of the amendment and Senator Clonan. We have an old expression, san áit a bhfuil toil ann, tá slí ann. Members will all know it as, where there is a will, there is a way. There is a way here. My schoolboy Shakespeare brings me back. Senator Clonan asked whether we had it in our hearts. There were a couple of lines in Julius Caesar where there was an imploration to the citizens of Rome: You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, Knew you not Pompey? That is the question that is before us tonight. Do we know what we are doing?”
“I think this is self-evident. Our spokespeople have talked about a baffling problem, ten-year backlogs and some children never being seen. I absolutely echo that as someone who was working with kids all my life. It is an analysis that is almost impossible to make because it is so neglectful. I refer not alone to dental hygiene but also the implications for heart problems later in life. This is, essentially, at the nub of human health. Depending on what league table you are looking at, whether it is from the World Bank or other organisations, we are either the third or fourth most wealthy nation in the world per capita . If we cannot afford our children basic and good healthcare, then we are failing our children and our future generations.”
“As for the young graduates who might come out of such a faculty, be it in Cork, Dublin or Waterford, I refer to us being able to incentivise Irish kids - I know there are implications in relation to the EU and the equality of student opportunities - to go in and take dentistry as a noble and very remunerative profession, which it is and we all know it is because most of us have to pay for our dentistry and we know what it costs. We could incentivise the profession by locking the graduates who come out of dentistry into a commitment to the State for five or ten years or whatever could be negotiable. Then we would not have this talent drain we see afflicting the medical and dental professions. It is just pure common sense. If we train our own dentists, then surely to God we should get the benefit of training them.”
“Nobody, however, seems to get their act together until it becomes dismally critical before they begin to address it. This is a horrible state of affairs. I spoke here last week about balanced regional development. I talked about the way the South East Technological University, SETU, is being effectively discriminated against because of a lack of funding. That university would love to have a dental faculty and it would offer to host it. Given the standard of living in the south east, God help us down there, we would be able to offer to host that faculty much more cheaply than the centres of excellence we already have.”
“We are addressing a problem here today, but if the Minister of State and his colleagues will forgive me - it is very good that we have this motion here - I must ask if there is not a tad of the burglar ringing the gardaí here. The Minister of State's party has been in government for 14 years and his colleagues are bringing forward this motion today. I think this is perhaps a little rich because it shows to me that somewhere along the line there is a dismal lack of planning. We all saw this problem years and years ago, but it is 14 years later that we are standing up and calling out the fact that somebody has been asleep at the wheel on this problem. What I want to decry is that we have this system that deals with our children and their health and, as the old cliché goes, the dogs in the street are barking out that there is a problem.”
“Forget about the older cohorts because, basically, the state of their teeth is basically just care on the tear that has been done during their lives. On the young people who are remediable, the impact of the Irish dental profession and the Irish dental service is lamentable. We just have to look at the smiles. Often, we will see youngsters in Ireland hiding their smiles because they are so embarrassed about the array of their teeth that they do not want to do the most human and natural thing to a young person, which is to display their personality and jollity through the openness of their smiles. What they have in their mouths is a crowded misalignment of their teeth. This is not down to anything they do, but down to a very poor lack of care.”