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 9 of 14.
“I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: "Quarterly report on developments 2. Within three months of the commencement of this Act, the Housing Finance Agency shall be required to publish quarterly reports detailing— (a) the total loan disbursements by county and local authority, (b) project types funded, (c) average loan size repayment terms, and (d) environmental and energy efficiency ratings of funded developments.”
“As many of us here in this House who are directly responsive and freagrach do chomhairleoirí, answerable to councillors, know, and the Minister of State and I know from our time on Waterford City and County Council, very often councillors complain that they do not get clearly accessible and readable information on housing matters from central government and the quangos, such as the Housing Finance Agency. In an effort to make this a little bit more accessible to the public, but in particular our local authority members, I propose this first amendment. It ensures transparency and accountability in how public funds are distributed. It allows communities like Waterford to assess whether they are receiving equitable support compared with the other regions and empowers local advocacy if disparities arise.”
“I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: "Local authorities funding 2. A minimum of 20 per cent of the increased borrowing capacity shall be reserved for local authorities with populations under 150,000. The Housing Finance Agency shall consult with these authorities on a quarterly basis to identify priority housing needs and barriers to accessing finance. The funding shall be reviewed annually and be subject to approval from the Minister." This is a very short and reasonable amendment.”
“The suggested reforms in this respect that the Conway family came up with are as follows: to legislate to have a minimum funding stability period - of three years, for example - for any provider participating in the ECCE or core funding schemes; to require advance notice of at least six months be provided to parents and the Department before any provider can exit the scheme; to guarantee that families retain their subsidised rate for the duration of their child's placement, even if the provider later withdraws; and to create a continuity fund to protect parents from unexpected fee spikes caused by provider exits. I am afraid I am out of time but I suspect that the Minister will hear more from me on this issue. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a bheith ag éisteacht liom.”
“The suggested reforms are as follows: first, to introduce a national childcare placement system or centralised waiting list database to increase transparency around availability; second, to require providers to confirm or release places at least three months in advance of the start date; and third, to provide regional and capacity planning and forecasting to enable the Government to proactively expand places in areas where shortages are most acute. Another reform that is needed involves identifying and guaranteeing continuity of funding and protection from sudden provider withdrawal. The problem is that when providers withdraw from the State's core funding scheme, parents are suddenly faced with large fee increases or must move their children, often mid-year, causing disruption and financial hardship.”
“I compliment our Sinn Féin colleagues in giving some oxygen to this much-pressed issue of childcare. A lot of the comments to date in this debate have been on the macro question. I have consulted my own resource team, notably my son and daughter-in-law and their 11-month-old daughter. We came up with some micro suggestions. I will instance the first problem that they identified. Parents currently face severe uncertainty and stress due to the scarcity of early childcare places. It is self-evident. Many of them have to apply to dozens of providers and often receive confirmation only weeks before the care is needed. This makes it nearly impossible for families to plan return-to-work dates or manage financial and logistical arrangements.”
“The suggested remedies I am giving as the humble Senator here are ring-fencing the funding for smaller ETBs and rural employers, expanding the training centre capacity especially in construction and ICT and streamlining the qualification pathways to reduce delays and bottlenecks. I hope that my cúpla focail will have added somewhat to the quantum of knowledge and understanding on the targeted outreach and bursaries that will improve geographical equity and gender equality.”
“Apprenticeship opportunities are concentrated in urban centres, leaving rural areas like parts of Waterford and particularly west Waterford with fewer options. Smaller local authorities such as ours and employers often lack the capacity or awareness to engage with apprenticeship schemes. There is also the inevitable gender imbalance, with women underrepresented in many high-demand trades. This undermines Ireland's goals for balanced regional development, which we talk about a lot in this Chamber, and inclusive workforce planning under the national planning framework.”
“The impact of this is that the bottleneck slows down the entry into the workforce and exacerbates labour shortages, notably in housing and infrastructure, and it can discourage new applicants. Then there is the question of funding shortfalls and resource constraints. Unions like SIPTU and Unite report that the system is underfunded and overstretched, with insufficient investment in facilities and staff. That is their take on it. Despite a 34% increase in registrations from 2019 to 2024, funding has not kept pace with demands because smaller ETBs struggle to maintain programme quality. Some employers are reluctant to participate due to the lack of financial incentives. I can see that my time is flitting away and I just want to address the uneven access and regional disparities.”
“Looking at the downside, however, it is not all good news and bravado from me, I am afraid. The apprenticeship system in 2025 faces three major shortfalls that I can see, namely, persistent backlogs, underfunding to a certain extent, and uneven access especially in construction and in the rural areas of the country. As of mid-2025, over 9,000 apprentices are waiting to qualify, particularly in the craft and construction trades. Delays stem from limited capacity in training centres and especially for off-the-job phases, which are essential for qualification and certification. Some education and training boards have deferred courses by up to a year despite record enrolments.”
“According to Arcon Recruitment and SOLAS, the most sought-after trades include electrical and plumbing. A couple years ago, I was mayor down in Waterford. When you are a mayor, you are wheeled out to officiate and do all the presentation things. I was brought along to the South East Technological University and I had the great pleasure of presenting the degrees to the apprenticeship class. I would have to say that it was one of the most memorable occasions of my time there. I was talking to them all and the vast majority of them were going to be, as they said to me, a "sparky". They were all going off into the electrical trade. People who are building houses are telling us about the difficulty in recruitment and they will still say that sparkies are hard to come by.”
“These courses enjoy the support of the traditional trades such as electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and motor mechanics but there are also newer sectors, which Senator Ryan averted to, such as finance, accounting technician, insurance practitioner, ICT, cybersecurity, software development, engineering, manufacturing and industrial electrical engineering, hospitality and food, commis chef, butcher, healthcare and social services. The list is quite exhaustive. All the while, the apprentices are paid by their employer. The rates vary by sector and the year of training. Reasonably generous employer grants are available to encourage uptake. Apprenticeship bursaries exist for underrepresented groups and particularly for women in a male-dominated section of the trades. There are no tuition fees for most of the programmes.”
“The apprenticeship model, as we all know, follows an earn-while-you-learn model, which combines on-the-job training with an employer and off-the-job training in an educational training centre for a duration of two to four years depending on the programme. The eligibility is open to school leavers, career changers and mature learners. Typically, these are employed by an approved employer before starting. When I began to research this, it really surprised me that the qualifications can go anywhere from the level 5 to the level 10 award, which is extraordinary vision in the scheme. There are now nearly 80 programmes that I could assess.”
“It shows a remarkable adjustment in national planning that we have gone from the situation where we had very little apprenticeship in the Cinderella of the economy where the whole thrust with young people was to get to universities and to become lawyers and doctors and brain surgeons. Of course, a lot of this has borne out the problems we have in providing housing for our ever-increasing population, which is at record figures now. It is on that subject of apprenticeships and the Minister's work that I want to give a little time to the successes and the challenges. If the Minister will permit, I will look at my notes and I will need my specs for this overview of the apprenticeship model in Ireland. I am just going to have a little scoot through it.”
“Back in 2014, Waterford County Council and Waterford City Council amalgamated. At the first meeting of that amalgamated council in July 2014, I put a question to the then chief executive, Michael Walsh. I asked him if he could tell the council how many apprentices there were in the new amalgamated council. He said he regretted to tell us that the number was zero. I thought it was a shocking indictment of a local authority at the time. Obviously, things have changed, with a lot of fosterage and good governance by the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and his predecessors. The number of apprentices that we have under the Minister's aegis would be close to five figures, perhaps 9,000.”
“I join with the Acting Chairperson and with the previous speaker in welcoming the Minister, Deputy Lawless, to the House. I have only met the Minister once before but on hundreds of occasions I had the pleasure of working with his mother Mary in a couple of educational sectors. During the recess I hope the Minister finds the time to pass on my very best wishes to her. She was always a joy to work with.”
“However, I am glad to tell the House that yesterday afternoon the members of Waterford City and County Council voted, almost unanimously, to conjoin with an American private enterprise consortium to develop the airport fully to accommodate big jet planes to land there. They hope to have the project finished by 2027. I commend the councillors because there was a certain amount of opposition to giving away some sections of land. They really put their courage to the sticking place yesterday and I commend them on that. We will not be here on Saturday, but we should congratulate the international airport in Knock on a successful first 40 years. As it progresses towards its 1 millionth passenger the naysayers, like the naysayers in Waterford, have been confounded.”
“I join the Cathaoirleach in welcoming the ambassador from the Czech Republic. I was in his lovely country on one occasion in 1999. It was a bittersweet occasion for me because while I was there, on 2 July 1999, we lost a Dauphin helicopter in the sand dunes in Tramore, County Waterford, with the loss of the four Air Corps members on board. That gives me an easy segue into what I want to talk about. That helicopter was based in Waterford Airport, which has had a difficult existence for the past 40 years. Not many people know that Waterford Airport was the airport from where the first Ryanair flight took off, but the success pattern of Ryanair and Waterford Airport could not be more of a contrast.”
“I welcome the Taoiseach. There has been a lot of talk about world issues but my issues are strictly parochial. As the Taoiseach knows, Waterford Airport is being progressed using private funding. This is a good news story for the south east. I do not want to pre-empt the discussions of my former colleagues in Waterford City and Council, but it is not all good tidings and hoorays because the airport development will necessitate realignment of the R708. That is going to cost the council €800,000. I wonder if, through his good offices, the Taoiseach could find €400,000 of loose change in the Department of Transport.”
“It is often said among Irish language enthusiasts gurb é todhchaí na nGaelscoileanna todhchaí na teanga. The embodiment of the revival and the strengthening of the Irish language is inextricably bound up with the Gaelscoileanna and the impetus it gives to the proliferation of an Ghaeilge among the younger generation. At this stage, Scoil Gharbháin has probably issued into the community at least 2,000 Irish speakers, which, for a west of Waterford cohort, is hugely significant. I am a tad disappointed that, despite my very direct question to the Minister of State, no indication was given in the reply as to when the application will be going into Waterford City and County Council. That is the nub of the thing.”
“The parents, school community and board of management know that it is going to happen but the original application went in in 2018 and we have an expression in the Gaeilge that the Minister of State will be familiar with, being a Galway man, namely, meileann muilte Dé go mall or the wheels of God grind slowly. Well, if the wheels of God grind slowly, meileann muilte an Roinn Oideachais níos moille fós. They grind even slower still. After seven years of the preparation of the project, I think it is time to push through the design team’s report so that we can progress to planning application stage and make certitude of this really worthwhile project.”
“The Minister of State might be able to shine a light on that. The proposed extension comprises four mainstream classrooms, two special educational needs classrooms and three special education tuition rooms. Special education is a fundamental constitutional right for people who want to provide their children with Irish-medium education. Gaelscoileanna are often seen as kind of elitist, but they do have special needs and have children within them who have special needs. This would be a furtherance of the provision of special needs responsibility and answerability for children in Gaelscoileanna education. That is really the nub of it.”
“The Department of Education and Youth owns the lands on which the mooted extension is going to be built, so that is not a problem. The whole idea of an extension is not a problem. It is uncontested. The Department, the school community and the board of management are as one. It is not a question of whether this is going to happen. The question of increasing importance to the school community is when it is going to happen. We have gone through a lot of the so-called loops that plague school communities, boards of management and principals. We may actually be close to the appointment of a design team to progress the final design for submission to Waterford City and County Council for planning permission, which would be a tangible indication that the project is nearly over the line.”
“I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish. I am here as an advocate for the school community in Scoil Gharbháin, which serves the people of Dungarvan, Abbeyside and most of west Waterford. The Minister of State and I are of a vintage to remember the beginning of the Gaelscoil movement. That is 50 years faoi lán seoil at this stage. We could reasonably say that the Gaelscoil movement is a victim of its own success. Gaelscoileanna everywhere are held in high esteem and are expanding and getting greater pupil numbers and greater parental acceptance. One such school is Scoil Gharbháin, which is a big school by any standards and which has an enrolment of about 320 pupils. The school serves the very strategically important town of Dungarvan in the west of the county. Being a victim of its own success, it needs to expand.”
“I have high admiration for him. He is an extraordinary Minister and an extraordinary public representative, but I fundamentally think, "Guys, gals, the man may be great, but on this occasion he is damned wrong." I am not encouraged by the tendency of the divisions on this Bill that they are going through on the nod. The Government side and the Minister have an onerous responsibility to step back from this and not to press it ahead because we are doing ourselves a desperate disfavour.”
“Usually in panic, the people phone up their solicitors and ask what in the name of God they are going to say. The solicitors tell them to say nothing because they do not have to say anything. Usually, that puts a halt to the gallop at that stage for a while. If, however, we are precipitant enough to throw away today the protections in the legislation currently today, we are doing a big disservice to democracy and to fairness. I speak as a layman, a former teacher and somebody who values the whole business of democracy and fairness. I commend the Minister. Of all the Ministers I have seen in the past six months, he is the person who is most assiduous in his attendance at the Seanad. He is fantastic.”
“The famous phrase Mandy Rice-Davies was connected with was how, when someone rebutted an allegation, she said, "Well he would, wouldn't he?" This is the sort of thing that attaches to people who are ringing up public figures and telling them about how they have "credible evidence", "well-appointed sources" and "sources close to Garda." These sorts of phrase mean nothing really - they are just conjectured by journalists - but are put out in the public domain after there is a consideration of the so-called allegations. Often, the people who are at the butt of these, who are having their world kicked out from underneath them, are phoned up by the journalists who say they have credible allegations from well-placed sources close to the Garda and people have seen the files, and they ask what he people are going to say.”
“Look at the other things we have here. There is a questioning about the ability of people and the rectitude of the way they do their public functions. Do the allegations have seriousness? What about the language used? Do we have suspicions, allegations or fact? Was there the urgency in the report that would be at one with the strictures of the Press Council and its equivalent standards? I also have a note here for myself on Mandy Rice-Davies. I am sure an awful lot of people will not remember Mandy Rice-Davies. She was involved in the Profumo affair back in the Harold Macmillan Government in the UK. She and Christine Keeler were up to hijinks with John Profumo, who was a Minister for defence procurement in Macmillan's Government. This is going back a good way now.”
“Are we going to toss it away on a non-considered section 26 in the Lower House? It would have been a poorly considered section were it not for the intervention of Senator McDowell here on my left, who gave a very trenchant exposition of the dangers of the chasm we are blindly walking across, down into the depths where anything will be possible with the media. I was making some notes there and I will put on the old spectacles to have a look. I have a speaking note for myself, "Nixon." We will all remember the paragon of the defence of legal rectitude, the man who was the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, whose favourite catchphrase when he was dealing with his henchmen and he had an opponent was to tell them, "Give him something to deny." That is all it took. Is that fair? Is it reaching the bar of fairness?”
“In a local town, village, county or wherever, if somebody says a teacher or headmaster is fondling children at after-school sporting activities, it may never come to court and may never come to serious investigation by the Garda, but the reputation of that man - it is nearly always a man - in that locality is gone to the dickens. Many of my friends asked me what I do up here in Dublin in the Seanad all day. I find this quite amazing because I am only half a year in the job and I find myself standing here speaking to an approximately 10% occupied Chamber, with practically nobody from the Government or so-called Opposition here except for a few diehards, and at the same time we are trying to nail down one of the basic tenets of the democracy we try to live by, that is, the tenet of fairness.”
“Let us recall back in the day when it was becoming much more commonplace to talk about child abuse and child sexual exploitation. When I started teaching back in the 1970s, such things were never on the agenda or the horizon, but within 15 years of teaching, it was beginning to creep in and there were more cases and allegations. When we had INTO meetings and would go for a few pints afterwards, the common wisdom then was that we were very vulnerable because you did not have to be guilty any more. All it has to be is somebody making an allegation and you may as well be guilty.”
“The BBC had to fess up and it was painfully obvious what had happened: the police were attuned, shall we say, to the newsroom in the BBC and the BBC was given the privilege of passing over £250,000 of the licence fee-payers' money to absolve itself of a completely scurrilous and unfounded allegation. I am using that as an example. Senator McDowell mentioned gardaí leaking files. Are there corrupt people in police forces around the world? If you are as old as I am and you are reading books, periodicals and newspapers, you will know the saying about how, in every barrel of apples, there is a rotten one or two. It only takes one or two of those to shaft somebody like me or any Member of this House or the Lower House.”
“This was news media, the BBC news. People very quickly began to question how in God's name the BBC was so attuned to what was going on in the legal world that it was able to charter, prepare and do all of the infrastructural preparation with these aircraft to film the bringing down of Cliff Richard. Of course, it was manifestly clear it could only have been done with the involvement of the South Yorkshire constabulary, the people who were manipulating the investigation of Cliff Richard on child abuse allegations, which, of course, he has never even been charged with, let alone tried for. Effectively, the man was shattered, his reputation was shot to shreds and he never graced a stage again as far as I know.”
“At my age, it is not all that easy to be shocked by things but I have to say the bar is being crossed here today by the section under discussion. As a democrat and as somebody who treasures free speech and fairness in public life, I am truly shocked by the proposals in the measure under discussion. Most of us here would remember an August day in 2014 when South Yorkshire police raided the house of a very prominent entertainer, Sir Cliff Richard, in Sunningdale in the UK. The raid on Cliff Richard, his reputation and his standing, from which he has never recovered, was accompanied by what you could call a squadron of helicopters filming the raid from the air. The squadron of helicopters was chartered by and had newshounds from the BBC, who were there watching the ignominious disgracing of a national treasure, as they would call him.”
“I am a bit curious about defamation online and the likelihood that in defending possible defamatory statements online, the people who are using blogs would not be allowed to address these through alternative dispute resolution, meaning they would need legal representation to negotiate the intricacies of what looks to me like manifestly complex proposed legislation.”
“Like Senator Nelson Murray, I do not pretend to have any legal expertise given my background. Fundamentally, my concern relates to the possibility of increased costs for the layperson. I understand there is a commitment to alternative dispute resolution in the Bill and the change regarding juries in the High Court is mooted as having the effect of reducing costs and unpredictability in cases. Can the Minister give a guarantee that in those instances, the costs will decrease for the layperson?”
“This month, which is less than three years later, that Big Mac will cost €7 in Waterford and the meal will cost €10.90, a 60% increase in less than three years. In the Tower Hotel at Christmas in 2022, you would have paid €5.50 for a pint of Guinness. That is now €6.20, a 30% increase and well ahead of the rate of inflation. There is talk about Simon Harris morning. Simon Harris and the Government got it seriously wrong in giving this break to the hospitality sector. A sum of €700 million in a year would have given two winter fuel rebates to poor households next winter. To my mind, going for a pint or eating in a restaurant is the comfortable choice of the comfortably off, and people who are suffering fuel poverty do not have that choice. This was a bad call from the Tánaiste and a bad call from the Government.”
“I add my voice to that of Senator Craughwell earlier when he asked the Leader - I am asking this as well - that we request the Minister for Defence to come into the House and give us a decent debate on the defence budget, as exposed last week, and on our defence of our sovereign nation, given our non-aligned status. An príomhphointe atá á dhéanamh agam ar maidin ná tagairt a dhéanamh don mbriseadh a tugadh sa bhuiséad an tseachtain seo caite d'óstlanna agus do bhialanna. I refer to the amount of money that was set aside as a tax break or otherwise for the hospitality sector, the close to €700 million a year in one year. It is strange to see this come in because wages in the hospitality sector are rising and so is employment. A Big Mac in Waterford at Christmas in 2022 would have cost €4.30 and a Big Mac meal would have cost €7.20.”
“I applaud Senator Craughwell, thank Dublin Dental University Hospital and all our colleagues, Government, Independent and Opposition. There is a great turnout and a great show of solidarity for this case. Well done, Rebecca.”
“Following on from what Senator Clonan was saying, mar fhocal scoir, now that the Minister of State is here, we are inundated this week because it is budget week. We are coming down with figures falling around our ears. The figures the Minister of State revealed to us relating to the modest amount of money Dublin Dental University Hospital is asking for seem quite paltry to me as a layman. I do not think it is beyond the wit of humanity to bridge the gap. The people down there are quite a team. They deserve to be equipped and financed to engage with problems such as this. My dear late mother used to say: never ever boil your cabbage twice when you are talking. I am not going to repeat the things that others have said.”
“This includes promoting healthy living environments, as well as aversions to alcohol and tobacco. These are fundamental messages to give children as they grow up. They can save a lot of trauma in the after times. Equally, we talked a lot about the HPV vaccination and what seems to be an fall-off in the uptake of it. This is very regrettable but it seems to be a trend all over the world. There is a growing scepticism to the whole idea of vaccinations. It is a very worrying trend that is probably generated by that awful thing called social media and influencers. It is a message to Government that, as educators and members of Government looking after the welfare of our people, we should be redoubling our efforts to zero in on the importance of vaccinations and health education.”
“In our idealistic days of youth many of us in or outside this House would have read a book by John Kennedy called Profiles in Courage . We are seeing a great profile in courage here with Rebecca and Senator Craughwell. We have been talking about the human papillomavirus and I am going to add to this as an educator. There is an old Irish expression which says an té nach gcuirfidh greim, cuirfidh sé dhá ghreim. It roughly translates as an ounce of preparatory work will reap a pound of reward. In education, particularly in the primary schools, it is then that the seeds of good health and health education are sown. We seem to have taken our foot off the gas in relation to health education, the importance of minding our bodies and looking after healthy lifestyles.”
“A short week ago, I knew very little about this topic. By chance, my daughter and I met Senator Craughwell in the coffee dock, of all places. He told me he was bringing this Private Members' motion to the floor of the House today. Like any habitué of this House, I got to work on doing a little bit of self-enlightenment on the topic. I was absolutely amazed by the complexity of the condition and the harrowing effects it has on those who suffer. I want to applaud Senator Craughwell for bringing this to the attention not just of the House but of the nation. It is a first for me to see such a fantastic team tog out to support the Senator in the Gallery. These things are all greatly appreciated by us and I am sure by him and Rebecca.”
“I supported far more budgets in my 21 years in local government that I voted against. If I was to be asked to go through a division lobby in respect of this budget, I would probably pinch my nose and vote "Tá". All in all, some good work has been done but there is a heck of a lot more to do.”
“On postmasters, I am delighted to see money is available to help out a quintessential part of the local infrastructure in rural Ireland, which is welcome. Tá an t-am ag scaradh uaim anois. In line with Senator Boyhan, I have reservations about how existing levels of service are reported and projected in the budget. It is back to the human ability to self-delude. It gives me cause for concern about the budget that we do not seem to be able to conquer our delusion that our population is ageing rapidly and there are going to be significant demands on the budget. The projected existing levels of service have not really been addressed. There will be huge problems for budgets in the next ten years. Nobody is addressing the elephant in the room of our ageing population.”
“I am delighted to see the increase in Garda recruitment and additional recruitment in the Defence Forces but, and this is a significant "but", psychologists talk about the human propensity to self-delude. Governments are guilty of that, as is most of humanity. When talking about Garda and Defence Forces recruitment, the Government is self-deluding. That is not the crux of the problem. We can recruit but the problem is retention. Unless measures are taken to pay these people and support them in their work, retention will mean it is all saothar in aisce. It is labour in vain because the people in whom we will invest so much money in recruiting will be gone within a few years and we will be back in the same trench again.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimhe sin ach nílim iomlán sásta leis. Tá i bhfad níos mó gur féidir a dhéanamh ar an gcás sin. I am pleased to see the increase in the capitation grant to primary schools. The Waterford city INTO branch secretary emailed me this morning and said it is a step in the right direction, whereas I look back at the funding for primary education when I was serving in the trenches and the support in capitation was almost at Third World levels. The capitation grant increase in the past 20 years has been significant. Yesterday's increase is significant but do not forget we are operating off a very low base with primary school education supported hugely by parental efforts, scrabbling and scratching around in the local pennies to try to make a fist of the service. It is good to see that increase.”
“I am of an age, unusually in the Chamber today, that I sat in a family huddle around the wireless and listened to the early broadcasts of the budget on Radio Éireann. It has been a spectator sport for me ever since those early days. I am always struck by how the budget is presented. It is sort of a spectator sport in many ways because proponents of the Government laud it and opponents of the Government execrate it. As in many things in life, the truth lies somewhere in between. That is how I view the budget presented yesterday. As somebody once said, it is a bit like Brighton Pier - it is good insofar as it goes but it is a very poor way of getting to France. There are many measures in the budget I am pleased with. I will enumerate some of them. Táim an-sásta leis an méid tacaíochta atá tugtha don Ghaeilge.”
“On the obverse side of that, there are 1.9 million households so still only 7% of Irish households have solar power. We really need to redouble our efforts, as a country and a people, to address these issues.”
“In the US, electricity demand grew faster than clean energy output, increasing its reliance on fossil fuels. In the EU, months of weak wind and hydropower generation led to a rise in coal- and gas-powered generation. Consequently, the IEA has halved its forecast for the growth of renewable energy in the US this decade. The forecast has reduced from an estimated 500 GW by the year 2030 to 250 GW. As China's clean technology exports surge, the US and the rest of the developed world are focused on encouraging the world to buy more of their oil and gas. Solar power delivered the lion's share of growth, meeting 83% of the increase in electricity demand. Solar has seen prices fall by a staggering 90% or more since 1975. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, mentioned that 140,000 houses now have solar units in use.”