Joe Flaherty
Nominated by the Taoiseach · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“To his credit, the responses are skilfully crafted, and if you were not familiar with the situation, you would say there is nothing wrong here, move along. However, that simply is not true. The entire Lanesborough community is aggrieved and feels that it is now being used as a mere pawn.”
“Patients tell me that, in many cases, they are not given the option of booking the surgery in Lanesborough, but instead are being encouraged to attend the Longford clinic. I would be more than happy if Dr. Booth wants to continue his five-day service in Longford, but it cannot be at the expense of a rural surgery.”
“Regrettably, I have to raise this issue for a second time. It relates to Dr. Booth, who has taken over a GMS contract for two surgeries servicing Lanesborough and the larger Longford town in County Longford.”
“It is a dangerous generalisation the Senator is putting forward and she is forgetting that in the front line of dealing with housing and difficult cases are staff and housing departments across the country. From my experience, housing staff generally think through each case.”
“The consultants at the Rotunda were quickly brought to heel when they were not complying with their contractual obligations. It is critical that we do not allow this situation to continue any longer in Lanesborough. A contract is a contract, as I said. What we are seeing here is a concerted effort to close a rural surgery by stealth.”
“They did not write the legislation, but we need legislation to frame what we are doing. We are, on a daily basis, tackling a crisis. On the front line in that effort are our housing staff. We should commend them at every opportunity rather than throwing out gross generalisations that are deeply hurtful.”
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“They did not write the legislation, but we need legislation to frame what we are doing. We are, on a daily basis, tackling a crisis. On the front line in that effort are our housing staff. We should commend them at every opportunity rather than throwing out gross generalisations that are deeply hurtful.”
“The Senator comes from a trade union background. That is a terrible slight on people. I have absolute respect for people working in the housing departments and I know how hard they work in the face of a crisis. A generalisation such as that is deeply unfair.”
“It is a dangerous generalisation the Senator is putting forward and she is forgetting that in the front line of dealing with housing and difficult cases are staff and housing departments across the country. From my experience, housing staff generally think through each case. If there is a vulnerable case, they will seek supporting medical documentation, often a HMD form, and will get an OT to link in with the applicant. I have never seen anybody in a housing department purposely give an allocation they knew was inappropriate for a person.”
“The consultants at the Rotunda were quickly brought to heel when they were not complying with their contractual obligations. It is critical that we do not allow this situation to continue any longer in Lanesborough. A contract is a contract, as I said. What we are seeing here is a concerted effort to close a rural surgery by stealth. We simply cannot allow it to happen.”
“Patients tell me that, in many cases, they are not given the option of booking the surgery in Lanesborough, but instead are being encouraged to attend the Longford clinic. I would be more than happy if Dr. Booth wants to continue his five-day service in Longford, but it cannot be at the expense of a rural surgery. The two pharmacies in the town are very much dependent on that GP surgery. I ask the HSE to revisit the contract, let Dr. Booth continue in Longford and re-advertise the Lanesborough section of the contract for the specified hours. We cannot have a situation where GPs are simply cherry-picking the aspects of a contract that are more profitable or better suit them. If we permit this, we are failing our patients and our communities.”
“To his credit, the responses are skilfully crafted, and if you were not familiar with the situation, you would say there is nothing wrong here, move along. However, that simply is not true. The entire Lanesborough community is aggrieved and feels that it is now being used as a mere pawn. The doctor says he is operating a centralised appointment booking service and was forced to cancel the Lanesborough clinic on the last three Fridays as there were no appointments on two Fridays, and on the third Friday, there was just one patient looking for an appointment. I find it incomprehensible that there was no demand for a surgery in Lanesborough on a Friday, coinciding with pension day and arguably the busiest day of the week in the Shannonside town.”
“Regrettably, I have to raise this issue for a second time. It relates to Dr. Booth, who has taken over a GMS contract for two surgeries servicing Lanesborough and the larger Longford town in County Longford. It is now very clear in the satellite town of Lanesborough that there is a concerted effort to close the Lanesborough surgery and maintain a five-day, walk-in service in Longford town. The matter has been continuously raised by local councillor, Sean Mimnagh. Dr. Booth was given the GMS contract for Longford town and also for Lanesborough, which is ten miles away. In fairness, the doctor has responded to specific concerns via a response from the HSE, but I have to say those responses are not satisfactory.”
“These legislative reforms build on existing policy and procedures that define social housing as a long-term housing support and, therefore, successful applicants must demonstrate a long-term right to reside in the State and, similarly, have a long-term intention to remain in Ireland as their home. What we have here are clear and obvious fixes that we needed over time. I appreciate that it is a very complex area involving a large amount of work and co-operation with the Department of justice. Housing departments the length and breadth of the country will welcome this legislation, as it brings much-needed clarity to what has been a grey area for far too long.”
“Some of the key provisions included are to: streamline the enforcement of RTB determination orders through the courts; allow members of An Garda Síochána and officers of a housing authority, if required, to provide evidence in certain RTB dispute resolution cases, for example, where antisocial behaviour arises or there is danger posed to a dwelling; empower the RTB to issue 28-day fixed payment notices for certain offences to provide the opportunity for the offender to avoid prosecution and to speed up compliance with the Residential Tenancies Acts; and provide for RTB hearings in the context of adjudication, tribunal and sanctioning cases to be held in public. Some obvious questions arise. For example, what does "lawfully resident" mean for the purposes of social housing support?”
“They can confirm the original determination, vary the original determination or set aside the determination and, where the appeals officer considers it appropriate, make an alternative determination. There are a number of technical amendments to the Residential Tenancies Acts, which are provided to enhance their implementation and the outcomes thereunder, with greater efficiencies for stakeholders, including the RTB and the courts.”
“In October 2025, the Government approved amendments to the general scheme to provide for an appeals process for decisions relating to assessment for social housing. The detailed provisions are incorporated into section 20B of the Bill. An appeal shall be in writing and should be made with 14 days of notification to the household of the original decision. Thereupon, there is an onus on the chief executive of the local authority to appoint an appeals officer who was not involved in the making of the original decision concerned and who is in a more senior role. The appeals officer should be independent in the performance of his or her functions. They must decide the appeal within 28 days of receipt of the appeal.”
“The drafting and the provisions relating to the eligibility of non-EEA citizens in particular are robust but flexible in order to allow the Minister to respond to the practical realities of the immigration challenge and permissions system, where the Minister for justice has powers to grant permissions, stamps, and set conditions which can and do change over time. What is also positive about this latest legislation from the Department of housing is that it provides a clear outline of social housing assessment and how people can appeal decisions they are unhappy with. The Bill puts in place a new statutory appeals mechanism for local authority decisions relating to social housing eligibility and assessment.”
“These include the enactment of the International Protection Act and related implementation of the EU asylum and immigration pact; changes to family reunification arrangements both for beneficiaries of international protection and economic migrants; planned legislative changes to the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956; and plans for the ending of temporary protection. The Department of housing, in consultation with the Department of justice, has worked to ensure the Bill aligns with existing social housing policy.”
“It is important to point out that significant consultation and engagement has taken place between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration in relation to the complex interaction of the immigration system and local authority decision-making. This interaction is long overdue and it is good to see to it. It gives clarity to the workers in our local authorities, who are the people on the front line and have been dealing with this contentious issue for several years. In parallel, a number of meaningful policy and legislative changes have been initiated in this area since the general scheme was drafted.”
“Ultimately, the intention is to protect the State’s efforts and resources in the area of social housing and to focus on the provision of supports for those who meet these eligibility requirements, thus eliminating ambiguity. The general scheme of the Bill was approved by the Government in January 2024. This was followed by pre-legislative scrutiny in April 2024 with the publication of the Oireachtas committee report in May 2024. Following on from that report and a detailed submission from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, further advices were sought from the Attorney General. Following these advices, the Government approved further amendments to the general scheme in July 2025.”
“However, underpinning the policy on statutory footing brings clarity to the eligibility for social housing supports for all applicants and will ensure consistency with immigration policy. The new habitual residency requirement will ensure that all social housing applicants have a close link to the State and have made Ireland their home. These legislative reforms build on existing policy and procedures which define social housing as a long-term housing support and therefore successful applicants must demonstrate a long-term right to reside in the State and similarly have a long-term intention to remain. Putting these requirements on a statutory footing ensures there is a robust statutory and regulatory framework in an area of increasing demand and likewise public and political scrutiny.”
“I extend a warm welcome to our visitors. The Minister is welcome back to the Chamber. He is almost as frequent a visitor as the Minister for justice. It is indicative of the level of work that he is getting through and the many challenges he faces. This particular piece of legislation is long overdue and it brings much-needed clarity to an often times contentious area. It clearly sets out people’s entitlements to social housing support and introduces clear legal requirements that applicants must be lawfully resident and habitually resident in the State Residency requirements already exist in practice but it has been a grey area for many local authorities. We now finally see them being placed on a firm statutory basis.”
“It is critical and welcome that this Bill will seek to address a number of actions that were assigned to the Department of housing following Government approval of the accelerating infrastructure task force report and action plan 2025 to enhance the timely delivery of critical infrastructure projects. This is a very important and much-needed development. I have engaged with this Bill for a number of years. I see the value in it and I see how important it is that we get it over the line. I commend the Minister of State on his work on it to date.”
“The Bill amends Part 3 to provide a deadline for the making of three regional, spatial and economic strategies, RSESs, under the 2024 Act and to allow planning authorities to amend the duration of their current development plans for a defined maximum period, where necessary. These amendments will speed up the move to plan-making under the 2024 Act and ensure the transitional measures already provided for will operate as originally intended in line with the hierarchy of plan-making. One of the biggest barriers to the delivery of housing is lack of infrastructure. Addressing that is now a critical action for the Government. We have a task force led by the Minister, Deputy Chambers.”
“That must be welcomed. The introduction of these measures at an earlier date is intended to result in a reduction in unnecessary delays and to accelerate the delivery of critical decisions, ultimately speeding up housing delivery. We all must welcome that. A key plank of the legislation is the provision for the new ten-year development plans. The Bill seeks to provide clarity and further policy direction on a number of matters that have already commenced under Part 3 of the 2024 Act relating to plan-making, including the timely introduction of the long-awaited ten-year development plans.”
“I will focus on three aspects of the Bill. The first is the provision regarding judicial review. It is critical and long overdue that the Bill will speed up the implementation of the new procedural rules for planning judicial reviews introduced under the 2024 Act. The Bill will apply the measures to any remaining Acts or decisions made under that legislation. This includes beneficial measures such as the removal of the requirement to apply for leave to apply for judicial review proceedings. This will enable a case to be remitted back to the point at which a procedural breach may have occurred, as an alternative to the whole case having to be quashed, and will remove the possibility of further legal appeal to the Court of Appeal. All of this reduces the time taken and removes unnecessary additional legal costs for all parties.”
“The changes in the Bill will fast-track the reforms necessary to speed up the planning process and will help us to deliver more homes in a timely manner. The Bill seeks to provide clarity and further policy direction on a number of matters relating to plan-making, including the timely introduction of a ten-year development plan for all local authorities. The Bill also seeks to address actions assigned to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the accelerating infrastructure task force report and action plan 2025 to enhance the timely delivery of critical infrastructural plans. Both the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Browne, have been clear that the changes in the Bill will fast-track the necessary reforms in our planning system to speed up the process and help to deliver more housing more quickly.”
“The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. He, Senator Boyhan and I have lived a long time with this Bill. We spent the bulk of the term of the previous Government working on it down in the committee rooms. I have empathy with his officials, some of whom were with us on that journey and are back with us again. This is very important legislation. At its core is a genuine and heartfelt effort to resolve some of the barriers affecting delivery of housing in this country. The main purpose of the Bill is to support the smooth commencement later this year of the remaining provisions of the 2024 Act. It will speed up the implementation of the new procedural rules for planning judicial review that were introduced in the 2024 legislation. The Bill will apply the measures to any remaining Acts or decisions made under that legislation.”
“She got a wonderful send-off by the good people of Drumlish and Ballinamuck yesterday in the glowing sunshine. It was a farewell befitting a young woman with such an enormous heart. My thoughts and my prayers are with her parents Mary and PJ, her brother Pádraig and her sister Niamh on what will be a difficult time ahead for them. On a day when the sun is shining brightly, no heart shone brighter than Máire Lillis's.”
“I hope that consideration and some concession can be given to the schools in County Longford and the wider Ardagh and Clonmacnois diocese. It would be extremely demoralising for these small rural schools and communities that are totally dependent on sports capital funding. I appeal directly to the Minister to make an exception for the Longford applicants. I have one final point, if the House could facilitate me. I want to remember a young lady who passed away in the parish of my colleague Senator Brady this week. Máire Lillis was a 24-year-old young woman with a heart bigger than this House. She was a young woman who opened that heart to so many people and was involved in so many aspects of her community, most notably the Irish Girl Guides.”
“I am aware of many communities where people were hoping to put in applications on their school grounds, linking in with other community groups. They are in the shadow of curates, parochial houses and churches that were funded and built by the hard graft of our ancestors back in the 1920s and 1930s when we did not have a proverbial penny for the pot. I do not think the bishop is for changing on this, and that is hugely disappointing. I ask the Minister not to penalise those groups that are at an advanced stage with their projects and ready to submit an application. Bishops come and go. I am not wishing any ill on the bishop and maybe he will be promoted and we will have a new bishop. These projects normally take a number of years to get started and get to fruition.”
“We are all excitedly looking forward to the opening of the sports capital grants. It is a very important scheme for sports clubs and organisations right across the county. Traditionally, in County Longford we have done very well out of this scheme. However, there is a note of caution in relation to this year's scheme because the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois recently issued a diktat that schools will not be allowed to make their grounds available to community groups to use outside of school hours. As my colleagues know, one of the conditions of the sports capital funding is that the facility needs to be open to other sports groups to use outside of school hours. Obviously, I am disappointed with the bishop's position on this. It is a retrograde decision from him.”
“Ultimately, an occupied territories Bill is only as strong as the institution that implements it, and that is why I say Ireland on its own is a very small block. We need all the major European leaders and countries to come together collectively with us to implement a ban that will force Israel to take significant action and stock of its actions. It will not change them, I am sure, but it will force them to take stock and there may be some moderate minds in the Israeli Government and community at large who will ultimately put their hands up and say Israel is now a pariah in the eyes of the world and they cannot allow this to continue.”
“The only two bodies of opinion that Israel will ultimately take account of are America and Europe as a body. Many people made reference to our actions in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. What happened was we immediately saw a European-wide response. The difference was Europe responded as a collective body, and that is what we need to see in terms of the occupied territories. I commend Senator Black. She has done Trojan work, and I do not think there is anyone in Ireland who would not acknowledge that. To have brought this Bill this far is testimony to her conviction and great moral strength and courage. We as a Government are committed to an occupied territories Bill.”
“Certainly, we have the courage and the conviction and we have stood up and led among our European peers and brought them to this point, as part of our European Presidency, and I am proud that the Minister will take the lead on this and I am confident, as she said last week, where this will be a key pillar and plank of our time in the European Presidency. Nobody in Europe wants this to continue. Nobody on the Government side wants this to continue. Nobody on the Government side does not see how reprehensible Israel has been, how many war crimes it has perpetrated, and how we have to stop it. However, Ireland on its own is a very small island on the edge of Europe, and our action alone, as has been shown by Spain, is not going to make one jot of a difference.”
“When you are dealing with Israel, it does not deal with things proportionally. We saw that with its reaction to the November attack. Certainly, the November attack was wrong, but absolutely nothing justifies what the Israelis did afterwards. The reality is, what Spain has done has not had a major impact and it has not forced the Zionist leaders to sit up and say they are going to change their actions and do things differently. There are only really two bodies of opinion which will influence the Israeli people, and those are America and Europe as a collective body. Ireland in isolation will not do this.”
“When you form a Government, you select an Attorney General and he or she is who you go to for legal advice. The Government does not always like the advice it gets but most times it has to abide by it. That is tried and tested and is part of our Constitution. That is why we have an Attorney General. Many people have referenced what has happened in Spain and insist that Spain has a full ban on services. That is not quite true. What Spain has is very much a watered-down version. It has a prohibition on the advertising of services, which is a long way off a ban on the delivery of services. The Minister set out very clearly last week, when she met her European colleagues in County Cork, that we want to build on the basis of what we have here and that, ultimately, what we need is a pan-European approach.”
“The Minister is welcome to the House. At the outset, it is somewhat disappointing that it is seen that the Government has less conviction in terms of its beliefs and willingness to highlight the inaction and deep injustices being perpetrated by Israelis. That is certainly not the case. The anger and hurt that everybody in this House feels in regard to what is happening in the Middle East, Gaza and Palestine is just as vocal and strong on this side of the House. As a Government, we have led the way. As people have said, we have been singled out, by design, more so than any other European leaders, as being antisemitic. We have certainly been to the fore. I will pick up on a couple of things. There was a point made that if we do not like the Attorney General's advice, we can get another legal opinion. We cannot have an á la carte Government.”
“We would get in the aforementioned and much lauded gardaí, teachers and all those people into these communities. It would be very much about building our communities and empowering people. I would like if the Minister of State could take back these two suggestions with him. I commend him on his work on these guidelines and I do earnestly hope they can come into effect before the end of the lifetime of this Government.”
“The other point I ask the Minister of State to take back is that our current social housing model is challenged insofar as the income thresholds are concerned. We need to look at this aspect. I fear a section of our community has also fallen between two stools. These are people ineligible for social housing and unable to afford a mortgage. We need to look at bringing back a variation of the rent-to-buy scheme, where people would not qualify for social housing but could qualify for a social house based on it being rented to buy. People would be given ten years to buy the house, paying a rent much higher than what would be paid in social housing. People would then have an option to buy out the balance after the ten years. I think there is merit in looking at this idea as well. It would work well for the holistic effect of these communities.”
“In many cases, one person who would like to downsize is living alone in what could be a four-bedroom or five-bedroom house, but there are no small bungalows for them to move to. We need to look at the situation. Some local authorities in Dublin did offer a scheme where it was possible for people to sell their home and get a local authority property. In many cases, these are small developments of two-bedroom units. They are ideal for people looking for companionship and having people living next door. It is almost a retirement village setting. I think there is a huge opportunity there. It would free up these larger houses and get them back on the market. It makes eminent sense to me and I would like to see the Department giving this idea some consideration.”
“I would welcome if the Minister of State could take this message back to the Department and if consideration could be given to bringing all the planners together, having a think tank session to see the blockages that are there and perhaps get consensus among planners and agreement on what we should be doing. In their defence, I will say some fantastic houses are being built right across rural Ireland. There is an element of consistency in the quality of some of them, and the planners are to be commended on that. While I have the Minister of State here, I will mention a few other points. There is the question of downsizing, especially in large and provincial towns. We have a lot of elderly people.”
“We need meaningful action and engagement with our planners right across the country. Planners do not like to be told what to do. They certainly do not like to be told what to do by councillors, Senators or TDs. The Department does need to bring in our rural planners and set out to them exactly the challenges that people are facing in Ireland. I always say that the people who are the most immune and do not understand that there is a housing crisis are often the officials, civil servants and, in many cases, the planners. They do not understand the scale of the crisis people are facing, particularly young people starting out with their first home.”
“Fortunately she reapplied and she got the planning. I had another instance where the planner came back to somebody and, because they were looking for a new house on their father's land, they were told there was no identifiable housing need in that area. We and the Opposition all agree that there is a housing crisis in the country and a housing need in every part of Ireland. For a planner to come back and say something like that is quite incredible. The guidelines are great but we need a quick fix for this. Some directive needs to be sent to all our local authorities on rural planning to say we are going to have these new guidelines. They are fantastic, but with the best will in the world, it is hard to see them coming into place in the lifetime of this Government.”
“The problem for us is that across the country at the minute, we have a problem with our planners in terms of subjectivity. There is absolutely no consistency in how planners will treat a planning application, notwithstanding the guidelines that are already in place. Every one of them has a completely different interpretation. I will give some examples. I have seen planning applications in recent months where a lady had a six-bedroom house. She is separated. Her son was coming back from the UK with his young family. She wanted to build a small house on the farm and she wanted the son and his family to move into the large house. That made eminent sense to me but it did not make any sense to a planner, who said that because she had got planning for this house 25 years ago, she was not entitled to look for planning for another house.”
“I will go on and talk about the 2005 sustainable housing guidelines. As many speakers have said, they are well overdue a revision. I do not think rural planning needs the big shake-up that some people say. The problem with rural planning is subjectivity. There is a planner in County Longford and a planner in Galway. If they are given the exact same planning application, they will not give the same answer. The problem with rural planning is subjectivity. Everyone has a different view. I do not envy anyone who is going to bring out the new guidelines to tackle that. It is very difficult to tackle subjectivity. If I have a concern about what has been set out in the proposal, it is the timeline. My colleague, Senator Boyhan is looking for a detailed and extensive public consultation, which is very welcome, but it is going to take time.”
“I know the truth hurts. Sinn Féin has no track record at all in Northern Ireland in building houses. None at all. I am sure if they want to come down from Northern Ireland and talk to the Ministers and officials, we will give them all the help and assistance we can and try to kick-start house-building in Northern Ireland. It is non-existent up there, where Sinn Féin has control of the levers of power and is not able to build anything.”
“We also looked at the income bands in social housing and the Minister of State will appreciate that we need to look at them again. We have also introduced cost rental, as well as the vacant home, croí cónaithe and build over the shop schemes. Incidentally, croí cónaithe and the vacant home scheme were vehemently opposed by Sinn Féin and are arguably among the most successful housing projects we have ever implemented, not only in this country. It has been replicated across Europe now. I am waiting to see what criticism they are going to have of these proposals. Sinn Féin will probably not want anyone to build in rural Ireland. We have also had the ready to build scheme, which the Minister of State outlined in great detail. It is a very good scheme. There is town centre first, town and village renewal and the backyard exemptions.”
“We have immense challenges in housing but we are making particular progress in the face of almost incessant opposition and criticism from some of the people on the other side of the room and people who probably have an opportunity to feed into a housing policy in Northern Ireland as well, where they struggle to build houses. That is for another day. It is important to set out what the Government and its predecessor have done in terms of housing. We revised the local authority loan, we implemented a fresh start component to allow people in second unions a fresh start opportunity and an opportunity to get a loan. That was particularly helpful. We have the local authority affordable purchase scheme, the first home scheme and the help to buy scheme.”
“The Minister of State is very welcome. It is always good to have an opportunity to talk about housing and to remind the Opposition about the great progress we have made in housing, particularly in the lifetime of these last two Governments. Last year we delivered 36,000 homes, up 20% on the prior year and record development. In the first quarter of this year just under 8,000 new homes have been delivered with a further 8,400 homes started and construction beginning. It is arguably the strongest quarter in the history of construction in this country since the boom. It is very important to state those facts.”
“I will be calling on the Leader to reach out to the Minister for Health, as I have done myself and as I know Councillor Mimnagh has done very vociferously. We need the Minister and the HSE to intervene. If somebody gets a HSE State-funded contract or is being paid by the State, they need to implement that contract to the letter of the law. We need a cast-iron assurance that the GP will operate a three half-day service in Lanesborough. Like the Rotunda, anything else is unacceptable.”
“If we are talking about contracts and the HSE, if it is good enough for the Rotunda Hospital to be implicitly following the letter of the contract, it is the same for a GP. We have had a great tradition of GPs in Lanesborough. There is Dr. Colm Farrell who runs a very successful and popular GP practice there. Down through the years, there was Dr. Donohoe and many other eminent GPs who kept us alive, despite our best efforts. It is important for the people and they are concerned this an erosion of the service in Lanesborough. If the GP is only contracted for three half days, the concern there is the service is being eroded and ultimately, it will reach the point where they will lose this second GP.”
“I am glad I know now what Standing Order 41 is. I will use it with wild abandon from now on. I raise a very important issue here today. Dr. Ali, a popular GP in County Longford who serviced Lanesborough and Longford town, retired recently. The HSE contracted for a replacement and we secured a very good successor. They are operating in Longford town and Lanesborough. It is implicit in the contract they are required to do three half days in Lanesborough. It is a source of great concern for us in Lanesborough that the contract has not been fulfilled in Lanesborough. A local councillor, Sean Mimnagh, is very strong on this and I know he has made direct contact with the Minister for Health about this. In recent days, we have seen the Minister coming down very strongly on the Rotunda Hospital and the issue of contractual obligations there.”
“In the current Olympics cycle it will receive €3.6 million in funding from Sport Ireland but of greatest concern is the fact that it is one of at least two organisations tendering for contracts with the Department at the moment worth €6 million and €2 million. One is for national equine breeding services and the second is for the provision of marketing services. I have asked in the past for this organisation to be wound up. Now at the very least it needs to be omitted from the competitive process for these two contracts. Anything short of that is a dereliction of the Department's responsibilities to the sport horse sector and the integrity of governance across the public sector.”
“The chief executive has been before the agriculture committee several times and continuously stated that the organisation had no cost exposure as a result of HR issues over the past three years but we now know the HSI had in fact been availing of employment practice liability insurance to cover the cost of those actions. All costs, legal and settlements, are covered by a very expensive insurance policy. In January 2025, Nadia Rea took a bullying case and settled for a six-figure sum. In July 2025, HSI settled a case with Michelle O'Reilly, another former staff member. Brian Hennessy, a former press officer, has also filed an action against HSI. I understand the organisation is also facing two defamation actions from former showjumping coaches.”