Joe O'Reilly
Labour Panel · Fine Gael · Ireland
“As the Minister said, the Commission is coming up with proposals, and this exercise by us, and please God we will finish it before the summer, will make a difference in leading the European effort. We are winning support for suspension of trade.”
“At the outset, I welcome the Minister to the House and thank her for her leadership in this area and commitment in her opening remarks to go on pushing at European level to get a consensus on real action on the trade agreement and individual sanctions.”
“We recognise the State of Palestine. We have been consistent in our public criticism of the genocide in Gaza, we took a strong position at the UN, we were a co-sponsor of the ICJ, and latterly, we have given leadership at EU level.”
“To turn to the issue of today, the illegal settlements, in international law they are clearly illegal and are expanding. They cause access to land resources for Palestinians to be restricted, there is settler violence, and Palestinian families continue to face displacement and growing insecurity.”
“It will enhance our moral authority in Europe and give leadership to other European countries. It is, at its most fundamental level, coupled with our previous action on recognising Palestine, joining the ICJ case and strong public statements, another act of solidarity with the victims of these illegal settlements.”
“If the opposite were merited, we would be saying it equally loudly. The Minister of State made a point that was echoed by my colleagues, Senators Boyhan and Casey, about the importance of the necessary transition from fossil fuels. I would like to hear the Minister of State respond at the end of the debate.”
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“The same applies to all the major employers in the country. In light of what has happened in the last few weeks, there is a real need to review the level of availability of public transport, and to look at the linkages between towns and major centres of education and employment. If people sat down and did good logistical studies on it, it could be done. Great strides were made on public transport during the period of the previous Government and this needs to be further developed and continued. I would like us to debate this on some occasion as soon the Leader is able to accommodate it. In the interim, he might convey to the Ministers that this should be the great learning from the recent problem. We need Local Link services augmented. We need rail connectivity and, sadly, we do not have in my region.”
“If there is one learning, to use the modern jargon, we can take from the internationally caused fuel crisis in the country and the recent protests, it is the need to augment and develop public transport in this country. Before I go further, I acknowledge that we are very lucky in Cavan with the hourly service on the N3 to Dublin, which is excellent, and Local Link does good work, but there is much more need for connectivity in public transport. I give the practical example of Carton Brothers' Manor Farm, a poultry processing place in Shercock, County Cavan. It is an example that repeats everywhere in the country. It has two shifts a day starting at particular times with a large cohort of workers coming from the various centres around. There needs to be public transport into that place to coincide with the beginning of these shifts.”
“In the first place, it is best for the person and best for the community, but it is also more cost effective. It would be necessary to put in place a well-trained, permanent and well-resourced cohort of carers to establish this scheme. We should have a statutory home care scheme. I ask the Leader that we have that debate in the House on this important topic. It could be one of the greatest reforms of this age. We should have the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, in the House to discuss it. He is probably working on it very effectively but we need to see it happen in the lifetime of the Government.”
“I congratulate the girls of Bailieborough Community School who won the all-Ireland post-primary schools junior B Gaelic football competition against a Carlow side. It was an extraordinary achievement for a small local community school and we are very proud of them. I live across the road from the school and it is my neighbour. I see the teams training there and it is wonderful. To turn to the issue I have come in specifically to raise, and recognising the good work that the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, is doing in the area of older persons, I request the Leader to invite him to the House to discuss progress on putting home care on a statutory basis as we have done with nursing homes. Most people want to stay in their own homes.”
“It will be just what it is called: a resource house for the community, and a home-from-home where people can pop in. The proposed site is very well situated in the centre of the town. It is a very fine building. This would be exciting for Cootehill, and I would be delighted to invite the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Foley, down for the day, if the Minister of State can give me the commitment.”
“I thank the Minister of State for acknowledging that I have been discussing this issue with her personally and writing to her on this subject over some time. I also appreciate her acknowledgement of the need in this regard. In the minute I have, I want to say to the Minister of State that I would like to hear a concluding remark from her to say that the real need that is in Cootehill will be brought to the decision-making table on the next occasion. Let us assume the funding will be there, because if it is not, then the Minister of State cannot do it. I cannot see that this real, crying need in Cootehill could be rivalled elsewhere. The need for a family resource centre is there. It would be a place where people could drop in, get a form filled, get counselling, chat and find companionship.”
“There is support from all the relevant agencies, including the children and young people’s services committee, CYPSC, Cavan County Council and Cavan County Local Development, CCLD. There is cross-community support. A drop-in centre that supported people in getting what they needed is very necessary in Cootehill and would serve a great purpose.”
“In 2019, the group in question got a survey done with LEADER funding. In that survey, five things were established. First, there was a lack of investment in community resources in Cootehill. Second, there was a lack of feeling accepted and respected in their own community. People felt that they were not getting their fair share of things. Third, not being able to access needed services was a real issue for people. This is empirical research. Fourth, there was a lack of support networks to help them with their problems and difficulties. Fifth, there was an absence of ability to feel safe in the community. All of that is quite distressing. A number of other things are important. There is an available and suitable premises in the Hub Muinchille in what was the Bank of Ireland building there. It is a suitable legal entity.”
“It found that there was a deprivation score as low as 29.54 in the area. Technical people will know what that means. One third of the population has primary education only. At the time of research, less than 9% had third level education. It has the oldest age profile of any settlement larger than 500 in the country. That is a very specific issue. I am saddened to say that child welfare referrals and substance abuse are at the highest level in Cavan and Monaghan in the area of Cootehill. Suicide rates are double those in other areas. The housing assistance payment, HAP, in the private rental sector is very strong. That is the need that is there for our family resource house. There is Hub Muinchille on a site there. It is a little group doing volunteer family support work and social inclusion work inasmuch as it can.”
“I congratulate the local volunteers involved in Croílar na nDrumlíní and thank them for their work. They are involved in trying to get a resource house for Cootehill. Notable among them are Dr. Fiona O Hé and Ms Kerry Mullen. I thank them for their work. I also thank my colleague Councillor Carmel Brady for her advocacy in this area. She contacted me about the matter as late as yesterday. I grew up in the Cootehill area. I spent a lot of my youth there and I went to school there. As a result, I have a passionate interest in this matter. I welcome the Minister of State. When the group to which I refer got together to do this, it developed a target area or an operational area for the resource house to serve - basically, a natural community area. The group carried out research and found a number of things.”
“I would like a report from the Deputy Leader on that and maybe a debate on this whole area very soon. We need robust regulation. We need dialogue with the platforms here. They are based in Ireland, but it is nonsense to think that because they are based here that we should not have robust dialogue with them about this. Of course, we should. There should be strict regulation. The Deputy Leader will know that I did a report for the Council of Europe on this area. It was adopted by all the member states around the whole area of online abuse, including of young people. I ask the Deputy Leader to let us know about that and to organise a debate. I ask her to tell me what she is going to bring to the Government from it and what she knows the Government is doing.”
“I recently attended a very interesting seminar organised by the Garda in my region in Cavan to commemorate Coco's Law. Coco's mother, Jackie Fox, gave a harrowing account of what gave rise to Coco's Law. I rise to ask the Deputy Leader if people will be informed that there is recourse to cyberbullying. When children are being bullied or teachers in classrooms are witnessing obscene bullying, etc. - there are teachers and pupils in the Gallery - there are recourses in the law. They should report it to the gardaí and the various social services. On the topics of pornography, violence and gambling, all of that comes online as well. We need robust age verification tools. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, has said that he is working towards those quickly. We need them.”
“Young Fine Gael produced a defence strategy recently in which it calls for €50 million to be spent on new innovation developments. It seeks a €50 million defence innovation fund to look at new technologies to deal with cybercrime, cyberattacks and the issue of the underground cables, etc. We need innovation. I welcome Young Fine Gael making that request. It should be the case. We need a well-resourced army. We also need to pay attention to our Reserve Defence Force, which is strong in my area. I want to see it supported. In his response, I ask the Minister of State to comment on the RDF and where we are going with it. In summary-----”
“As well as the national pay agreement, we have to use imaginative methods to make it attractive to join our Defence Forces. Both recruitment and human resources approaches to recruitment have improved. All of that is good. While the numbers have increased by up to 200 recently, it is not enough. They must increase to 9,500. We need to improve pay and conditions as well as career opportunities and development. I welcome the maritime strategy. To protect underground cables, it is important that we collaborate with the UK and France. Other countries have as much a vested interest in these underground cables as we do. Senator Wilson made a good point earlier about looking to industry and the people who own the cables to make a contribution, if that is needed.”
“While these are patriotic people by definition, they cannot be expected to work for nothing or for comparatively low wages. It is important their pay improves. There is room for improvement on their medical insurance. I ask the Minister of State to respond or take note on that. We could do more to provide medical insurance for them. Non-commissioned officers and senior non-commissioned officers need an extra pay increase. There are imaginative ways being looked at to do that. It could be a signing-on bonus or a long service increment. That matter is under discussion at the moment. The Minister of State might provide an update on whether we are making progress in that regard. It is important. The pay element is a huge.”
“The current pay funding allocation has increased by €52 million – this is an important matter I will come to it in a moment - to almost €598 million in 2026, an increase of 10%. Those are heartening and necessary increases. If you do not put your money where your mouth is in this debate, it is a facade. It is important we have the capital and pay increases. There are a number of things needed in the Defence Forces. Recruitment is improving but it needs to improve a lot more. That was alluded to by Senator Wilson. Looking at numbers, we need to increase them considerably. We need another 1,500 at minimum and an additional 300 for this year. It is important to get recruitment but that will only be achieved if it is attractive.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. As I welcome him, I acknowledge that we recently had a good trip together around schools in Cavan where he did a good presentation on Ireland’s Presidency of the EU and its implications. It is important we engage our young people in the democratic process. I also acknowledge the proactive approach of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, in this Ministry and the leadership she is giving on defence. There are a number of heartening comments in her statement. I will allude to them and then I will make some general observations. The capital funding allocation has increased by €159 million to €300 million in 2026, an increase of 113%. It was €159 million in 2022. The current non-pay allocation has increased by €127 million to almost €277 million in 2026, an increase of 84%.”
“If somebody was able to listen to this on the radio in their car this morning and heard all of this while sitting outside Virginia, trying to get through the town on their way to a hard day's work in Dublin and looking forward to the prospect of the same delay in the evening while other people were cutting the other roads in the area to ribbons, what comfort would they take from this answer? In truth, I am hugely disappointed. The Minister of State is a man of action and a decent and good man. These people need to be brought into a room. Action is needed here. This is unacceptable to people who have paid their taxes.”
“I know the Minister of State giving the response is personally committed to rural Ireland and to our communities but this answer is extraordinarily disappointing. It is disappointing that there are these inordinate delays. If I understand the answer correctly, the problem is not so much one of money as one of governance and management. In keeping with the new view, articulated by the Minister of State just a minute ago, that we have to speed up infrastructure projects and remove delays, all the actors and stakeholders need to be brought around a table. Will the Minister of State suggest such an initiative? The Minister responsible, Deputy O'Brien, should bring in TII, the councils and everybody in the area for a functional and practical meeting where decisions would be made. This kind of delay is unacceptable.”
“People are working an eight-hour day in Dublin, spending a couple of hours commuting to work and another couple of hours home. It is horrendous.”
“They may have had the same experience in the morning. I often get text messages from people who are angry at having to sit there. One particular person, a good friend of mine who constantly texts me, sent a message saying they had been sitting there for an hour waiting to get through Virginia when they should have been at home with their family. It is strangling the town commercially. It is affecting the whole life of the town. It is a beautiful town in an idyllic setting. It has potential for more residential development and all of that. It is just a horror that this is the case. I know the Minister of State will say there was a capital announcement at Christmas on the matter, but what does that mean to someone sitting outside Virginia at the moment, trying to get to Dublin? It is already costing a lot.”
“Many of his colleagues, from his own party and all others, subsequently spoke on the matter and the general consensus was that they were angry and disappointed. This is a shocking situation. To use northern terminology, the wee roads around Virginia, the smaller roads, are now being destroyed and cut to ribbons by cars diverting to avoid the backlog on the N3 Virginia road. They are going on the small roads and cutting them to ribbons. That is a huge problem in itself. It is also a danger for children on these roads. The roads are residential and were not intended for this kind of traffic. There is a health and safety issue there. There are inordinate delays for commuters on the N3 going into Virginia. After a day's work in Dublin, someone could sit on the N3 for up to 45 minutes waiting to get through Virginia.”
“I welcome my good friend, the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, to the House. All his friends in County Cavan are hoping that he will have good news for us today. A bombshell was dropped at Cavan County Council last Monday when Virginia councillor, Mr. T.P. O'Reilly looked for an update on the progress of the Virginia bypass. The Virginia bypass is currently at stage 3 and it had been proposed to go to stage 4 in the spring of 2026, following a delay of 18 months. At the meeting last Monday it was announced that stage 4 will not happen until the fourth quarter of 2027. Effectively, this means a two-year delay on top of an 18-month delay, on top of a 50-year discussion around the need for this bypass. Naturally, Councillor O'Reilly was incensed by this.”
“That person could not have been more wrong. That family had an enormous tradition and was locally based and, under new management, the hotel went on to thrive and be a phenomenal success. Had there been some sort of body at that time to supervise that exercise and prevent that decision, that family would today be running Hotel Kilmore. It is irrelevant, as the family has done well otherwise and life is fine, but the point I am making is that arbitrary decisions like that cannot be allowed go unchecked.”
“Any way we can bring those original values into the lending process so that everything is not down to desktop analysis is important. By and large, the Bill only seeks to regularise what exists by placing it on a statutory basis to give it more strength and flexibility. That is important and I support it. We have to support our small businesses and farmers. I will raise a case from years ago, although I will not go into names. Hotel Kilmore in Cavan was built by a particular local family. The bank would not keep confidence in the hotel at that time. It said the family was overborrowed. Some young genius who had come out of university and done accountancy examinations decided that, after looking at the matter at face value, the family could not go on. The bank put the hotel into receivership or liquidation.”
“I will not comment publicly on that. The bank manager knew the ones who might be chancers and that, while they might present a very good theoretical framework, it might not be good in reality. The bank manager knew all of that stuff. In latter times - I get this a lot from businesses, farmers and individuals, and we are not talking about personal borrowing - people resent that when they make a proposition to the local institution, the decision might almost be made with a computer programme. It is made in an office in Dublin using a desktop analysis that does not take local considerations and family expertise, tradition, knowledge, integrity and capacity to be flexible and adaptive to different situations into account. Consequently, the Credit Review Office is very important.”
“It is a reality. I echo a point made by Senator Casey. I had it in my notes. When I was a youngster, and that is a little while ago, there was a very different atmosphere and lending environment, in that the local bank manager had an intimate relationship with the entire community. The bank manager knew the community and knew people who would starve themselves to pay back a loan. Even if the project failed, that money was safe for the institution. The bank manager also knew the ones who were more like chancers but might have a good business case. The bank manager knew-----”
“I will not go into individual cases but I have seen evidence and could brief the Minister of State on exact files, with redacted names, involving people whose loans were sold on to other lending institutions. Very arbitrary practices have ensued in those institutions in an attempt to basically extract multiple moneys out of the product they bought at a very cheap price. I would ask the Minister of State to comment on the matter. This is a Second Stage speech, so there is a certain latitude in raising points and this is one I would like the Minister of State to take a look at. It is important to regulate. In theory, all financial institutions are subject to the same rules and regulations. The Minister of State has active constituency offices, so he does not need to be told this, but I will bring him examples with redacted names.”
“If they know their decisions could well be the subject of appeal, etc., they will have to do due diligence on them. They can make some arbitrary decisions. Even though, obviously, their policy is to lend money, they do not necessarily have to do so. I will come to the point about the removal in a minute. It is important that there be the threat of a supervisory body so that there is fear within financial institutions about every decision they make stacking up. I would like the Minister of State to be particularly cognisant of a matter. I have come across a lot of evidence through my own work and from just chatting to people of banks arbitrarily selling loans to bodies. I know the bodies they sell them to are subject to regulation in theory.”
“The Minister and the Government would obviously take cognisance of trends and developments and interfacing and interacting with the financial institutions. The Credit Review Office will monitor the credit market and provide guidance notes, etc. Since its establishment in 2010, approximately 1,400 individual applications of appeal were made and in the region of 1,000 of these reached a final conclusion. That is a very good and important outcome. I know anecdotally from my own constituency work and office of a number of these that have gone through this process successfully, and that is good. The very existence of such a process may in itself have an effect on the banks and financial institutions. The realisation ensures they do due diligence.”
“That is important in the sense that it can look at local trends and the state of small businesses and agriculture and see developments therein, such as in the context of international developments affecting agriculture or in the context of whatever restrictions might be coming in the future. It allows the office to make recommendations on potential lending policies and more flexibility in a given area to accommodate farmers or small businesses to adapt to given situations. If I understood Senator Casey, who has a particular knowledge of this sphere from life experience - I have a little myself but nothing on the scale that he has - correctly, the Government element must not be taken out of this either. It is not a stand-alone operation.”
“At the outset, I join in welcoming the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, to the House. From the conversations we have had, I know he is passionate about small businesses and their success. Farming is also critical in this context. We, too, will be supporting the Bill. The purpose or premise of the Bill is to put the Credit Review Office on a statutory footing and to change its legal standing. That is a necessary and recommended exercise and it was explained earlier. It is to give it proper statutory footing into the future and, hopefully, with that, adaptability and strength as it moves forward. It is an interesting point that the Credit Review Office can make non-binding recommendations.”
“Before I leave, and I did mention the success of our neighbour and friend, Commandant Kiernan, within the Reserve Defence Force but, in conclusion, the Government needs to focus more on the Reserve Defence Force and to invest more in it. Recruitment is improving but more needs to be done there. It is so important for civic spirit and a pathway into the Permanent Defence Force for its members should be more readily available. It is a great motion and an important discussion, one that we need to keep going. Tragically, it becomes all the more important in the geopolitical context.”
“We need to get the commencement of adjustments to pay and allowances as agreed under the local bargaining arrangement of the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026. We need that enacted and happening. This will all continue to enhance the continued recruitment opportunities. As I said at the outset, the current recruitment is positive and is due to increases in pay and allowances conditions and medical cover but we need to give extra pay to NCOs and senior NCOs for retention purposes. This could be done by bonuses and long increments. That will happen. We also need to look closer at medical derogations to help keep members and to apply a bit more common sense in that area.”
“I have the privilege, with others in the House - notably Senator Craughwell - of representing the Defence Forces in the Seanad by being their nominee and from talking to them I understand there is tentative progress in this area, but we need to see it happen in a big way. We need to continue to improve pay and conditions. As was alluded by previous speakers, living conditions are important. The motion establishes that we need to evaluate the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 with regard to impact on retention of the Defence Forces. There is a disparity in pension entitlements for personnel who enlisted post 1994 and pre-2024. That disparity needs addressing and I hope that can be the case.”
“The pay and conditions are a very important element in the more favourable recruitment. The general status of and respect for our armed forces is a factor too. They should be respected as they have served us well through the years at home and abroad. Respect for the Defence Forces and their position in the public consciousness is improving, which is also important. I am happy that these developments have happened. The motion sees a need for further development. We need to give extra pay and improved conditions to non-commissioned officers and senior non-commissioned officers to achieve retention. A method of doing that could be a signing-on bonus or long service increments, which I understand is a subject of discussion at the moment.”
“He is officer in command of C Company, 27th Infantry Division. It is a huge personal achievement for him and a recognition of his leadership skills, etc., but it is also important for the Reserve in our region and the region Senator Wilson and I, and, of course, Senator Tully, serve. As a consequence of Commandant Kiernan's leadership, there will be even more recruitment in that district to the Reserve Defence Force. In the context of the motion, recruitment is currently positive due to an increase in pay and allowances, as well as improvements in respect of medical insurance. That is to be welcomed. As the motion states, part of the reason for that is pay for recruits on completion of training being €41,880 in year one. There has been a 51% recruitment increase since 2019. The pay of cadets on commissioning is now €45,795.”
“I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for the marine, Deputy Dooley. It is good to have him here for this important debate. It was also good to have the Minister, Deputy McEntee, here earlier. She is clearly very hands on and proactive in her approach. Her visibility as Minister for Defence should prove an incentive to young women and women in general to join the Defence Forces. That would be a major development. It could, among other things, be a good byproduct of her Ministry. I support the motion, which was very competently proposed by Senators Wilson and Gallagher on behalf of the Fianna Fáil group. I agree with the broad thrust of it. I will be alluding more to this later, but I take this opportunity congratulate a very good friend of mine Commandant Mark Kiernan of the Reserve Defence Force.”
“A lot of people leave potentially lucrative situations and make difficult personal decisions to become full-time carers. It is a very honourable and wonderful thing to do. It is transformative for the lives of the people for whom they care. Through my family and my wife’s work, I have an intimate knowledge of this whole area. I am asking the Leader to convey strongly to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Harris, and the Cabinet the view that we should not be taxing carers on their allowance. In fact, we should be celebrating them and looking for every budgetary opportunity to increase their allowance.”
“In any public forum that I have had the privilege of being in or elected to over the years, I have always promoted and supported the role of carers. They give people the privilege of living in their own homes where they are happiest in general. In purely clinical and cold economic terms, they save the State phenomenal money in terms of the cost of institutionalisation. It is for that reason that I wish to suggest strongly, in light of recent discussions around the Revenue Commissioners’ flagging of the carer’s allowance into the future, that the carer’s allowance should be exempt from taxation. It should be exempt. The actual quantum of money would be small but irrespective of that, that stress and extraction of money should not be the case because if it is a source of taxation, it is minimising the benefit for the carer.”
“We need to train up electricians and craftspeople across a whole range of people. Those are the arguments. I am interested in the Minister of State's response. The last thing I will say on this is all work is equally valuable. My understanding is that it is the case, as Senator Tully said, that if somebody goes into catering or whatever work they go into, they fundamentally do the same work from day 1. There will be a short learning curve, but they are fundamentally doing the same work. My good colleague and friend, Senator Crowe, would have much more expertise in this area. It is my understanding that they basically do the same. I look forward to the Minister of State's response. It is something that we should be committed to achieving and to put in the processes to get it done.”
“The Minister of State would have much more knowledge in this sphere and he might comment on this. My understanding is that, by 2030, we will need 80,000 more craftworkers to achieve our infrastructural and housing ambitions. If that is to be the case, we have to encourage apprenticeship. There is no logic in saying to young people that they should become apprentices. There is nothing glamorous about getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning to go in a van to Dublin. Yet it is a wonderful thing to do an apprenticeship and achieve a trade, but you have to make it attractive for apprentices. There is no way out of paying them. Quite apart from a moral and ethical position on this that everyone is equal under the law, under God and in society, there is a more economic need to do this because we need to attract apprentices.”
“They should instead be put in tandem with other employers who already paying particular rates. That is a very important point. The argument that we should recognise the small number of employers who will have difficulty and that we need to support them holds up very strongly. The other side of the House has made the point that children and young people are no longer in a position whereby the lower rates are an important disincentive to leaving school. Cultural attitudes and values have changed fundamentally in society in this regard, and thank God they have changed. We have to recognise that. That is an unnecessary canard at this stage. The big issue that has jumped out at me, not just at the briefing I attended today, but on common sense and observation is the whole question around apprenticeship. This is a critical issue.”
“Roughly five out of six employers already pay the minimum wage to all of their workers. A small section do not. That is a relevant statistic. Of course, a change in the rate could be challenging for some employers. We will have to find ways of supporting those employers. We went some way towards that with the VAT rates set down in the budget. There were initiatives in Covid around rates, etc. There will have to be ways to deal with this. Nobody wants to put employers out of business. I live in the real world and meet a lot of people. I would be the first to recognise that this is challenging for particular employers. In those instances, strategies have to be devised as part of the solution. The solution for those employers is not to put them into a different category of wage rates from the general ones.”
“I welcome my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, to the House. I recognise the great work he does in his Department and how proactive he is. I look forward to hearing his views on this matter. I congratulate Senator Cosgrove and her colleague on introducing the Bill. It is a great thing that they have initiated this debate. I believe in principle and will commend to the Minister of State, and in other forums to my party, that we have to make this a position that we want to achieve. We have to implement a minimum wage for all workers, irrespective of age, status, etc. By and large, they do the same work. I will come back to all of that. There are a few interesting things in the Bill. I attended the briefing today. There are some interesting statistics and I would like to hear the response of the Minister of State.”
“The lump sum gratuity always needs to be reviewed but it must stand also that it needs upward review. I commend Senator Black on bringing forward the Private Members' legislation. The question of administrative assistance is an absolute necessity given the complex nature of local government and the multitude of committees and meetings at municipal level. I support the motion and the principle that we must radically improve the position of councillors. They are the fundamental block of democracy.”
“Thanks for working feverishly, a Chathaoirligh, to make sure that everyone gets in. I acknowledge my good friend, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, who has made strident efforts in the Ministry of local government to improve the lot of councillors. Security was a notable achievement of his, but he also worked in other spheres, which will fructify in the future. He is a true champion of councillors and we appreciate that. I acknowledge the presence of Councillor Anna Grainger in the Gallery, who herself is a great advocate for councillors. There are a couple of salient points that need to be quickly made. First, councillors do need a pension. The opportunity to do that is in the context of auto-enrolment. Councillors must have a viable pension. It is an unthinkable concept that they would not.”
“I am very proud of that involvement. I speak with sincerity and genuine interest in this subject. The Minister of State is correct that the emergency provision or possibility of it has to be in the Bill. It is nobody's wish. The two Senators who have spoken are sincere about this. Only a very cynical individual enters this kind of debate with anything other than sincerity. It would be an error to legally close off the option of an emergency response.”
“The last two speakers have come from a good place. Their hearts are in the right place and they have made sincere contributions. That is not at issue. I understand the point made by the Minister of State. In an emergency, while it is not ideal or what anyone wants, when there is a threat to an individual's life or thee lives of others, or a high-risk situation, an emergency response is needed. I genuinely think that. If I was asked to identify things I have been pleased to have been involved with in my life, one is that I was the founder and chairperson of Bailieborough Mental Health Association, which for years was active on a number of fronts and did a lot of work. I was chairperson, followed by a succession of chairs. It did huge work, in conjunction with the local medical health centre and in the community generally.”
“They have been replaced by EU regulation, by current Central Bank regulation and by Government implementation of the EU regulation. They are obsolete. It is a duplication to have all the sets of parallel regulations. In laypersons' terms, this exercise is a tidying up and an administrative overhaul. It is an acceptance of current and new realities. The financial guarantees were necessary at the time and indeed were supported by all the parties represented in this House. There would have been Armageddon without them. Now there is a new regulatory framework that supersedes anything that went with that. I support the legislation on behalf of Fine Gael. I hope it goes through the House with unanimous support. It is a worthy exercise.”