John Brady
Wicklow · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“The people of Wicklow are constantly being let down by chronic failures in public transport. The badly needed 199 Bray to Glendalough bus service promised in 2024 and procured last year is still not operating there.”
“There has been €7 million spent on storing electric vehicle buses due to a lack of charging infrastructure; €20,000 on storing another 98 buses for God knows how long; and a failing IT system in Irish Rail, with €50 million being written off. The question has to be asked: where is the so-called Minister for Transport in this?”
“I concur with my colleagues. This is an important piece of legislation given the Government's systemic failure to take meaningful action against the genocide and apartheid regime of Israel against the Palestinians. A number of pieces of legislation were brought forward previously, including my illegal Israeli settlement divestment Bill.”
“I want to raise with the Taoiseach the imminent sale of a substantial parcel of land in the Wicklow Mountains, including the summit of Lugnaquilla, due to be auctioned off this Friday. The 1,527-acre holding represents a massive opportunity for the State to secure what is essentially a priceless piece of our natural heritage.”
“As Cathaoirleach of the Committee of Public Accounts, last week I exposed that in recent years, the Department of education has spent over €2 million on legal costs and court settlements in cases involving families seeking appropriate school places.”
“Last Friday, a constituent of mine from Wicklow presented at St. Vincent's University Hospital A and E after suffering a suspected mini-stroke. He was vulnerable and afraid but after being seen was told nothing would happen over the weekend. He was told to go home and come back on Monday. He did exactly that.”
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“There has been €7 million spent on storing electric vehicle buses due to a lack of charging infrastructure; €20,000 on storing another 98 buses for God knows how long; and a failing IT system in Irish Rail, with €50 million being written off. The question has to be asked: where is the so-called Minister for Transport in this? When will the Minister finally take responsibility for-----”
“The people of Wicklow are constantly being let down by chronic failures in public transport. The badly needed 199 Bray to Glendalough bus service promised in 2024 and procured last year is still not operating there. People in Wicklow are equally frustrated by the two-year delay in upgrading the chronically unreliable 132 route, leaving west Wicklow commuters stranded, with buses continuously breaking down. For months now, the Department, along with the NTA, has repeated that no funding is currently available for new services in 2026, and discussions are ongoing. How much longer must Wicklow communities wait?”
“I concur with my colleagues. This is an important piece of legislation given the Government's systemic failure to take meaningful action against the genocide and apartheid regime of Israel against the Palestinians. A number of pieces of legislation were brought forward previously, including my illegal Israeli settlement divestment Bill. The Government has made us stakeholders in the illegal practice of apartheid in the West Bank by having shares-----”
“At a time when we have a biodiversity crisis and are under obligations under the EU nature restoration law, not investing in additional public lands such as this would put us under additional financial strain and potentially lead to penalties from the EU.”
“I want to raise with the Taoiseach the imminent sale of a substantial parcel of land in the Wicklow Mountains, including the summit of Lugnaquilla, due to be auctioned off this Friday. The 1,527-acre holding represents a massive opportunity for the State to secure what is essentially a priceless piece of our natural heritage. I do not think land of such environmental, cultural and recreational value should be sold off to the highest bidder, including international interests. It is an opportunity for the State to purchase this land. The land borders the Wicklow Mountains National Park and offers a real opportunity to expand the park and take that land into public ownership.”
“The Minister must support this motion and start proactively dealing with special education and putting the supports in place.”
“Instead of planning effectively and investing adequately to ensure sufficient school places, the Government has chosen to meet vulnerable families in the courtroom. Parents are exhausted. They are frustrated. This will be another kick in the teeth to those who are already facing immense pressures. This situation lays bare the fundamental failures at the heart of special education provision. It is reactive. It is not proactive. It is adversarial and not supportive. This money should have been invested in additional special classes, SNAs and meaningful supports within our schools. The Government and the Minister must change course. They must commit to long-term planning and genuinely engaging with families and school communities because all our children deserve better.”
“As Cathaoirleach of the Committee of Public Accounts, last week I exposed that in recent years, the Department of education has spent over €2 million on legal costs and court settlements in cases involving families seeking appropriate school places. That is in addition to the €10.5 million spent by the State on legal defences to challenges by parents regarding assessments of need. This is an absolute insult to every parent fighting tirelessly for their child's basic right to education and to every child left without supports they need. This money was not spent on classrooms, special classes or additional supports but on defending the indefensible. This is public money wasted on adversarial legal battles against families who, as a last option, have to take legal action to vindicate their children's rights.”
“They were left there for several more hours. That is not care or dignity, and it is totally unacceptable. Under the Taoiseach’s watch, as this is happening, what is he doing in the here and now to address this crisis within our A and Es, not just at St. Vincent's down the road but also right across the State?”
“Last Friday, a constituent of mine from Wicklow presented at St. Vincent's University Hospital A and E after suffering a suspected mini-stroke. He was vulnerable and afraid but after being seen was told nothing would happen over the weekend. He was told to go home and come back on Monday. He did exactly that. Yesterday morning, he went back as instructed but then had to wait for hour after hour. Morning turned to night, and at midnight he was still left sitting in the A and E, which was absolutely bursting at the seams. Then the reality of it came. After being admitted, there were no beds, not even a trolley. He was given a chair and placed in a shower room in the A and E, with four other men and a woman, all of whom were patients. All were left sitting because there was nowhere else to put them.”
“Wicklow County Council says it simply does not have sufficient funding to address the severity of the condition of the roads in Wicklow. The Government should be increasing the funding allocation not cutting it at this time. Will the Government commit to reversing the €300,000 cut and increase the funding to address the issue in Wicklow?”
“Last week, the Government decided to cut the 2026 funding to Wicklow County Council for regional and local roads - a cut of over €300,000 when our roads are already deteriorating. It is unacceptable. Recent storms and bad weather have made a bad situation worse not just in Wicklow but right across the State. Potholes have multiplied and surfaces are crumbling. I have been contacted by many constituents facing costly repairs for blown-out tires, damaged suspension and cracked alloys. One motorist had his drive shaft broken because of the condition of Wicklow's roads. This is a road safety issue that is costing motorists and putting their safety at risk. Wicklow's population has grown and traffic volumes are rising.”
“Newtownmountkennedy was a flashpoint and I it started a cavalcade of protests right across the State. All of that could have been handled, and the situation as it unfolded in Newtownmountkennedy could have been prevented, if accurate information was given to the community in the first instance. If the concerns had been listened to and taken on board, it would have prevented a lot of what went on. It would have saved millions of euro if that critical piece of engagement had been listened to. That failure to consult has wasted millions. It has actually divided Newtownmountkennedy. There are some brilliant community groups there now trying to pick up the pieces and pull the community back together. Those failures, however, are on the Government. I fully support this amendment and hopefully the Minister and the Government will accept it also.”
“The absolute lunacy of the situation is that the site remained completely unused from December 2024 right the way through 2025, costing an additional €1.3 million, which was spent last year protecting an unused site that ultimately, the Department concluded was unsuitable for any usage, either then or into the future. Over €4 million was spent on a site in my constituency. This was needless waste. If the community engagement had taken place, and more importantly, the concerns had been listened to, €4 million may not have been wasted. The Department has now stated it does not want it, as it is unsuitable for it, and so is handing it back to the HSE but to this day, that process still has not concluded and money still is being spent on security costs to protect a vacant derelict site.”
“Engagement with the community is critical. Those concerns were not just about the failures to deliver critical services within Newtownmountkennedy. Concern was also expressed about the suitability of that site at Trudder House. It was prone to flooding. It was very rural. It was on a back road with no public lighting. There were huge issues about the site but none of that was taken on board by the Department or the officials. It seemed to be one-way information coming from the Department. Lo and behold, after €2.8 million was spent preparing the site at River Lodge it was used for tented accommodation from the March but it was then flooded out in December. The people who had been moved onto the site were moved out into alternative accommodation. Yet, up to that point €2.8 million had been spent in preparing that site.”
“There is demand for GPs, community services and amenities. These not being put in place are all serious failures. There were huge concerns about what was being proposed at that stage. Members of the community came to public representatives like me and councillors and other TDs within the constituency looking for answers as to what was being planned at Trudder House. We reached out to the community liaison person who was in place. I can only say that the community felt they were lied to on foot of their engagements. The community liaison people said that no decision had been taken with regard to Trudder House in what can only be described as a Comical Ali moment as the JCBs were on the site in Trudder House preparing the site for what was to come. The community, myself included, was being given misinformation.”
“For me, one of the biggest failures of the Government has been the failure to engage with communities around the provision of IPAS accommodation. Those failures have led to huge resentment right across the State. My constituency in Wicklow is certainly no stranger to that. Way back in February 2024 the HSE responded to a request by the Department and put forward a site in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow. This was River Lodge, or Trudder House, in Newtownmountkennedy. It was offered to the Department. That site had been long fought for by the community to be handed over for community purposes. Newtownmountkennedy is one of the fastest growing towns within the State where services have failed to keep up with demand, for example, for school places. There is a huge campaign for a secondary school there.”
“Tomorrow, the Committee of Public Accounts will return to its scrutiny of the extraordinary expenditure on IPAS accommodation last year of €1.2 billion. We return to this scrutiny on foot of a damning report carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General who raised serious issues about governance, oversight and transparency. Contracts have been awarded to some of the largest criminals within the State. We see shelf companies being set up and established. People have become millionaires overnight on foot of this. We see contracts being renegotiated due to the failure of due diligence being carried out where fire safety certificates were not in place and where proper contracts were not in place. There have many failures by the Government in this regard.”
“River Lodge has to be handed back to the community for community use to serve the people and not be a further drain on taxpayers. Will the Government commit to ending the waste of taxpayers' money at this site and return the site for community use?”
“Last week figures provided to me confirmed that more than €400,000 of taxpayers' money was wasted on the failed IPAS accommodation site at River Lodge in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow. This is a shocking example of mismanagement from start to finish. From day one I and the local community warned the then Minister that the site was completely unsuitable but the Government pressed ahead anyway, recklessly and over the heads of those affected and impacted. Tented accommodation was installed on a site that could never have worked. By December 2024, less than ten months later, the whole thing collapsed when bad weather made the tents unusable and residents had to be moved out. Now the site sits empty, and one year later the Government is still paying for private security on this particular site. More money is being thrown away.”
“Will the Minister give a timeframe for when the Department of Transport's review or sectoral plan will be published and, more importantly, will the funding for the N11-M11 upgrade be reinstated in the national development plan?”
“This morning and every morning, thousands of Wicklow residents are stuck in lengthy and lengthening queues along the N11 and M11, which is having a serious and detrimental impact on people's quality of life. People are late for work and school. It is having a detrimental impact on the economy in Wicklow and a serious impact on the environment. In 2022, after going through a lengthy process, getting to phase 1 and with several million euro spent on the upgrade of the N11, funding was pulled from that scheme, which was part of the national development plan. This was much to the annoyance, bewilderment and amusement of people who were stuck in lengthy traffic jams. A review of the national development plan has been completed. I am conscious that the sectoral plans are due out.”
“Will the Government finally take action to deal with the annual battle for school places for students and go ahead with the long-awaited secondary school in Newtownmountkennedy?”
“Each year in Greystones, children are being left without secondary school places. This year, up to 29 students have no place, including one student who repeated sixth class after missing out last year. This student still has no offer of a school place and that is an absolute disgrace. We need a common enrolment policy, but there is another simple solution and that is building a post-primary school in Newtownmountkennedy. The Minister for education recently informed me that there are no plans for a school there, citing demographic growth as a key factor. However, Newtownmountkennedy has seen a 32% increase in primary enrolments and is one of the fastest growing towns within the State. Land has been zoned in that town for educational purposes, for a secondary school, as far back as 2002.”
“Concrete, immediate action is needed to protect this strategic investment and deliver on the promise of jobs and growth for Wicklow and for Ireland's screen industry. What is the Government doing right now to ensure that this project proceeds without any further delays?”
“The Greystones Media Campus was hailed as a transformative €300 million project for Wicklow, set to deliver 1,500 jobs in a major boost to Ireland's creative sector. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund committed €24 million to the project, and while some site work did commence in 2023, the project has since ground to a complete halt. This is not just a delay; it is a serious risk to one of the most important media infrastructure projects within the State. Now, with President Trump threatening 100% tariffs on non-US film and television productions, investor confidence is under real threat. It appears the Government has gone to ground on this issue, and it has proven very difficult to get any answers.”
“We must enact the occupied territories Bill, not a hollowed-out version of it. We must ratify the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. The Minister should not hide behind dubious legal advice again. He should support this Bill and stop the sale of Israeli genocidal bonds through the Central Bank. History is watching. Will be remembered for our words or for our courage?”
“The occupied territories Bill has sat on the shelf for seven years. The Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill remains stalled. Israeli bombs still pass through our skies. Our Central Bank is facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds, raising €4.5 billion for Israel's military campaign. Let us call them what they are: genocidal bonds. Dr. Morgan McMonagle, an Irish doctor, has just come back from Gaza. He has no political agenda whatsoever. He has seen the horrors first-hand. He has called it what it is, which is a genocide. Condemnation or strong words from the Government are not enough. Speeches are not enough. If we fail to act, Ireland will be little more than a bystander. We are complicit in that genocide. Action is not optional. It is a moral imperative.”
“Yesterday, I listened to an interview that should haunt every one of us. Dr. Victoria Rose is a surgeon working on the front line in Gaza. She told us of the 2,300 families who were completely wiped from the Palestinian civil registry - gone, annihilated. Not one member of any of those families is left. She spoke of the 42,000 children who are the sole survivors of their families. They are known by the chilling acronym, WCNSF, which means, wounded child, no surviving family. Over the past 599 days, 54,000 Palestinians have been butchered in Gaza. Babies are starving to death. Food has been turned into a weapon and civilians are the casualties. This is a war crime. This is not a tragedy; it is policy. It is systematic annihilation. It is genocide yet the Government does nothing.”
“Will the Minister of State agree to meet a small delegation of the residents and listen first hand to their experience as well as to their concerns and fears about this scheme going ahead and the impact it will have on them and their livelihoods?”
“Unfortunately, the €1.45 million that is being spent on the project this year is a waste of money. so it needs to stop now. Bray is due to expand considerably over the coming years. Thousands of new homes are being built in the town centre. Junction 7 is gridlocked as it is. Building a larger roundabout is being proposed, but look at the Red Cow roundabout and the challenges it has. The same will happen with junction 7 if one of the vital arteries in and out of the town closes. Common sense needs to prevail. A bus corridor can go ahead without the junction closing. I do not believe it is a case of one or the other. The two can go ahead. There is an engineering solution to this issue that would be acceptable to everyone. The residents want their voices heard. They do not feel their voices have been heard in the consultation process.”
“I appreciate the Minister of State's response and while I acknowledge he is reading from information he has been given, unfortunately, it will not be much comfort - if any comfort at all - to the residents in Bray who are seriously concerned about the closure of this junction and the impact it will have. As for hearing one of the intentions regarding closing the road is to improve road safety for all users of the N11 and M11, it could not be further from the truth because the Herbert Road junction actually alleviates a lot of the pressures on the N11. I dare the Minister, the Minister of State or Darragh O'Brien to get a Garda report to see how many road traffic accidents have actually happened at that junction. I cannot recall any accidents whatsoever there, so what was said was a false argument.”
“I cannot tell the Minister of State enough how important that road is to the residents of the area. A couple of years ago, the road was closed off to allow for some critical works to be carried out. A pedestrian crossing, public lighting, etc., were put in and that access point was closed off for a couple months to facilitate that work. It brought not just the localised area around that section of the Herbert Road to a gridlock but also the entire town of Bray. The Minister of State has the power, and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has the power at this stage at the end of phase 2 to intervene, similarly to what Eamon Ryan did when he was Minister, to stop this illogical, nonsensical and crazy proposal at this stage and to allow common sense to prevail.”
“It helps alleviate much of the traffic and congestion in the town centre, allowing people coming home from work, going to school, going to work, etc., to bypass the town centre and come in off the N11 via the Herbert Road. Despite a public consultation process in which thousands of submissions were made, including a number of petitions containing more than 4,500 signatures both from residents and businesses in the town voicing their complete opposition to the closure of the Herbert Road, at the end of phase 2 and the publication of the option selection report which came out in April of this year, all those concerns voiced by the many thousands of residents, businesses and other people who use the road unfortunately fell on deaf ears. In that report, it was still recommended to move forward to phase 3 and to close off the Herbert Road.”
“I am all for public transport but I am also all for common sense and unfortunately, what we are seeing in the proposal is not common sense. The proposal put forward by TII, Wicklow County Council and other bodies behind this project, plans to close off a critical artery that runs into Bray, namely, the Herbert Road, by closing both access on and off the N11 via the Herbert Road. The Herbert Road is a vital artery that runs into Bray. There are only four major roads in and out of the town and the Herbert Road is one of them. There is chronic congestion within the town of Bray at present and the Herbert Road acts as a release mechanism.”
“I welcome the Minister of State who I am sure is familiar with the N11 road which runs through my constituency of Wicklow. It is gridlocked most days - both northbound and southbound - with people commuting from working in the city centre and people going about their daily lives. In the national development plan, there was a commitment to carry out a major upgrade - a critical upgrade - to the N11 and a considerable amount of work was done to bring forward a plan to see that major upgrade. Unfortunately, due to ideological reasons on the part of the former Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, funding at the end of phase 2 was pulled for that major upgrade scheme in 2022. In its place, we have what is called the N11-M11 bus priority interim scheme along the N11, which goes southbound as far as the Glen of the Downs.”
“Wicklow cannot wait any longer for this upgrade. The Government must immediately reinstate the funding to allow the upgrade for the N11-M11. When will the funding allow for that critical infrastructural project to proceed?”
“The gridlock on the N11-M11 has reached a breaking point and the Government's failure to act is a complete disgrace. In 2022, the Government pulled funding from this critical upgrade to the N11. Wicklow's population has skyrocketed in recent years and yet there has been little or no investment in key infrastructure, jobs or public transport. People have no choice but to rely on their cars because the Government has failed to provide viable alternatives. Commuters are trapped for hours in gridlock every morning and evening. They are missing work, school and vital medical appointments because our transport system simply is not fit for purpose. In the programme for Government, the Government states it will invest in all road projects on the current national development plan. The N11 upgrade is in the plan.”