Ken O'Flynn
Cork North-Central · Independent Ireland · Ireland
“The Government has not addressed school uniform problems or the fact that most parents have to pay €300 for a PE kit. It has not addressed the problem that parents have to give this voluntary contribution, which is really not voluntary when schools are putting out news bulletins listing the names of families who have contributed and those…”
“Every one of us knows from our own constituencies that laptops, iPads and tablets are being used regularly by order of boards of management. I have to acknowledge the Government's good work and call it out, including the free books scheme and the school meals. However, the Government has made a hames of the school meals.”
“Like many of the stories the Minister of State has heard today in the House, it is not strange that we have constituents coming to us regularly saying the biggest fear they have is the postman's knock.”
“We should all be inside here hanging our heads in shame about how we are treating people. Just go outside the gate and the Minister of State will see Cara Darmody outside Leinster House again, highlighting a law that the Government has been breaking for over 20 years. What was the Taoiseach's answer to me yesterday?”
“I am sure the Taoiseach will join me in welcoming Christy Hussey and Conor Burke to the Public Gallery. Since this morning, a 15-year-old child has been sitting in protest outside the gates of Leinster House. Cara Darmody is highlighting the fact that the State breaking its own law.”
“It is reported that half of the women murdered in the Kingdom of Spain this year were killed by foreign nationals. Across the Continent, governments have opened their doors and lost control of their borders. When their own citizens stand up and take notice, these governments lecture them and call them far-right for calling them out.”
The complete record
Every one of 646 lines we hold for Ken O'Flynn, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 13.
“It has failed the 22,000 children in terms of assessments of need, it has failed the school meals programme, which is badly thought out, and it is failing again. I commend the Labour Party and the motion to this House.”
“We should all be inside here hanging our heads in shame about how we are treating people. Just go outside the gate and the Minister of State will see Cara Darmody outside Leinster House again, highlighting a law that the Government has been breaking for over 20 years. What was the Taoiseach's answer to me yesterday? He said we might have to look at and change the legislation. He does not want to be the lawbreaker. He is happy to have broken the law for the last 20 years and presided over that, but now he has decided that instead of fixing the problem, he will change the law so that he is not culpable. It is unbelievable to even be allowed to give that answer to the representatives in this House. The Government has failed the country again.”
“The Government has not addressed school uniform problems or the fact that most parents have to pay €300 for a PE kit. It has not addressed the problem that parents have to give this voluntary contribution, which is really not voluntary when schools are putting out news bulletins listing the names of families who have contributed and those who have not contributed. That is happening regularly. Parents are suffering, wondering how they will get the money for a school tour and how they will get the money to send their young ones up to the Dáil to tour the House. We have dozens or hundreds of schools that visit this House and many parents in my constituency in Cork have told me that they could not let their young ones go simply because they did not have enough to pay for their lunch or the bus. That is in the wealthiest country in Europe.”
“Every one of us knows from our own constituencies that laptops, iPads and tablets are being used regularly by order of boards of management. I have to acknowledge the Government's good work and call it out, including the free books scheme and the school meals. However, the Government has made a hames of the school meals. Deputy Collins has produced photographs in the House of food that you would not give to a farm animal, yet it is being produced for children. That is the standard that the Government has come up with. That has to be addressed. When it comes to education, Deputy Moynihan is a Fianna Fáil Minister of State. I remember the great days of Donogh O'Malley. I would what Donogh O'Malley would think if he saw the education shambles that the Government presided over in this country over the last 20 years.”
“Like many of the stories the Minister of State has heard today in the House, it is not strange that we have constituents coming to us regularly saying the biggest fear they have is the postman's knock. When they get the criteria for what is needed for their children to start the school year, those include €700 laptops, €600 iPads, tablets or something of that format as well as signing up to a Microsoft programme that has been selected. Despite your household perhaps owning a Microsoft programme, you have to buy into another one. I highlighted this in the House over 12 months ago on Leaders' Questions. I am still waiting for a proper reply from the Taoiseach. We have heard the ministerial circular that went around saying that people do not have to use laptops.”
“They are not afraid of slurs. What they are afraid of, however, is a man wanted for raping four children in Britain who hid out for a month in County Cork. There is an increasing feeling across this country that Ireland has become a refuge for those fleeing justice and not persecution. That must stop. I say to the Minister that this Bill - the facts are on the record - is a good Bill and I will support it, but the people are owed the truth. As God is my witness, they will have the truth from me and they will have the truth continuously from my party. I commend this Bill to the House.”
“It is reported that half of the women murdered in the Kingdom of Spain this year were killed by foreign nationals. Across the Continent, governments have opened their doors and lost control of their borders. When their own citizens stand up and take notice, these governments lecture them and call them far-right for calling them out. We in Europe have brought this upon ourselves and our women are paying the ultimate price. The Hibernophobic mistress of misandry, Deputy Coppinger, said it was racist to report the truth about the suspect in the killing of Jamey Carney. She blames mainstream media. She blames the toxic culture of Irish masculinity. She blames phobic this and phobic the other. It is phobic when the truth does not fit her narrative. I say to this House that the women of Ireland are not afraid of slogans.”
“I will say what half of this country is thinking and what this House has refused to hear: women in Ireland do not feel safe walking through the capital city, through Cork city, where my own constituency is located, or through towns and villages where women once thought nothing of walking home alone. That precious ordinary freedom has been taken from the Irish woman. It did not happen by accident. It is the result of policy. Eight women have died this year. Of the identified suspects, one is Irish. That is not an invented figure and I will not be silenced for repeating it in this House or anywhere else. It is not only Ireland's shame; it is Europe's. The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention reports that people of foreign backgrounds make up one fifth of the population but 43% of homicide perpetrators.”
“I am sure the Taoiseach will join me in welcoming Christy Hussey and Conor Burke to the Public Gallery. Since this morning, a 15-year-old child has been sitting in protest outside the gates of Leinster House. Cara Darmody is highlighting the fact that the State breaking its own law. I refer to the law which states children's needs must be assessed within six months. The law has been broken for 20 years. On the Taoiseach's watch, the number of children involved has gone from 15,000 to 22,000 children. How can people who write the laws of this country in this House break them outside the gates? The Taoiseach has accused the recent fuel protesters, the Irish men and Irish women fighting for their livelihoods, of committing national sabotage. Surely it is sabotage to have 22,000 children waiting for assessments of need.”
“For instance, we are the only region in the world that punishes its own citizens for problems created in the United States, China and Vietnam, and that is pollution. Carbon tax was introduced to this country via Europe was legislated for here. We are the only place punishing citizens, who cannot really do anything about it. We have to face the facts. China and America are the biggest polluters. They have walked away from the table. The old phrase is America innovates, the East replicates and Europe legislates. We have to get away from that and back to what Europe was about. It was about making life better for European citizens. We have the Presidency and the opportunity to fix that and change things in Europe.”
“I will try to stick to the subject as much as possible. Europe has achieved a great deal through co-operation, helping to promote peace, expand trade and tackle the challenges that no country can solve alone. We owe a great deal to Europe when it comes to that, but the co-operation works best when respect for the independence of democracy is put above the member state. Most European citizens, and certainly a lot of Irish citizens, see a tremendous disconnect between Europe and themselves. People see European legislation or policy introduced in this House. We put the belt and braces on it and gold-plate and stamp it. People feel Europe is not helping them any more and is, in fact, hindering them when it comes to a number of policies introduced through Europe.”
“It is very important that we do that today. As I said, I do not overly agree with everything in the Bill, but I think it is a step in the right direction. I applaud my colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing this to the House. We spend a lot of time talking in this House about issues we will never solve, such as international issues or we talk about a president here or there or we say this, that and the other about things we cannot affect or where we cannot make the change. This is something real and tangible that we can make the changes in. We need to go forward. We need to go to Committee Stage and we all need to feed in and sail the boat in the right direction. To my mind, the right direction has always been towards a united Ireland.”
“Some politicians and some people in leadership roles have almost made it seem like a dirty word. I have to thank Sinn Féin, in fairness to them. There are many things I disagree with them on but, in fairness, let us get this focus back again. Let us talk about self-determination, let us run with it and let us unite and work together. Let us move this in the right direction. Let us all thrash it out and say, "I don't think you're right on this" or "I don't think you're right on that", or "I think we need to cost this" or "I think we need to do that." Let us all focus together in this House. That is one thing that could unite the entire House: self-determination and uniting this country finally, recognising the work of those who died under our flag, and who had died previously trying to fly that flag and said it was a fight worth dying for.”
“There are questions, which many Members of the House have raised, about whether a citizens' assembly is the right place to do it. Do we need a new structure? Certainly, there is something radically wrong when our focus in this country, as an entire House, is not on self-determination and a united Ireland. That should always be the focus of this House. Let us all reflect on why we joined our political parties and got involved in politics on the first day. Whether we believe in left, right, centre or whatever, we are all born with a love for our country, and our country is still divided to this day. It is a very new State. Our work in this House should always reflect and look at the idea of a united Ireland. That should always be our number one focus. We have moved away from that in the last number of years.”
“As I was reading through the entire Bill earlier today and over the weekend, memories started flooding back into my mind, stories of my grandparents, their parents, the republican struggles and the stories of their involvement in republicanism in Cork. In the house where I grew up, The Wolfe Tones was the only record played on a regular basis. I welcome this Bill. I truly do because it has merit. There are problems with it. There are little bits and pieces that need tweaking. I appeal to the Government to have an open vote on this and to allow it to proceed to the next Stage so that it can be tweaked. While the Bill acknowledges self-determination, which is incredibly important, what is seriously missing is costing, funding and how we are going to do this.”
“We need to recognise that because of European law, people will now be taxed, or whatever you want call it, €3 on every item from these large Chinese companies like Temu and Shein. There will be serious changes when it comes to delivering small items, whether they are from Temu, abudhabi.com , Shein or whoever these providers are. There will be some challenges there in the next 12 months.”
“We see it with the postal systems in France, northern Spain and Switzerland, where post offices are delivering prescription medicine, working with their equivalents of the HSE. They are able to get prescriptions out to people who are not able to get them and who do not have carers looking after them. There is a wide range of services that could be provided with that. As I said, we welcome this but I notice that we are going from recognising €30 million to €105 million in this case. The last thing I want is to be back here in two years' time saying that we do not have enough money in our post offices and that not enough was invested. It is all very well to throw money at a situation. Government is very good at throwing money at situations but we have to get a full plan for the post office to bring it up to date and keep it relevant.”
“The workers in the post office, whether the postmistress, postmaster or those employed by them, help to fill out forms, let people know their entitlements and download and print stuff for them. I think that type of community service is unique to this country. We have to recognise that we have to move forward and keep the post office moving forward and keep it relevant. We have hindered that quite a lot. There are additional services that could be provided by the post office, keeping it up to date, part of and embedded in the community. I have said before in this House that we need to look at our Garda stations and how we could amalgamate them with the post office. I can guarantee that very few people would rob a Garda station. We have to look at that.”
“Like my colleague, I have always been supportive of the local post office. We recognise the importance of the local post office. I have told the story in this House of how I always believed that a visit to the post office took about two and a half hours because I remember my grandmother going to collect the pension and coming back two and a half hours later. I remember one of my first visits to the post office and being astonished that I was in and out within three or four minutes unlike my grandmother who was collecting neighbourhood information and gossip while collecting the pension. That is the importance of the post office. All of us in the House recognise how important that community link is and how people meet their neighbours and friends and find out how people are doing. There is also the community notice board.”
“Will the Government commit today to bringing forward, as part of budget 2027, a costed roadmap that plans to abolish the USC at the lowest level at least to start with?”
“The universal social charge, USC, remains one of the most resented charges on a worker's payslip. It cannot be reduced by tax credit. It hits the middle income and lower earners at the first euro. As the Minister is aware, it was introduced in 2011 as a temporary crisis measure. Fifteen years on, it is still here. It is still squeezing the workers it was meant to support during that downturn. Previous Ministers have claimed that USC must be in place because we need the revenue. Is the Minister aware that of the €145 billion in tax revenue generated in 2025, only €5.6 billion was the USC? That is less than 4% of the State revenue. That is a charge that successive Governments promised that it was never meant to be permanent.”
“It is affecting gardaí, front-line workers and those lower paid people on whom we depend in local authorities. As one of the Members already said, these are the people who are not coming back. They are leaving in their droves because there is no future or stability. Without a plan in place for them, where they know what the plan is and the funds available to them, they cannot plan for the future. They are not going to come back.”
“I thank the Minister for his reply. I have had relative success in business throughout my years. I can confidently say that if I ran my business the way the Government is approaching these negotiations, I would probably be out of business today. That is the reality. As I said, we are now seven days after the expired deal. We should have been at negotiation tables about six months ago to ensure a smooth transition, particularly when this country - with great gusto as the Government has said - is supporting the Presidency of the EU, and to ensure there would not be strikes or anything. We are now putting the horse before the cart yet again. The Minister is playing catch-up continuously. This is affecting nurses, doctors and staff in hospitals.”
“Will the Minister tell the House what the Government’s action and timeline is for opening formal negotiations with the unions and looking after public sector pay? Does his Department intend to bring a concrete pay offer to the table? When will those table negotiations start? Will he continue his approach, which we have already worked out has no basis for talks whatsoever?”
“This directly affects the nurse, the garda, the hospital porter, the educator and those on low salaries in local authorities. They are the people who get up early in the morning, the people the Minister's Government claims to represent with great gusto. The Minister and his Government say they want an agreement but not at any cost, as I understand from reading reports today. They have said that there can be no preconditions. However, it is seven days after the deal expired and there is still no date for substantive talks. We are looking at a country in the middle of an EU Presidency with a real possibility of industrial action across the health, education and local government sectors throughout the summer.”
“The public service pay agreement expired on 30 June with no successor in place. SIPTU has now announced that it may ballot over 80,000 members for strike action across the health, local authority and education sectors. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, public service committee has said that it has no basis for any formal talks to begin. Unions have pointed out, and rightly so, the inflation at 3.6% in May, which has already wiped out the 1% increase from February and the 1% increase since June. As the Minister is aware, grocery bills are up by on average about 40%. Our energy bills are hitting the point where they are up by about 60%. We have approaching 500,000 people in arrears when it comes to ESB and gas bills. We have rent at record heights, unthinkable almost a decade ago, with 80% increases in some areas across the State.”
“Let us get the school moving along the line. Let us get the planning permission granted and over the line to the next stage so we can build this. When this was first announced, it was a €2 million project. We are now looking at a €7 million project and I am fearful that, if we let it go on, it will hit €10 million.”
“Scoil Padre Pio in Churchfield, Cork, is a DEIS plus school catering for five special needs classes. They are operating in prefabs installed in 2005. The prefabs are now costing the State roughly €110,000 per year to maintain. Additionally, despite the energy grants, it is costing the school about €34,000 per year to heat those prefabs with storage heaters. The school has been stuck at stage 2 for the last three years. It has not been accepted onto the list for 2026-27. I invite the Tánaiste, along with the Minister, to visit the school. It is an absolutely fantastic school. It is a treasure. People from all over the city try to get access to the school because of the tremendous work it does with children with special needs. I ask the Tánaiste to come down on his next visit to Cork, perhaps with the Minister, to visit the school.”
“The Government intends to import energy from France and Spain. That is not renewable energy, which the Minister of State knows as well as I do. He is denying that. His environmental policy is dressed up as virtue. That is the reality of it. He can talk and virtue-signal about renewable energies all he wants, and nobody is objecting to that, but he has to realise there are other energies as well that we are heavily dependent on in this country. The Government has to lift the ban and look at our energy security. Energy security is national security.”
“By 2030, the Government's own figures have told us that the country will import over 90% of gas, almost all through pipelines from the United Kingdom. We are one of only a handful of EU states that has no gas storage of its own. The Minister of State is talked about renewable energies and how important they are. Nobody on this side of the House, and certainly in Independent Ireland, objects to renewable energy but we realise the importance and the reality that we are going to be dependent on fossil fuels for another 20 to 40 years. We can face the facts and deal in reality, unlike the Government. The Government chose not to open or explore Barryroe, knowing there are hundreds of millions of barrels of oil there. It will not even allow the exploration of it and has chosen not to look at it.”
“For those in this House who will ask how we will pay for that, I would say look at your own motions, the things that have been brought to this House: MetroLink, costing €15.8 billion; and a children's hospital that has quadrupled in cost to €5 billion in overruns since 2023. You do not fund a tax cut on the back of workers but by ending wasteful spending. Wasteful spending is something the Government is very good at doing. The second solution is energy, and the Minister of State mentioned that himself. The contradiction he failed to mention is the Irish policy laid before us. We have some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. In 2021 the Government legislated for a ban on all new oil and gas exploration in our waters. It chose deliberately to keep the resources in the ground. We are aware that the Corrib gas field is running dry.”
“A worker earning €50,000 hands over more than €1,000 in USC alone. The self-employed, who are the drivers of our economy, who take the risks, who create jobs and who, when something happens to them or they are sick, are not entitled to any social welfare, are taxed at a rate of 11% on top. Independent Ireland's answer is plain: abolish the USC. Do not tinker with a tax band or two, do not shave half a percent off a rate here and there and issue a press release. Abolish the universal social charge and let every worker in this country keep what they earn. That is a real payment structure relief - money in the pocket of every nurse, every electrician and every shop assistant every week of this year.”
“Government members will scratch their heads and wonder why. It offers a one-off cheque for Christmas and call it some sort of compensation. That is not compensation. It is a Government picking your pockets and handing you back the bus fare. That is what the Government has done on a regular basis. Let me offer two solutions to get to the root of this symptom. The first is the universal social charge, USC, which was introduced in 2011 as an emergency measure, brought in from the wrecking and crashing of the economy by the Fianna Fáil Administration and sold to this country as temporary. Now, 15 years later, the emergency is well and truly over but the tax remains. It is the most cynical levy in our system because the tax credit cannot touch it. It is charged at almost the top gross income on the first euro.”
“I acknowledge Aontú for tabling this motion in good faith. It names a crisis that is biting every man, woman and child in this country. Families with two incomes are working harder than their parents ever did and having less to show for it. Grocery bills are up 40%, energy bills are up nearly 60% and rent is at a level unthinkable ten years ago. The diagnosis, like much of this motion, is correct. However, the correct diagnosis followed by the wrong prescription does not cure the patient. The hard truth this House must face is that the policies that brought us into this mess are the wrong ones to sort it out. For 15 years, we have been governed by an economic instinct that treats the citizen's wallet as the State's first resort and last reserve. Tax it, levy it, surcharge it, toll it and then families buckle under it.”
“We have an outdated model that is not working. We need to look at the best standards and practice across northern Europe that have been proven to work over and over again. The model has been working for 40 years in Finland and has 60% uptake. No other country is as expensive as we are for childcare. There is something radically wrong when we have parents who cannot afford to have a child because of childcare costs. That should be the last thing on their minds.”
“My colleague mentioned viability and the situation in this country. I do not believe that. I am seeing crèches closing. I am getting calls on a regular basis, as I am sure are other TDs, - that there are crèches closing in Glanmire, Mayfield, Ballyvolane and Carrignavar. They just cannot keep the doors open. Then, there are people on the other side of it going into early childcare who are not getting paid a decent salary and cannot make a living out of it. They would love to be because that is their vocation. They would not have signed up for this many years ago but it is their vocation. They cannot afford to work in it and live and sustain a living today. We are just not getting childcare right in this country. It is not as if it is an illusion or a very difficult mathematical equation for us.”
“Almost 60% of the eligible population in Finland have taken this up. Denmark runs a similar system. Norway offers a similar scheme. There is nothing exotic or untested about what I am suggesting. The Finnish model trusts parents; our model in this country does not. In Finland, if a mother is happy to stay at home with the child, the state will support that. If a neighbour, friend or grandparent is willing to take care of a child, the state will support that. If you are a stay-at-home father, the state will equally support that. In Ireland, we only subsidise institutional care. I seriously believe we need to be looking at that and at different models. The childcare policy in this country tells parents they are not qualified to decide on what is best for their own child. It should be a parent, not a civil servant, who makes that judgement.”
“The subsidy system only recognises a registered provider, which means the State has already decided for you what counts as acceptable when it comes to the care of your own child. Finland in 1985 - 40 years ago - looked at that entire model and said it was not working for them. The Finnish childcare model developed in 1985 involved giving parents direct payments of approximately €340 per month if a child is under three and not in municipal childcare. There are supplements for additional children and local municipal top-ups. That means the parent gets to decide how to use the money and whether they stay at home, pay the money to a grandparent, uncle or aunt, hire a private childminder or make other arrangements as they see fit. The money follows the child directly and the family decides on what is best for the child.”
“I want to speak of a childcare model that I think Ireland would benefit substantially from replicating. Ireland has among the highest childcare costs in Europe, often well over €1,000 per month per child. I have a case in my constituency where somebody is paying €1,700 per month for a child. It is not unusual and if we went onto the streets of Dublin, Cork or Limerick, we would find similar prices. The Government's response to this has always been to funnel money and subsidies through a formal childcare sector via the national childcare scheme, which assumes every parent wants and needs institutional childcare. Many parents do not. Some would prefer to leave their child with a grandparent, neighbour, friend, uncle or aunt, and some would prefer to have one parent at home, at least while the child is small.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion to the floor. It is one of the more important motions we have spoken on. It is 36 minutes past midnight in the House. That is a great testament to everybody who has stayed here to contribute to the debate and be part of the debate. Childcare is one of the biggest issues that hits us at the doorsteps, certainly at the last general election. As my colleague just said, I was listening to people who said with great hope that childcare would be €200. Those people feel extremely let-down and disappointed with this Government and duped by this Government, to say the least. That needs to be on the record of the House. I respect the spirit behind the motion. I do not agree precisely with the measures within it but I plan to support it tonight.”
“My ladies from Mayfield. As the Taoiseach is aware, 54% of submissions made to the European Commission from all member states regarding the EU whistleblower directive came from Ireland. That is a huge and unusual amount. We had 15 whistleblowers in Leinster House last week. A number of them outlined that they were still not happy with whistleblower law in this country. They made submissions on that to the Taoiseach. What training is now given to the Garda Síochána? Have gardaí received training? The previous Minister was not able to explain that to me in terms of the Protected Disclosures Act and the criminal offence of penalising and retaliating.”
“I do not think we are accounting for it, thinking about it, or planning for it. Losing your home in your 70s is not just a housing problem. It is a health, mobility and routine problem, and people certainly lose their dignity when they lose their home at that age.”
“I am looking forward to meeting Valerie O'Sullivan, our city chief executive, and informing her that the Government will make moneys available for housing plans for older people. There is another elephant in the room which I want to make the Government aware of, that is, people who lost their houses back in the 2008 to 2009 period. They are now in rented accommodation and back on their feet. Some of them have restarted businesses. Some of them are back working but they are renting. A number of these people are rapidly approaching 65 now. I predict that there will be a tremendous increase in people approaching local authorities throughout the country, saying they can no longer afford the €2,300 rent and need to be on a local authority housing list. I predict that will be a huge problem facing this country.”
“In fairness to it, that is not a radical ask. They are basic and achievable steps by any Government, I would have assumed. The report's authors said that Ireland has a window of opportunity to act before it becomes entrenched. Five months have passed since its launch and the numbers have not improved, as I laid out. The lady in Mallow is not the only one in homeless services, living at a homeless hub at the moment. This is not being treated as a priority by the Government. We seem to have a problem in this State where we look at elderly people and think it is someone else's problem. How many of the six recommendations in that report has the Government adopted? Will it publish a timeline? Is the Minister for housing delivering on them? Has the report been welcomed by the Government publicly but shelved privately?”
“More often, it struck me that many of these people are in private rented accommodation with rapidly rising rents, watching their own security that they spent a lifetime building disappear in front of their eyes. Uachtarán Connolly attended the launch of that report in Galway. She said it shines a spotlight on the growing number of older people experiencing homelessness, and particular attention should be given to the recommendations. When the President of Ireland says that this needs to be looked at, surely the Government and this House should pay attention to that. The report sets out six clear costings in its policy recommendations, namely, stronger national leadership, better legal protections, increasing resources for homeless services, and a targeted strategy for expanding age-friendly housing.”
“It is not long ago that I brought up in this House a case in Mallow in my constituency, where we have a lady approaching 80 years of age who has been placed in homeless accommodation far from her network, neighbours and everybody who she associated with through her lifetime. Unfortunately, that is not an isolated case. This is just one of the human faces of the figures that I have given this House. It is not the first warning that this Government has received. In January, the Simon Communities of Ireland, working with the Simon Community Galway, published a report a report on homelessness in later life. It found that old age homelessness had doubled in the past five years. It found that the assumption of older people owning their own homes or being in secure tenancies was no longer a reflection of the reality of the State.”
“I am sure the Tánaiste will join me by offering his sympathies and the sympathies of the Government on the passing of Sr. Colette Hickey, who passed away at the age of 108. She was the founder of Edel House Cork and the first winner of the 1993 Cork Person of the Year Award for the tremendous work she did for our city. This week, we have reports in the press of 265 people aged 65 or older living in emergency accommodation. A total of 146 of them live in Dublin alone. These are men and women who should be well settled into their retirements, not sleeping in hostels and hubs.”
“What we are not taking into account is that the value of investments goes up and down. The other thing we are doing that also needs to be addressed is that if someone is a landlord and has a big mortgage, then they are being taxed on the rent they are receiving. Quite often, those landlords do not receive any of that rent because it is being paid directly to the mortgage lender. We need to close off those doors as well because it is unfair taxation. Very often there are investment plans of 30 years that people have put together because they do not have a pension or a savings fund. I would like a broader conversation about this. I am happy to meet the Minister to give him a couple of ideas. This is not about challenging him; this is about getting the system right and getting people back saving again.”
“I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I appreciate he is going to open consultation with, and have a briefing for, the Opposition. I think there will be a lot of support across the House for that. I again ask the Tánaiste to look at the UK’s individual savings account, ISA, in respect of which a commitment has been given, in the wake of having met the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There is a problem with taxation. At the moment, if a person invests €10,000, for example, and that person is being taxed on it every eight years, then the tax on that investment has already been paid. That is a serious anomaly. If I were a private citizen, I would probably be taking a challenge to the High Court regarding this issue because it does seem to be double or even triple taxation.”
“If there has been a conversation around it, it certainly has not been published in respect of the 30 meetings behind closed doors. I am not being facetious in saying that. We then have to look at the existing investors who have already put their moneys away, and whether tax penalties will apply to them and, if so, what they will be. There is also the question of whether the scheme will be open to investors who have existing accounts to move over to. I ask the Tánaiste to seriously look at what is done in the United Kingdom and how that tax system works very well to get people to open such accounts. I say this because I suspect we may have a problem if we just go with the old system of deemed disposal. It is not going to work and people are going to run away from it.”