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 7 of 13.
“Will the Minister please inform the House when the Government first received reports indicating that the anti-malaria drug Lariam, mefloquine, was associated with adverse side effects? When did the Department of Defence become aware of that? Can the Minister also confirm whether Lariam was issued to all personnel of all ranks, and not just the privates or the NCOs? I also note that the Taoiseach has travelled 20 times in the last ten months-----”
“Will the Minister confirm whether the conduct of the Chief State Solicitor's office, in presenting a position that has now been proved false, will be thoroughly and fully investigated?”
“Legal ambiguity protects the powerful. Clarity and accountability protect the Republic. I will put the questions to the Minister again because he has not answered them. Is the Government satisfied that the legal advice given to Ministers on protected disclosures is accurate, lawful and compliant with both the EU Act and the Act in the Republic? Does the Minister stand over the statement, made by the Taoiseach on 12 November in this House on receiving protected disclosures under section 8, that Ministers cannot even read them? Will the Government commission an independent review of legal advice provided to Ministers in cases involving corruption, criminal conduct and the misuse of public funds?”
“It was reinforced in writing by the Taoiseach in August 2019 when he was Leader of the Opposition. A Minister told him a whistleblower's disclosure had been handled through legal advice and treated as a normal personnel matter, and he was asked to stand down. As I understand it, and if he was here today he could confirm it, he did stand down. That whistleblower lost his career four months later and has been fighting for justice ever since. I will put direct questions to the Government. Is the Government satisfied that the legal advice given to the Ministers on protected disclosures is accurate, lawful and compliant with the Act of the EU directive?”
“Is it protecting the people's interest, the public's interest or is it saving the Government and State from embarrassment? Part of a wider pattern is that whistleblowers who raised the issue, and others, have been sidelined and dismissed. Legal advice presented to Ministers appears to contain disclosures rather than deal with the ongoing wrongdoings. The Committee of Public Accounts has already confirmed that the system is obstructed. On page 10 of a report from January 2022, the committee states that the terms of reference for the protected disclosure investigation were drawn too narrowly and that suspected criminal activity could not even be referred to An Garda Síochána. That is not a flaw in the system; to my mind, it is a design in the system.”
“A Workplace Relations Commission ruling has confirmed it, RTÉ "Prime Time Investigates" has exposed it, a senior retired governor called it universal and it is on the record of this House from 1996, meaning we have known about it here for over 30 years. Yet, when the matter reached the State legal apparatus of the Chief State Solicitor's office, that office told a statutory tribunal that the system did not exist and argued the point relentlessly that if it did exist, it would be fraudulent. We are left with only two possibilities, either the State participated and believes in a fraudulent case or the Chief State Solicitor's office misled a statutory body and perverted accountability. Both scenarios undermine our rule of law and raise the same question, namely, who is the State legal system protecting?”
“On 12 November, the Taoiseach told this House that legal advice states a Minister cannot read protected disclosures. That claim has caused real alarm throughout the country because if a Minister cannot read protected disclosures, the Minister cannot verify whether the Minister is being misled. It is an extraordinary position for this Government to have in a system that has repeatedly accused, attacked and retaliated against whistleblowers. A recent case shows that danger exactly. For decades, a cash-based duty exchange system has operated in the Irish Prison Service, not secretly but quite openly.”
“In September 2023, safety and governance were raised. In 2012, concerns were raised about the hospital. In 2016, failures regarding the pledge of four months were first noted in this House. This goes on and on and on. I welcome the inquiry and I wanted it. We agreed we would have it, but it must have teeth and finish, and there must be accountability. The assurances the Minister gave this afternoon will not help any parent worrying about a sick child to sleep well tonight.”
“I have been 18 years in public life, having served as a city councillor in Cork and as a TD for almost a year in this House. Not a day or week goes by when I do not meet a parent with a child with a special need or difficulty, or a child in need of an operation. They are put to the pins of their collars and are desperate. Although I am not a parent myself, I see from my brother and in-laws how they rear their kids. They would kill for their kids. If you could take on their pain, you would. I see parents struggling to secure operations, services and attention that their children need, and also trying to meet the social welfare criteria, and then I hear excuses in this House about dissatisfaction with the numbers sent to Great Ormond Street or elsewhere. This has been going on since 2012, over ten years ago.”
“This is not directed at Ukrainian families, as the Labour Party suggested in this House earlier; it is directed at a Government that treats groups of people differently based solely on political convenience rather than the needs of its own people. Fairness demands one standard. I ask the Government to ensure that we have one standard for everybody in this country.”
“Many of our older citizens lose their medical cards because of small pension increases that push them over the threshold and face review after review, year after year. While the State has been able to fund large-scale supports for our new arrivals, our survivors of institutional abuse had to go on hunger strike for over 50 days outside the gates of this very Parliament to secure a modest pension uplift and a basic medical card for roughly 4,000 people. In recent years, the State has resourced many groups overnight but the survivors of these institutional abuses had to put their health on the line to be heard. That contrast gives rise to a serious question about the priorities of the Irish Government.”
“Ireland, one of the few states that has granted full welfare equivalent supports from the start, still gives a full medical card to every Ukrainian passport holder upon arrival, without a means test and without proof of prior residence in Ukraine. In a reply to a recent parliamentary question from me, the HSE confirmed that since 2022, more than €92 million has been spent on medical cards alone, consisting of €14.15 million in 2022, €24.2 million in 2023, €28.96 million in 2024 and €25.03 million in the first nine months of 2025. At the same time, more than 16,600 Irish citizens, including 5,200 children, live in emergency accommodation or on the streets in many of our cities and towns.”
“Ireland has a long record of goodwill. When families fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we opened our doors and we opened our hearts. That was the right thing to do. However, goodwill must behold its shape. It must be fair and it must be sustainable. Across Europe, governments are adjusting their supports as the conflict continues. Germany has applied the same means test to those of its own citizens. The Czech Republic limits free accommodation to 90 days and has set modest monthly allowances. Poland has withdrawn its cash payments to private hosts. Slovakia has reduced its accommodation support by half.”
“I sincerely wish the best to the newly appointed Ministers, including the Minister, Deputy McEntee, in her new role, and the new Minister, Deputy Naughton. I can assure Deputy Naughton that Noel Thomas is already knocking on doors in Galway. He is already talking to people. The Deputy should not worry at all about the constituency. Noel Thomas has it covered for Independent Ireland and there is no problem there.”
“I noticed the Minister for Finance has resigned following the 120 questions I submitted over the weekend regarding Ulster Bank. I look forward to having the Tánaiste answer them all, in particular what was discussed in the Palace of Westminster on the report that came from the hidden financial credits and mis-selling of large financial funds in the British banking industry, including Ulster Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS, and Lloyds, which was reported at the Palace of Westminster last week. I am looking forward to his views on that. As the new Minister for Finance, I ask that he looks at energy credits and looks again at the cost of living and the difficulties we are having. We have seen the rise of the cost of living.”
“On a personal note, I wish Paschal well. He has been nothing but respectful, decent and honourable in our exchanges across the House in the short period I have been a Member of it. I offer my sincere best wishes to him, his family and his wife Justine as he takes up his new position as the managing director and chief knowledge officer of the World Bank. It is the second most senior role in the institution. It is an enormous position to achieve and one of which to be extremely proud. All of us Irish people should be proud an Irish politician achieved this. It is something of which we all need to be proud. I mean that most sincerely and genuinely. We heard what is announced today and I personally wish everybody well. I have to say to the Tánaiste that he has an enormous job ahead of him.”
“Today comes as a slight surprise to me. After listening to the whispered conversations in the hallways for the past number of weeks, I suspected it might have been Micheál Martin resigning today rather than Paschal Donohoe.”
“In light of the RTÉ documentary series, "Trackers: The People v The Banks", the first part of which aired on 3 November, revealing ongoing devastation from Ireland's largest consumer banking scandal, new Central Bank figures showing 42,000 impacted mortgage accounts and the banking industry and banks facing more than €1 billion in fines and redress, is the Tánaiste aware of any tracker mortgage legacy issues currently affecting customers in AIB or PTSB? Has he and his Government methodically satisfied themselves that the Central Bank has forensically audited all mortgage accounts that may have been affected?”
“Many people are saying to me that they do not feel safe because they were in a small village, their hotel has been taken away from them, everything has been taken away from them and there is a huge influx of a new society which is being put upon them and no consultation given to them at that time. We look across to Europe and see that countries are taking back control. Countries like Denmark are enforcing great and proper immigration and well structured immigration laws. Poland is defending its borders. Hungary will not be lectured by bureaucrats in Brussels. Ireland meanwhile rewards the policy failures of this Government with hotel rooms and handouts.”
“Others have very unusual relationships with Fianna Fáil. This is while Irish citizens who built and paid into this country cannot find a home, cannot find a GP, cannot find a dentist and cannot get extra services into their classrooms. Many of them have told me that they have lost their sense of security within their own community. There is nobody talking about that. We must put Irish people first. We must protect our own citizens and house our own homeless before we try to impress the boys in Brussels. Charity should always begin at home when it comes to our citizens. Our duty is to our own people, not for the good of the boys in Europe and to impress those and to be the best in class. We walk through villages in Ireland today and they do not reflect Irish society anymore.”
“I would like to be associated with the words of condemnation of what happened in Drogheda, as my party colleagues have pointed out. I speak for the 82% of Irish people who feel unheard, unseen and forgotten in this country. The Government has lost control of migration, lost control of enforcement and lost the confidence of the nation. What we have now is a system without fairness and without end in sight. Appeals have surged by 46% in six months from 9,700 to 14,134. Deportation orders had been issued but from June only 160 have been acted on by removal charter. That is not order; that is abdication. Nearly €1 billion each year is being spent on accommodation for international protection applicants. Some of them, as was pointed out to the House, have an unusual relationship with CAB.”
“It takes the Opposition to remind it that the Minister for Education and Youth and her Department should serve families, not lecture them.”
“They do not want it spent on consultants and PR campaigns about inclusivity. What they really want is nothing more than getting the basics right so their children are able to leave school, go on to third level education and secure a future in this country. The Government is drunk on the nectar of self-congratulation while ordinary parents in this country are running on empty. The truth is the Department of education has lost touch with classrooms. It governs by press release, with parents left in the lurch and left to feel the pain over and over again. Most parents facing the summer holidays are thinking about how they will pay the bills when schools return in August and September and what other hidden charges there might be. I support the Bill not as a gesture but as a rebuke to the Government.”
“We have schools that cannot pay their energy bills but the same Department seems to have an endless and bottomless pit of money available for ideology and teaching nine-year olds about transgenderism and social theories instead of maths, science and literature. That is not education; that is indoctrination. This is what the Department is doing. Parents did not vote for their children to be used as social experiments. Families in Cork, Mallow, Glanmire, Little Island, and Ballincollig want everything that we had as children growing up. They want the basics done right. They want heat in the classrooms, affordable uniforms and education that is real learning that will put their children in a place where they are available for the jobs of tomorrow. They want their taxes spent on teachers.”
“On top of that we have the so-called voluntary contributions, which are anything but voluntary these days. I have met school principals the length and breath of this country who are begging parents simply to keep the lights on in their schools and to pay the insurance costs. The facts are stark. An analysis of 707 schools shows that heating costs are up 83% since 2019, water and refuse bills are up 51%, accounting and auditing costs are up 58% in schools and the cost of management systems is a staggering 199% increase. The average primary school faces a deficit of €17,000 in day-to-day running costs while the Minister of State and Ministers parade around claiming that Irish education is free. That is a falsehood. It is not free. It is a lie that is told by comfortable people to the struggling families of this nation.”
“I support the Bill not because it is a radical idea, but because it is basically decent. No parent should go into debt to send a child to school or to educate their children. This Bill only exists because the Government has failed in the most fundamental of duties to make education genuinely free and fair. We have heard many times that Ministers roll out free books, free books and free books, but parents are still being hit with hidden charges. Many schools today had contacted families earlier this year telling them, or forcing them, to purchase electronic tablets costing up to €600 per child. Let us imagine being the parent hit with that charge in August and September while having the additional cost of €1,400 to €1,600 on a uniform.”
“No more can we have bureaucracy and another round of self-congratulating Ministers who have failed to deliver. Ireland deserves an energy system that works and fully supports families, industries and home building. The people who are paying the bills deserve answers, not excuses. I say clearly to those on the Government benches that before they lecture us on public sustainability, make sure people can afford to turn on the lights. The Government is not addressing that.”
“Ireland has some of the highest taxes in Europe and the largest budget surplus in the history of the State, yet the State cannot guarantee enough electricity or water to build homes or businesses. That is the definition of incompetence on the Government's side. If this Bill is to mean anything, it must mark the end of complacency and the raising of the ESB borrowing limit to €17 billion must come with strict conditions. There must be full transparency around the borrowings, an independent audit and legally binding timelines for the grid expansion. Timelines for grid expansion are vital. Every euro must go on real infrastructure, stronger cabling, faster connections, rural upgrades and modern sustainability. No more can we have the day of the consultant and report after report.”
“I support the investment in the grid but, let us be clear, the failure to build proper infrastructure lies squarely at the feet of this Government. Every builder, developer and employer in Ireland can tell you the same thing. The biggest barrier to growth is not the planning red tape; it is the supply of power and water. Projects have been delayed because there is no grid capacity, factories are stalled because there is no connection to take them and housing estates are refused planning because the system simply cannot cope, in respect of both energy and water. That is not the fault of the planner, the engineer or the local authority. It is the failure of national leadership. It is a failure of plans and a failure to invest in the future and think ahead.”
“He does not have the money to do the property up, despite what is available from the Government in terms of grants. I have spoken to small business owners from Ballincollig to Little Island who are telling me they are closing early or closing one day a week just to save on energy and lighting costs. That is not progress. It is an absolute scandal. What has been the Government's response? It has been to let the ESB report profits of €868 million. While the State dividend rolls in, the households of Ireland have to tighten their belts, are told to put on an extra jumper or, as the Minister of State's predecessor suggested, share the heating with their neighbour and go from house to house. That is not an energy policy. It is daylight robbery, dressed up as climate virtue.”
“This winter, working families - not just the poorest of working families but working families who are doing everything right, paying their bills and getting up early in the morning, going to work and putting in their shifts and time - are choosing between heating their houses and what they are purchasing in Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes or SuperValu. The are picking between whether they can afford this or that for the child or how merry Christmas will be because they have to heat the house as well. Last week, I met with a pensioner and sat in his home, a cottage in Rathcooney in County Cork, wrapped in a blanket with one heater going and a hot water bottle. That gentleman finds it so difficult to find the money to pay the electricity bills coming into his house because it is an old property.”
“Once again, we are asked to hand the Government and the ESB a blank cheque of €5 billion in borrowing authority and €1.5 billion more in taxpayer capital, with no plan, no accountability and no guarantees of benefit to the Irish people. Let us be honest in this House: the Government record on energy policy is a record of failure. Ireland now has the second highest household energy prices in the entire European Union. Eurostat confirms we now pay around 48 cent per kilowatt-hour, compared with 31 cent across Europe, 27 cent in France and 30 cent in the Kingdom of Spain. Ireland is an energy-rich island paying poverty prices, but the only constant has been Government complacency. Ordinary people are being crushed.”
“I accept what the Tánaiste is saying about what we pay in and pay out and what we get for things but in all fairness, charging someone €55,000 over 35 years that no dependant, no family member, can benefit from does not seem fair at all to me.”
“I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. The policy itself offends the basis of fairness in the State. I am delighted that the Tánaiste has recognised that I have brought up in this House the unfairness when it comes to inheritance tax and when it comes to single couples. There are 36,000 single couples who do not enjoy the same benefits as the married couples, and 1 million people are childless in this country. If this was a private company doing this to its employees, there would be hell to pay, because it would be in breach of the Employment Equality Act. I am asking the Tánaiste to lead a delegation across Departments to see where we are in breach of equality. There is a constitutional test when it comes to equality, whether it is an inheritance tax or the opt-in or opt-out in this particular circular.”
“The Employment Equality Act 1998 prohibits discrimination on marital status, yet here we have the State acting as an employer, forcing a deduction that treats single people differently from married people. It is totally unequal. I ask the Tánaiste and his Government if they will intervene and lead a cross-party departmental review with the Ministers for education and public expenditure to examine the operations and fairness of the revised spouse and children's pension scheme, access to mechanisms to refund an opt-out credit for those who are contributing without dependents, and engage formally with unions and equality bodies to deliver a fair and modern reformed system. This is not about money; this is about fairness, respect, and equality for every public servant - married, single, gay, straight, male or female.”
“Today, a teacher from Carrignavar or somewhere else in my constituency with no dependants, who paid for benefits throughout their entire career will not receive one. There is no refund, no opt-out and no credit at retirement or death. That means in real terms that teachers on €55,000 per annum pay almost €825 a year, or almost €29,000 over a 35-year career deducted from their salaries with no possible return. To my mind, that is not contribution; that is an inequitable levy imposed on those through either choice or circumstances who are unmarried without children. It penalises the single person, predominantly women, and sits uneasy with the values of a modern republic that claims to guarantee equality before the law. Article 40.1 of the Constitution enshrines equality.”
“I raise an issue that goes to the heart of the fairness and equality of public service employment, which is the treatment of single teachers under the revised spouse and children's pension scheme, introduced by the Department of Education and Youth under Circular PEN14/05. Since September 2005, every teacher appointed in the public service has been automatically enrolled in the scheme. Membership is compulsory. It deducts 1.5% of gross salary from take home pay every month to fund the benefit, payable only to surviving spouses, civil partners and dependant children, yet under section 6 of this same circular, the right of the single person to a refund that existed under the previous scheme was abolished.”
“It is important that we do not bury one another for political point-scoring or one-upmanship when a child's life and other children's lives are at stake.”
“Only through the statutory inquiry, through getting it right and through fixing it and having a commitment left, right and centre in this House will we achieve something for that family and for the memory of that child. We have dragged that child's name through this House continuously for the last two and a half hours, and for what? Is it so that I can get on the front page of the Irish Independent or The Irish Times or whatever local newspaper, and so somebody will listen to me and talk to me and I will get a five-second clip on Virgin Media? That is not how we should be doing our business here. We should be coming together as a House to ensure that no other child goes through what Harvey went through. I come here tonight, as the old phrase says, not to praise Caesar but not to bury him either.”
“As my colleague suggested, we have to be fair. A child's life is involved in this. His parents are not in the Public Gallery and have not, from what I understand, requested any motion to be brought in this House but have requested a multidisciplinary statutory inquiry. I sit on the the Opposition benches and I argue with the Government on many matters, but the Government has agreed to meet with that family and has engaged with them over and over again. I think political strokes are being pulled, not just on the Government side today but on the left as well. This battering of one another does nothing to help this family. It does nothing to ensure that no other child will suffer what Harvey went through.”
“He is a character who really did deliver for Donegal, and I question whether if he was in the Cabinet the last time, the results would have been very different? The simple truth is the entire scheme that has been presented to us is not generous, is not scientific, is not independent and it is certainly is not fair.”
“They are continuously cleaning and working together. They are stressed. Their children are stressed. Elderly people are stressed. They are worried day in day out. let us imagine the thought of going to bed wondering what will collapse, what will break, whether the next storm is going to be the one that brings down the house. That is an impossible situation for people. However, we have seen delay after delay from 2018 to 2025 with this scheme. There are continuous delays and dragging of heels. If Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher was a Minister in the previous Government, the situation would be very different. In fairness to him, he is a decent and honourable man who always provided well for his constituency and did a lot of work for his constituency.”
“Sorry, I thought I was speaking. Deputy Ward has been a great inspiration to me and my constituency and has really brought this to the forefront. People in Cork are stopping me and talking to me about what the Deputy has brought up and about the injustice. The one thing this Government is very good at is drawing divisions in society, setting people against one another, whether it is the private sector against the public sector or this against that. We can see it today in this motion. For years we have seen thousands of families left behind in homes that are cracking. I met people with Deputy Ward, and they spoke about being worried when they go to bed at night about whether the roof is going to be there or what is going to collapse and whether their children are safe inside their house with the black mould on the walls.”
“I congratulate and thank Deputy Charles Ward for bringing this to the House. I have gotten to know him since we were both elected on the same day. He is an honourable, decent gentleman. The majority of time he has spoken in this House has been about this defective blocks issue, and he has been a lone voice at times on this matter.”
“I find it bizarre we are putting it right in the city centre in very expensive office space but, you know, it is handy for people to be able to go for their lunches and swan around the city centre. Working from home and the problems related to that were mentioned. I see it in my constituency in Cork where companies are telling people they might want to return to Spain, Portugal or Italy and work from home there because they cannot get accommodation. Many American and international companies are now saying they will close down the office and move to a different country.”
“I found it amazing that not so long ago Focus Ireland, which is, I believe, fully funded by the Government, took out campaigns against the Government. It not unusual for NGOs to do such things. Another group, an environmental body, is spending Government moneys it is drawing down to take out campaigns. Talk about the Government cutting a stick to beat itself with. The Government has no control over the NGOs because it is "splash the cash and throw it around the room, lads". The same is happening with a lot of these bodies. I find it amazing we have to have a housing body in the centre of Dublin, or in the centre of Cork city, paying exorbitant rents when it could be in the commuter belt and smaller office units. The costs would be far lower.”
“First, there should be the publication of a quarterly dashboard showing county level approvals and drawdowns with start and completion dates for the whole country, including my constituency of Cork North Central. Second, I ask that tighter value for money tests be introduced on large borrowings, including approvals for housing bodies. Most of this is to facilitate the housing bodies. Having said that, and following on from Deputy Gogarty, while housing bodies play a huge role in housing our citizens now, we have to be cautious of them. We seem to be moving further and further, whether by design or lack of accountability, from the local authorities delivering. I see big offices being built all over the country and rents being paid by the approved housing bodies.”
“It is the one project that I would have praised to high heaven, that was working well and was actually giving value for money. It might not have been the value for money the Department official looked at on the Excel sheet, but when we work it out, the bang for buck the State was getting, the square footage in the second-hand market and the ability to house people without upsetting them and leaving them in their communities was second-to-none value. The HFA's clear mission under the 1981 Act lends itself the financial basis for raising funds, through the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, from international partners such as the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe. I ask the Minister of State to consider adding some additional proposals to the Bill in advance of its passage.”
“They thought they had their forever homes, deals had been done, in some cases contracts had been signed and the people are still left in limbo six and seven months later. People are ringing my office to ask if I have heard anything from the local authority or if I know anything about what is happening in their cases and whether they will be able to stay in the houses. Not just those people, but the people who entered the negotiations for the deal and contract are also ringing. That has to be sorted out. I have to agree with my colleague in Sinn Féin who mentioned the tenant in situ scheme earlier. We had an opportunity in the recent budget to increase it, fix it and right the wrongs this Government and the Department of housing created.”
“In response to my colleague's last comment about common-sense thinking on planning, I think he will find in Ireland that common sense does not apply to planning agencies and planning permission being granted at the moment. He is 100% correct. It needs an entire overhaul. I will support this Bill on Second Stage to keep the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, operating without interruption. This is a matter of great importance to families who are waiting for a home. The lifting of statutory borrowing limits is a technical step, but it will avoid a hard stop, similar to the hard stop that happened not so long ago with the tenant in situ scheme, which was an absolute thundering disgrace. It was wrong. There are still people in Cork city and county and across the country who have suffered because of the tenant in situ scheme.”