Louise O'Reilly
Dublin Fingal West · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I welcome this debate this afternoon and am happy to be able to make a small contribution to it. I grew up in a Border town. I ended up in that town because my father was a trade union organiser who represented workers on both sides of the Border for a long number of years and, in fact, went on to be based in the North for a long time.”
“I am fortunate enough to represent a constituency that is very firmly in the Dublin–Belfast economic corridor. Before partition, as we know, Belfast was a thriving industrial powerhouse. Partition put a lid on the potential of that city to grow and flourish.”
“When we talk about Irish unity, we should frame that discussion as one about potential for growth, the potential for all-Ireland working and all-Ireland business. Between Belfast and Dublin, there are five universities, numerous colleges of further education and training, and businesses that are ready to scale up.”
“As the debate on Irish unity advances, and it is advancing despite what some of the people opposite would like to happen, we need to frame that discussion in a positive way. We need to look clearly for those opportunities while acknowledging the challenges. We are not blind to the challenges.”
“If her letter does not have any impact - let us be honest; it has not had any impact - the Minister of State might outline what he will do that might go a bit further than writing a letter. We know that devices are essential. We know that parents want their kids to be able to participate.”
“I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion. I was chatting to my dad as I was coming in and told him I would be debating this motion in relation to supports for parents this morning. He reminded me, of course, that it was the Labour Party in government that cut those very supports.”
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“In fact, it has been more than well flagged. I raised this issue previously. There is a young child in my constituency by the name of Kaylen, who needs to be in an ASD unit. His mam has contacted 12 schools and had 12 refusals. There is another case of a family which is moving to Balbriggan. They have three children, two of whom have places. One of their kids is due to go into sixth class, but he cannot get a place. They have tried every school. They are waiting to hear back from one and we all have our fingers crossed. They are being asked now if perhaps the child would consider going into fifth class. They are being told that the sixth class in the school is over the limit prescribed by the Department. In fact, five kids would have to leave to make a space for this child. It is really frustrating.”
“I am very privileged and proud to represent the people of the constituency of Dublin Fingal West. We are a very young constituency, one that is growing and expanding. We are also a constituency and a community that faces many challenges. I get that some of the challenges cannot be foreseen. I do not blame the Government for things that are outside its control. However, there is nothing more certain that on the day when a child is born, in approximately five years' time that child will need a place in a primary school, and that same child on their first day in primary school will need a place in secondary school when they leave. Nothing I am about to tell the Minister of State was unpredictable. In no way, shape or form was the Government blindsided by the population growth in north County Dublin.”
“More of the same will not bring the change we need. In the few seconds remaining to me, I will mention Páirc na mBláthanna, one of the Government's so-called affordable housing schemes. The people buying those houses are already paying astronomical prices for them. Phase 1 has been delayed by 14 months. There are people waiting on phases 2 and 3. I have written to the Minister about this, I have tabled parliamentary questions and I have spoken to him. These people need assurance that he has learned from the many mistakes made in phase 1 and that they will not be repeated in phases 2 and 3.”
“It estimated that 770 people would need them. You do not need a degree in maths; a simple working calculator will show you that 770 does not go into 266 no matter how you try to do it. When the Government delivers these so-called affordable homes for my constituents, it charges them over €500,000. Perhaps it is not just a new calculator but a new dictionary that is needed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because €500,000 is in no way affordable and that is the truth. All of this is evidence that the Housing Commission was right when it called for a radical reset. In my constituency, people do not just want a radical reset in housing but desperately need it. They need it because they are trapped in back bedrooms, their children are growing up in hotels or they are renting as they approach retirement and are terrified for their future.”
“The housing list cannot reduce with these policies. The numbers make that clear. If you look at them, you will see that housing policy is not worth the paper it is printed on. The Minister keeps telling us about the people who are priced out of buying a home and what he will do for them. Fingal saw the highest housing price growth in Dublin in 2024. In Balbriggan, house prices increased by 21% from December 2019 to December 2024. That is an addition of €65,000 on top of what was already unaffordable. My constituents therefore turn to the Government's disastrous affordable housing policies. Fingal County Council estimates that 770 families will not qualify for a mortgage and need an affordable home in 2025. The Government told the council to build 237. Last year, the council's target was 266 affordable homes.”
“At the same time, more than 2,000 applications for social housing were received. I am not a mathematician but it is fairly clear that the Minister's targets and figures will do nothing to reduce the social housing list in my constituency. Every year, housing need outstrips the targets, which are not even met. In Balbriggan, children grow up in their granny's back bedroom while their childhood is spent waiting on secure affordable housing. During the last election campaign, I met people who had applied to the social housing waiting list when their children were born. Those same children are now teenagers. They have never known secure permanent accommodation in their entire lives. The Minister's policies in my constituency will make sure another generation of children grow up on waiting lists.”
“I would be interested to know if that is the view of Government or if it is just an individual view. The Housing Commission report called for a radical reset of housing policy. The commission did not do this because it wanted to make life harder for the Government. It did so because Government policy makes life harder for ordinary people. I will outline some numbers for the Minister. I am very concerned that the calculator used by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was broken and that the Minister, Deputy Browne, seems to have inherited it. The target for social homes to be built in Fingal in 2024 was 705 homes. The expected housing need was 765. For 2025, the target is 758 and the expected need is 765. Those numbers do not add up. In 2024, 858 homes were allocated to people on the social housing waiting list.”
“I was not here for all of this debate but I listened to most of it and I heard Deputy Barry Ward refer to home ownership as giving you a stake in society. My God, I do not know what that says about the thousands of young people the Government has locked out of home ownership. It does not give you a stake in society. It is absolutely classist to suggest that it does and that home ownership somehow makes you more equal than other members of society. That view is espoused by Government Members out of one side of their mouth while, out of the other, we hear a housing policy that means the average age at which a person first buys a house has now risen to 39 years of age. Every year that age goes up is on the Government and its policy. That is a simple fact. I was quite taken aback to hear that.”
“A substantial amount of money was paid by the Tánaiste's party or persons in his party to charity regarding an incident concerning a female member of staff. He has been given plenty of chances to answer questions relating to this matter. I ask him to please indicate that he will do so.”
“We know that the Tánaiste's party has carried out an internal investigation into the inappropriate behaviour of a sitting Fine Gael Senator towards a female member of staff working in the Oireachtas. We know that a very substantial sum of money was donated to a charity on foot of the outcome of that investigation. We know also that the Senator in question was selected by the Fine Gael Party and endorsed by the Tánaiste, as its leader, on two occasions after this investigation. What we do not know is what the Tánaiste and senior people in his party knew about this affair. I ask the Tánaiste to answer the serious questions that exist in respect of this matter. Every person who works in the Oireachtas has the right to a safe place to work.”
“Everyone wants to see kids get good quality, decent food. A little increase in the surveillance would be very helpful in that regard.”
“We all saw the Jamie Oliver programmes in England and his war on turkey twizzlers and all of that. We have an opportunity to not let the situation get to that level. I welcome the Minister's commitment to monitoring the system. The Department must be very proactive as a significant amount is being spent here. That buying power should be used to drive up and maintain standards rather than allow standards to slip. It may not be the best idea to wait for complaints to be made; they will come, and I will be happy to channel them in to the Department. I agree with increasing the number of schools inspected from 400 so that schools and providers know there is a high likelihood they are going to be assessed. At the moment there is a very low likelihood of that happening. No one wants to see the standards slip.”
“Increasing the number to be assessed is important, as is eliminating the use of catch-all phrases like "pasta sauce". The ingredients should be known. As I have said, for some kids, these meals represent a significant proportion of the food they will eat in any one day.”
“Irish Country Living has found that traceability of the food can be poor and that ingredients are often just listed as "pasta sauce" on the website. This has been widely reported in the media. We also know that the same amount of funding, €3.20 per meal, and the same portion sizes are given to children from junior infants right up to sixth class. That should be looked at because children's nutritional needs change and grow as they get older. I am concerned that of the 2,200 schools availing of the scheme, only 400 will be assessed this year. That is a fraction. I absolutely respect the Minister's bona fides and I know that, if he says this will be a priority, it will be but I wonder how that information will get to him. It is not an efficient system for him to wait for complaints to be made.”
“We understand the importance of the school meals programme but it is equally important that when kids are availing of this programme, the food is decent, of good quality, healthy and nutritious. I know from talking to teachers in my constituency that, for some kids, these meals may represent a significant proportion of the food they eat on any given day. It is important that those standards are upheld.”
“If this Government does run its full term, and I think I am not the only person in this State who wishes that it will not, is he saying definitively that by its end the means test for carers will be abolished? Is he confident that will be the case? That is the kind of rhetoric that he and his party engaged in during the run up to the election.”
“According to Family Carers Ireland, three in four of the family carers it surveyed indicated that the people they support do not receive sufficient formal support and 72% had never received any respite. The Minister should think about how his words will sound to a person who is stuck at home and does not have access to respite, as is the case for most people. As the Minister knows, that is because the waiting lists are chronic and the lack of staff is causing severe distress for people. The Minister gave a commitment that it would be phased back and he is walking it back now and saying he will do his best in negotiations and the budget has to be negotiated. Will he give an indication of how he will get it phased out?”
“The figure of €3 billion, as the Minister said, refers to where every single person doing any kind of caring declares themselves. The Minister knows that will not be the figure, so it is a red herring that has been put out there. The Minister needs to be clear that this is a commitment given by the Government and that it will be done by the end of the Dáil term. That is not what he said in his reply. He said he might try. Carers deserve that commitment. They save the State approximately €20 billion each year. The State needs them and they need to know the Minister will look after them.”
“I will have to substantially redefine my understanding of what a significant commitment means if that is what the Minister believes it means. I asked for a detailed timeline and what I got instead from the Minister was a very watery indication that he might at some point do something. We talked at lot about this during the election. The commitment was given and carers need to know it will happen. In March 2024, the previous Minister announced an interdepartmental group on carers. I have not seen its report, if it has been published. As of last week, I had not seen it. That report needs to be published. If it has not been published, can the Minister commit to its publication? The Minister referred to a figure of €3 billion. We all read that figure in the media. I have not seen a detailed breakdown.”
“This is a subject we discussed at length during the most recent election. I am pleased that, due to pressure from the organisations representing carers and from members of the Opposition, including my party, the two parties that now make up two thirds of the Government committed to the abolition of the means test for carers. As yet, we do not have a detailed timeline in relation to that. My question relates to the means by which this will be done, and the timeline.”
“Some consideration might be given to setting up a high-level group to troubleshoot those cases, all of which will be individual. I genuinely do not think we will be looking at large numbers. However, we are talking about people who have suffered real and extreme hardship. As the Minister said, grief does not discriminate. These people were bereaved and they found themselves on the wrong side of a law that was very unequal and unfair.”
“With regard to backdating, my concern is not just in respect of the case taken by John O'Meara. There are cases in the system that predate the judgment. Will the Minister give some consideration to those people, as well as people who are experiencing issues on an individual basis? I do not imagine the numbers will be huge. However, we have seen a large increase in the number of cohabiting couples. This issue needs to be fixed for the future. I imagine that, looking back, we are not talking about a huge number of people, but we could be talking about an awful lot of hardship. I understand the logic of backdating to the date of the judgment but there will be cases that are in the system and it would not be fair to those people to tell them they must go all the way to the Supreme Court to get the backdating.”
“I know it is not lost on the Minister, as is often said, that the Department would be quick enough to go after people if they owed money back to the State. I hope he will address the matter of backdating. According to Treoir, there are people in this situation who have had to sell their homes in order to keep themselves afloat.”
“The Minister's news is very welcome. If he could put a date on "imminently", it would be even more welcome. He referenced the case taken by John O'Meara. In the aftermath of that case, which he won, Mr. O'Meara was reported as saying, "We are all equal as regards families." However, all families will not be equal until the legislation goes through. This will impact on 150,000 cohabiting couples. I am dealing with cases in my office, as I am sure the Minister is, where people are grieving following the death of their cohabiting partner. When they try to claim whatever form of social welfare they might be entitled to, they find their assessment is based on the previous year, when they had two incomes. The system is very dismissive of their grief. Their relationship - their family - is real, yet the State does not recognise it.”
“I welcome the Minister and wish him the very best in his new role. I very much look forward to working with him in a constructive way, which, as he knows from our previous engagements, is how I work. I will not say it is my trademark; I am sure he knows what I mean. My question is a very straightforward one. It relates to the Supreme Court judgment issued in January 2024. I am looking for information on the timeline for legislation. If the Minister would also speak a little on backdating of payments, that would be useful.”
“I spoke to my constituency affairs manager this morning before I came in here and we are dealing with multiple cases of people who have safety orders or protection orders but who are forced to live in the same house as their abuser. I would like the Minister of State to consider what it would be like to go home every single evening because you have no choice and nowhere else to go and must return to your abuser. This issue needs to be tackled because the interaction between domestic abuse and homelessness is making life dangerous and intolerable for victims and survivors.”
“She had been on the housing list for seven years in Dublin city at that stage. When he was sent to prison, she moved as far away as she could get while still remaining in her workplace. She moved to north County Dublin. Now, she finds herself in a situation where she is high up on the Dublin City Council housing list. She is absolutely terrified she will be offered a house because it will be in a place where her abuser, now released from prison, will be living. I have gone from the Garda to the council to the domestic violence agency and around and around but I cannot find anybody to deal with this issue. The problem, when there is interaction between domestic abuse and the homeless crisis the Government has created, is that there needs to be a senior decision-maker who can assist.”
“I welcome the victims, survivors and their families in the Gallery. I thank Deputy Coppinger and her group for bringing forward this motion and providing us with the opportunity to have this important discussion. In November last year, Focus Ireland published a report which found domestic violence is a significant factor in making mothers and their children homeless. I will, if I can, illustrate this point by using just two of the many examples I am dealing with now in my office. I take this opportunity to remind the Minister of State that in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West we do not, as yet, have a domestic violence refuge. I am dealing with a woman, whom I will not name for reasons of her own health and safety, who was very seriously assaulted by her partner around seven years ago.”
“The Minister said that talks are ongoing at the WRC. I welcome that, but I have attended those talks so unless there are people from her Department at senior level who are empowered to take decisions, those talks will fail as talks have previously failed. They need finance. They need senior decision-makers. The unions are absolutely up for the negotiation. The people who depend on the services absolutely need it. What we need from the Minister and the Government is to give the negotiators the wherewithal to resolve this and a path to parity for section 39 and other workers.”
“She recognised that there is an issue with pay, but she did not use the word "parity". Before I came into the House, I was a full-time union organiser and I happened to be a member of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. When Brendan Howlin was Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform at the time and was absolutely decimating, and I mean seriously kicking the living daylights out of, the section 39 sector, we could see that unless there was a pathway back for those people to pay restoration, which was not forthcoming from the Government - I can tell the Minister that because I was in those rooms - they would fall behind and they have. Therefore, the mistakes that were made by the Fine Gael-Labour Government are still being paid for now by people with disabilities.”
“There is one very small example, which I have raised several times, that really sums up the situation for me. A person living with a disability who lives along the train line in, say, north county Dublin, has to inform Irish Rail 24 hours in advance if he or she is a wheelchair user and wants to use the train. I mean, come on, Minister; it is 2025. If that is not infantilising behaviour, I do not know what is. People must know 24 hours in advance. How are people supposed to hold down a job? How are people supposed to respond to the needs of everyday living if they need to know 24 hours in advance if they are going to need to use the train? It is beyond ridiculous. The Minister also spoke about the need to focus on recruitment for section 39 agencies, but she did not use the word "parity".”
“I wish both the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and Minister all the best in their new respective roles. In her opening remarks, the Minister referred to a renewed sense of optimism. That optimism really not shared by people with disabilities in my constituency because they are living with the consequences of the policies of the Government parties and their attitude to persons with disabilities. They tell me that they are close to losing hope. With the greatest of respect, the Minister's remarks are not going to do much to restore that hope for them. We have a situation whereby, effectively, the people themselves are not disabled; society disables them. They are disabled by the fact that they cannot live full lives. They cannot thrive or reach their potential because there are barriers in their way.”
“It is apparently ‘compulsory’ for a child that is 6 years of age to go to school. If my child was neurotypical and I wasn’t sending him to school, social services would be at my door and rightly so. However, because my child is neurodivergent, has different educational needs, I as a parent must scramble along with other parents to get 1 place that’s on offer in a school? My child has been let down in every sense of the word from this State. He was let down in receiving developmental checks that were constantly cancelled ... He was let down in receiving services & therapies I was told are CRUCIAL to his development. It is now in the Minister's hands to say whether or not Kaylen will be let down once again.”
“She says: He has gotten 12 refusals from schools so far and also refused from the 2 special schools as the reports I have for Kaylen don’t specifically say they recommend a special school. To get this report I must get a new cognitive assessment, which costs anywhere from €800. In September 2024 I had to pay for an up to date educational report, which cost €200. This is money people do not have but must spend for a very basic entitlement the Minister should be providing for their children. Of eight primary schools in Balbriggan, only four have autism classes. Jodie, Kaylen's mam, says: My son and all children like my son deserve better than this. They have a right to an education. All of the hard work and effort Kaylen has done in his ASD preschool will be undone should he be at home with me for months or up to a year again.”
“I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, for bringing this motion forward this evening. I represent one of the youngest constituencies in this State. There is an urgent and desperate need for more spaces for kids with additional needs in Dublin Fingal West. I want to talk to the Minister about Kaylen. Kaylen is a lovely bright five-year-old boy. His mam is Jodie and he lives in Balbriggan. In 2022, Kaylen was diagnosed with ASD and GDD along with other delays deemed severe. Kaylen is currently non-verbal but he is as mischievous as anything. He is a very lovely child. Kaylen currently attends an ASD preschool. It is his last year there. In preparation for that, his mam has applied to 14 schools with autism classes and to two special schools.”
“I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Chris O'Sullivan, to take a message back to his senior colleague which is that his housing policies are making my constituents sick and that those constituents that are sick are getting sicker. We need a change of policy not more defence of the Government's nonsense figures, and most definitely not more lauding of Housing for All, which is clearly not working.”
“What are the options?" It is awful to have to tell someone that, unfortunately, they may have to look at emergency accommodation, because they know what such accommodation is. In fact, for decades we have been looking at documentaries about the hell that is emergency accommodation. It is bad for a single person, very bad for a young person, awful for an older person and disgusting for a family with children. Can the Minister of State even imagine what it would be like to be raising his kids in a hotel room? We should perhaps think about that. I fully appreciate that the senior Minister cannot always be here, but it is somewhat disrespectful that he could not find time to be here. I respect the fact that he may have had another meeting but, again, this is the very start of a new Dáil term and already we can see patterns emerging.”
“She cannot transition out of an inappropriate location into appropriate housing, although she is waiting years. Her family have been watching her suffer in pain for years. The Minister of State can imagine how she feels when she hears him and others say that the Government is going to build 40,000 houses. That was until we subsequently found out that he got that figure from the same place as the lads in Anglo Irish Bank got theirs. It is utterly disrespectful that the Government has not had the decency to apologise to people like my constituent who is being made sick by its policies. I have lost count, as has Marian, of the number of cases we are dealing with of people who are out this year. When they ring us they all have the same question, which is: "Where will I go?”
“I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion. I also take a few moments of my time to thank my colleague an Teachta Ó Broin for the honest, straightforward solutions and focused proposals he has consistently put forward. Before I came in here, I called Marian, who is my constituency manager. I got her to run through just the cases that have come in during the last couple of days. One concerns a woman I met myself. She has multiple sclerosis and has been on the housing list for 14 years. It has been seven years since she was granted medical priority. Her living conditions in her home, the place where she is living now and in receipt of HAP, are making her condition worse. The Government's housing policy is making her sick.”
“I urge the Minister to support the motion and send an important message to those communities who feel they have been forgotten by the Government. People have been left for days and weeks with no connectivity, completely cut off, like Emma Ward, who I have spoken about previously. Emma needs power for her wheelchair. She said she had never felt so forgotten in all her life as while she waited and waited. She could not use her power wheelchair and could not get to college. It effectively meant she was cut off completely. She said to the Government directly that she had never felt so forgotten in all her life. The Minister well knows how young people with disabilities are treated by the Government and the State so he can imagine how Emma felt when she said she had never felt so forgotten in her life.”
“While neither the Government nor any State agency can predict the exact pathway and detail in advance, we know extreme weather events are the inevitable result of climate change. The Government cannot claim to have been surprised by an extreme weather event because it knows these weather events will occur. Now we come to the Government's favourite part of every crisis - the lessons that have to be learned. We have heard it from its spokespersons again and again in the aftermath of any storm or extreme weather event. "Lessons will be learned", they say. Maybe someone can explain why the lessons learned from Storm Babet were not incorporated into the response to Storm Éowyn. The humanitarian assistance scheme, HAS, should include businesses, sporting clubs and voluntary organisations, as well as community groups impacted by the storm.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I commend the men and women of the emergency services, ESB, Uisce Éireann crews and council staff, all of whom worked tirelessly to deal with the aftermath of the most recent storm. I say a special word of thanks to volunteers from the GAA and other sports clubs, community centres and men's and women's sheds and all sorts of groups who came together and worked hard to set up community hubs and bring a small piece of relief to communities left devastated by the aftermath of the storm. Thankfully, for most people impacted by any storm, the ordeal ends without too much delay; for some, however, it endures. For many, it endures for far too long.”
“Skerries and Balbriggan in my constituency are the only two towns in Dublin to be left out of the Dublin central commuter zone. Maynooth, which is in Kildare, and Bray, which is in Wicklow, find themselves in the zone. This means for my constituents an additional potential €440 every year just for the pleasure of taking overcrowded transport to their workplaces in Dublin and beyond. The programme for Government commits to developing sustainable transport options in the growing commuter belt. I live in and represent the growing commuter belt and I do not know how the Minister can square that commitment with heaping even more charges on my constituents. It is deeply frustrating when we see that towns outside Dublin will be included in this zone, while my constituents, who are Dubs living in Dublin, are left out.”
“The leader of the Fine Gael Party, Simon Harris, must come into the Dáil to make a statement about his party's investigation into Senator Martin Conway for inappropriate behaviour to a female staff member. We have written to the Ceann Comhairle to request that time be set aside for the Tánaiste to do just this. We know there was an investigation by Fine Gael, but what we do not know is what Simon Harris knew or when he knew it. We also know from media reports that a sum of €10,000 was made in payment. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will agree with me that a sum of €10,000 suggests a very serious incident. We are entitled to know what happened-----”
“This is what happens when the lads spend all of their time obsessing over who is getting what job, how many high chairs can fit around a reasonably sized Cabinet table, and who is getting the car or the half-car. Just so two more men are not disappointed, we are told there will be some sort of timeshare arrangement for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle role. All the while, carers, workers on low wages and people who cannot afford to rent or buy are left wondering why they are not a priority. Opposition is about holding the Government to account - it got a lesson in that this week. That is something we fully intend to do.”
“Sure why would you? There is no mention of the right to organise for workers. That is someone else's problem and certainly not one this Government is going to be willing to deal with. There is also no mention of the living wage, and this actually did surprise me because, ordinarily, workers on a low income do get some sort of a mention in the programme for Government when the parties of the right come together to compose one. However, there was not even a very low level of meaningless soundbites regarding the minimum wage. In fact, it is not mentioned in it at all. We know that women are over-represented in caring roles and low-paid employment. The programme for Government confirms for them exactly where the Government's priorities are; ordinary people, and women in particular, can head to the back of the queue.”
“We not only have strong women here in this Chamber and are led by a strong woman but we also have a pipeline of strong women. We have Aoife Masterson and Niamh Whelan, as well as women like Kourtney Kenny, strong, young, Republican women who are building and preparing. When my time in politics comes to an end, I will be proud to step back and know I have not pulled the ladder up behind me and that I have left open a pathway for these strong, capable, talented, Republican women to come forward. With so many lads promoted by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Lowry Government, it will come as a surprise to nobody to see that the programme for Government falls well short of what we might expect from a progressive or even a halfway decent Government. There is no timeline to abolish the cruel means test for the carers allowance.”
“It went on to say that Fine Gael has demonstrated leadership in female political representation. Some 66 of the Fine Gael councillors elected in June were women. For every three men who sit on a council for Fine Gael, one woman has a seat. This is less than 30% of its candidates who are women. I suppose, though, if the party is comparing itself to Fianna Fáil, it probably thinks it is flying. Fianna Fáil ran the lowest percentage of women and to absolutely nobody's surprise the party elected the lowest share of women. It had 197 men elected and 51 women elected. Women represent 52% of the population, but you would not think it because they only represent about 20% of Fianna Fáil. My party elected almost 40% women in November and in June.”
“The question is whether the Government looked at its options. Did Micheál Martin and Simon Harris purposely ignore women of talent or did they simply not have enough women of talent to promote? One of these has to be true. There either are women of talent who are being prevented from coming forward or there are no women of talent. Either way, there is a problem within this Government and that is writ very large all over the programme for Government. Fine Gael leads the way with the greatest number of women councillors elected. You would think that was satire, would you not? You genuinely would. You would think it was something out of Waterford Whispers News , but actually this was a headline from one of the party's press releases issued in June.”
“The formation of this Government left people under absolutely no illusion. This was a Government formed to keep the old boys club alive and well. A record number of jobs were given to as many men as possible. For every five seats at Cabinet, one is taken by a woman. They are outnumbered and I would go so far as to say completely overlooked. The Taoiseach then claimed he would sort this out. He was going to sort his mess by using the unprecedented number of Ministers of State he was hoping to have at his fingertips. What message do we think this sends to young women? It is that the senior jobs are for the boys, but do not worry, we will give you a little consolation prize later. The Ministers of State were then announced and the Government did not even manage to do that. I was asked recently why I thought this was.”