Máire Devine
Dublin South-Central · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“We women need to have the opportunity to know this, to be informed and to walk away before it is too late. I wholeheartedly commend Jennie's loving brother, Jason, for his dedication and tenacity pursuing the establishment of this domestic violence register. We also had David French in here a couple of weeks ago as well.”
“It is an emotion we all have - falling in love. It is a promise. It is life-affirming, with a possibility of leading to a life partner. It is a wonderful human emotion.”
“The original proposed scope of convictions to be included on the register was too narrowly limited to only physical violence. We know there are many other types that are committed in intimate relationships.”
“I concur with them and therefore I support Committee Stage amendments Nos. 5, 6 and 7, as submitted by my Sinn Féin colleague, which extend the length of registration to five years. I also support amendment No.”
“This is a sensitive, vitally important piece of legislation and has the potential to affect for the good everyone on our island. Jennie was a young, vibrant woman; a daughter, a mother and a sister who believed she had found a life partner but suffered the heartbreak of knowing that he was not who he seemed to be and he took her life - a…”
“There is a timed amendment on this legislation, which would allow a simple and practical issue that somebody cannot live next door, on the same street or in the same neighbourhood as their abuser. It is a no-brainer.”
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“The insurance companies will say that, where they will not insure, there are exemptions under section 126 of the Consumer Credit Act, while banks will say that insurance companies should be providing insurance. It is a Mexican stand-off. People are denied mortgages for not having mortgage protection insurance and are quoted extortionate premiums. Many people do know that they can argue the case with the bank. I welcome this legislation and we will be supporting it, but I ask the Minister of State to take those issues on board.”
“I believe that, eventually, due to that woman bravely speaking out and political pressure, she was offered coverage, but nobody should have to go down that route. This leads me to another area. It is not often that lending is the greatest barrier. As in the story I mentioned, the issue is often in accessing the mortgage protection insurance. This is where we need to be careful to ensure the legislation has the intended effect. Not only must people not be denied coverage, but we also need to ensure they are offered fair and affordable premiums. If someone gets an offer but the monthly cost is extortionate, then the barrier to accessing mortgages will remain. This issue is sometimes kicked around between the banks and the insurance companies. The approach is hands-off and that it is somebody else's problem.”
“A year after the first all-clear from a doctor should be more than enough. People need to be able to move on with their lives, especially with lives they felt had been threatened. We have to think about why we are only talking about cancer. There are many serious medical conditions that mean people cannot access mortgages, either because the banks will not lend or insurance companies will not provide the insurance banks require to issue a mortgage. My colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh was dealing with a case a couple of years ago where a woman who previously suffered from eating disorders had been denied insurance. She was denied precisely because she was continuing therapy to ensure she did not relapse. She was effectively being punished for doing the right thing, seeking help and staying healthy.”
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a long track record of siding with the banks, including allowing them to sell upwards of 100,000 mortgages to vulture funds, many for no reason and without consent. The families deserve justice there. The banks are allowed to enjoy corporation tax relief while boasting a combined profit of €5 billion last year alone and despite never fully repaying the Irish people for bailing them out. This is an opportunity for the Government to show it is on the side of the ordinary people and not the banks. Ordinary people deserve so much more. Make no mistake, bank and insurance companies do not want this even if they will not say that publicly. If it is to pass, they want it as narrow as possible, with the wait time for a fresh start as long as possible.”
“Insurance companies can choose whether they adhere to the code in each individual case. The long-standing default to self-regulation has not served us well. That voluntary code only applies to mortgage protection insurance, not other types of insurance. That said, the fact that we are looking at this policy area raises many more questions. Are five years cancer free a fair threshold to set for the right to be forgotten? We have to add the difficult years of battling cancer. Only when people are finally cancer free does the clock start, and then they have to wait five years to apply for mortgages. That does not seem right to me. We need to look hard at it. I hope the Government will be sincerely open to looking at how we can go further than what is set out in the Bill.”
“At the outset, we welcome this Bill. Ensuring the right to be forgotten is essential for people who have overcome cancer. For people who face a diagnosis of that kind, purchasing a home might not be the first thing on their mind but shelter and owning a home are so important that many will quickly realise they are facing not only a battle with cancer but, even when they are on the far side of cancer, a battle to simply be treated like everyone else by the banks and insurance companies that are the modern gatekeepers of home ownership. We welcome the Bill and the Government can be assured of our support. In many ways, this is long overdue. We saw France introduce legislation almost a decade ago. In Ireland, we saw a voluntary code recently adopted by the insurance industry.”
“We must fight relentlessly for people's right to be respected and stand firm to ensure that the damaging discourse which has prevailed and which is rearing its ugly head across the world does not become mainstreamed in our society. We celebrate Ireland's progress towards a more accepting and compassionate society, but we must redouble our efforts to stamp out homophobia, biphobia and transphobia whenever and wherever they arise. Sinn Féin will continue to stand against those who seek to marginalise, undermine and divide people's solidarity.”
“It is also a jubilant celebration of how far we have home that our queer community members are free to love and marry who they wish without fear of persecution by means of laws that would render them unequal members of our society and to have the intrinsic right to live authentic lies. Sinn Féin unequivocally condemns attacks on the LGBTQ community. We wholly reject hateful rhetoric in Ireland and overseas. We are proud to have presented early gender recognition legislation in May 2013 and to have introduced in the Thirty-fourth Dáil a Bill which would exonerate all who were convicted under Ireland's unjust anti-homosexuality laws. We urge all TDs to support Deputy Ó Snodaigh's Bill, which is currently on Second Stage.”
“The laws to which I referred at the outset were also used to imprison our very own Oscar Wilde. This was the background to the first Pride march in Dublin in June 1983. Society at that time was largely fearful of people it did not understand and victimised them through the use of dehumanising laws inherited from Britain. Beyond these archaic laws were families, friends, colleagues and employers who may have spewed the hateful rhetoric that terrified people into remaining quiet and closeted or suffering self-loathing at being unable to change who they were. This is precisely why Pride is both a protest and a celebration. It is a protest at the unjustness of centuries of persecution, horrific violence and hatred.”
“The ruling caused public outrage and led to one of the earliest and largest demonstrations in support of gay rights on the streets of Dublin. The Flynn family described the decision as an insult. Declan's father stated, "They walked out of court free but my son cannot walk out of Glasnevin." It would be ten years after these murders before homosexuality in Ireland was decriminalised following Herculean efforts on the part of and led by the then Senator, David Norris, and the former commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, my friend Kieran Rose. However, the legislation introduced at the time did not expunge convictions. Research by the Irish historian Diarmaid Ferriter shows that hundreds of men were jailed for homosexual offences.”
“The judge who handed down the sentence in that case said he believed John enticed the killer to take part in homosexual acts and stated, "After engaging in these acts you were likely to feel hostility and revulsion". The day after Mr. Roche's killing, Declan Flynn was killed by teenagers in Fairview Park in north Dublin, who specifically targeted him and others because of their sexuality. It was queer-bashing. Declan was not their first victim that summer; not by far. They had beaten as many as 20 men in the previous six weeks, but Declan was their first killing. In their statements presented in court in 1983, they described themselves as vigilantes and indicated that they believed they were serving justice for the good of society. Mr. Flynn's killers received suspended sentences.”
“I grew up in a very republican household. I was taught well by my father the values of service to the community and inclusion. I see parallels with Pride and the LGBT community in our country. Our queer comrades were oppressed by means of unfair laws, church doctrine and social stigma. The first Pride march in Dublin took place in June 1983 amid a culture of violence perpetrated against vulnerable segments of Irish society and emphasised by the murders of Charles Self, John Roche and Declan Flynn in the few months prior. On 21 January 1982, Charles Self, an openly gay man, was brutally murdered at his home in south Dublin. He was found dead at the foot of the stairs having been stabbed 14 times and strangled. His murderer has never been found. John Roche was also stabbed to death in a frenzied attack Cork city because he was gay.”
“This is a rising emergency in Ireland due to depictions of harmful behaviour which are clearly adversely affecting thousands of young people across Ireland. For the sake of us all, of us we must wholly reject the disrespectful and violent discourse being spread in many online forms and instead rapidly adopt a culture of 100% intolerance. Let us be known globally known as a society that will not tolerate this.”
“Girls curious about sex believe strangulation is a part of intimacy to which they must submit. I have had these conversations with girls who have been frightened and disturbed. The definition of intimacy is skewed completely by strangulation. Strangulation is identified by An Garda Síochána as a significant factor for homicide among women, but even non-fatal strangulation carries dangerous outcomes, including acquired brain injuries, seizures, paralysis and psychological impacts. Strangulation is one of the most common causes of stroke in women under 40 years of age. We should explore a complete ban on strangulation porn in Ireland, as done elsewhere, along with drastically changing public perceptions of women and girls.”
“There is no truly safe way to strangle somebody. Videos on how to breath play safely, which sounds innocuous, are being normalised. We need hard-hitting messages to reach our men and boys who start accessing porn by the age of 11. This is not breath play. There is nothing playful about it. There is reason to be alarmed. We have seen a fivefold increase in a single decade of strangulation sex. It has grown rapidly from niche to mainstream because pornography is normalising it as part of sex. Such horrific depictions of extreme aggression effectively become our people's sex education. Consensual discussion is welcome, but is undermined by porn and, tragically, easy access to violent porn is grooming our boys into being unwitting sexual perpetrators.”
“The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's recent report on public perceptions of domestic violence show that our young boys and men are developing alarming attitudes to women in a break with their older counterparts. This should set off alarm bells for all of us, and we must all be leaders and shoulder the responsibility of changing our society for the better. One way we could do this is by exploring a ban on strangulation pornography. Recent research published by the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute director, Ruth Breslin, indicates that our young people are presenting themselves at accident and emergency departments with strokes, seizures and brain injuries due to acts seen in extreme strangulation porn. It is free, heavily promoted and easily accessible online by anybody with a connected device. Let me be clear.”
“Until we acknowledge that Irish society actively facilitates this abuse and attitudes, and has done for centuries, nothing will change. Ireland is experiencing high volumes of reports of intimate partner violence at truly alarming rates. Our society must adapt to achieve the eradication of this violence and the demeaning attitude towards women and girls which is spreading via disgustingly misogynistic online discourse. Instead of knowing popstars by their first names, we now know survivors and victims, the Aislings, the Sophies, the Natashas, the Nikitas and so many more. We know others by the legislation named after them, such as Jennies's law and Valerie's law.”
“I would like to greet the survivors of domestic, intimate partner, sexual and gender-based violence in the Gallery as well as those at home. Some of you may not be able to pursue justice through our legal system for myriad reasons. We see you and we stand with you always. Every one of us knows a victim of crime in this very broad category, including behaviour which might not previously have been recognised as coercive control, revenge porn and marital rape. Consider that every single person in Ireland knows a victim. They are our friends, neighbours, family members and colleagues. There are more legislative means we can and will employ to help them, but perhaps the most important is to undertake a complete shift in culture and mindset. We can enact as many laws as we want, and we have, but that has not shifted the dial. Let us face facts.”
“Thirty-three children in the GAA Palestine club were due to travel. I know he is very aware of the issue as a lot of my colleagues have raised it. Seven days prior to travel, they were told they need to provide more information and it has been quite devastating and upsetting for the coaches, for the hosts, for both Deputy Ó Snodaigh and me and for the Good Counsel club in Drimnagh, which is hosting them. I have sent all the relevant information to the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan. There is a very regrettable mix-up and we will just leave it there for now. My ask today is that the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, meet the GAA organisers and support them in resolving this as soon as possible. Please let them play.”
“The Minister of State's avoidant response reminds one of the sarcastic expression that has been around since the 1920s, "What's that got to do with the price of bread?" A cost-of-living package is essential. Please provide one.”
“If a typical family of four were paying €120 per week on groceries before Covid, then the annual price increase is now crippling and hard-earned money does not go far. Where exactly does the increase go? We have seen Tesco's stock prices increase by 30% and SuperValu's stock by nearly 61%, well outpacing prospective market index increase rates, while farmers are getting squeezed. We need transparency. The Social Democrats are calling for this. We need accountability. Food banks are experiencing a massive increase in demand and more children are living in poverty and homelessness than ever before. It is shameful. What we see around our city is shameful.”
“The cost of every single aspect of life in Ireland has been on a constant upward trajectory since Covid arrived in 2020. Yes, we can point to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a cause for the increase in energy costs, which in turn caused food prices to increase around the world, but when energy costs eventually decreased, our food and goods prices did not follow. Supply costs are impacted by the global climate emergency, yet Ireland is not making the efforts necessary to meet its climate goals. A family in my constituency recently talked to me. They are choosing between insuring their home or their health or putting food on the table. The price of everything have gone up, in particular milk, butter and other dairy products. Prices overall have increased by over 30%.”
“That is the word on the street and that is what the Government needs to be careful of. Who owns this country? What are the Government's priorities for this nation? The rule of the wealthy has been imposed on the people, who are the owners of this nation. Our national treasure, Kilmainham Gaol, was let go. It nearly went to rubble until good volunteers, both men and women, stormed the gates in the 1960s and took it back. The Government will not do the same to the GPO so it should not think about it. It should say it is sorry and put its hands up yet again.”
“For "the faceless men who for Mark and Dollar betray her to the highest bidder". The Government welcomed, encouraged and relied on the hedge funds and created a market that has gone completely bonkers. Foreign investors now hold hundreds of billions in property and our resources with no restrictions and no tax. We have sold enough of Ireland to be but strangers in it. We see the consequences all around us. Some 15,000 people are homeless. Rents are skyrocketing. Lives are being lived precariously as homes become commodities. Did the Government ever stop to ask what it has done? It has given the elites what they ask for. It has bended the knee to the god of profit and damned the people of no property. The members of the Government would almost sell their own grannies.”
“Deputy Geoghegan called this a "charade". Ouch; that really hurt. I ask for respect. For what died the sons, and probably daughters, of Róisín? Luke Kelly wrote the poem on the 50th anniversary of the Rising in 1966. It reflected on where Ireland had arrived since Easter 1916. It was a lament of the direction this nation took, opting to shift towards a dominant capitalist society, often at the expense of our cultural identity and social well-being. Sixty years hence, the shift has solidified, arriving today at the "For Sale" sign posted outside the GPO. It is an insulting attack on our national identity and an erosion of our cultural heritage and sense of ourselves - who we are, what our build is and what our make-up is like. For what indeed died the sons of Róisín?”
“It is still about the bottom line. We will all grow old, and this former staff member hopes divine justice will prevail for the many who passed away during her time in the care facility. We need to do something.”
“When she spoke out, management was very dismissive and considered her the enemy within. Her breaking point was when a gentleman was prematurely and unnecessarily placed in palliative care. This happened to several patients. Staff, during conversations with patients' families, pushed palliative care as a preferable option and, of course, family members listened to the experts. HIQA was notified on multiple occasions about specific abuses, the lack of supplies and understaffing resulting in residents' mistreatment but did not act. Everything went swimmingly when HIQA visited, but the chaotic and neglectful norm would return. She left this job feeling very distressed and traumatised. She believes all three campuses should be shut down. Everybody needs someone who has his or her back. There is no heart or compassion in this nursing home.”
“I know of a mammy who retrained after having children and received a healthcare assistant qualification. She was delighted to get a position in Beneavin Manor. Her delight quickly turned to despair as she witnessed horrors beyond comprehension. Patients were taken to the toilet by staff and left for hours only to die there, and the times and manner of death were brushed over for families. There were many instances of vulnerable patients physically fighting among each other and staff were not trained in de-escalation. Sexual assaults between residents were never reported or addressed and, even more disturbing, staff members were caught engaging in sexual activity in a resident's room. Many staff members took drugs during shifts and even offered her some. Patients were underfed and would be starving and crying.”
“Why is the HSE not adhering to its national consent policy and established case law to respect a patient's choice to seek a second opinion?”
“In my first six months as a TD, I have been asked to intervene in four emergency mental health cases for constituents in Dublin South-Central. Three were for severe eating disorders where the patient's family feared for their survival if appropriate treatment was not provided immediately. The fourth acute patient simply sought a second medical opinion but was discouraged by the HSE at every stage. In all cases, the patients and their families felt they were not being heard by treating physicians and the scenarios were so dire I had to involve a Minister of State's office to procure emergency mental health attention and specialist assessment for the patients. Patients with life-threatening illnesses are having difficulty obtaining appropriate care. I am asking for an update on specialists in the eating disorder section.”
“We need them by our side, as was said. We need men and boys too. There has to be more we can do in this regard, but it all seems to be waiting and waiting. I do not think we, them, boys, men, girls and women, have that time. I urge the Minister of State, therefore, to complete these actions sooner. It is a question of respect and care. Do we as a society actually respect survivors who often risk everything to come forward to seek justice? Do we care about the welfare of our fellow human beings? If we decide we do respect survivors and do care for them and for our society, we must ban the use of counselling notes in court settings in a robust manner that can withstand legal challenge.”
“We are here to discuss it, amend it and do what needs doing to it, but we are not here to wait 12 months for it to happen. We need Valerie's law, Jennie's law, and child protection, but again we have been waiting and waiting. In the meantime, I am getting updates from Factiva every Monday of every case where a woman or a girl has been attacked or where there has been sentencing. It is growing in volume. Every Monday on Factiva, I am getting pages and pages of it. The service searches the Internet, the courts and everything. This type of crime just seems to be growing. The attitude of young men is quite frightening. There is also the attitude of the contagion taking place, as we said about Ballymena and Larne, and about our own places in Dublin, including in Dublin 8, where young men are on the rampage.”
“In the back of my mind, though, is this niggle about whether I might be allowing the perpetrator further sadistic-type gratification if he, and it usually is a he, were to get hold of such counselling notes. It is a question that makes me pause sometimes, and I should not have to do it and neither should any of the victims who seek help to survive. It is long overdue that we would eradicate the fear our justice system is imposing on brave survivors. Let us recognise counselling notes as a private and therapeutic space rather than as evidence. The Minister of State outlined the violence against women and girls and so much that needs to be done, including so much legislation, by this Government and us as legislators. Deputy Coppinger has given the Government an almost perfect Bill.”
“As a psychiatric nurse, I know the pathway when I am referring constituents who come to me with this trauma. Recently a teenager, just gone 18, had trauma for several years in the context of being groomed for violation. Anyhow, we will not go into that here. I was telling her the pathway to counselling, what she should expect and all that sort of stuff but in the back of my mind there was always the niggle regarding whether I might be sending her down a road that could be more traumatic than what she had been talking to me about. I am very protective of her yet I know she needs to offload in a very safe space, to be, as I said, herself and to be able to speak freely.”
“There is no requirement that survivors be notified of their use so this woman would have been unexpectedly confronted by this in a sentencing hearing and the preparator gaining access to her intimate thoughts via those notes. She was so afraid of this likelihood that she decided to forgo seeking therapy all together until after the sentencing. She told me she felt severe retraumatisation by the justice system. These survivors are often subject to victim blaming tactics from defence lawyers and allowing access to counselling notes further perpetuates this practice. Survivors need to feel secure that their healing journey is truly private and that therapy is a safe space for them to be completely honest, raw and open. This is the entire point of therapy. No one can progress without that total honesty to themselves in a safe space.”
“As Sinn Féin's junior spokesperson on domestic and gender violence, I meet with many survivors who are all highly critical of the practice and legality of their counselling session notes being used in court settings. They universally described feeling violated and revictimised by the seizure of their private thoughts via their therapy notes. One woman whose abuser pleaded guilty immediately upon his arrest still had to wait two years before his sentencing hearings, and her counselling notes during those two years could have been subject to use in sentencing, even though there would be no trial. It does not make sense.”
“Céad míle fáilte to all those in the Gallery, who are back again. I thank sincerely an Teachta Coppinger for bringing this Bill to the Dáil on Second Stage. Her dedication to survivors is quite clear in the legislation she authors and this should be recognised. I cannot say the same for the Government. To block this proposal is unsettling and one questions why. Due process, yes indeed, but as many of us will outline, due process can be achieved without tearing and ripping apart people's, in this case mostly women's and girls', private thoughts and private spaces. Why is the Minister of State saying that a well worded, well researched and well overdue Bill needs to wait at least another 12 months?”
“She has had nothing but trouble with the boiler, the heating and the water supply. The property requires additional remedial works and might possibly require a completely new heating system. There have been delays that lead to deterioration, the broken windows syndrome, or the nail that lost the horse. Budgeting for voids maintenance needs to be realistic rather than aspirational. The Government is causing councils and, in some cases, tenants to pay for serious repairs in order to keep their homes livable and safe. Deputy Gould has done the maths. He is giving the Minister a quick win here. If I were him, I would take it.”
“Dublin City Council has 362 vacant homes that residents urgently need to be returned to the available housing stock. Of the approximately €50,000 needed to fully refurbish a council home, central government is funding only about 20%. Has the Minister heard of index-linked funding? Is this a deliberate decision of neglect? The voids return programme must be revoked in order to provide a quicker turnaround for bringing social housing stock into use and an appropriate budget must be calculated to make this happen. The lack of appropriate funding can lead to inadequate repairs or the construction equivalent of trying to put a plaster on a bleeding head wound. One constituent in Inchicore, Dublin 8, was allocated her home in March. It had been void for more than a year.”
“Tragically, my husband has recently experienced heart-related health issues directly caused by the pressure and anxiety of our housing crisis. This is no longer a housing issue. It has become a serious threat to our well-being. They have applied for hundreds of houses but with no replies, with a notice to quit only a month away. I want the Minister of State to answer one simple question. Why has the tenant in situ ceased? At face value, if a house in Crumlin is around the €400,000 mark, that will be paid back within 13 or 14 years. It will go back into the housing stock and, more importantly, it gives security to families and individuals. It protects communities and health and well-being. It prevents the trauma of homelessness and moving for children. It is, conversely, value for money.”
“The tenant's position on the housing list is over 500, meaning it would take decades to place her. She said: You will be well aware of the dire housing situation in Dublin. To find suitable accommodation is next to impossible. I am extremely concerned, desperate in fact. I find it hard to believe that after 14 years living, working, paying taxes in Dublin and being in the same apartment - my home - that it has come to this. Everything has stopped for me. I find myself paralysed with fear and anxiety and I am asking you for help. Please help. Separately, a family of six in Crumlin face homelessness after 15 years in the property. They tell me: The situation has placed an unbearable amount of stress on us all.”
“Most of this Government's housing policy has thrown renters around the country, and in particular in my area of the inner city and Dublin South-Central, under the bus. However, the peculiar decision to severely limit a successful programme, the tenant in situ programme, seems to be the Government driving the bus over my constituents. Why the Minister would cut the legs from under this popular programme, which has helped so many people, is a mystery. I will tell the Minister of State about just a few of the constituents who have contacted me recently and would be massively helped by a fully funded and functioning tenant in situ scheme. One woman in the Liberties has lived in the same property for nearly 14 years. They only served a notice to quit and contacted DCC in November 2024 to offer the unit for tenant in situ.”
“The HSE and the disability services are under so much pressure that it is impossible to complete assessments within the legally-mandated six month period. It takes more than 12 months before an assessment even gets to the desk of a clinical psychologist in the children's disability network. There is not enough trained staff on these teams to do the assessment and most assessments of need are outsourced privately at a cost to taxpayers. Tightening the deadlines further will just mean more pressure on staff, more outsourcing, further clogging of courts and no services. This is what is so gravely wrong with assessments of need. There is a law but no resources to implement it and perhaps not the determination. Disability services need a complete overhaul. We must address the disconnect between CAMHS and disability in all.”
“I welcome Mark and his family here. The family named her well as her name is Cara, a friend, and she has become a true friend to not just her brothers but to many in this country hoping for change and the delivery of care that the Government has failed to do. It has failed the children in my constituency and across this nation. It is a clear breach of the Disability Act and more than 15,000 children have overdue assessments. The Government has had 20 years to correct this but all we get are phrases like "we look to", "we endeavour", "we should" and "we plan" ad nauseam . Over 20 years, I am sure it might be a bit tired of saying the same things again but not tired enough to deliver change. My constituents regularly contact me with frustration and anxiety over severely delayed assessments of need for their children.”
“is the secret of changing society over the long term." The Minister has said she intends to launch a survey of primary school communities shortly on parents' preference regarding the ethos of schools. We cannot afford to delay this any longer. It must be undertaken immediately in order to implement desperately needed changes for the children of Ireland. I will be voting for Deputy Cummins's and the Social Democrats' motion and against the amendment.”
“In Dublin South-Central, the constituency I share with Deputy Cummins, the Educate Dublin 8 group has been working towards the objective of establishing a new secondary school in Dublin which is inclusive and multidenominational. However, due to lack of availability in the area, nearly half the children in the area are taking a bus out of their area to ten schools elsewhere. They need a school in their own community. A survey by the Yellow Flag Programme found that a quarter of post-primary students feel their ethnic or cultural identity is not reflected in the classroom. Multidenominational schools can help address the deficiency of inclusivity. The Ombudsman for Children, Dr. Niall Muldoon, for whom I have a great respect, stated, "Having children and young people driving inclusion ...”
“There is a great sense of safety in the school and a great sense of creativity. In my party's manifesto in 2024, we commited to developing a strategy to support existing and emerging demands for increased diversification of patronage in schools. The Government's 2020 programme for Government committed to having 400 non-denominational and multidenominational schools by the end of the decade but this commitment is curiously missing from the 2025 programme. The Government is out of step with our communities in this respect. I am disappointed by the proposed amendment, which dilutes everything. Yesterday, Deputy Jen Cummins presented a session with Educate Together, which has opened 50 multidenominational schools since 2013. No new Educate Together schools are planned, however, despite extremely high demand.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Cummins for bringing this motion to the Dáil. It is a topic I hold dear to my heart. In my personal experience with my own children, I had little choice when I lived in Belfast prior to the Good Friday Agreement. I sent my children to the local Catholic school, particularly for protection at that time, given what was going on and the attacks on schools. It was for safety purposes. When I returned to Dublin with my young family, I wanted a more diverse education for my children. A group of us parents went about setting up the Griffith Barracks multidenominational educational setting. It involved a lot of hard work and some novel actions being taken by parents who just wanted a different approach. I shout out to them. I am very proud of that school, which has grown enormously.”
“I am committed to delivering for the families of Ireland. Sinn Féin is committed and I insist Government parties now show their commitment as well. Do not languish and leave parents languishing also.”
“Ireland is, again, not prioritising women and not helping and supporting them with their children. The low pay for educators and the withdrawal from a career results in women who are less financially stable and more dependent on their partners' income. In Dublin 8, where a monthly rent for a two-bedroom gaff averages €2,600, how can the Government expect parents to manage? It also affects pensions later in life. I support the affordable €10 per day public childcare model put forward before the November election by Sinn Féin, which the Minister and the Government parties mimicked in their promises but have since drawn back from in their programme for Government. These is no surprise there in an astonishing line of broken promises. Although there are other less flattering words for it, I will call it a "broken promise".”