Marie Sherlock
Dublin Central · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is why I want to see our local authorities moving from being just bystanders that license waste collection companies to actually controlling how the service is delivered.”
“That is why I want to pay tribute to all the people who are here today, including Stoneybatter Pride of Place, Phibsboro Village Tidy Towns and all the people working within their communities to keep them clean.”
“Panda’s parent company, Beauparc, sold for €1.3 billion in 2021 to an Australian investment firm. It is also co-owned by a US private equity firm. They are not in Ireland for the good of their health. They are here because they know they can make serious money. We know Greyhound’s parent company is registered on the Isle of Man.”
“The other important thing to say is that we did not hear any new ideas today, and I say that with the greatest respect to the Minister of State. We did not hear any ideas with regard to the profound challenges we have regarding our plateauing recycling rates and all the other issues that are there. That is disappointing.”
“I pay tribute to a lot of the work that many officials and workers in Dublin City Council do because, in some ways, their hands are tied behind their back. They recognise the issue with regard to landlord responsibility. I am very disappointed to hear the Minister of State's comments about landlord responsibility.”
“Dublin City Council was able to negotiate for the installation of ten-tonne compactors in the commercial areas, yet when it came to the residential areas, I understand the council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems, but to no avail. That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system.”
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“I wish the Minister and the Minister of State well in their new roles. I think I said to them that they have the shortest titles but probably the biggest responsibilities in the Government. I join others in saying that we need the Minister and the Ministers of State to do well. For our part, we will do everything to try to support the work they are doing to get the positive health outcomes that we need in this country. The list is endless in terms of what we could say when talking about longer, healthier lives but I am conscious that those advocating on behalf of people who suffer from rare diseases were in Leinster House today. What is critical for them is support for research and, crucially, access to new drugs in the market. Daffodil day is just a month away.”
“Is every member of An Garda Síochána given specialist training? If they are, is that training trauma informed and based on victims' experience? My understanding is that this is not the case and that there is no specialist training for trainees, probationers or those answering 999 calls in our community.”
“It is unforgivable, in this day and age, that we are forcing women who are fleeing with their children to go through the additional trauma of having to travel miles every day for work or school. I think of the woman in Cabra who had to go to Coolock. When she timed out of the refuge there, she had to go to Stepaside. She was travelling for an hour and a half every day to her child to school and then had to walk around the streets of Dublin because she could not get back to the refuge. She then had to be back at the school to collect her child in the afternoon. That is unforgivable. That certain counties do not have refuges is a huge issue, but in Dublin we also have a massive shortage of refuge places. I also want to raise the issue of the specialist training for gardaí responding to 999 calls.”
“Back then we were told we needed one refuge place for every 10,000 people. We had 131 refuge places in 2011. In 2024, that number had barely crawled up to 159. That is absolutely despicable. What is worse is that it does not represent any meaningful increase. In terms of the number of refuges in Ireland, we are just about running to stand still, particularly as the population has increased by more than 805,000 in the intervening period. The programme for Government contains commitments, which we welcome, but so did previous programmes. Those commitments were not met. The promises now are way off what is needed. We cannot just go about acknowledging the increased numbers of barring orders and those reporting violence and not make the provision accordingly.”
“I thank Deputy Coppinger for tabling the motion, which I very much welcome. I pay tribute to all in the Gallery for their campaigning and strength because the experiences many of them have had come from the most appalling circumstances. I thank the survivors for all they do to bring to our attention the appalling reality of this matter. In a report from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre last year, Sarah Benson put it very starkly when she stated that, statistically, the most dangerous place for women is in their own homes. The nightmare of abuse and violence will most commonly come from the hands of a current or former intimate male partner. Yet, when women finally make the enormous decision to leave, there are so few places for them to go. It has been 14 years since Ireland signed up to the Istanbul Convention.”
“Many of them are burned out because of the chilling effect of the pay and numbers strategy. Too many are telling me of the enormous strain and toll of knowing that far too many children are waiting. We all know that weeks and months matter in a child’s life. I am particularly pleased to a former Minister for Education is now in this role as Minister with responsibility for children and disability. When she was Minister for Education, the Department oversaw a situation where schools with preschools were forced to end their licences to make way for special classes. We all welcome special classes, but the impact was that children who were in receipt of AIMS support overnight had nothing. There was no communication between the Department of Education and the Department of children. That has to change. That is my appeal to the Minister today.”
“I am hearing that in my own area, in IHA Dublin north county and Dublin north city and west, there is no longer any HSE assessment of need team. We know that the figures in that area are going up, not down. There are 2,890 waiting for first contact from a disability team, which is up from the previous figures of 2,779. What is happening? We know the figures right across the country are going up, not down. I welcome what the Minister said about plans relating to graduate recruitment. However, we are hearing nothing about retention, which is the critical issue within our CDNTs across the country. Staff in CDNTs tell me that the teams cannot recruit directly, the national panel does not work and they cannot access flexible or part-time work arrangements.”
“I am aware of one case of a 13-year-old boy who had to wait approximately 15 months for assistive technology in his secondary school, even though the health service and the education services had known since the boy was three about the extent of his needs. For the thousands of families out there who are going through this daily torture of having to fight tooth and nail for their child, they do not want to hear sympathy from us; they want action. Some 18 months ago, the Government announced six regional assessment teams to try to bring down the huge numbers waiting for assessment of need, in light of the breach of the six-month legislative requirement for the assessment. We were told these would be publicly funded, not privately funded, and that they would be run by the HSE. By now we were to have 60 AON hubs.”
“I wish the Minister well in her new role. When it comes to children with additional needs in this country, the word that appears in almost every single conversation is “wait”. There are waiting lists to be assessed of three to four years in my own area; waiting lists then for the therapies and supports of another three years; and waiting for a place in a school because God forbid there would be a straightforward system in place to match children with additional needs with the places that exist. When the children do get a place, there is a further wait to have the health services and education system talk to each other so basic services like assistive technology can be put in place.”
“With regard to recruitment and retention, we cannot afford the exodus we are seeing in so many parts of our health sector.”
“I asked the Taoiseach about it earlier and asked him whether he was committed to pay parity. He said he was, but section 39 workers need to be convinced of that. We need to ensure the pay rates of section 39 workers are tied to those of section 38 workers, such that we do not have the nonsense that happens every few years whereby a pay negotiation must happen to let section 39 workers catch up. The reality is that care workers who do overnight shifts earn less than the minimum wage. I ask the Minister of State to put her political heft behind ensuring section 39 workers are given the dignity and respect they deserve for the crucial work they undertake, because we need every single mental health worker to stay in his or her job and to be looked after.”
“We are being told publicly by the HSE that the recruitment freeze has been lifted, and on the ground we are hearing about a very different context. The second key issue I want to raise with regard to recruitment concerns the section 39 workers. We know that the backbone of mental health services in this country is comprised of section 39 organisations. They feel a real sense of disrespect because of the lack of pay parity between them and workers doing the exact same job in section 38 organisations. I very much welcome that the pay negotiations are going to recommence but there is concern over whether the Government will really push for pay parity. We had a very clear statement in Fianna Fáil's manifesto that it would pursue pay parity. Fine Gael did the same but the concept disappeared from the programme for Government.”
“She has been denied because the reality of the HSE pay and numbers strategy it that it has imposed an appalling chill effect on any type of flexibility and innovation with regard to managing existing staff. I am aware that the recruitment restrictions have been lifted, in theory, but we are not seeing the results in practice. We know that about 700 psychiatric nurse vacancies were effectively wiped out or disappeared because of the pay and numbers strategy. That is wrong. It is wrong in a sector in which we know there are major shortages. Let me give a specific example. Linn Dara, which operates out of Cherry Orchard, Ballyfermot, got a derogation in May 2024 for 14 posts. A significant number of those posts have been filled but there are no contracts forthcoming. What is happening?”
“It is an issue the Government has failed on right across the health sector. I am thinking, in particular, of a psychologist I met about six months ago who works in one of the biggest mental health providers in the State. She is 55 and has considerable experience but is burnt out because of the massive waiting lists and the enormous toll and strain of knowing, day in, day out, that she cannot meet the demand that exists because she operates in a service that is under-resourced. She loves her job and is totally committed to doing what she has done for the past 30 years. She wants to work part-time so she can sustainably continue working, but she has been refused this.”
“We all know the existing legislation is badly in need of reform. It is 24 years old and in need of updating, so we will not be found wanting in trying to progress it through the Houses. However, as we all know, the legislative reform will have very limited meaningful impact if our mental health services are not properly staffed. I sincerely welcome the introduction of the mental health clinical programmes over recent years, but the reality, certainly from late last year – I do not know whether my figures are as up to date as they should be – is that we know we were about 40 teams short across mental health clinical programmes, ADHD, dual diagnosis, early intervention for psychosis, and eating disorders. That points to a series of major issues with regard to how professionals in this area are recruited and retained.”
“I pay tribute to Jigsaw and Spunout, in particular, and the other community-based mental health services, which are doing brilliant work across this country. However, we need more of this work in our communities. When I examine the breakdown of the mental health budget – I am the new spokesperson on health for the Labour Party and am still trying to find my way around it – and when it appears that 12.2% or so is spent on CAMHS, I conclude we do not seem to have any great clarity as to how the rest of the budget is being spent. That needs to change. With regard to CAMHS itself and its regulation, I want to put on record our very firm and clear support for the mental health bill and its necessity and urgency. We urge the Minister of State to press on with it as fast as possible.”
“I absolutely understand that we have to fix the parts of the broken system in parts of the country; however, the eye has been taken off the ball in recent years in ensuring a more comprehensive system of early interventions. While I hear what the Minister of State said about more funding, the reality is that we are still very far from where we need to be with early interventions across every county and community. Consequently, we are condemning young people and their families to unnecessary mental distress and, of course, preventable mental health circumstances that become crises. This requires more investment in mental health in schools, communities and higher education settings. We absolutely need more investment in community-based mental health services.”
“The Minister of State referred to a figure of over 600. I did a quick tot. The figures we had available for the period up to August last year show 941 children were waiting 12 months or more for a CAMHS appointment. The eligibility criteria for CAMHS are often too narrow. We see that interagency integration and co-operation are piecemeal. I have encountered families whose children's needs are too great for primary care but they do not meet the criteria for CAMHS. They are left with nowhere to go. The Minister of State knows this as well as we do. Behind all this is a model of care that fails to adequately recognise the value and potential of early intervention. We all very much recognise the need for better functioning and much better resourced CAMHS.”
“From talking to so many families in my constituency, Dublin Central, I know overcrowding, cramped conditions, fear of eviction and eviction itself all have a ravaging, long-term impact on so many children, despite the brilliant efforts of parents and their wider families to try to shield them from the anxiety of it all. Unfortunately, it is up to the Minister of State, her Ministry and her Department to make proper provision to deal with the psychological impact of the failure of the previous Government and, indeed, some of its predecessors to provide adequate housing and put services in place to deal with the overall deterioration of mental health services. Unfortunately, we currently have a system that is under-resourced, overstretched and, to my mind, in need of immediate reform. The waiting times are scandalously long.”
“Some of these results are related to the Covid-19 pandemic, but we know from talking to teachers and mental health professionals that those impacts are still being felt in our classrooms and communities. When we add in the housing crisis, there is a devastating impact on thousands of families and a ticking time bomb in terms of the mental health of so many of our young people. In 2019, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland published research that showed that 40% of homeless children experience clinically significant mental health and behavioural difficulties, are more likely to need clinical care and are at greater risk of bullying. As we all know, the number of homeless children has gone up dramatically since then, not down.”
“I genuinely wish the Minister of State well on her reappointment. We all need her to succeed in her role. To many of us, the decline in the mental health of our young people in this country is one of the biggest health, social and economic challenges of our time. The research states that approximately 50% of us will experience mental health difficulties at a particular point in our lives, but for young people the figures are truly terrifying. I am struck by surveys undertaken by the RCSI in 2021, which found that a quarter of all adolescents described their mental health as bad or very bad, more than a third reported self-harming in their lifetime, and one in ten or 10% had attempted suicide.”
“While I welcome that section 39 talks will recommence, will the Taoiseach commit to pay parity for section 39 workers and workers in the same roles in section 38 organisations in this country? In its general election manifesto, Fianna Fáil said that, if in government, it would aim to achieve pay parity with the public sector for section 39 staff. Fine Gael said the exact same. I am asking the Taoiseach a straight question. Does he still stand by that or has the position changed? Is he going to once and for all end the insult to these workers or is he going to break that promise to the people?”
“We need to know the Government's plans for waste management in this country because it is not clear from the programme for Government. There is a bigger need with regard to the task force for housing-----”
“When will the Government publish its response to the Dublin city task force report? Last October, the Tánaiste said that the interdepartmental working group would report back before the end of the year and would provide timelines for the plan's recommendations. What is that timeline? Is the Government committed to all ten of the big ideas, as the previous Government was? Recommendation No. 6 called for a move towards a single waste management provider in the city centre via the tender process. The Tánaiste wrote about the desperate need for a change in how we address waste in this city. Last week, it was announced that the only State-run waste management company in the country is about to be sold off by Bord na Móna.”
“To be frank, the Taoiseach sneered at those proposals. The culprit is now private investment. Next year there will be somebody else to blame. We all want to build more homes, but for whom? That is a critical difference between the Government side of the House and ours. We want to build homes for ordinary working people, not line the pockets of institutional funds.”
“Unfortunately, the area I represent has been a microcosm of all of the experiments that have gone so badly wrong. First was the tax incentives for student accommodation, and we saw a rush of money into that. We then had co-living, which was thought to be the great new way of housing young workers. Thankfully, that ended in 2022. We then had build to rent, which was another way to reduce apartment standards and introduce thousands of apartments to the area while ensuring that nobody could ever buy. Thankfully, that experiment has ended. The latest wheeze from the Taoiseach is to try to bring in more tax incentives. It is akin to changing the goalposts. Last year, the handwringing was all about capacity. The Labour Party has brought forward proposals with regard to a State construction company.”
“When we had an uproar about the bulk purchase of homes in Maynooth three years ago, nobody cared about apartment dwellers. We have a set of planning constraints, tax and higher stamp duty for the bulk purchase of houses, but nothing for hubs. That is condemning a generation of people in Dublin and other area urban areas across the country to long-term insecure renting. There is a way to ensure more social and affordable homes are built. The Land Development Agency, LDA, has identified 33 acres in my constituency that lie empty. We heard nothing from the Taoiseach about that over the weekend. In our motion, the Labour Party calls for an end to the disastrous experimentation that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have unleashed in this country since 2016.”
“We know there are about 1,000 long-term vacant units between the canals which could be turned into homes if the political will was there. We have a long-term vacant homes tax that is not worth the paper it is written on. That could be changed. There could be changes to CPO laws, but we heard nothing from the Taoiseach about that over the weekend. There is a way in which newly built homes could be made available for purchase. If the private sector cannot viably build apartments for purchase, then the State must step in. The horror of what the Taoiseach is now proposing is to condemn a generation of people to insecure renting and astronomical rents. That is the reality of what we have here. There is a great hypocrisy at work.”
“A Rubicon has been crossed in this country, whereby even a salary of €100,000 and savings in the bank of €40,000 are not enough to get a mortgage for a three-bedroom house in two thirds of the postcodes in Dublin. If that is the case for those who have done well and have a great salary, what hope do our young people have when they are starting out? What hope does anybody trapped in low-paid employment or those paying massive childcare costs have when trying to look for a mortgage? There is an inequality in housing in the city, in terms of who controls the land and the destiny of so many families. It is in the gift of the Government to change that. We in the Labour Party believe there is another way. In the constituency I represent, Dublin Central, very clear actions could be taken. There could be aggressive tackling of dereliction.”
“How is it in 21st-century Ireland, when we are into our ninth year of eye-watering budget surpluses with, of course, the exception of the pandemic, that securing an affordable and sustainable home for so many people is largely down to luck? It is down to luck in terms of the family one is born into and whether the bank of Mam and Dad will be able to help with a deposit. More than one third of people in this country are relying on their parents for help with a deposit. It is down to luck in terms of whether one has a partner or is married, because if one is single and trying to buy a home in this country, good luck. It is down to luck in terms of when one was born. Even when wages were a fraction of what they are now, it was possible to buy a home.”
“It is not good enough or acceptable that the State and the Department of children would stand by and let this happen. There needs to be a much greater look at the governance of how early years services are run but also at the responsibilities of the Department in terms of being able to ensure the continued provision of early years education across every community in this country.”
“They are brilliantly run and if there is a difficulty they engage with all the supports provided by Pobal and the Department. However, a few do not and the current set-up is a stark reminder that we have a lot of public money going into a privately-run sector. Indeed, the Minister of State said that the decision by a service to close is ultimately a private business matter with which the Department cannot interfere. The question must be asked as to whether that is good enough. We are calling on the Minister to instigate change here because with the right to State funding there must be a responsibility on the provider and on the State. No child should suffer a gap in early years education. That is what is going to happen here if that afternoon session closes, not for every child but for some children.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that reply. I had not intended going into the details of the particular situation I raised with the Department last week, but just to be clear, the management is meeting with parents tonight. The meeting is not with staff. In fact, that takes a whole other week. It is perhaps a reflection of the disrespect to staff in this particular matter. The other crucial point is that the Department has been misinformed. The reality is that there are people who can only accept an afternoon service and what they are being offered is a morning service. It is important to put that on the record. Returning to the wider point about the powers of intervention, for many of the brilliant services out there the discussion we are having this evening is largely irrelevant.”
“There are of course high standards for every early years service. The reality then is that a community can be left without a service. The context here is that Stoneybatter suffered a loss of 105 preschool places in just a 12-month period. We have not seen the replacement of those places in the area. Indeed, those losses happened because of the actions of the former Department of the current Minister for children. A diktat from the Department of Education meant the licences of early years services within primary schools had to be terminated. In one instance, a room was left empty for eight months. I look forward to the response from the Minister of State, but I hope there will be some progress in terms of an intervention.”
“The First 5 strategy document for babies and young children is a wonderful Government strategy that is full of ambition. Objective 8 is dedicated to children having access to safe, high-quality developmentally appropriate integrated early learning and care, but where is the real commitment by the Department to these children if it is prepared to allow children go without a vital ECCE service for weeks or months at what is a vital time in their lives? The implication here is that if a service closes for whatever reason, there is no immediate replacement. We know from talking to Pobal that at a bare minimum, even if a new service comes into an existing premises, we are looking at about six months before that service can reopen. That is unacceptable. Of course Tusla has to be engaged in a very detailed registration process.”
“It should have been 30 days but because there is a whole range of sensitivities around the issue - I am not going to name the service - thankfully a two-week extension has been granted. The crucial point here is that if a closure of an ECCE service or session is announced, Pobal and the Department are effectively left powerless to act. They can offer supports and there is a sustainability fund in place, but at the end of the day if the management of a service decides to close, the State can do nothing to intervene. To me, that is not good enough. If a primary school or a secondary school gets into difficulty, there are very clear powers conveyed by the State to intervene. The State recognises the crucial importance of continued provision of primary and secondary education, but for early years services there is nothing.”
“We know that €331 million is being spent by the State in this year alone in core funding across almost 4,200 early years services. There is an unprecedented €1.37 billion in total funding to the sector this year. Despite this badly needed money, I have come to believe that the Department of children has far too little oversight over the governance structures of the early years services it funds. By extension, it is a shocking indictment of the Department that no powers of intervention exist when a service finds itself in difficulty. I am currently witnessing a situation in Dublin 7, where a preschool service has announced the closure of an ECCE session with just eight days notice to parents and staff. There is a whole series of issues with regard to the notice.”
“I start by offering my support to all those providing an early years service in this country. I pay tribute to all those staff and providers who go in day in, day out to do their very best for the families they look after. I am conscious that there are huge frustrations in the sector about core funding, wages and bureaucracy. Many service providers tell me they are running unviable services. Despite all these issues, they go in and provide a brilliant and much-needed service across every community in this country. I raise the issue here of services that are experiencing difficulties and specifically the powers of intervention and the resources to be made available by the Department of children to those services.”
“Not only is this an issue for the Government in procrastinating on the occupied territories Bill, but there are also major questions here for the Central Bank of Ireland. Last year on 4 December, the Central Bank defended its licensing of the sale of Israeli bonds in this country - bonds that are actively sold and marketed as being designed to pay for the war in Gaza. The Central Bank of Ireland stated that it is not bound by the July ruling, the advisory opinion, of the International Court of Justice last year. I listened to the Tánaiste talk about the importance of that ruling.”
“To put it in context when we talk about the prioritisation of jobs at all cost, in this country a food business is shut down if there is a food safety issue involving people's actual lives and that, of course, means the taking of jobs. A construction company would be taken to court and the directors barred if they were found to be engaged in serious breaches of health and safety legislation. That would be more jobs gone. However, when it comes to big business - when it comes to American business - we are told that we have to proceed with caution. It is simply unacceptable. For as long as our State hides behind words and plays up rhetoric about the hypothetical damage to trade, business and jobs, we have no moral ground to stand on.”
“A bully in the White House who just last night issued an effective licence for the Israeli Government and its acolytes to go in and finish the job of ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip; a job that they started 16 months ago. I listened to the Taoiseach today talk about protecting jobs and protecting workers. We all want to protect jobs and workers, but at what cost? If he is truly saying that business in Ireland trumps everything else and is above people's human rights and their lives, then we have no moral ground to stand on. Indeed, it is the movement of workers, the trade union movement in this country, that has been to the fore in campaigning for the rights of the Palestinian people over many decades and has been supportive of Senator Black and all those campaigning for the enactments of the occupied territories Bill.”
“The reality is that the trade with the illegal settlements amounts to only €0.5 million to €1 million per year. It is a tiny fraction of the overall value of Irish-Israeli trade. Banning the trade of both goods and services from the illegal settlements is the very least we should be doing. Tonight, we should instead be talking about how to dismantle the EU-Israeli trade agreement and yet we are stuck in this place because the Government is afraid to make a brave decision. This Government has a decision to make. Does it want to be remembered as the Government that finally stood up to the plate, or as one that cowered because there is a bully in the White House or because there is a hostile environment towards those who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause within the European Union?”
“Over the past 16 months, so many words of condemnation have been uttered in this Chamber, the Seanad and, indeed, chambers right across this world about the genocidal acts that are taking place by the Israeli Government against the people of Gaza and the Palestinian territories. However, those words did not save the lives of over 64,000 people who were killed. They did not save the lives of aid workers, journalists or medical workers who have been killed by targeted Israeli strikes. They did nothing for the 2 million people displaced into temporary camps, starving and forced to live in squalor. In five, ten or 20 years' time, when people ask us what we did, when our kids ask us what we did to end the slaughter, I fear all we will have are those words. We all know it is deeds, not words, that matter.”
“At a time when democracy is fragile in so many countries and where the veracity of electoral outcomes is being questioned and undermined in so many places, it is worth acknowledging the importance of our electoral system and the results that it produces for our country. I thank Sinn Féin for putting forward this motion this evening. For any of us, when we talk to people within our communities, it is hard to understate the depth of feeling and frustration that is felt by so many people about the failure by this Government and by the EU as a peace project to face down the genocide that is being perpetrated upon the people of Palestine at this point in time.”
“I will start by saying it is a great honour to be able to stand in the Dáil for the first time as a TD for Dublin Central and be able to contribute to this very important debate today. Before I speak directly to the motion, a Cheann Comhairle, I want to say that I know we are two months on from the election and it is very much in the rear-view mirror for many of us now. Many of us, though, are elected because of the nature of our proportional representation with a single transferable vote, PR-STV, electoral system. It reflects the political will of the broadest number of voters.”