Mark Duffy
Labour Panel · Fine Gael · Ireland
“I thank the Minister of State for being here on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and for her detailed reply. While it is disappointing to hear the news here, at least it provides clarity and certainty for the project promoters and, indeed, staff and various stakeholders involved, many of whom have been in touch with me and are really…”
“I call on Bord na Móna, which has powered the community down through the years but is at risk of dividing the community now, to step up and engage effectively with the community. It should not be using community volunteers as a front to push its own agenda.”
“We should not waste people's time or, indeed, taxpayers' money. The waste there of taxpayers' money resides in the fact that resources are going to be spent elsewhere to offer a medium-term solution, while the longer term solution has gone through the procurement, planning and design stages.”
“-----and acknowledge my sister, Councillor Marie-Thérèse Duffy, in the Visitors Gallery? I thank her for being here, for being willing to replace me on Mayo County Council last year and for her support to date. I appreciate it. I also appreciate the achievement of Mayo GAA, which has really united the county.”
“I acknowledge the community in Crossmolina. I attended a public meeting last night that was attended by over 200 people who are very dissatisfied with the proposals by Bord na Móna to build a route around the town of Crossmolina. Crossmolina has a vibrant, active community. There has been a lack of public consultation on this proposal.”
“I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, for being here to discuss this very important topic. I acknowledge the work the staff of Tusla do in County Mayo and across the country in very challenging circumstances and with very vulnerable people. They respond when others cannot and do not.”
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“I have tried to raise a Commencement matter on this and would like to have the opportunity next week to discuss it with the Minister for housing. There is a crisis throughout the country. I have outlined the challenge faced on the ground. If we do not address it, it will create huge problems across society. I ask that the Minister for housing come here to address this. If there were a cooling-off period for him to reconsider the sign-offs, I would welcome it. If a judicial review is what it takes, that should be carried out to ensure we get people living in houses and address the problem and challenge of the housing crisis in Mayo.”
“Every recommendation and measure we suggested to improve and unlock the housing challenge in each of these towns was rejected by the Office of the Planning Regulator and the Minister. A local area plan for Ballina was signed off on last week but all of the recommendations of the local councillors were rejected. This means Ballina has been set back by approximately 400 to 500 houses. We need to return power and decision-making to councillors, who, being on the ground and in the community, know best. The Northern and Western Regional Assembly identified that Mayo was delivering on 30% of its housing target, based on land zoned, so we need to increase drastically the amount of land zoned, by three times at least, just to ensure we keep up with demand.”
“Through the six years in my role as a county councillor prior to being elected to the Seanad, County Mayo was plagued with the challenge of the housing crisis, which impacted right across the county. In council buildings I sat next to people in desperate domestic situations who were looking for a new lease of life and to get on the housing ladder. At a county development plan level, we are told it is down to our local area plan. I sat on the Northern and Western Regional Assembly and we were told in respect of regional spatial strategies that it goes back to the local area plan. When we had the opportunity to create the Ballina local area plan, similar to Castlebar and Westport, we made multiple submissions to have land zoned in order to unlock the housing crisis in each and every one of these towns.”
“I call on the Minister for sport to engage with us in the Seanad and have a conversation on how we can improve supporting academy players. Since Brexit, League of Ireland players do not travel to the UK until after they are 18 years of age, so there is a great opportunity to invest in our academies and improve the standard and quality of football in Ireland. Multiannual contracts would mean we could have investment in football clubs. It would be brilliant economically and, from a sporting point of view in elevating Irish football, presents a great opportunity. I would welcome a conversation on it.”
“It would create a great opportunity economically and keep our talent and young people on the fields and playing at elite levels. If we invest in supporting initiatives such as the NFL, which is a good example, we also need to invest in League of Ireland academies, potentially through the shared island scheme if the all-island league is something both associations are willing to revisit. The Dutch football consultants we engaged, Hypercube, created the new Champions League format. It has created for us a model that would elevate attendances at games and sporting standards throughout the League of Ireland and in the North. I share in the congratulations to Shamrock Rovers in its exploits in Norway last week and I wish the team well tomorrow night in Tallaght.”
“The reason I bring this up is that before I entered politics I was involved in an initiative to create an all-island league, merging the League of Ireland in the South and the Northern Irish Premiership in the North. It was a group spearheaded by Kieran Lucid. We had former Republic of Ireland manager, Brian Kerr, on our working group, and we had engaged Dutch football consultants, Hypercube. It created a brilliant model that would maintain the autonomy of both leagues, North and South. The model also has an advanced second phase of the competition in the second half of the season, in which both leagues would be able to maintain European places. It is a model that would elevate football throughout the island. Investment in football at grassroots level can have huge bang for your buck.”
“This a moment of great opportunity for Irish sport. This weekend the new League of Ireland season began and I had the good fortune of attending the Bohemians versus Shamrock Rovers game in the Aviva Stadium. It was incredible to see the energy and the enthusiasm and the sheer number of fans who attended. I compliment everyone who was involved in that. Over the weekend 51,000 people attended League of Ireland games in the Premier League division alone. If we compare that with ten years ago, just 18,000 people attended across both the League of Ireland Premier and First divisions. I congratulate my old team mate, John Mountney, who played a great game at left back for Bohemians who kept a clean sheet and got the three points.”
“Each town had local transport plans but, unfortunately, that was used as a tool by local engineers to say they would wait for the local transport plan to come. The local transport plans have been created but are not being funded in the ambitious way that they were supposed to be. It is causing itty-bitty little projects to be delivered as opposed to transformative ones. Along with the safe routes to school, we need to make sure that the new local transport plans are not delivered in piecemeal approaches but are transformative so we can actually consider children cycling to school and people safely commuting, walking and cycling, to school, which is not happening at the moment. There has been much talk, but not delivery, on it. We need to see action from that.”
“This is a key priority that must be delivered, and I am sure the Leader is familiar with it. If it is not under the brief of the Minister for Transport, then the junior Minister should be brought to the House in order that we can have a debate on the investment in and delivery of the western rail corridor within the term of this Government. It is ambitious, but also realistic if we put our collective minds to it. My second point is on an N26 road infrastructure project. It is the gateway to north Mayo and west Sligo, and it has been talked about for 30 years. I encourage a debate on it so we can move from talk to delivery on this project. The previous Government and the previous Minister for Transport made great efforts in terms of public transport and active travel measures. There was great ambition with active travel.”
“I join in congratulating Senator Kyne on his appointment as Leader of the House. I wish him every success and I look forward to working with him. I second Senator Ahearn’s request for a debate with the Minister for Transport. There are a whole swathe of issues in the west of Ireland and projects that urgently need investment and delivery. We need to move on from the stage of talk. There has been much inertia on projects, and a lack of delivery on projects. The western rail corridor, which Senator Cosgrove raised, is a critical piece of infrastructure that needs to be delivered for the west of Ireland. There are 33 km of line in public ownership that were used in the past which urgently require investment to connect the western seaboard if we are serious about supporting rural Ireland and the west of Ireland.”
“I thank former Senators Paddy Burke and Lisa Chambers and congratulate them on their service here. I am the sole Mayo representative in the House. There is strong representation from other counties. I look forward to working with all Members, including the Cathaoirleach, in the years ahead.”
“We know, as councillors who have come up through the ranks and been elected to the Seanad, how important it is to have decision-making right at the heart of community because while many councillors in communities across Ireland are activists and are driving change, they are often doing it with their arms tied behind their backs. We need to resource local authorities and our elected members in every way possible to encourage the next generation of young representatives across Ireland to improve democracy. It is within our gift not only to use our voices but to fight strongly for it so that they are not itty-bitty, incremental changes but are strong, sizeable and demonstrable support and changes to improve local democracy. I look forward to fighting for those and supporting councillors and Senators who want to enable that change.”
“Something we have all heard when knocking on doors around the country is the lack of power and strength at a local government setting. It is something on which the Cathaoirleach has done great work and on which we have engaged as councillors in recent years in the context of the review and reform of local government. This House, however, is a great opportunity to not only advocate for it but also to really fight to ensure we have a whole swathe of changes to bring decision-making and democracy closer to the people on the ground.”
“That will not be in my gift this term, anyway. I congratulate the Cathaoirleach as well as all the Senators from across the Chamber who have been elected or appointed to this House. I have come through three election periods and I thank the people of Mayo who have shown their faith in me in two local elections, a recent general election and in the Seanad election. As we know, our families and friends make such an incredible sacrifice for us to be here in these privileged positions. I thank the people of Mayo, my family and friends and my partner, Sarah, who is in the Public Gallery. She has had great patience over the past nine months with three elections. I thank Sarah for her support along the way. It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge my experience in the past six years in Mayo County Council.”
“First, I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his election. Our connection goes further beyond politics to way back when he soldiered on a Fijian island with my sister, Bernadette, and my brother-in-law, Seán. He has come a long way since then.”