Martin Kenny
Sligo-Leitrim · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“A debate here for a couple of hours is fine, but I remember being involved in some of the deep talks with people in the early days of the peace process. We sat in rooms and talked about reconciliation. I met Garret FitzGerald on many occasions at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.”
“Of course, we have the areas of natural constraint payments that most farmers on this side of the Border avail of. Unfortunately, those payments are no longer available in the North. Sinn Féin has recommended that the payments should be restored. Farmers need support. Brexit took their support away.”
“I welcome this debate. Such a debate has been needed for quite a long time. The reality is that for many people, the issue of the financial implications of Irish unity has been used as a put-down to try to smother or put a stop to argument and debate. This is a welcome way in which we can open that up.”
“I hope Government will reflect on that and recognise that we need to build a process. There is an energy for reunification among ordinary people the length and breadth of the country. This is about the physical constraints, but is also about identity. Many people who live on this island have a British identity.”
“As the Taoiseach is aware, for many years people with mental health issues have been attending emergency departments in our hospitals. Many of them get very poor outcomes. They experience long delays and end up on trolleys. Sometimes they are referred for short-term stays or to community services, which offer little or no service.”
“I appreciate all that and the farmers forum is a positive advancement on things, but we are back to the problem at the very core of this issue, which is that the chair of Bord Bia has been using imported beef from Brazil as part of his mix to sell product.”
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“I am not disagreeing with the Minister in that regard but the difficulty we have is that farmers who want to play ball and work with the system are finding it very difficult to do so because they do not understand it. It is not clear. The Minister said that being "clear and concise" was vital. It has not been made clear to farmers and they are very concerned that they do not know what impact this is going to have on them. That special line that was supposed to be set up needs to be working properly and farmers need to be communicated with. The Department has all the information. It knows every farmer and what their herds are. It knows what categories they fall into. It needs to communicate that across the board to everybody so that, similar to the marts, everybody is clear on where they stand.”
“Farmers selling cattle are unaware of who can buy them and what category they fall into, and it makes them very reticent and concerned about the whole scheme and how it is going to work out for them. The risk of TB is a serious problem for a lot of farmers, particularly when they are in an area where there may have been a number of reactors on farms around them and they are very concerned about it. Of course they want to work with a system that will eradicate TB but they cannot do so if they do not understand it and if it is not clear and concise. That needs to change.”
“I thank the Minister. I appreciate all of that and that there is work being done. The marts have been central to this because that is where a lot of farmers are coming into the situation. They are unaware of what category their cattle fall into when they are going to the mart, and that is a big issue because then they do not know who can buy them. A lot of farmers are finding it very difficult to navigate this whole process. Farm organisations have been very critical of it. The Department was supposed to set up a dedicated helpline that farmers could contact. My understanding is that they are getting no answer to any of the calls they make to that helpline. There is an issue in respect of that and I think it needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.”
“This question relates to the TB action plan. I would like to get an update on it. The new rules came in last month. A lot of farmers and farm organisations have been critical of the level of communication they have received from the Department in regard to the new rules, how it is set out, the new categories and all of that. We need to see very clear communications to ensure that farmers know they are going to be able to fit into this programme. Everybody in the country, particularly everyone in the farming community, wants to see TB eradicated.”
“One of the things many farmers are finding very difficulty to come to terms with is that the two pillars that served us so well for so long are being discarded. We need to look at that. However, the ring-fenced budget lies at the core of it. The budget we have in place for the CAP has to be maintained. In fact, it should really be extended.”
“I appreciate that. We need to develop a strategy around generational renewal which recognises that the older farmer is part of the farm. The previous situations where farmers felt they had an exclusion order and could not go near the place any more if they went into any of these schemes is totally inappropriate. We need to find a way to do this in partnership so we have generational renewal to make farming more profitable and therefore bring more young people into it, while keeping the experience and the sense of being part of it among older farmers and the people who want to stay with it. In regard to the CAP, there are a number of things that arise. Simplification has to happen. There has to be an allocation of funds for active farmers. We have to see the restoration of the two pillars.”
“They come in and may be heading for 80 years of age but they have not applied for the pension yet because they prefer to farm. If they are punished from the point of view of CAP payments, it will be a very difficult situation to resolve.”
“I appreciate that and understand that a great deal of work has to be done. Central to all this will be that period when Ireland holds the Presidency. We need to ensure CAP is properly funded. For many of these situations regarding off-farm income, whether a pension or whatever else, there needs to be a recognition that the vast majority of farmers need an off-farm income to make the farm viable. That is the reality of it. To suggest they would somehow be punished would mean they are punishing agriculture. They are doing the direct opposite of what the CAP is supposed to be about - enhancing the possibility of agriculture being prosperous, doing well and having a future. If they go down that road, it will be very difficult. We often come across farmers in our constituencies who are getting elderly.”
“I want to get an update on CAP negotiations in relation to the proposals from the Commission, which are very concerning for many farmers and people in the food industry. The Commission is talking about a major cut in the funding. We need to do everything to ensure that this does not happen for agriculture in Ireland and across the European Union. We also need to see a big push-back on the notion farmers receiving a pension, off-farm income or whatever else will suffer as a consequence of that. That would be totally inappropriate. I would like to get the Minister's views and an update on that.”
“They would not be able to afford to provide the microgeneration they need to be able to because the subsidies that are in place are simply far too low and totally inadequate to be able to do it. This particular legislation to try to get the regulator to have the teeth to be able to see why we have the highest electricity prices in Europe needs to be put in place. That is why I appeal to the Minister to ensure that he supports what we are doing here and that we all work together to try to hold the energy companies to account. It is simply wrong that Ireland is paying through the nose for the mistakes of others in the past.”
“What we have is a situation where the Government has totally dropped the ball with regard to energy infrastructure. Even when we look at microgeneration, a lot of people are putting solar panels on their homes now; I have put them on my home. People can get a grant. The grant was €1,800 but they cost €9,000. That is the reality for most people who are on a low incomes or even reasonably good incomes. They cannot afford to do it because the grant does not come near where it needs to be in order for people to have that possibility of being able to generate their own power. If they want to put batteries in, it is an awful lot more. We need to recognise that Government needs to step up to the mark and assist people to be able to do that and certainly people who are already paying a mortgage, a car loan and everything else.”
“I commend colleagues on bringing this forward. The reality is that the vast majority of people around the country are finding it very difficult to meet their energy costs. We all know that. We can see it in the arrears. We can see it in the difficulty people are having when it comes to the cost of living across the board. All of this basically stems from energy. That is one of the big issues we have. This country has fallen so far behind where it could have been. I remember when Eamon Ryan was in this House talking about how we were going to be the Saudi Arabia of Europe because there was going to be so much energy produced in Ireland. We do not have the infrastructure to deliver that energy to the people in Ireland never mind export it elsewhere.”
“Many people in the health services are under huge pressure. If the State wants to celebrate nurses, it needs to celebrate everybody in the health service and ensure it deals with this issue in regard to the ambulance services.”
“We need to put the pressure on to ensure we can deliver those staff and ensure we can get an adequate health service that deals with all of these issues. Indeed, my daughter, Claire, said to me that as bad and as difficult as it often is for nurses, they are not the first ones at the scene when there is a car accident or when there is somebody in serious trouble having a heart attack. The first people there are the paramedics who have driven an ambulance to get there. Often, in tragic circumstances when a person is deceased, they have to cut them out of the vehicle. The trauma and difficulty of that and the level of skill they have is not recognised by the level of remuneration. That is why they are on strike today. I visited them today in Ballyshannon, Sligo and Carrick-on-Shannon on my way here.”
“There are those two sides to it. From speaking to her and others in that profession, it is often not recognised to the level it needs to be, particularly because of the stresses they are under. If I talk to nurses and ask what the one thing is that would change things and make them better, they will say more staff - more nurses, more than likely. That is the big pressure that they are under, in many cases. In many cases, they are working in circumstances where logic would tell you there should be three or four working in a ward but there are only two. They are facing real difficulty. That is one of the big issues that needs to be dealt with. It has been mentioned that there are over 5,000 vacancies in the service. That needs to be addressed.”
“If they are talking to others who are considering coming here, they are certainly telling them to think carefully about doing so because it is very difficult for their family to join them. These people are independent. They have their salary, a house and everything they need, yet they find it very difficult. It is an issue that needs to be dealt with. I have personal experience. My daughter, Claire, is a nurse. She has wanted to be a nurse since she was small. As a parent, you always want your children to do well and to be successful in whatever way they can, and to hopefully do better than you do. That is the plan that we always have in life. To be a nurse is something very special. It reflects a caring individual, somebody with humanity and great empathy. They are prepared to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work as well.”
“I am very glad to be here today to speak on behalf of everybody in Ireland and thank the nurses for the work that they do, particularly on International Nurses Day. It strikes me, on this International Nurses Day, that so many of our nurses are international when you walk around the hospitals. I think between one in five and one in six are from overseas. Many of them come here because they have the opportunity to come here. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with. I have spoken to many nurses and other healthcare professionals who have come from overseas with contracts to the HSE. They have families and they want to bring their families here. It is very difficult to do that. That is something that needs to be reassessed because many of these people are reconsidering their options.”
“The Government says that would be given to millionaires and that universal payments are a bad idea. The taxation system should deal with that. Government refuses to look at that. Universal payments would benefit everyone in society but it is an easy way to get money into people's hands. However, a proper, effective and balanced taxation system could then deal with those on the wealthier end. The Government fails in this area every time.”
“If we are to truly prosper and develop as a State and have a future for our children and our children's children, we need to put the resources in now. We need to invest in that future. That investment is clearly not happening. In the here and now, people are under serious pressure to pay the high costs of energy. That is why the Government needs to do something real and substantial. We need to look at the USC, which was introduced by Government as an emergency measure during the crash but which is still there and has not been taken away. We need to remove the USC for the vast majority of workers and put €500 back into their pockets. We need to look at the electricity credits that were there before. We need to reintroduce those energy credits.”
“That is who poverty kicks most, people who have extra payments to make and who face extra costs as a result of a child, elderly person or other family member having a disability. We have seen people talking about adult children with severe and profound disabilities and asking what is going to happen after their deaths. They are all looking at a future where they are going to go over a cliff edge. Government has no answers for them. The only answer Government had in the budget was to bring in tax breaks for the very wealthy and for certain sectors that were able to get the ear of Government. It goes back to the idea that if you are well connected in this country, you have made it, but if you do not, you are on your own.”
“Everybody uses fuel, including people going to work and families bringing children to school or who are dealing with a person with a disability and who have to take them to appointments. All of those people use fuel and nothing was done for them. Neither was anything done for people who depend on home heating oil. I know many people in my community who use home heating oil, even at this time of year. Older people and people whose houses are very cold need to use home heating oil, but Government did nothing for them. It is simply sitting back and saying that, since the sun is shining, everything is fine. It is not fine, however. People are recognising that the Government is quite prepared to leave them behind. As I have mentioned, there are also people with disabilities who are in difficult circumstances.”
“Even then, it only took half measures. I particularly think of the farmers and contractors. I know many people from my community who went out onto the streets to demand that something be done because the cost of living, especially the cost of energy, was putting so much pressure on so many people. While Government talks about targeted measures for the agricultural sector, claimants have to look at the amount of green diesel they used last year, put together all of the invoices and receipts for all of that, and put that in. Five months of documentation is needed. It is a complicated and convoluted way of doing it. Government should simply do what a sensible Government would do and look at bringing down the price at the pumps for everybody.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this Private Member's motion. The vast majority of people recognise that we need the Government to take action to deal with the ever-growing cost-of-living crisis. The previous budget, which was introduced here last October, did absolutely nothing for ordinary people and workers. It was an example of Government spending great deals of money to deliver very little. That has been the experience of hundreds of thousands of people across the State. I listened with interest to the Minister of State's predecessor speaking about delivery and the measures that have been put in place. These measures came as a reaction to the crisis that brought people onto the streets and brought huge turmoil to the country for almost a week. Only then did Government wake up and say that it needed to do something.”
“The emergency is at the other side to try to remove it. I wish to make a point regarding haulage. I have had several haulage companies contact me. It is very difficult to get drivers. An awful lot of them are having to bring drivers in from abroad, particularly from outside of the European Union. The immigration portal that has been set up is an absolute disaster. People are waiting months to get processed and they are waiting months even for renewals. Perhaps that is the something the Minister will raise with the Minister for justice because it is a real problem for people apart from the other crisis that we have regarding costs.”
“The first announcement, which brought down 3 cent off the green diesel, was absolutely laughable. It is welcome that there is a change in that. However, again, it is not this year; it is going back looking at what fuel they used last year and taking five months off that. A whole complicated process has been put in place, which is regrettable. The way to do it is to put it at what people buy today and reduce it for them now. That is what people wanted to see happen. That has not happened. That is one of the most regrettable parts of this. We need to see a mini budget. We need to see something put in place that will deliver for ordinary people. The USC is a clear area where something needs to be done. It was brought in as an emergency years ago but nothing has happened since then. It has been kept. We are well past that emergency now.”
“-----here today, we have not seen it on paper. It would be very useful to get that. Anything that happens that benefits people is welcome, but the problem is that it has been like pulling teeth to get even this far and we have an awful long journey to go to ensure ordinary people can get any sense they are being looked after in all of this. The one thing I found when talking to people out on the protest was that the change they wanted to see was the price coming down at the pump for everybody, not just for the sectors. They thought everybody needed to get it so that the ordinary people who had to travel to work and bring their children to appointments would all benefit as well. So far there has been little for them. That is one of the problems with this package. The agriculture industry has also, of course, been acutely affected.”
“That is the biggest problem with the suite of measures announced by the Government. We would like to get the detail of it. While a lot of it was announced-----”
“First, we all recognise the integral part the haulage industry plays everywhere across the country. In every community around the country there are so many small haulage companies that are usually working on contracts that are very tight and for which there is tight competition. Many people in this House would understand that. When the companies get that contract they have to fulfil it. Very often, if there is any difference in what their costs are compared with what they were projected to be, they are in trouble. That is where a lot of them found themselves, which led to them going out protesting and pleading for help in recent weeks. I met many of the protestors. Farmers, hauliers and ordinary people who had no connection to any of those industries were also there saying they had to get something out of this.”
“That is only about €2 above the minimum wage for work which is very difficult and very hard. There is a real, high responsibility in looking after elderly and sick people, yet they are on that kind of salary and that is the salary which is being offered to them by the State. There needs to be recognition that if we are to get people to do those kind of jobs, we need to pay them properly and the first people that have to pay them properly is the State. If the State and the HSE, which are directly employing workers in this regard, pay adequate and proper wages, the other providers will also have to step up to the mark and pay adequate and proper wages. That has failed to happen. I commend this motion to the House and I hope that Government sits up and listens.”
“So far, Government has failed to do that. The big message in this debate this evening is that the Government needs to step up to the mark here and needs to ensure that we guarantee workers the right to collective bargaining and the right to union access in the workplace, and that wages are something that workers must have to be able to live and to be able to get the kind of services they require across the economy. One of the issues that often comes to light - I am sure in the Minister of State's constituency as well - is where we have people who are looking to get home help, for example, but they cannot get workers. We are told that they are advertising and they cannot get anyone. The reality is that such workers are being paid approximately €16 an hour.”
“That is why it is so important we have trade unions and that more and more workers recognise they would be better off if they were in a trade union. The difficulty is that the employer can just turn their back on that and will not allow trade unions into many workplaces. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with. While Government has this notion that employers, particularly some of the large multinational employers in the country, can somehow or other step outside of the norm, that is not appropriate. We need to have a situation where we guarantee that people who work hard, who get up in the morning very early, who contribute to society and do everything right also have rights, and that those rights are underwritten by the State. That is why the State has to come in to ensure that it underwrites those rights.”
“I commend everyone who has brought forward this motion and all the speakers so far. We have an issue in this country with workers' rights. While I understand the Government may be in denial of that, the fact of the matter is we do not have collective bargaining as a right and that is something which needs to be established as a right. Of course, we enjoy pretty good employment. A lot of employers cannot get workers. That is one of the issues we have across our economy, but we also have an issue where we have a very large number of people who are in precarious employment and do not have the standards that they need to have. Those standards need to be put in place and that will only happen if the State has a firm hand of regulation to ensure they are put in place.”
“If we are going to turn this around the Government has to come up with policies which will actually deal with those issues. The primary one it needs to come up with are policies that deal with ensuring people can build a home in their own community. I have given the Minister the statistics. Go to the DEDs where there are fewer than 35 people per square kilometre, and those are the areas the Government needs to put the emphasis on to ensure we can do something for people who live in rural areas.”
“Last week, the Government brought in a notion it was going to allow people to build a little house at the back of the house, in the garden. Many people in rural areas are asking why they are allowed to build a house behind the house to put the auld pair into, but they cannot build a house for themselves in the field next to it. The Government needs to cop on that that is a problem. We need to recognise that people from rural areas want to come back there. They may go away and get educated and get good jobs and live in the city for a while, but they want to come back and live in their rural area, send their children to the school they went to, and for their children to play with the football club they played for. Policies and opportunity stop them from doing that.”
“Sometimes when you go to a place that is near a town, it has a better population of 35 or 40, but in many of them they are down at the level of 20. When they are down at that level they do not have enough people to keep the pub going at the crossroads, and the post office and the school are going to close. The local football club is in trouble. All of these things need more people, and to have them we need more people living in rural areas, and that means housing in rural areas. Housing is the key thing we need to look at. If we do not put practices in place - in a lot of these places there are no towns and we are talking about one-off rural housing - to allow people to come and live in their community then we have serious problems.”
“Everybody in this place knows what a district electoral division, DED, is. A district electoral division is usually half a parish. Everybody in politics knows about them and how they work. When the Central Statistics Office does an analysis it does an analysis of how many people there are per square km. It looks at them in DEDs. In many of the parishes around me, there are approximately 20 people per square km. That is the average. When we look at international statistics, they all tell us that if there are fewer than 35 people in an area per square km, that area is in terminal decline. There are many areas in my part of the world in terminal decline because the people are not there. The reason the people are not there is because the services are not there and there is no emphasis to try and regenerate those communities.”
“This type of situation is happening more often than one would realise. Because of the pressures the HSE is under it is pushing people out, in breach of its own protocols and often without a care package in place. In regard to that gentleman in Country Leitrim who had had a stroke, adequate services for his rehabilitation were only put in place this week. He was waiting for two months. No care plans are being given to people and they are being sent home in breach of the HSE's own protocols and regulations.”
“I wish to raise the issue of the HSE discharging people from hospitals without the consent or co-operation of the families and in breach of the HSE's own protocols. I have an example of a man in south Leitrim who had a stroke and was in the care of the HSE. His sister in Dublin got a phone call saying, "He is going home today". She said there was nobody at home and that the house was under reconstruction because of the situation. She was told that he would be put in a taxi and sent home. That is it. A similar situation in south Donegal involved a lady who was in hospital. She was a very vulnerable patient with poor eyesight. Her daughter phoned the hospital to inquire about her and she was told she had already gone home. The daughter contacted a neighbour who had found the lady wandering outside in her pajamas in the month of January.”
“We have a distance to go in regard to making sure that we get the balance right and that we do not annoy, isolate or put people off, in particular adults who may choose to use vapes as a means of getting away from smoking. That is something that needs to be considered. I encourage the Minister to take that on board as the Bill progresses and to see if slight changes or variations could be made to make sure that does not happen.”
“It is something that seems to be in the Irish psyche. The more education and awareness people have, and the earlier we realise that it is a trait in Irish society that we have to deal with, the better we can deal with it. For that reason, this legislation is very welcome. It moves us in the right direction. The tobacco companies are the ones behind all of this, including the marketing efforts. The vaping industry is part of their industry. The way they market, coerce and control all of that is something that has to be tightly regulated and dealt with. For that reason, the legislation we are bringing forward is most welcome. Nicotine pouches are something we recognise as having huge problems and issues down the road and they need to be dealt with urgently. I again welcome their inclusion in this legislation.”
“That is something that needs to be considered because we do not want a situation where we bring in something to deal with children's health that may, in effect, mean that adults would probably prefer to smoke cigarettes rather than using vapes, when we know that vapes are not as dangerous. There is a little bit of work to be done there. I welcome anything that can be done in respect of that. The reality is that addiction to whatever substance it may be is a huge problem for society. Often it is nicotine. A lot of children are drinking too much as well. We have issues with alcohol use. Alcohol has been a huge problem in Irish society, not just for decades but for generations. In this country we seem to have a set of people who have particularly addictive personalities. That is something we all recognise and understand.”
“We must recognise and acknowledge that vapes have a role to play as a means of progressing that. That is generally in the adult population - hopefully. We recognise the work that has been done to try to bring this Bill forward and to make it as proportionate as possible to deal with these issues. The flavours are another issue involved in it as well. I refer to bubblegum flavour and other such flavours. Again, that is to make it more attractive to children. That is something that badly needs to be addressed and banned. The notion of banning all flavours, in particular for adults, is something I would encourage the Minister to re-examine and to consider from an adult perspective.”
“This Bill is very welcome. It is very clear. The intention of it is something that I fully and totally support. It is very clear from a public policy perspective that we must do everything we can to protect children from nicotine addiction. That is what is intended here. It is set out very clearly. Last year, girls going to the debs were trying to get vapes to match the colour of their dresses. That is the mentality we have to try to deal with. I welcome the proposals within this legislation to deal with the colour of vapes and the fact that they almost look like little toys. They are attractive in particular to younger people and children. We have a body of work to do to ensure the vast majority of people understand the danger. Of course there are people who smoke and who use vapes to get off smoking.”
“We need to stop the industrial scale fishing with super-factory ships and reckless overfishing again and again while the Irish fishing fleet, which has played by the rules, is thrown against the rocks and totally betrayed. Ireland is very proud of our neutrality. We have a history of peacekeeping and standing up for human rights and international law. We are proud to be members of the EU Security Council and respected for our stance on these issues by other countries across the globe. That is why it is important that we maintain the triple lock and our neutrality because that is exactly what people want to happen.”
“It is no wonder Fine Gael refused to stand with farmers or listen to protesters when it has such an attitude towards rural Ireland. For the EU to have food security, Ireland needs to have food security. As an island nation, we should ensure that we have a proper and thriving fishing industry. Yet, the Irish fishing sector has been decimated by Dutch, Danish and Norwegian fishing fleets which plunder Irish waters. The Government has stood by and allowed this to happen. It did not even bother to vote against the deal in February. The Irish fishing fleet has been let down by this Government and successive governments over the years. This needs to change.”
“I understand that, but that is the view people have developed from all of the talk about more and more militarisation. The cut in the CAP budget needs to be reversed. People need to be reminded that CAP payments or subsidies, as Leo Varadkar would now call them, are not free money for farmers. CAP was established to ensure food security, increase productivity and guarantee fair living standards for farmers across the EU. It was designed to stabilise markets, harmonise competitiveness and have rules across every member state to create a secure and sustainable affordable supply chain of food for everyone. Leo Varadkar's comments were shameful and they are another example of the anti-farmer and anti-rural rhetoric we hear from parts of the Government, in particular Fine Gael.”
“A farmer recently asked me who would feed Ursula von de Leyen's army. That is the kind of impact this is having on people.”
“There has been an increase in beef imports from countries outside of the European Union, the majority of which comes from Mercosur countries, even before the Mercosur trade agreement comes into place. An EU-Australia trade deal is coming up, which will see 30,000 tonnes of beef coming into the European Union. The EU must reverse the decline in beef production and not leave us in a position whereby we are dependent on importing food from the other side of the world. Irish and EU food is produced to the highest standards from an environmental and animal welfare point of view. Given the volatility in the world, it does not make sense to leave EU food security in such a vulnerable position. Sacrificing it for guns is not an option. Many people in Europe fear that is what is happening.”
“As the Minister of State knows, we are living in very uncertain and volatile times across the world, in particular with conflicts in so many places around the globe. We are all very aware of the impact this is having, in particular on fuel prices and other commodities in Ireland. It is all having a knock-on effect on food prices and the food chains in the European Union. I am sure these are issues that are to the forefront of everyone's mind. I want to concentrate on the beef industry. The volume of Irish beef exports fell by 5% in 2025, and across the European Union, beef exports fell by 2.2%. The volume of Irish beef exported to the UK fell by 5%. EU beef production is expected to decline by a further 1% this year.”
“I submitted a parliamentary question this April and the reply I got basically stated how many new special schools had been built and what had been done here, there and all over the country, including in places like Cork and Dublin, but stated nothing about the specific school I had asked about. This is totally frustrating. One of the issues with parliamentary questions that needs to be brought up is that often when we ask about a specific thing, we get an answer about general matters. That needs to change, but that is a separate point. I appeal to the Tánaiste to intervene in this case to ensure the children get the special classes they need in St. Cecilia's special school.”