Mary Lou McDonald
Dublin Central · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“Now he watches as Paudie, his other son, aged 16, deteriorates with the same disease. He says Paudie does not have weeks to wait. He says, "I can't lose him [too]. He is all I have left." That is what is at stake here. This is urgent. Caithfidh an Rialtas an rud ceart a dhéanamh dóibh siúd a bhfuil Friedreich's ataxia orthu.”
“We know that both scramblers and e-scooters are being used by gangs to distribute drugs, to openly and actively intimidate, and to evade the gardaí and, yet, we heard the Garda Commissioner say that there would be no chance of pursuit training until next year because of the EU Presidency. I found that really shocking.”
“Their hopes were very high that the HSE drugs committee would finally approve Skyclarys, but those hopes were to be dashed. The committee decided against approving the drug. Instead, it referred it to a rare disease review group. In other words, one committee passing the buck to another committee.”
“This cruel condition moves relentlessly, ravaging their bodies and their lives, yet the system stands still, putting up obstacle after obstacle, forcing them to wait and wait as time slips by. This drug was approved by the EU Commission back in 2024. Two years on, it is available in France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Czechia.”
“So we are clear, it is not that all of this is frustrating for those living with Friedreich's ataxia; it is actually terrifying for them. I met Emily three or four weeks ago and I was speaking to her again on Tuesday. Even in that short time span, she told me that her swallow and speech had disimproved. We are on the clock here.”
“There is someone the Tánaiste knows very well in the Public Gallery. She is the unstoppable and heroic Cara Darmody. Cara has just completed her third 50-hour protest outside the Dáil, calling for real action for children and young people waiting for an assessment of need.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,050 lines we hold for Mary Lou McDonald, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 21.
“The Government is failing to tackle the scourge of dereliction. Every day, people pass homes, buildings and derelict sites in their communities. Houses are left to rot while land hoarders and speculators get off scot-free. I cannot tell you how angry and demoralised people seeking a home feel when they see all of this, not to mention the impact on our cities, towns and villages, with rows of derelict homes that are magnets for dumping, rats and antisocial behaviour - symbols of decay. Volunteers who keep neighbourhoods clean, community groups and sporting organisations without a base all look on in anger. The housing Minister announced what he called a "war on dereliction" in October last year, and this was followed by Simon Harris announcing, and re-announcing, plans for a new derelict property tax.”
“In neither case was the Government organising or cancelling sporting fixtures. It was, however, providing leadership, so the truth is the Taoiseach can act. I know my microphone has been switched off.”
“The Taoiseach has brushed aside growing calls to stop Ireland's Nations League fixture against Israel while the genocide continues against the Palestinian people. His response and that of the Government have been utterly disingenuous. Nobody is asking the Government to usurp the role of UEFA or the FAI. The Taoiseach is being asked to show leadership, support the position that this game must be stopped, protect Irish players from any repercussions, provide the political, diplomatic and financial backing necessary to make that position sustainable and protect the FAI. There is a clear precedent for this. The Irish Government supported opposition to sporting fixtures involving apartheid South Africa. The Taoiseach was in Cabinet in 1999 when the Government refused visas to the Yugoslav team ahead of the planned Ireland-Yugoslavia fixture.”
“Of course, everyone has the right to live in safety. That vicious, depraved assault causes all of us disgust. Savagery like that has no place on our streets in any part of Ireland. The perpetrator of an act like that must face the full weight of justice. The organised mobs, and this was organised, who burned families out of their homes and terrified children are the same people who in July will burn Irish Tricolours on the top of their bonfires. These people and their organised racism need to be faced down. To carry out actions like that and then to threaten the life of Belfast's first citizen, Róis-Máire Donnelly, reflects just how serious this matter is. I invite the Taoiseach again to assert that we will jointly face this down and I ask him to address the issue of those threats to Belfast's first citizen.”
“They wear the scars and pain of those times and will not allow it to happen again. They will not allow their peace and better future to be robbed from them. In the aftermath of this violence, threats have been made to the life of Belfast’s mayor, Róis-Máire Donnelly. She will not bow to these threats of violence against her. She will continue to stand with every community in Belfast and continue to call out racist thugs. I ask the Taoiseach to join with me in offering support to the victim of Monday night's vicious assault and to take this opportunity to condemn unequivocally the appalling, orchestrated violence carried out against innocent families last night.”
“What occurred last night echoes back to the pogroms on Bombay Street in 1969, when families and children were burnt out of their homes by loyalist mobs. Why? Because they were Catholic and Irish. Many were forced to leave, fleeing for their lives across the Border into Dundalk and beyond. They were refugees in their own country. This was inflicted on Irish nationalists time and again. When we said "never again" and that we would never allow anyone to be treated this way again, we meant it. We meant anyone - not Irish and not any community. Nobody has the right to spread fear, intimidate or terrify innocent families. We have a duty to communities to show political leadership and stand up for what is right. The good, decent people of Belfast have lived through division and hatred before.”
“My thoughts are of course with the victim and his family as they live through this nightmare and as he continues to be treated in hospital. It was right that political leaders in the North came together to unequivocally condemn this attack and call for the swift delivery of justice. The assault provoked genuine shock, disgust and anger across communities. Last night, groups of masked men burned families out of their homes, targeted and attacked innocent people and terrified and endangered small children. We witnessed racist intimidation and violence orchestrated by loyalist and far-right thugs. These are people hell-bent on whipping up hatred for their own ends. Many of those leading this violence are the same people who will burn Tricolours on the top of bonfires on 12 July.”
“We must address events in Belfast over the past 48 hours. There was a knife attack on Monday night that was barbaric, vicious and depraved; the stuff of nightmares. The victim suffered horrific slash injuries to his eyes, face and neck. Were it not for the selfless bravery of members of the community, including Maitiu Mág Tighearnán putting himself at risk by jumping from his car and using his son’s hurl to stop the brutal assault, the victim would surely have lost his life. I acknowledge and thank the first responders on the scene and the swift action of the PSNI, which apprehended the suspect of this heinous crime. He is now in custody, faces the full weight of the law and must pay a heavy price for this brutal crime.”
“We come in here this evening and have this Pontius Pilate routine from the Government. This is deeply shocking. It is not enough to try to hide behind the spin. Of course, the FAI, UEFA and FIFA make the sporting decisions. Of course they govern their sporting codes. We recognise that in our motion. We ask merely that the Government stand on the right side of this and back the growing campaign to stop this game and gives the FAI the protection and cover to do the right thing and protect those who don the green jersey, so they know when they make the moral choice that their Government is on their side. That is what this motion is about and that is why we must stop this game.”
“They knew in 1981 that sport could not be used to enable and prolong discriminatory and racist practices in apartheid South Africa. They were right then, and they are right now. I applaud them for that fact. Thousands of athletes, players and sports officials have been killed in Palestine and Gaza. Our motion sets out the disgusting and deeply troubling facts of the International Court of Justice's findings on Israel's occupation and settlement policies. The court issued provisional measures warning of the risk of genocidal acts and requiring Israel to comply with its obligations. Hundreds of sporting facilities have been destroyed. Entire generations of Palestinians have seen not only their homes and schools targeted but their pitches and clubs. Places that ought to be their places of joy are stolen from them.”
“They are benches of shame. They come in here to tell us that when it comes to a football match against Israel, sport should be treated as separate from the reality that unfolds before our eyes. We reject that proposition. Sport does not exist in a vacuum, and it never has. Sport is the most powerful force for inclusion, equality and justice. It can be used to challenge rather than enable. Those who have ignorantly argued that sport and politics should never mix conveniently disregard the key role sporting boycotts played in isolating apartheid South Africa and conquering apartheid South Africa at that time. I want to read the names of four brave rugby players - Tony Ward, Moss Keane, Donal Spring and Hugo MacNeill.”
“There are moments when looking away and a determination to keep looking away becomes an obvious political choice. There are moments when people, governments, institutions and, yes, when sport will choose to either stand on the side of justice or accommodate and enable injustice and oppression. The world witnesses. We witness the devastation of Gaza with hospitals bombed, schools destroyed and refugee camps attacked. We witness starvation used as a weapon against civilian populations and children killed, maimed and orphaned in numbers that should shock the conscience of the world. This is not merely a conflict. This is a genocide. As desperate families queue for food and aid, they face bombardment, displacement and fear. Yet, despite all of this, only two Government members have come into the Chamber. The rest of their benches are bare.”
“We teach life, sir. We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies. We teach life, sir. How many Palestinian lives can Israel steal? How many Hind Rajabs? How many mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses or farmers? Is there a point? Is there a red line or a bottom line? How many farms can be destroyed, olive groves ploughed through, homes destroyed or football infrastructure destroyed? Is there a bottom line? Is there a point at which Zionism is stopped? Is there a point at which Israeli impunity is not merely named but confronted? There are moments where a refusal to act, where excuses and distractions are exposed as complicity.”
“I would like the Taoiseach to tell Emily Felix, Oisín Pollard, Jodie Donovan, Emily Kerrigan and Niamh Herbert, all in the Public Gallery, all waiting and waiting for this drug.”
“Friedreich’s ataxia is a progressive and degenerative disease for which there is no cure. Until recently there was no effective treatment either but now there is. It is called Skyclarys and it is available elsewhere in Europe but not here in Ireland. People with Friedreich’s ataxia have been waiting since 1 August 2024, 677 days, for the HSE to make this drug available. Why is Skyclarys not on the agenda for the HSE drugs group meeting that will happen tomorrow? Further delay is intolerable and cruel because there is no pause in this disease. Every day lost has consequences. Emily Felix told me that delay so far has cost her permanent damage - loss of swallow, loss of speech - and she is not prepared to suffer any more.”
“The Taoiseach is happy not alone to be incompetent in his role but he goes a step further and hands those decisions away to people in Brussels. We think that is wrong. We have consistently argued that is the wrong approach.”
“Let me spell it out for those at the back who maybe have not heard it clearly enough. Decisions relating to migration, justice and home affairs are rightly decided in Ireland by those elected by the Irish people. That is why we had a special provision. That is why there was a necessity for the Government to opt this country in. The Taoiseach says he has not conceded sovereignty. Of course he has, by the very act of opting Ireland into this pact he concedes that point.”
“Does he accept that his Government's handling of these issues undermines public confidence letting down both communities here and, crucially, those who come here in need of protection from war and persecution?”
“The truth is we do not need an EU migration pact to get on top of processing times, to stop the profiteering or to carry out deportations. What we need is a competent government and from the figures I outlined earlier, we can see that this Government is not that government. Ba bhotún mór é don Rialtas síniú suas do chomhshocrú an Aontais Eorpaigh maidir le himirce agus tearmann. Ba chóir go ndéanfaí cinntí maidir le himirce anseo in Éirinn. The Government's decision to opt into the pack to hand key decision-making powers to Brussels is wrong. Does the Taoiseach accept that this has consequences for Irish sovereignty? Does he accept that the absence of a bilateral agreement with Great Britain compounds this problem?”
“That is up 8,000 from the same month last year. Between applications and appeals, there were over 33,000 cases pending in April 2026, so while the numbers of applicants for international protection made in 2025 dropped from the previous year, the number of cases pending has increased. That tells us that the system is clogged up and is not working. It is still taking 16 months for standard cases to be processed and a further 16 months for appeal. That makes it all the more incredible that it is only today that the Government is considering the appointment of a chief appeals officer. It is utter incompetence and it does not stop there. When it comes to those refused permission to remain, the Government does not know whether the majority have left or not and, scandalously, it has done nothing to secure a bilateral agreement with Britain.”
“It will not end the outrageous level of profiteering that has made millionaires of a small number of people or address the Government's failure to engage with communities and protect social cohesion. It will not deliver the robust, fast, enforced system that we need and it certainly will not provide respect, dignity and a human rights based response for those who flee war and persecution for safety. Over the last year, the Minister for justice has spent a huge amount of time and resources preparing for the commencement of this pact and rushing the International Protection Bill through the Oireachtas. This was intended to give the impression that progress is being made in tackling the dysfunction in Ireland's international protection system, but the facts tell a very different story. In April, there were 20,469 appeals pending.”
“On Friday, the EU migration pact comes into effect. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have decided to opt Ireland into that pact. It was the wrong decision to hand over powers on migration to the European Union. We in Sinn Féin have made it clear that this pact undermines Irish sovereignty. We have told the Government that decisions on migration should be taken - must be taken - by the people of this country. We have also told it that the pact ignores our unique challenges and circumstances, especially that our country is still partitioned and that we share a common travel area with Britain. This pact will not fix the problems that the Government presides over in the international protection system.”
“It seems that there is no end to RTÉ's sense of entitlement in its attitude to the spending of public money or to the lack of oversight in that regard by the Government. This morning, I read that since 2021, the State broadcaster has splashed out - get this - €230,000 on limousine rides for celebrities, dignitaries and presenters. These are not to be confused with common or garden taxis. It spends hundreds of thousands of additional money on those. What is going on? How is it in any way appropriate for this type of money to be blown on luxury limousines, including Mercedes V class, BMW 7 series, etc. We see that kind of expenditure at a time when everyone is struggling and after RTÉ was bailed out. The promise of that bailout was that there would be prudent, appropriate, moderate investment-----”
“For all of the Taoiseach's palaver about what the Government has done and his clapping himself on his back, I have a letter here from one mother who is explaining what she is living through now because her child does not have the guarantee of a school place in September. She talks about watching time run out while everybody else's child moves forward and her frustration at having to repeatedly prove her child's need to the system.”
“These are important issues and it is important when the Head of Government addresses them that he is audible, clear and I can hear him. It is not a case of whether the Taoiseach agrees with me or not. He seems singularly unable to acknowledge the real experience of disabled people who are telling him, and have told him for quite some time, that they are struggling financially. At times, they have told stories of making choices between heating and eating. Even in scenarios that are not that extreme, they are under huge pressure. The Taoiseach is right. A one-off payment is not the be all and end all but they need that now. They also need a cost of disability scheme.”
“I appeal to the Taoiseach to deliver the cost of disability scheme, resource the new autism assessment centres, guarantee an appropriate school place for every child in September and, for goodness sake, immediately reopen the application window for July provision.”
“In previous years, the window was open for months. This unreasonable timeframe means that many children will miss out on vital educational support this summer. Why is the Government making life so difficult for these families? It needs to immediately reopen the application window to allow schools to get their applications in. Tá Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael ag teip ar dhaoine faoi mhíchumas agus páistí le riachtanais bhreise le blianta fada. Caithfear deireadh a chur leis. Tá sé in am don Rialtas meas a léiriú agus seirbhísí agus tacaíocht cheart a chur ar fáil. The failure of people and children with additional needs is immense. I have raised several issues with the Taoiseach today, but I could go on and on.”
“Every single summer, parents face a battle to find an appropriate school place for their child the following September. Despite all of the big promises made by the Government, this summer is no different. Tonight in Cabra, in my community, parents will hold a meeting on this issue again. We will hear more stories of pressure and rejection letters piled high on the kitchen table. I know one mother who has received 17 rejection letters for her child. We will hear stories of children being offered school places that do not exist in classrooms that have not been opened or even built. Does the Government know what that does to a parent and child? We will also hear anger that the window for July provision applications for summer educational support for children with additional needs was open for only one week this year. What is that all about?”
“It is the same for carers. At the rate the Government is going, it will take 30 years to abolish the means test for carers. There is no urgency at all. Yesterday, the Government announced a new autism assessment protocol, but one of the first things from the mouth of the Minister for Health was that the Government will not have enough staff for the new assessment centres. Good God. Who announces new centres knowing that we do not have the staff to make them work? This is happening when more than 20,000 children are waiting for an assessment of needs, thousands of children with disabilities are waiting for therapies, supports and services, hundreds of children with additional needs are waiting for a school place and thousands of children are in inappropriate school placements.”
“In last October's budget of €9.4 billion, the Government made the very cruel decision to leave disabled people worse off by €1,400. Since then, life has become so much harder for everybody, but all the more so if one is a disabled person who has fallen further and further behind. Our Dáil motion yesterday called on the Government to do two things. First, to deliver an emergency €500 cost of disability payment now and, second, to introduce a new permanent cost of disability scheme. Instead of listening, the Government pushed back. It rejected our motion and the amendment it brought forward is an insult to disabled people. It is consultation after consultation and report after report for the Government, when it knows exactly what needs to be done and what the issues are. Yet, the Government tells disabled people to wait.”
“I am struck by the Taoiseach's boastful approach regarding the so-called metrics on housing. Those metrics are record and skyrocketing rents, record evictions and record homelessness. Last year, the State spent almost €500 million on emergency accommodation. Over the past decade, almost €5 billion has been spent on managing homelessness. All the while, homelessness continues to rise. Families are in hotel rooms, single people have nowhere to go, pensioners are facing homelessness, children are growing up without homes and taxpayers are footing an extraordinary bill for the Government's failure. When is the Taoiseach going to be honest? Where is this honesty he is bragging about? When will he honestly accept that his approach to housing is driving crisis after crisis?”
“The Irish people have always taken a principled and morally ethical stance on the question of Palestine. Of that there is no doubt. Unfortunately, the Irish Government has not followed suit. The truth and the honest position are that the Government has had to be dragged into taking any kind of positive stance, facing down the impunity of Israel and accepting that until there are consequences for Israel and the Netanyahu regime, they will continue to slaughter Palestinians, they will continue to occupy land and they will continue with their apartheid regime. The only answer is sanctions. That is why the occupied territories Bill matters. It has to include both goods and services. Spain included services, so why on earth can Ireland not? Sanctions are the only thing that will work with Israel - economic, cultural and sporting.”
“Excluding services and pushing forward with hollowed out legislation is a cop-out and a dangerous one. It cannot happen. The people of Palestine, of Gaza, slaughtered, besieged, brutalised and starved look to Ireland for support and we simply cannot turn our backs. Services along with goods must be banned. The sanction must be effective. Either the Taoiseach accepts international law or he does not. Ireland must be on the right side of history. Last week, I wrote to the Taoiseach and I urged him to work constructively with the Opposition to pass the original occupied territories Bill in full. That is what must happen.”
“This is the Government's response and approach to the slaughter and genocide in Gaza, as Palestinian men, women and children are wiped out every single day. It is the Government's response to mass displacement, enforced starvation and the obliteration of civilian infrastructure, all at the hands of a ruthless apartheid regime - a regime gifted impunity by world leaders, including the Taoiseach. Caithfidh seirbhísí a bheith san áireamh sa reachtaíocht ionas go mbeidh sé éifeachtach. Caithfidh an Dáil an bunleagan den Bhille ina iomláine a rith. Ireland should and must be leading on this question. The Taoiseach must make clear that the theft of Palestinian land will not be rewarded with economic support; that Ireland will stand up for human rights and international law; and that Ireland stands with Palestine.”
“The occupied territories Bill is in line with the ruling of the International Court of Justice, a ruling that makes no distinction between goods and services. In fact, banning services is required under international law. Spain has included services in its legislation, so it can be done. The occupied territories Bill has a long history. It was passed in the Seanad in 2018 and in the Dáil in 2019 and it continues to enjoy overwhelming public support. The Government has paid it plenty of lip service. For eight years, it has said it will support the occupied territories Bill, but it has stalled, delayed and blocked it, and now it has gutted the Bill. This is the Government's response, its approach, after 14 Irish citizens on a humanitarian flotilla to Gaza were kidnapped, detained and brutalised by Israeli forces.”
“Cuirimid fáilte roimh an Teachta Ennis agus an Teachta Kyne sa Teach. The Minister for foreign affairs has brought draft legislation to the Cabinet which will ban trade in goods from the occupied Palestinian territories. On the Taoiseach's way into the Cabinet this morning, he made it clear that services are to be excluded, so the Government has taken a wrecking ball to the original occupied territories Bill. The Taoiseach is aware that 70% of trade between Ireland and the occupied territories is in services and that the Bill was designed to end the shameful economic support provided to Israel's illegal settlements. Yet, the Government has hollowed out the legislation, rendering it ineffective. The Taoiseach's argument, that including services is impossible to implement, simply does not stack up.”
“The Taoiseach has nowhere to hide today because the consequences of his actions are very clear. The Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill has meant the highest rent hikes on record and evictions at the highest levels since the Famine. The Government has chosen deliberately to side with corporate landlords and vulture funds. Those are the Taoiseach's choices. It takes a very particular type of slíbhín to stand-----”
“Tubaiste amach is amach is ea an Bille sin a bhfuil de thoradh air go bhfuil níos mó daoine á gcur amach as a dtithe agus cíosanna níos airde ná mar a bhí riamh. Thréig an Rialtas tionóntaí chun pócaí na dtiarnaí talún móire agus na gcreach-chistí a líonadh. The Government has chosen to back big landlords and punish renters. It could have cut rents, banned rent increases and put a stop to no-fault evictions, but no. With its rent hike Bill, it chose to make life better for the corporate landlords and property funds, so they laugh all their way to the bank, while the lives of families, workers, students and young people are turned upside down. What has the Taoiseach to say today to those renters who were thrown to the wolves?”
“They boasted brazenly to investors that the Government's legislation allowed them to jack up their rents by extortionate amounts but the Government pushed ahead, intent on lining the pockets of the corporate landlords, big developers and vulture funds and utterly indifferent to the consequences for renters, families and ordinary people. Today, however, the Taoiseach has nowhere to hide. We now see the consequences of his actions as plain as day, with record rents, record evictions, families with nowhere to go, young people forced to choose between paying crippling rent, moving back in with their families or emigrating, and stress, worry and panic. That is what the Government has done to an entire generation and it has done it deliberately, with its eyes wide open.”
“It states that "the ability to reset rents between tenancies appears to have led to a step-change in rents, with the largest quarterly increase in rents on record." This report includes only the first month of the Government's disastrous legislation, so renters will now be terrified that there is much worse to come. I warned the Taoiseach that the Government's Bill would open the floodgates to massive rent increases but he refused to listen. In fact, he told me that I was wrong. The biggest corporate landlord in the country also told the Government.”
“Is it any wonder that there is so much anger and despair among young families in Galway - people who are desperately trying to put an affordable roof over their heads? Who in God's name can afford these rents? Can ordinary workers, families or young people afford them? They do not have a hope. They do not stand a chance. How does the Government expect people to live? How does it expect young people to save for their own home? The Government has knowingly caused this nightmare with its rent hike bill. The daft.ie report calls it out in black and white.”
“The latest daft.ie rent report was published this morning. The consequences of the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill are now laid bare. Rents have hit their highest level in 25 years and are increasing at the fastest rate since records began and evictions are at their highest level since the Famine. This is devastating for renters. The rent rule changes announced by the Government last summer and introduced on 1 March are a disaster. What these massive rent hikes mean in real terms is that in Dublin, renting a two-bed apartment will cost you an eye-watering €30,000 per year. In Galway city, where rents have shot up by 18%, a two-bed will set you back €27,000 in rent per year.”
“Unfortunately, the Taoiseach is very touchy about the idea that he might be expected to do his job and do it competently. A key function of the Government is to ensure that State agencies, including RTÉ, are accountable and that an agency such as RTÉ, which has been bailed out to the tune of almost three quarters of a billion euro, behaves in a manner that is transparent and appropriate, so we do not see a rerun of the scandals that rocked RTÉ a short time ago. All of us were led to believe that the bargain with RTÉ was that it would be bailed out and funded and that public broadcasting would be supported and, by way of return, that there would be a change in behaviour and culture, appropriate standards and accurate and transparent reporting. We now know that is not the case and-----”
“People want accountability and consequences. Does the Taoiseach accept that the Government's failure to act decisively has allowed this bad behaviour at RTÉ and this culture of entitlement to continue?”
“There is no bailout for them and no help from the Government but RTÉ top management is handed €750 million in public money and continues to take the taxpayers for fools. We have here a tale of two Irelands, with working people playing by the rules abandoned by the Government and told to tighten their belts, and top brass executives at RTÉ who believe the rules do not apply to them and believe they can do what they want without consequence. This needs to be nipped in the bud. The Government needs to sort this out, and fast. Rinne muintir na hÉireann RTÉ a tharrtháil le €725 milliún. Masla amach is amach is ea an chonspóid is déanaí d’oibrithe atá ag streachailt is ag comhaireamh gach uile phingin. Bringing RTÉ under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General is long overdue but it cannot stop there.”
“That is a lot of taxpayers' money. However, there is little evidence of the change that people expected. Top management still plays fast and loose, not reporting accurately the big salaries of the high-flyers. Why is this? It is because the Government has failed to take on the prevailing culture of arrogance and privilege. The privileges gifted by the Government to RTÉ stands in stark contrast to how it treats working people and families. The budget of €9.4 billion last October left working people worse off, forced to watch every euro they spend, with their backs to the wall trying to keep up with rising prices, and doing all of the right things but still struggling to just get by.”
“People will remember the secret payments and the slush fund controversies, scandals which revealed a shocking absence of oversight and governance, exposing a culture of arrogance and entitlement, RTÉ top brass flaithiúlach with the use of public money. Despite a massive bailout and big promises from the Government and from RTÉ, what really has changed? Once again, the Minister in charge of all of this, Deputy O'Donovan, knows nothing. All of this latest debacle is news to him. This morning he brought legislation to Cabinet to put the broadcaster under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This is years after the Committee of Public Accounts said that should happen; it is Government in slow motion. The Irish public bailed out RTÉ to the tune of €725 million, almost three quarters of a billion euro.”
“Fáilte, Austin. Deputy Carthy is telling me that Austin is a Monaghan man. The Ceann Comhairle missed the most important element of the story. Comhghairdeas agus fáilte. Three years on from the financial scandals that rocked RTÉ, the State broadcaster is once again embroiled in controversy. The latest debacle centres on RTÉ revising the list of its top ten highest earning presenters to include Mr. Derek Mooney. It transpires that Mr. Mooney should have been on the list for the last five years, but his salary of almost €200,000 was kept a secret by the top brass at RTÉ. Strangely, in 2020, Mr. Mooney's role was reclassified as a producer rather than a presenter, although the dogs in the street know that Derek Mooney is a presenter. RTÉ's top earners' list was incorrect eight years in a row - transparency out the window again.”
“The October budget, which was worth €9.4 billion, left disabled people €1,400 worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. For months, disabled people and their advocates have told their stories of choices between heating and eating. They have appealed to the Government again and again to deliver a cost-of-disability payment immediately, but it has ignored them. The Government’s consultation process is a distraction. It has stated that it needs to figure out what a cost-of-disability payment should be. However, it has had a report on the matter in its possession for five years. It knows what the additional cost of disability is. Disabled people cannot wait. The Government refused to give them an emergency cost-of-living payment and now it is asking them to wait for a permanent payment. That is not acceptable.”
“That is not good enough for the workers concerned and it is certainly good enough for the public and the citizens who rely on these workers for a life-saving service.”