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.”
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“I welcome those from Mercy College, Woodford, County Galway, who are in the Public Gallery. I want to express my condolences to the families of those whose lives were so brutally taken during the horrific gun attack on Bondi Beach on Sunday. Our thoughts are with those families, the injured, the wider Jewish community and, of course, with the people of Australia and Sydney. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamnacha. Households hammered by relentless hikes in energy and electricity prices are in disbelief today. They have awoken to the news that their bills are set to increase even further. Electricity network charges are being hiked, forcing hard-pressed households to carry the can for upgrading the grid. Customers here, as the Taoiseach knows, are squeezed to breaking point just to light and heat their homes.”
“Will the Taoiseach now commit the Government to voting against the Mercosur deal at the European Council meeting in December and will he seek to form a blocking minority with like-minded EU member states?”
“The Mercosur trade agreement will be a disaster for Irish farmers, consumers and our environment. Last week, Sinn Féin tabled a Dáil motion calling on the Government to oppose the deal and TDs from across the political divide, including many of the Taoiseach's backbench Deputies, spoke strongly against the deal. However, the Minister, Deputy Heydon, refuses to state whether the Government will oppose the deal or seek to form a blocking minority to the deal. He stated that no other EU state is considering this approach. That is not true. We know that France, Poland and Austria are weighing up such a move. This is an opportunity to defend Irish farmers, protect Irish agriculture and stop this ruinous deal in its tracks.”
“That is where we are at. If this were a one-off event, that would be one thing, but it is not. This is now part of an established pattern of waste on the Government's watch. It is persistent and is right across Government. It is not simply local authorities; it is right at the heart of the Government. To add insult to injury, the Government that tolerates, allows and is asleep at the wheel while vast sums of public moneys are wasted is the same Government that is very vigilant, mean and tight when it comes to working people. I ask again, as he is the Taoiseach and not I, if he will instigate a waste audit right across Government. That is what is required. Or will he simply allow the people's money to be wasted again and again and again?”
“The Government is incapable of dealing with what is clearly a widespread systemic problem. Tá €750,000 caite ar chéimeanna agus rampa. Léiríonn sé sin go bhfuil an Rialtas fós ag cur airgead amú ar nós is cuma leis. The Government is allowing this waste of public money to happen over and again and is doing nothing about it. I have two questions for the Taoiseach. Does he believe that €750,000 for steps and a ramp represents value for the people's money? Does he now accept that a waste audit across Departments, as called for by Sinn Féin, is now urgently required to get to grips with this constant waste?”
“This is the same Government that delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left people worse off and cancelled energy credits as families struggled to light and heat their homes. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael keep the strings of the public purse very tight for working people. They are on the ball there and very diligent but, by God, they are happy for people's cash to be blown at every other turn. There is no oversight, governance or accountability and nobody shouting "Stop". In the grand scheme of the Government's billions, €750,000 might not mean a lot to it, but it would pay the salaries of 20 new special needs assistants or 20 new nurses for a year. Instead, the money is spent on a few steps and a ramp that surely could have been built for a fraction of that cost. It is scandalous.”
“They are serial wasters of public money. Hundreds of thousands of euro for bike sheds; €1.4 million for a security hut; €500,000 for a perimeter wall; €20 million renting offices that lay empty; and over €100,000 on a scanner for the National Gallery that lay idle for almost a decade. Little wonder then that the PAC's report yesterday pointed to serious and persistent deficiencies in spending oversight from the Department for the arts. This is the case right across Government. The list of waste is as long as your arm. I could go on but I would be here all day. While the Government pours millions of euro of people's money down the drain, workers and families count every single euro just to get by.”
“Here we go again. The Government never tires of wasting taxpayers' money. A sum of €750,000 was used to construct 14 steps and a ramp at Deer Park in Mount Merrion. Access to public spaces for people with disabilities is very important, but for €750,000 I was expecting a breathtaking feat of engineering. There is nothing spectacular, however. In fact, it is very ordinary, literally just steps and a ramp. The only breathtaking thing about this is the cost. Three quarters of a million euro was forked out from the public purse. Procurement experts have described this spend as wildly excessive. I describe it as downright insulting to people. I have raised issues of waste with the Taoiseach time and again, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have not learned a single thing from the litany of waste that is now the hallmark of the Government.”
“I ask that the Government not block this vital legislation and that it support its passage to Committee Stage and urgently into law because victims cannot wait any longer.”
“When he gets to his feet, the Minister might clarify the precise whereabouts of the Taoiseach. Tonight, our justice spokesperson, Deputy Carthy, brings forward a very important piece of legislation - a Bill that would allow courts to impose a restraining order on someone convicted of a sexual assault, preventing them from approaching the victim when released from prison. Not alone would this increase protection for victims but also play a really important role in women regaining the sense of safety so violently robbed from them, and provide them with the security they need to rebuild their lives. This legislation has been called for by victims and it has been shaped by them and their traumatic experiences and insights. It is supported by front-line organisations, including the Rape Crisis Centre.”
“Under Standing Order 35(3), I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to strike from the business of the day Supplementary Estimates for Public Services 2025 - Votes 2 and 6. These Estimates have not been scrutinised by the relevant committee, that being the finance committee. The Taoiseach has repeatedly refused to attend that committee. Let me say that again. The Taoiseach has refused repeatedly to attend the committee to allow for the proper and lawful scrutiny of these Estimates.”
“Does the Minister know how humiliating it is for anybody to have to go to family members to borrow consistently to pay their household bills? Does he know how demoralising it is for working people to go out Monday to Friday, work hard and do their best and still not be able to keep their children warm? Does he know how unacceptable, in fact, how immoral, it is in a wealthy society under a government that boasts billions of euro in surpluses to leave people so stranded and so desperate in these circumstances? The Minister stands here today delusional as though he lives in another place, in another reality. Here is what Social Justice Ireland says. It reports that people are having to make impossible choices - its words, not mine - in order to remain within their weekly budget. That is a polite way of saying that people are struggling.”
“What action will be taken to make life affordable for people or will the Government simply continue to sit back and allow households to take the pain?”
“Tá an Rialtas seo ag barr an ranga maidir le saol na ndaoine a dhéanamh níos deacra. Tá sé le feiceáil arís san ardú ar phraghas an ola don teas tí. Éilíonn teaghlaigh gníomhartha i dtreo saol níos inacmhainne. On the watch of the Government, the cost of lighting and heating a home has become unaffordable, and this simply cannot go on. Households cannot take any more. I know exactly what the Government has done to make life harder for people. It is obvious. It withdrew energy credits, it gives free reign to energy companies to hike up prices, it heaps additional carbon taxes onto home heating oil, it has cancelled cost-of-living supports, it delivered a budget of billions of euro that abandoned people - all bad choices that have made things even worse.”
“In fact, the Government delivered a budget of €9.4 billion that left working people worse off with no cost-of-living package while households are being hammered with no end in sight. Social Justice Ireland reported yesterday how the slashing of cost-of-living supports has ratcheted up pressure and pushed more households into financial distress. People literally live in dread of the next electricity, gas or heating bill and I meet working parents who tell me they have bought extra blankets for their kids' beds because they cannot afford to turn on the heat. Elderly people are going to bed early to stay warm. Couples, often with two incomes, are borrowing from family members to pay their energy bills. These are desperate situations, and the Government sticks its head in the sand.”
“They got a fill of heating oil last week and they have not turned on the heating since Friday because they need that fill to last over Christmas and throughout the new year. They are rationing their heat. The weather is colder now and the reality is that more and more working households struggle to pay their bills to light and heat their homes. Energy is unaffordable and people are being ripped off. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, met with the top brass at energy companies in September, and what happened? The majority hiked up their electricity prices with no fear of any consequence. Then, with winter on the horizon and energy bills going up, the Government chose to cancel energy credits in October's budget, a terrible decision, withdrawing the one bit of help people relied on to pay those rip-off bills.”
“Cá bhfuil an Taoiseach? I understand the Taoiseach is back in the country. He should be here taking questions. The cost of home heating oil has shot up €80 in just one month. It is a big blow. The average price for a fill of oil is now a staggering €980. This hike hits more than 1 million households, mostly rural families and the elderly, who rely on oil to heat their homes. Here is the real kick in the teeth. This unaffordable cost of home heating oil has been driven up by the Government’s decisions. Some €220 of the cost of a fill of oil is already carbon tax. The Government’s planned increases will add a further €150 in the time ahead. It has to be asked. How on earth does it think people can afford that? One family contacted me yesterday.”
“In the meantime, as this inquiry is being established, what immediate action is the Government taking to ensure that no other child is abandoned in the way that Harvey was?”
“The case of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt exposes profound and systemic failures. This child was left waiting years for essential spinal surgery, then removed from a waiting list without his parents' knowledge or consent. His experience was by no means unique. The Taoiseach has now committed to a statutory public inquiry into scoliosis and spina bifida services. When will the legislation to establish this inquiry be brought before the Dáil? Can the Taoiseach also confirm that it is parents, families and advocacy groups that will shape the terms of reference for this inquiry? Can I also ask the Taoiseach to confirm that the whistleblower evidence that has come forward, which goes to the very heart of what happened in this service, will form a core part of the inquiry’s work?”
“I represent families that are struggling. I represent working people who are struggling and are now fearful that they cannot make their bills. I asked the Taoiseach: will he restore these energy credits? I would like a straight answer to that precise question.”
“All of the bragging in the world from the Taoiseach does not alter the fact that 250,000 people and families will reach out to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for help. I am glad the Taoiseach's benches finds this amusing and that his would-be successor is grinning like a Cheshire cat while we have this exchange. I have to tell the Taoiseach that I do not find this funny. I do not need him to mansplain the economy to me. I do not need him to dodge and evade a simple question. I asked him about energy credits. I have set out for him the reality that people are now fearful, that people are not turning on their heat and that the heart is crossways on people when they are opening their bills. That is the reality. It may not land with the Taoiseach. I do not know what reality he lives in, but I know who I represent in here.”
“However, in the here and now, people need help from the Government. The easiest, most direct and immediate way to do this is to restore the energy credits. I ask again, and I ask plainly: will the Government please restore the energy credits or is it prepared to allow families to struggle through winter under its policies?”
“Bhain an Rialtas na creidiúintí fuinnimh uathu, ach tá siad ag teastáil ó dhaoine anois láithreach. Caithfidh an Rialtas an cinneadh sin a mhalartú. The Government, of course, also removed the energy credits. These things did not just happen. These are deliberate decisions taken knowing full well the pressure families were already under. I have raised the issue of the energy companies and their exorbitant prices time and again in this Chamber. I warned repeatedly but the Government failed to appreciate the scale of what is happening out there. I have to continue raising these points because, as the weather gets colder, the hardship increases and more people are pushed to the brink. I have asked the Government before to tackle the energy companies and get them to end their rip-off.”
“Life is getting harder, not easier. This is the point: the biggest hit of all is one the Government chose to impose. By increasing student fees by €500, it pushed up the cost of education more than anything else this year. For families with students, this is a massive extra burden. It is the single steepest rise in any household cost and the Government caused it. Of course, it also hiked up fuel costs, petrol, diesel and home heating oil. D’eisigh Met Éireann rabhadh aimsire fuaire ar maidin. Tá an teocht le titim go dtí -3° le sioc agus leac oighir agus táthar ag súil le cúinsí contúirteacha sna laethanta amach romhainn. Tá imní ar dhaoine mar tá a fhios acu nach féidir leo teacht slán ar gheimhreadh eile cosúil leis an gceann deireanach a bhí againn.”
“However, this is the reality so many are living in and this is the Ireland of 2025. Yet, the Government has scrapped the energy credits just as people's bills are rising again. It leaves families to face the cold entirely on their own at the harshest time of the year. Yesterday, St. Vincent de Paul said it expects a quarter of a million calls for help this year. That is a quarter of a million people and families turning to charity because they cannot make ends meet. This tells us how serious, how widespread and how devastating this hardship has become. Across the board, everything is getting dearer. Rents are through the roof as is the weekly food shop. Parents are budgeting down to the last euro. People feel it every time they go to the supermarket or to the petrol station and every time they try to pay a bill.”
“Met Éireann issued a cold weather warning this morning. Temperatures are set to plunge to -3° with frost, ice and dangerous conditions expected over the coming days. People are anxious. People are preparing. People are scared because they simply cannot afford another winter like the last one. One communication to my office this morning was from a person who wrote: We got our autumn gas bill. It was €275. The heating had barely been on. We paid just under €20 in VAT, €20 in carbon tax and a standing charge of around the same, all totaling €59.80. The next gas bill will be double that as the weather has changed. This is nearly impossible for us. It looks like we will freeze again this year. It is just survival now. When people are describing their lives as "survival", something is deeply wrong.”
“Tá fíorathrú ag teacht mar tá muintir na hÉireann réidh. Tá Éire réidh. Tá an Rialtas seo gearrtha amach ó ghnáthdhaoine agus tá an t-am istigh. The Government is out of touch, out of ideas and should be out of time. Today, the Minister for Finance is taking his leave. Oh, that the rest of ye would follow.”
“It is the Government's failures that push them to leave this country in their droves. Any Government that fails its young people has failed Ireland. Let me finish with this. Our citizens need action, real action, to end the rip-offs, the scandals and the crises afflicting our society. Action is needed to cut energy prices, to reduce grocery bills, to actually build affordable houses, to bring down rents and to reduce childcare costs. This is action that can be taken right here, right now today. We in Sinn Féin will fight for that action every step of the way because Ireland deserves better than this Government, workers deserve better than this Government and young people deserve better than this Government. Tá an tAire Airgeadais ag fágáil agus ba chóir don Rialtas ar fad fágáil leis. Is é ceann de na Rialtais is measa chonaiceamar riamh.”
“It has been a year of promises made and promises broken. Amid all this crisis, chaos and failure, what has the Government achieved in the Dáil? Well, hardly any legislation. It has been a legislative wasteland. It is a Government functioning on fumes and a coalition that governs by press release, not by law or action. This may well be the worst Government in the history of the State, because no Government has presided over such a combination of record crises, hollow promises and stubborn inaction. Working people, children, disabled people and carers pay the price. Let me tell you who is paying the highest price. It is Ireland's young people, that is who. It is young workers locked into eye-watering rents, students paying higher fees, people in their 20s and 30s with no hope of buying a home, and young families squeezed by childcare costs.”
“It promised to abolish the means test for carers. So much for that. There was precious nothing. It promised 3,000 new acute hospital beds but it has budgeted for just 220. It promised a permanent double child benefit and then it withdrew that as well.”
“This year, though, has most of all been the year of broken promises by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, promises loudly made at election time and then thrown in the bin. The occupied territories Bill, diluted and sidelined, is a case in point. The Government promised tax cuts for workers, but it gave them to banks, landlords and developers instead. It promised support on energy bills, but it withdrew the energy credits. It promised to increase the renters' credit; it did not deliver. Does the Government remember that it promised €200 a month childcare? Where is that? It is not delivered. It promised to abolish student fees but then increased them by €500.”
“Does he know that the anxiety for them is constant? All the while, they have to listen to Government members backslapping each other, in the grip of delusion, insisting that things are fine. Things are not fine. This is not leadership; this is delusion. The Government's ongoing attempts to undermine our position as a military neutral are both short-sighted and dangerous. Most of all, they are in defiance of the will of the Irish people. If the Government thinks I am wrong, it should put the matter to a referendum and find out.”
“In fact, instead of helping people, the Government’s budget and decisions actively make life harder by taking away energy credits, scrapping the double child benefit payment, increasing the price of petrol and diesel, hiking student fees by €500, increasing road tolls, increasing the local property tax and enabling runaway rents to rise even further. You could not make it up. Workers and families are being hit from all sides and the Government is the one swinging the hammer. People are now afraid to turn on their heating despite the cold. Does the Taoiseach know that? Does he know that they dread opening their electricity bills? Does he know that food prices are now just beyond many families? Does he know that working people on decent wages are struggling too? Does he know that families have cut back on essentials?”
“It does not end there because this year, the Government delivered a budget of €9.4 billion and, astonishingly, it managed to leave working people worse off. That is some achievement. While people are struggling to keep the heat on, pay the rent, fill their shopping trolleys and put petrol in the car, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael chose to give a €250 million tax break to developers and a €105,000 tax break for wealthy executives but nothing for ordinary tax-paying workers. Increased tax breaks were given to landlords but renters were left out in the cold. There were no cost-of-living supports for workers, no income tax cuts for ordinary families and absolutely no relief for those under huge pressure literally just to get by.”
“There was no four-month timeline for him, Tánaiste. Harvey lost his young life. It is a painful reminder of the system that fails a child and not alone him, fails families and not alone his, fails communities and not alone his, and then, worst of all, fails to own up to it. While the Government was consumed by scandals of its own making, the crises facing ordinary people were left to spiral out of control. Nowhere is this more evident than in housing. We have the worst housing crisis in the history of the State, with record homelessness, record rents and soaring house prices. Entire generations are locked out of home ownership, trapped in extortionate rent or forced abroad. Young people are told by the Government’s actions, despite all of the windy rhetoric, that in the end their future lies somewhere else.”
“It was a deal born of desperation for office rather than dedication to the Irish people. From its first moments in office, the rot had set in. From day one, the focus of the Taoiseach and his colleagues was on not solving problems but consolidating privilege. Its first act was the appointment of the largest number of super junior Ministers in the history of the State, with enhanced salaries, enhanced perks and enhanced comfort for themselves. They are literally tripping over each other. There is that many Ministries that it would make your head spin. Then, of course, came the bike shed scandal, and after that, it was scandal after scandal, culminating in the deeply traumatic and, indeed, devastating scandal surrounding the failure of young Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who was left to wait and wait and suffer agony.”
“Today, we note the resignation of the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, as he leaves the Government to take up a senior position with the World Bank. Paschal and I have been constituency colleagues in Dublin Central for many years and I wish him, his wife and his family well. I genuinely hope that the next chapter in their lives brings them good health and much happiness. Today, we must confront honestly the record of the Government he leaves behind, a record defined not by service or ambition but, rather, by a relentless commitment to clinging to power at all costs. This Government came into being on the back of a grubby deal with Deputy Michael Lowry and his associates, and it certainly shows. It was an arrangement that allowed them to attempt to play both Government and Opposition at the same time, if you recall.”
“Rip-off rents continue to spiral out of control on the watch of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The latest daft.ie report shows new rents increased by 4% across the State in the past year. They are up by 6% in Galway and Limerick, 9% in the Taoiseach's city of Cork and 11% in Waterford. The Government sat back and allowed average new rents to hit a staggering €2,080 per month or €25,000 per year. While renters are fleeced, the Government provided no increase in the renter's tax credit in the budget. It is now pushing ahead with a Bill that will remove the one very limited protection afforded to renters and enable landlords to increase rip-off rents even more. If the Government cared at all about the pressure renters are under, it could not and would not go ahead with this disastrous plan.”
“Under Standing Order 35(3), I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that the Minister for Health come before the Dáil to make a comprehensive statement and take questions on the case of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who died last July and who was in need of and belatedly received surgery but whom we now know was removed from the surgical wait list despite having being deemed fit for surgery.”
“-----and to leave small children to suffer. There is never accountability for this. As a matter of fact, the great irony is that the only person who has suffered within the system as a result of this is the whistleblower herself.”
“I am very glad there will be a statutory inquiry. I hope the Government gets the terms of reference right but I am deeply troubled by the fact the system can act to deceive and delay, to leave parents entirely in the dark-----”
“One of the fundamental problems here is that there has been a strategy or an approach of delay, delay and deceive adopted with these parents in the case of Harvey. He was removed deliberately from the waitlist. That decision was taken despite the fact he had been judged fit for surgery by an outside consultant. That happened. The Minister knows this because the protected disclosure arrived on her desk on 31 August and arrived to the HSE on 12 September.”
“His parents did not know, though. Nobody told them. They were left in the dark despite their pleas and protestations and despite meeting with the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health. They found out in a Sunday newspaper why Harvey was removed from the list. How can they or any other parent now have any trust in the Taoiseach or anybody else entrusted with the care and treatment of their children? Harvey was wrongly and deliberately removed from the list. Did this happen to other children? Is there now a commitment to deliver a full statutory inquiry to get to the bottom of this case and others? What does the Taoiseach say to the parents of Mikey Henry Benson, a child in Mayo, who were told by CHI that there was no treatment for their child and to simply take him home and make special memories with him?”
“The whistleblower has identified each step of this scandal, which left a small, vulnerable child to suffer and deteriorate. This is just the latest, and I think the most devastating, episode in the failure of children with scoliosis and spina bifida who needed spinal surgery. Successive Ministers for Health, including Simon Harris and the current Minister, have failed these children. Now is the time for accountability. The Government has failed at every level to get to grips with this scandal, from its failure to keep the first promise that no child would wait longer than four months for surgery, to its failure to deliver care and treatment to these children and its failure to give frank and transparent information. It was widely known that Harvey was deliberately moved from the waiting list despite being fit for surgery.”
“Gillian and Stephen have consistently asked how, why and when Harvey was removed from the list and why his agony was extended and his treatment delayed. They got no answers, only spin, lies and deception, until a whistleblower from within CHI came forward with the truth. The answer to Stephen and Gillian's question was sent to the Minister for Health in a protected disclosure on 31 August and to the HSE on 12 September, but it had been known to many senior managers within CHI long before that. The truth is that Harvey was deemed fit for surgery, following an assessment made by an outside consultant from Great Ormond Street Hospital on 17 May 2024. A decision was then taken, just weeks later, by CHI to remove him from the list and describe his future care as palliative.”
“The case of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a child in need of spinal surgery who was left to wait for years in agony and who died on 29 July this year, has been raised many times on the floor of the Dáil, and I raise his name again with the Taoiseach today. In the summer of 2024, Harvey was removed from the spinal surgery waiting list by Children's Health Ireland, CHI. In August of 2024, his parents found out, quite by accident, that he had been removed from the list without their knowledge or consent. They fought really hard to get him back on the list to finally get him the surgery he needed. He had been left to wait for so long that his spinal curve had reached 130 degrees. Harvey suffered, his parents Gillian and Stephen suffered, and now they suffer the worst pain of all, having lost him. He was only nine years old.”
“They have no truck with those who seek to spread hate in our communities and we all have a solemn duty to keep every person safe on our streets and in our communities and to create an atmosphere where people of goodwill can have an open, honest conversation about how we build a system that works, a system that meets our international protection obligations in a fair way and deals with the concerns and needs of the people of Ireland. People want to see an end to the Government's chaotic approach and a migration system and international protection system with a book of rules that is clear, strong, reasonable and fully enforced. That is a fair and reasonable expectation and it is the responsibility of the Government to deliver.”
“That means those whose applications are successful and have leave to remain here must lead full lives, enjoy opportunity, contribute to our society and be fully integrated, but it also means that where an application fails and where a deportation order is issued, it must be enforced efficiently and speedily. It is only through the full enforcement of all the rules that we can have a system that works and enjoys people's trust. The vast majority of our people not alone reject racism but see it as abhorrent, ugly and un-Irish.”
“The news that the man charged with the assault was subject to a deportation order months ago and yet still remained in the country really shocked and angered people. The violence that followed all of that is in no way acceptable and is in no way excused in any set of circumstances, but people no longer trust that the system ensures safety for the public or for those in IPAS accommodation. That is a failure of Government. An international protection system can only work if it is grounded in fair, reasonable and enforceable rules, mindful of the need to safeguard social cohesion, respect communities, protect people's rights and command public confidence.”
“It goes without saying that upholding safety is paramount in any system that functions and commands people's trust. The arson attack on Drogheda at the weekend - the attempt to burn people alive that endangered the lives of small children and led to babies being taken to hospital - was callous, disgusting and indefensible. Those responsible are the most vile of cowards and must face the full weight of the law. Yesterday, my colleague an Teachta Joanna Byrne shared on the floor of this House just how unsafe that particular IPAS accommodation had been prior to any arson attack. Those poor people were doubly failed. The sexual assault of a ten-year-old child in Citywest last month was sickening.”