Mattie McGrath
Tipperary South · Independent · Ireland
“The loss of the double child benefit payment and other cost-of-living supports has come at a time when families are facing rising bills across every aspect of daily life. Parents are not just paying for education. They are paying more for food, energy, insurance, childcare and gach rud eile.”
“Parents also face substantial bills simply because they are required to buy specific items from a specific supplier. That is not fair and is not a balanced market either. There is no good reason that generic uniforms or PE clothing cannot be used in most cases.”
“Maidir le hUisce Éireann, cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan uisce? The situation in south Tipperary has reached crisis point. Since January, the Ardfinnan regional water scheme has experienced 58 water supply interruptions, affecting 11,000 customers, while almost 28,000 homes and businesses were placed on a boil water notice in a single week.…”
“Music education is a perfect example. Some schools provide excellent music programmes and opportunities for students to learn instruments and participate in assemblies. Other schools offer very little.”
“I, too, am glad to be able to speak on this motion today. I compliment Páirtí an Lucht Oibre for introducing it. While we often the cost of education in terms of books, uniforms and transport, the reality for many families is that the financial pressures associated with rearing children have never been greater.”
“They say it would be great to have water to be affected by a hosepipe ban. Uisce Éireann is totally out of control. Two weeks ago, the Tánaiste gave me some hope here that the Government might do something. Uisce Éireann is not acting for anybody.”
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“Nobody does. This is a shocking vista. We are now going to have it all buried and we are going to pay the CEO even though there is no job for him in the NTMA. We are going to give him more than €400,000 a year. In God's name, are the lunatics running the asylum? Are we so badly off and unaccountable that we allow this to happen? Who ensures that the unresolved grievances - and there are thousands of them - the very ones I have raised for years are not lost in the reshuffle? There is a deliberate ploy that we will be lost. I want to be very clear I am not opposing the idea of winding down NAMA. I opposed it being set up. I am worried that proper transparency and accountability will not transfer with it. I am opposing the attempt to use this dissolution as a way of dissolving responsibility.”
“These are lives wrecked and ruined. When the Government tells us the NTMA will now take over all remaining matters, what guarantees do people like Mr. Fraher and the other families have that their cases will finally be treated fairly and people will be held to account for any wrongdoing? What assurances are there that the mistakes of NAMA will not simply be inherited and quietly buried? I think that is what is going to happen. I am very concerned about it. The Bill states that the NTMA will be substituted for NAMA in all proceedings and that no cause of action will be taken against the NTMA solely by reason of the transfer. That is a nice way of getting out of all of this and leaving it behind. That may protect the State but who protects the citizens who have been destroyed by this? Who protects the people who pay the USC every week?”
“I know countless families from all over the country as the Minister of State must too. Michael Noonan would not talk to anyone at the time and said the vulture funds were necessary. Anyone who rears sheep or knows anything about country living knows the vulture is the most despicable bird or creature given its very name. He told his own backbenchers to ignore any families that came to them. We had the case of a wonderful auctioneer in Cashel, Mr. De Vere Hunt, who ended up in his grave as a result of NAMA. His wife came in to testify in front of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, who was Chair of a committee, but it was blocked. It was thanks to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle that she came in for a private session and had her say. People were brought to tears listening to her story. There are hundreds of those stories up and down the country.”
“As others have said, we are paying the USC, which was a temporary measure to pay for all of this. There was fraud, money was made and illegal transactions were carried out and a blind eye was turned to this. It is just a shocking vendetta. The Bill dissolves NAMA and transfers everything, including unresolved litigation which will extend beyond the formal wind down of the agency but it will not take into account the fraudulent activities which happened under its watch. I ask the Minister of State to answer those questions. There are many Johnny Frahers in this country, as I said. I could name dozens of them. We had the Clonmel Arms project. I called it project jackdaw. There was scurrilous interference with properties of NAMA. We got the information when there was a buyer trying to buy it. The Butler family was mentioned.”
“An Garda Síochána told me it cannot investigate it. The EU Commissioner, the Minister of State's former colleague, raised this question here on several occasions as finance spokesman before he left to go to his European post. Another example of a Revenue-generated document that arises from the original fraud by the National Asset Loan Management Limited is a stamp duty certificate dated 13 April 2015, stamp certificate ID150441576/81B3090415/J. The Department of Finance is attempting to destroy any trace of fraudulent activities by removing NAMA and its various entities and providing cover for all State employees who carried out or assisted in that fraud. This is a shocking situation that we are passing Second Stage of this Bill today. There are families who are traumatised.”
“That is hard to understand. I now refer to a Revenue Commissioners' Collector General receipt, dated 21 February 2015, notice No. 0973138/001310. This receipt was provided to National Asset Loan Management Limited. The receipt was based on a ROS payment dated 16 February 2015 made by National Asset Loan Management Limited. NAMA attached a letter to Revenue to explain the payment made. The letter was signed by a Ms Teresa Talbot, head of tax. In regard to the letter dated 16 February 2015, the details provided to Revenue are not true. They are downright false. The Chairman of Revenue is fully aware of the 2015 transaction I am referring to. The fraudulent scheme began with a false transaction that allowed a sequence of transactions to occur which involved, among other things, VAT fraud. I raised this here countless times.”
“It is a perfect case of a Department of Finance-sponsored system that could perform transactions and would never be prosecuted or held to account as the gatekeeper and enforcement agency of the State was compromised from the start. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for his excellent work in this area. I also must mention the Butler family in Clonmel, who were blackguarded. Many families have been destroyed. There have been marriage separations and families split. Many people have taken their own lives. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for his work at the finance committee and for being brave in trying to get answers. The document in my hand further states: "The Department of Finance could control each element of the system and ensure that each transaction was rubber-stamped by Revenue, regardless of whether it was legal or not".”
“I want to put on the record again one of those human stories, as I have many times before. I refer to the story of John Fraher, an excellent businessman from Clonmel, County Tipperary. I have raised his case directly with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the finance committee and the head of Revenue. The issue continues to be ignored and swept under the carpet. The fear with NAMA being dissolved is that issues like this will remain firmly under the carpet and there will be no accountability for anyone. John Fraher has received a letter from Revenue that is quite alarming. I have to hand a document from which I will quote the following paragraph: I have raised the matter of fraudulent transactions involving NAMA in the past and the matter is so serious that it brings into focus the reason that NAMA was staffed by NTMA employees.”
“Under the guise of a workout vehicle, it has been the most economically destructive agency in Ireland's history. It has been the catalyst for the disastrous housing crisis that has plagued us. I said that last night and have been saying it for the past year. I pay tribute to the late Brian Lenihan for the efforts he made. I said to him here late one night that NAMA was like a wild animal being released in the woods and no one knew where it would end up. There are very many human stories arising out of NAMA, many of which are still unresolved. There have been many claims of corruption and fraudulent activity, which has gone on without anybody being held to account. NAMA has a very poor history. No State-sponsored and State-staff vehicle should be able to perform fraudulent activities without being held accountable or punished.”
“My colleague Deputy Toole cannot make it to the Chamber as she is stuck in traffic. She asked me to convey her hope that some of the extra funds that become available as a result of the wind-down of NAMA will be ring-fenced for projects in her constituency. She hopes the Navan rail project, for which a preferred route was announced today, is one of the projects for which the funding now arising out of this sorry saga is ring-fenced. I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this Bill, which brings about the final winding down of NAMA and the transfer of all remaining matters to the NTMA. As I have said many times in this House, the legacy of NAMA is a trail of destruction left behind for families, villages and towns across the country.”
“The Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, went on a roadshow some years ago to Cork, Donegal and God knows where else – it was a nice ready-up with a hand-picked chairperson - to try to ready the people for change. It is a democratic decision of the people and nothing else. Failure to recognise or act on principles suggests two things. The first is that the Government may lack confidence that the electorate would support its position and the second is that it is unwilling to allow people to have their say on an issue of such great importance to the Irish people. I listened to much of the debate. The Opposition is in unison as regards the position. The Government should listen to that and take heed of democratic accountability to this House.”
“To remove this requirement now would represent the reversal of a commitment made to the Irish people in 2002. Therefore, any proposal to replace it with a broader or alternative international mandate should most definitely be put to the Irish people. The people are sacrosanct and sovereign here, and they should make the decision. It is often portrayed in media coverage that there is strong public support for maintaining the triple lock. The majority of the Irish people believe in preserving this safeguard. As a sovereign nation, it is the Irish people who should decide whether such a fundamental change is made. The Government argues that a referendum is neither required nor necessary because it is afraid of a referendum and the people.”
“I too thank Deputy Stanley for bringing forward this motion this morning. My position is clear: the triple lock is sacrosanct. Ireland's policy on neutrality is equally sacrosanct and remains a vital cornerstone of our approach to defence and international engagement. I too compliment our peacekeepers who have worked all over the world in very dangerous situations over the decades. Following the initial rejection of the Nice treaty, the Government gave explicit assurances to the Irish people ahead of the second referendum. These assurances included the Seville Declarations on the Treaty of Nice which safeguarded Irish neutrality and incorporated a requirement for UN authorisation in the triple lock. That was a promise made to the people. Do we have any respect for what the people were promised? We seem not to.”
“The RTB would normally come down on their side, or it is slow, feeble and ineffective as with most of the other regulatory bodies. They have a stamp on the wall, big seats in plush offices and board members being paid but they are not effective. They are toothless, useless and fruitless. I wished the Minister well when he took up the role. I thought he would do something pretty good. I asked the Minister to look at something that happened last week. Tipperary County Council passed a motion last Friday evening to knock 52 perfectly strong well-built houses. It is an absolute travesty in this day and age.”
“All of the Minister's policies seem to be trying to wipe out industries and we are being left with nothing only brus because that is the policy the Minister is bringing in. The parties on the left are clamouring to attack landlords. There are many incidental and accidental landlords who are good people. They educated their children and put them through college from having a second house they were left or inherited in some make, shape or form. They are all being classed as rogues. The RTB is useless and not fair. A bad landlord who does not repair should be brought to book but there are also tenants who wreck a house, destroy a house or do not pay rent. Somebody in my office told me the tenants forgot to pay the rent for the past four months.”
“The Government now thinks there is a golden egg in the short-term lets of people who have gone into holiday homes and Airbnb. Farmers beside me did up an old house in a farmyard which they could never rent to anyone long-term because it is in an active living farmyard. A woman in Dundrum in February has the same story. She has been at it for 30 years and the property is in the middle of her farm. The Minister thinks he can force them to give these as local authority rents or for people to rent long term. It is a folly. The Minister thinks he will get back 10,000 or 20,000 of these but he is going to destroy another industry. It grew up as a cottage industry and the Minister is going to wipe it out.”
“How could any company - it was Sisk in this case - get all 11 sites in the country and get €450,000 per unit? We could build the finest house in Tipperary or any other county for €450,000. Another issue is the problem with the blocks and cement. Instead of making the big companies pay, and I will not name them but we all know who they are, including an international company which I believe has moved its headquarters and funding from the Stock Exchange here and has gone to Holland, a levy was put on every cubic metre of cement. Cement has increased by 30% this year. Oil has caused a lot of this but the Government has increased it by putting on this charge to do repairs. Rogue suppliers and bad supervision allowed this. It is an unbelievable situation.”
“Then it laid out the red carpet totally for the Ukrainians and for God knows who else who came from all over the world. We were called all kinds of names when we mentioned it and pointed out the mistake and foolish policy which was unsustainable. To think in Clonmel alone, 40 modular homes were built. I sat down with the OPW and the builders Sisk and the Department's integration team. I was guaranteed these modular homes, which are probably worth €80,000 at best, would be finished for €200,000 and not a penny more. We discussed everything, including site, topography, water and electricity. They have now ended up costing almost €500,000 per unit. In fact, it is €496,000. Nationally they have cost €450,000. This is an absolute travesty and a waste of money.”
“The Government has lost focus completely and it is allowing itself to be led by the nose by the NGOs and whoever else makes up these nice policies. We all advised the Government not to bring in the recent legislation on private landlords, as if landlords were a dangerous club. There are some horrible landlords and I have no time for the bigger ones especially. The policy in this area is very strange too. I know of cases with regard to Waterford County Council and An Coimisiún Pleanála. In large groups of housing estates, a stipulation was put in that the first owners would have to remain in them and they could not be bought up by REITs and others. The Government laid out the red carpet for them but it did not support its own.”
“Will the Social Democrats rush to scrap the three-day wait instead of working with others in this House to try to deal with the issue of coercive abortion? We have soaring abortion numbers, including coercive abortions, and we need to deal with that issue also.”
“It is well documented from replies to parliamentary questions that thousands of women have availed of the three-day wait and have gone on to keep their babies. With that evidence before us, I cannot fathom how any party would seek to abolish such a life-saving provision. There are 11,000 abortions taking place in Ireland each year, which is an unbelievably sad reality, yet today a political party in this House is seeking to remove one of the last provisions that offers a small glimmer of hope that the life might be saved. We are still in the first half of 2026 and already two men have received lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in coercive forced abortions. These cases and other evidence show that the number of coercive abortions is rising at an alarming rate.”
“I, too, am opposing this Bill. I recently listened to the leader of the Social Democrats speaking on RTÉ radio about the importance of listening to women's abortion experiences. I want to ask Deputy Cairns this question directly today. Before bringing forward this Bill to abolish the three-day wait and widen the grounds for late-term abortions, did she accept or ignore the request to meet women who deeply regretted their abortions? Did she take the time to speak to women who benefited from the three-day reflection period and ultimately chose to keep their babies? These are not unreasonable questions. Pro-life groups and others have asked those questions in recent days and nowhere have I seen Deputy Cairns or anybody from her party answer them.”
“This is insane but it is just a typical example of Uisce Éireann's arrogance. It will not deal with anybody properly. It just throws money at the problem and the Government throws money at Uisce Éireann. Councillors Séamie Morrison and Phyll Bugler, Ms Emma Kennedy, the team here last week and all the others who are opposed to this - not for any selfish reasons, but for the sake of the ecology, the River Shannon, the region and sanity - are not going to go away easily because it is riddled with mistakes. There will be judicial reviews and God knows what else, and it will fall down all over the place because it is based on a tissue of false information instead of proper statistics.”
“Many others might not want it either but they are being forced to by so-called representative bodies. We are leaving the people behind. Have we learned nothing from the protests in recent weeks? I could go into a lot of stuff here. The habitats directive has been totally overridden. The Shannon system is already ecologically stressed. There are alternatives that have not been examined. It is insane to pump treated water from Parteen Basin into Dublin just to leak up to 40% of it into the ground. We ought to remember what leaks back in when the pressure goes down or there are bursts - the filth and dirt that seeps back in to the people of Dublin in the water they are getting. We are told that we are going to store the water in the pipe for a month during different drought periods. What kind of water are we going to have?”
“The same thing is happening. I think it was Albert Einstein who said that doing same thing over and over again and expecting a different result was a form of insanity. Uisce Éireann is obviously out of control. We all know that from dealing with it on a regular basis. The Minister of State believes this. Its arrogance is typified by the statement that 81% of farmers have signed up to a project that does not have planning permission or an abstraction licence. Imagine that. Hundreds of millions of euro paid out, along with a 25% payment, to those landowners. I criticised the IFA and ICMSA for doing those kinds of seedy deal before the planning permission for the project had even been granted. This is what goes on in this country. What about the hundreds of landowners who have not signed up and do not want this going through their lands?”
“Regarding the habitats directive, we have been told about how it affects anybody who looks for planning permission at home for anything. We have to look at all those issues. Why would we allow Uisce Éireann do what it likes? It has a blank cheque. We are going to have the national children's hospital No. 2? It used to be a small amount of money but now we are talking about between €3 billion and €10 billion to put two big pipes up through the middle of the country when it is totally unnecessary. Fix the leaks in Dublin, use common sense and save the water. This is treated water and up to 40% of it is being leaked on a daily basis.”
“This is not a marginal intervention by any measure. The wool is being pulled over people's eyes. It is not acceptable to say the abstraction is 2%. The environmental law it will breach is the water framework directive. The EU law provides that member states prevent deterioration of water bodies. The Shannon system is already classified with a below good status in several stretches. The application does not demonstrate with certainty that a deterioration will not occur. If deterioration cannot be excluded, the project must pass the strict Article 4(7) derogation test by showing overriding public interest, no better environmental alternatives and all mitigation measures implemented. It is failing in all those important areas.”
“The environmental assessment does not exclude adverse impacts on protected habitats and species under EU law. The EU forbids those. In its current form, the project exposes the State to significant legal risk, ecological damage and long-term policy inconsistency and that must be looked at as well. The 2% claim is misleading. The project documentation repeatedly states that the abstraction represents approximately 2% of the Shannon's average flow. This statistic is misleading and scientifically untrue. Ecological impacts are determined by flow conditions, not long-term averages. Evidence presented in submissions shows that during dry summer flows, extraction could remove 25% to 30% of available flow and during extreme drought conditions, which we experience pretty often in Ireland, it could remove up to 38% to 40% of available flow.”
“While securing a resilient water supply for Dublin is a legitimate national objective, the current proposal raises serious legal, environmental, financial and governance issues. None of us are anti-Dublin but we want common sense. The project may breach international environmental laws, especially the water framework directive and habitats directive. Environmental impacts have been misrepresented through reliance on average flow statistics. This will lead to severe impacts during drought conditions. Better alternatives, including addressing leakage in Dublin - which everyone talks about - and groundwater development, have not been properly evaluated. The project externalises environmental risk to the Shannon catchment, while primarily benefiting Dublin. That is totally discriminatory.”
“Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an Cheann Comhairle as cabhrú leis an Topical seo. I also thank the people who travelled here last week and who have been fighting this campaign in the interest of the community and common sense for more than a decade now. I thank Councillors Seamus Morris and Phyll Bugler, Emma Kennedy who has done massive work on this, anglers and others who came here last week, and the community activists and ordinary concerned citizens who are exposing the madness of this project. The proposed eastern and midlands water supply project seeks to abstract 300 million to 330 million litres per day from the River Shannon at Parteen Basin and transfer it to the Dublin eastern region.”
“It is a holy terror we have a Government that would allow that and continues to allow that and to allow them to continue expanding data centres when our grid is at crashing point with amber lights, warnings and outages recently in Nenagh with no explanation. We are on a tenterhook, and we stopped our turf and briquettes, and we are importing them. That is what we have.”
“I hope it did not. I called it national sabotage. If it did happen, it would be an act of vandalism and national sabotage. Now here we are. We had people here at that time and you were afraid to be seen talking to them. It was an international company that was going to bring in the oil at its own risk, produce it here and have it for us. It was taboo. We could not be seen talking to them. We had to have records of our meetings and everything else because we had to be too PC. That is what is wrong here. We have allowed big business to dictate. It is a holy terror that data centres are paying less for electricity than householders in Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Cahir, Cashel, Tipperary town and the other rural areas.”
“Gas prices today remain more than three times higher than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These elevated prices have fed straight into higher electricity costs for households. In 2022 the then rural Independents, including Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, Deputy Nolan, other colleagues and I, introduced a Private Members' motion calling on the Government to allow oil and gas exploration off the Irish coast at Barryroe with the aim of strengthening Ireland's energy security and reducing reliance on volatile international oil. The Government of the day, at Eamon Ryan's behest, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, voted against the motion. The then Minister, Eamon Ryan, wanted to fill the pipe with Readymix concrete to block the pipe to make sure it could never be used. Concrete is scarce enough and dear enough. I do not know if it ever happened.”
“I am delighted to speak on this Bill. It is timely, and I support it. The Electricity Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026 cannot be viewed in isolation. If we are serious about reducing electricity costs, we must address the core structural issues that continue to drive prices upwards. Only by tackling these areas together can we deliver lasting reductions in electricity costs for households and businesses across the country and reduce Ireland's dependency on imported energy. Almost 50% of the average electricity bill is driven by energy costs. Natural gas generates roughly half of Ireland's electricity and approximately 70% of the gas is imported, meaning Irish consumers are tied to the global price swings. We must have different options. This dependence on gas has had a direct and severe impact on our electricity prices.”
“At that time, the Government had the small cost-of-business grant at €250 million. That is now gone. Prices are going up incrementally every day and have been even before the war in Iran. This is another quango as far as I can see. The Taoiseach did not know then what it was. I hope he does now. He was Tánaiste then; he is Taoiseach now. I hope he has checked out what or who I-SEM is rather than robbing people, including businesspeople.”
“Ar an gcéad dul síos, I welcome the students and teachers from Coláiste Dún Iascaigh in Cahir, including Ms McGrath and Ms Hickey, to the Public Gallery. In 2021, I asked the Taoiseach a question here about a new business charge that had been put in called the integrated single electricity market, I-SEM. He told me that he did not know what it was. At that time, I saw a bill from an excellent businessman, whom I have spoken to again today. There was a huge increase in his bill. Has the Taoiseach found out what this is? It is supposed to be looking after the integrated market, North and South, but charges and prices have only gone up since the introduction of this new body or whatever it is. Is it a body? Does it have offices? Does it have staff? Who or what is it? This is another charge that businesspeople cannot afford.”
“We have to move on here and get the gardaí out on the beat meeting the people and standing with the people, and they will stand with the gardaí. However, at the moment we do not have the supports and there is antisocial behaviour. Sulky races are another huge problem. There was a march about it on Saturday in Clonmel. It is a huge problem. We must have more resources for our gardaí.”
“When will the Government have a measurable number of gardaí to put into rural towns and counties - I am talking about Tipperary here - and will he commit today to a specific plan to restore Garda numbers to Tipperary? I am not sure about this calling 999. Every person now is being told, and I heard this in my meeting yesterday, to ring 999. There is no replacement for connectivity with the local Garda, the garda on the beat and community gardaí. I salute Garda Fiona Gleeson in Clonmel and her other three colleagues, and Sergeant O'Leary in the community policing section. That is badly needed. They do a great job but they do not have enough of them. They are pulled off the community unit every other time there is an issue and shortages. An amount of time is wasted in courts and on other situations that they should not be dealing with.”
“The last Garda Commissioner under this Government and previous governments really did a lot of damage to An Garda Síochána. I had great hopes for the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, but his behaviour during the peaceful protests recently - and the Taoiseach's own - in wanting to put the gardaí in a situation with the riot police and everything else against ordinary decent people, did not help the morale of the public and in supporting the Garda. They support the Garda always and want to, and these people will and do. The heavy-handed tactics reminded me of the heavy-handed tactics of Fine Gael back in 1973 to 1977. It was shocking the way they were treated. We need extra numbers in Tipperary and in Clonmel especially. The antisocial behaviour is out of hand there.”
“On a dark night last November, a convoy of four vehicles came from a neighbouring county and proceeded to rob numerous houses and businesses. One businessman frightened them off and followed them. That was his mistake. He was on the road and was on to the Garda station for 45 minutes but received no assistance. He said he would drive to Cashel town Garda station and he was advised not to as there were no members there. He was then advised to drive to the Circle K for safety, light and visibility and where there are CCTV cameras. This is not good enough. What is the Taoiseach going to do to increase the numbers because they are not there? The gardaí are doing a good job and I salute them and support them but they need proper numbers. It is not safe for them.”
“So far this year, Clonmel in the Tipperary-Clare division, which was a disastrous move, got only one new Garda recruit while at the same time we lost one of the recruits from last year who did not stay in the job, which is okay as people might want to leave. Our message was clear. We need a Garda presence, Garda visibility and a timely Garda response when people need it. No police force in the world can police without the support of the public, and we have that here. I always support An Garda Síochána. It is clear that we do not have the numbers to provide responses. Without additional gardaí, there cannot be a response. Gardaí in Cahir, Tipperary town, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel and Clonmel do not have the numbers to send out a squad car. It is scary and it is not good enough. The public deserve and expect resources.”
“With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I welcome the members of Rotary Club of Clonmel to the Gallery, along with Councillor Richie Molloy. Yesterday, along with Councillor Niall Dennehy and Councillor Máirín McGrath, I met the new superintendent in Clonmel, James Hallahan. There is a deep sense of frustration at the ongoing neglect of County Tipperary regarding Garda numbers and Garda presence. We discussed all of the concerns, and he was forthright and we spoke the truth. The numbers are scary. It is not possible to operate a safe policing presence with the numbers we have. This has been going on for a number of years.”
“That was a very interesting contribution. It is a good day to welcome the transition year students from Coláiste Dún Iascaigh in Cahir and their teachers Rachel Burke and Anne Hickey. They are very welcome and I hope they enjoy their visit.”
“I welcome a group from Coláiste Dún Iascaigh in Cahir to the Public Gallery. I hope they enjoy their trip to the Dáil and Dublin.”
“The Omagh bombing, on which the Minister and I differed in opinion a number of times, was an atrocity. I was on my way to Omagh that day and I got there the morning after when there such devastation. I worked closely with Michael Gallagher and others over the years and they are fighting for justice as well. I know the Minister has moved the case affecting Lucia Farrell on. It has nothing to do with paramilitarism but what happened to her son Shane, who went out for a cycle, was a travesty of injustice. The driver of that car and his accomplices had numerous custodial sentences hanging over them, were stopped at a Garda checkpoint and should not have been allowed to go on. We saw the battle that Lucia Farrell has had on her hands to try and get justice for her lovely son, who was swept away unceremoniously.”
“I remember a case in Aughnacloy involving another young man who was just going to work in a town in Monaghan walking through a checkpoint. The name eludes me but the story told was that a British soldier's rifle slipped because it was a wet day and the bullet ricocheted off the ground. This was an absurd lie. A gentleman worked with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in a meat factory in Monaghan at the time and was harassed every day going up and down through the Border point at Aughnacloy. I passed through that Border point hundreds of times myself. It has affected so many others as well. There is also the case of the Dublin-Monaghan bombs and the Glenanne gang. I happened to be in Dublin on that particular day on a school tour. That was a scary event. There has been no truth on that either.”
“If we have legislation here as a result of this or in the future, we cannot possibly have a situation like that under the UK legislation, which gives the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a veto on what can be debated, discussed or raised. That cannot happen. We know there is a murky past since the time of the War of Independence and Civil War, and indeed long before that. One could go back to the Famine. There are all these cases. I think of The Miami Showband. Some of them were from Carrick-on-Suir in my own constituency. There was a vicious assassination attempt on a group that was giving entertainment to all people. I have been in Donaghmore in Tyrone many times. Deputy Currie mentioned her own case there. That should be sorted. There are too many cases where too much trauma and anguish have been bestowed on families.”
“I too am glad to speak on the Kenova report. I compliment the people who researched and presented it. We have had a long history here as well as in the North of Ireland and the UK. We are not so squeaky clean here. I compliment the Minister. Since he came into the Department of justice, he seems to have been making stellar efforts to have a more hands-on, open, honest and transparent approach, which is badly needed. The Sean Brown case was mentioned, which was so sad because Sean Brown, to everybody's knowledge, had nothing to do with any political party but was a GAA man through and through. He was out locking up his GAA club, as many volunteers across the Thirty-two Counties do. It is our national game. He was so cruelly executed.”
“Carrick-on-Suir, Cahir, Tipperary town and all the rural areas is chronic. It is lovely to see them all going to Dublin and we support that but we want a fair share in the countryside. The people of rural Ireland are good people and deserve protection but the gardaí they have cannot give it to them. It is a sad situation.”
“I am back to the Garda numbers as well. The situation in Tipperary is appalling. The numbers are just so bad. We got four in the second last tranche but six experienced gardaí left Clonmel Garda station. We got four in Clonmel. One of those new recruits has since sadly left the force. We got one in this allocation. The superintendents tell me that they struggle to put out a patrol car. People are not getting replies to phone calls and are being told by superintendents now to dial 999 but they are still not getting answered and people are left waiting for hours never to receive a call back. I support the gardaí who are there and doing their best but it is just not fair to or safe for those gardaí. A number of them have been injured when they were on their own with no back up. The situation in Clonmel.”