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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“He was a single sole trader delivering coal and briquettes and he provided a great service to ordinary people. He explained to me that he was being put out of business. When I asked him what was wrong, he explained that any house that goes back to Waterford County Council, such as when a person dies, the keys go back or for whatever reason, the first thing the council does is block the chimney. That is utter madness. A lot of measures have been brought in. I know we have to heat our houses and not be wasting all of it through chimneys, but we have gone over the top ridiculously. Taking out chimneys is shocking. During the snowstorm last year, people could not boil the kettle in these modern houses. The Ceann Comhairle is not as old as I am. I remember the half doors on many houses.”
“Although the Minister can correct me, what I heard from the Cabinet was that the Minister was going to tell councils to ignore the BER stuff and to prioritise getting housed fixed. There is only €11,000 available to take back each void. An amount of €11,000 will not do the windows, doors and insulation, never mind a full retrofit. There is not a smell or hope of that. With regard to the costs of everything, Government policies, especially the carbon tax, have driven up the cost of insulation and meddled with the rising price of oil, which is about to rise again because of what is happening outside of our control. And then there are the BER ratings. I did not believe the story a man told me when he came to me from Contae Phórt Láirge - Deputy McGuinness’ constituency - approximately seven years ago.”
“Uisce Éireann is not interested in local knowledge or talking to local people, including the workers who worked for councils for decades and now work for Uisce Éireann. It does not want to listen. It knows it all. That is a bad thing for anyone in any job to say he or she knows it all. The Government has made the standards of houses unattainable. In actual fact, the standards are unhealthy. I am not a scientist or a medical person but airtight houses are unhealthy. They are locked up when all the people have gone to work and there is not a breeze going through them. That is fine for private houses if they want that, but the Government has decided to have the BER rating. I am looking forward to having an engagement with the Minister at another forum very soon about this issue.”
“He made his name de facto by this policy and by being a tough man who was going to teach all the councils a lesson by dezoning all of this land. In the past, councils could do what they liked but the Planning Regulator has overruled the whole lot. That was a big mistake. Is he going to be relieved of his post and that office stood down? Obviously, if we are going to completely change policy and rezone more land, it fundamentally makes his position untenable. That is one issue. Another issue is Uisce Éireann. Most of the towns and villages I know are at capacity. They do not have the funds. These things are costing too much. Uisce Éireann is not fit for purpose. It was set up by elements of Fine Gael under Phil Hogan. It has been an unmitigated disaster.”
“Tipperary County Council, of which my daughter is a councillor for the Cahir district, had 60 acres of zoned land and the Planning Regulator put it down to ten acres. The councillors are now grappling with ideas after being told by management that it wants to rezone some of that land again. This is only in the past two years. We are going to have to contravene the development plans that are all made. That is unnecessary bureaucracy that was brought in and resulted in confusion reigning. While there was a need for planning regulation, he went off on a tangent dezoning all this land. Whatever he thought that was going to get him, I do not know. It is a mess; nothing short of it. I do not know how he feels now when the Minister speaks about zoning land.”
“Deputy McGuinness might like to know that some of those houses were in Waterford County Council, while others were in Tipperary County Council. He did this as a small set-up and self-employed man. He was able to build those houses for the Land Commission. That is not today or yesterday. It is so difficult now, however. We have completely tied ourselves in red tape, hobby-horses and other views. We probably had too much zoned land. The previous Government, of which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were part of, appointed a new Office of the Planning Regulator. We never had one before and I do not know if we ever needed one. It is like all the quangos we set up now. They are big organisations with nice, fancy offices and brass plates of their own. It is quango land. The Planning Regulator overstepped his mark completely.”
“I have no ideological hang-up about foreign investment and foreign banks being involved. We need that kind of leverage. The previous speaker mentioned that almost 48% of houses had some Government involvement. That is not sustainable. If we go back to Seán Lemass and how we built houses in those years, we had no AI, none of the geniuses and none of the degrees coming out of their ears that we talk about now. We had plain, common sense and hard graft. We mentioned builders, such as Michael Hally Construction in Ardfinnan. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle had many of them in her constituency. There were many other contractors as well. They employed hundreds of men. Indeed, my late dad was a small contractor and built some houses.”
“I, too, am glad to be able to speak on this Bill. I am as confused as many others. We have a desperate housing crisis that we have failed to tackle. We have debate in this House. We have ideology, really, coming from the left and a lack of solutions coming from the centre, which I have always been proud to represent, and the Government parties. Panic has set in. I wish the Minister and the Ministers of State well in this endeavour, but I honestly think we have lost our way. We should not be talking about RPZs here, although there is a need for them in many areas. Instead, we should be talking about the pressure cooker that is the lack of housing for the young and not so young - many of them are quite old - and the inability to solve the housing crisis. I know it is not simple.”
“That is the way to do it if we are to get cars off the road. We are forcing people into their cars because they have no other option. We do not have enough TFI services. We have many that are great and more are coming - tús maith leath na hoibre - but there is a long way to go. I look forward to engaging with the Minister. Maybe he will visit south Tipperary to see for himself the black spots that are there, especially the rail service. We have the stations and other infrastructure but the line needs to be upgraded and we need more frequent services. Above all, the services we have must be marketed. There is no point in a service running if nobody knows about it. It is bizarre that people do not know. They do not believe they can get a train in Cahir. The toilets at the stations in Clonmel and Cahir should be open.”
“People ask me where I get the train and say that they cannot get a train from Cahir. They do not know it is there, so Iarnród Éireann needs to promote it. I used the DART to come in this morning. Dublin is lucky to have that service. It is a great service that is almost always on time. It is a very efficient, well-run and nice service. We have gaps in rural areas that we should not have. One of my first jobs as a councillor was setting up the rural transport service, Ring a Link, which was one of the most joyous things I ever did. We now have more services. I salute the manager of Ring a Link, Jackie Meally, and its staff, drivers and everybody else. We need more connectivity for rural Ireland. We also need huge investment in the train line from Waterford to Clonmel and on to Cahir and Limerick Junction.”
“I wish the Minister well in his new role. It is time for it. I hope he will come to County Tipperary - I know he will - to see the different gaps we have. I welcome the new TFI Local Link. This is a town bus in Clonmel that has been an outstanding success and well used. The Waterford bus is now linking into Kilmanahan and Clonmel. We need it to come to Newcastle and on to Knocklofty, where there should also be a few stops. The Minister should come and see the rail service, which I use, from Cahir to Limerick Junction. It is a good service although it only runs twice a day. The fare is only €2.70, which is nothing, but the service must be upgraded to at least four or five times a day and have better connectivity to Thurles. It must also be marketed. Nobody knows it is even there.”
“The fire officer had the cheek to tell us yesterday that he never visited the site once in the previous 12 months. That is the type of blackguarding you are going on with here. You need to get real.”
“A local group rightly took a judicial review, and now the council has had to cave in and say it erred in granting a section 5 exemption. What is going to happen? Will that contract be declared null and void? It should be declared null and void. It is null and void because it was granted under false pretences. We have people before the courts, including Seán Meehan who is facing jail because of his situation with a log cabin. There are rogue developers who have no interest in humanitarian issues. They are interested in filling their pockets, making them fatter and destroying a village like Dundrum in County Tipperary which has a population of 200 by giving approval for an IPAS centre for 277 people, an illegal development that the council was told was illegal.”
“He sent out a tweet in 13 or 14 languages. In the name of God, when are we going to get real and look after our own? We have a Taoiseach who travels the world and talks about the world's problems, but he is forgetting about the problems here. Looking after our people here first is his fundamental duty under Bunreacht na hÉireann. Dundrum House hotel in Tipperary has been made into an IPAS centre despite the local people there protesting about this for more than 12 months. We were called to a meeting last night by the county manager to say the council, had erred in granting a section 5 exemption to a greedy, shabby, shoddy developer with a company brought in from Spain with declared capital of €120. We now we find it has all fallen into a heap of brus.”
“Something meaningful needs to be done about this. He knows and I know that there are hundreds of these cabins in his constituency and in mine. There are thousands throughout the country. They are one of the prongs to sort out the crisis that exists. They are very suitable as starter homes or whatever, and they are fine. As Deputy Lawless mentioned, immigration has a massive impact on housing. I know we need nurses and doctors, and many of them do a great job in our hospitals. However, we must face the elephant in the room. I refer to the fact that the huge immigration is adding major pressure, but we are not going to talk about it. We are the great saviours of Europe. We can bring everybody in and find homes for them. Roderic O'Gorman told them all they would have their own front doors in 12 weeks if they came.”
“Many villages and small towns do not have the capacity to build water treatment plants. In many cases where there are developer-built plants, there are issues with councils taking them in charge. I know they can and will provide the infrastructure, and will do so fast. Deputy O'Donoghue mentioned something, and I support him on it. We should separate the foul water from the sewer water. We have immense pressure on our septic tanks and sewerage systems. We cannot have the rainwater going into that and putting huge pressure on it. That is a no-brainer. What is needed is simple to do, especially with new developments, but it could also be done with many old developments. The Minister floated an idea some time ago which gave great hope to people who live in cabins and behind houses in different areas.”
“Tá triúr cainteoirí againn agus tá ceithre nóiméad ag gach Teachta. As far as I can see, everything is an emergency. The housing situation has been handled so badly for so long that it is now a crazy situation. The Members from Independent Ireland - so called Saor Éire, the freedom fighters - talked a few weeks ago about 100% mortgages. Who can take them seriously? They got detached tonight from their leader, Mary Lou McDonald. For the past few months since the election, they have been clucking around after her and under her umbrella as if she were a hatching hen. However, there must have been a split in the camp. They have gone back to where they were. There are many issues, and Irish Water has been mentioned. The infrastructure is not there. This morning, the ESRI made a statement. The situation is chronic.”
“It is ill-judged and ill-timed to try to force people to pay this tax, especially as we are entering such an uncertain period and when the cost of living is so high. All the people we are talking about have their own houses. They pay everything and never shirk their responsibilities. They pay their mortgages. They pay repair men and maintenance men and for their houses to be painted. They pay for everything, you name it. They do not get any supports. This is an unjust and unfair tax. It should be shelved.”
“While they say they are trying to bring these buildings up to standard in the context of future-proofing and whatever else, we are going to penalise ordinary citizens who cannot get SEAI grants and who have no money to put up. There is a two-year waiting list, or maybe it is longer than that. I call on the Minister and the Government to do something in that regard, because I will not be supporting this Bill. I cannot support it. I spoke against this measure in 2013. It would be hypocritical of me to support it now. Despite that, I welcome the fact that mica issues will be given some kind of consideration, although mica is an issue that is growing exponentially. We will have more areas with mica.”
“When I asked where this money was going to come from, there was silence. When I asked again, I was told that because there is no Government funding for this, the council is going to raise the money from two areas, namely rates and property tax. All this money is going to be invested in fanciful projects. We have fine buildings in Nenagh and Clonmel. We constructed a building in Cashel and then closed it. It has been abandoned. Tipperary town has all new offices as well. We will now have to spend scarce money on bringing those up to standard. Any time I was inside those buildings, I had to take my jacket off because of the heat.”
“People put their hands in their pockets to put a roof over their heads or to try to maintain their houses. There is upkeep and maintenance to do. In view of the harder winters and everything else, it takes a lot of work to keep houses intact. I was at a meeting recently with the management of Tipperary County Council. I was shocked to hear that the council must find €15 million before 2030 to refurbish and bring its buildings up to the new standards relating to the so-called carbon tax. Some of them are modern buildings, mind. The council must then spend €10 million or €11 million on a fleet. I questioned the necessity of a fleet. Management said that one diesel lorry must be replaced with double the number to take account of after-hours work, longer working days and everything else. That is nonsense.”
“This tax hits the elderly, those on low incomes and those who worked hard all their lives to buy a modest home. Now, with inflation still biting, the Government is quietly ratcheting up the burden again. As I said, the councils will be told by the management that there are local services involved and carrots will be dangled. I agree that some of the money goes into vital services in rural areas and villages, such as in different enhancement schemes and everything else, and that local councillors have some discretion. It is the basis of the thinking behind this tax. Anyone who works hard to put a roof over their head should be supported. We will have a debate tonight and tomorrow about landlords, tenants and everything else. There are good and bad tenants. There are other issues.”
“I praise the staff who are there but there are not enough of them. There is no shortage of people ag obair inside in the offices, but there is only a skeleton staff on the ground. There was a time when people got these services and were looked after to the best abilities of the local authorities. People are not getting anything in return now. I know that in this debate people in Dublin will say they are being punished, but they have every service you could ever think of, from street lights and street sweeping to public transport, you name it. In the country, people are on their own in the sticks. I have long opposed the LPT in principle. I said it in 2013 and I say again today that a family home is not a taxable asset but a necessity. We know how many people do not have homes and we should support them in any way we can to get them.”
“There are some areas where payment can be delayed and in some cases, it can be postponed. I have a few of those cases on my hands now. The parents are deceased and the bills had accrued on the properties before they passed on. The local property tax punishes people simply for working hard and putting a roof over their heads. It is blind to the realities in places like Tipperary town, Cahir, Cashel, Carrick-on-Suir and all the other towns where housing values have increased continuously and very few services are being provided in return. In fact, no services are being provided. We saw this last January when the snow fell. Not even an egg cup of salt was to be got for households. What do they get for the local property tax? All the local authorities now have a skeleton staff.”
“I welcome some aspects of the legislation but I do not welcome that we can give our local councillors the latitude to increase the rate of local property tax by 25% instead of 15%. What will happen? Management will push for an increase of 25%, and more if they can get it, because councils have been cash-starved by central government for quite a while. I used to go around boasting that in the 1977 general election, as a buachaill óg and member of Fianna Fáil, I campaigned for rates to be taken away. Since then, the county councils have been starved. In hindsight, it was a bad decision, but you learn from your mistakes and when you are in a party, you must do what you are told to do. I ask the Minister to re-examine this because it is not fair. There are charges, despite rising mortgage costs and everything else.”
“I will speak again on behalf of the hard-pressed homeowners of this country, especially those in rural Ireland and in my constituency of Tipperary, from Tipperary town down to Cahir, Clonmel, Cashel and Carrick-on-Suir as well as the villages and rural houses. These people continue to be squeezed by this unjust and unnecessary local property tax. The Bill proposes to increase charges on the vast majority of households despite the cost-of-living crisis. We have also been told there will be no more cost-of-living supports despite food prices, food inflation and everything else rising continuously - we do not see any respite from that - and despite the rising mortgage rates and countless families already struggling to keep their lights on.”
“What is required is an ongoing maintenance programme for all stock to ensure it is routinely kept up to a decent standard. No house should be in such poor condition when it becomes vacant that it takes several months to bring back. Usually, it is only after a house is vacated that it would be considered for an energy upgrade to thermal insulation and heating systems, or a new window set. I believe the council should be continuously assessing their houses. The rent collectors are gone from the job, but they were always on the ground and knew what was happening. They also reported back on the condition of the houses. We need to have regular inspections of rented houses.”
“Many of these issues are sensitive and all of us here know that, including the Ceann Comhairle. It might take longer than normal to get back the keys and there are extenuating circumstances that will not allow this, so you have to be sensitive about that too. It is not just flicking a switch. What is required is an ongoing maintenance-----”
“Another big issue relating to voids is the cost of bringing them back into use, especially when local authorities can only recoup up to €11,000 per house despite a recent NOAC finding stating that the costs of same are closer to €30,000 per house. I would say that is conservative, because we know the costs even of painting and decorating. We must look at that, because €11,000 is a paltry sum to give the county council. This is often a cost that councils are unable to sustain along with the availability of labour and delays with engaging contractors, so €11,000 is wholly inadequate to do that. We must also be mindful of other limitations on local authorities in turning around houses after a tenant leaves, passes away or vacates to attend a long-term nursing home for care.”
“I am widely supportive of the aims of the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion. We wish to do more to ensure that social housing stock is turned around and reallocated in a timely manner. I note in media reports over the weekend that Tiobraid Árann is one of the four biggest offenders in returning long-term voids. I acknowledge that large strides have been made by Tipperary County Council under Jonathan Cooney, and the engineering and other staff of the council, in addressing the issue in recent years, including bringing back more than 80 homes or voids in 2024 and 100 in 2023. There are two that supposedly have been empty for four years, which is totally unacceptable, but there were issues with planning which I understand are being resolved at present.”
“We are blue in the face talking about Uisce Éireann. We have to do something about Uisce Éireann. It is too slow dealing with applications. Recently I saw a planning application for 26 houses that would have taken 29 weeks to build. Mr. Flannery, the contractor, is great and was ready to build but could not get the connection. That is simply not good enough and we must deal with that. Uisce Éireann should be brought back to the county councils to deal with things in tandem and have everything ready to go when the houses are completed.”
“While I acknowledge the importance of focusing on local authority-led social housing builds and the need for properties to go onto the private market, it is a very difficult. The same people who have been in long-term rental accommodation through HAP and RAS schemes are losing their places and they are devastated. I welcome the appointment of Mr. Jonathan Cooney as the new director of services for housing in Tipperary County Council. I have called him a visionary and for public representatives and for people who are looking for houses, he is a very good man to deal with. The same fund is expected to do everything. We only have €5 million in the budget and we are trying to do everything with that - CAS purchases, social housing acquisitions and the disabled person's grant - and it is simply not enough.”
“I am delighted to be here for these statements. We are all well aware of the housing issue. It is the single biggest issue and everybody knows that. I believe the Government thinks there is a panacea with Airbnbs but it is not. We had that before in this city where the Government closed down 1,000 bedsits - 1,000 units - and made that many people homeless with no place to go. I think the Government has it wrong about Airbnbs. The vast majority of Airbnbs I know of in Tipperary are solely used for holidays and are bringing people into the area who spend money in the area as well. Social housing purchases, including the tenant in situ scheme, has been reduced significantly this year.”
“It is at the village at a similar time every morning to the public bus. This is only one example, but there are many. The free school bus tickets were introduced recently as a cost-of-living measure due to the downturn in the economy. They were hugely appreciated but they had many knock-on effects that were not anticipated with more people using the buses. It needs to be tweaked. I know the Minister of State is doing his best. He understands it himself and was a recipient of it in the early stages when it came out. I would appreciate if the move could be made. I know the pilot schemes are welcome, but we need more than pilot schemes.”
“The RSA has too much say on this. The Minister should trial a statutory instrument to clear this because the contractors cannot get drivers and it is age discrimination against the elderly. Early decisions are vital, as the Minister of State said, from 15 August until October though the children should be out in early June. Safe pick-up locations are important. For example, the Clogheen to Mitchelstown school bus does not come as far as the village of Clogheen - some call it a town - forcing parents to drive to Carrigmore cross halfway between Clogheen and Ballyporeen, a junction on a busy rural road, for pick-up. This is surely not best practice for road safety, particularly in the dark winter mornings and evenings. In the interests of safety some parents send their kids to route 245 Clonmel to Cork public bus stops.”
“The Minister of State was lucky to get it in both schools. I did not get it in national school, but I cycled to Mount Melleray that year to do the entrance exam. They did not take in any students that year. They had the place closed. I went on the bus to St. Joseph's in Cahir. I too thank the bus drivers, many of whom have gone to their heavenly reward. I also thank the contractors who give an excellent service to this day. The tweaking is there to do with the over-70s. I have seen people here and I have been up on my feet ten times in the past ten years to try to get this over-70s disqualification changed. If a driver is fit and able and medically certified he should be able to bring the children to school. He is allowed come to school at 10 o'clock to bring them off to a match or anything else. It is nonsensical.”
“There is a problem with timing as well. The timelines for getting tickets are so late in the day that people have to scramble for one against time. Parents and guardians are worried and it causes awful trouble for children. Some are being bullied because they cannot get on a bus. Other children ask them why they cannot get a ticket or why they cannot pay for one and the usual things that can happen among teenagers. School transport is a great scheme, which was introduced by former Minister, Donogh O’Malley. I availed of it myself when it came out in 1969 or around that time. While it has worked well, like everything else, it needs to be tweaked now ahead of the new school term. People will be going on holidays, laethanta saoire, from now until August.”
“While the school transport scheme is an invaluable resource to families, it badly needs to be amended. The Department of education undertook a much-needed review of primary and post-primary school transport schemes in 2023. Recommendations from that review were made in 2024 to change the eligibility and distance criteria. Can the Minister of State confirm if his Department, along with Bus Éireann, have, or intend to, implement those changes and recommendations, which would greatly reduce the issues for the coming school year? It was vital that the scheme was examined. While it took a long time for it to be examined, the review has been carried out and recommendations have been made. The recommendations must be introduced immediately. There is no point waiting until late July or early August to do so.”
“Incidentally, back in the 1970s, when that school was managed by the vocational education committee it was closed down. The people of Newcastle received a commitment at the time that children would be able to attend a school in either Cahir or Clonmel. That commitment was given and accepted in good faith. While it operated for many decades, for some reason, it is now not operating. That school in Newcastle is approximately ten miles from Cahir and nine miles from Clonmel. The difference in distance from the village to the two towns is minimal. There is always a mix of students heading to secondary school in both towns because there are good schools in Clonmel and an excellent school and community college in Cahir, namely, Coláiste Dún Iascaigh. The current scheme dictates which school students can get a bus to, however.”
“This is a particular issue in south Tipperary with schools in Cahir, Killenaule, Fethard, Cluain Meala, Mitchelstown in Cork and Carrick-on-Suir. For example, one family was unable to receive a bus ticket because Bus Éireann deemed that they live too close to a school in Cahir, despite the fact they live on a rural road a few kilometres away from the school with no footpath or public lighting. Their neighbour a little farther up the road was able to avail of the ticket. These rules are unworkable and unfair. I am sure the Minister of State understands that himself. Another common issue relates to two schools being very close to each other. I will give the example of my own village of Caisleán Nua, Newcastle, versus Cahir and Clonmel.”
“Ar an gcéad dul síos, I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for giving me this opportunity this evening. I thank the Minister of State for being here. Every August, my office is inundated with school transport queries from parents who have not been able to secure a bus place for their child. I am sure the same applies in the Minister of State’s office. It is the same for all representatives. This causes unnecessary stress late in the day before schools return. Children cannot get a bus ticket. Some might live too close to their nearest school, some live too far away from their school of choice and some are minimally further in distance between their nearest school and their second nearest school. These issues crop up for families coming from rural areas to local secondary schools in the towns.”
“I received a map from his officials this morning. I also thank them for contacting me. I would love the Minister of State to come to see this site. We have been looking forward to the new Garda station for a long time. The matter was first raised here 60 years ago by Seán Treacy, God rest him. We have it now. The planning and design are to open the top of the plaza. The front facade will be looking against the plaza. It should be turned around because the building will be there for the next century, and I would love to see it properly placed in a suitable area in Clonmel.”
“I, too, congratulate the Minister of State on being reappointed to the post he held previously. He is suited to this role. He has first-hand experience in Athlone. We all saw him on television manning the pumps. I thank the Minister of State for coming to Clonmel and other places. Now that Clonmel is 97% or 98% secure from flooding, I appeal to him to deal with the insurance companies because, as far as Kilsheelan and Cahir, which are located ten miles away, houses are being built on flood plains. People are being ripped off on insurance. If the floods come up over the mart in Cahir, we will have to lead the animals out on Noah's Ark. It is nonsense. I also thank the Minister of State for engaging with me in recent months regarding the site for the Garda station in Clonmel and the plaza beside it.”
“He met Ms O'Dwyer and Ms Crowe but he never came back to them. There was no proper community engagement ever. It was token engagement. To put 277 IPAS people into a village of 220 people is criminal. It tears to shreds the Government's guidelines about not changing the demographics by 5%. What is the Government trying to do to the people of Dundrum and Tipperary? There will be apologies in this House in years to come about the way communities and good, honest people who want to make a living are being treated. They do not want to be at those gates 24-7. They have enough to do. There are there 12 months today and I am marking that this evening. It is a shameful situation.”
“Twelve months ago today, the good people of Dundrum - two of whom the Tánaiste met and I mentioned them to him before, Ms Nora O'Dwyer and Ms Andrea Crowe - started a peaceful, decent protest at the gates. I had a video sent to me half an hour ago of the bus leaving with the last of the Ukrainians. We do not know where they are going but they are being moved out to be replaced by international protection applicants. This is a shocking vista. It is a grave abuse of the community and people of Dundrum. The Ukrainians were working, integrated and being well looked after by the community. Now they have been loaded on a bus this morning. I do not know if even they know where they are going. The hotel is now an IPAS centre. The Tánaiste told me some months ago that he wanted a pause on hotels being taken over by IPAS centres, and here we are.”
“I am not anti-employee. I would not have a business without my employees. I pay tribute to them. Most businesses, certainly small businesses, are the same and have good relationships. However, big businesses - those in the equine business and the big co-ops - have board meetings on yachts at sea, not yachts but cruise liners. They have lost touch with the ordinary people. They often have bogus employees and have powerful ways of dealing with any issues that arise for them. Tá mé críochnaithe, but it galls me to sit here and listen to a lecture from Deputy Gould and his Sinn Féin colleagues, none of whom, I would say, ever employed anybody in their lives. However, they are good at threatening and bullying people all right.”
“It would allow somebody, who wants to invest in that property to do it up as living accommodation, hopefully with a small shop or a mixture of both, to go into a pre-meeting with a planner. That needs to be taken so that we are not waiting three or four years for every obstacle in the book. That is good legislation brought in by Senator Noonan. The Government moved an amendment to delay it for a year. Why would it do that in the middle of a housing crisis? At a conservative estimate, there are probably 10,000 of these properties. We have a fierce housing crisis and we are supposed to be throwing the book at it with all hands on deck. However, the Government is going to delay the legislation before us for 12 months. Why? We need those supports. Small businesses need those supports, and the employees need this legislation.”
“We implement legislation, and it is left there on the books. Whether it is good, bad or indifferent, it is left to plough on and companies, small businesses especially, are trying to continue to trade under that legislation without any kind of impact analysis of the possible downsides to it. In fairness, the drafters of such legislation will not be able to see the all the different impacts it might have. There should be some kind of system where we can go back and amend it or assess it at least with a view to amending it after 12 months. Today, the Seanad is dealing with a very reasonable Bill introduced by Malcolm Noonan to do something with vacant properties, many of them shops and small businesses that were forced to close, including in the Minister of State's county of Mayo.”
“I understand the legislation, and I am an employer. For a political party to be the answer to everything, cause ruckuses and disturbances like that, it should have to pay the price, otherwise we would have bedlam in this House. If I bring in visitors, I am responsible for them, but Sinn Féin Members seem to have their own law. They decided after they lost the election to sulk, obstruct this House and not do any business here for months. Nothing was done, as you know, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, in the interests of so-called I do not know what. The legislation is needed, but we must have some kind of impact analysis which we seldom have here on any legislation. Where legislation is being bedded in, give it a year. All legislation should have some kind of reassessment but very little has.”
“I call on Deputy O'Flynn to apologise. He does not know anything about business. The restaurant here is a business and many people are employed there as well as in the bar. There are also the staff of the House, including the ushers. To denigrate this House, its staff, its workers and its cuisine-----”