Maurice Quinlivan
Limerick City · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“The Kilteragh estate in Dooradoyle, where hundreds of homes are also located, has no bus service. The nearest bus stop is located outside the Crescent Shopping Centre, which is 2 km away. Another area that is lacking a bus service is that which lies between St.”
“In recent years, there have been some improvements on the bus transport in Limerick city, with routes such as the 310 from Annacotty to the city centre being rolled out. These new routes and improvements have to be welcomed, but significant gaps remain in the provision of bus services across Limerick city.”
“We have already seen a four-year delay in the delivery of BusConnects, which has impacted the economic development and liveability of Limerick. When raising the issue of University Hospital Limerick on many occasions, I have spoken about the growing population of Limerick and the wider mid-west region.”
“We have faced major challenges in making the Limerick city centre a liveable and enjoyable place. Efforts have been made to improve the city and make it a more attractive place to visit and enjoy. We have had some great success with the promotion of King John's Castle as a music venue, Thomond Park and the annual Great Limerick Run.”
“As stated, good progress has been made regarding transport in the mid-west, but we still lag way behind other areas across the State. Last year, I published a report on bus infrastructure in areas on the north side of Limerick City.”
“What they have done with the route, with buses coming onto O’Callaghan Avenue from Kileely and then onto the High Road and Thomond at Johnseys shop, is very dangerous. The road has been narrowed so much that buses have to mount the footpaths on both sides. Somebody is going to get seriously injured unless something is done.”
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“Senior staff at the school have highlighted time and time again major concerns regarding the absence of supports for children there. The school serves the Southill and Galvone areas of Limerick and has an enrolment of 186 children. According to the Pobal deprivation index, that area is the second most deprived in the whole State, with a label of "extremely disadvantaged". From in-school assessments by the school, it is estimated that 72% of its children have at least one additional need, with almost 40% having two additional needs. I ask the Minister to personally intervene in respect of this school, which has not got the supports it has been promised for years.”
“I commend Lindsey Liston, the chairperson of Corpus Christi Family Centre, and all those involved in this brilliant project. The sky is the limit programme has been an initiative since 2015 and is co-ordinated by an assistant psychologist based at the school. The primary aim of the programme is to provide psychological support to Corpus Christi primary school students and members of the surrounding community. It works really well. The Minister would do well to visit the school to meet the great staff and pupils and, importantly, support its ongoing efforts and see whether it, or a version of it, can be rolled out throughout the State, as it clearly works. Le Chéile National School, on the south side of Limerick city, is a school I have spoken about on a number of occasions here.”
“I welcome the motion, which focuses on the challenges that thousands of parents and children throughout the State face all the time. Children with additional needs and their parents have plenty of obstacles to overcome but, in this day and age, access to education should not be one of them, although, unfortunately, it is for many people. I deal with them, as do my colleagues. Education is the foundation of everything. It opens doors, minds and learning. It also encourages future learning. It is the right of every child to have access to education. Unfortunately, not all children are being guaranteed that right. Not all children have the resources they need to achieve all they can in school. I recently attended the research launch of the sky is the limit project at Corpus Christi school, Moyross.”
“The capacity is there. We need to allow airports outside Dublin to flourish and part of that includes rebalancing flights away from Dublin to Shannon. When can we expect this review to be concluded?”
“The programme for Government states the Government will "Conduct a review of National Aviation Policy to maximise use of our airports". When can we expect this review to take place and conclude? Some 86% of people who fly from this State do so from Dublin Airport and for transport flights it might be even higher than that. Several weeks ago the management of Shannon Airport called for the re-examination of aviation policy and requested the passenger cap in the regional airport programme be increased. Last year, for instance, over 2 million passengers used Shannon Airport, placing it outside the programme. As the Minister knows, Shannon has the capacity to easily take up to 5 million passengers without much work there. We really need a more balanced approach to Irish aviation and the conclusion of this review is the first step.”
“While things are uncertain at the moment and a lot of workers are really stressed, investment in our key advantages, such as our workforce and our SMEs, will see us through these aggressive self-destructive tariffs imposed by the US President.”
“Simultaneously, we must develop our indigenous enterprise sector, which has been left behind in recent years. To do so, we must reduce the cost of doing business in this country. We have the most expensive net electricity prices in the EU. This must change if we are to be competitive. We must look at ways to reduce utility prices more generally, while doing similar with property and banking. We must be measured in our response and never lose sight of our greatest strength, which has always been the people of Ireland. Businesses invest in our country because of our hardworking and highly educated workforce.”
“In the immediate term, we must also seek to protect jobs across the island. To that end, I urge an increased level of engagement with the Executive in the North and, as my colleagues said, for the North-South Ministerial Council to meet as a matter of urgency. We, along with our European partners, must respond in a measured way. Aggressive counter-tariffs could damage our economy. Along with our European colleagues, we must do all we can to avoid a tariff war, one which serves the interests of no one and would expose our island to the worst impacts of such a tit-for-tat response. We must rather look to enhance our competitive advantages such as third level education, our people and our unique location between Europe and the United States.”
“The dangers of over-relying on tax incomes from multinationals has been well flagged by me and others, but this and previous Governments have not done enough to encourage balanced development of our economy by strengthening and supporting our SME sector. I have previously called for and launched policy documents on the need to establish a State-wide Irish enterprise agency. It would take over responsibility for the current local enterprise offices, make best practice uniform and provide the Government with advice on what retailers and other SMEs want and help them to grow, sustain and build their businesses. An increase in personnel would include new mobile business advisers to travel to businesses and provide advice on business plans, grants and strategies on site.”
“Unfortunately, our proposals were not adopted by the Government, and we now have large-scale shortages in many areas. Yesterday was the time to prepare, but we are where we are now, and we must prepare for the impact of these and any future tariffs and external shocks that may present themselves. We need to be ready with supports akin to those introduced in the responses to Covid and Brexit, while also looking at market diversification supports and better support for our SMEs, businesses and companies. Although, as I said, FDI is very important and has been excellent for Limerick, it is clear we have become over-reliant on that sector of our economy.”
“CSO estimates show that exports in 2024 were valued at €223.8 billion, with imports valued at only €133 billion. Clearly, in welcoming large volumes of foreign direct investment, the focus on our domestic economy was often not prioritised. However, before 2 April, we still had a shortage of craftsmen and apprentices, we were watching the decline of our city centres and our SMEs were not supported as they should and could have been. The issue of apprenticeships was raised by me with the then Government in 2018. At the time, my colleague Kathleen Funchion, now an MEP, launched a document, Apprenticeship Reform Proposals, in which, recognising the future need we would have, we sought the tripling of spaces on apprenticeship programmes.”
“They are concerned as to whether their jobs will be there in a few years' time, how these companies will react and how these tariffs will impact the availability of future investment and promotion opportunities that exist in these companies already. These companies have been, and continue to be, vital to the local economy of the mid-west region. It is hoped that those that were planning expansions will continue to do so. They have been good for Limerick and the mid-west region and have contributed enormously to Limerick and the surrounding counties. As I said, exports are critical to our economy. If these tariffs dramatically impact our exports, we will face serious challenges, not just in the export sector but across the whole of our economy.”
“The impact of these tariffs and how we react to them will affect our resources, but this must not distract from the investments needed to advance the well-being of all our citizens. In my constituency of Limerick, we have several technology parks with American IT, medical devices and pharmaceutical companies that employ thousands of people both directly and in associated companies. Thankfully, for now we are fortunate that 75% of our exports to the US fall within exemption categories and this may mitigate the damage caused to our economy by these tariffs, although last night's comments might scupper the hope we have at the moment. Thousands of people in counties Limerick and Clare work for these organisations. Following the 2 April announcement, many of these employees are concerned for their future.”
“We cannot and will not allow the imposition of, or the threat of future, tariffs to drop election commitments or, worse, herald in austerity measures. Now, more than ever, we must prepare ambitious investment on housing, health, infrastructure and, crucially, green energy, especially offshore wind. Renewable energy has the potential to be a vital source of revenue and energy for our market. The development of offshore energy is our chance to eventually become energy independent. We can harness this energy and export the excess energy that Ireland will not need, or we can import it from abroad. That is the choice. It is as simple as that. We can either harness the energy from wind or purchase it from abroad.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. While there will be further statements on tariffs this evening, it is positive that we are holding this debate now regarding how the economies on this island, both North and South, can be protected against the impact of tariffs announced on 2 April by the President of the United States of America. The announcements on 2 April by the US are a form of economic aggression on its supposed partners and allies while simultaneously being an act of self-harm by the same country. They are a threat not just to the world economy but to the economy of the United States. We know in this State we have a multitude of challenges that have not been addressed from the cost of living to the emergency that is housing and the ongoing crisis in our health service.”
“A decade ago, I was again involved in the water charges campaign, a grassroots, people-led campaign that defeated water charges. If necessary, it will do so again. The Bill we are discussing, which the Minister refuses to support, would repeal the aspect of the 2017 Act that allows for Uisce Éireann to introduce a customer charge for water use. That is exactly what we are saying the Government refuses to support. That is why we do not have confidence in the Minister when he says that is not what the Government wants to do. The Government does not have the trust of the people on this issue, which is the reason we are bringing forward this Bill. When we vote on it tomorrow night, people will see where the Government stood on the issue of water charges when it had the chance to do it.”
“Gabh mo leithscéal, Minister, it is my time. I did not interrupt the Minister in fairness, even though he was talking utter shite. Gabh mo leithscéal. I should not have said that. People do not trust Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on this issue. They have good reason for that. The Minister spoke about Sinn Féin losing votes in the election. The Minister’s party, Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael had the lowest vote they ever got in the history of the State. He should not be lecturing us on election results. The reason this Bill is necessary is that when it comes to the issue of water charges, no one trusts the two parties in Government. One of the first campaigns in which I was involved was the campaign against water charges in the 1980s in Limerick.”
“The Minister is clearly rattled judging by his response to the first part of the debate. We have seen what the Department suggested. The problem is that the Government has to gain the trust of the people on this issue, not ours, and it certainly does not have the public’s trust on it.”
“That involves access to education, job opportunities and the prospect of owning their own homes. The drug dealers who corrupt these children are a plague on our communities. They are anti-community. They offer nothing positive and are a scourge on the hard-working people on these local estates. It is the hard-working people in these areas that keep the communities going despite the presence of these criminals. Too often our working-class communities have been let down by successive Governments through lack of funding and lack of support for community gardaí. There is simply not enough of them. Young people in these communities are being left behind as a result.”
“In some areas, drug dealers and senior gang members use teenagers on bikes, horses and e-scooters to deliver drugs and receive payments for that. Teenagers are vulnerable to being groomed into the criminal lifestyle. When we consider that 18- to 25-year-olds are the largest group in our prisons, it is clear early intervention is crucial. The intervention should come from knowing your community garda but there are far too few of them and far too many communities where community garda numbers have been decimated by successive Governments. Criminality thrives in areas with deprivation and that lack sports complexes, youth clubs and facilities. The investment we make now in our young people in our communities will pay dividends in the future. We need to give these children a sense of hope and the opportunity to achieve.”
“I welcome the opportunity strategies we urgently need to use to divert young people from criminal activity. Children who are lured into criminal activity should still be afforded the opportunity to reach their full potential. Our young people are our future and we must invest in them. Unfortunately, some have been lured into criminality. I have seen that happen in my own city. They look around their communities and see disadvantage. They are longing for the instant material benefits a life of criminality can bring. They want to buy the nice watch, the nice jacket, expensive trainers and have the status they believe their involvement in criminal activities brings. Unfortunately, this is true in my home city of Limerick, as it is in other parts of the State.”
“The Minister is well aware of that. I am asking him to change that. He also committed to review that. The sooner he does so, the better.”
“The second issue I wish to raise with the Minister, which I raised with him before, is the issue of local authority voids. For people who do not know what they are, they are local authority houses that are boarded up. It is not fair on people who are waiting on housing lists to see those boarded up for a number of years. It is very unfair to people living next door to them because they often become, as I said before, magnets for antisocial behaviour, litter dumping and all sorts of stuff. In response to a parliamentary question given to me last week, the Minister said, “Under the voids programme, there is no upper cap that can be spent on an individual dwelling [and here is the crux that comes] providing the overall average per dwelling of €11,000 is maintained.” That means local authorities do not have money to do it.”
“I had to ring the out of hours number for emergency accommodation the other night due to a house fire of a local authority tenant. She was made homeless due to an accidental house fire. I was told they had no access to funding outside of office hours. How ridiculous was that? The council then came back to me and said it had to wait for a fire report before it could house the person. The house was actually burnt down. I saw it myself; it was actually burnt to the ground. That is an easy demonstration of how chaotic and how under-resourced it is. While the staff who work there do their best, they cannot do it without the resources. The Government has not given the resources. As we speak, and in the context of the figures the Government recently gave us, there are 500 adults and 224 children in Limerick city in emergency accommodation.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I thank Deputy Seamus Healy and his colleagues for bringing forward this motion. I have been in the Dáil for nine years and have been listening to speeches from housing Ministers in that time. I listened to the Minister’s speech today and, unfortunately, I do not think he was even interested in delivering it. He did not seem to believe in what he was saying. We are in a housing emergency but the Minister and the Government will not actually admit it. I wish to raise two issues in the short time I have, the first of which relates to homeless services in my own city of Limerick. Every single night of the week – and we are into the second year of this now – homeless services are full. We are short of spaces and people are being turned away every single night. All the hostels are full.”
“I urge the Minister to consider how such long waiting times can be shortened and how those dependent on such payments can know the outcome of their applications more promptly. I thank Mr. O'Meara and his family, and all those who have sought to have these restrictions removed. The Bill we discuss today is much welcome and is the right thing to do. It is a Bill that I wholeheartedly support.”
“I have been dealing with a case in Limerick of an older woman who has been the carer of her grandson since he was three years of age. He is now 19. I have raised this case already. This lady had her payment cut as it was determined that the person being cared for did not require full-time care and attention anymore. The young man has an autism diagnosis, dyspraxia, learning difficulties and various mental health challenges. He is not capable of completing daily tasks such as keeping up his personal hygiene without support. Without his grandmother's ongoing commitment, the burden of care will fall on the State. She must now wait and hope the carer's payment is fully restored. There are challenges with social protection and we need to have them decided in a shorter timeframe.”
“In 2024 the average wait time for the back-to-school family dividend was 19.8 weeks; for carer's allowance, it was 16.9 weeks; for carer's benefit, it was 13.6 weeks; for child benefit, it was 25.4 weeks; for disability allowance, it was 16 weeks; for domiciliary care, it was 22.7 weeks; for illness benefit, it was 25.9 weeks; for invalidity pension, it was 14.8 weeks; for jobseeker's allowance, it was 32.8 weeks; for jobseeker's benefit, it was 21 weeks; for maternity benefit, it was 14.5 weeks; and for the one-parent family payment, it was 34.7 weeks, which was especially and incredibly unfair. Of course sometimes an incorrect decision can be made regarding an application. When a person fails in a case, he or she has leave to appeal, but he or she must consider the additional 23.5 weeks to receive an outcome, such as for carers.”
“I thank the divisional officers of the Department of Social Protection who do an excellent job in answering the many queries that me and my colleagues put in. My team puts in questions, clarifications and parliamentary questions every single day. I will give a flavour of how long people in need of a payment must wait.”
“With many social protection payments it has always been a challenge to receive the payment one is entitled to. For many payments there is a requirement to demonstrate your financial resources, to submit these and other details, and then to settle into what is often quite a significant waiting period. People who apply for a payment are often in desperate need of it. They may have no employment. Maybe they are caring for a loved one and have had to cut back their hours of work. Possibly they are the head of a one-parent family and, as such, the payment is a lifeline to ensure they can deliver their child's needs. The average time a citizen must wait is often far too long for many such needs or payments.”
“The legislation would extend eligibility for the pension to persons who are engaged in an “intimate and committed relationship” lasting two years where there are children involved, or five years for childless couples. While the change takes effect I hope the time restraints that have been placed on it would be relaxed so that the numbers eligible can be widened. Some of my colleagues, including Deputy O'Reilly, mentioned specific cases and I could mention some as well. Of course this is an important change but it required a brave citizen to take the matter to the Supreme Court. He should not have had to do that and the family should not have been put through that. While this is an important and significant change, perhaps it is time to look at a wider issue with many of our social protection payments.”
“I welcome the debate on this Bill, which provides for a very important and significant change to social welfare payments. It is an overdue change and one that is most welcome. I commend Mr. John O'Meara on the ruling on his case at the Supreme Court following the death of his long-term partner to whom he was not married. Ireland has changed dramatically in recent decades and mostly for the good. A huge number of families have been living in the union of love for many years but without taking that additional step of marriage. Mr. O'Meara put in his application, it was denied and he felt that they were treated differently as a family. His late partner and he had both worked and paid their contributions but were discriminated against.”
“I am supporting that appeal but we were told we can now anticipate waiting 23.5 weeks for a decision on the appeal, and we cannot be sure that this desperately needed payment will be reinstated. I fully support the motion but I must ask the Minister why we make things so difficult for these people who really are the unsung heroes of our country.”
“He is now 19. She became her grandson's guardian and carer due to unforeseen issues and has provided all the support he needed. The young man has an autism diagnosis, dyspraxia, profound learning difficulties and various mental health challenges. He is and has been a handful for her. To this day, he requires support with washing and general personal hygiene and becomes disorientated easily. His grandmother stepped in. If she had not, the burden would have fallen on the State, as we well know. In January of this year, her carer's allowance was cut as it was determined that the young person being cared for did not require full-time care and attention. She has appealed this.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion regarding young carers. Sixty-seven thousand children - let us call them what they are - provide regular care for adults. They do so in an unpaid capacity. It is a burden young people should not have to face that impacts their development and, often, their mental health. One in four of them goes to school hungry and without food because there is simply not enough food in the house. While caring for a family member will of course impact young people more as regards their development, this role impacts on carers of all ages. A carer provides significant care to somebody in need of care in the home due to illness, disability or frailty. I have been dealing with the case of a woman who is getting old but is still the carer for her grandson, and has been since he was three years old.”
“That is what we need to do. We need to change the system. It is low-hanging fruit, as the Minister of State said. This is the fastest way to deliver social housing and people are in need of those properties.”
“Limerick council has done a very good job when it can, when it has the money. The process is cumbersome. They have to go through bundles; they cannot just do one but have to do a couple. It takes quite a while to come back. Many of the houses that are boarded up have only minor works to be done. While waiting for authorisation from the Department, they end up being boarded up, which costs €3,000 to €4,000. Nobody wants to live next to a house that is boarded up. It is not fair when there is family coming to visit. The estate does not look great. The issue here is making the process simpler and funding the councils to be able to deliver. For instance, in Limerick there are always 200 vacant houses. When we get 20 done, 20 more come onstream. There is no plan to address this, to get it back to zero and start again.”
“The mother was looking out at the estate she comes from, where three local authority houses have been boarded up for more than two years. The system is not working properly. As I have said in this House previously, void houses can be a magnet for antisocial behaviour and dumping rubbish, with people gathering around them. It is not fair on the neighbours. We need a better system whereby councils are funded and can deliver the return on these houses.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I am not sure I heard him correctly in respect of a limit of €11,000. Limerick council gets €11,000 per unit for each house it does up. The average cost per unit to the council is €48,000. The cost of refurbishment is a major problem, which the council cannot afford itself. We need to look at the issue clearly. Local authorities such as Limerick cannot refurbish these properties without meaningful support from central government. The current grant was not even increased in line with construction inflation. These sites are eyesores which bring down the value of property when they could be used to house local families. I was dealing with a family recently who are living in emergency accommodation in a hotel.”
“My question is about local authority vacant homes, known as voids. Are there any plans for Government to increase the money allowed to each local authority per unit? It is an issue that causes concern across the State, particularly when people live next door to a local authority house that is boarded up, which can be the case for a number of years. Is the Minister of State increasing the funding per unit?”
“Here we go again with restrictions imposed on those most desperate for housing, those who cannot afford to purchase their home. The Minister would be best served to take note of the opposition to these changes. He should increase the capital allocation for 2025 not reduce it compared with 2024, allow refurbishment costs, end the arbitrary two-year housing support rule and stop excluding single people and couples without children from the scheme. The Minister says he is committed to ending homelessness yet takes actions that will only serve to increase the already high numbers of people without a home.”
“On top of this, no refurbishment costs have been assigned to acquisitions so any property purchased in a condition short of turnkey ready cannot be prepared for use for those in need of housing. When the Government was formed there was a lot of rhetoric about getting to grips with the housing crisis and it looks like it is falling at the very first hurdle. After five years of failing to meet targets, of ever-increasing homelessness, of a general election where the actual targets were hidden and the public deceived, one might have hoped a new Minister would have brought a new approach - an approach that keeps people out of homelessness. Alas, it is a case of here we go again. Here we go again with more homelessness. Here we go again with sky-high rents and house costs.”
“The limited funding combined with additional restrictions make increased homelessness in Limerick inevitable. Limerick City and County Council held a webinar with councillors last week about the impact of these changes and regarding the current state of play of housing support in Limerick, and the situation is very bleak. Across Limerick,107 acquisitions are on hold from last year and with a capital funding allocation for second-hand acquisitions at around €6 million, it is estimated that only 20 to 22 of these will proceed. That means is there is no capacity to purchase any future properties where notice-to-quit orders have been issued. It means 85 households whose inhabitants will become homeless. This excludes any notice-to-quit orders from this year.”
“The changes the Minister announced to the tenant in situ scheme will make more people in Limerick homeless. The changes announced by the Minister are a mistake and should be rowed back as a matter of urgency. The scheme as it stood was working and stopped thousands from becoming homeless. It should have been expanded. It should have been further funded. It is one of the simplest ways to deliver homes for working people. Instead, the Minister has reduced funding and cut the scheme’s targets. The restrictive and punitive new rules exclude those who have no children and they also exclude single people. Perhaps most ridiculously, councils with no money for refurbishment of properties cannot now reclaim refurbishment costs from the Department.”
“The commission has outlined what needs to be done. The old maxim is to never reinforce failure, yet this is what the Government seems hell-bent on doing.”
“It said targets were too low and advised that there is a need for increased delivery of public and private housing, which should be front-loaded. These are expressions of the Housing Commission, an independent commission established by the previous Government. With this type of criticism and the record of the Government parties in missing targets, why would anyone have confidence in them to resolve the crisis this time? In the lead-up to the general election, as has been said, the Government told the electorate that it would deliver 40,000 homes in 2024. We know this was simply not true and that it delivered 30,000 houses, which is fewer than in 2023. We now know the Department of Finance's housing unit was aware that housing completions were likely to be similar or below the 2023 output. The electorate was deliberately deceived.”
“An affordable housing scheme was advertised in Newcastle West, County Limerick. The minimum price for what is called an affordable four-bed semi-detached home is up to €435,000, with a minimum income of €81,301 required. It is an insult to hard-working families that someone would dare to call this affordable. I wonder what planet the person who came up with that price for a house in Limerick was on. The Housing Commission has been damning in its assessment of the Government housing plans. It described the housing policy as ineffective decision-making and reactive only. It notes that under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, we have one of the highest levels of public expenditure on housing yet one of the poorest outcomes. It is another case of the Government's mismanagement of public funds.”
“Of course, the figure of 15,000 people I mentioned is not the full scale of homelessness across the State; it excludes those couch surfing, those sleeping rough and many others. The failures of the Government on housing are evident in every constituency in this State. TDs such as myself were inundated with calls from people desperate for accommodation. In my own constituency office, we receive dozens of calls every single day. These calls are from people who cannot afford to rent. How could they when rents in Limerick increased by 19% in 2024 alone? There are people who want to get on the property ladder but cannot with the price of a standard three-bed semi-detached house in Limerick at an average of €380,000. There are people looking for social and affordable housing but the glacial pace of delivery means demand far exceeds supply.”
“First, I thank the Minister for the opportunity to speak on this debate which is long overdue. Sinn Féin has been looking for this debate for a long time and we are finally here. It is only a few short weeks into the term of this Government and already it appears that the Government's housing plan has failed. We have a continuation of the previous Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and their catastrophic handling of the housing crisis. Under these two parties, we saw a record levels of homelessness, with in excess of 15,000 people now in State-provided emergency accommodation. Of these, 586 adults and 204 children, or dependants, availed of services in the mid-west, with 489 of those adults availing of emergency accommodation in my own city of Limerick.”
“We have a brand new Courts Service facility with six courtrooms, but they are never fully operational. People are waiting for long times. As was raised earlier, the issue around bail needs to be looked at. People are entitled to bail - I have no problem with that - but continuously reoffending while on bail should be addressed.”