Michael Collins
Cork South-West · Independent Ireland · Ireland
“This matter has been raised twice already this morning, but it is hugely important. I will make a personal appeal to the Taoiseach regarding Skyclarys and the further delay that has now arisen. Yesterday, Emma O'Shea came to Leinster House from west Cork with her mother, father and brother.”
“Another huge problem which normally arises in August is that relating to school buses. Parents have no way to get their children to school because of the nearest school rule. The current and previous programmes for Government contain promises that this will be done away with, but nothing has happened. The rule needs to be abolished.”
“Every parent knows that September has become one of the most expensive months of the year. While free schoolbooks are welcome, many families now face growing costs for other items. Parents are being asked to purchase laptops that cost €400 or more, make increased payments for school transport and pay charges to cover examination fees.”
“Either 25 children are left without a school place this September, or two senior infants classes are merged into one class of 34 children. Does the Minister of State agree that schools should not be punished for helping to solve an enrolment crisis? Will he immediately sanction the additional teaching posts required for St.”
“Education should not be measured by means of the distance someone lives from school, and school transport should not be measured on that basis either. I want to raise a matter that Councillor Bill Clear brought to my attention. It is a very serious issue regarding St. Corban’s National School in Naas in County Kildare.”
“I was chairperson of a board of management and know the difficulties that schools face just because they are one or two children short. That can be made up as the year goes on but it is a crisis that Councillor Clear finds unacceptable.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,574 lines we hold for Michael Collins, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 10 of 32.
“I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this long-awaited, valuable Bill. I may not always agree with Deputy Gibney but I certainly agree with a lot of what she had to say today, in fairness. I was talking recently to a politician who said there was something quite nasty put up about him online. It was something he had done, and then under the newspaper article stuff came up that was untrue. He contacted the newspaper and they said, "Do not worry about that person. We know. She puts this up all the time." I cannot understand why the newspaper allowed that up all the time if it knew about it. It should have acted on it immediately. However, we are thick-skinned, and it is well we all know we all get slated and it is a free go, as people would see it. This Bill is really about keeping our young people safe online.”
“Councillor Noel Thomas has made it clear that renewable energy must proceed but it must do so responsibly and never at the cost of the safety or peace of mind of the people who live with the consequences.”
“Councillor Thomas reminded the council that three firefighters remain out of work following the battery fire in Claregalway. This was a relatively minor incident. The community asked the very reasonable question of what happens if a much large system goes on fire. Who carries the risk, who bears responsibility and where is the independent safety assessment that reassures the people who live beside these units every day? He has called for updated independent safety assessments, not reports produced by developers, but truly impartial evaluations that put community welfare first. He has also called for a strengthened planning framework, one that ensures that developments of this scale are properly regulated, monitored and located. Communities deserve certainty and safety and deserve to be protected, not sidelined.”
“Councillor Thomas has met residents and stood with them at their protests outside county buildings and has listened carefully to the very real fear and uncertainty people are now living with. Families in this area are not opposed to renewable energy; far from it. However, they are opposed to being asked to shoulder all the risk while clear regulations and proper safety structures are still missing. At a meeting of Galway County Council, Councillor Thomas highlighted a critical point that there is still no robust regulatory framework governing large-scale battery-energy storage systems, despite their rapid expansion nationwide. These are industrial-scale units placed in close proximity to homes, schools and farms and the community is expected simply to trust that everything will be fine. Trust alone is not enough.”
“If we lose communities like Cape Clear, we will lose irreplaceable pieces of our national heritage. Cape Clear, Sherkin Island, Bere Island, Whiddy Island, Dursey Island, Long Island - I can name them all in west Cork - all face the same crisis of a loss of population with no social housing programme. It is the same situation the length and breadth of the country. I also want to speak on behalf of my colleague in Independent Ireland, Councillor Noel Thomas who is a candidate in Galway West. I want to raise serious and growing concerns from the communities of Cregmore, Claregalway and Grange regarding the proposed solar farm and battery energy storage development.”
“Under the Government's ten-year strategy for offshore islands, it is currently working with homeowners to bring a small number of houses back into long-term use, including two homes being made available for affordable rental from this year. This is welcome but it is nowhere near enough to address the scale of the crisis. Cape Clear is fighting for its future. Without immediate and targeted accelerated refurbishment supports and incentives for year-round occupancy and stronger measures to tackle vacancy this unique Gaeltacht community risks losing its population, culture and way of life. I call on the Minister for housing and the Minister with responsibility for the Gaeltacht to intervene urgently, with bespoke, island-specific housing measures that reflect the reality on the ground.”
“Almost none of them is available for year-round families who want to live, work and raise their children on the island. This is contributing directly to the population decline and places vital services such as primary schools at risk. Research by UCC has made it clear that housing availability and affordability are central to sustaining life on all our offshore islands. Challenges such as old and deteriorating housing stock, the high cost of building or renovating on an island and the displacement of permanent residents due to second home ownership are creating a perfect storm. Despite this, the community is doing everything in its power to survive.”
“I want to highlight a serious housing crisis, not alone on Oileán Chléire, one of our most culturally important and geographically vulnerable Gaeltacht islands, but also on all islands in west Cork and throughout Ireland. Cape Clear is facing a future on a knife edge, with homes in desperately short supply and the long-term viability for the community under real threat. Despite the presence of dozens of vacant houses, families cannot find a single home to rent or buy. This small island has become a stark microcosm of the wider national housing crisis. One of the most pressing issues is the mismatch between housing stock and housing availability. Many houses lie empty, unused for years, functioning as second homes or left derelict.”
“With the outbreak of the war in Iran, energy costs are going to go through the roof. An elderly lady told me she was quoted €950 on Friday evening. She was putting together the money for the weekend to ring them yesterday morning and it had gone up to €1,080. The Minister of Finance needs to come in here and talk about the temporary freezing of carbon tax to give people a little bit of ease in this shocking time.”
“If people from Castletownbere, Mizen Head and Sheep's Head, and from Kinsale and Clonakilty, are all tearing up into CUH, we have a problem and a bottleneck. Most of them are being kept in an ambulance. When I raised that, and the SouthDoc service being closed over Christmas, all I got from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael politicians was that I was scaremongering. I was telling the truth. I am not a fool. We know what is going on and it is not being publicised. Bantry hospital has been closed to the public on numerous occasions. It is not good enough.”
“The HSE is trying to do it behind the scenes. I do not know what kind of sneaky carry-on it is. It the same with the ambulance service. I raised that, and the SouthDoc service in west Cork over Christmas. The ambulance service is bypassing Bantry hospital on a regular basis because it is full. We now have a crisis situation. People are going up to Cork University Hospital, CUH. I do not want to blame any of the management at CUH or Bantry General Hospital because management and staff are breaking their butts. I saw it with my own eyes last Monday in CUH. There is a chronic situation there with patients flying in from every direction. The bottom line is patients should be looked after as much as we can and as good as we can locally.”
“These are people who have worked for years on temporary contracts serving the public and believed they would have job security when they qualified. This sudden change is causing huge stress. West Cork alone stands to lose six front-line staff. I ask that this unfair situation be raised with the highest Minister in the land and resolved urgently. While we are talking about health, we have a major health crisis, whether it is in mental health or ordinary physical health. I spoke last week about Perrott House in Skibbereen but I have received no reply yet from the Taoiseach. He said he would be back to me. Hopefully, that will happen. Perrott House is down to two patients. I was told I was scaremongering when I raised the same issue last year. It had 13 patients only a few years ago, but it is being closed by stealth.”
“Our GP system is at breaking point. Every community in the country feels that. People cannot get appointments. Many cannot afford to see a doctor when they are sick. We need more GP training places, fairer supports for struggling practices and real action to keep doctors in local communities. If we want to fix healthcare, this is where we should start. I will highlight a very serious issue affecting newly qualified paramedics. For years, when paramedics completed their training with the National Ambulance Service, they moved straight into permanent positions. That is how it worked for every class before this one but, without warning, the practice has been changed. Graduating paramedics are now being kept on 16-week contracts, with no information about a permanent post or recruitment process.”
“It should fix the system, scrap the broken allocation model and give schools and families the certainty they deserve, not reviews, pauses or panicked letters landing on principals' desks. I was speaking to a teacher over the weekend who has two SNAs in her classroom. She told me that there is no way she could teach her other students and help the two children in her classroom that needed help. Deputy Boyd Barrett said the Government should trust schools and teachers. That is where the breakdown is happening here. I was on a board of management for long enough, so I know how difficult it is to run a school. The Government does not trust these people and this was built on the back of untrustworthy carry-on.”
“SNAs do not constitute another luxury. They are essential. They are the difference between a child getting through the school day with dignity and support or being left behind. Anyone who works with SNAs, especially in rural Ireland, knows the enormous weight they carry. This should never have been treated as a line item that one can cut on a spreadsheet, yet that is exactly what happened. We are told the measure has been paused but a pause is not a fix, as has been pointed out. The entire framework behind SNA allocation is out of date and unworkable and is leaving families in constant fear that their support will be taken away year after year. The Government should not congratulate itself on reversing a mistake it should never have made.”
“To see my son benefit from the little extra attention that is most certainly needed on a daily basis has been eye-opening as to the benefits of the service. The benefits of this are making and retaining friends, coping under pressure, with social interactions, emotional support and regulation, academic performance and general mental health and well-being. These are but a few of the benefits that we as parents see on the most superficial level and are not yet aware of the long-term benefits that this will most certainly have on our son but are confident that the benefits will be massive. I'm asking you to help get the government to reassess and reconsider the proposed actions for the benefit of Ireland's future generations. This is a generation that the Minister cannot and must not let fall between the cracks of society.”
“As a parent of a child who for the last two years has been availing of the SNA service within our school - a local primary school - I find the prospect of reducing the very necessary numbers of assistants in future disgraceful. My son who's now aged six has been within the catchment of the special needs programme since he began primary school and has flourished with the help of an already under pressure service. Over the last two years, we have seen our son grow up in a system where he now looks forward to attending school in the morning as he is being equipped with the necessary skills to interact with students, teachers and parents alike. This has been a godsend for both my wife and I.”
“The pressure became too big, and only then did the Government finally blink and pull the handbrake. Now we are told that no school will lose an SNA in September and that an additional €19 million in funding will be provided to protect those posts. That is welcome but, if we are honest, this is an embarrassing, last-minute U-turn that should never have been needed in the first place. One of the many emails I received from parents stated: Dear Michael, I'm contacting you in relation to the national issue of reduced SNAs in our primary school. To say this is an issue of the utmost importance would be a grossly misrepresenting statement.”
“If Deputy Tóibín does not arrive, Deputy Flynn will probably take his time. What has happened over the past few weeks with regard to special needs assistants has been nothing short of disgraceful. Families, schools and SNAs were thrown into turmoil because the National Council for Special Education sent out letters telling up to 200 schools that they would lose SNA support next year. In some cases, schools were staring down the loss of half of their entire SNA team, a blow no community could possibly absorb. It was not common sense from the Government that stopped these cuts. It was the people - the parents, SNAs, teachers and communities who stood up. Tens of thousands of people signed petitions and protests were being organised up and down the country.”
“What does the Minister of State suggest they do? I acknowledge that the Minister of State travels to coastal communities, which is always welcome, but what is he bringing with him? Did he go back to get more quota or are the big Danish fleets still stripping our waters?”
“If the industry is to have a future, the concerns repeatedly raised in the Oireachtas must be met, and should have been met, with direct and meaningful solutions that protect livelihoods, sustain communities and ensure that Ireland's marine resources are managed in a fair and balanced way. One question that I asked after this recent hammer blow is whether there is going to be a legal review. The Hague preferences were there to protect us, but that did not happen. Is there going to be a legal review? Yes or no. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could answer that. What are these fishermen, who have spent their lives working on the sea, supposed to do? They are employing many people. If there is no fishing, there are no jobs. Most of these people are not qualified to do anything else but go to sea.”
“They want a Government that goes to Brussels and fights with the same determination as those of other countries. Every quota cut, closed fishery or decommissioned boat means another family put under pressure, another community hollowed out and another coastal town losing the very thing that has kept it alive for generations. The message has already been laid out in the Dáil, at the committees and in every report and debate. The Irish fishing industry - what is left of it - cannot take any more. Ireland holds some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe, yet the people living and working beside those waters are not experiencing the benefits.”
“When people talk about investment in harbours or marine vision strategies, which are always welcome, fishermen are not fooled. None of that puts quota back in Irish hands. None of that reopens lost fisheries. None of that reverses years of policies and negotiations that have left Ireland with some of the richest waters in Europe, yet a fleet tied up to the pier watching foreign ships take the fish. That is the plain truth of it. Fishermen do not want spin, more committees or to hear yet another line about ongoing discussions. They want fair access to their own waters. They are currently being denied that. They want the same supports other EU fleets are getting. They want a weighing system that does not punish them for things they did not do.”
“For example, I have been asking here about Rockall but nothing is happening. On the Hague preferences, we all know they are not worth a damn any more. There is Ireland's shrinking share of quota, despite the size and richness of our waters. These are not small details. I have repeatedly raised all these matters because they directly affect both jobs and survival in coastal towns. When the Dáil held a marathon fisheries debate, I and multiple other TDs outlined the crisis in detail. The message was the same: the situation is at breaking point. We highlighted EU quota cuts, the pressure on the whitefish fleet, the warnings about mackerel stock, the economic threat to processors and who can get raw materials. These all add up. The debate made it clear that the industry is not just struggling; it is fighting for its life.”
“At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I said that more problems would arise. Other EU countries were getting fuel subsidies at the time for their fleets; Irish fishermen did not get these because we did not apply. Why bother? It is one thing on top of the other. There is no explanation or justification; just the simple fact that Ireland has not secured the same support for its fleet that other EU nations obtained for theirs. Then there is the weighing system. The current regime forces random weighing at the quayside, which leads to inaccurate numbers, especially for by-catches. Those wrong numbers feed into our already squeezed national quotas. This activity damages the demersal fleet. That is only one side of it. There are bigger, long-running issues that keep coming up.”
“While these cuts were landing like blows, the reality in places like Castletownbere was laid bare. Seventeen Irish boats were permanently decommissioned. Gone for good. Meanwhile, the roads into the town were being torn up by fleets of Spanish trucks hauling massive catches from the south west. Those catches were taken from waters in which Irish boats should be able to fish. This is a grotesque mockery. Cork County Council's job is to keep the roads in good condition for the Spanish trucks to take Irish fish out of our waters in Castletownbere. That is a sad fact. Go up to Castletownbere and you will see that parts of the road have collapsed several times. That is exactly what has happened. This is not the only issue I have highlighted.”
“We watched and listened as our Government and then the Minister handed over huge amounts of quota during Brexit. We watched as the French so-called negotiator, Barnier, did a massive deal for his country while our fishermen were left shocked at the deal they got, which was delivered to them on Christmas Eve. I warned the Taoiseach at the time, but he did not listen. In the Dáil in October 2025, I spelt out the warnings clearly. The scientific advice coming from ICES was not just a tap on the shoulder; it was a sledgehammer. ICES recommended a 70% cut in the mackerel quota and big cuts in blue whiting, boarfish, whitefish and haddock quotas. I said that if those cuts went through, it would make life economically impossible for pelagic operators. That was not speculation; it was what I stated outright in the Dáil at the time.”
“I was at a funeral recently. What happened there kind of summed matters up very easily. I was going along the queue and shaking hands with people. There was a fishermen at the end of the queue. What we said to me - even though I knew it, it shocked me to the core - was, "Thanks very much. Can I just say one thing to you? One day out - quota caught. Jesus, it's over." There was no point in me saying anything different. I shuddered when I heard those words. Hearing them was like getting a slap in the face with a shovel. The person to whom I refer said he was a fisherman; I knew he was anyway. The Irish fishing industry, or what is left of it, is being pushed to the wall. Every fisherman in the country knows that. These are the facts, and they are grim.”
“For many of them, that could cost tens of thousands of euro, which they simply cannot afford. I also sat in the committee meeting with officials from the Departments of tourism and planning on the short-term letting and tourism Bill. I say it straight. They are all over the place. There is no joined-up thinking with regard to the planning aspect of this Bill. These short-term lets, whether tree houses, pods, sheds, granny flat or tents, were built for tourism and tourism only-----”
“I welcome members of Kinsale Men's Shed who are with us today. I also welcome those in the Gallery involved in short-term lets who are fighting for their very survival and were in Buswells Hotel earlier today. The people of Ireland, mainly in coastal communities, are genuinely worried about what the Government is about to do with these short-term letting proposals. In places like west Cork, from Kinsale to Castletownbere, Airbnb and short-term let hosts are ordinary families, mainly small farmers and women trying to keep the lights on. They are terrified that these new rules will wipe out Airbnb and short-term lets altogether and, with it, the tourism that keeps our small towns alive. The legislation proposes to ask people to get planning permission.”
“Over the past four weeks, I have been looking for a debate on short-term lets. I have also been asking the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, to come here for a question-and-answer session. People from that sector are meeting today in a packed room across the road in Buswells. They know that what is proposed is going to lead to the ruination of short-term tourism in this country. The Taoiseach keeps nodding and saying "No", but if the Government brings in planning into this, it is going to finish those involved. They know that. The Taoiseach should go across the road and talk to them. They are not going to eat him; they are going to talk to him.”
“My constituents are deeply concerned about the imminent closure of Perrott House, a mental health care facility in Skibbereen. This residential care facility, which was staffed 24 hours, had been home to many long-term residents and provided them with essential programmes like horticulture, music, poetry and art as well as access to the local library, church and shops in Skibbereen. The HSE continues to deny Perrott House is closing but with two patients left in this once-great facility the writing is on the wall. I looked at the HIQA reports from 2019 and 2020 and there were no issues with the then 15-bed facility which had 13 residents at that time, some for 20 to 30 years. At a time when more mental health beds are needed, why close 15 beds, leaving staff, patients and families very upset at being misled?”
“It now looks like it is going to be taken from them. If the Minister does not drop the planning requirement prior to the new regulations being brought in for people who are in the business for many years, he is going to ruin many of these great people who work at home. Remote working is great but again in rural Ireland we need better infrastructure, better Wi-Fi, and better mobile phone services. From driving all over west Cork I know there are so many places with no service and other places where in the middle of a call it drops. It is a great idea but in rural Ireland we need much better infrastructure to be put in place first.”
“My staff, who are mostly female apart from one, Ellen, Margaret, Valerie and Paddy, all work around the clock, not because I ask them, but because they are inundated with work. I will take this opportunity to thank them. I also have a chance now when I have not had a chance previously to talk about home working and the short-term letting Bill that the Minister is very much involved in. This is an opportunity where people have been working at home and have been able to carry it out. It is mainly females. I have to give them the respect that it is them who have been delivering the short-term letting through Airbnb in rural locations. I attended a meeting last week in a committee, which is not my committee. We spent three hours there fighting for these people who work at home and want to continue their work at home.”
“Many people, especially those in rural Ireland, stand to benefit greatly from fair, balanced and practical remote working arrangements. Reduced commuting, more time with family, lower carbon emissions and the ability to work closer to home are meaningful gains that improve quality of life and support regional development. However, we must also ensure balance. Employers need clarity, practicality and safeguards and workers need a system that is genuinely accessible, not one that is bogged down in bureaucracy or easily refused. A right in legislation must be a right in practice. On a personal note, I do not know much about work-life balance. I spend most of my weekends working 17 or 18 hours every day, so I am not any example.”
“If anyone here still thinks this is just about numbers on a balance sheet, they should look at the human cost today. As we enter 2026, we are at a historic high: 17,000 people are homeless, including over 4,000 children. A home is not a financial instrument; it is where a child does homework and a parent finds rest after a long day. Offer families the same deal the vulture funds get. Put homes back in the hands of the people. Pass this motion, for fairness, for decency and for the families we are elected to protect.”
“It can be more profitable to evict a family than to help a family to stay because the fund can extract the full balance, even though it bought the debt at a discount, and never have to offer the family the same terms. If there is any decency left in policy, families must have the right to restructure or buy back their loans on the same basis at which the fund acquired it. This motion is not radical. It is retrospective. Ban investment funds from buying family homes. Close the loopholes. Stop the bulk-buying. Shut the revolving door of repossession and resale that treats homes as yields and families as entries on a spreadsheet. In 2023, 623 homes were bulk purchased by 16 investors - hundreds of keys that should have gone to first-time buyers. The so-called deterrent of stamp duty has plainly not worked.”
“The discount went to the fund, but the bills stayed with the families and they were never offered the same deal. When these loans are transferred, families often face punishing interest rates and gaps in protection. Thousands of borrowers whose mortgages were sold to non-banks have been hit with rates in the 8% to 10% range while being effectively trapped and unable to switch. Even the Central Bank acknowledged legal loopholes in past years that left some of these borrowers outside normal Ombudsman protections. That is a systematic failure, not a personal one. The moral is wrong. It is that the distressed mortgage is worth more to the fund dead than alive.”
“We support this motion because behind every statistic is a family like the one I met last week. They were parents who missed repayments after illness and a job loss. They begged their bank for help and tried to restructure. Instead, they had their mortgage sold off in a bundle to a vulture fund. The house they built a life in is gone but the letters keep coming, telling them they still owe every cent. The fund, having bought the loan at a knock-down price, is now chasing them for the full balance with interest. That is not a market; it is an injustice. We know how we got here. After the crash, vast loan books were offloaded at deep discounts. The clearest benchmark is NAMA's own numbers: €74 billion in par value loans ultimately sold for €38.1 billion - about 43% off face value.”
“While I have the floor, we must not forget the farmers who are inside Bord Bia’s buildings again this evening weeks after this dispute started standing for their bare rights and the rights of every farmer in this country. The west Cork IFA was there last Thursday and will be there again this Thursday. I will go down to support them every time they are there because they are standing for the common good and for common sense but unfortunately nobody is listening to them.”
“They have no date for payment of this but it is to be paid, they are being told, in the first six months of the year with an intention to pay it as soon as possible. From what we can gather an application needs to be filled in but farmers have no details on payment amounts and how that will be divided out. This is causing issues for farmers purchasing seed and fertiliser for the season ahead. The farming for water payments are also delayed and some farmers are due a good chunk of money from this scheme. The bottom line is farmers need to know when they are going to get this funding that has been announced because they are in dire circumstances at present.”
“Time and again I have said in this House that rural Ireland is buried under needless bureaucracy. Farmers feel they are being treated as the problem instead of the people who feed the nation. I am asking the Government that we not drag our feet on this, that we get vaccinations out early, that we give farmers the information in plain language and that we support them instead of slowing them down. This is about protecting livelihoods, keeping cattle and sheep healthy and making sure rural Ireland does not get left behind once again. While I am talking about farming, I want to use the time I have left to talk about the tillage farmers. Many of them are asking about the €30 million support for tillage announced in budget 2026.”
“We have also seen exports for further feeding in Northern Ireland suspended even though exports for slaughter can still go ahead. The Department says it is nearly impossible for a farmer to fully stop a midge-borne disease like this from reaching their herd and that is the reality on the ground. The Minister has confirmed the bluetongue vaccination will be allowed from next spring. This is welcome because every farmer knows the real danger time is when the weather warms up and midges are moving. The high-risk period will be summer 2026 and farmers need protection in place well before that. The common-sense point is that farmers do not need more forms, more hoops or more delays. They need straight answers, quick access to vaccinations and clear guidelines that help them keep going.”
“At the end of January, the first home-bred case of bluetongue was found in a cow in County Wexford through routine checks in a slaughterhouse. That was the first time we saw it in an Irish-born animal, and it has, rightly, put farmers on edge. Now we are told, and it is important to repeat, that bluetongue does not affect people or the safety of our milk or meat and does not jump from animal to animal. The problem is the midges spread it and, as many farmers will tell you, you cannot fence out midges. As a result of this one case, we have temporarily lost our bluetongue-free status. That means some countries will not take certain animals from us for now, even though movement within Ireland and to most markets can continue. Farmers did not create this situation but they are the ones who are dealing with the consequences yet again.”
“We need the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to come to the Dáil for statements on the short-term lets legislation which will come before the Dáil. At last week's committee meeting, which was held in private, officials from the Departments of tourism and of planning would not answer in public as to what is happening. They were all over the place in relation to the planning aspect of this legislation. The Minister cannot shy away from this and let Airbnb and the short-term lets in rural communities in with this planning debacle that is going on at the moment. We need the Minister to come before the Dáil and to make a statement. It is quite simple. That is all we need to do. Do not say "No". The Taoiseach needs to say "Yes".”
“People travel to Schull - I know this because I live there - to bring their children specifically for sailing and kayaking. These centres are a massive draw for tourism, jobs and the social education and sporting life of our coastal communities. We need urgent action to protect them. Will the Tánaiste intervene to help ensure their long-term future is fully secure?”
“In west Cork, we are extremely lucky to have not one but two outstanding outdoor sailing and training centres, namely, the Fastnet marine and outdoor education centre in Schull and the Kinsale outdoor education centre. These centres are a lifeline for our young people, schools and local economy. In recent weeks, we have learned that the future of both centres is at risk because of a lack of funding. I ask the Tánaiste to work with the Department of education to ensure proper funding is channelled to Cork Education and Training Board so that both centres can run and be fully staffed separately, as was promised to the people. Cork ETB recognises the vital role these outdoor education services play. The impact they have had on young people's families and entire communities is enormous. We cannot afford to lose them.”
“There are unintended consequences and it needs changing. My worry is if we push through this legislation tonight, the planning legislation is there, it is in place and it has to be acted on and it will be for the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, to work on it. That is going to be landing on his desk next week, I am told. If this goes the way it seems to be going, we could see Airbnb as we know it ending in rural communities.”
“The point is that many people, most of them females - farmers and people who need a little bit of a side income and try to work at home and do this business - are doing it for survival and now they are faced with the dreadful consequences of having to apply for planning permission, which will devastate their business. I would like the Minister to look at that area again. I would plead with every Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independent TD not to vote for this until this confusion has been resolved. I do not think they are going to listen to me but I have to push from my angle to the best of my ability. The clock is ticking on this new legislation and we desperately need changes. Airbnb is hugely important and short-term lets are hugely important to people out there. They are contacting each of us in their thousands throughout the country.”
“I think it is being rushed through here, not just tonight but in general. It needs to be looked at again. Short-term letting is a very serious area. We welcome the change yesterday of the 20,000 cap but I still think there needs to be more changes here, because people require full planning, and they will. To be compliant, there are two boxes, have you planning or not. I know some people who are 30 years in operation or 40. My mother was doing Airbnb in Schull in the 1970s, believe it or not, although now she has passed on. Everybody loves to visit rural areas.”