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.”
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“The Government cannot resolve everything. I said that at each protest. This is a war that is outside the Government's control. The Government said it had given the most. The bottom line is that it has already taken the most.”
“I found that on the first day of the protests in Dublin, the protestors were willing to talk but not on the third or fourth day. People got deeply entrenched and there was no point in trying to negotiate in a very difficult situation. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, did not help the situation by telling people to use bikes instead of cars. That is fine. He is thinking of a city environment. I would love to think that I could tell people to go to work on a bike in the morning but I cannot tell people to cycle 13 km to work in the morning. Some people where I live are driving 80 km or 90 km per day back and forth to work. They are finding it difficult. The Government is saying to us that the carers of our country are being blocked from going to work. They cannot afford to go to work and that is the bottom line.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who I wish was still here but she is no longer, was wrong when she said that I blocked people. I went to Whitegate and never blocked anybody. I spoke to people and asked them to step down. I said that if there was a reasonable package, we should step down and work together. I went to Dublin and said the same thing. It was unfair to say that I blocked something but we all say things in the heat of the moment, and I accept that. In the past week, there was a lot of what they call "gaslighting", or whatever, and enflaming the situation. The Taoiseach made a serious mistake - he will not agree with me, as is his entitlement - instead of talking to people. Even if he could not talk to people, he could have easily found someone who would and got around this. There were ways around this.”
“The Government might say they can go to their local social welfare offices but many people fall between the cracks. They are telling me they are cold at home and are finding it very difficult. They do not have the funding to do that. Plant hire people are not going to get any relief from the recently announced package. The road builders and those in the building sector are saying to me that they have not got it. I have a letter here from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Organisation, ICSA, representatives of which the Government shamefully locked outside the door the other day. They attended the same protest as I did in Dublin the other day and on that basis, they got booted out. That is not a way to do business. Our way of doing business is to try to talk to people.”
“It looks like my colleagues are not here so I will take their time until they arrive, if that is okay with the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I and others were looking at the financial resolutions. In respect of the carbon tax, it looks to me as if it will be ring-fenced over a certain period, going forward. It has now been put off. I have serious reservations. I would find it very difficult to vote for anything that would have that effect, if I can prove it. I am looking into it and if that is the case, I will not be supporting this resolution. The Government may say "Yes" tomorrow. Look at all the things it refuses, as such. There are other areas that have been forgotten about. People cannot fill their home-heating oil tanks this evening.”
“The Government gave out to Sinn Féin for a vote of no confidence before seeing the package. God damn in hell, the Government would not speak to people. What choice did we have? We are in the crisis we are in thanks to the Government.”
“Good God almighty, what in the name of God is the State we are living in? Is the Government there for the people? Who elected you? The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, should show his face and stand up here with the people who elected him. His people are ringing me telling me to ask him that. That is the crisis we are in. That is the crisis the Government has left us in. He should stand with his fellow Independent who made that decision a while ago. It was a disgraceful carry-on. The Taoiseach said we needed debate and to talk to the people. He would not talk to anyone. He said Ireland was giving the most. That is because the Government is taking the most. It is taking 65% in the fuel it takes. Parliamentary democracy? There was no democracy because the Government would not come back. It would not speak to the people.”
“I travelled to a meeting in Portlaoise up to 20 days ago. The people there wrote to the Taoiseach. They wrote to every one of the Ministers - not just the Taoiseach, but also the Tánaiste - to try to make sure that there would be no protest, to sit down and have dialogue, and to see whether we could come to a solution for the hauliers and other sectors out there. The Government turned its back on them. We asked for a reconvening of the Dáil. It turned its back on us there, so there was no way the people of Ireland could express the concerns. Today, the Government has lost them. Today, it has lost two TDs at least. Is there an honourable Independent TD over there? There is a Minister over there who said he would bring the Army in and break up the protestors' vehicles.”
“In the ten years since I came into the Dáil, I have never seen such a shambolic disgrace of a Government across the way. Its TDs should all be ashamed of themselves. Every one of them. They do not have the decency----”
“Eighteen days ago the Irish Haulage Farming Construction Contractors Amalgamation, IHFCCA, wrote to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and every Minister in this country outlining the crisis that we had and asking them to speak with it. The Government refused to speak with it. A few days later Independent Ireland asked to reconvene the Dáil and the Taoiseach refused to speak with us. Now the Taoiseach is here today saying he will not take Taoiseach's questions or Questions on Policy or Legislation. What is wrong?”
“What immediate actions will the Government take to stabilise CAMHS in west Cork, ensure urgent recruitment across all professional roles and guarantee that vulnerable children are not left without any mental health services?”
“The CAMHS service in west Cork is now in a state of crisis. The entire service is operation with just one psychiatrist and there is no psychologist. There is no mental health nurse, no social worker and no therapist on the team. These roles are essential to any functioning CAMHS service. For years, the HSE has claimed to be recruiting. Yet, no staff have ever been appointed. The situation now is so serious that the sole psychiatrist, who is due to retire in the coming years, may retire early due to the overwhelming pressure. That would leave no CAMHS service at all in west Cork. Recently, a GP urgently referred a 14-year-old experiencing suicidal thoughts, only to be told that the psychiatrist already had 17 emergency cases ahead of them with no timeframe for assessment.”
“The current set-up places Irish tenants at a structural disadvantage in a market where supply is dangerously limited. I have consistently argued that small landlords should receive a universal tax relief, such as a €1,000 per month tax-free allowance to keep the properties in the wider rental market and ensure fair competition for all owners. Unless the Government addresses this imbalance, more landlords will continue to exit the traditional rental system in favour of the more financially attractive option, worsening access for Irish households. The support scheme has delivered strong benefits for those it was designed to help but as it stands it creates an inequitable situation that must be corrected if we are serious about protecting fairness, supply and balanced access in the housing market.”
“Under the standard system, a landlord renting a property for €1,200 per month to an Irish tenant may pay roughly €400 per month in tax. However, under the temporary protection scheme, the first €600 per month is entirely tax exempt, leaving tax payable only on the remaining €600. In practice, this reduces the tax burden to approximately €150. It is obvious why many small landlords are opting for the scheme. The tax incentives heavily favour one route over the other. While Ireland acted swiftly and generously to support those fleeing the war in Ukraine, something we can all stand over, we are four years into this and it is increasingly clear that elements of the scheme are having unintended but very real consequences for Irish renters.”
“This scheme has been in operation since 2022 and has been extended multiple times since its introduction. It has involved a significant financial commitment from the State, with approximately €438 million issued in payments. Around 23,500 participating households are currently receiving support through the programme, providing accommodation for an estimated 42,000 individuals. The scheme represents an ongoing monthly cost of approximately €14.5 million. There is a clear and growing problem with the way the current rental support schemes are structured. The tax treatment available to landlords renting to beneficiaries of the temporary protection directive creates a significant financial advantage over renting to Irish tenants.”
“We will just pass away the time now and call the Government again. People in Kealkill have no transport. Not one iota of transport service is passing their doors in Drinagh and Caheragh. I could keep talking for here forever. It is all right to talk about public transport, but it is not there.”
“They are totally forgetting that the Government is robbing 65% taxes out of people's pockets every time they go to the filling station. The Government is taking the most tax in the world. It is easy to say it can give something a little extra back, but it has been forgotten that there may be a way to stop the charges from the toll bridge for a while. There are ways and means around facing the crisis we are in right now. Let us be honest: public transport, where it is being delivered, is fine. For a number of routes in my own constituency, and I presume throughout the country, people have been told there is no more money in the NTA's purses. Routes that they tendered for in Clonakilty, Dunmanway, Timoleague and Grange six months ago have been pulled out. Imagine. Now they are told there is no money.”
“We will throw all our resources out of this country and now we are totally dependent on fuel coming in from Scotland. God help us if anything goes wrong there, because that will close down the country within two weeks, maybe less. There are ways. We saw what happened with the home heating. A lot of people are very angry about that. We are talking about the fuel allowance, but still 1.5 million people do not get fuel allowance. They are the squeezed middle. They are the people who get up early in the morning and work in this country to put bread and butter on our table, on the tables of their neighbours and the tables of this country. They have been forgotten. Someone said yesterday that the package the Government put together is better than any package in the world.”
“I mentioned in 2022 that we could face serious problems. We have and we are because we have no energy independence. We are depending on every country in the world to look after ourselves. We could well look after ourselves without any other country. We are surrounded by water. That is where wind energy comes into play. We could have strong potential of an oil field off Barryroe. That was not researched, and when I spoke to the Taoiseach yesterday, he said von der Leyen told him not to do it. Von der Leyen is telling us how to run our country. We should be in collaboration with Europe by all means, but we certainly should not be dictated by Europe on how to get our fuel independence in this country. We should have explored the Barryroe field. We should have further explored the Kinsale field.”
“There was a rebate with fuel for fisheries in Europe one time. I am not sure whether that is still available. The previous Government would not look at it because it was a green Government and they had this assumption in mind that you did not use fuel, which is a crazy assumption, but look. God help people who have that mindset. They are not living in the real world. We would all love to think that we could move into a different kind of world where we would not need fuel. We are nowhere near that in this country at this time. We do not even have wind energy offshore, something I raised with the Taoiseach in 2022 during Leaders' Questions. I spoke about the Barryroe oil field and the chance that it should be explored and looked at. It was kind of shrugged off and laughed off as a joke.”
“It is totally unfair and will also lead to an increase in costs for the consumer and will have untold consequences for those companies as sole traders. The many companies that use green diesel in the manufacturing of products have also been forgotten, namely, steel manufacturing, quarries, concrete manufacturing, building, groundworks and civil engineering companies, who are large users of green diesel. This is not good enough going forward, especially for housing and commercial development within our nation. I have to call the Minister of State out on this one. The fishermen are very angry. He is Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries, so this is where he should have come in. They are calling me to tell me they have been forgotten also, on top of the farmers. I am not sure.”
“The fuel allowance gave a good rebate and relief to people who receive it. I will always acknowledge something that will yield some relief for people who are under serious pressure, but what went on yesterday leaves a lot to be desired. I spoke to Councillor Declan Geraghty. He has lorries and is one of our councillors in Galway. He told me that while the reductions in excise are welcome to everyone on white diesel and petrol, there is a clear difference between the IRHA and the private operators. Fuel companies, quarry operators, hardware companies, manufacturing companies, retailers, etc., that operate trucks for their own collections and deliveries have been left to one side. That does not require a haulage licence. They do not qualify for the rebate scheme.”
“The Minister needs to answer that question. There has to be a reason. There was only one deployed in the previous allocation. There is a real serious problem out there.”
“They need replacements similar to what has happened for generations. Why are these people being victimised? Like everybody else, I praise the gardaí who are out there because they are under massive pressure. I have been communicating with them. They run the Garda youth awards. It would be great to invite the Minister down and to be there sometime to see how good the young people are and how the gardaí can get the best out of the youth, including people like Damian White, Don Davis and Bridget Hartnett. We are very lucky to have some gardaí, but we do not have enough. It is a problem. The problem that we have now is that even if the Government is no longer closing the Garda stations, it has effectively closed them because there is no light on and there is no garda there anymore. Why have no gardaí been allocated to west Cork?”
“The Minister's legacy will be what he has delivered. At this present time, if we look at the garda allocations that were released in February, there was not one extra garda given to west Cork. The Minister has to stand before the Dáil and give us the reasons for that. He cannot say that there is not enough gardaí. There were 176. Obviously, there needs to be far more than that coming through. Gardaí have retired in west Cork over the past number of years but since 2022 zero gardaí have been sent to the Bantry division. That is an astonishing attack on the people of west Cork. There are no gardaí in Drinagh, Drimoleague, Kilbrittain, all these places and probably in Kealkill. There are gardaí coming out of the main divisional headquarters like Bantry and Skibbereen to try to cover those areas. That is not good enough.”
“You know when you switch on the car in the morning you are paying tax on the car when you purchase it, the tyres are taxed, the fuel is taxed and the oil is taxed. God almighty, we are an insane country to rob our own people, and now when they wanted a little back, the Government still did not give it to them. It is scandalous.”
“It is not happening anywhere else in the world, and the Members opposite know that too. The Government says it is giving a lot this time but it is not giving it back to the people. It has not considered to move us away from the need for fossil fuels. The idea of a floating LNG terminal has been put before the Government. Battery lorries, which work in New Zealand, Japan and all over the world, cannot be thought about here. We are always the laggards and that is all we will ever be. Grants for solar panels are at €1,800 but you spend €20,000 on the panels. This is where we are going. Barryroe should have been explored. There are the small things like toll bridge charges. The Government could have stopped them going forward. The toll bridge charges are another kick.”
“Had the Government any thought on how they will survive? Had it any thought on how they will deliver their produce at the rate at which they are expected to deliver? That has not been afforded any thought. The Government is all talk all day about the great Government giving more than the rest of the world. It is taking. It is robbing the people left, right and centre with taxes of 60% to 65%, such as the carbon tax, the NORA levy and excise. It has given it every kind of name in order that it can sex it up and make it look as if it were some other kind of tax. It is tax. It is coming out of the ordinary, hard-working person's pay every day of the week, so when they go to the filling station and put €100 into it, they are giving €60 to €65 to the Government. That is absolutely insane.”
“I have been in contact with the road hauliers last Thursday, yesterday and this morning. They were taken to the end of their tether before this announcement and they are responsible people. They have made it very clear to me that they considered going out on strike but they did not want to go on strike on the basis of the effect it would have on the people they deliver the goods for. At the same time, however, there is only so much they can take before the Government could be faced with that crisis. While this financial resolution alleviates it and I will support it, I will certainly have serious concerns going forward if there is not more immediate action done there. The Government forgot about the people who have the green diesel, namely, the farmer and the fisherman. It is a drop of only 3 cent on their fuel.”
“Cancer Connect in west Cork started under Local Link and has run an incredible service over the past number of years under Helen O'Driscoll and her team in the office in Bantry. They are taking people every day for cancer treatment free of charge. They are picked up at the door if it is a more serious cancer where the person cannot be in the bus. If it involves chemotherapy, the person is picked up in Castletownbere, Mizen Head and Sheep's Head or wherever and the team works its way up through Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Bandon and Bantry. It is free of charge and all of it is done to perfection. They wait for them for a short period, everyone is looked after and all of them are put back on the bus back to west Cork in the evening. It is a fantastic service. I think other counties are copying it.”
“People can apply and the hospital can apply but the disease has to be terminal or extremely serious before they get the medical card. I had a dispute here with the previous Minister of State on that issue. That Minister of State was wrong. We know that because we are the people who are making the applications and we know they are being turned down. Sometimes I worry about whether people are going to get a medical card because of their prognosis. It might not be the best for them and that is not good enough. This country needs to work in that direction so that if people can prove they have cancer, their illness is covered for the period of time they have it. If we cannot move towards that, then this is not a caring society. I need to commend one sector. I was part of this organisation some time back.”
“Obviously, parking charges are a huge difficulty for people battling cancer. There needs to be a clear focus on that, including on family members who are visiting them. It is hard enough to be hit in one way but to be hit in the pocket as well is very unfair. There is one thing we need to spend some time thinking and talking about here. We talk about a caring Government or a caring country but why are cancer patients not getting medical cards just for the duration of their disease, which could be six or 12 months? It hurts quite a lot of people coming to me. It sounds as if we are racist but we are not. People are coming in from around the world and we are nearly handing medical cards out to them at the airport when there are people who have worked hard all their life and cannot get them.”
“We have a delivery problem, with patients paying the price. We have people missing chemotherapy and radiotherapy timelines and people waiting far too long for breast, lung and prostate surgeries. Depending on where you live, your access to care can swing from 60% to 95%. That is nothing short of a postcode lottery. We are short of scanners and staff and we are not even using the equipment we have properly, yet the Government could not even ring-fence funding in half the budgets. If it is not ring-fenced, it is not guaranteed and if it is not guaranteed, it is not going to be delivered. Independent Ireland is calling for simple practical tips, such as using hospitals in the evenings and at weekends, training and keeping our staff here, replacing outdated equipment and supporting patients properly.”
“We are talking about whether people in this country get seen, get treated and get a fair chance or whether they are left waiting, worrying and wondering if the system will fail them again. We have a national cancer strategy but only one out of 23 objectives has actually been delivered. Many Deputies have spoken today about personal tragedies when it comes to cancer. A cancer diagnosis is a dark moment in a person's life. It is not always a very dark journey but it certainly is a dark moment and a great difficulty. My mother died of cancer at 54 years of age - a young woman. At that time, which was 30 years ago, I thought 54 was a great age but I am above that age myself now so I find it to be a very young age. It was a young age at that time too but, unfortunately, it got the best of us - a strong woman.”
“However, there is a bigger issue here, which is that the Government has forgotten the people who elected it, that is, the people whose doors Government Deputies are going to be knocking on in the not-so-distant future.”
“Regarding the proposals put before people today, first, we did not get enough time to debate the issue. Second, the measly bit of money the Government is throwing to the people is like crumbs off rich men's tables. It is not good enough, and the people of the constituency I represent and the people of Ireland are outraged to think farmers are only going to get 2 cent off a litre of green diesel and fishermen are the same. What does Government think they are, slaves to the people of this country? Does it have any respect for people out there? In relation to the crisis with home heating oil, people cannot fill their tanks. These are all issues of fierce concern to people, and these people have been contacting me all day. I agree with the fuel allowance and the help the Government has given in that regard. I fully support that.”
“I agree with my colleagues that 60 minutes is not enough time to speak about the crisis this country is going through at the moment. We need a proper debate in here and I call for that proper debate. Farmers, the hard-squeezed middle, fishermen and other people are facing a serious crisis. People cannot put heating oil into their home heating tanks this evening. They expected a proper break but they did not get it and we need a proper debate on that this evening.”
“I am bringing forward a proposal for Ireland's first zero emission freight corridor pilot scheme from Cork Port to west Cork, not alone as a climate measure but as a real energy security solution. We have the experts to do this. Electricity heavy duty trucks supported by a battery swapping and hybrid charging depot in filling stations would slash our dependence on foreign fuels. Every diesel truck on this route today burns fuel that Ireland does not produce and cannot guarantee. Battery swapping turns trucks around in about five minutes powered by local renewable energy keeping supply chains stable even when a global fuel market goes wild. This protects family run haulers by giving them a secure affordable energy source. This is not experimental. This system is already fully operational in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan and works.”
“I will be a singing a different tune because the farmers of west Cork were disappointed this morning that they are only going to get 2 cent off the green diesel. Those are the facts. The facts are that the Government made these promises to me in 2022 about renewable energies. It has not delivered. That is the bottom line here. Ireland's energy security is hanging by a thread. We cannot keep relying on imported diesel in global markets we have no control over. The Government's promise in 2022 was more offshore wind farms but the only one we have has sought a decommissioning licence. When will the first of these offshore wind generating plants be developed in Ireland?”
“We did not just leave ourselves open, we left ourselves defenceless. Today’s announcements help those on fuel allowance. That must be welcomed but the squeezed middle gets 20 cent a litre off diesel, which is the same amount as it went up last week. There is 2 cent a litre for the farmer and fisherman, which leaves the country in a very angry state and both those sectors furious. Ireland needs an immediate, urgent national plan for energy independence and not in 2050. Will the Taoiseach outline this plan today?”
“Ireland is panicking and being called the laggards of Europe. In 2022, I spoke to the Taoiseach about the Barryroe oilfield because it represented something bigger – not just an oilfield but a political system that refused to even access its own resources while continuing to rely on foreign fuel. It is complete neglect by government. Beyond Barryroe, Ireland still has no clear, credible path to energy independence. Imagine after a Green Party in Government, solar systems cost up to €20,000 to run a home only gets a measly €1,800 grant. This is not transition; it is a slow motion collapse and the Government is participating in what is happening. People are paying more because of the choices made at the Cabinet table, choices based on ideology instead of practicality and choices that have left Ireland more rather than less vulnerable.”
“While it cannot shield people from everything, the complete green agenda of the previous government is coming home to roost, which was to make sure to never prepare our country for the future but tax the living daylights out of every citizen in this country with 65% fuel taxes, like VAT, the NORA levy and carbon tax, making the motorists of this country a cash cow for the Government like no other country in the world. This is a total failure of planning, leadership and responsibility by this and other Governments. A country that imports nearly all its energy, taxes fuel at 60% to 65% and blocks practical solutions for security is not transitioning; it is stumbling. While Irish families struggle, other countries are securing their futures. Europe and the rest of the world is planning.”
“Hauliers are warning they cannot keep the wheels turning. Farmers, tradesmen, fishermen, home help, carers, school bus drivers, ordinary squeezed-middle families and 1.5 million elderly people are being squeezed until they break. What does the Government do? It tells people to wait. Last week we were told by the Government there will be no knee-jerk reaction and to be patient. Even yesterday, a coalition source said that the Government cannot shield people.”
“Ireland has walked blindfolded into an energy crisis, not by accident or misfortune but because consecutive Governments chose to leave our country exposed and dependent on others for the most basic lifeline we have – energy. The price of those choices is now hammering every single household and business in this country. In 2022, during Leaders Questions to the current Taoiseach, I raised the Barryroe oilfield and demanded that Ireland build real energy independence. Later that year, I spoke of a floating gas terminal off Cork harbour. I warned that relying on imports was reckless and dangerous, and the Government laughed off my warnings saying it is fine. Well, it is not fine. The people of Ireland are paying dearly for that Government arrogance. Fuel prices have jumped again and again in recent weeks.”
“Let us be honest, if everything was working perfectly, families would not be coming to us in distress. They would not be chasing responses. They would not feel that they are being passed around from one place to another, but they are and we all know it. What our motion is proposing is the common-sense approach of having an independent look at the system, laying out the options clearly and, if change is needed, doing it properly, carefully and in a way that protects services. That is not radical; it is responsible. If there is even a chance that changing the structure could speed things up, make accountability clear and deliver better outcomes for children, we have a duty to look at it seriously and not dismiss it, delay it or kick it down the road again. I urge all Deputies to support Independent Ireland's motion.”
“In this particular case, it would appear that Tusla may have acted with undue haste in reaching a conclusion before all appropriate assessments and safeguards were in place. Then we look at the structures of the system. Hundreds of organisations are funded, layers upon layers, different streams, different processes and different lines of communication. Do not get me wrong, there is good work being done, but the system itself is too scattered, complicated and hard to follow. When something is too complicated, accountability gets lost and people fall through the cracks. Our motion is not about tearing anything down overnight. It is about asking a fair question, namely, is this structure working as it should? If it is not, are we willing to do something about it?”
“I have another case where the mother was accused of inappropriate behaviour involving one of her own children. The children were removed from her care. The social worker involved is a neighbour of the children's father, giving rise to concerns of a potential conflict of interest. There are indications that proper procedures may not have been followed by either the social worker or Tusla. The mother was interviewed by An Garda Síochána and a file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, it now appears unlikely that any charges will be brought. The social worker involved and three additional Tusla staff members have been reported to CORU and are currently under investigation.”
“We recently encountered another case involving prolonged and serious sexual abuse for many years within a family home. This raises fundamental questions about Tusla's response. Where was the agency during this period? Why was action not taken? How were some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society left unprotected for so long? I had another recent case which involved a 14-year-old girl who was being groomed online by a man in his 40s. The child's mother sought assistance from Tusla and the girl was subsequently taken into care. However, the foster placement lacked adequate supervision, allowing the young girl to continue communicating with the perpetrator via her mobile phone. This was an extremely dangerous situation that should not have been allowed to occur under State care.”
“They are stretched and under pressure and many of them are carrying far more than they should have to. The system they are working in is where the problem lies. I see it every week in west Cork. Families come in the door at their wits' end. Referrals are made and nothing happens. Calls are made and no clear answers are obtained. The situation is getting worse while the system moves at its own pace. When we, as public representatives, try to intervene, we hit a wall and are told it is a matter for Tusla and that is the end of it. What good is that to a child who needs help today, not six months down the line? Without going into details, I had one case where a family waited and waited for engagement. They told me they did not know who to turn to any more.”
“I am asking my colleagues in government and in opposition to support this Independent Ireland motion for one very simple reason. When it comes to protecting children, there can be no confusion about who is responsible and right now there is too much confusion. When something goes wrong in child protection in this country, what happens? The Department points to Tusla and Tusla points to the procedures and the Minister points to the fact that they do not deal with operational matters. The families are left standing there, waiting for help, for answers and for someone - anyone - to take responsibility. That is not good enough. This is not about the front-line staff, the social workers or the people on the ground. They are doing their level best.”