Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Donegal · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“In recent days, First Minister Michelle O'Neill visited Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce. Present were the heads of Donegal County Council, Atlantic Technological University, Donegal ETB and a range of employers and businesses from across the county.”
“The opportunity to progress towards a united Ireland is incredibly exciting. It is an opportunity to reimagine our island and its potential. David McWilliams wrote in recent years about the impact of partition on the North of Ireland. Some 100 years ago, Belfast was larger than Dublin.”
“There are many challenges and issues but the easiest one is going to be the economic benefits of a united Ireland. They will be immense, particularly for the northern half of the island. As an eminent economist said, if the North of Ireland can perform at the level of counties Cork and Kerry alone, there will be no issues.”
“In recent weeks, the Taoiseach talked about the importance of the Minister of State with responsibility for the marine. However, incredibly, it is the Minister for agriculture who will address the European Parliament's committee on fisheries today.”
“That would give a clear message that the Taoiseach is serious about giving the Department of marine and the Minister of State with responsibility for the marine independence to speak and fight for our people, rather than the Minister for agriculture, who could not possibly know anything about these matters.”
“Nationalism is united on this issue. We are asking for responsible preparation, a Green Paper and a citizens' assembly to make the plan and the case. The Taoiseach says that he is an Irish republican and a united-Irelander, then he should make the case and have a plan. That is what nationalism wants.”
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“We have to reset the culture of the Department of the marine. We have to have a Minister who drives forward, works with the industry, cuts out the logjams and brings wealth and prosperity to coastal communities.”
“That was understandable and admirable but now they are making it clear that they need financial supports to stay in their communities. We really need to understand the history of neglect and wilful failure by Departments where there was not a dedicated Minister for the marine for a long time. There is one now. I will acknowledge that he is engaging and he is trying but we need to sort this out. We are an island nation. I have just given three examples of the potential. I could go on about the Common Fisheries Policy and the fact that we have utterly failed and allowed our industry and production to fall apart. For example, Norway is a country with the same population as the Republic of Ireland and it has a seafood industry multiples the size of ours. I offer that to the Minister. We have to turn this around.”
“Ireland, obviously, is an island nation. The Faroe Islands, which has a population not much more than the Inishowen Peninsula where I am from in the north of Donegal, has a bigger aquaculture industry than Ireland. There has been an utter failure to deal with the planning logjams that have bedevilled the potential of the industry. Everybody has a right to object but you have to make decisions in a timely fashion and it has dragged on and on. Years ago when I engaged with inshore fishermen - I had policy responsibility for this in Sinn Féin - I asked them whether they be interested in a financial support scheme similar to what farmers had and, indeed, what artists rightly have now. Their response instinctively was that they did not, that they wanted to fish and that they did not want hand outs and they did not want financial supports.”
“I am going to focus my comments on the challenge in our coastal communities and, to be quite frank, the neglect of our coastal communities. Today, in the fisheries committee, we dealt with seaweed harvesting and the applications that are coming in from major corporations. I asked a question of the traditional seaweed harvesters. I asked whether anybody from Government agencies had engaged with them directly to establish and vindicate their rights that have been there for generations and the answer was "No." We had Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, which deal with the licensing, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Department of the marine in and every one of them confirmed that none had proactively engaged, even though the Attorney General ruled on this years ago. It is complete neglect of the potential of that issue.”
“The Tánaiste at the weekend was talking about his Department officials looking at more heat pumps. How out of touch can you be? People need money in their pockets now. We need statements on an emergency mini-budget. Sinn Féin has put forward proposals, including a permanent cut to the USC, a restoration of the energy credit and a cut to fuel and diesel at the pumps. We need this House to represent what people are going through out there. We need a reality check on Government. I am calling for statements on an emergency mini-budget this week.”
“The former leader of Fine Gael let the cat out of the bag in recent days. He said out loud what has been whispered by senior Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael personnel for many years - this divide-and-conquer approach between urban and rural Ireland. People in rural Ireland see the carbon tax as a penalisation of them for choices they do not get to make. They have to heat their homes with home heating oil. They need to use petrol and diesel to get by in rural Ireland. I want clarity from the leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the Dáil. I want respect for people in Ireland. The Government must stop using this approach of divide and conquer on our people. It is fooling nobody.”
“To be very clear the record needs to be corrected. Leaders' Questions were not scrapped previously. Taoiseach's questions were not scrapped previously. Questions on Policy or Legislation were not scrapped previously.”
“Absolutely not agreed. It has been three weeks now since the Taoiseach was accountable to these Houses - 20 days this Dáil did not sit and he would not reconvene the Dáil when we asked him to deal with this crisis, to have this place sitting. He would not do it. Arrogance and entitlement seems to be the mentality here of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Will the Taoiseach start listening, will he do his job and will he stick with the original schedule and take Leaders' Questions, Questions on Policy or Legislation and Taoiseach's Questions today?”
“The Minister of State should not misrepresent what we said. The way this has been handled today is completely disrespectful to the Opposition. We had no chance to prepare amendments. We are frantically trying to get information from the secretariat and there is a vacuum. We are calling a vote in protest at the way the Government handled this today, considering it took it weeks to get to this point. It also briefed all the journalists in recent days. It knew what it was doing. It just did not have this organised today. It is not an acceptable way to do business.”
“It is not agreed. The Government has had weeks now to respond to this crisis. There has been a lack of communication to the Opposition. We have been frantically trying to get clarification on votes to allow us to prepare amendments. This is no way to do business and we strongly object to the way this has been handled today. We will push a vote on this matter.”
“In a county like Donegal, we are uniquely impacted by these increases in oil and fuel. We rely heavily on home heating oil to heat our homes. You cannot work in Donegal unless you have a car or van to get around. Public transport just is not there. We are uniquely affected. I find it astonishing that we are weeks into this crisis now and there is not a clear indication from the Government that it is going to cut the excise duty and reduce costs at the pump and for home heating oil. I urge the Minister again to make a clear statement that he will get that reduced and to reassure people urgently that it is going to happen.”
“The flood defences will not have to be built and the area will return to a flood plain. It ticks every box in relation to common sense but we need urgency. I appreciate the Minister's forbearance and work on this to date but getting this over the line would be a huge relief for everybody.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, worked with the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, who was in Donegal in recent weeks, where he met with residents and saw the condition of these houses. There is an urgency in that some of the houses are in appalling conditions, are clearly unsafe and families are still living in them. At the same time, they live on a dangerous flood plain. Of course, those houses should never have been granted planning permission. We inherit the legacy of what came before us. I appreciate the Minister has agreed to the principle of relocation but there is anxiety that this could drag on for a long period. This is urgent. The residents need a solution. They have worked in partnership with the Minister and demonstrated that all the homes are affected and have to be demolished. It is a common-sense proposal.”
“This issue relates to Elm Park in Buncrana. I thank the Minister for his engagement to date on the issue. He met with the families in Donegal. I thank the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Moran, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. I welcome the announcement before Christmas that the Minister is agreeing to relocate the families. They have been waiting a long time, first, for co-operation of all families in agreeing to relocation and then they had to get all their houses tested. Every house is affected by defective blocks. They are just pressing for a time frame.”
“It will carry out the work, which is to the benefit of the people, once he asks it. Will he do it now? What would delay him any longer?”
“Please just accept our testimony. I can only speak with authority about Donegal but I listened to families in Mayo and Clare recently when they were before the Oireachtas housing committee. It is crystal clear we do not have anything near 100% redress in the west. That means the scheme currently benefits those of a certain age who can project-manage or can access €40,000, €50,000 or €100,000. The Minister heard me give an example and I could give many more of people having to find almost €200,000 and being locked into mortgages for another 15, 16 or 17 years. That is the reality and it is cruel. The last time SCSI reported, it took a year and a half for legislation to be brought forward for people going through the scheme. I ask the Minister right now to send a letter to the SCSI. It is a tremendous organisation.”
“The Minister and his Department officials continue to insist the people of Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Clare and Limerick are receiving 100% redress based on SCSI costings. It should be remembered that does not include the foundations and other matters. This has to be based on real-world prices. The prices he is working off are at least two years out of date. Indeed, the data used in the March 2024 SCSI report are from 2023. I am going by his standards. He tells me he is giving people 100% redress based on SCSI costings, but those costings are at least two years out of date. It is very simple. The SCSI is a tremendous organisation and has always been professional and co-operative. The Minister should ask the society to do an up-to-date report so people are not tens of thousands of euro short. It is a simple request. Can he do it?”
“The Minister will know that his predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, asked the SCSI for the costs of building a typical home in the areas affected by defective concrete blocks. That was two years ago and the costs have increased substantially. That means the gap between what the State will pay families through the grant scheme and the actual costs is getting ever wider. Will the Minister ask the SCSI to get this done?”
“I will continue to monitor this closely because it is clear that in recent years there has been an agenda at senior level in the HSE for a sneaking privatisation of the service in Donegal. In a response to a parliamentary question, it was confirmed that the use of private providers increased from 13% to 19% in one year. I am clear that recruitment through the HSE for home care assistants is being held back by policies there. By its own admission, it is looking to bring in private providers to fill the gap. That is wrong. There is a culture of community focus in Donegal and trying to keep people in their homes as much as we can and not have them in institutions. That helps the hospital. I ask the Minister of State speak to the managers to get an absolute assurance to stop playing games with privatisation.”
“It means more people in the emergency department because we cannot release patients back into the community. I want to get a sense and assurance from the Minister of State that this is not about a privatisation agenda.”
“We are very proud in Donegal that we have the strongest level of home care assistance delivered directly by the State through the HSE and that is the way we want to keep it. My concern is that there is an agenda to privatise the service in Donegal, that is, to hold back recruitment in the public system and secure the services of private providers. I am aware of incidents in Donegal where the HSE has had to step in after a poor service by private providers. There are real concerns around this. The facts do not lie. The waiting lists are growing. There are 324 people waiting. That is not just about those families and, of course, the people themselves not having that level of support; it also impacts, as I said, on Letterkenny University Hospital.”
“This question relates to the waiting lists of 324 for home support services in Donegal. I am very clear from speaking to staff in the service that the HSE recruitment policies are preventing it from recruiting the necessary assistants to get those waiting lists down. That also has a knock-on impact on Letterkenny University Hospital. I wish to get a sense of what is happening and why it is happening.”
“They are not agreed. When will the Taoiseach stand up for our fishing communities in Europe? He knows we are in an unprecedented crisis. There is a 70% cut in mackerel and 41% in blue whiting, primarily because of actions of countries like Norway which recklessly overfished. In recent days, Norway was granted 50,000 tonnes of blue whiting access in Irish waters and the Irish Government abstained. It did not stand up and confront what is going on here.”
“Teachers - in this case the principal speaking for the teachers - are struggling to deal with the existing criteria. The big lesson for the Government to take is that the regulations that go back to 2014, as Deputy O'Rourke said, are just not fit for purpose any more. They have to be scrapped. The Government has to put in place a new framework for SNAs, one that is based on the real experience teachers and SNAs are seeing in schools. It is important that this is not just a case of kicking the can down the road and a review of the review. This has to mean a complete change to the framework that is there. It is not working and does not reflect the reality. That is the lesson that needs to be learned.”
“Last week, I received a letter from 21 school principals across Donegal. I sent it to the Minister and the Minister of State. I ask them to meet with a delegation of these principals. They have asked that the Ministers meet them in the school to see exactly what they are talking about. I ask them to read the letter because it specifically deals with the issues. It is not just about these letters that cause great distress and anguish to schools across the State. The first I knew about it was when it affected one of my local schools, St. Oran's National School in Buncrana. The system that is in place and the outdated criteria just do not reflect what the special needs assistant does today, as we speak in 2026. It does not reflect the central importance SNAs have in schools.”
“Where is the spotlight on these companies and what is going on? Why are they not asking questions? Why are they not looking for who joined the Dutch Government in its lobbies to the German, French and Polish Governments? Who was at the table? Are there exchanges or freedom of information requests? Where are our journalists during such an attack on our national interest? I would argue it is an unprecedented attack on our fishery resource. We know that the Common Fisheries Policy has been terrible, but what happened last December was an absolute new low. It is critical that this task force now adequately financially compensates our sector to get us through this, but there has to be a plan. I am sorry to say it, but our Taoiseach is not at the table. He is not standing up for our interests.”
“Making sure there is fairness and equality - forget about that. That is what all of this has amounted to. It is of the utmost seriousness. I find it deeply sad that, in a country that is surrounded by water, an island nation, there has not been more media focus on this. In fairness, with a couple of honourable exceptions, I am astonished at the lack of media focus in Ireland on this issue. What is happening here is devastating for our fishing communities. How on earth can they not investigate the big five? I have a report here from the campaign group Bloom, which produced it a couple of years ago. I have another report entitled, Competing for Fish: How One Dutch Company Is Slowly Taking Over Much of Europe's Fishing Sector. These are investigative journalists. Where are the investigative journalists in Ireland?”
“These corporations are investing in the industries in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and I am sure they are partnering with industry in Norway. They are industrialising fishing. They are recklessly overfishing and are benefiting on the double when they come back and remove the Hague preferences from Ireland. What has happened here is utterly scandalous. It is rotten and corrupt. We have to say it out loud as a country. What on earth is Germany doing backing this utterly reprehensible behaviour, which goes against all the principles the European Union is supposed to stand for? Climate change - forget about that. Protecting vulnerable coastal communities - forget about that. Rewarding people who are involved in low-impact fishing - forget about that. Standing up for the little guy - forget about that.”
“Where the hell is he? How can he not speak out about what is happening? Everybody in the industry across Europe knows of the domination of these corporations and the control they have over policy. Everybody knows that they were able to influence those governments to stop the Hague preferences being invoked by Ireland. That has been our right for decades. It was a protection because of the access we gave to our waters. The UK was also able to avail of the Hague preferences. Now we are on our own. I believe these countries picked on this State of about 5 million people and utterly shafted us at the behest of major corporations. It is not just the Common Fisheries Policy and what happens within our waters.”
“I am very clear that the big five Dutch-based corporations had more influence over the Netherlands, France, Germany and Poland than our country when it came to the Hague preferences. That is a shocking moment. I am sorry to say this, but our Taoiseach has been absent without leave in relation to all of this.”
“I had the chance last December to lay a number of facts on the table. I am going to repeat them. We need to speak out with passion about the rottenness of the Common Fisheries Policy and, I am sorry to say, the rottenness of the approach of the European Commission to all of this. Let us talk about the big five. These are the Dutch corporations that dominate so much quota across the European Union. The Common Fisheries Policy allows these huge corporations to legally buy up quota across the European Union. They control one sixth of the fish resource. That figure is probably even higher now, as it is from the last documented figures we have. The influence these corporations have is absolutely extraordinary.”
“We need to make sure that the media attention that is on these areas for a few days never comes off as part of a drive to get things done. We need to ask local authorities all across the country to do better, working in partnership all across the country. I again thank the Minister of State.”
“The Minister of State is now back in the role and travelling the country. We really need to demand more of our local authorities and of the systems, including the OPW. We must drive it on as much as we can and work together with other agencies. We cannot leave people in despair for years and years. My colleague Deputy John Brady introduced a Bill on flood insurance. That should be looked at again. It might give people a degree of protection. As the Minister of State said when he was in Donegal, his job is to try to protect communities from floods and to build flood defences. There are wider issues around insurance, however. That would give people comfort. We need to look at the gaps that are lengthening the time it takes to deliver these flood defences.”
“They said it would not have been economically viable. That was a mistake. The Minister of State granted funding for it and rectified the issue. However, as he has seen himself, the problem is that eight families had to leave their homes, which were council houses. Some of those families were interviewed for the Irish Times in recent days. I spoke to some of them afterwards. He met Kathleen Molloy, a fine woman and a fine spokesperson for these families. I do not think Kathleen will ever be back in her house. It is just so sad. Those families lost that connection. Kathleen is still in the local area but a lot of them lost that connection and will never go back. Somebody recently said that, when the floods come in, the media and everybody else focus on it, but, when the waters recede, so does the media attention and focus.”
“If he had been there during that period, we would have been on schedule now. He would have shepherded it over the line. I have no criticism of him whatsoever but the time the system takes is just too long and the interim measures that should be put in place just are not there. For the remainder of my time, I will focus on Burnfoot. As the Minister of State knows, Burnfoot is just a wee village in the south of Inishowen, not far from Derry city. Burnfoot always flooded. The houses in question were on a flood plain. Everybody knows that there are council houses and private houses that should never have been built where they were built. For God's sake, the name of the village in Irish means "the foot of the river". Before the Minister of State's time, the OPW and the then Minister did not agree to fund works.”
“The Minister of State came up and saw what happened in August 2017 at first hand. It was absolutely devastating. The damage done in my home peninsula of Inishowen and into east Donegal was shocking. It was a wake-up call. It is interesting. I have always worked hard as a public representative but I never put in a shift like I did in the weeks after that. I was working from literally first thing in the morning until last thing at night trying to put my arm around the community and deal with government, including local government, to try to get everything done to address families' flooding issues and the bridges, parks and football pitches that had to be repaired. It was unbelievable. I always think of that when I see other communities flooded. I have been there. I have seen it and understand it. That is why we missed the Minister of State.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his recent visit to Donegal and for meeting families who are affected face to face. I really appreciated that. We missed the Minister of State when he was out of the Dáil. I will be straight about that. I said it in front of the residents when we were in Donegal. He really cares about this issue. He has experienced it in his own community and seen it at first hand. We missed him. I am going to go back to 2017. There is always flooding at certain points. Unfortunately, some very poor planning decisions were made in the past and houses were built on flood plains all across the country. That is exactly the case in the worst areas. Terrible planning decisions were made, houses were built on flood plains and we are left with the repercussions.”
“To be very clear, I am somebody who in my political life has shown leadership in protecting the dignity and rights of asylum seekers. I made sure that the Ombudsman for Children and public service ombudsman had oversight of the direct provision system but, right now, the Ombudsman for Children has no oversight of asylum seeker children. There are tens of thousands in these temporary emergency centres around the country, and that is utterly wrong. What we can do is treat asylum seekers with dignity and respect while their applications are being processed but, by God, the Government also has to treat communities - working class communities that have been left behind and failed - with respect too. If it gets those two things right, then we will have a system that functions. This amendment is critically important.”
“The whole county knows it, and people are furious about it and deeply hurt across the county. Does the Minister know what they are really angry about? When they were raising these matters, there were people who were labelling them as racists and as uncaring, which is completely off the mark. This is what we need to do, and I am going to say it clearly as a proud left Irish republican. The best way to protect our people from the scourge of ugly racism, indifference and everything that comes with that is to treat working-class communities with respect. It is to engage and consult with them, look at where the most appropriate locations are and have State-provided, State-resourced locations. This is a critically important amendment from Deputy Carthy. We know from experience in Donegal what needs to be done.”
“To be very clear, the Government failed and disrespected the communities across Donegal, and it utterly disrespected the asylum seekers in terms of their dignity and rights. None of that was taken on board. That is why there is such anger around the country. The best way we can defend ourselves from the racists who are out there in this country and who are fomenting hatred is to listen to local communities and treat them with dignity and respect and hear the concerns they have. The worst thing we can do is to have zero consultation. The worst thing we can do is not to talk to the local schools, local councils and local health services, but reward the few. The Government has made millionaires out of some people in Donegal who were failed businesspeople.”
“I know them, and the vast majority of the people who were expressing concerns do not have a racist bone in their bodies, but they were genuinely aggrieved and taken aback at what they saw incrementally happening again and again. I can tell the Minister something else; it certainly was not in the interests of asylum seekers because they were put in the back end of nowhere in some cases, in totally inappropriate accommodation and, indeed, in urban areas in totally inappropriate accommodation. I will go back to the tour of various direct provision centres, where rooms of men from all different nationalities and cultures were plonked in together, treated with indignity, for years languishing in a system that was failing them. I remember all of that, and that continues.”
“Thousands of homes, both private and council homes, are falling apart. People's lives have been destroyed. We cannot find rental properties for them. We cannot find resources to help people have somewhere to stay while their homes are being rebuilt, and large numbers of people are locked out of the scheme. That is one of many reasons why. We are dealing with all those challenges, and none of that was taken on board. Would you believe that, per capita , Donegal took in more Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers than any other county in the State? That happened because groups of opportunists came together and made fortunes. This is what I resent because I know the people of Donegal.”
“We had hotels that were not doing terribly well. We had pure opportunism. Groups of businesspeople, in some cases failed businesspeople, networked together to source buildings. They would talk people who were maybe considering renting badly needed rental properties into doing deals. Two things happened: we had the influx of Ukrainian refugees - there are 10,000 today in Donegal - and then we had the challenge of asylum seekers. Those things came one after the other over a number of years, and it was handled absolutely abysmally. There was no consultation with local communities. There was no consultation with health services, schools or public representatives. The Minister and Minister of State know that we are coping with a profound humanitarian disaster in most of Donegal which has been caused by defective concrete blocks.”
“As we speak, however, the Ombudsman for Children does not have oversight of the temporary emergency centres all around the country that have been set up in recent years. How can that be defended? We have children in those centres and there is no oversight. We have made a mess of this whole issue of the challenge of dealing with asylum seekers. It is a challenge for every country, particularly in Europe and North America. However, it is a challenge we have to face and deal with and make sure people's dignity is protected in the process. I have watched this unfold for a long time, but I now need to give testimony to what I have seen in Donegal and what really happened in my and Deputy Doherty's home county. It was absolute opportunism and greed. We had a situation where there were buildings, in some cases former manufacturing factories.”
“A number of years ago, I chaired the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. At that time, the public service ombudsman and Ombudsman for Children were looking for oversight of the direct provision system. I was the chairperson of the committee and I led the delegations. We travelled to direct provision centres around the country. We met with the asylum seekers. We insisted on absolute access to every corner of the direct provision centres. We met with a range of stakeholders. I am glad to say that the Ombudsman for Children and public service ombudsman did get oversight of the direct provision centres because there was real concern, particularly for children in those centres.”
“The Government does not need to take a pause; the Government needs to stop the approach it is taking, talk to teachers and parents on the ground and change what is happening.”
“A letter from 21 school principals in Donegal has been sent to the Minister for Education and Youth and the Minister of State with responsibility for special needs education. They express their profound concern regarding the reality of special educational needs provision in our schools, in particular the operation of the SNA allocation model. I ask the Taoiseach to request a copy of the letter - I can send him one. It clearly demonstrates the failings of the system, which have been revealed by this review and has caused huge anguish and distress for parents. I have spoken to other schools outside of the 21 on the list. The Taoiseach needs to hear what is happening on the ground. The system is not working.”
“The HSE has had phase 1 of the Nayagam review relating to children with scoliosis. It is horrific what we know already, and this is of the utmost sensitivity. The Government has committed to a statutory public inquiry. Will it appoint a facilitator to engage with the families in terms of reference? Will we have Dáil statements to give absolute clarity about how this is being handled? There are growing concerns among the families, so we need Dáil statements to clarify all this and to deal with this matter of utmost public concern.”
“At the end of that report, the Police Ombudsman's office confirms that it passed this file over to the PSNI in 2016. Ten years later, I want to know what the PSNI has done about the actions of Person K. Some day, I will name Person K in this Chamber. I challenge the Minister to get those answers. How did this man get away with all of that?”
“He oversaw the murders of 17 people and the attempted murders of seven. Up until the Greysteel massacre, he was a useful agent for the British in that he killed Sinn Féin members, Sinn Féin elected representatives and republican leaders, but in Greysteel, he went solo. He totally oversaw the operation. We have a situation where the man who drove the car named Person K. The man who gave the weapons to the RUC afterwards named Person K. Person K's fingerprints were on the weapons used in the Greysteel massacre, yet Person K was never charged because Person K was a British military agent. Even after the Greysteel massacre, he was not dealt with. If you look at the end of that report from January 2022, this was reported to the PSNI .”