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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“At least two British military agents would have killed Eddie and I believe another was present in the operation. They did not just kill Eddie Fullerton. They killed Councillor Bernard O'Hagan. They killed Sinn Féin members and republican leaders across Donegal, in the case of Councillor Eddie Fullerton, County Derry, County Antrim and west Tyrone, in a period of just over four years. I want the Minister to pay close attention to what I am about to say to him about one man in particular because we have not talked about this before one-to-one. I have raised it with all the Minister's predecessors. In the Operation Greenwich report, please note Person K. I am clear that I may name him in this place at some stage. Person K was a British military agent who was overseeing the operation where Councillor Eddie Fullerton was assassinated.”
“I want to state clearly that we absolutely need truth and reconciliation for all of our people who came through the conflict, but one huge missing piece is the role of the British state. I want to take the Minister through the assassination of an elected representative in this State. Councillor Eddie Fullerton was assassinated in May 1991. His family pursued a justice campaign for many years, patiently and determinedly. That led to Operation Greenwich, which was published by the Police Ombudsman in the North in January 2022. It took so long because the investigators in the ombudsman's office had uncovered a much wider conspiracy than just the assassination of Councillor Eddie Fullerton. It is absolutely clear now that British military agents were directly involved in the assassination of Councillor Eddie Fullerton.”
“When people reacted angrily to that in communities, it was totally unfair to say that they are racist and unreasonable. That was not what was happening. We were watching people becoming millionaires. In some instances, these were individuals whose businesses had failed and who were bankrupt. They suddenly became millionaires overnight. People can see it. That is the injustice and context. I want the Minister to hear that from Donegal. The previous Government got it badly wrong. Do not repeat the mistakes it made.”
“It was absolutely appalling, and it happened again and again. In Donegal, we are dealing with our own humanitarian crisis relating to defective concrete blocks, which has affected thousands of private and public houses, commercial buildings, public buildings, schools and crèches. All of these places are falling apart and we have reached the point where we cannot provide housing for the families in the country who have to be relocated. No consideration whatsoever was given to that. Wherever a hotel or a building was available, that was where asylum seekers were located. That was completely unfair and unjust. They would be stuck in the middle of nowhere sometimes, with no resources, no supports, nothing whatsoever. That had been the Government's strategy for the past number of years.”
“It appears that the approach of the previous Government to that was that wherever there was a hotel that was not doing too well commercially or wherever there were opportunistic developers who could locate empty buildings or who maybe had buildings of their own, it was in these places that asylum seekers were located. There was no thought about where the most fitting communities, best health facilities, best primary care and best education facilities were. None of that was taken into consideration. It was utterly unfair to the asylum seekers involved and to the communities that were expected to host them. Indeed, public representatives were learning about it after the fact. The bus would come in, the asylum seekers would be located and then we would be informed that a contract had been signed.”
“The length of time they were waiting for a decision and languishing in these centres was unacceptable. I am glad to say that the Ombudsman for Children had oversight after that, as did the Ombudsman. I am sorry that the Ombudsman for Children does not have oversight, as I understand it, of the temporary emergency centres dotted across the State, including in my county. I will talk directly about our experience. What we have seen is that there is the challenge of supporting Ukrainian refugees, which people all across County Donegal did. What then emerged was the challenge of a large upsurge in asylum seekers coming to Ireland.”
“The Minister will know the views of Sinn Féin about this legislation, as articulated by our spokesperson, Deputy Carthy. We are particularly concerned that Tusla and the various Departments under the Government's direction do not have the resources to meet the requirements laid out. That is the fundamental concern. However, I will talk practically about my experience in Donegal in recent years and the mistakes made by those who came before the Minister. There was always a challenge with asylum seekers and the direct provision system, with people languishing for years. I previously chaired the petitions committee and we were asked by the children's ombudsman and the Ombudsman to look at the need for their oversight of the direct provision system. We visited direct provision centres across the State. We met asylum seekers.”
“I believe that the Minister's refusal to ask Larry Murrin to step aside in the interests of our industry and the interests of fairness is a continuance of his lack of stomach to fight for and stand up for our farmers, and to stand up for the standards that we have. This is why these farmers are making the stand. This is why these farming organisations are uniting. Tonight is the Minister's chance to listen and to speak to them. It will be another week before the vote. The Minister will have plenty of time to think. Larry Murrin will be before the committee tomorrow. The Minister has a week to do the right thing. It is far too late but he needs to do it.”
“I will say it again: the Government has driven our farmers mad with paperwork and it has put the highest demands on farmers with the highest environmental and animal welfare standards in the world, and then it will have our beef competing with very different standards. Micheál Martin dithered. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, took his stand. Other backbenchers in Fianna Fáil took their stands. Finally the Government opposed it but it could have formed a blocking minority and it could have done more around that. This issue we are discussing now continues on from that.”
“The Government is giving credit to Larry Murrin for that quality of beef and that world-class standard around the world but they produced it. The Government has just ignored them and dismissed them to the point now that they have to have a sit-in protest and occupy the Bord Bia office. How much reputational damage has the Government done to Bord Bia at this stage? This all follows on from the way the Government dealt with Mercosur. Micheál Martin was out in China but he is still not committing to opposing Mercosur. It is outrageous. We have beef that is held to very different standards from what we have to face.”
“The Minister and the Ministers of State know what has to be done here. Bord Bia is the body tasked with marketing our beef across the world and with overseeing the standards in that regard of all the farmers across the State. My colleague Deputy Martin Kenny referred to the quality assurance scheme. I think there are 66 questions on the survey. Basically, farmers are driven mad with paperwork. That is why we have a world-class standard in beef. In what the Minister has attempted to do in recent days he has not listened to the primary producers. All of the farming organisations are clear that Larry Murrin has to go. They have no confidence in him. Rather than listen to them the Government has picked fights with them. They are the primary producers. They produce the food.”
“They are not agreed. Why does the Taoiseach continue to bury his head in the sand? Farmers are in an ongoing sit-down protest in the offices of Bord Bia. How on earth can the Taoiseach stand over a Bord Bia chairperson remaining in place when every single farming organisation, representing the primary producers of food in this country, says he has to go? They have no confidence in him because he brought in Brazilian beef with none of the standards he insists the farmers must meet to sell their beef around the world. When will the Taoiseach wake up and remove the chairperson of Bord Bia?”
“There will be engagements in the Oireachtas fisheries committee on this soon. I imagine there will be strong cross-party support for this proposal. We need to deliver it in the short term as opposed to the medium or long term. I look forward to continued engagement with the Minister of State.”
“I welcome that. It is crucial that the likes of NIFA, NIFF, the regional inshore fisheries forums, RIFFs, and the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation, IIMRO, are at the table too. There are about 900 inshore fishermen, according to NIFA. Imagine if we could protect their livelihoods with a basic income scheme, which would mean that they would not have to go on the dole. It is economically sensible to do this, as we did with artists, but such a scheme would acknowledge that it is just not sustainable any more for them to be on their own and try to earn a living due to conditions beyond their control, including climate, increased costs and so on. This is a really positive contribution. It is real leadership from NIFA on this issue. My view is that it has been coming for a long time.”
“I accept that the task force needs to be established. I ask that this happens as a matter of urgency and that we engage on these matters, make quick decisions and get these financial supports to fishermen.”
“As the Minister of State knows, the impact of Brexit hurt all fishermen, not just offshore fishermen. There was no tie-up scheme and no fuel subsidy for inshore fishermen. They have really struggled, and I have seen a big change. As I said at the outset, when I talked about a support scheme similar to what farmers have received for many years, the initial response from fishermen all around the coast was that they just wanted to fish. I absolutely respect that, but we have now got to the point where I think the likes of a basic income scheme would allow them to fish but also to have some type of financial support. This is crucial for coastal communities and fishing communities. This is about protecting this crucial heritage for our people, as we did with artists, and rightly so. This is a timely proposal.”
“The Minister will know that the National Inshore Fishermen's Association has made a submission to all of us on an inshore fisheries income stabilisation and climate compensation scheme. Essentially, this would be a basic income scheme similar to that which was provided to artists in recent times. This is critical. As the Minister knows, in the past fishermen would have said, "We just want the fish; we do not want financial assistance." They need the latter now, and they will need it moving forward. I wish to engage with the Minister on that.”
“I offer up the Letterkenny relief road and the logjam and nightmare that people are experiencing in that town as an example of all that is wrong with Government policy and of the need for change and to get a strong grip on activities of the various agencies and bodies involved.”
“It is a real challenge not just for the local communities that have to deal with every day but also for the visitors and the people who work there or take their loved ones to hospital there. The planning processes in this country are totally exasperating, as is the lack of urgency within Departments and their failure to talk to each other and communicate properly . An article by John Collison in The Irish Times captured the imagination of a lot of people. He described a Government that is operating at arm's length. There are all these different agencies and bodies and nothing can get done with substance.”
“The deep frustration in my county in terms of key infrastructure projects concerns just how long they take. I want to talk about the Letterkenny relief road. Letterkenny is the beating heart of Donegal in terms of inward investment. It has multinational companies. Our university is there, along with our public services and our hospital. A huge volume of traffic goes through the town all the time. It is crucial to the county. Fifteen years ago, there was a business proposal from Donegal County Council for a Letterkenny relief road known locally as the Bonagee link. It was cast aside during the downturn in about 2010 or 2011. All these years later, there is no digger on the site. The Minister has been to the town and spoken in it. He was in it recently. It is a nightmare.”
“The chairperson of Bord Bia has to resign. Every single farming organisation in this State has said it has no confidence in him and he has to go. How on earth can we have a chairperson at Bord Bia promoting Irish food abroad when the primary producers have no confidence in him and want him to go? This is a crazy situation. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, needs to sack him, simple as that, as called for by the farming organisations across this State. We need the Minister to come into the Chamber and account for this failure to act on the demands of the farmers across this country.”
“It should benefit the Inishowen peninsula. It should benefit Letterkenny but there should also be other infrastructure plans other than Letterkenny. I said this last week and will say it again but if Uisce Éireann was around then, I do not think it would have happened. That is the way it was then. It happened and the project drove on. Uisce Éireann has inherited this fantastic dam, reservoir, project and water supply. It is an absolute blessing but it is not developing around the hills of Letterkenny and it is bypassing homes in Inishowen. It is causing friction and concern. If I could get speaking to senior officials in Irish Water, I would not have to make this speech. My final appeal to the Minister is to please make it clear that it is time for respect for public representatives and communities.”
“However, here we have this crucial service of water and sewerage and you cannot get answers and accountability in a timely fashion. You can send an email and get a response in due course. Often that is not good enough. It does not work and is not sustainable. I want to talk about the Eddie Fullerton Dam. It is named after my late and great colleague, Councillor Eddie Fullerton, who fought for that for years. It is a massive project based just outside Buncrana on the Inishowen peninsula. It was always understood that this water would also be used to help other communities in Donegal. The water is being directed up to Letterkenny, our major county town. That is fine with me but two other things have to happen in tandem with that. It should not be going past houses that are being left behind on the Inishowen peninsula.”
“The Minister knows that as a long-standing public representative. This issue has to be sorted out. It is at the core of the culture that is there. I raise the lack of accountability. It is a culture of arrogance. There are so many concerns. Staff used to be in the local authorities across the State. Now there is this centralisation and outsourcing to huge numbers of companies. There are big concerns about the efficiencies of that, of whether there is a much bigger cost now to do work that used to cost a lot less when it was under the control of the local authorities with dedicated staff. There are big concerns. I meet with the HSE about health matters. I meet Donegal County Council regularly. I can lift the phone to anybody - the hospitals, the schools and every single public service I can think of.”
“I asked some of my councillor colleagues in Donegal to give me feedback about their involvement with Uisce Éireann and their perspectives. I have been speaking to quite a lot of people in Donegal since statements on the issues with Uisce Éireann last week. This issue of communication is universal. As I said to the Minister last week, and he must agree with this, it is absolutely unacceptable that there is not a list of phone numbers that a public representative can ring. If you are dealing with any other State agency, there are senior people you can call and have a conversation with offline to understand what is going on and to properly communicate for your constituents. We continue to have to work with emails. The problem with that is it takes days to respond. Sometimes you need a response quickly and you cannot wait days.”
“Thousands of carers have received letters from Revenue saying they owe tax. They are not tax dodgers; they are people who save this State a fortune of money, literally billions of euro each year. We need the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to come into the Dáil this week. We need statements. We need to deal with this issue. We need the Government to present how it is going to resolve this issue. To be clear, again, these carers are not tax dodgers. They give a huge service to the State. It needs to be sorted out.”
“Where is climate change, climate justice, the green economy and all the other areas where we play by the rules? There are double standards when it comes to doing trade and commerce. I endorse everything Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett said. It is utter hypocrisy. The world rules of engagement, be they on human rights, basic decency or trade and commerce, mean nothing because the leadership of the European Commission is utterly incapable of doing what is right by people across Europe and the world.”
“I do not know. I got some information from a freedom of information request in recent days but there is no evidence in the damn thing. Is the way the Taoiseach handled Mercosur a shock? Again, this is about hypocrisy and double standards. The Government tells farmers in Ireland, rightly, that they must meet the highest animal health and environmental standards and that we are facing a climate challenge. They have been asked to meet those standards and have done so. That is why we have world-class beef standards. What does the European Commission do in order that it can have commerce with South America? It allows beef that has none of those standards to flood our markets.”
“It is utter environmental devastation, destruction and degradation. Nobody in the Government has named these companies or spoken out about what they have done. Worse still, these companies actively lobbied European governments to block the only mechanism the Irish Government has, the Hague Preferences, which provided that our quota would not go below a certain level due to the amount of fish in our waters that we gave away. This mechanism has been in place for decades. It had never been blocked until December last. France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland rowed in behind these corporations and endorsed environmental destruction, environmental recklessness and utter greed. They endorsed it and sacrificed the Irish fishing communities. There was not a word about it from Micheál Martin. Did the Taoiseach get legal advice to block it?”
“Whereas she was banned from doing that, super trawlers go up and down the coast of Ireland and hoover up all sorts of fish, legal and illegal, perfectly within the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy. There are five corporations involved but one in particular, PVP, is based in Holland. These companies control one in six of all the fish caught in the European Union. They buy up quotas, legally, from a broken system across Europe and then they put it all into super trawlers. While they are at sea, they change licence to licence and hoover up fish. This is not only occurring in European-controlled waters. These companies have invested heavily in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. They have recklessly and devastatingly overfished mackerel, pushing the Atlantic mackerel species to the edge of the precipice.”
“I will continue with the theme of the hypocrisy and double standards of some European leaders and our own Government. I will touch on the issue of fisheries and what happened at the December Agriculture and Fisheries Council and Mercosur, in particular, the utter failure of Micheál Martin to stand up for Ireland's interests, speak truth to power and confront the hypocrisy at the heart of the European Commission. Let us start with fisheries. Muireann Kavanagh, a 14-year-old girl based on Arranmore Island off the coast of Donegal, was stopped from fishing for pollock with a hook and line. That is the most low-impact fishing one can think of. It cannot possibly do any environmental damage but still it was illegal for her to do it.”
“I cannot get answers to all of these questions from Uisce Éireann. This organisation is not fit for purpose. I believe that is by design rather than by accident. It has to stop and the Minister needs to change it.”
“I cannot get speaking to a damn human being. I cannot get answers for my constituents nor can the local councillors. I have to send an email. This is outrageous. When something happened many years ago, I would lift the phone and talk to an employee of Donegal County Council. We would have a good conversation and I could get a proper update of where things stood. The Minister has been a public representative for a long time. This has to stop. We need proper accountability and answers for our constituents about what is going on. We have the Eddie Fullerton Dam. I am really proud of it. My predecessor Councillor Eddie Fullerton fought for it. It is a fantastic resource with water for our people. It passes through my town. The water is disconnected and there is a boil water notice when we could be using that water.”
“I do not think the model that we currently see with Uisce Éireann, previously Irish Water, is an accident. I think it is by design, given the way that public representatives are treated by that organisation, created by this Government. When I send the Government a parliamentary question, it is ruled out of order because it is a matter for Uisce Éireann. The way it treats public representatives is outrageous. I will give the example of my home area of Buncrana in recent weeks. There was a water supply issue that knocked out the water connection for most of the town. I cannot get to speak to an actual human being to get an update. I have to send an email and wait days for a response. In recent days, there was a boil water notice for most of my town. There are clearly serious problems with the Uisce Éireann infrastructure in my area.”
“I ask the Minister of State to get legal advice about what happened with the Hague preferences, Article 10 and the Supreme Court ruling and to take legal action to defend our interests. It will not be enough to set up a task force. Of course, financial resources are needed, but when these boats in a number of years’ time need to go back to fish, there needs to be fish there. I ask the Minister of State to do everything he can.”
“We have a small number of massive corporations based in the Netherlands that have huge influence over member states. This is not environmentally friendly policy. This is not about that. This is not about what the Common Fisheries Policy states about social and economic impacts being considered by every member state before they allocate quota. It is stitched into the Common Fisheries Policy. What has happened here is an outrageous attack on our sovereignty and our people. In the time I have I left I again draw the Minister of State's attention to the 2016 Supreme Court decision in Barlow v Minister for Agriculture. It is clear from that decision that the Supreme Court says that Article 10 means that we do have control over our waters as well as of other natural resources.”
“Then there are their interests in Britain. They have huge interests in Britain. What has happened in recent days? Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway and the UK have united and made an agreement about mackerel. They did not pay any heed to the science. This agreement is way below what has been agreed at the Fisheries Council. Again, I ask the Minister of State what he is going to do about that. Britain has signed up to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. It must be aligned to the Common Fisheries Policy. How can it make a deal and enable recklessness and then benefit from a deal with the European Union? There has to be consistency here. To summarise, we have our fishing and coastal communities decimated. They were the rule takers. They played by the rules. They followed the science.”
“These companies have huge interests in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. These companies have also benefited from the reckless over-fishing that has left the mackerel species on the precipice. They also benefit from the deal with Norway to get access to the cod because they have interests there. Everywhere you turn these corporations are winning through. This is corruption. This is a fundamental attack on our democracy and the European Union. Our Government cannot stand for it. Our Government must stand up and speak loudly about what is happening here. Have no doubt that what took place in the Fisheries Council was utter corruption. Corporations have united together using the weaknesses and fundamental flaws of the Common Fisheries Policy to buy out quota to recklessly over-fish through Iceland and the Faroe Islands.”
“When you look up our west coast you see these super trawlers vacuuming up the fish in our waters. This has been going on for far too long. I am asking the Minister of State to take every legal action at his disposal to challenge what happened with the Hague preferences. It just cannot stand, but he must also call out the big five, particularly Parlevliet and van der Plas. There is no doubt that these five companies, but particularly P and P, as it is abbreviated, had more influence over the actions of Germany, France, Poland and their own country of the Netherlands, than Ireland did. The lack of respect for a fellow member state that suffered so egregiously after Brexit and has struggled so much with our declining allocation of fish quota, is outrageous. However, it gets worse than just what happens within the European Union.”
“When I talk about the big five there has been much reportage of this. This is not a secret. It is widely known. I have an absolutely damning report from earlier this year into the actions of these corporations. At the centre of it is Parlevliet and van der Plas. I also have a report from a couple of years ago from Follow the Money, which did an exposé on the massive control this company has, which is led by Dirk Parlevliet. This company is valued at €1.5 billion. That is probably conservative because there is a lack of accountability about quota allocation across Europe. Nobody can tell us definitively who actually has it. It is estimated at €1.5 billion. This is the biggest fish company in Europe. It has huge influence. It is estimated that the big five control 230 vessels. They own the biggest super trawlers in the world.”
“McGuinness, and I agree with him, that the Minister of State needs to bring every ambassador from those four countries in to meet him urgently. He needs to make it clear what they did is seen as an attack on our people by a member state. I will tell him why I believe they did it. I want to talk about the big five. The big five are referred to as an extremely powerful oligopoly. These are corporations that co-operate and work together, and that have a collective value of €2.4 billion. It is estimated that by buying up quota across the European Union they have one in six of the fish caught under their control. They are huge. I will name them. They are Parlevliet and van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family. The big one is Parlevliet and van der Plas. Let us talk about them.”
“I believe that there has unfortunately been a meek response from Irish Governments. I do not include the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, in that, but before him there was a meek resistance to what was happening for too many years. They believe that can continue. The Minister of State needs to prove them wrong. He needs to prove that they cannot do this. Let us talk about why it was that the Netherlands, France, Germany and Poland united to outrageously attack our fishing and coastal communities when they know what happened after Brexit. They know we took the biggest hit from Brexit. Burden sharing never happened. They know that and they would do that to us. It was said yesterday by my colleague, Deputy Conor D.”
“They were in place for Ireland and Britain as a quid pro quo for access to our waters. Our waters have given huge wealth to fishing fleets across Europe. They are some of the richest fishing waters in the world. The Hague preferences are central to that. That was a veneer of fairness and it was deployed from time to time over the years where necessary. To suggest that the Hague preferences can just be done away with is absolutely unacceptable. The Minister of State must use every single legal instrument available to him to challenge this. The member states who united to block us invoking the Hague preferences know very well that this is not about taking fish away from them. This is about a balance for all the fish they have taken from our waters over the years. They know that very well.”
“We obviously had the chance at the committee yesterday to go through what a disaster this outcome is and how it cannot stand. The Common Fisheries Policy has been deeply unfair to Ireland's fishing and coastal communities throughout the years. What happened with Brexit has rightly been described as a betrayal of those communities. It was a power grab and I will deal with some of the companies at the heart of this soon. What happened at the Fisheries Council now has to be the final insult. There has to be a complete change in approach from our Government in dealing with our European partners when it comes to the Common Fisheries Policy. It is so serious. I will start with the Hague preferences. The Hague preferences were put in place in 1976. Their origin is Annex VII of the EEC Council Resolution, 3 November 1976.”
“Will he call for an investigation into these major corporations based in the Netherlands that are plundering and taking fish all across the European Union under the Common Fisheries Policy? Deputy Michael Collins called it corrupt. I think it is a corrupt policy at this stage and the Taoiseach needs to speak out and defend Irish interests on this matter.”
“The Taoiseach did not answer the earlier questions about the Fisheries Council outcome. It is a disastrous outcome. The Taoiseach must know about the big five, the massive Dutch corporations that have bought up fish quotas across the European Union. They have 240 vessels. Approximately one in six of the fish caught under all the countries of Europe are under these corporations. They clearly have more power than our country. How can it be that for our State and our waters, which have suffered so much, the Hague preferences - in place since 1976 and the final veneer of fairness in the Common Fisheries Policy for Ireland - can just be stripped away? I am asking the Taoiseach if he will take legal action.”
“I support the request by Deputy Collins, which has been made at the Business Committee as well for a number of weeks. It is extraordinary that there is no time to debate Mercosur. It is a massive issue and decision time is coming up. We do not know the Government's position. Perhaps the Taoiseach could clarify that, or at least pass a message to the Chief Whip to do so.”
“They were dealing with the same prices as the Minister knows. That report was developed through 2023 and into 2024. It is really cruel to leave these families behind. The Minister does not have to accept this tonight. I know that our amendments have been ruled out of order. We are appealing to him that when the Bill goes to the Seanad to make the amendment then and remove this arbitrary deadline. We should not punish early movers. The Minister should stay consistent with the approach his predecessor took in 2022. Flawed as that legislation was, at least it was good that the increased cap was available to those going through the scheme already.”
“I will try to follow the logic of what the Minister has said. He knows about the first scheme in 2020 and the second scheme in 2022. When the second scheme came in, the Government did not just look forward, it made sure that the early movers availed of the increased cap. So how on earth can the Minister argue differently now? In 2022 the people who came in through the original scheme were able to avail of the new caps that were introduced in 2022. There is no consistency here. There is no point in us going back and forth tonight; I am not going to convince the Minister. However, he has the opportunity to bring an amendment into the Seanad. I appeal to him, without having a big blazing row back and forth, to please follow the logic of what he did in 2022 when the early movers were not punished.”
“I ask him to not punish them for moving early. They could not hold back any longer. If the Minister does not accept it, he should listen to us tonight. He has time to bring amendments when it goes to the Seanad. I ask him to please do that.”