Pádraig O'Sullivan
Cork North-Central · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“Imagine being the father of two boys who have Friedreich's ataxia and one of them passing away. I know the Tánaiste is familiar with the case of Craig Coady. I normally do not personalise stories in here but he spoke about this quite openly on Red FM in Cork on Tuesday.”
“I am not asking anybody to comment on the process itself as I know we have to respect it, but is it possible that the review committee can be brought forward and convened as quickly as possible to see this through one way or another because of the mental trauma, anguish and emotion? Many people travelled up on Tuesday.”
“I do not expect the Minister to intervene or comment on that specific case, and we have to respect the process, but I am sure the Minister will agree that as part of a wider strategy, we need to inculcate that wider ecosystem where patients get access to this care upfront and early access to drugs, where needed.”
“Last week, I was at a conference with the Minister and the EU Commissioner. We discussed various topics, including healthcare and the development of a life science strategy in Ireland. I know it is something that he and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, have worked intensively on.”
“It was remiss of me not to welcome members of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. I am struggling to see through the glare of the glass. I can see a Limerick man, Kevin Quaid, up there. It is not too often that a Cork man would welcome a Limerick man but I welcome Kevin. I can also see Siobhán. I think Andy Heffernan was there as well.”
“I have asked many parliamentary questions on this over the past few years. Very little has changed. The only thing that gives me hope is that the company has since met the CPU and submitted a commercial offer that remains under consideration. I am not asking for special treatment for any drug.”
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“In many cases, if these people get treated early with the necessary medicines and treatments, we can make sure they are productive members of society, they can continue to work, they will not require care and the number of times they have to attend hospital can be reduced. I would like the Minister to look at that piece in its totality. I know it is in the programme for Government and she has said she will. I urge her to give it the attention it deserves.”
“All that type of stuff contributes to expanding waiting lists because people are on the journey to try to find out what is wrong with them in many cases. If extra resources are devoted to the identification and the diagnosis of rare disease in the first place, we will be able to unclog parts of that system which is full of people seeking answers as to what is wrong with them. Fundamental to this is access to orphan drugs. I spoke to the Minister two weeks ago about how in Ireland on average it takes anywhere from 500 to 1,000 days to get some of these drugs approved. We are talking about health and people being healthy into the future. Early identification and diagnosis of disease is crucial, as is the treatment.”
“One of the first things the Minister did when she was appointed was to publish the genomic strategy or she certainly attended an event to launch it. I view something like that as part of the building blocks about how we get our health system right. The creation of a register not just for people who suffer from rare diseases but in terms of developing our ehealth strategy is part of the fundamental building blocks that need to be in place before doing anything else. I urge the Minister to get those fundamental building blocks right. In the rare diseases briefing today, we were given submissions indicating that, on average, it takes up to six years for somebody suffering from a rare disease to actually be diagnosed. That is six years of appointments and different examinations with consultants and GPs.”
“I thank the Minister for attending the rare disease event we had today in the audiovisual room. She is the first Minister for Health who attended one of our meetings and it was greatly appreciated. As I said to her afterwards, there is a degree of optimism among the community that things might improve in the coming years under her stewardship. We are looking forward to working with her. I remind Members that Rare Disease Day is on Friday, the last day of the month. We talk about many constituency matters in here. There is a large community of rare disease sufferers, nearly half a million people in this country. They represent a large electorate in their own right. It is important to acknowledge and speak about the difficulties they face.”
“I ask that consideration be given to a Bill that I helped with myself on the appointment of an equine officer in each local authority so we have a designated person who can deal with it and none of this faffing around and trying to shovel responsibility onto other agencies.”
“I raise with the Taoiseach the issue of equine welfare but maybe animal welfare in a broader sense. In Glanmire in the last week, we have had an issue, particularly with horses, and I know this is happening up and down the country. We have reams after reams of animal welfare legislation but no enforcement. We came across another case in Glanmire last week as I said where all of the agencies, from the Department of agriculture and Cork City Council to An Garda Síochána who all have adequate powers to deal with issues on site are not utilising their powers and basically leaving it to animal welfare activists and charities. I know in the spring legislative programme that was published, there is an animal welfare Bill coming forward.”
“We are now looking to make it the Rainbow Club's home. It will require massive capital investment. Capital investment has been provided to other providers. The Minister might sit down with the Rainbow Club in the near future to discuss those plans.”
“In my CHO, in the area of Cork north Lee 435 children and adolescents were on the waiting list in 2020. We had 1,905 in 2024. We can attend all the public meetings we want, we can deal with parents at our clinics and we can deal with the special schools in particular, but fundamentally we are clearly going in the wrong direction. I genuinely hope in the term ahead the Minister can at least halt that increase in waiting lists. I am not sure if she visited the Rainbow Club in the past. When Senator Rabbitte was Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, she visited it on a number of occasions. It provides autism support for more than 1,300 children. Cork City Council recently disposed of a former HSE building and provided it to the club on a short-term lease with a view to extending it in the future.”
“In the last estimate, my CHO had a vacancy rate of between 50% and 60%, which is intolerable. My second point is on service level agreements. In the majority of large providers particularly in Cork - this is probably true in the rest of the country - SLAs have not been signed for 2025. How can particularly the larger providers recruit? As Deputy Devlin mentioned, how do they plan for capital projects if SLAs have not been signed for 2025? It is nearly March. It is critical for the Minister to take that away from this evening's statements. She needs to speak to her officials to progress those SLAs and get them signed. My third point is on waiting lists. Other Deputies have mentioned OTs and SLTs. I recently received a response to a parliamentary question on psychology waiting lists for children and adolescents.”
“I congratulate the Minister on her new post. Like Deputy Devlin, I worked with her for many years when she was in charge of education. I just hope she can bring some of the energy and hard work she showed there. She was not afraid to make hard decisions when they needed to be made. I hope she brings that to this Department because it is very much needed. I listened to the Minister's opening statement in my office. She spoke about workforce strategies and how she would try to tackle the recruitment problems. Fundamentally we need to reflect on why we are failing to attract staff into HSE disability services in particular and why we are struggling to retain them. A period of reflection is required to ask those pertinent questions when the Minister goes about the work of trying to fill those gaps.”
“This Friday is Rare Disease Day 2025, the last day of the month. It is a topic I have mentioned to the Taoiseach over and over again. I am asking this question as the programme for Government makes a number of commitments, one being the investigation of new methods for earlier reimbursement of certain treatments including early access schemes for rare diseases. It also states that we will work more efficiently with our EU counterparts in progressing arrangements like the Beneluxa Initiative that has been under way for a number of years, albeit heretofore that arrangement has only approved three drugs in the space of four years. I am asking the Taoiseach that in this term he ensures the Government will prioritise the issue of rare diseases once and for all.”
“Last week in the House I raised the quality of water in Cork city, especially on the north side. I understand that many improvements have been made in the past 12 months or so, but the unfortunate reality for many people on the north side of the city is that it will take a number of years - or decades if we listen to Irish Water - to replace the cast iron pipes littered across the city that break periodically. In the meantime, I ask that all resources and funding necessary to make sure people have access to clean drinking water will be made available in the coming months. One more improvement is due to open in May to deal with various additives that go into the water. It is especially crucial in this day and age that people can at least wash themselves, whatever about being able to drink the water that comes out of their taps.”
“As I said, for years before Ballincollig became a part of my area, I came in here and gave out about how Ballincollig, as a large urban centre, had a deficit in the number of ASD classes for an area with its population size. To be honest with the Minister of State, I said that they outsourced their problem to villages such as Farran, Ovens, Dripsey and Inniscarra over the years. There is an obvious requirement for additional ASD class provision in Ballincollig. I just hope, as I said, that common sense can prevail and that people can sit around the table.”
“This school will have to be rebuilt, in some shape or form, in the coming years. It is inevitable, given the deterioration there. I plead with the Department's officials to come out on site again, have a sit-down with the school and its engineers, and come up with a solution. As I said, there are approximately 20 children here who have an autism diagnosis. The Minister of State is aware that were those children to have to even consider moving to another setting to avail of an ASD class position in another school, it might prove very difficult for some of them. There are variants in terms of the needs of each student. I ask that common sense prevail. Heads can be knocked together.”
“I thank the Minister of State. At the outset, I should have congratulated the Minister of State on his appointment because he is a perfect appointment for this role. He has the passion for it, having led the disabilities committee for a number of years. I am happy that Deputy Moynihan is in the role because he is sincere in respect of the work and efforts he will make on behalf of the children of Scoil Eoin and their parents. I go back to my previous point and will refer to the response to my previous parliamentary question. The Department responded to say it is too expensive to demolish and rebuild. As outlined by the school's own engineer, a part of the school will have to be demolished anyway. I walked its corridors and the subsidence there is quite visible.”
“Last week, I had a conversation with the Minister of State ahead of a meeting I had with the board of management and he agreed to meet the board of management with me, one to one. That is deeply appreciated and I hope that after that meeting we will some progress. I just ask that he be open-minded about how this ASD class is provided. I spent many years in here trying to urge school principals up and down the county of Cork to open these classes. Here we have a school that is ready, willing and able but unfortunately, due to the restrictions on site, cannot provide it at the moment. I ask that the Department re-engage and use a bit of imagination to help deliver the class.”
“The reason I describe it as a bit depressing is ultimately the Department told the school’s board of management in that letter that it has identified an ASD class that can go to another school. Then the next question is what do we do with the 20 kids in Scoil Eoin? Are we telling them and their parents that they should transfer to this other school site? I am not sure what the Department was hinting at with that response but it was a bit disappointing. It is not good enough. I do not think that was the suggestion but if it was, that is not a good enough response from the Department. I would like to think the students' educational needs could be provided for on the site of their existing school.”
“I have often been in the House excoriating schools boards of management for not providing opportunities for ASD classes for their students. What irks me about this case in Ballincollig is that the school is ready, willing and able to provide a class for its 20 or so students with an autism diagnosis. Back in January, before the Minister of State and the Minister for Education, Deputy McEntee were appointed, I received an equally depressing answer from the Department which stated it was pleased to inform me that another school in the school planning area had been identified as having suitable capacity to accommodate special education classrooms required for the area and a proposed accommodation brief had been sent to that school.”
“Subsequently, the Department, in written replies to parliamentary questions to myself and other Deputies, found that the cost would be excessive and that the project proposed would not progress on that basis. This is going to and fro over some years. The school authorities commissioned an engineer’s report. It was demonstrated that the part of the building they were going to demolish had a problem with subsidence, rewiring, reroofing, disability access and so on. The rationale they were trying to put forward was that the demolition job would have to be done anyway to provide for the ASD class so they should basically bite the bullet and get on with the project. The Minister of State knows me a long time. I was a teacher 15 years.”
“I thank the Minister of State for being here tonight. It is great to have the relevant Minister of State to take the matter after a long debate so I appreciate his presence. This is a matter that he will be familiar with as it relates to his former electoral area. Ballincollig was in Cork North-West so he will be aware of the issues there. I do not want to go through the history of it because it is a history six or seven years in the writing. The school authorities are quite happy and content to provide for an ASD class on its premises at Scoil Eoin in Ballincollig but unfortunately, due to restrictions on the site and the lack of adequate space, it was determined that a knock and rebuild was the only option to provide the space. They have had numerous meetings with the Department officials on site.”
“I hope the newly established Cork task force will be able to deliver for the people of Cork. I often listen to the Taoiseach and he says that we need to deliver things quite regularly but if I look across my side of the city, I can see it is beset with planning difficulties, for example relating to two of our three primary care centres. We would like to see an elective hospital delivered in Glanmire as quickly as possible. Former Minister of State Danny Wallace would have mentioned the north ring road in this House on many occasions over the years but 25 years on, no progress has been made. I emphasise that all of these projects would, hopefully, feed into regenerating and rejuvenating the city we love so well. Above all else, I ask the Taoiseach to consider including political representation on the task force.”
“With the Ceann Comhairle's permission, I wish to acknowledge the passing of former Minister of State and a colleague of the Taoiseach for a number of years, Danny Wallace. The Taoiseach wrote a piece in a local newspaper yesterday in which he remembered Danny fondly. I first met Danny many years ago, but I really got to know him during the 2019 by-election in Cork North-Central. During the 2020 general election campaign, I was struck by how many people would approach him, by how affable he was with people, and by how highly he was held in their regard. It really struck me how inherently decent he was. I mark his passing. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. We all have wish lists of things that we would like to see in our constituencies, particularly with regard to infrastructure.”
“My question relates to today’s announcement that Avant Money and An Post will join the Government-backed scheme for home energy upgrades. While this is most welcome and people will be able to get their loans upfront and commence their work at the start, I would like the Government to review the fact that often people have to replace their entire heating system and cannot avail of stoves and so on. This is something we need to reflect on to possibly get it included in the scheme. There are many elderly people especially who would not have access to the type of money that would be required to replace the full heating system in some cases. Will this be looked at?”
“Thankfully there is a commitment in the programme for Government to review the drug reimbursement scheme process. This is something that the Taoiseach has spoken about and been supportive of in the past. I reiterate that urgency is required here. I hope that the review that has been committed to in the programme for Government will commence this calendar year and not in the latter stages of this Government's term. I impress that on the Taoiseach and ask him to raise it with the new Minister for Health.”
“Deputy Cathy Bennett - To discuss the provision of domestic violence refuge services for women in counties Cavan and Monaghan. Deputy John Connolly - To discuss the transition to the new provider of Irish Coast Guard search and rescue aviation services. Deputy Pa Daly - To discuss the cancellation of elective surgeries at University Hospital Kerry. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett - To discuss the Government's proposal for reviewing the triple lock. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae - To discuss delays for young drivers in getting driving tests, and the increase in NCT costs. The matters raised by Deputies Mattie McGrath, Paul McAuliffe, Cathy Bennett and Michael Collins have been selected for discussion.”
“Deputy Liam Quaide - To discuss water supply and water pressure issues in Ballyhooly, County Cork. Deputy Pat Buckley - To discuss the long-term boil water notice on the Whitegate water scheme in east Cork. Deputy James O'Connor - To discuss the need for special schools in east Cork. Deputy Paul Donnelly - To discuss the lack of a regular postal service to Kilmartin Grove in Hollystown, Dublin 15. Deputy Catherine Connolly - To discuss the need to restore the tenant in situ scheme. Deputy Michael Collins - To discuss the reduction of speed limits on regional roads in Cork. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - To discuss the provision of an autism spectrum disorder class at Scoil Eoin, Ballincollig. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman - To discuss regulation of airborne drones used for commercial delivery purposes.”
“Deputy John Paul O'Shea - To discuss the need to progress the N20-M20 project in Cork. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness - To discuss cardiac care at University College Waterford. Deputy Paul McAuliffe - To discuss the delivery of housing on the Oscar Traynor Road site. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire - To discuss the exposure of Air Corps personnel to hazardous chemicals. Deputy James Geoghegan - To discuss funding mechanisms of the Dublin city task force. Deputy Conor Sheehan - To discuss issues with the bus network in Limerick and the roll-out of BusConnects. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan - To discuss overcrowding and capacity at University Hospital Limerick. Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty - To discuss the need to abolish or stagger tolls on the M50. Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discuss the progress of a new primary care centre in Gorey, County Wexford.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Mattie McGrath - To discuss reform of the power up grant. Deputy Aidan Farrelly - To discuss Dart+ projects in Kilcock and Sallins, County Kildare. Deputy Michael Murphy - To discuss the commitment within the programme for Government around urban and rural regeneration schemes. Deputy Donna McGettigan - To discuss the decline in participation in the dental treatment service scheme. Deputy Alan Kelly - To discuss potential pedestrianisation of the old Ballina-Killaloe bridge. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore - To discuss the roll-out of BusConnects for Wicklow. Deputy Erin McGreehan - To discuss issues of animal welfare, including attacks on sheep.”
“Regarding the proclamations that have come from the United States in recent weeks, in terms of possibly putting tariffs on the pharma sector, I would like to highlight that as part of our list of priorities.”
“I appreciate the Minister making those suggestions. Maybe I can throw one in as well. The Polish Presidency is in place at the moment and it, as the Minister said, has understandably prioritised security and defence, the protection of people and borders, resistance to foreign interference and disinformation and so on. It has prioritised the issues that are most pertinent to it. When the Irish Presidency starts in 2026, I would like to make the case for our pharmaceutical industry, in particular. It is important to us in the south. I have discussed with the Minister on numerous occasions rare diseases, orphan drugs and how we improve accessibility to drugs for patients. We seem to be caught in an archaic system.”
“However, after 24 meetings I hope the Tánaiste could maybe reveal something or that he could even reflect tonight on key priorities for himself that, as he would see it, might dominate with regard to us publishing our own agenda.”
“I thank the Tánaiste. I asked that question originally in the last Dáil, back in June or July of last year, because there is some excitement about the Presidency coming to Ireland for 2026. Unfortunately, the response is kind of similar to what the Tánaiste gave then. I understand that there is certain stuff he cannot reveal and we are 12 months out from the Presidency but at the same time, the Tánaiste has said that the cross-departmental committee group that was established has met 24 times. Is there anything the Tánaiste can elicit that has been discussed at those meetings with respect to priorities? I understand as well that while Ireland is in the Presidency, we must be conscious of the fact we are representing Europe first and foremost, and not just being parochial and national in our own self-interest.”
“I ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the status of preparations to ensure a successful EU Presidency in 2026; if the Government will publish plans for Ireland's upcoming Presidency to deliver against strategic priorities for Europe and Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
“I ask the Taoiseach to intervene if he can and to talk to Irish Water to make sure it is transparent with the information, at the very least. If the water is not drinkable and useable, as has been the case on many occasions during the last two years, it should supply an alternative for people because it has not done so yet.”
“I know the Taoiseach is aware of the ongoing issues with water on the north side of Cork city. He did a lot of canvassing there during the recent election. In many households, he was shown brown and discoloured water. Many particles are visible in people's water supply. I am not sure whether he saw the "Prime Time Investigates" programme last week, but it truly is an eye-opener. He needs to see it. It is available on the RTÉ player if he has not. It shows that above all else, Irish Water needs to be transparent and open about what is actually going on on the north side of the city. On its website it currently shows that it is 100% compliant, but the investigations done in the programme clearly show this is not the case.”