Patricia Stephenson
Labour Panel · Social Democrats · Ireland
“A number of us on this side of the House have concerns around what this is opening us up to. We are concerned that we do not have the correct protections and safeguards in place to ensure that the supply will be State-owned and State-led because it is not included in the definitions in the legislation.”
“The world is literally on fire in some places. We have a forest fire in Ireland for the first time in years perhaps. I know we sometimes have them in the Mourne Mountains in the North. This is cause for concern, not just for future generations but for us today.”
“I thank the Minister for coming in. This is a really positive step. I am delighted she is pushing it forward. By and large, the oral contraceptive is incredibly safe. A lot of well-studied medicines are available. Over-the-counter oral contraception has been recommended by the WHO since 2019.”
“I move amendment No. 1: In page 7, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following: “ “emergency” means a situation where the State is experiencing a significant and protracted physical disruption of gas supply, or other catastrophic deterioration of the supply situation, and where— (a) all relevant market-based measures have been fully…”
“The Department has stated this facility "will provide the resilience required to support our energy transition" and that "the reserve will only be used in genuine emergencies", yet there is no definition in this Bill of what the Government means by an emergency and when that would apply.”
“We also have to be mindful of the burden it will place on pharmacists without the correct resourcing for pharmacies to deliver the scheme to safeguard against them withdrawing from this or any future scheme simply because they feel they do not have the resources to deliver it in a timely manner.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,369 lines we hold for Patricia Stephenson, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 25 of 28.
“This is Traveller Pride Week. In recognition of this, I request that we have a debate on Traveller rights in Ireland. Traveller rights are human rights. As a result, this is an issue we should all be speaking about across the Oireachtas. The Traveller community has a rich and resilient culture that has endured and contributed a great amount to Irish life, despite generations of exclusion, discrimination and erasure. On Monday, I attended the launch of a photography exhibition called "Unfiltered" in Kilkenny by Gypsy Ray. It explored and captured the lives of the Kilkenny Traveller community over the last decade. While this week rightly honours the Traveller identity, we do need to acknowledge the continuous challenges the Traveller community faces. Just 1% of Travellers progress to third level education.”
“An article on RTÉ's website today stated that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if aid is not allowed into Gaza. We are not doing enough. We are not doing enough as a country, as a government, as western Europe, as democracies or as the UN. We should all be ashamed of ourselves. That includes me. I am not pointing fingers at any individual people. We are all complicit in this. In 40 years, we will read about this in history books and shake our heads with shame. Famine is a trauma that we in Ireland have faced, as Senator Joe Conway so beautifully put it. Why are we allowing it to happen in 2025? We know it is happening. It is one of the worst catastrophes in the modern age and we should all be ashamed.”
“We cannot claim to have credibly acted to stop this genocide happening. I will now take the time to read out some of the names of the dead. Some of the babies under one year old include: Oday Mohammed Rafiq Al-Sultan, Mohammed Nidal Hisham Attallah and Masa Mohammed Youssef Nasr. The journalists include: Ahmed Maher Ahmed, aged 30; Mohamed Ahmed Mahmoud Khair Al-Din, aged 45; and Akram Ahmed Khalil Al-Shafii, aged 53. Some of the doctors who have died include: Dr. Ibrahim Al-Dali, Dr. Nada Mahdi, Dr. Marwa Swelim and Dr. Mamoun Afana. I will now list some of the nurses who have died: Ezzo Afana, Badr Mohammed Abu Daqah, Rana Shalaby and Zainab Al-Sharafi. There are so many names. We could be here all day if we wanted to pay tribute to all the people who have died in Gaza but we simply do not have the time.”
“The criteria to be included on the list of the dead are that a person has to have died violently, been brought to hospital and been identified. As such, many names are missing because people cannot identify their loved ones. The total figures I have today are: 110 children under one year old, that is, babies under one who have died; 1,400 healthcare workers killed while doing their lifesaving work; and 180 journalists killed while trying to report the horror to us. Despite the regular calls for a debate in this Chamber on the genocide happening in Gaza, we have not had one. We also have not had sufficient meaningful action from this Government. We still have arms being flown through Ireland, the Central Bank is still selling Israeli war bonds and we still have trade being conducted with the occupied Palestinian territory.”
“Other Opposition Senators and I have come together today to bear witness to the human catastrophe that is going on in Gaza as we speak. We are putting on the record of the Seanad the names of some of the children who did not reach their first birthday. As well as the names of journalists, including reporters, writers, photographers and video directors, who were killed trying to show the world a livestreamed genocide, you will hear the names of healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, dentists and pharmacists who all died while trying to save lives in the most desperate of circumstances. Many of them had to operate with no anaesthesia, with makeshift equipment and with carnage all around them.”
“It is a harrowing story to hear that someone would have the courage to turn up for support from a doctor in an emergency department, get turned away and then make the awful decision to end their own life. I hope we do not hear more of these stories in the coming years. I am running out of time. I appreciate what the Minister of State said in her statement. I believe she has the best intentions. I hope when she is bringing her Bills to this House we will have the opportunity to work together and strengthen them so we are responding in a holistic way to the needs we are all seeing in our communities.”
“I hope we will listen to them and take steps forward urgently in a concrete way to respond to these issues. We cannot continue to have people just coming in and baring their souls to ask for help. We sit down and feel awful about it, but we need to be able to act on those things too and move forward with tangible improvements. We heard from Senator Ryan already about the young man who presented in Galway hospital with severe suicidal ideation. He was not triaged and treated in an appropriate time. He left the hospital and took his own life. It is such a tragic story. We cannot have more incidences of this happening. Emergency departments are not the correct places for people to be receiving emergency mental health support. We really need to take radical action when it comes to this type of situation.”
“No one should be getting treatment abroad for anything, but I refer especially to young people going abroad for eating disorders and being away from their family and support structures. I am sorry if that figure is wrong. The Minister of State can come back to me on it. There are reports of kids going to the UK and other places for eating disorder treatment. This does happen, so we need to see more beds in Ireland for this type of treatment. This issue is particularly affecting children and, of course, young girls, who are often in the majority of eating disorder sufferers. It is particularly tragic that we have parents and families coming into the AV room to share these harrowing private details of their lives and basically begging for radical Government action to address these gaps.”
“There was inappropriate language, with people being told they were just vain, needed to put on a bit of weight and it was all about how they looked. I hope we would all agree that eating disorders are obviously a mental health issue. There were reports of people being force-fed and denied proper treatment. Children suffering from eating disorders are often put in completely inappropriate healthcare settings. They are in Crumlin hospital on acute wards that are not for eating disorders. They can be in there for months being force-fed. It is not fit for purpose. I think the HSE has spent something like €13.5 million sending eating disorder patients abroad since 2016. This is not good enough.”
“The waiting lists are depressingly long and many families are not getting referrals. The referral delays are so extreme. When it is possible to meet somebody, the time people are getting is not sufficient to actually address the issue the child is facing. This is also linked to youth services. Social activities are costing so much more than they used to. They are unaffordable for many families. The outreach options for young people are limited. We already spoke about eating disorders. I am sure that some or many of us attended the Cared Ireland briefing in the AV room in February. It is an eating disorder charity. The panel of parents and survivors of eating disorders shared heart-wrenching stories of how they or their family members had been treated by the healthcare system.”
“It is not just words of encouragement to get out of the house and socialise more that are needed. We really need to see proper infrastructure in place to support it. I also wish to touch on mental health for young people, as so many other Senators spoke about. We have things like cyberbullying, social media pressures and reduced face-to-face interactions. Research shows a decline in youth well-being. If we were to go to any school or group of young people, they would tell us they are struggling with their mental health. They will say that, and it is fantastic they have the language to do it. Certainly, I do not think that in my generation we would have had the language and tools to say it. They are kind of screaming out for help, though, and I do not think their needs are being met. CAMHS is not fit for purpose.”
“For older people, this is particularly felt when they are facing economic pressures, suffered the death of a close loved one or experienced ill health. They might have a lack of family support because their younger family members have been forced to leave the country because of the cost-of-living and housing crises. All these things impact the mental health of communities. We should be taking a community approach to mental health in terms of services and how we perceive it. We need to move away from the individualistic culture we see in the modern age. It is about a policy decision that includes social infrastructure and fosters inclusive and community-focused environments. We need to see the strengthening of the community mental health services.”
“Once again, however, I say this should not be based on volunteers and community initiatives alone. We need proper State funding and provision and community-based services. I am not saying they should replace men's sheds, which do fantastic work. It must be in tandem. We cannot base our well-being and mental health outreach wholly on local volunteers. Loneliness can happen to anyone at any time. It is not always clear from talking to someone if they are lonely and feeling depressed. It is pervasive, particularly in a world of telephones and online communication and when we are enveloped in our work and paying the bills. We have so many pressures, perhaps more than previous generations. We live in quite an insular society. We are seeing breakdowns in traditional community structures.”
“Of the respondents in Ireland, some 20% reported feeling lonely. We must ask ourselves how we can address loneliness. It is an epidemic across Ireland. It is most acutely felt in rural communities like mine, which is on the border of Carlow-Kilkenny. The Minister of State also highlighted the challenge concerning men's loneliness in particular. Loneliness can be felt most profoundly by middle-aged and older men who do not have the same culture of openness and of sharing their feelings and emotions with their family and friends. More must be done to tackle this situation. I acknowledge what I am sure we would all agree is the great work of men's sheds in addressing a large element of this problem and creating the space for connection and togetherness. It is these small gestures in the context of loneliness that can have a major impact.”
“Why is the HSE outsourcing mental health care instead of strengthening public service provision? Mental health services in Ireland have suffered from years of underinvestment and deprioritisation. In turn, that has left us with under-resourced and understaffed services. We need substantial funding in community-based services. Senator McCarthy also cited that the mental health budget is not currently 10% of the overall health budget, which was recommended in Sláintecare. We need to get to that level. We are in a crisis in our mental health services. Until we back them with substantial funding, I do not see how we are going to be able to tackle it. In a recent EU survey of more than 25,000 Europeans in our 27 member states, Ireland was cited as the loneliest country in Europe, which I think is a tragic statistic to have.”
“In light of her work, she received the humanitarian of the year award from the Irish Red Cross over the weekend. I highlight this and congratulate her because it is a testament to the huge impact she has had, especially locally in Kilkenny. Her work exemplifies the spirit of mental health week around community-driven and rights-based approaches rooted in empathy. At the same time, it also highlights the urgent need for systemic support. In 2024, the HSE spent approximately €93 million on outsourcing mental health care to private providers. I think this figure has doubled since 2018. Why are community services like Teac Tom - which are doing brilliant work and are effective - being left to shoulder the burden of something I think is the responsibility of the State?”
“The people involved are our friends, family members, colleagues and perhaps our children. Behind each number is a real story of struggle, resilience and, too often, a story of silence. I am sure some of us in this room have experienced or struggled with mental health issues at some point in our lives. If we have not, perhaps it has been a loved one we have seen struggling with their mental health. It can be very scary when the right supports are not there. There is also hope, however. We have heard about hope from other people today as well. I pay tribute to Angela Hayes, who is the founder of Teac Tom in Kilkenny. She had a tragic personal story and from that she transformed her own grief into a mission of compassion and providing crisis support for thousands.”
“When so many people are experiencing mental health challenges, it is politically difficult to hear that stigma continues to be an issue in 2025. We heard other Senators speak about stigma. Senator McCarthy said coming forward should be seen as a strength and not a weakness. I totally support that point. We need to see how we as legislators and the Government can lead on this issue through educational awareness campaigns on mental health because it will only stop being a stigma when people come forward and are open about their own situations. The situation among our youth is extremely concerning. Research from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland revealed that 29% of adolescents described their mental health as bad or very bad. Alarmingly, 11% have attempted suicide. We all know these figures are not abstract.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming in. We are all aware of the mental health crisis we are seeing. The second annual survey by Aware in 2024 indicated that little has changed in the past year, with more than half of respondents reporting depression and four in every ten respondents experiencing anxiety. The one in four adults living with a chronic illness are most likely to experience moderate depression. Three in five said anxiety makes work and attending to responsibilities very difficult. Additionally, 56% of respondents stated that financial worries are impacting their mental health. Despite the number of people suffering from mental health challenges, stigma is still a major issue. We already heard about it today. Half of the respondents cited shame and fear of judgment as the reason they delay accessing appropriate supports.”
“In this we are following jurisdictions including, as we have heard, the North, other parts of the UK and Canada, and strengthening our system in line with that. I support the Bill and the fact it is closing an existing loophole. It recognises that not all information can be appropriately provided to parole applicants, there being particular instances where that is not appropriate. Having that highlighted for the public good is important. The idea of having no right to reply in certain circumstances is worrying. Strengthening the right to challenge a decision that is taken is really important. I hope we will have plenty of opportunities for discussion on the Bill. I am sure the Minister will work closely with Senator Ruane in the next few months and there will be the chance to debate it in detail when it comes back to the House.”
“Rehabilitation, as we have heard from many Senators, should be central to our justice system. Parole exists not as a privilege but, rather, as a mechanism to support reintegration and rehabilitation. When decisions affecting a person's liberty are made behind closed doors without scrutiny, we risk reinforcing the cycles of exclusion and disenfranchisement that lead many people into crime. Special advocates provide a safeguard against arbitrary decision-making. No one is saying that the Parole Board is doing any of this with malicious intent. I acknowledge what the Minister said about the great work the Parole Board does, but it is about having legislative and procedural safeguards in place to avoid mistakes happening.”
“Under the current system, applicants can be denied access to critical information influencing their parole decision without explanation or recourse - that it can happen without recourse is an important thing to highlight. The Bill addresses these flaws by introducing two reforms which we have discussed but I will outline again. The first reform involves defining the idea of "exceptional circumstances". It is good for people in the parole system and for the public interest to have such things explicitly defined. The second reform is about establishing a framework for appointing special advocates to represent the interests of applicants where information is withheld. Again, it is about giving people the right to representation, which is so fundamental in a justice system.”
“We have heard comments around complexity and not wanting to make the system unduly complex. We should not do that, but we are not making changes without necessity. The Bill is about closing a loophole that may exist but should not exist if people are to have access to a fair process. The current process for seeking parole means that applicants can be put in a position whereby they are denied due process. Whether there are many cases of that happening remains to be seen, given the Minister's interventions, but that does not mean that, as he said, we should not try to close the loophole before an issue arises. When information related to parole is withheld from somebody and their representation, we can all acknowledge that does not equate to fair justice.”
“I thank the Minister for coming to the House. It is great to hear how willing he is to have a meaningful debate and discussion on the Bill. I thank Senator Ruane and her team for bringing it forward. I will echo a lot of the words that we have already heard today around what justice and democracy are and how, to have a democratic society, we must have fair justice. A major part of a just society is recourse for everyone to understand why a State institution has taken action against them and to provide recourse for challenging that decision. Simply put, we all know the term that everyone should be entitled to due process. That is true for us in the Chamber and it is also true for applicants in prison seeking parole. The Bill is about strengthening our justice system and making it more progressive.”
“We ended up talking mostly about tariffs because that was the day that was in it. We need to have a debate about what more we can do and what actions we can take, both domestically and internationally. Ireland has influence, as the Acting Leader, Senator Joe O'Reilly, knows. We have influence in Europe. We need to start taking radical action to exert that. We can no longer sit back and just watch this happen. Time is running out. I cannot reinforce that enough. We are maybe months away from Palestine no longer existing.”
“The Israeli Government is moving to annex Gaza completely and erase it physically and politically from the map. What do we do? We issue statements, wring our hands and talk about it. The children of Gaza do not need our sadness or moral outrage. They need our courage, they need us to take action, they need food and water and they need the bombs to stop. Ireland has always been a voice for justice, peace and humanity, but we have failed to act with sanctions and diplomatic consequences. I implore the Government to stop talking and start acting. Time is running out for the people in Gaza, many of whom are dying. They will be violently forced out of their homes. We cannot just keep watching this happen. I would welcome a debate. I appreciate that the Tánaiste came to the Chamber a few weeks ago.”
“Our Government could seek to trigger an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to adopt Resolution 377(V), the so-called uniting for peace resolution, to recommend collective measures, including sanctions, in this crisis situation. In Gaza today, 290,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Many of them are at imminent risk of death by starvation. I do not know if anyone has seen children dying of starvation before. I have; I worked in South Sudan. It is terrifying. That is enough children to fill Croke Park three times. This is not a famine caused by drought or natural disasters. It is manufactured by a regime intent on the complete extermination of the Palestinian people by deliberate deprivation. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur, has made it plain that this is not about defence, it is about destruction.”
“Last weekend, Dr. Mike Ryan of the WHO said that if you are not angry, you are not paying attention; if you are not doing something about it, you are complicit in genocide. Last weekend, the Tánaiste said that the world is not doing enough. We have known that the world is not doing enough for the past 20 months and for many years before that. I welcome the well-intentioned and sincere words of the Tánaiste. They are welcome, and I welcome that our Government has acknowledged we are not doing enough. Ireland has not been doing enough, so what more could we do? We could start today by ensuring no munitions of war pass through our airspace or leave this country in the form of dual-use goods. We could start that today or tomorrow. We have the occupied territories Bill and that could and should be passed immediately.”
“That is just the historical reality. I would love to see us actually engaging in peace, both at grassroots and international level. This is something unique that Ireland has to offer. I have an interest in peace because I was a peace-building adviser and that was the work I did. We can make such a change on the global stage, but if we risk losing our neutrality, which I believe removing the triple lock is a step towards - others may not believe this and we can have a discussion about it - then we will undermine the position we hold in that space.”
“I thank the Cathaoirleach. I have spoken about this before. If we lead and if we get engaged in militarisation, we will be losing our credibility around peace. Ireland has such a profound role to play as a leader in peace, whether that is in Gaza or in Ukraine or whatever conflict we do not know is coming. We have had comments from Ministers - not in this Government but in the previous Government - that the triple lock is critical and essential to neutrality. We heard from Senator Murphy, and I am happy for us to have an open and meaningful discussion. Perhaps the committees will be the stage where we have the opportunity to do it and flesh it out outside of the space of the Chamber. I want to underscore that armies and military spending lead to war. They do not lead to peace. I have spoken about the security dilemma.”
“We need to support a multilateral approach to ensure equitable agreements for countries within the EU when we come into these trade agreements, an approach that underscores environmental protections. We should not lose sight of why Europe was created around those concepts of dialogue and multilateralism. They will always win over division. Now more than ever, we need a Europe that is focused on peace and justice, not militarism, a Europe that reaches out and leads by example. On the 70-year anniversary of European unity, I want us to renew that founding promise, not just to defend Europe but to define it as a force for peace, inclusivity and shared humanity. While I have a minute left, I feel I need to respond a little to Senator Ahearn's inputs, he will probably be unsurprised to know.”
“Why then does the Government seem to systematically acquiesce in everything the EU suggests when it is not necessarily in line with the opinion in Ireland? This is true when it comes to the question of the EU's radical push towards militarisation, but it is also true for things like the Mercosur deal, which will lead to an existential crisis for Irish farmers. It will put Irish farmers and the agricultural industry, their very livelihoods, at risk. The Mercosur deal is not just an economic deal; it challenges the very way of life and part of the fabric of Irish rural society. As we oppose militarisation, we must also oppose policies that fail to strengthen the sustainability and livelihoods of farmers. Further, these deals risk harming economies and fostering inequality.”
“Therefore, for Europe Day, I ask why the Irish Government is not pushing the European Union away from militarisation and towards funding more peace initiatives. If you fund more peace, you get greater peace. There is a direct correlation between increased military spending and increased war. I am a former EU diplomat so I fundamentally believe in the European project. I believe we are stronger together and I believe in multilateralism. That does not mean, however, the Irish Government needs to go along with every EU initiative without asking questions and without reflecting the interests of the Irish people. The Minister of State said Ireland has an amplified voice in Europe. We are an important country in Europe. We have political sway and influence.”
“It was early in the 1950s that this was understood, that militarisation creates reciprocal responses, which increases the likelihood of conflict and war. It is therefore cyclical. If we militarise, it will lead us to war. Previous generations of Europeans understood the horrors of war, and I think that horror is something new generations of Europeans do not understand in the same way. It is in our history and it is an intergenerational trauma but it is not a lived experience. I believe that because people have not lived through the scourge of war themselves, that is rippling in how we perceive war in modern society. I truly believe the move towards an EU army would be a significant and stark escalation towards international conflict.”
“The EU has been drifting towards militarisation, and this military expansion is increasing with rapid speed and is very much at odds with the spirit of diplomacy and peace that I have already spoken about and that the Union was built on. Security is vital - European security is vital and Ireland's security is vital - but it must never eclipse our commitment to peace. The term "security dilemma" was first coined by German scholar John Herz in the 1950s. The security dilemma states that when a state or an entity such as the European Union increases its military strength, other states will do the same. They will increase their security and military power. The action of increasing militarisation by one side leads the other side to reciprocate, and this ultimately leads to escalation and conflict.”
“At the same time, the EU's complete inaction on Gaza, where humanitarian catastrophe continues with little meaningful intervention, stands in stark contrast to the professed commitments to human rights. The EU has failed to respond to the situation in Gaza in any meaningful way, and it is, quite frankly, a dark blot on the EU's history. The illegal invasion of Ukraine is the largest attack on a European state since the Second World War. There is an absence of a robust European-led peace initiative, which I find troubling. Europe must find its voice not just to defend democracy but to champion peace and justice on a global scale and to support Ukraine most critically in a just peace agreement which does not see Ukraine undermined. I highlight that. A peace agreement has to be an equal agreement on both sides.”
“Robert Schuman laid the foundations of a Europe built not on war but on cooperation and multilateralism. His vision was clear, that by sharing resources nations could ensure peace and prosperity for generations, which I acknowledge has been said by the Minister of State already. On Europe Day, while we celebrate the values of peace, unity and democracy that underpin the European Union, we must also confront the challenges threatening these very foundations. In countries such as Hungary, we see a worrying drift towards authoritarianism. Curbs on media freedom, judicial independence and civil society have raised alarms about the erosion of democratic norms within the Union itself.”
“It is about feedback because even if these units exist, we need feedback from woman accessing those units and healthcare professionals if they are not being treated with equality and respected in that space. Part of it is probably due to the fact our healthcare system is overstretched. Many doctors do not have the time, perhaps, to give the level of care they would like to give. What is happening then is that women are falling by the wayside within that space. We have had this long-term existing issue that our understanding of health comes from the default of men's health because that is how our research has always been. I would like to see what steps we will be taking coming into the next year.”
“I appreciate all of the different actions and steps and I know that women’s health is coming along in Ireland. I have questions around things like gender sensitivity training. Are all staff receiving that in the new systems and units that we are opening up? Will there be a subsequent plan? This might not be something the Minister of State can answer today but the Minister for Health can come back to me on it. How will the learnings from this plan be integrated into that? How are we measuring the real-world impact of these changes to women’s healthcare? I speak to women all the time who are still travelling to Romania and other countries for basic women’s healthcare. We need to be measuring the reduction in that regard and using it as a metric to measure the success in our own systems.”
“Will the Minister of State please provide an update on what this means in practice? When will it be conducted? Who will be consulted? What different groups will be brought in on it? How will it lead to women being heard and believed within medical settings? Will the Minister of State also update the Chamber not only on the roll-out of the strategy, but also on what actions are being taken to eliminate medical gaslighting? How are services being adapted to reflect the experiences outlined in the radical listening report? What progress has been made on integrating intersectional, measurable targets into the implementation of the women's action plan? To finish, I am not sure about my time-----”
“This is medical gaslighting, where a person's symptoms are concerned, minimised, misattributed or denied outright. It is not historical; it is happening today. It is happening now and has happened to me. I am sure it has happened to many other women in this Chamber. Despite the radical listening report's clear findings from 2021, and the health system performance assessment platform now being operational, there is still no systematic collection of disaggregated data on the health outcomes for marginalised women. I would like to know how we can fix something when we are not even measuring the issue. The Women's Health Action Plan 2024-25 also includes a key pillar on listening to women, including steps to initiate a new "'radical listening' exercise", as it is described, during this year.”
“The radical listening report, commissioned by the Department and delivered by the National Women's Council and Community Work Ireland, lays bare the daily experiences of women when it comes to equitable treatment within the healthcare system. This is particularly true for marginalised women such as Travellers, Roma, disabled women, migrant women and women who are surviving different forms of trauma. They repeatedly describe not being believed, not being heard and being subject to dismissive, harmful or even prejudiced medical treatment. I reinforce the point that these are not isolated incidents. These are systematic continuous failures. Women report being given sedatives rather than mental health care, being told their pain is imagined or being dismissed because they have a pre-existing disability.”
“I have heard stories from women about being forced to travel overseas for endometriosis care, women being told that their excruciating physical pain is simply anxiety and women crying through IUD insertions without any painkillers or pain relief. Women in Ireland continue to report being told their pain is normal, in their heads or anxiety related. These brush-offs are not just anecdotal; they are supported by international and national studies which show that women wait longer for diagnoses, particularly for conditions such as endometriosis, different autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease and even cancers. In addition, gaslighting disproportionately affects women from marginalised backgrounds and those who might have chronic or invisible illnesses.”
“I acknowledge that the Department has publicly committed to listening to women as per the action plan, but the failure to believe women's symptoms and pain continues to be endemic in our healthcare system. Medical gaslighting often strips women of the control they should have over their healthcare choices. Too often, women are not consulted about essential medical decisions until it is far too late to intervene. This is particularly prevalent in maternity care, where many women do not realise they have the power to question medical advice and seek alternative treatment before it is too late. Women's experiences are invalidated. It is leaving them to question their reality and to shoulder unjust blame for what has happened to them, rather than questioning the shortcomings in their care.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today. A few weeks ago, during a discussion on women's health in this Chamber, I spoke about women not being believed in the healthcare system. Following that, I received hundreds of messages from women speaking about their own experiences of medical gaslighting. Reading those experiences that women chose to openly share on social media was particularly difficult, as I know the scale of those impacted by medical gaslighting is in fact much higher. I am requesting an update on the implementation of the women's healthcare action plan, particularly as it relates to the recognition of structural inequality and health outcomes for women, and the need to address what is increasingly recognised as medical gaslighting.”
“I know no-one is trying to talk about using the language of criminalisation about children because no-one is born a criminal and problems stems from their living conditions. We must commit to making this shift and hold ourselves, the people with whom we work and the communities that we engage with, responsible for making this shift. We need to move from punitive systems to early prevention and to adopt a rights-based approach that invests in youth work and supports families and communities to build resilience.”
“He said he felt that the logical next step for him was to go into crime. So he got involved in a dangerous incident and stabbed someone but it was not something that he wanted to do. That speaks a lot to how children and young people can be exposed to the cultural norms of crime, and how they understand and value themselves, and align themselves with one another. It is because they lack positive role models and there is a lack of proper youth services. There has been systematic underfunding during the austerity years and services were cut. The root cause of all of these issues around marginalisation and poverty have not been properly addressed and I really wish we could centre this debate on that aspect.”
“The absence of data on how a minor may, potentially, be strip searched without an appropriate person raises serious concerns about transparency and adherence to child protection and human rights. We also often hear in the media really derogatory language being used to describe young people who are involved in crime. I am sure many of us have been responsible for using that language ourselves and it is that self-reinforcement where people are pigeon-holed and demonised. I once heard a guy in the UK speak about his experience of the care system before he was arrested for murder at the age of 19 and served a life sentence. He said that when he was in the care system the young kids in the care system asked one another what they were in for. They used this language of criminalisation.”
“Similarly, the National Youth Council does not have multi-annual funding and is not able to hire staff. It is a huge issue. In the North, there is much greater regulation and professionalisation of the youth sector and we need something like that down here as well. Recent parliamentary questions tabled by my colleague, Deputy Farrelly, revealed that An Garda Síochána does not systematically record the number of strip searches involving under-18s or whether appropriate adults or medical professionals are actually present. I believe this highlights a really big gap in oversight and accountability in how we treat vulnerable young people in custody. It is quite disturbing that this data is not collected.”
“We have great organisations in Carlow and Kilkenny such as Ossory Youth and Carlow Regional Youth Services. They are doing really exceptional work in outreach, mentoring and early intervention. Their youth diversion projects and school community engagement help to build confidence, purpose and connection through meaningful adult mentorship. What is critical about this is that the work is long-term and needs to be person-centred and youth-led but in reality these services are really overstretched. They are often forced to prioritise the most at-risk child, due to staffing and funding, as Senator Cosgrove has said. What that means is we do not have early enough interventions before a child is labelled at risk or the most at-risk child. What about the other children, however? We need to see much earlier investment in youth services.”