Paul McAuliffe
Dublin North-West · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“In the context of the previous Government, some of our Green Party colleagues were also supportive of this for a range of other reasons relating to delivering the circular economy. From what I hear, one outcome of the review could be the creation of a franchised service.”
“It would allow it to say that in the context of my area of Finglas, it is not appropriate that because an area is more affluent, people living in that road have access to five bin companies and because somewhere else is less affluent, it is stuck with one bin company.”
“I made a commitment to Deputies Gannon and Sherlock in 2019 in an agreement we signed together to pursue the issue of remunicipalisation. It was the right thing to do then and it is the right thing to do now. It is not an accident that there are many Dublin-based Deputies in the House for this debate.”
“If Dublin City Council had been allowed address the housing crisis back in 2012, 2013 or 2014, when it was impacting the city far more than anywhere else, we would have been ahead of the curve.”
“-----to put in place waste solutions that suit their areas. If this means that there is a different solution in Dublin City Council's area than in the other local authority areas across the county, then that is how it should be. Unfortunately, that power rests with the chief executive.”
“To break that down a little, the issues Deputies Gannon and Sherlock are having in the city centre are vastly different from the ones that are relevant in my constituency. We do not have an issue with bags. Nor do we have the same street structures or networks.”
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“We would need significant amendment and other elements to it but I would allow the debate to take place. In the absence of that, I ask that the Minister of State takes on board the comments that have been made here in the House by Members. Should he have the final review and the outcome, he should consider allowing Dublin city to do its own thing. Maybe it should not be limited it to just Dublin city and he should consider allowing any local authority that chooses to collect its own waste to do it in its own way. It is not rocket science. It is waste collection. They should, at the very least, be allowed to decide how that is done.”
“Sometimes we do not trust our councillors enough and I say that because it was a Fianna Fáil Government that removed the powers of local councillors in regard to waste. It was done because there were not brave decisions being made on large-scale waste disposal and all of those reasons but we have moved on in Ireland. We have far better, committed local representatives. There is a very obvious demand by the people who are elected by Dublin city to change the way they collect their waste. This is something that national government should not be involved. Let them get on with it. Empower them to do it. Let them make the popular and unpopular choices that are part of that. If I was in the Minister of State's place, I would allow the Bill go to Second Stage.”
“If Dublin City Council had been allowed address the housing crisis back in 2012, 2013 or 2014, when it was impacting the city far more than anywhere else, we would have been ahead of the curve. We should be allowing Dublin City Council, if its elected representatives so choose, to establish both competition for the market and its own bin service if it so wishes. Deputy Gannon is right. This is going to involve difficult political choices, particularly as the waiver system that was there came at a cost. It was a direct cost. I think it cost nearly €3 million every year. Councillors had to vote every year for that money and that meant that €3 million went on that waiver and it was not available for other services like parks, libraries and so on. That is what local councillors do. They make those decisions.”
“In the context of the previous Government, some of our Green Party colleagues were also supportive of this for a range of other reasons relating to delivering the circular economy. From what I hear, one outcome of the review could be the creation of a franchised service. The Minister of State’s commentary, in which he went on to explain all the negatives of a franchised service, does not fill me with hope. I ask him and my colleague Deputy Darragh O’Brien, if they cannot provide a national framework, to consider whether they could empower local authorities to make the decisions to which I refer themselves. Deputy Sherlock stated that no other capital city runs its business this way. That is because they are capital cities. Capital cities should in a position to make way more decisions about everything that happens in their area.”
“It would allow it to say that in the context of my area of Finglas, it is not appropriate that because an area is more affluent, people living in that road have access to five bin companies and because somewhere else is less affluent, it is stuck with one bin company. In some cases, bin companies will not even go into certain places or will insist that residents have to bring their wheelie bins up a hill or out onto a main road. That is not right, but there is no way of regulating it because we have competition in the market not competition for the market. I do hear what the Minister of State says in regard to the review. There are many in government who believe that, for a range of reasons, including environmental reasons, matters relating to the circular economy and so on, competition for the market has its positive benefits.”
“This would mean that we could see a scenario where one private company would win the tender in all four Dublin local authority areas. As a result, we would essentially have one waste company. We could see other waste companies collapse or withdraw, and we would then be left in a second round with no company other than the one to which I refer proceeding to tender. That is one possibility. I pay tribute to Deputies Sherlock, Gannon, Ward and others. We discussed all these potential outcomes and we know that what is proposed would not be a silver bullet. It would give the local authority control, however. It would also give it more power.”
“The council did not privatise its service, it withdrew its service. It was open to the council to do that. The reality is that in the absence of the local authority having the financial ability to remunicipalise the service, no chief executive is going to make the decision in that regard. As stated, the debate on the Bill is one half of the discussion. If we are saying that remunicipalisation is the solution, in some ways this Bill could send us in the wrong direction if it is not matched on the other side. For example, what is proposed in the Bill would provide competition. One downside - this is something I would be cautious about - is that if competition for the market were introduced, it would be private operators that would tender in the first round.”
“-----to put in place waste solutions that suit their areas. If this means that there is a different solution in Dublin City Council's area than in the other local authority areas across the county, then that is how it should be. Unfortunately, that power rests with the chief executive. Despite councillors and the elected representatives of a city wanting something different, they are not empowered to do take action. I would like the Bill to proceed to Committee Stage, particularly as this debate is only half of the discussion. Deputy Gannon is right. The Government believes that if Dublin City Council wanted to establish its own waste collection service tomorrow, it could do so. Do not forget that Dublin City Council decided to close its waste collection service and to withdraw from the market.”
“To break that down a little, the issues Deputies Gannon and Sherlock are having in the city centre are vastly different from the ones that are relevant in my constituency. We do not have an issue with bags. Nor do we have the same street structures or networks. It is entirely appropriate that there are different ways of collecting waste in different areas. I often think that this House over-regulates what happens at local government level. When I see legislation relating to licences for tables and chairs on pavements, I am aghast at the fact that we are sometimes so involved in local authority affairs. We should be empowering local authorities to make more decisions, including on local taxation. In the area of waste, we should enable local councillors to make decisions-----”
“I made a commitment to Deputies Gannon and Sherlock in 2019 in an agreement we signed together to pursue the issue of remunicipalisation. It was the right thing to do then and it is the right thing to do now. It is not an accident that there are many Dublin-based Deputies in the House for this debate. Even within Dublin, there is disagreement among different political parties as to whether remunicipalisation is necessarily the way forward. Some of our colleagues in Dublin's county councils are often quite happy with the service they have or may have different views from us in the city. Deputy Mark Ward referenced the independent research which Dublin City Council commissioned in regard to this matter and which shows that councillors are of the view that greater control by the local authority is the way to proceed.”
“In case I forget to do so at the end, I take this opportunity to thank all of the people who work here. This is a workplace, and I often remark that when we leave here at 11 p.m. or midnight on a Wednesday, the people we pass on the way out are often the first people we pass on the way in at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. the following day when the work of Dáil is starting again. It is not a normal workplace, but it is a great place for people to work in together. I acknowledge the huge work the staff do here in extraordinary circumstances. I rise to speak in favour of the Bill. I would like to see it proceed to Committee Stage. That is not because, on the last day of term, I have caught some sort of rebellious fever.”
“If there is room for it to be extended, I would not oppose that but I want to be very careful that we have something robust that stands up so that we do not end up with no register at all.”
“The Law Society's argument in that discussion was that the sentence was the punishment and that an additional burden being put on the person who had committed the offence could be seen by a court as being unreasonable. I am with members of the Opposition here. Whether it is ten, 15 or 20 years, I have no problem with the time but what I am concerned about is that, were the Minister to extend it now, we could find ourselves in 18 months' time having no Jennie’s law at all. A court could strike out this law because it did not have regard to a principle that nobody in this House might have sympathy for but that the court assessing the law inevitably would, namely, the balancing of the two rights. Having fought for so long to have this law in place in respect of the 17 offences we are speaking about, we could end up not having it at all.”
“I welcome the clarification that it is three years after the sentence has been served. If someone has served a seven- or eight-year sentence under one of the 17 offences, they would not be able to apply for the removal until they get to year ten or 11. I welcome that clarification. The idea that someone comes off three years after the conviction is not the case; it is three years after the sentence has concluded. It is interesting that the Minister used the word "rehabilitation" and that it struck a chord in this House because, if I recall, that was the wording used during pre-legislative scrutiny by the Law Society. That gives us an insight into how a court might assess this legislation if it comes before it.”
“This law will be transformative in helping people across Ireland who are in a relationship to discover whether their partner had a domestic violence conviction. In her life as a mother, as a care worker and as a club member, Jennie gave so much to the community where she lived. She stood for everything that is so positive about our community. It is fitting that even in the tragedy that she and her family have experienced, she has continued to inspire this House to pass Jennie's law. I commend the Minister on his work and I commend the Bill to the House.”
“I just put the details of the process on the record because that is why we landed on this. It is not because we decided to limit certain elements of this. It is because we are juggling that balance between the Judiciary and the powers of this House. For the first time, criminal judgments will be published on a website. It is this model and not the other model of, for example, a sex offender's register which involves a different methodology and process. I say that to the Deputies who tabled these amendments because they might not have been aware of how we landed where we are. I will not speak again on the other amendments. I acknowledge how far we have come. I acknowledge the Poole family.”
“That is why there is some discretion in the legislation because, of course, there is a separation of powers. In striking that balance, the Minister is trying to acknowledge that. There were also concerns over expanding it beyond the current number of offences, which this group of amendments seeks to do, including murder, manslaughter, rape, strangulation, coercive control and so on. The reason for that was that in some cases those representing victims of domestic violence were fearful that it would put people off seeking a barring order, for example. In the initial stages there was talk about all of that being included in it. The Minister has limited it to the most serious offences, the fatal end of things, for a reason. Some of it is based on the concerns of people who represent people involved in domestic violence.”
“Essentially, the mechanism is that justice should be done in public but because journalists are no longer present in our courts all the time, that can often go unreported. The simplicity of that is that justice should be done in public. As already happens in civil cases, for the very first time the Minister has now found a way for judgments in criminal cases to be reported on the Courts Service website. It has never been done before for other offences. For the first time, that moves us away from all the issues of privacy and it moves us into a very simple sphere that justice should be done in public and, therefore, if a decision of the court is public, it is already a matter of public record and all we are doing is publishing that on the website. When we do that, we are inevitably balancing the independence of the Judiciary.”
“On this specific issue, the idea of granting access, we always knew there would be problems in establishing a register, similar to the sex offenders register. I acknowledge the work of Senator Fiona O'Loughlin, whose original Bill used that type of model because that is where we first thought we could progress it. All the other issues around people's privacy and GDPR started to become the blockages as to why this could not be done. I acknowledge that under a different Minister the Department of justice was extremely opposed to this Bill. The replies that come from the Minister, often written by the departmental officials, were extremely opposed to how this Bill could be introduced. The mechanism the Minister has used - it is very simple mechanism - is the reason we have got here. That is why I want to speak to the amendments.”
“I certainly do not intend to speak about it today because that man has taken enough from the Poole family without my reliving it here today. There was so much hurt. The hurt centred on the fact that behind that tragedy, Jennie was not aware that her ex-partner had a previous conviction. Not only was she not aware but she did not even have a mechanism to find out that he had a previous conviction. That tragedy was further compounded because it was not until the court case that Jennie's family realised that conviction was there. In trying to pursue Jennie's law, as Jason eventually called it, he came to me with a list of ten different areas, some of which the Minister has moved on in terms of access rights for a parent or a partner who's involved in a murder and so on.”
“They are incredibly welcome, particularly Jason who has been the driving force behind this all the way through. When Jason first came to us about this, he always spoke about the most serious crimes. It was important that was the focus of what we were trying to do from the very beginning because, as we know, Jennie was the subject of an offence at the most serious level. It is important to remember who Jennie was. Jennie was a 24-year-old mother, a wonderful mother to Zach and Nevaeh. She was a healthcare worker in our community. She was a much-loved member of her camogie team in Erin's Isle. In many ways, she represented the very best of our community. We all know what happened on 17 April 2021. I spoke about it yesterday.”
“I echo what the Minister said about the support across the House for the domestic violence register. That is really important because the model that we have landed on has been able to attract support. It is important to say that many people had very significant concerns about the idea of a domestic violence register. In some cases, they were very well-meaning people, including those representing people in domestic violence cases. In other cases, they were people involved in the legal profession and people involved in civil society. I appreciate the unanimity that we have landed on in the House. It took some time to get here. In considering these amendments, it is worth understanding why we have landed on the model that we have. I take a moment to welcome the Poole family to the Chamber in such large numbers.”
“This law will be transformative in helping people across Ireland who are in a relationship to discover whether their partner has a history of serious domestic violence convictions. In her life, a mother, a care worker, a club member, Jennifer Poole gave so much to our community. She stood for everything that is positive about our community. It is fitting that even after this tragedy, she and her family have inspired this community to pass Jennie's law and save lives in this country.”
“The approach the Minister has selected avoids potential obstacles which could have prevented the legislation being passed. Our courts are required to administer justice in public. In principle, every conviction is already a public fact. In practice, with fewer court reporters than there used to be, a lot of judgments go unreported in the media. Rather than build a new register, the Minister has simply ensured that the judgments which are already public will actually be published, relying on a principle of open justice. I echo the Minister's point that a register alone is not a solution. It has to sit alongside a wider strategy around funding of victims' support organisations, awareness raising and the work of Cuan.”
“The Bill inserts a new Part 3A into the Domestic Violence Act 2018, establishing a public domestic violence judgments register managed by the Courts Service whereby if a person convicted on indictment of a serious domestic violence offence, including murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, non-fatal strangulation, harassment and coercive control, the trial judge will have the discretion to publish that judgment. The victim's consent is required. A person may apply to be removed from the register but not earlier than three years after the conviction. Any removal will remain at the court's discretion. I also welcome the elegant method the Minister used to make this information available. As Deputy Kelly said, it was tricky as to how we would proceed.”
“He is a credit to his community, as was his sister. It has also been a pleasure to work with Senator O'Loughlin and the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan. I acknowledge the road this legislation has travelled. It started with Senator O'Loughlin's draft of an original Bill with Jason which was brought to the Seanad. The Minister backed this campaign as a backbench TD long before he had responsibility for in the area. The legislation has now been brought to Cabinet and before these Houses.”
“Her family believes that if she had known this, she would have made a different decision and not have proceeded with the relationship. What was all the more difficult was that her family did not know of this previous conviction either until they heard it during the court case for her murder. They were stunned. Since 2021, Jason, her brother, has turned his family's grief into a powerful campaign that has included petitions, media appearances and meetings with successive Ministers with one simple aim, namely that no other woman will be unable to access the fact that a previous judgment had been made against their partner. He has the full support of his community in Finglas, which has backed him from the very start. On a personal note, it has been a privilege to work alongside Jason on this campaign.”
“I welcome this Bill, Jennie's law, to the House and I welcome the opportunity to speak on it. The legislation is the culmination of years of hard work, advocacy and determination on part of the Poole family. Jennifer Poole was from Ballygall and had been in touch with me many times on many different issues. She was the 24-year-old mother of Nevaeh and Zack, an amazing healthcare worker, a much-loved member of her camogie team in her GAA club, Erin's Isle. On 17 April 2021, she was killed in her home on Melville Drive in Finglas by her ex-partner Gavin Murphy, who is now serving a life sentence. What compounds the tragedy is that Jennifer never knew or had any way of finding out that Murphy had a previous conviction for assaulting a former partner. He told her he had been living in Spain. In fact, he had been in prison.”
“First, I ask for a dedicated housing officer to be established in every local authority, seconded from and linked to the HSE, to finally bring together housing and health so families do not have to negotiate that. Second, I am asking for a guaranteed forward plan, triggered automatically when the carer of a person with an intellectual disability turns 65. This would mean that families get certainty and a progressive plan, not a crisis response. People have spoken to me about this. They have said that they often do not necessarily have an immediate need for a place, but they do have an immediate need for a plan for what will happen to their children.”
“Today, I am publishing a compilation of the targeted parliamentary questions I have submitted on behalf of the campaign and individual families. The answers confirm what these families have been telling us. Nearly half of the primary carers of adults awaiting a residential place are aged 60 or over. The State’s own review found that we need at least 1,900 additional residential places. This is not a hidden problem. It is one that is going to happen whether we plan for it or not. It is also clear that while day services are important, there is very little transparency in respect of how requests for residential care are processed between the different day services, the HSE disability integrated healthcare area teams and the need at local authority level. I am asking for two things today, which I think could be done immediately.”
“I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion and allowing me the opportunity to speak in support of the Before We Die campaign. This is a group of people I have had the pleasure to get to know over the last number of months. They are a group of people asking one simple question, which is what happens to their sons or daughters when they are no longer there to care for them. It is a question those families are raising and that my own family and many other families across the country are asking as well. I acknowledge the work of Tony Murray and Maria Moran in my own constituency who, along with the wider campaign in Cork and elsewhere in the country, have met a number of Ministers and the Minister of State.”
“We have not always been able to get agreement, but they literally fought for this project on the streets, outside people's homes and at community meetings. The way we will reward them for that work is to ensure that everything possible is put in place from a Government perspective. I know it has been. I also want to acknowledge all the community people who fought for this project. I include my colleague and former Deputy Noel Rock, who also fought for this, in that regard. We did not often give each other much acknowledgement. In fairness, there are people who champion these projects. Success can have many mothers and fathers. This will be a real benefit for my constituency.”
“It was great to have the Minister out at Broombridge to see where the current line ends and to look over at Tolka Valley Park in order to see where the line will continue. I have already talked about the benefits. There will also be a park-and-ride facility that will be of benefit to the wider area. There are some sporting facilities, including an all-weather facility, that we can develop in Tolka Valley Park in conjunction with Dublin City Council. This is also going to create employment along the way. We are going to see some movement from employment land to housing land in terms of zoning, but the Luas will bring more jobs to our area. I want to acknowledge TII. Its representatives have been passionate about this project. They have come out and met with residents.”
“I hope that later this year and early in 2027 we can start to do some of the enabling works that will allow us to proceed with the larger project next year and into 2028. I also hope that the project will be delivered in the next two or three years. I thank the Minister for the work he has done in respect of this project. He has played no small part in pushing it along the line.”
“The Minister summed up the project very well. There was a time when I came into the House seeking to explain the project to people and extoll its virtues. The point the Minister has made is that the case for Luas Finglas has been won. The funding is there and the reality is that we have to get on with the job putting the project out to tender and having it built. This will be a transformative project. Only last week, the Land Development Agency purchased a significant piece of land adjacent to that relating to the Luas project for what it hopes will be affordable purchase and affordable rental accommodation. That would not have been possible without the Luas project. This shows the very real, tangible and immediate impact of the project.”
“I appreciate that. I reiterate my point on ensuring that people remain within the scheme. I was recently at an apprenticeship fair and one of the people encouraging people to take up apprenticeships indicated that, by participating in the workforce earlier, they would be contributing to their pensions for a much longer period than people who went on to third level. The numbers are staggering. Whenever you start paying into your pension, those extra few years make a huge difference. That is the reason the auto-enrolment scheme is so important. It is the reason it will have a real impact over decades. It is also why I want to ensure that we retain as many people as possible within the scheme and that the benefits are communicated.”
“I join with the Minister in those comments. The establishment of the auto-enrolment scheme was a very significant measure. It had been spoken about for many years. Provision for people's future retirement is incredibly important and auto-enrolment makes it easier for people to make that decision. There is an opportunity to opt out of the scheme. While we have very significant numbers enrolled in the scheme, we want to make sure those numbers do not decrease as time goes on. I encourage the Minister's Department to do everything it can to communicate the benefits of involvement in this scheme or any other pension scheme. We must ensure that people plan for their future and have that greater degree of financial independence. I ask the Minister about ongoing participation in the scheme and how the Department is monitoring those numbers.”
“It is an area that does not have as much of an inflationary impact as perhaps increases in social welfare payments would. I am not advocating for increases in the payments but I am saying it is something to be conscious of that the living alone allowance itself does not have as much of an inflationary leakage or impact. It is something to consider.”
“The anomalies here are an issue. I know sometimes there might be three individuals sharing a home who are not in any way related to one another, and that can provide some complications. We have been able to resolve this issue in some cases. When we are dealing with anomalies, there is that issue of people sharing a home as to who gets the fuel allowance. If one person gets it, then other people in the home do not. That is something I ask the Minister to examine. The other thing I would say regarding the living alone allowance is that when the State spends money it inevitably has an impact on inflation. Regarding increasing the living alone allowance, this relates to costs which people already have and are already paying. People have to pay their household bills and so on.”
“I acknowledge my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, and I apologise for my enthusiasm in my first round of questions. I think I submitted too many. I ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will give consideration to changing the living alone allowance. I note his previous reply to Deputy Hayes as well.”
“Those people earning over €140,000 have not yet been addressed but obviously the Government is going to deal with that. I acknowledge the work the Minister has done.”
“I thank the Minister. To return to that point I made, often carers are women. Having spoken to them, I know they feel particularly aggrieved that just because their partner has done an extra five or six hours overtime a week or they have got a pay rise, that in some way means they lose their payment. That underlines the point that this should not be a means tested payment. It should be an acknowledgement for work done on behalf of the State. They are saving the State money. The quicker we move towards the abolition of the means test, the quicker we will be able to resolve that injustice. I acknowledge that the cases of the vast majority of people who would have previously come to my clinic on this issue have been addressed.”
“I want to acknowledge that in the first budget that was a very significant amount of money spent that was not spent elsewhere. I acknowledge it was done in terms of carers.”
“I note this question was transferred to me from Deputy Aisling Dempsey. She has spoken to me about the issue of carers. In the previous election, Family Carer's Ireland campaigned very strongly for abolishing the means test for carers. The commitment was very clear that we would do that over the lifetime of the Government. The increase in the income thresholds has to be acknowledged. As the Minister said, it has increased to €110,000 for a full payment and €138,000 for a partial payment. That very significantly includes the vast majority of people who were in that category and came to us to ask to abolish the means test. Of course, it is not just about getting access to the payment. It is also about acknowledging that this is real work, it should not be means tested and it should not be linked to the income of your partner.”
“I ask the Minister for Social Protection for a report on his attendance at the annual carers' forum. I note the Minister's earlier reply so I have no difficulty making that more brief because of the answer he gave to the House a moment ago.”
“Giving a gateway to that scheme, without necessarily significantly changing the fuel allowance scheme, could be one way of addressing the issue I am raising. While often people are seeking the payment of nearly €1,000 per year, they really want to make the improvements to their home to reduce their bills through the better energy warmer home scheme.”
“It is a new scheme that is popular and people want to avail of it. If you are sitting in someone's home and as you go through the form, you say to them you are only eligible for one income threshold of €26,000. The person almost feels like they are being punished for having lost their partner. You can see it etched in their face. I ask the Minister to examine it. A 50% reduction is too significant and particularly for that older cohort. With his colleague, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, the Minister needs to examine how this scheme interacts with the better energy warmer homes scheme. It is an amazing scheme and you can get nearly €50,000 of works done to your home at no cost to the homeowner.”
“Perhaps it should be something closer to two thirds of it. Particularly for those in the over-66 category, there are many people who find themselves in that situation because of bereavement and it is worth examining.”
“I saw a statistic that 25% of all homes now in the State are in receipt of the fuel allowance. It is certainly a very significant figure. It is coming close to nearly 500,000 homes. Any of us as Deputies can see when you walk around and knock on doors, there are homes that have been able to avail of the better energy warmer home scheme because of their eligibility for fuel allowance. My worry is about the cliff-edge for people. There might be two people over-66 living in a home and for that household, the threshold is €52,000 of annual income. Next door, if there was a person living on their own who could often be a widow or widower, their income threshold is only €26,000 but it costs the same money to heat both homes. The 50% reduction in the income threshold for a single person is very significant.”
“The people with responsibility for spending and delivering that are private entities and private limited companies in the form of owners' management companies. We need to have a way to make sure we regulate those companies, and we cannot do that while the responsibility sits with the Department of justice and has to be transferred over to the Housing Agency. That is one of the many things this Bill does and we are waiting desperately for it to happen. I understand the concerns raised by the Opposition, but I underline the point that the provisions in this Bill are needed and required. That is why I am glad to see them before the House and to see they will be enacted.”