Paul Murphy
Dublin South-West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“The Minister of State assured us we are bound by international law but then went on to talk about the fact that he wants to deploy troops outside the framework of international law. That is why the Government is getting rid of the triple lock. All the triple lock does is ensure that we only can send troops in line with international law.”
“The case for MetroLink south west is extremely strong. There are 350,000 people living between the Luas red and green lines. That is who will be served by this.”
“Hopefully the junior Minister will be able to clarify. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said earlier to Deputy Ó Laoghaire, "The people I speak to do not like the fact that Russia has essentially removed, or will remove in the coming months, all our peacekeeping troops from UNIFIL".”
“I, too, want to ask about the senior Minister. This came up at the Dáil reform committee last week. It is very peculiar that a senior Minister is here and has answered previous questions on the triple lock today and then – no offence meant - we have the junior Minister answering these questions, which precisely prevents the continuation o…”
“Its defence is that we should not worry because the Government is only going to send them as part of an international force. I do not think anyone here thinks the Government is going to invade a country all by itself.”
“It is there in black and white in the programme for Government and the Government needs to live up to its commitment to do a new, properly independent feasibility study. I appeal to the Minister of State to ask the Minister for Transport to meet with the metro south west group which has been doing such excellent campaigning on this issue.”
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“The lecturers of the BIMM music college have been forced onto the picket lines. They face an incredible assault on their rights, with 53 workers facing redundancy. A small number of them will be re-employed on less than half the hourly wage they were on previously and the rest will be faced with the choice of getting bogus self-employment on zero-hour contracts. This is part of the so-called "Uberisation" of academic conditions. The State cannot wash its hands of what is happening here. Approximately 80% of the students are in BIMM, and paid for by the State, through TU Dublin, which has, effectively, outsourced to BIMM. Will the Taoiseach say that BIMM should engage with the workers at the WRC, which it has failed to do up until now?”
“Israel began the full-scale ground invasion on 27 October. The Taoiseach visited in the middle of November. He participated in a propaganda visit when the genocide was fully under way. He is now misleading the House.”
“Talk about being completely insulated from the reality of what it is to rent for renters with the constant fear of no-fault eviction, homelessness, and then putting this on them to worry about for the next 11 months. Will the only protection for renters be taken away? Renters need to take to the streets, wipe the smile of their face and go in the opposite direction. Freezing and reducing rents to make them affordable and capping rents at a quarter of people's income are the only sort of changes we will accept.”
“It is time, after more than a decade of failure to address the housing crisis, to conclude that the Government does not want to address the housing crisis; the Government wants to deepen the housing crisis so that those it represents can get even richer. That is why, when the Taoiseach said we are moving towards scrapping the rent pressure zone, IRES REIT share prices went through the roof. The Irish Property Owners Association declared itself delighted, which is no wonder, but do not worry, the Taoiseach said, they will not expire until the end of the year so we will have loads of time to talk about how we can best incentivise landlords and property developers.”
“The previous Government, to be clear, was a Government of landlords, by landlords, for landlords, but with a veneer of concern for the needs of renters, people who want to buy a home and those who are suffering from homelessness. With this Government, that veneer is gone. The biggest landlord in this Dáil is now a Minister in the Government, as is the second biggest landlord. It is absolutely naked class rule for landlords, big corporate developers and so on. It is fundamentally ideological to be throwing money at the private sector regardless of the fact that does not deliver housing and has not done.”
“There is something profoundly undemocratic about what the Government is planning to do on housing. We have just had an election campaign during which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael told us Housing for All was working and that the evidence for that was the 40,000 homes that were going to have been built last year. The Government was deliberately misleading people. It knew and had been told that the figure would be only 30,000. During that election campaign, where was the mention of scrapping rent pressure zones, the new tax incentives for developers or the pivot to the private sector, which we are now told is the new key to resolving the crisis? Once the election is out of the way, what we see is shock and awe for a full corporate takeover of the housing market.”
“The working definition of antisemitism also states that "Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" is antisemitism. The President has been accused of antisemitism because he referenced the genocide in Gaza when giving his Holocaust Memorial speech. Israel's national state law stipulates in its first clause that actualisation of the right to national self-determination is unique to the Jewish people, similar to the first of the Nuremberg laws deeming citizenship a privilege exclusive to those with German blood.”
“One of the examples is "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor." The existence of the state of Israel is a racist endeavour. Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, proposed a Jewish state in Palestine as an "outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism". Israel's first Prime Minister wrote to his son in 1937 saying that Jewish settlers must expel Arabs and take their place. Israel deemed Palestinians who were expelled during the Nakba to be absentees without the right of return. Meanwhile, all Jewish people have the right to emigrate to Israel and become citizens. Palestinian absentee property was allocated to the Jewish National Fund explicitly reserving its land for Jewish lease only.”
“The context is that almost every human rights organisation in the world from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch and numerous academics, including the person who wrote this definition, are critical of it and are saying that states should not sign up to it. On the face of it, someone listening in might ask what the problem could possibly be with signing up to a definition of antisemitism. Of course, we need to combat the ongoing scourge of antisemitism but the problem, in particular, are the examples that go with that definition. Seven of the 11 examples are about criticising the state of Israel. The way this definition has been used has been to silence those who want to criticise Israeli policies. I will give some examples and the Minister of State can tell me whether I am being antisemitic.”
“I will home in on one particular aspect of the programme for Government. On page 99, it states: "Give effect to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance ‘Working Definition of Antisemitism’". This is a programme for Government, large parts of which will not be delivered within the five years of this Government's term. The programme for Government had not even been ratified by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, never mind the new Government being elected by the Dáil, by the time the then Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs - now the Taoiseach - was out on 16 January announcing Ireland's endorsement of the non-legally binding Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism. Where did this come from? Who was pushing for it?”
“Are there any other aspects to this agreement that the House should be aware of? Are there any other agreements in relation to Government support?”
“The programme for Government refers to "all parties and groupings party to the Government". My question is simple. Which groupings are party to the Government and what agreements exist with them? Elsewhere, the programme for Government refers to support resources being made available to "others who support the Government". Who is being referred to there? Am I right in assuming that the groupings referred to are the Lowry group and the Healy-Rae group and that the others being referred to are those members of those groups who are not Ministers or Ministers of State in the Government? What agreements exist? Is there an agreement that those members who are not in the Government will vote with the Government throughout the course of the term or is it the case that they will vote on a case-by-case basis?”
“It is the most fundamentalist neoliberal ideology to think that we need to do this somehow. It clearly does not work and a different policy decision should be made to get rid of privatisation and to bring the routes back in-house, to Dublin Bus.”
“Like the Minister of State said in his response, the issue being reported is "fleet reliability issues across its network of services due to a shortfall of the availability of mechanics". Why is it having that problem when Dublin Bus is not? The answer is very simple. Go-Ahead Ireland cannot recruit mechanics because Dublin Bus offers better terms and conditions, so if you are a mechanic, you make the entirely rational and reasonable choice to go and work for Dublin Bus and not, therefore, for Go-Ahead Ireland. Who pays the price for that? The workers, who end up with worse terms and conditions in Go-Ahead Ireland, and the commuters who are trying to use public transport. The Taoiseach earlier referred to the Opposition as being fundamentalist in its ideology.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the answer. I obviously accept that the Minister for Transport is not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. I am not holding the Minister personally responsible for any bus not turning up, but at the same time, the Minister of State referred to the Government's recent commitment to improving public transport under the new programme for Government. The underlying issue here is a policy choice of pursuing privatisation of public transport routes, in this case, routes formerly done by Dublin Bus. That is why we have a crisis with the S4, S6 and so on. I recommend that people report no-show buses on noshowbus.ie , on which one will see that between 16 October and 3 December, public transport users reported 48 ghost buses on the S6 route alone.”
“Here we are again nearly two years later. What is the Government's response? It is to give Go-Ahead Ireland more routes. Last month, the NTA gave Go-Ahead Ireland a new €50 million contract to operate an outer Dublin metropolitan area bus service from next October. Go-Ahead Ireland might leave its customers waiting but we can be sure that its shareholders will not be left waiting for dividends. Will the Government instruct the NTA to give Go-Ahead Ireland's routes back to Dublin Bus? Instead of pursuing privatisation, will the Government commit to investing the billions of euros from the Government surplus and the Apple tax money into improving and expanding bus services? Will it invest in desperately needed new public transport infrastructure, such as metro north, metro south west and additional Luas lines?”
“It is no coincidence. All of these testimonies and complaints are about privatised services that are operated by Go-Ahead Ireland, which is more concerned with making profits than providing a decent and reliable bus service. The latest excuse is that it does not have enough mechanics and that is why buses are out of service. Why does it not have enough mechanics? It is because Go-Ahead Ireland has worse terms and conditions than Dublin Bus. It understandably cannot attract mechanics. Why does it have worse terms and conditions? It is in order to maximise profits at the expense of workers and passengers. The Government's response has been to repeatedly fine Go-Ahead Ireland for its terrible service. In 2023, it was fined €3 million. Go-Ahead Ireland stated that the problem was staff shortages and promised to rapidly recruit more staff.”
“A UCD student contacted me to say he was late for lectures three days in a row because of cancellations, delays and overloaded S6s that did not stop. He said that many young people like him are considering buying cars because public transport is so unreliable. Another parent contacted me to say that she had to pay for her daughter to get taxis to her college exams because they did not trust the buses to get her there on time, if at all. Once her daughter gets her driving licence, she says, she does not see why she would ever use a bus again. The S6 from Tallaght to Blackrock and back is the route most often reported to the no-show bus tracker of the Dublin Inquirer . The statistics of the National Transport Authority, NTA, show that one in three S6s fails to arrive within seven minutes of the advertised departure time.”
“I will give the House some examples from people who have contacted me. One person said that their 14-year-old son gets the S6 bus service from Rathfarnham to his secondary school in Booterstown every day. My correspondent went on to state that the service has been appalling ever since the family started using it in 2023. Services are often cancelled and sometimes consecutive buses are cancelled and the following buses are therefore full. As one can imagine, this leads to extremely long waiting times and lateness for school. My correspondent went on to state that in the past few months, the service has deteriorated even further and has become utterly unreliable. My correspondent tells me they have contacted Go-Ahead several times but have received no response at all.”
“In the past two weeks, I have been inundated with complaints about Go-Ahead Ireland buses not showing up. I have spoken to my colleague, Councillor Conor Reddy in Ballymun-Finglas. I have also spoken to Deputy Boyd Barrett, who represents Dún Laoghaire. It is clear to me that this is not just an issue in Tallaght or Dublin South-West. It is the same story everywhere that Go-Ahead Ireland has a contract to operate bus services. The S6, S8, N6 and N2 all provide the same terrible service. I am not talking about a ghost bus here or there. In some cases, half the buses have been cancelled, leaving people late for work, school and college. Cancellations and ghost buses have been an ongoing issue with these privatised routes but in the past few weeks, it has become absolutely ridiculous.”
“Micheál Martin and Simon Harris stood in the elections and in the leaders' debate and said they will pass the occupied territories Bill. Now, they are planning to gut it. They hide behind the language of needing to do this lawfully. It is a nonsense and they know it is a nonsense. I will tell them why it is a nonsense. They have rested their whole basis for doing this on the ICJ opinion. That is why they said last year, all of a sudden, that they could do it. In fact, the ICJ makes no distinction whatsoever between goods and services. This has nothing to do with legality. It is about power. It is about bowing down to US corporations and it is about shamefully bowing down to Donald Trump. Absolute shame on them.”
“Over the past 16 months, millions of people have had their eyes opened to awful things about the world we live in, about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state, about the oppression, displacement and discrimination faced by Palestinians on a daily basis, about the deep depravity of the capitalist, imperialist system we live in, where Palestinian life is, in effect, worthless, and about the complicity of much of the world's media, which whitewashed a genocide that unfolded before their and our eyes. Another thing people have had their eyes opened to is the deep cynicism and hypocrisy of politicians who promised one thing before an election only to scrap it immediately afterwards; politicians who speak lofty words about human rights and then prioritise the right of profit of corporations.”
“We also need to act to build the capacity of ESB Networks. I stood on picket lines four years ago with workers who warned me about the outsourcing that was going on and the loss of capacity. We must build up ESB Networks as a publicly owned and publicly run crucial public utility.”
“When that supply is not reliable, every household must be compensated, not only for the loss of power but also for the inconvenience and suffering they experience. A worker in my office who lives in south Dublin had no electricity for three days last year. She received a cheque for €240 in compensation from the ESB. There cannot be one law for people in Dublin and another for those in rural areas when it comes to compensation. The ESB is now threatening to increase prices for everyone to pay for the cost of the clean-up. This is the direct opposite of the direction in which we should be going. Instead, we need low-cost renewable electricity, free retrofitting and solar panels and batteries with no upfront costs, thereby giving people a secure renewable power source whenever the grid fails.”
“It is a painful truth that we will be faced with more and more extreme weather events. We will have more storms, more flooding and possibly even more serious snow if we see the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, AMOC, including the Gulf Stream. We should resist those who would try to respond to these extreme weather events by driving us further into the arms of the fossil fuels that are responsible for the crises. We need to act on climate adaptation, a crucial part of which is electricity resilience. We must listen to and learn from the affected workers and communities, who know what their needs are, to begin to plan democratically for future disaster prevention and response. A bottom-line point is that the State has a responsibility to provide reliable electricity for people.”
“Absolutely because, while Lowry is the kingmaker, O'Brien is the puppet master. This Government will run the country in the interests of the Denis O'Briens, the Michael O'Learys and the other billionaires and multimillionaires. People ask why the housing crisis and health crisis are getting worse. It is because the Government represents those who profit from these crises, not those who suffer from them.”
“That is not the only stroke by this Government, however. We have the three extra junior Ministers, an extra super junior Minister and approximately €30,000 extra in expenses for each of them. It has become clear that the discussions on the programme for government were really more focused on how many snouts could be fit at the public trough. These strokes are engineered for and organised by the so-called kingmaker of the Government, Deputy Michael Lowry, a politician brought into a position of considerable power by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. a politician who is profoundly corrupt. When Lowry was a Fine Gael Minister for communications, he received £447,000 from Denis O'Brien. In return, Lowry made sure that O'Brien won the competition for a mobile phone licence. When O'Brien later sold it, he made €300 million. Does this matter?”