Paul Nicholas Gogarty
Dublin Mid-West · Independent · Ireland
“As I have mentioned in the House before, if a border poll passes by 52% to 48%, the legal threshold of the Good Friday Agreement is met but the social consensus is not and moving 800,000 citizens into a new state against their explicit, democratic will does risk causing civil unrest.”
“We also have other gaps that are much smaller, like a ten-year phased transition, reducing the net annual cost to between €2.5 billion and €3 billion. We then had the middle figure of about €11 billion. We actually do not know how much it is going to cost but we do know it is going to cost something.”
“For example, adopting a single currency, getting rid of the exchange rate volatility and the transaction costs for cross-Border businesses are all advantages.”
“I would be loath to call a border poll right now because of the risks associated with that, but if a border poll did occur, the State would have to be prepared for the huge structural disruptions that would follow, so we have to start working now - that is why this debate is welcome - without arrogantly presuming it is going to become a r…”
“I have been listening to this debate in my office since Deputy Currie started her contribution. I always follow these debates on Irish unity with interest as someone who wants to see a united Ireland by consent.”
“Some have been mentioned in this House, such as a devolved regional assembly in Stormont to preserve local governance for the unionist community, a shared bill of rights protecting the dual Irish-British citizenship, and re-evaluating our relationship with the Commonwealth.”
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“The developers in Adamstown have delivered the parks and the community centres, when they knew they had to deliver them in order to continue building housing. As others have mentioned, there is also an issue with funding. If the private developers cannot get funding through the banking system, then the State, within EU parameters, should be able to provide some form of lending to allow them to do this. I have said before that the State should be the single biggest developer. That does not mean we should be employing every single builder, but we should be facilitating builders, specifically, the small, local, builders here in Ireland around the country, as well as the larger ones, as opposed to depending on the large vulture funds to come in and build housing at exorbitant rental fees. Another issue is industrial policy.”
“If we take south Dublin, with its development plan process coming up, as an entire area it should be designated as a SDZ so there is a pinpoint of the infrastructure that will have to go in. Then we can have An Bord Pleanála make a deliberation. Any application that is live, stays live. Any application after that does not need to go to An Bord Pleanála as with the Adamstown and Clonburris SDZs. They go straight to the local authority and the process is usually sped up unless they drop the ball and have to put in a big environmental assessment as is also happening in my area. We could speed things up massively if we tie in the facilities and infrastructure and say, for example, a school is going here. We should also tie in things like having X number of bus services by X number of houses.”
“It has given additional staff resourcing to the board, but the board is still not sufficiently resourced. I have had planning applications in my constituency where I have got a letter three or four times to say it is not possible to make a decision during this time period. That delays stuff. I agree with others; we cannot have someone from Cahirsiveen making a decision on something happening in Dublin, or somebody from Donegal making a decision on Dingle. That does not make sense, but there are genuine community concerns that are expressed. Oftentimes, they are expressed with a lack of tie-in for amenities and community infrastructure alongside housing. That is why I reiterate what I recently said to the Taoiseach. Everywhere should be an SDZ, strategic development zone.”
“We have an amendment of a Bill to legislation that has not been enacted. Looking at it, at face value one has to welcome it. Regarding the retrospective suspension of planning permission duration during judicial review, insofar as there are delays caused by judicial reviews, I take this point. However, as others have said, judicial reviews are not the main issue, which I will go into in a minute. The Bill also provides for the extension of the duration of uncommenced housing developments, which the legislation says is temporary until 2027. Again, this is to give developers a chance to get building. The real issue with the delay is infrastructure, as people have mentioned before. It is also An Bord Pleanála. We have a situation where if anyone does put in an objection to An Bord Pleanála time and time again it keeps getting put back.”
“Obviously, it is inhumane to send families who have been in Ireland for a very long time back to other countries. This is why we need to dramatically speed up the process. Equally, there are people who do not have leave to remain who will forcibly resist any efforts to get them to leave. Should these people be roaming free in local communities?”
“Part of Citywest Hotel is now a holding or detention centre for those awaiting deportation. Is there a coherent policy? Are those awaiting deportation at IPAS centres allowed to roam free or are they locked into hotel rooms 24 hours a day? If detainees are held pre-deportation or pending prison transfer, that means the role of the centre is not purely accommodation; it is quasi-detention. Is using an hotel as a detention centre legal? It likely falls outside of the hotel emergency reception exemption and will be considered an unauthorised development unless retrospective planning permission is granted. We also know for a fact that there has been no public consultation on safety and security protocols or an impact assessment on Citywest and, I presume, around the country. What is the plan for these situations?”
“that she was not going to be seen until next January or February. An 86-year-old man was there for six hours on a church pew. All these people are in various states of anxiety waiting for family court decisions. One woman was there eight times because her ex lives in Naas and she is coming from the North. She has not been seen. It needs to be sorted out.”
“With the news reports of increasing levels of domestic abuse, the family courts are under more pressure than ever. I and others have raised before the need to get rid of the in camera rule. I am aware the Minister is doing something at the end of the year, but this possibly needs to happen more quickly because we still have cases going on where so-called experts are giving section 32 and section 47 reports. Sometimes their word is taken as gospel even though they are being paid. Judges take it as gospel. There is no scrutiny of the decisions being made and that needs to have a light shone on it. As a case in point, someone who was at Naas court yesterday for a protection hearing review got in touch to say she was in the 30s on the list, sat for six hours and was told just before 4 p.m.”
“In regard to what is happening in strategic development zones, SDZs, in my area, Clonburris SDZ, there are about 8,000 houses. As I mentioned to the Taoiseach last week, if someone has approval for €480,000 on the affordable housing scheme, the price then goes up to €485,000 and they have to reapply and start again. It is putting a lot of people out of the market. Aside from affordable housing, there should be a special category set aside within a 5 km radius for anyone who has grown up in an area or spent at least ten years there so that people who grew up in an area can continue to live there. It fosters community cohesion when people can live and work near where they grew up with their parents and families and all the supports.”
“This should be done through a carrot-and-stick approach whereby unused vacant units would be penalised but incentives would be provided to redevelop them. There are people on the housing list who have nowhere to go. I said this last week but it is important. There are people on Dublin housing lists who may move down the country but they do not want to take the risk in case they do not like it. They will probably like the better school accommodation and the sense of community and they will regenerate areas, keeping the post offices and the banks open. However, if they feel they are going to lose their place on the Dublin house list, they are not even going to try it. That is why there should be a five-year clawback in that respect. Again, it is a win-win situation.”
“I am all for rural communities being able to build on family land. We had the bungalow blight of the 1970s with poorly designed houses. While I agree with Deputies Collins and Fitzmaurice about having a standard type of house, it has to be a high-quality standard that is energy efficient and can produce its own solar electricity to power electric vehicles, EVs. Let people live and work in rural communities. That would be a win-win for everyone. I praise the croí cónaithe scheme. It has done quite well so far but we need to expand on that. We need to focus microscopically on vacant units in rural towns and villages and allow a conversion scheme where shops have space overhead that has gone derelict.”
“However, there is an opportunity to release some equity by turning the upper floor into a starter home and letting the person already living in the property have the lower floor. That could be a win-win situation for everyone because they would not be moving from the community. There was some talk about this in terms of the garden starter homes which could be the stereotypical granny flats down the line. We need to get a bit looser on that. So many people are forced into building small modular homes on their properties and a huge nut is being cracked in terms of planning regulations. Maybe we need to look at the planning laws at this stage, as Deputy Collins has said, and instead of refusing outright, put in meaningful conditions to make it viable for people to live in the area.”
“I want to re-emphasise my disagreement with the mantra that we have to get overseas investment building the houses. They tend to be high-rent units that consign people to fiscal slavery. They will never be able to afford to get out of that. There are going to be many transients in a lot of areas and a lack of community building. We need to build housing, build communities and put the infrastructure in place alongside that. I have mentioned these examples previously but I will go through a few ideas again. In Dublin's suburbs where there are older demographics, there are four-bedroom houses with one person living in the house. There is nowhere for that person to go to access the services and community network.”
“I support the motion on housing tabled by my colleagues in the Independent Technical Group. This is probably the 20th or 25th discussion on housing that we have had since the start of the year. I worry that as we are almost 10% through the lifetime of this Dáil, we will end up not getting anything done. We need to focus very quickly on putting in some measures that will actually deliver housing. I mentioned last week the call by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, chairman, Sean O'Driscoll, to get real about the infrastructure we need, such as the water services and the electricity grid, to provide for housing. That is one angle we have to look at. We also have to be very creative about where we find the housing. Obviously, a massive number of new-builds are needed.”
“This is a massive change, even from seven or eight years ago, when investment funds were essentially non-existent in the system. Ireland and the UK now have officially the most privatised sectors in Europe. Does this serve the residents, the families and, equally, the Irish taxpayer? With such private, profit-driven ownership now, the onus is on the State to provide a robust system of compliance. The ball is in the Government's court and it is not just about the legislation. It is about ensuring it can be adequately enforced.”
“This will provide a framework for strengthening adult safeguarding structures, processes and supports. The introduction of safeguarding legislation, if it is done properly, will set out some form of adequate safeguarding. Once the legislation is enacted, though, how will it be enforced? What additional actions will take place in terms of funding so that residents' needs are matched with profit maximisation in an increasingly corporate sector? We have heard references during this debate to the rise of investment funds. More than half of all nursing home needs in Ireland in 1990 were public but by 2023, only 16% of them were. The Geary Institute for Public Policy at UCD has highlighted that just ten investment funds now own one third of the nursing home beds in the State.”
“As others have mentioned, the "RTÉ Investigates" programme highlighted the scandalous lack of proper care standards in two nursing homes. However, if people think such incidents in the modern age are confined to The Residence Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin, they have another thing coming. We have all heard stories and, obviously, if they are not in the public domain, we cannot recount them. However, in this context I believe that HIQA, all related agencies and the system in general have failed families for too long. To be constructive, I welcome the fact the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, is finalising an adult safeguarding policy for the health and social care sector, hopefully before the summer recess.”
“I do not know what the legal parameters are - I would like to know - but when it comes to these investment funds coming in, why can the Government not enter into a 50-50 partnership? The Government would then get the return that could be used to purchase more properties down the line.”
“They could be rented out or purchased, for example where post offices and banks are closing. I still cannot see the logic whereby someone who is on a Dublin council housing list cannot move down the country, try out living there, try those better pupil-teacher-ratio schools and see if they can get a job working from home or in the local community. If they do not like it, why can they not have a five-year period on the housing list in order that they can go back to Dublin? No one is going to take a risk for a potential opportunity that would spread the load and put new homes into the market, with incentives for people who own over-the-shop properties. It would be a win-win situation for all. We do not have that. We have restrictions every step of the way.”
“In terms of targeting housing and putting certainty into the market, every housing development should be part of a strategic development zone. This would give certainty as to what communities are going to have. It would give a push to Government. These zones are not always perfect. Clonburris was not as good as Adamstown in my constituency. It would give a little bit of certainty about where areas are going to be built. Six months ago, I mentioned a couple of things. I referred to the issue of allowing people to build in their gardens. There was some talk that the Government was going to move on that, which is very welcome. Aside from croí cónaithe, which I do acknowledge has been welcome, there are still barriers to redeveloping derelict units over shops in towns and villages around the country.”
“The Minister is saying we need to have outside investment to build houses, but these funds set the rents at the top end of the market. They are the ones who push it up. The Government's over-dependence on the HAP scheme means that the taxpayer will be footing the bill for these higher rents for years to come and for those families and individuals who have been evicted and who may find newer properties down the line. The Government is actually subsidising these funds on the double. Many Deputies have asked why the State cannot be the single biggest construction company. It would not have to directly employ builders, but it could set up a scheme whereby it would be in charge and would have a strategic plan.”
“This proposal is basically to kick to touch until next March. There is no cohesive Government strategy that I can see. The Government was put in place in January. Almost six months later, we should have a proper, far-reaching plan, but we do not. We have this proposal, which no one can disagree with in the first instance, to extend the rent pressure zones across the country. I commend the Ministers for doing that much but we are not looking at the bigger picture. What type of landlords want to get out of the market? It is the smaller landlords who inherited properties and who rent them out at a reasonable price. They want no-hassle tenants who they can keep there for ten or 20 years - no bother, lower rent and everyone is happy. These people are being forced out of the market. Meanwhile, a new investment fund can come in from abroad.”
“We saw recently the implementation of the new legislation on e-scooters. It needs to bed in, but I want to lay down a marker for the end of the year. At the moment, if a scooter weighs a maximum of 25 kg, travels at speeds of less than 20 km/h and has a certain wheel diameter, it is considered a personal transporter and not a vehicle that requires licensing. Anecdotally, however, I have seen situations where these 20 km/h scooters are going at speed on footpaths with impunity, as per our discussion on anti-social behaviour last week. In that context, could we look at, by the end of the year, designating them as vehicles that need licences or insurance or having some form of registration plate at the back of them so they can be identified if someone brushes past someone?”
“I note the Newcastle direct service was changed by the NTA after there were plans to abolish it, and the Rathcoole service will now be half hourly rather hourly, so the NTA can move. The old 25 route from Adamstown, which was a direct route into the city, needs to be looked at. It is not good enough that the train service in my area has been getting second-hand carriages from the northern route for two years. We need proper carriages.”
“The overall satisfaction rate of 37% from survey participants has to be qualified by the fact that people with a gripe are more likely to give a negative response but, at the same time, it reflects dissatisfaction with buses not turning up and the lack of faith in the service. If we are trying to get people to use the new expanded spine system, we have to have certainty. The survey also highlighted an issue in areas where there were older people with bus passes and wheelchair users. At present, there is only one wheelchair space on a bus. We have to look at that. Changing a bus is not suitable for these cohorts. We still have to have an early service in the more traditional areas that allows people to get into the city centre.”
“It is good that the Minister is in the Chamber. I have raised transport issues a couple of times when he was not here. I presume some were passed on to him, but I will reiterate a couple. A while back, I raised the need to have an intercity stop at either Adamstown or Kishoge train station. I know that would cause a five-minute delay but there is a lot of demand in this rapidly growing area to get a train directly from Adamstown. A lot of people will not get a train that involves making a 40-minute trip to get to Heuston. It makes sense. I ask for that to be considered in consultation with the NTA. I did a major survey, called "Bus Correct", last year. More than 2,500 people responded. I eventually got a meeting with the acting chief executive of the NTA on foot of that.”
“Saggart does not have sufficient GP services or proper Garda services. In any type of consultation, the first things to be asked include what GP levels, education facilities, types of support and leisure activities are being planned to be on site. All these things should be considered in the discussion before any purchase goes through. While there are no current plans to get rid of the leisure centre and the gym, equally, there is no opportunity for a long-term vision to repurpose this as a major hotel and conference centre again, something that was very valuable to south-west Dublin in the past and I believe should be once again.”
“It should take six months for people to be in and out of the process and for a decision to be made that they are welcome because they are fleeing persecution or - and they might be the nicest people in the world - told "sorry, we do not have the capacity". This is what we are requiring. In terms of this specific location, I am a bit worried about some of the words used, such as there being "no immediate plans to increase the capacity of this site". Reading through that after today's announcement is like hearing it will be increased down the line. There are also issues concerning the "good relationships and operational partnerships in the community". Yes, there have been very good relationships, but there have also been issues of overcrowding in the past and reports of incidents of antisocial behaviour.”
“Regarding the State's requirement to have a number of large-scale IPAS centres, I see the logic of the State trying to buy somewhere rather than pay rent. I believe, however, that such centres need to be purpose-built rather than trying to call a former hotel a suitable campus. I mentioned this to the Taoiseach before. Obviously, we are a welcoming country and many people are fleeing persecution and need our support. Equally, as I pointed out, there are economic migrants abusing the asylum process and these people need to be processed very quickly. Unfortunately, it is taking far too long. If it was not taking so long, we would not need so many IPAS centres.”
“There are no public areas in the Saggart, Citywest and Rathcoole locations where they can put in a lot of council amenities. Adjacent lands have been rezoned under the strategic housing developments. There have been lots of new houses but no facilities. The chance the community had of this hotel being repurposed once again for community need now appears to be gone, unless there is proper engagement and consultation now that the Government is going ahead with this plan.”
“The reality, however, is that this is not a built-for-purpose centre. It is a hotel and conference centre. There is a gym and leisure centre in operation. I note that the Minister said that some things would be allowed to continue. Why could he not have met the residents and gone through all of the issues in advance? That was a fair question and it was not listened to. This was presented as a fait accompli , a big slap in the face. Saggart is one of the fastest growing and youngest areas in the country. Approximately a third of all residents of Saggart are under the age of 15. Another third of Saggart residents were not born in Saggart, which points out that Saggart is a very welcoming and diverse community. However, it does not have the facilities.”
“When I was a councillor, going back to the start of the development plan in 2016, when the owners were looking at getting the land rezoned for large-scale residential, the residents spoke very eloquently and in large numbers about the need to protect the site. Going back to 2015, around its National Asset Management Agency period, the hotel and conference centre was operating as a profitable concern. It then turned into a Covid centre, then became a temporary location for Ukrainian refugees and then moved on to hosting IPAS. The community has been quite balanced in pointing out the pluses and minuses. There have been instances of antisocial behaviour because if you put 2,000 people anywhere, that will be the case. It also has been the case that some of the residents have helped in Tidy Towns and other community events.”
“It is more about telling people what the Government has already done rather than giving people any kind of input. There were calls for the Minister to sit down with residents' groups and representative bodies from the Saggart and Citywest area to talk about the plans. Citywest is not just another location for a permanent IPAS centre. It was the largest hotel and conference centre in Europe. It was the home for many years of the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheiseanna. Because of ramshackle rezoning over the years, it was one of the few community facilities in the wider Rathcoole and Saggart area.”
“The residents of Saggart, Citywest, Rathcoole and adjacent areas today got a huge slap in the face. In very arrogant, dismissive behaviour by the Government, it issued a press statement and then the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy went out onto the plinth and said the State was purchasing the Citywest Hotel. This came with no notice to any of the local elected representatives, not least Deputies Shane Moynihan and Emer Higgins on the Government side. On 22 May last, it first came out in the media that the Government was considering this. Since then, I have put down five parliamentary questions. I asked the Minister what the plans were, whether he could outline them and whether there would be consultation. I even used the term "enhanced consultation" because consultation has not always been such.”
“Social Justice Ireland has suggested it should be a site-valuation tax rather than local property tax but we should really be reducing income taxes proportionately and allowing a proper workable local property tax where people can say, "That paid for services." We have to make a decision. As we do not have that with this legislation, we need something bigger.”
“Elected representatives have seen the powers of local government diminished over the years in many cases and rightly so. We were prevented from material contraventions, for example, because they were abused. There were very cosy relationships with developers and as such it could have been argued back in the day, before councillors were paid a reasonable sum, that the chances of corruption were quite high. Besides the legitimate donations, which I would personally disagree with, I do not believe that any of our elected representatives around the country are taking money now. However, the fact remains that they do not have the power. We need European-style local government with the power to raise real money.”
“Of the remaining amount, €133.5 million comes from commercial rates and €31.5 million from the local property tax, which is a drop in the ocean. When I came back on to the council after being a TD in 2014, for the first five years of my term I consistently voted not to reduce the local property tax by the 15% allowable at the time. We had the somewhat surreal situation of a Fine Gael councillor on the one hand and a Sinn Féin councillor on the other hand both working together to save a few quid for the hard-pressed residents, but missing the fundamental point which was that the Government took with one hand and gave with the other. It would have meant only a small smidgen of extra money by choosing not to reduce it by 15%. The Government is obviously putting a challenge to local elected representatives in situations like that.”
“I have been listening to this debate with some interest. There have been various contributions and Deputy Gibney's would be the most similar to mine in this context. In essence, while this proposal has some merit if it were taken in an isolated way, it is basically tinkering around the edges because we do not have a European-style property tax in Ireland. The way to work this out is simply by looking at the budget for South Dublin County Council, my own council. Its budget for 2025 is an estimated €392 million. It generates an income of €227 million from a range of services and sources, including rents, fees, charges, loan repayments, grants and recoupment, much of which comes directly from the Government.”
“I hope that, between the Minister, Deputy Chambers, the Taoiseach and the rest of Cabinet, multi-annual funding will be put firmly at the heart of this plan so we can get moving on what is required.”
“To follow up on transport infrastructure, Mr. O'Driscoll mentioned, for example, the impact in terms of future jobs at Apple because of the road interlink and public transport links. It is a similar thing with Galway in terms of the ring road. As someone with a green background, I acknowledge the need for the ring road but obviously there is a need to put more investment into public transport alternatives in the first instance. This action plan is coming by 1 July, which means the Cabinet will be deciding, I hope by the recess, what the priorities are going to be for the next couple of years in respect of the task force. If multi-annual funding is not firmly on the table at that stage, we might as well say "Goodbye" to the whole thing and it will be, as Mr. O'Driscoll said, just another talking shop.”
“Will the Taoiseach commit that the Government will agree to set out a multi-annual funding structure, which will also give certainty to the training colleges in order to start recruiting the homegrown staff we need?”
“Can I get a commitment from the Taoiseach that, for the first time in the history of the State, we will have a proper structure of multi-annual funding? We see local councils with a three-year rolling capital programme. Why can we not set out a five-year rolling capital programme for infrastructural projects such as water and the grid? I am digressing slightly, but we talk about AI technology. That will use a lot more energy when we have many more data storage companies coming in, and the income potential of that. We cannot have that and also have electricity supply and build houses. We have the potential to be a major energy exporter in terms of converted hydrogen and stored electricity, which also feeds into the housing situation.”
“He said the bar for judicial reviews was far too low. He spoke about the need to extend the Part 8 planning permissions enjoyed by local councils and to tell the EU that Ireland had an infrastructure emergency to overcome regulation and red tape. What I would like to focus on is the need to secure multi-annual funding for utilities and major projects. I am referring to water services, our national grid and some other areas. It was said was that tough, brave and exceptional decisions were needed. We need a commitment. The CEO of Uisce Éireann and the managing director of ESB Networks are on this task force but there is no sign that the required legislative changes are going to be agreed by the 1 July target. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, has reportedly said that nothing is ruled in or out and everything is on the table.”
“We are talking about housing and targets. As Opposition Members have stated, the targets are not being reached. Let us not get into the semantics of whether they will be reached, because what will stop them being reached is infrastructure. We have a situation in Clonshaugh where planned housing is going to be delayed due to a lack of water services. In this context, it was interesting to listen to the ESRI chairman, Mr. Sean O'Driscoll, who is a member of the new infrastructure task force. Credit to the Government for setting this up. However, the fact that Mr. O'Driscoll came out on the record and spoke in a personal capacity shows a certain element of trepidation, at least on his behalf and possibly among other members. He addressed issues such as judicial reviews and planning delays.”
“However, it must be said in that context that we still have a bit of work to do in terms of our investment in STEM and encouraging girls in particular to get involved. Statistics show that in many cases girls outperform boys but there is a confidence issue and not enough women are taking STEM subjects. We need to maximise our own home-grown talent but CERN membership also provides us with the opportunity to bring talent into Ireland. Indeed, many US researchers might find Ireland a more attractive proposition now. Well done to all.”
“It was in the news back in 2012 when the Higgs boson, which was hypothesised back in the 1960s, was formally identified in its nature at the CERN facility. Ireland was already involved in various collaborations including universal research participation experiments and engagement in related fields like computer science and medical physics but this partnership opens the door further for Irish researchers, engineers and students. As others have said, there will be great opportunities for our students to collaborate on cutting-edge experiments and contribute to scientific achievements. Our universities can have more formal and widespread participation in CERN projects which will strengthen our STEM potential.”
“Ireland's associate membership of CERN is a fantastic step forward in science, technology and innovation in this country. As a TD, I was happy to be able to offer a pairing to the Minister during his recent visit. Great thanks is due to the Minister and his team for facilitating this associate agreement. Well done to all. As an associate member we will have access to what is one of the world's most advanced research institutions in particle physics where, without over-exaggerating, the building blocks of the universe are explored and groundbreaking discoveries are made. Most of us will be familiar with the Large Hadron Collider which is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, with 27 km of tunnel used to study fundamental particles and interactions.”
“We need to tackle the causes but, equally, the parents of a child who has been attacked or a pregnant lady, for example, who has been attacked will want to know what the consequences are. Sometimes these guys are parading themselves on social media and there could be 11 or 12 incidents before anything happens. There needs to be tougher, on-the-spot type of stuff, whether it is curfews, seizing scooters, seizing PlayStations or fining their parents. We need to add that into the mix so that they know there are first-hand repercussions rather than waiting a year to get through the system.”
“As the Taoiseach said, the schools are doing a great job. It is mainly female teachers in primary schools, and they are the ones who are getting misogynistic abuse at sixth-class level. We have had different debates about that. The Taoiseach mentioned the community safety partnerships. I wish they would hurry up and get them set up because there is a deficit there, including in communities that are not designated as disadvantaged but have areas of disadvantage within them. They need to be widespread to cover that area. I am a big believer in early years education because, as the HighScope Perry Preschool Project proves, every €1 invested gives a €17 return.”
“We know there are root causes and I have raised those root causes previously but if someone does something, where are the consequences?”