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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“Ba cheart go mbeadh an scrúdú béil i gcroílár an mheasúnaithe nó go mbeadh an Ghaeilge labhartha ar fáil mar ábhar ann féin. Má mhúinimid dár ndaoine óga conas an teanga a labhairt le muinín, mairfidh sí. Bheadh níos mó daoine ag labhairt na Gaeilge gach lá dá mbeadh an Ghaeilge labhartha mar ábhar sna scoileanna. Má fhanann sí mar ábhar acadúil ar pháipéar amháin, meathfaidh sí. Mar sin, cé go dtacaím leis an maoiniú nua, tá tuilleadh de dhíth. Teastaíonn uainn go mbeidh an Ghaeilge le cloisteáil tar éis seo i ngach sráid, i ngach club spóirt agus i ngach teach, is cuma más laistigh nó lasmuigh den Ghaeltacht iad. Beimid ag labhairt faoi thithe sa Ghaeltacht níos déanaí. Is ábhar eile é sin. Tá an Ghaeilge á labhairt ar fud na tíre. Níl sé just tábhachtach sa Ghaeltacht.”
“Fuair mé ríomhphost ó dhalta a théann go stí Coláiste Cois Life ag lorg freagra ar cad é an ardpholasaí atá againn faoin nGaeilge. Tá mé ag labhairt faoin ábhar sin anocht agus beidh mé ag teacht ar ais chuige freisin. Go minic, mothaíonn daoine sna háiteanna seo go ndéantar dearmad orthu. Is gá le hinfheistíocht spriocdhírithe i gcroí na bpobal seo chun spásanna sóisialta agus tacaíocht phraiticiúil a chur ar fáil do dhaoine ar mian leo an teanga a úsáid gach lá; saghas campas Gaeilge i mo Dháilcheantar, mar shampla. Ní teanga i leabhar amháin í an Ghaeilge; is teanga bheo í. Is é sin an fáth nach mór dúinn díriú i bhfad níos mó ar an nGaeilge labhartha. Maidir leis an ardteistiméireacht, tá sé in am athrú bunúsach a dhéanamh.”
“Ar dtús, tá sé soiléir go raibh imní mhór ag go leor daoine an bhliain seo caite nuair a chonaiceamar ciorruithe ar chiste teanga na Gaeilge. Go mórmhór, chuala mé Conradh na Gaeilge ag labhairt faoi seo. Ar an gcéad dul síos, cuirim fáilte bheag roimh an infheistíocht bhreise atá fógartha i mbuiséad 2026 do TG4, d'Údarás na Gaeltachta agus don phleanáil teanga ar fud na tíre. Is céim dhearfach í seo, ach caithfimid a bheith macánta freisin - níl an obair ach tosaithe. Tá géarchéim fós ann, go háirithe do phobail lasmuigh den Ghaeltacht. Tá na mílte cainteoirí Gaeilge ina gcónaí i mbailte agus i gcathracha ar fud na hÉireann, lena n-áirítear Cluain Dolcáin, líonra Gaeilge i mo Dháilcheantar féin ina bhfuil an Ghaeilge á labhairt in áit éigin gach lá. Is sampla eile é Leamhcán, áit ina bhfuil líon na gcainteoirí ag dul i méid.”
“It would be great to get a timeframe as to whether the Government will definitely be doing it this year and if it will be introducing a simple ISA-style investment account, which, I suggest, could be purposed towards providing funding to help build housing or critical infrastructure. Is that being considered?”
“The Tánaiste's party campaigned in the run up to the general election to review and remove the eight-year deemed disposal requirement for Irish domiciled funds and life products. As he will be aware - but, just for everyone else's benefit - the system taxes people 38% every eight years on gains they have not made yet. This was reduced slightly in the budget, but it is still regressive and in practice might be pushing ordinary savers into property investments when they could be funding worthwhile projects, especially if a wider number of schemes were to be introduced. I understand that some progress on this matter may be made through the taxation of retail investment.”
“In doing so, it sometimes puts the school at risk because the reason a child requires an SNA in the first place is not taken into account. I would seriously question the reason SNAs are being asked about their day-to-day work when it is educational psychologists who assess a child's needs. The SNA is then allocated on the basis of the identified needs. SNAs, who have level 5 qualifications, often want to progress their career pathways but they are absolutely not educational psychologists. Interviewing SNAs is not the way to go, if that is the case. I call on the Minister and her colleagues in government to urgently revisit the allocations beyond 2027 so that nobody loses out the year after, and to engage meaningfully with the educators on the ground who understand the absolute and often urgent needs of the child.”
“If we are increasing the numbers, there should not be anyone seeing a decrease or anyone having to scramble for cover. Children have many complex diagnoses. We cannot suddenly say that a child does not need that level of support any more. If a review results in vulnerable children losing access to support, the model is not working. Maybe this pause or stop until the bigger picture is looked at next year shows that. In this context, I want to raise an issue. I am not absolutely sure how it is actually working. My understanding is that officials are going out and asking SNAs to tell them about their day. The SNA will say they put little Johnny's coat on, they had to bring little Jane to the toilet - just normal conversation.”
“We can never pretend that a national increase is going to give that support on the ground. What matters to a parent or the child is whether the school has the staff numbers to meet their needs. Sometimes it is necessary to share an SNA and the nature of that sharing can change for day-to-day purposes. There are a lot of challenges for kids who require supports. Every time I have spoken with teachers, staff and parents, the same story is coming through. Children who previously had a dedicated support were being asked to share an SNA, were seeing the SNA being taken away or were being asked to do more with less, basically. The question is whether this new model the Government is articulating really is more equitable and focused on the needs of the child.”
“There has been great frustration, as articulated by my colleagues, felt in communities across the country following the recent announced reviews of the special SNA allocations. That includes many schools in my constituency. One of the largest reductions was to be in St. Andrew's National School, but quite a few other schools were affected as well. Thankfully, that has been halted for now. The Government has repeatedly stated that the overall number of SNAs is increasing. In absolute terms, it is true that the national figure has gone up. However, that headline does not always reflect the lived reality in many schools that would have seen their allocations cut as a direct result of what appears to be a very arbitrary review which does not take the needs of the child into account.”
“He said this was completely unacceptable and I am sure the Minister would agree. Will he also agree to write or get the Taoiseach to write to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions asking if it has a formal review mechanism for examining the processes by which forensic psychiatric opinions are compiled, whether consideration has been given to establishing clearer standards or oversight structures and to seek clarity as to whether the DPP is satisfied international best practice is being implemented in these situations?”
“I had hoped to speak to the Taoiseach but he had to leave. Following up on an issue I raised with the Taoiseach on 27 January last, it appears that a lot of forensic psychiatrists in Ireland do not want to get involved in cases involving the killing of family members by loved ones. It appears to be related to calls for a review of processes and the whole uncertainty around that. This was reflected at a recent Central Criminal Court hearing where Mr. Justice Paul McDermott said there were serious deficiencies in obtaining consultant psychiatric reports, and repeated delays in seeking appropriate forensic experts, leading to situations where families were forced to return to court over a dozen times because the State could not appoint a suitable forensic specialist.”
“As I have mentioned in regard to gardaí and nurses, there should be some sort of short-term gap where people can live in the area where they are trying to set up a practice as part of a shared scheme with others. Otherwise it is going to be financially unsustainable. We also need proper career pathways which they have in places like Australia and New Zealand. We do not seem to have that in Ireland. We need to look at an awful lot of the administrative paperwork as well.”
“Those sorts of supports need to be provided. Equally, there are GPs who want to work within the health service and have regular hours, even if that is weekend rosters and shifts. We need to focus on employing more GPs directly. A lot of GPs are emigrating. That is a serious issue in terms of the money spent on them and getting a return. It is also a huge brain drain. We are bringing in well-qualified imports. While we would not have a service without a lot of foreign doctors, it does not make sense to be shipping out Irish people. In that context, we need to look at improving the working conditions, providing incentives in terms of training and trying to address housing.”
“I am aware that GP training places have increased over the years but, as my colleagues said in the House, it has not matched the population increase. I come from a constituency that has a huge deficit of GP services, especially in rapidly growing strategic development zones, SDZs, areas like Adamstown and Clonburris, and in rapidly growing areas like Citywest and Saggart. While GPs historically have been self-motivated private operators, they have not got the assistance for the modern age. I am talking about buildings they can actually move into. Historically, the GP was in a house. They lived in the house with their family, and had a separate area where they built up their practice. If they had to move out later on, they were able to do that. There are no supports in SDZs in terms of finding affordable premises.”
“In the context of Dublin, people talk about the lack of opportunities for shops to stay open with people working from home. That is because planning is done badly. We need to actually build more houses in Dublin so people can actually live and work here and replace that type of commuter.”
“There are certainly different circumstances where people cannot and will never be able to work from home but there are so many others where they can. It impacts in built-up suburban areas like in Dublin where so many people are caught up in congestion. However, as Members from more rural constituencies have pointed out, it also brings jobs and opportunities and keeps people in local communities. I have mentioned previously the practice of allowing software companies that have a lot of international employees to continue to set up shop in Dublin. They should be decentralised around the country, using broadband technology to be able to work from home or else use hubs and create the extra school places that are required.”
“The 2023 legislation introduced by the Government was a good first step but it needs to go further. Employers have to give a written reason they are refusing it if the right to request is used. However, in the Farrell v. Salesforce case in 2025, the WRC upheld a complaint because the employer did not respond within four weeks in terms of the deadline. The employee got €1,000 in compensation. It shows that the law has some effect. However, we need to go further because we are falling behind countries like Spain and Portugal that have much more robust right to work from home legislation as well as the right to disconnect. This Bill brings it to the next level. We definitely need to have more opportunities.”
“Separately, the Department should go back to the drawing board and have further discussions because some of the arguments being used do not wash when they are added up. Ultimately, we are looking out for the best interests of the children, both those going into the ASD classes and the 500-plus students who use the existing amenity.”
“Notwithstanding that, it is equally important that green space should not be built on. The response that there will still be green space does not take away from the fact that the pitch will be gone for those junior kids. There is not enough green space left for a junior-size GAA, rugby or soccer match if that is eaten into. A lot of schools in the Lucan area do not even have a pitch, but taking this space away to make it like every other school is not the way to treat a school community. That is a huge resource and, with a little bit of joined-up thinking, we could still get the modular buildings in. I ask the Minister of State to reconsider this from a cost-effectiveness point of view and build these three units together holistically.”
“As I said, I know the area very well. The consultants for the school pointed out that the entire site is within the riparian corridor. What the Department of education is proposing and what the school proposed are both within that. That, therefore, cannot be used as a viable excuse for not looking at an alternate site. The school is worried that the three ASD classes will be disjointed if two are at the front of the school and one is at the rear. Basically, in the context of value for money, money is being thrown down the drain for works that will be required down the line, possibly at greater cost, if this is not looked at now. There are two separate things to look at in this regard. First, it is common sense to have the three buildings conjoined and the works carried out in a cost-effective way.”
“It had done a consultant's report last summer and put in proposals. At the meeting, the Department basically said the other application is not a priority and the only priority is the two modular buildings that have been sanctioned. The Department gave the board until last Friday to confirm whether it consents and stated that if the school disagrees with the proposal, it will have to talk to the patron and consider taking legal action. That is a very negative way to deal with a school that is only trying to look after the health, safety and well-being of all its more than 500 pupils. Surely, we need a solution that works for everyone, to keep at it until we find something and not to get rid of that pitch.”
“The school's preferred option was at the back of the school in the tarmac part of the yard so it could keep the ball wall and the pitch. The Department came back and suggested an alternative site. It wants to eat into the grass pitch. The school suggested the two modular units be located close to an existing prefab in need of refurbishment. At a meeting with the school, the Department said the application to refurbish this other building is totally separate; however, there is a synergy involved because it is putting all the children in one area and providing access to the amenities in one location. There are many benefits to that. Crucially, it does not go onto the pitch. That is the nub of the issue. We have had discussions. There was an online meeting with the Department on 6 February. It did not go the way the school had hoped.”
“During Covid, anyone within 2 km was down on that pitch. Kids were running around, keeping their distance. One of the local GAA clubs uses the ball wall and the pitches regularly. Cumann na mBunscol matches are on. There are many amenities on the site when it is not raining. The school community has been hugely welcoming in terms of trying to get the two modular buildings for children with autism spectrum disorder, ASD. The issue is the discussions with the Department have not gone the way the school anticipated. It is on a very sensitive site because it is beside the special amenity area for the Liffey Valley. It is a flood risk of close to one in 1,000 years but it is a walled school which has its own natural safety features. The design of any type of building could keep flood risks at bay.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I am aware the Minister, Deputy Naughton, cannot be here tonight and has indicated the same. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, will pass on my sentiments. I know he will have a prepared statement from the Minister. I will provide context for the Minister of State and to put it on the record. St. Mary's Boys' National School is a popular primary school in the old Lucan area with over 500 students. It was initially a small, traditional-type school and then in the 1970s they built a three-storey building. I attended that school, as did my son, so I am hugely familiar with it. It is down in a valley. It is antiquated in some ways, though they have had a couple of modular buildings added onto it. It is the envy of many other schools because of the playing pitch it has. This is a huge amenity.”
“We do still have cosy relations between politicians and developers at an individual level, however, and we have to think about having a cosier relationship with our constituents – the people who are suffering through increased prices and rents – and think about their common good and everyone’s well-being. That is why I support the amendments. I support the concept of this Bill but we need to look at it more from the perspective of the individual or family living in the house rather than the people making the profit out of it.”
“All that money is coming from one source but it is going to the developers and the big investor funds - the institutional landlords. They are the ones siphoning our collective money away. That is why we need to look at housing as a social enterprise rather than for-profit. This Bill does make an attempt to do a noble thing. I will not get into attacks on the Government where people say it has no compassion or that everyone is in the pockets of investors. Although historically Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have received a lot of largesse from developers, I believe that has died down as a result of legislation that has been brought in.”
“The small landlord wants an easy life and they are the type of people we should be encouraging to stay in the market and not the massive investors who are treating it as an income stream. The latter might be more efficient in terms of managing multiple property units but they will keep pushing up the prices. It is about affordability. As these smaller landlords are selling up, a lot of the homeless hubs are full and overcrowded, so when the tenant eventually finds a new place the rents have gone up massively and they may not be able to afford to pay those rents. If they are able to pay, it will be with the assistance of the local authority which in years to come will need increased HAP thresholds and payments, and that will come from taxpayers' money and State money, to keep the system going.”
“There may be a number of TDs with one property although I know there are TDs with multiple properties where it is a business. I have been dealing with a lot of these types of landlords. From talking to people, the smaller landlord is the one who wants someone to mind the property for them. They often treat the second property as their own because they have inherited it or it is an investment so that when they are in retirement age they have a steady income. They might let a company manage it and they get a percentage of it. They would prefer to have a lower rent but with very steady tenants because, as well as the nightmare, greedy, obnoxious, unrelenting landlords, you also have a minority of tenants who are nightmare tenants.”
“I have already mentioned that the Residential Tenancies Board is massively underfunded. It is 18 months since I submitted a case about a very dodgy landlord who has multiple properties, is in breach of multiple planning regulations and is not registered with the RTB, and there has been no comeback. I am sure that situation is multiplied throughout my constituency and everyone else's as well. We do not have those checks and balances. We have what in a sense is an attempt by the Government to do something visionary and be seen to tackle the crisis. It sets a new market rate and there is the 2% cap going forward. It looks very good in principle. However, let us take the smaller landlords, for example. I am thinking of a person who owns one property.”
“There is no absolute clarity on whether a house would be deemed unsuitable because there might be, say, an extra child or a boy and girl and then all of a sudden there is overcrowding. The landlord can tick a box and they have an excuse to get them out and then look at ways they can increase their income. Those types of unknowns are very worrying. The one I mentioned on Second Stage was the mindset of landlords trying to find a way. They might think, “Sure I have a family member. We’ll try to get them into the house for a couple of months and that will cover the family need.” I also raised the issue, which was not answered, around enforcement. How do we know the properties are meeting the family need criteria? How many extra people will be employed to investigate it, for example?”
“In Lucan, South Dublin County Council, in its wisdom, did not have its social enterprise company tender for the operation of the swimming pool. Instead, it was let out to a company called Aura Leisure, which is very successful and competent in its own field. However, there was no underlying subsidy. Now we have a public pool where people are paying commercial prices because it was left up to a commercial operator to manage it. In every situation where you bring in a cut, the developer or investor will take a much bigger cut than the Government or local authority would take in terms of the common good. I also refer to what others have said about the incentive to end tenancies sooner than would otherwise be the case. I think Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about the situation in relation to an extra family member.”
“Successive governments have argued against that idea, saying it is not feasible, might breach the Stability and Growth Pact, etc. However, we need to look at the actual cost of housing delivery. We have not had a serious discussion about having a State real estate investment trust whereby people, through the credit union or some other means, would contribute towards the purchase or construction of housing. They would be stakeholders but it would be a social enterprise. There may be a return on the investment but it would be a lot less than the super-profits these companies are going to make. This approach would lead to affordable rents going forward because if it is left to the private market, the market will take its toll. I will digress slightly but the same principle applies.”
“The council is saying, however, that it is an existing tenancy, so the person, once they are evicted, will get the homeless HAP but they are now going to have to pay a much higher rent and the State is going to have to pay a much higher rent. The cost of HAP this year will be, I think, over €570 million. If that €570 million was used to build houses, we would get between 4,000 and 6,000 houses, which is not the number of houses needed. If you were trying to develop a system, you would not have brought in HAP in the first place, but we are kind of stuck with it now. That is the problem. As rents rise and people cannot afford to pay them, the taxpayer will essentially foot the bill. We have had various suggestions about housing, including that the State should become the single biggest developer.”
“I get the concept that the State needs to get other people building and more supply into the market. Eventually, that supply will, hopefully, stabilise prices or bring them down but there is a huge question over the market reset, as proposed here. There could have been a happy medium in which some form of an increase was provided but it was capped, rather than being entirely a so-called market increase, because, as others have said, housing should never be just left to the markets. It is about people's daily lives. I have a constituent who has fallen into arrears because it took them a long time to get a housing assistance payment. They are now asking if the local authority can give them homeless HAP because the landlord has indicated that they will take the homeless HAP if the council pays and the tenant they cannot pay the rent.”
“I wanted to get onto the housing committee. I am not a member of the committee but I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill again and support the amendments that were tabled, which relate to reviews, reports and caps. I have already said that I support the Bill in principle and the concept behind it but what is being proposed raises so many questions and concerns that, as others have mentioned, it is hugely unlikely to do what it is intended to, unless the intention is purely to increase supply and increase the profits of large developers and real estate investment trusts that are largely from outside the country. To give an example, I see the logic of providing exemptions for new builds linked solely to the consumer price index to try to get more construction going.”
“In that context, will the Taoiseach explore the use of these devices in circumstances where a business could notify the gardaí of antisocial behaviour and indicate that it is switching one on but stop them from being used to prevent innocent teenagers from hanging around and enjoying time with their friends?”
“The Taoiseach is probably aware of the Mosquito - an ultrasonic, high-frequency device that is designed to deter loitering teenagers. It emits a kind of buzzing sound that can only be heard by people under the age of 25. Use of this device seems to be increasing again. My understanding is that noise can be considered an assault under section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997, so businesses should be careful about using it, although I am not sure if there have ever been any prosecutions. I would have been instinctively against the use of the Mosquito in the past from a human rights perspective, but there may be specific instances of ongoing antisocial behaviour where they could possibly be used.”
“We need to get the hydrogen network operator appointed. Will the Taoiseach commit to these small steps in order that we can keep on track?”
“It is about using this time to try to keep the country on track in relation to the 2025 national hydrogen implementation plan and its 21 key objectives. For example, we are trying to get the potential routes to market for up to 2 GW of hydrogen production from offshore wind by 2030. I acknowledge the challenges in ramping up our offshore wind, but we already have excess capacity at peak times that cannot be used. If this were used, it could push energy prices down and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels further in terms of both the wider climate change debate and our energy security in a very dangerous world. We need to ramp up whatever we can. We could start at least one hydrogen hub based on existing renewable energy production. That is why we need to get the hydrogen innovation fund in place by next year as planned.”
“I would like a commitment on how soon we can get a hydrogen network operator for Ireland appointed and on getting the pre-planning for the appointment of a safety and economic regulator for hydrogen here done.”
“In the context of reaching our 2030 targets, we are already falling behind. I will digress by saying that we also need battery storage, but hydrogen is going to be key. Off the Dublin coast, on the Kish Bank, there are salt caverns and off the coast of the constituency the Taoiseach represents are depleted gas fields. There is huge potential to store green hydrogen created from renewables with the lowest possible loss from the initial energy generated. We could store green hydrogen for use by industry and aviation. We could be net exporters of hydrogen as well as other forms of energy, such as electricity, very quickly, if we put in the necessary infrastructure right now and ramp up.”
“We have the potential to create 37 GW of offshore wind by 2050 and possibly another 15 GW of onshore wind and solar. That is before we even look at areas such as tidal, which the east coast and the Shannon Estuary have an abundance of, and wave energy. We are sadly lacking in that regard. As a result of grid challenges and the fact we cannot store the energy produced by renewables at their peak, we are wasting a lot of energy. Many hard-pressed consumers in my constituency are struggling to pay their bills. It is a huge waste to see all that renewable energy being produced but not being used and dissipating. The answer in this regard is the creation and storage of green hydrogen. In that context, we have a hydrogen strategy that was initiated in 2023 and a hydrogen plan containing 21 key recommendations that was brought forward in 2025.”
“I also acknowledge the presence of the Canadian ambassador, H. E. Mr. King. On a personal level, I thank the Prime Minister of his country for the leadership he has shown at Davos and elsewhere in standing up to buffoonery and a lack of common sense internationally. In particular, I offer my condolences to his country, especially the families of those killed and injured at Tumbler Ridge. The specific matter I want to raise is hydrogen, but I want to talk about the broader picture first. From listening to a lot of the debates here, I can see the amount of hot air generated. If we put a little turbine at the top of the House, we would be able to light up all of Dublin sometimes. I am a firm believer in investment in renewable energy. We are way behind where we could be.”
“We should be rewilding, planting more trees, which create the soakage, and allowing natural river plains to spread out. We will lose a lot of acreage but we may have a more sustainable way of life for the country going forward. Otherwise, we are going to be spending multiple billions of euro to deal with sticking plasters when we should be looking at the root cause and trying to tackle it as quickly and as early as possible.”
“We need to have some sort of water storage and proper drainage for grass pitches and all-weather pitches in our communities. However, that is a separate debate. I do not believe that, as a country, we are taking the issue of future flooding seriously enough. It is all about crisis management and putting into place plans that were supposed to be in place 20 years ago and we are looking at it on a community-by-community basis. We are saying Midleton and we are saying Fermoy. That is all welcome and they all need the flood alleviation but we are not looking at the long-term picture that we are going to be fighting crisis flooding for the next couple of centuries. We must look at retrenchment. We have to look at where we are building and where we should not build. We are not looking at that enough.”
“As it stands, we have seen communities around the country - the Celtic tiger was the height of it, but it still happens, including in my constituency - such as the Clonburris SDZ, where, when I was a councillor, we tried to put 442 houses away from a floodplain and put in GAA pitches, which would have served for six to nine months of the year, then building higher at a train station. Unfortunately, certain councillors voted against us on that, so now we are adding to the amount of water going into the River Griffeen and we will see flood instances down the road again. I might be digressing but, even though it is kind of counter-intuitive, we need to look at a strategy for all-weather pitches because more and more of the GAA, rugby and soccer pitches are being waterlogged.”
“One of the points is about rewilding and replanting, but I would like to see a little more on that. We have decimated our native forests. Where we have replanted trees we have put in conifers. We are talking about Irish beef being better than Brazilian beef and getting into this big argument. Personally, I believe that if we are polluting the rivers by getting a nitrates derogation to be exporting beef, we are still on the wrong side. We have got rid of a lot of land that used to be a natural floodplain to use it for grazing to produce inefficient beef when we do very little from the tillage end. On the planning side of things, we are not looking seriously enough at green roofs on buildings in terms of soakage.”
“When you look at the likes of Dublin, from a housing perspective, as I have said before, but equally from a flood perspective, we need to start to go up and we need to start building houses on stilts. We should look at what is happening in the Netherlands and plan for future inundations in areas of high population density. At the same time, one-in-a-hundred-year floods are now one-in-20-year floods, and with the rainfall affecting a lot of the rivers around our country, we will have the same level of inundation. In my constituency we have had several unanticipated floods over the past two decades and it will only get worse. That is because of policy. I note there is a €1.3 billion plan to look at flooding around the country and at alleviation.”
“Looking at the bigger picture, in 30 years' time, in 2056, it is estimated that the sea level will have risen by up to half a metre, so we are talking about a lot of land along the coast that will be decimated no matter what we do, no matter how many Y-shaped concrete structures we put in. In terms of being strategic with that climate change risk, we have to look at certain areas that will have to be lost to the sea, like they have done on the east coast of Great Britain, and strategically retreat from certain areas. We have to say to people, "We are going to pay for you to have a brand-new insulated house but a little further back." Then we have to focus on the areas we can actually protect rather than trying to fight the indefensible.”
“The creation should be banned, if it is possible to enforce, because AI has made these types of abuse dramatically easier. Deep fakes can be created from a single photograph. Child abuse imagery can be created without a real child being present and there are nudified versions of ordinary photographs. The second part of the Bill, which I welcome, changes the time for bringing a case from two to five years. Victims often discover the abuse long after it happens, so that is crucial. We need to be able to get at the individuals who are creating and disseminating the images and, as others have said, go after the companies. They are getting away too easily in Ireland and relatively easily in the European Union. We have to do it collectively as a federation of states.”