Pauline Tully
Cultural and Educational Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I acknowledge that there have been huge improvements on what is available for women, compared with a few years ago when there was nothing, but still far too often conditions affecting women are seen as a specialty or mystery when there is a range of supports and advice that women could receive through primary and community care services.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care.”
“We need to look at a better public transport system, especially looking after our older people in isolated communities. Even to support our rural pub, we need to look at some sort of incentive for a taxi service that is affordable for people, so we can maintain our rural pubs and look after our older people.”
“Community and voluntary services on the ground, which are vital for providing supports and services to many sectors of the community, including older people and younger people, are not seeing sufficient funding to help them to keep running, to recruit and retain staff within the youth sector, for example, to maintain buildings if they hav…”
“The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in thei…”
“Sláintecare is being rolled out too slowly, so we need to see proper resourcing of community healthcare. It avoids people ending up in acute healthcare settings, which are overcrowded. I see a dangerous trend where many people are being referred from areas such as Cavan and Monaghan to Dublin for acute care.”
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“It has let a lot of people down as it now seems that will be over the course of the Government's term. That is not what the original promise was. On capacity, there are two issues. One is to do with actual physical space. We are talking about new builds or extensions. They all take time. We need to be able to acquire vacant property now and have it restored. However, that is no good without the staff. Everybody has highly commended the early years educators, and I add to that. They are wonderful but they are not paid sufficiently for the job they do, and they are leaving in droves because of the cost of living. They cannot afford to live in the job they love and are qualified to do. They are leaving and taking up other positions. We need to treat this seriously and we need to treat it urgently.”
“First, I thank the Minister and Minister of State for their attendance, and everybody else who contributed to this debate. Our motion called for two things. The first concerned the cost and the other was to do with capacity within the system. Many people have made the point that the costs have reduced significantly. They have reduced for some, but not for all. There are still parents paying huge fees. Senator Harmon spoke about somebody paying €2,000. It is outrageous that any parent would have to do that. As it is, they are being forced to decide if they should give up work or studies or whatever it is, because they cannot afford to pay it. We need a system where all of the fees are capped, as was promised in the election last year when the Government said it would introduce €200 per month childcare fees.”
“We need those issues tackled, as well as the capacity issue, to ensure every child has an opportunity to avail of early childhood education and that parents are able to work after maternity leave and are not coming into my office in tears because they cannot go back to work and must stay at home and look after the children because they cannot find suitable childcare.”
“I cannot see how that is going to address the capacity issues that currently exist. Senator Kyne submitted an amendment to the motion. Part of it "acknowledges that there continues to be evidence of some families having difficulty finding appropriate places at a cost that is affordable". We have 40,000 children on waiting lists. How can the Senator say it is only some families? It is a huge waiting list. I have referenced the cost. Nothing was done in the budget about the cost for families. Nothing was done in the budget about pay for educators.”
“What better place to put our childcare facilities than embedded in a village or a town? These buildings have been constructed. Some of them are not in bad condition and could easily and very quickly be turned around to be suitable for the provision of early education. It would be a much faster solution. In the budget there was talk about extending schools and community centres, but the Minister was previously Minister for Education and she knows there are schools waiting for additional classrooms that are urgently needed, yet they are left waiting years for those to progress through the building section of the Department. We need classrooms for children with additional needs who cannot be educated locally because those classrooms and that space is not available.”
“We should ensure there is outdoor play and inclusivity in all of them as standard and recognise early years as part of our public education continuum. If we invest in childcare, we are investing in children, in equality and in the future economy. Every euro spent on quality early education will return multiple times in social and economic benefits in the years to come. I mentioned capacity and there are issues with that. In some cases, it is a shortage of physical space and in others, it is a shortage of staff. The building blocks scheme is a good one but it is for existing providers to extend their premises or buy or construct new buildings. Could this not be extended to new providers in the system and to include existing buildings? We have a huge level of vacancy, especially in our towns and villages.”
“As I referenced, other countries are doing it and we need to look at that and ensure we are delivering it here as well. We have a public healthcare system. It might not always work as we want it to work, but it is there and it works pretty well in most cases. We also have a public education system and that works really well, so we need to model early childhood education on that. It will mean long-term planning as it is not going to happen overnight. We need to look at capital planning for areas where there is need. We need to integrate better with our schools, our communities and our local authorities. We also need to embed Irish-medium provision as a core element within early childhood education.”
“That means our early educators, some of whom have level 7 and level 8 degrees, are only receiving 75 cent per hour above the national minimum wage. We need to look at better pay for them. Many of them are leaving the sector - and that is one of the issues with capacity that I will deal with further later – but they are leaving and going into teaching or into schools as SNAs. We need highly-qualified personnel within our childcare model to ensure we deliver the quality our children need. A public model of childcare will guarantee access, quality and affordability in every community. I want to ensure every child gets fairness in our childcare model regardless of their parents’ income or address. We want to see every child accessing high-quality early childhood education and care. It is achievable.”
“Maybe the Minister could update us on that because I am not aware of anything having begun and it needs to begin as soon as possible. I urge the Government to examine the public model and investigate it. I am not saying it is a simple case of rolling something out as there are different models in other countries that could be looked at for ideas. If we have a public model of childcare that includes early education and after-school care, it will deliver affordability for parents and families and will give sustainability to providers, but it will also give quality for children and staff. On our early educators, as of their latest wage increase, they are on €15 per hour. The national minimum wage is due to rise in January to €14.50.”
“While they cannot access core funding, a lot of them are not accessing the national childcare scheme. I think there are fewer than 150 registered nationally. We need to examine why that is and how we can bring more childminders on board so we can reduce fees. Throughout last year’s general election campaign the then Taoiseach, Deputy Harris made continual references to a public childcare model being a key priority of Fine Gael were it to be returned to government. The programme for Government seems to have stepped away from this and instead commits the Government to "...undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education ... system ..." and add State-led capacity where needed. I do not think that consultation has started.”
“Some countries, like Norway and Finland in particular, have led the way where they have a publicly led childcare system. That has seen costs to parents fall dramatically. It is something that we should be looking at in this country as well. I note that there are a number of private operators that are not in core funding. Therefore, the families accessing those services are not benefiting from the reductions that they get through the national childcare scheme and core funding. What are the barriers or what can we do to ensure that all private operators are brought on board? Some were in core funding and left it. Some of that is to do with the bureaucracy involved or the fact fees were frozen while they were still quite low. Some parents choose to have their children minded by a childminder.”
“Last year, prior to the alternative budget, we in Sinn Féin announced that we would advocate for €10 per child per day in childcare. This is something that was taken up by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. That is to be welcomed. I know it was something in election manifestos of all the main parties. However, there were no reductions in this budget toward the cost of childcare. It is something I thought would have started in this budget at least and continued over the next two years to reduce the cost. It is more challenging for families who are on a lower income to access childcare when the costs are significant. While I will acknowledge there have been subsidies and reductions, it does not actually benefit all of the families.”
“I am sharing time my Senator Ryan. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I thank her for making sure she was here. I know we delayed it for a week so that she could. I appreciate that she is here for the motion. It is a short motion with a number of asks. I want to deal with the first one on the cost of childcare. Many families are still paying very high costs. As a result of those high costs, some are choosing not to return to work because it is not worth their while. That primarily affects women - not always, but primarily. I hear of families still paying, depending on where they are in the country, up to €1,500 a month. I think the average is €800, which is still high. It is like a second mortgage. High costs are a barrier to formal childcare. They are a barrier to female labour market participation. They see an increase in child poverty.”
“I move: That Seanad Éireann: condemns: - Budget 2026, which breaks the pre-election promises of the Government parties to deliver childcare to parents for €200 a month; acknowledges: - the high costs of childcare that continue to exist with some parents paying over €1,000 per month; - that access to high quality early learning and care is fundamental to children’s wellbeing and development; - the vital role played by Early Years Educators in delivering quality care and learning experiences; - that quality provision depends on a skilled, supported, and fairly remunerated workforce; - the challenges that exist in the Early Years Sector, including for parents trying to afford and access childcare places and for educators when it comes to pay and terms and conditions; - the thousands of children on waiting lists for childcare places; - the serious deficiencies in capacity in our childcare sector; - the Early Years Educators who have been underpaid and undervalued by successive Governments; calls on Government to reconsider its Budget 2026 provisions and make the investment necessary to: - deliver childcare to parents for €10 per day; - ensure improved terms and conditions for childcare staff to address the retention and recruitment crisis and expand the capacity of the sector.”
“We are all pretty familiar with traditional craft apprenticeships but there is then an uptick in the number of business-led consortia apprenticeships. I welcome the fact the national apprenticeship office is looking at an integrated model for the two but concerns have been expressed that it looks like it is going down the road of the consortium model rather than the traditional craft model. In Britain, they went down that road and ended up having to abandon it. They are going back to the craft model because a lot of students pulled out of that given that they ended up being used as cheap labour and students were not getting the appropriate training that they needed.”
“Many of our apprentices are working for very small money. They are getting way less than the minimum wage. I heard about a case recently where a young lad - he was in his early 20s because he had done something else after he left school and then went into an electrical apprenticeship - was getting €7 an hour when he started. It might have increased in his second year to €8. I know that when he is qualified, he probably can charge what he likes because there is such a shortage but it is difficult to attract people, especially older people who might have a family or other commitments, into doing apprenticeships if the wages are so low. On the further and higher education committee, we are looking in depth at apprenticeships.”
“We could learn a lot from the Welsh model because 20 years ago, only 3% of their students were learning through Welsh - my figures could be slightly wrong but they are around that - but now it is 20%. They have done that in the space of 20 years or maybe less. We need to look at something on the same level. Also, third level students have indicated that they would like to see something done in Ireland similar to what was done in Wales, namely, is free language courses within the college, not necessarily to do their course through learn Irish but to learn to speak Irish because there is an uptick in interest in the language at present and we should capitalise on that. On apprenticeships, I note the Minister stated there is a reduction in the fee. I would like to see that fee reduced until it is finally abolished.”
“Many of our students have had their education to date through Irish, in primary school and post-primary school, and it is extremely difficult for them to then have to try and start learning through English. We need to increase the range and uptake of Irish-medium courses at third level. We need to train students across academic disciplines and third level institutions to be competent to work in Irish, both to meet the educational skill needs of our Gaeltacht communities and our Irish speakers everywhere but also because within the EU our language is a recognised language and because of the 20% public service recruitment target, which is only around the corner.”
“There is a disparity between the different assessment structures, such as the A-levels as compared with the leaving certificate. They are quite different. The entry levels for university for people from the South going North and vice versa need to be worked out in order that it is fair to all of the students. I definitely would like to see more North-South co-operation between our universities and colleges. On the Irish language, the Minister mentioned, as outlined in the 20-year strategy for the Irish language, that 20% of recruits to the public sector must be competent in the Irish language by 2030. That is only around the corner and we are not near it at present. Only 1% of our third level students receive education through the medium of Irish.”
“Some of the TUs are ready to go if this was put in place. They have their plans in place. They are ready to go to planning, practically. Now, it would still take a couple of years for the construction to be completed but at least there would be an end in sight and they would be able to provide accommodation. Only one technological university has some accommodation at present. The rest of them do not. In relation to North-South mobility and co-operation, it is good to see that there has been an increase but it is something that we need to look at and increase further. Within the shared island unit, there is the North-South research programme. I would like to see that enhanced and its remit widened to maybe look at education at third level on an all-island basis.”
“A lot of the student-specific accommodation is provided by private investors. A lot of them are investment funds. They are getting generous tax breaks. They are building to quite an unnecessarily high spec and, therefore, it costs a lot to the end user. The other issue is the disparity in the borrowing framework for technological universities. Traditional universities can borrow money, often through the European Investment Bank, to build on-campus residences but technological universities cannot. This has been acknowledged for years. The 2018 Technological Universities Act foresaw a borrowing mechanism. In 2021, the Government announced a clear decision to allow it but there is no mechanism in place as yet. The Minister is aware of this. He has been working with the TUs so perhaps he could give us an update on where that is at.”
“The tiers have since been renamed to tiers 1, 2 and 3, but the costs attached are still quite substantial. The Minister referenced the investment of €67 million in phase 2 of the village, which is obviously welcome. A concern was raised with me that the cost seems to be substantial, however. It is approaching €250,000 per bedroom on university-owned land. To me, that is extortionate. Charges will end up being high again to try to make up for that cost. I am not sure why the cost is so high. With the tendering process, the contractors are coming in but I think we need to standardise the accommodation. It does not need to be a high spec. We should just make it substantial and appropriate, but something that is suitable for students and good quality without being too expensive.”
“Even with purpose-built student accommodation, the rates students pay can be up to €1,000 per month. Those rates are often charged for 12 months, even though they do not need the accommodation for 12 months. They may only need it for eight or nine months, but they have to pay it because of the shortage of availability of accommodation. The current shortfall is identified as being between 25,000 and 30,000 places. It is predicted that figure could rise to 68,000 by 2035. That is substantial and needs to be addressed. UCD is probably the college with the greatest amount of accommodation, but it is also probably the most expensive. The UCD village, which was completed in 2021, has three tiers, which were initially called the silver, gold and platinum tiers. The rates charged for each tier increased to a spec that they did not need to be.”
“As has already been identified, student accommodation is one of the biggest issues facing students at present. We hear all of the stories of the long commutes that students have to make because they cannot get accommodation at an affordable rate close to their colleges. Many of them rely on public transport, which is often not very reliable. Others are paying quite high costs for rent, which results in them having to work part time along with studying. In fact, although working part time, they often work quite long hours which means that their studies suffer. They may end up failing exams or even dropping out because of burnout. We hear of other students sleeping in their cars or sofa surfing in their friends’ apartments. It is just not good enough. It is not enhancing the experience of third level students.”
“Our young people are among the most highly qualified in all of the EU. We have the highest number when it comes to young people between the ages of 25 and 34. That is something to be commended. Unfortunately, our system is not without its challenges. I will address a number of the issues. First, with regard to fees, we have free fees in name only. It is a student contribution charge. It was introduced a number of years ago at €3,000. While it is being permanently reduced to €2,500, for parents who had children in third level last year and the year before, they only had to pay €2,000. For them, it is an increase of €500. It is unfortunate that it could not have been left at €2,000 for another year. Is it the intention going forward to continue to reduce that charge until it is fully abolished? That is something we need to plan for.”
“I am conscious that we face significant penalties from the EU if we do not meet our climate targets in the next few years. If we could invest that money instead in schemes like this to get more people involved in retrofitting their homes, it would benefit us in the long run. Hugh Wallace, the television personality and architect, attended the concluding conference of this scheme and he endorsed it and felt it was a worthwhile scheme. He had been involved in projects retrofitting of his own house, and he was in houses that are built of stone that we still cannot provide proper insulation for. There are lots of learnings to come from this project. Is there a plan to review this pilot project and roll it out on a permanent basis, not only in the four counties involved but across the nation because it would be worthwhile?”
“Some people did not even know that they qualified for the fuel allowance in the first place and by qualifying for that, they were able to access the warmer homes scheme but also the SEAI grants and everything that was available. They pointed out that while the warmer homes scheme is great, the waiting list is still quite long at a year and a half. It is something that we should look to invest in because there are a lot of older, colder houses out there and especially with the cost of energy rising on a continual basis, people would be willing to retrofit their homes. However, sometimes they are a bit worried about the process, how to fill out the application forms, who to engage with, etc., and this provided a great service to people there.”
“Older people in particular often were not aware of the programme and did not want to navigate these quite complex projects or applications for different projects and grants. They organised a number of meet the builder events where they invited local contractors and suppliers to come to a community setting, set up their stalls and engage with the public to advise them about what was available, the costs and timelines and even the tradespeople who could deliver the works. Word of mouth spread, lots of people engaged and it was a successful project. Many people they met there were not aware that if you were in receipt of the fuel allowance, that meant you could apply for the warmer homes scheme.”
“Over two years ago a pilot programme called Retrofit Ready was launched. It covered the counties of Cavan, Monaghan, Sligo and Leitrim. The aim of the initiative was to bridge the knowledge gap among homeowners and communities who want to retrofit their homes. Two community retrofit champions were appointed, namely, Owen McConnon for Cavan and Monaghan and Luke Tarmey for Sligo and Leitrim. They became the faces of the project. They built up trust with communities and individuals to work with them through community events and one-to-one clinics providing information on retrofitting homes. They were seen as honest brokers because they were not selling or endorsing anything; they were just providing a service to make sure that people understood what was available.”
“Everybody in the Seanad respects its work. It is now time, however, for the unit to widen its horizons. I encourage the Taoiseach to study the report of the Good Friday Agreement committee and to consider the implementation of its recommendations.”
“It also stated that there are no insurmountable economic or financial barriers to reunification. It recommended that the first steps would be to publish a Green Paper on setting out a vision for a united Ireland, to set up an Oireachtas committee dedicated to the preparation for a united Ireland, and to carry out extensive and thoughtful public engagement North and South. The report put great emphasis on dialogue, and the Good Friday Agreement committee in preparing the report listened carefully to people from all backgrounds, particularly those from a unionist and Protestant background who came to the committee and made presentations. This report was presented to the Government but it has yet to respond. I mention and commend the work of the shared island unit, which was established by the Taoiseach.”
“It had cross-party support and support from Independent Seanadóirí. I think the Seanad led the way. This leadership was followed by the Good Friday Agreement committee, which last year produced two highly significant reports on the constitutional future. One dealt with finance and economics and the other was on the role of women in the constitutional debate. I was a member of that committee in the last term and I was part of the discussions on those reports. In my view, the report on finance and economics is a blueprint on how we move from where we are now to a new united Ireland. This report had the support of all the parties and Independents on the committee. It recommended to the Government that it take the lead in planning for a new Ireland.”
“It sought to criminalise the provision of goods and services and the extraction of natural resources from the occupied territories generally. I feel the legislation needs to go forward in its original strengthened form. While there is a peace in Palestine, it is a fragile peace. I do hope it endures. We must remember, however, that there has been discrimination and illegal settlements in both the West Bank and Gaza for many decades. There need to be repercussions for Israel for this. This situation needs to be addressed, prevented from going forward and the existing settlements reduced. A few years ago, the Cathaoirleach of Seanad, Senator Mark Daly, held a series of public meetings in the House on the constitutional future of this country. It was an excellent initiative by the Seanad.”
“They do not have a say and feel that somehow their citizenship is not worth the same as the citizens actually living here in the State. Is this something that could be addressed without delay to ensure it will not be the case in seven years’ time when the next presidential election happens? I know some people are calling for a reform of the method of selecting a presidential candidate, so maybe the two issues could be looked at and addressed and changes made to the Constitution in this regard. The Seanad also supported the occupied territories Bill currently making its way through the Oireachtas. The current Government draft, however, is a heavily amended version of the Bill first introduced here by Senator Frances Black some seven years ago. The original Bill proposed a much broader prohibition.”
“There was a convention on this issue in 2013, legislation was introduced in the Dáil in 2014 and there was an options paper in 2017. It was my belief that legislation was produced and it was almost on the brink of being the subject of a referendum, but then it did not happen. Promises were made but not kept. We are radically out of step globally on this issue because 153 other nations allow their citizens to vote in elections while living abroad. British citizens, for example, can vote in parliamentary elections even though they are not living in Britain at the time. I feel that Irish people, if they are not living in the Twenty-six Counties, feel like second-class citizens. This is the case whether they are living abroad or in the North.”
“Thar cheann Shinn Féin, tá fáilte roimh an Taoiseach chuig an Seanad. As the Taoiseach is aware and as he referred to, the Seanad has a reputation for being an open-minded Chamber where ideas are canvassed on all manner of topics. Some of these would struggle to get onto the floor of the Dáil and most are generally debated here in a much more congenial manner than they might there. In recent years, the Seanad has supported motions on a number of issues and one of those concerned extending the vote in presidential elections to our citizens voting in the North and abroad. We are a week and a day out from a presidential election and many of our citizens do not have the option of voting in it. We know this proposal has been supported in the Assembly in the North and in the Dáil on numerous occasions.”
“The MetroLink to connect Dublin city with the airport in Dublin will be great when, or if, it happens. We also have airports in our different regions, such as Knock and Shannon airports. Public transport is needed in order that people can access those airports and that people, as I said, are less dependent on their cars. We need to do so for environmental reasons. As Senator Rabbitte said, a lot of young people are keen to use public transport for all the right reasons and we need to do as much as possible to ensure they can do so without depending on the car.”
“Most people do not finish work finish work to get to Connolly Station by 5 p.m., however. They then have to wait until 7.30 p.m. A lot of people depend on that train but it is regularly late. People who get it in the morning are often late for work or college and it is often delayed in the evening by at least 15, if not 30, minutes. When it arrives at different stops, there are sometimes Local Link services that are not connected up with the train times. It would make sense to connect them so that people can do their whole journey using public transport rather than a five-minute delay causing people to miss the Local Link service, leaving them waiting half an hour or longer. We need to ensure we have connections with our airports as well.”
“At times, I use the M3 Parkway to park my car and take the train in, which connects at Clonsilla with the Maynooth train to get farther into Dublin. If the Maynooth train is late coming back from, say, Connolly Station or Drumcondra and people miss the connecting train to the M3 Parkway, they end up waiting most of an hour for the next train. It could be tied in better. If the train coming back to Clonsilla is late, most of the people going to the M3 Parkway are coming from that Clonsilla train. Cavan people can use those train services, but a lot of Cavan people, especially those living in the south Cavan area, use the Sligo train. They board it somewhere in Longford or Edgeworthstown or maybe they go over to Dromod in Leitrim. For people working or going to college in Dublin, that train leaves Dublin at 5 p.m.”
“That would still leave quite an amount of the north west without any connectivity. It is unfortunate because we had better connectivity 60 or 70 years ago. My parents remember using a rail service that came into Cavan, but next thing the whole thing was stopped. If the rail line had even been maintained at the time, it could have been upgraded. Instead, it was lifted and people were allowed to build over it and so forth. It is very unfortunate. I welcome the fact a rail service will be restored. I also support Senator Nelson Murray’s call for the rail service into Navan because that would help a lot of people from Cavan who would travel through Navan and on farther if they had a rail service from there.”
“I welcome the all-island strategic rail review. It makes sense to plan our rail system on an all-island basis. The fact that it will be reviewed on a regular basis is also welcome to ensure that we are meeting the different targets set out, including the short-, medium- and long-term targets. I live in County Cavan where there are currently no rail services. Monaghan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal and north Leitrim do not have any rail services either. That leaves the whole of the north-west region without a rail service. We are in the bottom 20 of more than 200 EU regions for infrastructure development. I acknowledge there are plans to put in place a railway service form Portadown down through Monaghan and Cavan. I was told its timeline is around 2040, so I am not sure whether that is a medium- or long-term plan.”
“In its alternative budget, Sinn Féin proposed increasing it to the minimum wage, which would have brought it up to €579. That increase would recognise that people can join the Garda at a much older age now and may often have families to support. Senator Kennelly talked about needing gardaí at Hallowe'en to address the antisocial behaviour and dangers involved with fireworks. We do not have gardaí on the ground and in our communities where we need them. We need to take serious measures to address this. The delays in calling up people who are interested in joining just do not make sense. I ask that this be raised with the Minister for justice.”
“I have been contacted before by people who have applied to join the Garda but have been left waiting for months or sometimes longer before being called up, yet people who applied after them were called up before them. We have a shortage of gardaí and we know from the budget that the target is 1,000 recruits a year. That has not been reached. It was not reached in 2023 when there were only 750 recruits. There were only 631 in 2024. According to the evidence, large numbers apply but they are not being called up on time, they lose interest, etc. There are various reasons. We need to look at why people are not joining. Part of it could have to do with the fact that the Garda training allowance is only €354 per week, which is not even minimum wage.”
“There is a woman in County Cavan whom I know quite well and whose dream for some time has been to join the Garda. She applied a number of years ago, but due to a bad car accident, she did not pass her fitness and medical examinations. However, she completed the vetting process a number of years ago. She has now passed the medical and fitness examinations but there have been months of delay, with her not being called up to Templemore. She cannot understand this. She has been vetted on a number of occasions, both when she applied to the Garda but also when she applied for her citizenship, which she received in recent years. She is also vetted on an ongoing basis through the Department of justice because of her current employment. Hers is not an isolated case.”
“There was a huge uptake of the programme and a lot of people have got works done to their house or are in the process of getting works done. Some of these are very old houses that need a lot of work under the warmer homes scheme or the SEAI grants. Unfortunately, the pilot programme came to an end a few weeks ago. Could it be rolled out on a nationwide basis? It was really worthwhile for not just those four counties, but throughout the State. The Minister might comment on that.”
“I want to raise the issue of a pilot project run in Cavan-Monaghan and Sligo-Leitrim that recently came to an end, called Retrofit Ready. It was a programme under the Department of the environment's Climate Action Fund. Cavan County Local Development and Monaghan Integrated Development and the equivalent development groups in Sligo- Leitrim, employed a person in Cavan-Monaghan and a person in Sligo-Leitrim to talk to individuals and groups about trying to retrofit their homes. They advised them about the warmer homes scheme and the different SEAI grants available on the ground. In particular, they were able to talk to people about whether they were entitled to the fuel allowance. If people are, they can apply to the warmer homes scheme. Many people were not aware they were entitled to the fuel allowance and had not been claiming it.”
“It would save money in the long term if money was put into these strategies and if a lot more work was done to create awareness and put preventative measures in place because people would not end up in hospital and they would be able to get the care they need. Again, no funding seems to have been provided for women's health and endometriosis. Perhaps it has been; I hope it has been. I would like to see much more investment in that area and also for children's spinal health. My final point is on the reduction of €500 million in rural development funding. That is very disappointing. It will adversely affect rural areas.”
“We need to address this problem. There are people with chronic drug problems who want support and help to get away from drugs. It is having an impact on society. We need to invest in people and communities. Like the disability area, the breakdown of funding for health is a little bit unclear. I presume it will become clearer. A total of 220 beds for next year is half what is needed. We need to invest more in hospitals and the beds that are required. There does not seem to be clear funding for a number of strategies. I hope I am wrong about that. There is a national strategy for cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, and rare diseases.”
“That is still going to impact students who are finding it very difficult to cope because student accommodation is chronic at this stage. How much investment is going into student-specific accommodation in universities including our technological universities, which are crying out for student accommodation. They are very willing to provide it, but they do not have the funding to do so. They need to get the ability to borrow to do so. There has been a reduction in the budget for the drugs task force from €11.6 million to €8.7 million. That is extremely disappointing. The funding increased last year to €11.6 million from approximately €8 million and it is really disappointing to see it slashed. It is lower now than it was 20 years ago. Sinn Féin has committed to providing €21.7 million in its alternative budget.”
“There are no one-off payments this year. Ms Joan Carthy from the Irish Wheelchair Association has indicated that people will be on average over €1,600 worse off this year because of this budget, and that is very concerning. I know there has been an increase in funding for services, and that is long overdue. Again, I would like to see the detail on that and how much of that will address increasing costs and wage increases. Not all disabled people avail of services so the provision will not benefit everybody in the disability community. Again, the detail is important to realise how much the provision will have an impact on people. I welcome the permanent reduction of €500 in the student contribution fee, but it is still less than last year's reduction of €1,000.”