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.”
The complete record
Every one of 900 lines we hold for Pauline Tully, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 17 of 18.
“The purpose of that group is to oversee the implementation of these recommendations. The autism innovation strategy was introduced in the term of the previous Government and was very welcome. However, it is a time-limited strategy and needs to be embedded in legislation. There has been some progress on that. What is the status of that legislation? Will it be introduced this year? I ask for an update on progress in respect of the recommendations of the joint committee, which cross all Departments.”
“Today is World Autism Awareness Day. I have just come from the launch of the Same Chance report 2025, prepared by AsIAm, and there are some startling statistics within the report. Of the people surveyed, 91% feel that being autistic is a barrier to being accepted in our society. More than 50% of them were diagnosed privately as there is still no public pathway to diagnosis for children or adults, especially adults. Some 48% of those people surveyed said they did not feel safe and 44% had experienced discrimination in the past year. More than 70% of those surveyed feel our education and healthcare systems are not inclusive. I was a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism and we produced a report with 109 recommendations. I am still a member of the all-party parliamentary group on autism.”
“It is taking such a long time that I wonder if there are insufficient resources in the appeals office or whether too many payments like disability allowance, carer's allowance and domiciliary care allowance, DCA, are being refused. They are the ones that are commonly refused. At least half, if not more, of the refused applications are granted on appeal. We must look at the schemes and see if there is a problem with the application process, whether people are not clear about what they must submit, or whether they are being turned down for the wrong reasons, given that many of the appealed applications are granted and paid in the end, albeit after a lot of stress and the extra work involved in having to appeal the decision.”
“I join earlier speakers in extending good wishes to Jeremy Wilmshurst in his new role and thank him for how very helpful and pleasant he always was to deal with. I also wish George every success in his new role. Last week, when I raised the issue of the humanitarian assistance scheme, the Ceannaire indicated that the Minister for Social Protection would be invited to the Chamber to address concerns about the scheme. There are other concerns the Minister might address at the same time, such as the length of time it takes for social welfare appeals. I was contacted by a constituent on Friday who lodged an appeal eight months ago against a decision on invalidity pension, yet a decision has still not been reached. She is not alone; many others are waiting for decisions for eight, nine or ten months, and possibly longer.”
“I know a number are anxious to know if they will be sanctioned for this year so they can begin their preparations. While that is welcome, every school should be willing to step up and provide the extra support where needed. A special school has been sanctioned for Monaghan and is due to open in late August or September. However, there is only capacity for 18 students on the current site. The site is inappropriate on a number of levels, as I mentioned previously to the Minister of State. With the utmost urgency, so as not to delay the progress of the school, we need to look for a much more suitable site.”
“Based on the pilot programme, it stated that the therapists worked so well there was less need for community-based therapy, where it was available, that the students were doing much better in school and that staff were also learning from the therapists and were able to help their students. It is the model we need to follow. We still have a situation where some schools are being built and others are being granted extensions with no provision for special classes, which is another issue that needs to be addressed. Some schools are reluctant to have a special classes on site and are using every excuse in the book. On the other hand, it is positive that more and more schools are reaching out to the NCSE to say they want a special class in the school.”
“Some of the schools were talking to me about having therapists come into their schools, if there could be therapists provided to a cluster of schools to provide supports there. The school inclusion model is something I admired, and I think the Minister of State did as well. It was piloted in CHO 7 in schools in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow. Talking to the NCSE yesterday, I heard that it has expanded that into the mid-west, into the Limerick area. It is something we should look to expand countrywide. At the moment, the NCSE can only employ up to 39 therapists. It is recruiting 39 therapists but it needs to recruit more and it needs to put more resources into that model.”
“That is welcome and has to be done on an ongoing basis to ensure everyone gets the place they need. The key comes back to the therapies. That the therapies are not being provided in the community is having a devastating effect on children and their ability to learn. We had therapists in our special schools but they were withdrawn about five years ago. We are now looking at a pilot programme to put them back in. I am not sure why we need a pilot programme to put therapists back into special schools when they used to be in special schools. We cannot put therapists into special schools only, however. Otherwise, when parents are not getting the support in the community, they will all want their children to attend the special schools so that they can avail of the much-needed therapies.”
“The NCSE, the Department and all of us need to look at that. With the increase in the number of students who may have additional needs, we need to make sure they can be educated with their siblings in their own community and can get an appropriate education in that sphere. I commend the NCSE on its work. The fact that it has increased the number of SENOs is really welcome. The SENOs were overloaded with work and did not know the students they were dealing with. They could not because they had too many to know. They are committed to getting to know all the students and ensuring they can be placed in an appropriate school setting based on that. The Minister of State said he, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Department are working with the NCSE.”
“While there is a need for special schools for those with much more complex disabilities, I do think parents might agree to send their child to a mainstream school if they could be assured that the supports the child needs are going to be present in the school. A lot of parents believe their child would not survive in a mainstream school because they have a vision of a mainstream school without the proper supports, and that is the case in some instances. I taught for many years in a mainstream school. I taught autistic children and children with Down’s syndrome, those with mild and moderate learning difficulties and those with physical disabilities. It was a very inclusive space and it benefited all of the children in the school because they were all mixed. They all accepted each other for their differences and so forth.”
“I thank the Minister of State and all the Members who spoke on the motion. I acknowledge Sarah and Darragh in the Gallery and hope an appropriate school placement for their son Freddie is identified without delay. Our population is increasing quite quickly. With that, the percentage of individuals with disabilities is increasing. In particular, the prevalence of autism is anticipated to reach 4.3% of the population. We are going to see a lot more people requiring support. I acknowledge that many autistic children attend mainstream school and need little or no support, but some will need more. The Minister of State referred to inclusive education. We need to look at a more inclusive education form.”
“The nub of the problem is that children are not getting the support they require so they cannot communicate, which leads to frustration and to them often lashing out, so it is most important that proper therapeutic supports are rolled out in schools.”
“The teachers said that they are not speech and language therapists, occupational therapists or physiotherapists and should not be expected to know how to deal with someone like this. They asked whether therapists could be employed by a cluster of schools, thus allowing therapists to visit those schools on different days and engage with the children in the classes that required their help. Some of these students are pre-verbal and some are non-verbal so they need help. These therapists could also teach staff how to deal with different situations. Yesterday, I talked to a representative of the NCSE and was told that the number of school placements would continue to break down. We see children on reduced timetables or being expelled.”
“Not all schools but some schools could adopt a much better approach to their special classes and ensuring that staff have the required training to provide the proper education for the children in their classes. All of the schools that I have dealt with have brought up the possibility of therapeutic supports in the school. We know there is little or nothing in the community at the moment and that children are really suffering as a result. People talked about years ago when the early development team was still in situ and how a therapist would come into the school and help to inform the school of the different things that they should be doing. They said that the measure was far from perfect but it was a help. That provision is not happening now at all at any level. The children do not get any sort of support in the community.”
“The teacher told me that she wanted to do her utmost to help the six students in her class. She used her own time and funds to train and upskill so that she would be best placed to help students. The parents had no end of praise for her. I have come across other teachers in the same situation where, oftentimes just newly qualified, they are asked to take the special class for two years, thus guaranteeing a permanent appointment in the school in a mainstream class. That is not the way to approach this matter. Children with additional needs need consistency. They need a teacher who understands their needs but they also need to know that their teacher will be there on an ongoing basis and will not be gone after a year or two years, thus necessitating them having to get used to somebody else all over again.”
“We have heard of parents having to apply to up to 30 schools. It is soul destroying for them to receive one refusal after another. Refusals happened so often that the NCSE had to get involved in some cases and go through the application processes for the parents. It is a very tough process. One of the teachers at the school talked about the lack of training for teachers in special educational needs. When teachers are being trained in college, they should all be trained in how to teach how to make sure that they include students with additional needs. That is not done. There should be ongoing professional development for qualified teachers and for SNAs. There should be specialised courses in the area of special education. This is done in other countries. Such provision should be looked at and could be replicated here.”
“They had applied to a number of schools yet they still did not know whether there would be a suitable place for them in the community that would not only address their child's needs but mean they would not have to travel an hour to find a school placement. One school said there was only one student leaving this year but next year it would have four. All this means there should be a lot more planning done to ensure there are places for the children who are going through primary school and have additional needs, who may be autistic, and who will need a suitable placement in second level. Children spend eight years in primary school, which should be ample time to ensure that there is an appropriate school placement for each child at the end of those years without parents having to apply to several schools.”
“I am disappointed that the Government submitted an amendment to the motion. I feel the motion is not that dissimilar to the amendment. However, the amendment represents a watering down of our requests and makes more vague requests of the Government to implement changes. It is just an excuse to pat yourselves on the back for the work done. While some good initiatives have been brought forward, there is still not enough to meet the needs of so many children with additional education needs in this country. One of the issues that was highlighted to me was the lack of school places. We had parents who had children in sixth class who were in an autistic unit in a primary school who still had not been given a school placement in a secondary school.”
“I know him from our past dealings and his work on the disability committee and I know he has a good understanding of the issues facing parents and children with additional educational needs. There is much more to be done in the sphere of education to address these needs. In recent weeks and months, we have seen several demonstrations and sleep-outs undertaken by parents in Dublin and Cork and meetings in different parts of the country to highlight that there is a lack of appropriate school placements for children with additional educational needs in many counties. I attended several meetings in primary schools in County Cavan in recent weeks. Several issues were highlighted. I will go through them in a moment. There are deep concerns about the lack of availability of school places, training for teachers and therapeutic supports.”
“I move: That Seanad Éireann: recognises: - the fundamental right of every child to access education; - the growing current and projected demand for special education placements; - the current shortage of special classes and appropriate school places, leaving children, particularly those with additional needs, without access to suitable education; - the trauma and absolute heartbreak endured by parents and families due to the lack of suitable school places; - the failure of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments to adequately plan for and invest in the expansion of special education; - the lack of coordination between the Department of Education, the National Council for Special Education and schools, resulting in a fragmented and inefficient system; - the disproportionate impact on children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who face even greater barriers to accessing appropriate education; - that the current state of special education is unacceptable and fails to uphold the rights of children with additional needs; calls on the Government to: - immediately expand the number of special school places, special classes and special education teaching hours across the State; - ensure every child currently without a suitable school place, and all those due to start primary or secondary school in September 2025, have access to a suitable school place within a reasonable distance from their home; - enact the Education (Inclusion of Persons) Bill 2023 and the Education (Amendment) Bill 2024 to identify demand, gaps in provision and to develop a long-term strategy for special education; - ensure meaningful consultation and greater collaboration between education authorities and school leaders in special education planning and delivery, and to address the shortage in special school and special class placements; - streamline the process for opening new special classes and provide additional funding and resources for schools opening new special classes; - invest in recruitment and continuous professional development for teachers and special needs assistants to ensure they are supported to meet the diverse needs of students in special classes; this must include addressing the root causes of the recruitment and retention crisis in the education and disability sectors; - expand the Educational Therapy Support Service to help build the capacity of school communities to meet students’ needs.” I welcome the Minister of State.”
“I know of some quite wealthy people who applied for the scheme and were granted money. In fairness, they were out money as a result of the loss of power. I would love to know what the criteria were for the scheme because different people have got different amounts of money while some have been refused and will receive nothing at all. I imagine it should be based on the number of days a person was without power and the number of people in a family. That would seem to be a fair way. If you are without power for five or 12 days, you are going to be out costs, and more the longer you are without power, and then there is the number of people in your family. If the Ceannaire could get some clarification on the scheme and how it was administered, I would appreciate it.”
“Most fridge or freezer contents would amount to a few hundred euro, so unless a person is making a bigger claim for something and includes them in the claim on the insurance, the insurance does not cover them, yet the humanitarian assistance scheme is refusing to cover them. People have had to throw out food and eat out or get takeaways, which has caused a lot of extra expense. A lady received a reply that stated that, because her application was not received until 19 February, it would not be accepted. To my knowledge, though, this scheme had no closing date. If there was a closing date, it should have been well flagged. It is not mentioned anywhere on the website or in departmental literature. I do not know why the forms were still available if the scheme was closed. The payment was not means tested.”
“I support what Senator Boyhan raised. I know all too well on the ground the number of people who have had home care hours approved but cannot get the carers to fulfil them. It is a significant problem in my county of Cavan and other counties around me. I wish to raise the continuing difficulties people face with the humanitarian assistance scheme following Storm Éowyn. People are now getting letters rejecting their claims for assistance, seemingly for different reasons. Some are being told they cannot claim for lost freezer or fridge contents because that is covered by insurance but it is not, as by the time someone pays the excess on an insurance policy, several hundred euro has already gone.”
“Sinn Féin Councillor Damien Brady recently brought a motion to Cavan County Council, which was passed, that high-visibility clothing should be compulsory for all pedestrians. This is something we should consider because motorists can get a fright if they are driving along and meet someone dressed in dark clothes and narrowly miss them because they do not see them. This is something that should be looked at.”
“Better contracts are now available, which are permanent and will give people a choice of two places. That is to be welcomed. I hope extra testers can be trained as quickly as possible. I am also conscious that a tester must be removed from doing driver testing to train additional testers. That causes a backlog in the meantime. This should be addressed down the line if we can recruit the extra testers. I have spoken about fatalities. Between 2019 and 2023, 164 pedestrians died and 1,436 were seriously injured. Sometimes we forget about those who are seriously injured in accidents. They often suffer life-changing injuries, which means they require disabilities supports or neurological supports. I want to mention that 21% of these 1,436 were children under the age of five.”
“The particular case on the programme will probably be addressed. Overall, though, we must make sure NCT centres carry out proper testing to ensure all cars are safe to drive on our roads. Waiting times for driver tests is an issue of concern. In Cavan, the waiting time is 18 weeks. It is much worse in other areas. In my neighbouring county of Meath, it is 33 weeks. When Jack Chambers was Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, he told us the waiting time would be reduced to ten weeks but this has not happened. There was an attempt to recruit additional testers and contracts were issued but they were not permanent contracts. People went through the training and then found out they could be posted anywhere in Ireland. Somebody living in County Offaly could be posted to County Cork. That is not appropriate.”
“There needs to be significant investment in road repair and, in some places, widening the roads. In my area, there is a regional road where two lorries cannot meet because it is too narrow. Other places might need traffic calming. Sight distance is also an issue. I am concerned that the RSA cannot share data with local authorities. This requires legislation and the Government is dragging its feet on the issue. The Government could pass legislation to ensure information was shared. Doing so would inform decisions made by local authorities to carry out road improvements where there were safety concerns. I want to express concern regarding a recent report on a "Prime Time" programme about cars passing the NCT in certain centres only to turn out to not be safe to drive. I hope this is being addressed.”
“There needs to be much better education and awareness of speed limits, the use of mobile phones, the wearing of seat belts, and drink and drug driving. With regard to wearing seat belts, it is concerning to see in the 2023 observational survey there was a decline in drivers and passengers wearing seat belts. Between 2019 and 2023, a total of 23% of driver fatalities and 21% of passenger fatalities involved people not wearing seat belts. Had they been wearing seat belts, it is quite possible they would not have been killed. I cannot imagine getting into a car without wearing a seat belt. It is second nature now and one gets so used to it. It is very concerning that people are not wearing them. On the Order of Business, I raised the issue of the quality of the roads in Cavan. This needs to be addressed.”
“I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. If we are to address road safety in a meaningful way, we need a multipronged approach. The number of road deaths might well be reduced from what it was 20 years ago, when there was a high of 458, but the number is still far too high. Enforcement is key. People will continue to flout the rules if there is not adequate enforcement of them. It is concerning when the Garda road policing unit numbers are very low. There were 1,046 members of the Garda road policing unit 15 years ago but now there are only 620. That is a reduction of 41%. This is something that needs to be addressed immediately if we are going to see any real change on our roads. Reducing speed limits is all very well and good, but if it is not enforced, it will not have any impact. Measures are no good without education.”
“It was a similar situation in the other LEAs. We need a huge injection of funds to start addressing this issue. One road in the locality near to me gives access to the local primary school and church. The potholes are huge. I am surprised that the bus is even still travelling, the road is that bad. The council will fill the holes but if a large shower of rain comes, it is back to square one. It needs to be addressed as quickly as possible. I ask the Leader to call on the Minister for local government, Deputy James Browne, to address this issue without delay.”
“I raise the issue of the condition of rural roads in County Cavan. The roads are basically disintegrating in front of our eyes. This is down to a lack of investment by Government in local authorities to provide increases in funding for local roads. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cavan was known as the pothole capital of Ireland, so much so that four Cavan Road Action Group candidates were elected to Cavan County Council in the 1992 local election. While investment in roads improved during the Celtic tiger period, following austerity, the funding was reduced again and the roads are back to a serious state of disintegration. Last year, one of the engineers in the local electoral area, LEA, told me that he had sufficient money to repair 13 km of local road after he took town centres and regional roads out of his budget.”
“That is not the case if you drive a private bus or a truck, so I do not know why that rule cannot be changed to allow bus drivers to continue to work after the age of 70, if they so choose. I know a number of bus drivers who did not want to retire at 70 and were forced to do so. I hope that there will be increased capacity in order that all students will be accommodated come September or August when they return to school, and that they will not be left in a situation in which they have been in previous years with no school bus service in the run-up to their return to school.”
“It makes sense, where possible, to integrate school bus services with public services. However, as the Minister of State said, that is not always possible. For example, where I live is very rural, as is where he lives. For environmental reasons, it is important to switch as many students as possible from using cars to using buses. It also gets young people into the habit of using bus services, which, we hope, will become a lifelong habit whereby they will continue to use public bus services and train services, etc., where they exist. However, that does not indicate whether increased capacity will be put on school bus services even though, as I said, the integration to the public service is well and good. We also have a problem with drivers. Bus Éireann has a rule about drivers having to retire at 70.”
“It will have to rely on private contractors to provide some of the services, as it does now, but there are not sufficient private contractors to provide a service for the increased capacity if these recommendations are implemented in this school year. There is also a problem getting drivers. Has been that addressed? Acquiring additional buses and the drivers to drive them requires planning. It cannot be done in a matter of a few weeks. The portal is currently open for students to pay for their school bus ticket or to put in their medical card details and therefore, the Department will know fairly soon how many students are applying for bus tickets. The planning needs to have started long before this to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to accommodate all the students who require a bus place.”
“In the meantime, a school transport review had been carried out. It was published around February last year. It made a number of recommendations, namely, to reduce the distance for primary school from 3.2 km to 2 km, and then to 1 km, and for post-primary to 2 km from 4.8 km. More importantly, it also recommended the abolition of the nearest school rule. Are those recommendations being actually implemented in the 2025-26 school year? If so, it means that practically all students applying for a school bus ticket will be deemed eligible, which then means we will need much-increased capacity. Has the Department of Education invested in the school fleet within Bus Éireann?”
“If my children were to attend any of those schools, they could be deemed to be the third or fourth nearest school, even though they are all a similar distance away. Last August, 18 students in my area who had bus tickets for a bus going to one of the schools in Cavan were told within two weeks of the beginning of the school year that they had no bus ticket. Some of them had bus tickets for four years and, suddenly, they were left without transport to school. This again was very stressful for parents. This meant that parents who were working and who had younger children that they had to get to crèche or primary school were scrambling for a number of weeks to try to get their children into school. It was resolved after some time but I do not know why it could not be resolved before they were due to go back to school.”
“I know that what are called temporary alleviation measures, which were drafted in 2019, introduced and have been in place since, allow students in second level schools to get a bus ticket to attend their second-nearest school. They do have to pay for it, even if they have a medical card, but at least they can get and are assured of a school bus ticket. It meant that all the other students there were waiting to see if there was space on the bus so that they could get a concessionary school place. This is very stressful for parents. For example, there are four schools in Cavan, two in Granard, one in Oldcastle, and they are all within a similar distance of each other from where I live.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is welcome. Every autumn, when students are about to back to school, any of us who live in rural areas are inundated with contact from parents distressed over the fact that their child has not got a school bus ticket for the coming school year. They are only notified of this within maybe a week or two of returning to school. It mostly applies to post-primary school but it can apply to primary school as well. It is based on the Department rules which set down that you have to live not less than 3.2 km from your local primary school or 4.8 km from your local secondary school, and be attending your nearest school to be deemed eligible and, therefore, get a school bus ticket.”
“They will have to work the farm but they will also have to take up a job to subsidise their income because they will not be able to make sufficient income to live on. Much more needs to be done to put protections in place for small- and medium-sized Irish farms to ensure they can continue producing the top-quality food they do.”
“If South American beef is allowed to come into the market, we know that beef does not meet the same animal health and welfare standards. It will be cheaper cuts and a lower standard of beef. It will adversely affect us. The Government needs to do more to ensure it is protecting Irish farming from trade deals such as Mercosur and ensure our farmers are not adversely affected. I grew up on a small family farm. My parents worked that farm. They did not have to work off-farm to make a living. There were ten of us on the farm. The farm now would not be at all sustainable because of its size. Small farms have got bigger and bigger because small farmers have to get out of farming as they cannot survive. Many young farmers I talk to do not want to continue the family farm because they know if they do, they will end up working two jobs.”
“They need them paid in the time they are expected. Compensation of €5 million to forgotten farmers was announced in the budget. I ask the Minister to provide details on how that will be spent. The young farmers who lost out on installation aid in the aftermath of the recession and then did not qualify for the young farmer supports in CAP 2015 because they were farming for five or more years need the compensation. I am not sure €5 million will be sufficient but it is a start. I ask for details on how that will be distributed among the affected farmers. Regarding Mercosur, Sinn Féin has opposed Mercosur. I have been speaking in opposition to Mercosur for the past six years. It is not a good trade deal. Irish beef farmers produce high-quality beef for the EU market. We are one of the top producers of beef in the EU market.”
“Irish farmers have shown themselves more than willing and able to change farming practice to ensure they are doing their utmost to protect the environment. However, to do so, they need to be properly compensated. Payments and schemes such as the ACRES payment are all fine and well if they work well, but they are not working well. Many farmers are awaiting payments from those schemes for months and sometimes years. Prior to any scheme being introduced by the Department of agriculture, there needs to be consultation with farming organisations and other stakeholders to ensure it has a straightforward, not overly complex application system, and it is not full of red tape and bureaucracy as the current schemes are. Payments should be made in a timely fashion. Farmers cannot afford to wait months and years for their payments.”
“I welcome the Minister. It goes without saying that Irish farmers produce top quality food to a very high standard but, unfortunately, farming without CAP would not be sustainable. To ensure long-term food security, we need to see a CAP that is fair to all farmers. Some farmers claim in excess of €100,000 per year in farm payments. In 2020, for example, 20 farmers claimed €3.6 million. It was farming enterprises, not the small family farm. They claimed €3.6 million in payments. We need to see a CAP that is fair and payments that are front-loaded to support small- and medium-sized family farms. Sinn Féin has been calling for a full convergence and to end the inequality of making payments based on reference years from many years ago. The current and previous CAP are based on partial convergence and that needs to end.”
“That is welcome and needed, given it is a centre of population, but this should not happen at the cost of rural Garda stations throughout our counties. Cavan Garda Station is one of only two Garda stations in the country that are open 24-7. We need more than 90 gardaí in that station. This is putting huge pressure on the remaining gardaí there, whose complement has been reduced by one third. I am asking for the Minister for Justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, to comment on the reduction in Garda numbers and what he is doing to address that in Cavan town and other areas. Whether we get a debate or just a response from the Minister, I would really appreciate it.”
“I echo the comments made by Senators O'Loughlin and Clonan about Conor McGregor. We have many wonderful ambassadors from the worlds of sport, theatre and music and from other fields who could have represented our values in the White House, and he is not one of them. I am loath to mention his name but he does not represent the vast majority of the people of Ireland and should never have got the platform he did. I raise with the Ceannaire a report in the Irish Independent yesterday stating that almost one quarter of Garda stations countrywide, which is more than 500 stations, had fewer gardaí at the end of 2024 than they had at the beginning. In particular, Cavan town's Garda station saw a reduction of almost one third of its force, from 94 gardaí to 63, which is hugely concerning. I note the number of gardaí in Dublin city has increased.”
“More than three and a half years have passed since the project to provide additional accommodation was mooted. That is a long time in the lifetime of a school and it puts a lot of pressure on the staff and students in the school when they are working in those conditions.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the fact that his reply acknowledges that the stage 1 report was received in August. He has given a commitment to follow up on this project to get to the next date as soon as possible. It is an important project. It is an inclusive school. The staff are extraordinarily committed and there are two special classes in the school. We know it has sometimes been difficult to get schools to agree to have a special class. The school has been to the forefront in including students with additional needs. I have spoken to many parents whose students attend the school and have nothing but praise for the principal and staff and their inclusive practices. It is important that the Department ensures the project progresses as soon as possible.”
“The school has projected enrolment that it will not be able to accommodate additional enrolment from September 2026. The school is under pressure in terms of space and wants to know that the extension will proceed in the minimum amount of time possible.”
“Much more importantly, when will the review be completed and the school given permission to continue with the build? The enrolment figure for the school is 174. In 2006, there were 56 students, but numbers have increased to over 170 in the past couple of years. In less than 20 years, the school's enrolment has increased by more than 300%. There is no more space for classrooms. The school has four modular buildings that take up yard space which should be used as a playground. The school hall is being used as a classroom. As a result, the school cannot have general assemblies or indoor PE if the weather is bad which, as we know, is a regular occurrence. Circulation space for students with autism is limited. Enrolment is projected to increase because the school has carried out surveys of local parents and crèches.”
“A design team was put in place and the Department received the stage 1 report from the school, which is the early design report, on 7 August 2024. It was acknowledged a couple of weeks later that the report had been received and had been forward to the professional and technical team for review. The school was given a timeframe of three to six months to hear back. It was hoped that the design team could progress to the next stage of the build. The principal received correspondence only yesterday, having heard nothing since August and despite having sought updates and so on. The email in question states that the Department received the stage 1 report in quarter 4 of 2024, which is not true because he has the emails acknowledging receipt of the report when it was submitted in August. I seek clarification on when the report was received.”