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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“Are we going to take from existing teams to fill these positions? The problem with the current teams and the primary care teams is that there are not sufficient numbers of staff to deal with the level of demand. We are seeing more and more children waiting for assessments or for services because of this lack of staff. A few years ago, the early intervention teams and the child development teams were replaced by the CDNTs and that ended up with children being missed, falling through the cracks and not being on any list for services. There is also reference to "The introduction of an additional management grade overseeing Assessments of need". The last thing we need is more bureaucracy and more managers within the HSE. We need front-line staff within these teams and within our acute hospitals. We do not need more managerial grades.”
“In one place, it is stated, "This will replace the current AON process" but, in another, it is stated, "Importantly, these changes will not remove any rights for parents to apply for an Assessment of Need for their child, nor will they alter the statutory sixmonth timeline set out in the Disability Act." How do those two statements marry together? It is also stated, "Assessment officers will be supported by eleven new teams" throughout the country with each team having four members. There is going to be a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist and an administrator. At the moment, CDNTs and primary care teams are under extreme pressure to find psychologists, speech and language therapist and occupational therapists so from where will these positions be filled?”
“Ar dtús, déanaim comhghairdeas leis an mbeirt Teachtaí nua, an iarSheanadóir, Seán Kyne, agus Daniel Ennis. Today, I will raise the issue of the autism protocol brought to Cabinet by the Ministers for disability and Health this morning. As a member of the Joint Committee on Autism of the previous Dáil and a member of the all-party parliamentary group on autism, I want more clarity on what exactly this protocol is. It is to be launched today with the HSE. It is a new autism assessment process for children and adults. I welcome anything that will address the significant backlog in assessments of need for children. We are approaching 22,000 at the moment. There is currently no method for adults to be assessed publicly so I also welcome that. However, on reading up about it, I have come across conflicting evidence.”
“I would appreciate this being brought to the attention of the Minister so that we can get a comprehensive reply to the specific issue raised.”
“In this case, mistakes were possibly made and, as I said, we need answers as to what happened here. We also need to ensure it does not continue to happen. I have become aware of four cases in the last year. There was a young lad in February who was left too long and his appendix ruptured as well, but thankfully he did not seem to have any bowel complications afterwards. Another young woman told me that her colon was perforated when she was getting her appendix removed. There are complications there and the issue is staffing levels. We need more staff to ensure patients are seen to promptly. These families were traumatised. One mother who reached out to me said they could not speak about it for months afterwards because they were so traumatised by what they went through and so worried about their son at the time.”
“The people of Cavan and I are delighted that we have a general public hospital in our county but we want a hospital we can trust. We want to know that when somebody goes in there for whatever reason, he or she will be cared for in a timely fashion. I have had wonderful experiences in the hospital and there are wonderful staff in there but they are overworked. Hospital management has said that it operates at safe staffing levels and so forth and the Minister of State's response says the same, but that is not the feeling these individuals, their families and many others have when they go into the hospital. They see staff who are rushed off their feet and who do not have time to see to patients properly. It is not fair. It is putting pressure on them and that is when mistakes are made.”
“However, he ended up back in Beaumont in November, where it turned out that there was a bowel obstruction due to adhesions from the surgery in Cavan. That young man ended up losing out on a semester in college and still has another operation to go to relieve all the issues resulting from the surgery. This is happening too often. There have been several other cases where people have been left too long and their appendixes have also ruptured. We need to see some inquiries being made into this and a proper investigation of what is going on. Is it a case of staff under-resourcing, incompetence by certain members of staff or a combination of both? We really need the Minister for Health to look into this.”
“He remained very unwell, and on the Friday, his parents were very worried about him, but there was no doctor to be seen until Monday evening. He spent the whole weekend without a doctor. I also meant to say that, in both cases, a drain was put in and there was a very putrid discharge. Oran ended up having to have another operation on Tuesday and was in the ICU for several days before going back to the ward. He was discharged the following Monday but had to be readmitted on the Thursday, as he was still very unwell. He was eventually transferred to Beaumont a week later. He spent a week in Cavan General Hospital just being managed and then eight days in Beaumont on a cocktail of antibiotics, where they thought they had got him out of bother.”
“We do not know the reasons for that, but we assume it had something to do with the initial keyhole surgery and how it was much messier than it should have been. Aaron is home now but is still very unwell and his parents are very concerned they are not at the end yet. Orán is a 20-year-old who was admitted to hospital on 16 September last year while extremely unwell. He spent all night on a trolley in accident and emergency, with no scans and nobody seeing to him. The next day, 17 September, he got an MRI scan and an ultrasound, which showed he had appendicitis and needed keyhole surgery. An operation was performed at 1.30 p.m., but again, he was very unwell. It was only a couple of days later that the hospital admitted the appendix had ruptured in his case, too.”
“It was only then that a senior consultant admitted that the appendix had ruptured and that the operation had been much messier than it should have been and they had admitted to. They gave him antibiotics, but the parents were very concerned he would contract sepsis. He remained very unwell in hospital for a few days. He was given a huge cocktail of antibiotics, but it then seemed that the antibiotics were having an adverse effect on his liver. Aaron was taken off those antibiotics and was discharged on Monday, even though there was still an infection in his body. He had to be rushed back to hospital on Tuesday by ambulance, and to Temple Street on Wednesday, where he had surgery on the Friday due to complications in his bowels with an obstruction.”
“I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I wish to raise a couple of cases relating to Cavan General Hospital. Aaron is a 12-year-old boy who was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in severe pain on Monday, 27 April. An ultrasound was carried out and it was determined that he had appendicitis, so he would have keyhole surgery on the Tuesday. On Tuesday morning at 3 a.m., he was in extreme pain and a nurse constantly called for a doctor, but no doctor came. Later on Tuesday morning, he was prepped to go to theatre for the operation. He spent all day waiting while fasting and having no water, and he was not brought to theatre until 10.20 p.m.. A 12-year-old spent a whole day without food or water and was in pain. He had the operation and his parents were told it went fine. However, on Wednesday afternoon, Aaron was very unwell.”
“Before I start, may I ask why there is no Minister or Minister of State for health here? I was not notified that there would not be one. This is nothing against the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish; he is here to represent whatever Minister there is. This is very disappointing. This is a very important health issue, yet there is no Minister or Minister of State for health here. The Minister of State is not going to be able to give me a comprehensive answer because it will be a pre-prepared statement. It is very disappointing.”
“The report indicates that the colonial profit for King William III, who was Prince of Orange as well King of England and who exerted control over Ireland and Scotland, and to his successors as Prince of Orange, Willem IV and Willem V, would be £465 million in today's money. Independent research commissioned by the current King of the Netherlands due to be published in September will also confirm that King Billy was a slave trader. Are there plans for the OPW to update the information provided to the public at the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre at the Oldbridge Estate, Drogheda, County Louth?”
“Are there any plans to update the information provided to the public at this site on the basis of the recent discovery of a document confirming the transfer of Royal African Company shares from the notorious slave trader Edward Colston to King William III? This transfer made William governor of the largest transatlantic slave company operating at the time. The Dutch Parliament published a report entitled State and Slavery in 2023. It was the first report to quantify the financial value of colonial trade to the Dutch House of Orange. The basis of that trade included enslaving at least 600,000 African men, women and children and between 650,000 and 1 million people from Asia.”
“Again, however, they cannot a clear answer. I looked on the OPW site and saw properties listed as ready for disposal. I do not know if that they are going to be sold on the open market or if they are going to be transferred to community groups. Does that happen? What is the mechanism in that regard? I am also interested in an OPW site near Ballyconnell in County Cavan which is for sale. It is located on the Border road adjacent to the old A.W. Ennis mill. Previously, there was a Customs and Excise hut at the site. Local representatives are wondering whether the money received for this site will be ring-fenced for the local community or whether it just all goes back into a big pot. Another issue I wish to raise relates to OPW's Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre.”
“I raised the matter at a joint policing committee meeting a number of years ago and said that the properly could be used to house gardaí, because they are finding it difficult to pay rent like the rest of us, or given over to or sold to the local authority, whatever the mechanism is, to house a family. We are in the middle of a housing crisis and this house, which was recently renovated and which looks to be in good condition, could be used to house a family or members of An Garda Síochána. It is very frustrating that I cannot get an answer as to its intended use. It has been sitting there idle in the middle of the village idle for all of these years. Other requests have been made in relation to disused Garda stations being used as community spaces, and lots of community groups are looking for that.”
“Much has been said about the good work the OPW does, and I acknowledge that. However, there is also deep frustration about the number of buildings which are left lying idle for many years. Some of these buildings could be used as dwelling places and community spaces. I want to raise a couple of them with the Minister of State in the context of County Cavan. I live near the village of Kilnaleck in County Cavan. There is a house there that is attached to the Garda station. It was used to house gardaí over the years. The Garda sergeant and his family lived there for many years, but it has been lying idle for in excess of 20 years at this stage. Members of a local community group, which I was a member of at the time, wrote to the OPW around 20 years ago asking for the house to be transferred for community use. That request was refused.”
“It is also a burden when you place it with everything else that families are now trying to cope with in the context of cost-of-living pressures. I would welcome a debate if the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, were to come to the Chamber.”
“Their nearest school was in a different parish and they chose to have their child attend the school of their parish. They are medical card holders but have to pay for the child to use the school bus. They wanted their child to go to school in the parish in which they live because that is where the children would be playing football and so forth with their club. They are penalised for that. I have heard from other families in a similar situation. They do not feel they should have to pay for school bus tickets. I also note that the primary school bus ticket doubled in price this year. It went from €50 to €100. For post-primary, the cost went from €75 to €100. In the overall scheme of things, that is not a huge amount for transport provision, but it is a big leap.”
“The particular issue that I want to focus on is medical card holders. If your child is attending the nearest school and is eligible for child transport, you do not have to pay if you have a medical card. However, if your child is not, and is depending on a concessionary ticket, you have to pay even if you have a medical card. That is unfair. If the seat is there and they can get the ticket on a concessionary basis and have a medical card, I do not feel such people should be punished by having to pay. We know the threshold for medical cards is very low so families who qualify for medical cards are trying to cope with small incomes. I know of a family whose children attended the second nearest school because it was the school of their parish.”
“I congratulate my party colleague Senator Nicole Ryan and her partner on the birth of their daughter, Réidín. I wish them health and happiness into the future. The portal for the school transport scheme closed on Friday for applications, payments and medical card details. A few years ago, there was a review of the school transport scheme and it was indicated and recommended that the condition that you had to attend your nearest school in order to be eligible for school transport should be removed and that the distance you must live from the school should be reduced. I am looking for an update on that. There were plans to increase capacity to, or perhaps by, 100,000 by 2030. I think it is the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, who deals with the issue. Could we ask him to come to the House and update us?”
“We need to make sure that a garda who has a barring order for domestic violence is not in a position to deal with people reporting such cases. In the case of the Judiciary, I know of certain women who will not go to court when a certain judge is sitting because they know they will not get a barring, safety or protection order. They wait for another day and put themselves in danger because they consider it to be a waste of time and pointless. We need an attitudinal change and a lot more education, especially among our young men. We need men to call out this abuse in a much more vocal manner.”
“It is welcome that there will be 280 spaces by the end of this year, but that is just over half of what we require. We need many more spaces than are currently being provided. There is deep-rooted misogyny in certain organisations in our State. Unfortunately, these are the organisations that deal with victims and survivors of domestic abuse and violence, namely, our judicial system and the Garda. Any person reporting violence by a partner against them wants to be assured that they are talking to a garda who understands them and is sympathetic and not one who has a barring order against him or her for the same offence. We know there are many gardaí with barring orders, but we do not know how many because it is up to them to self-disclose. If that is the case, most will not do so. That needs to be changed.”
“Many marriages break down, the relationship is good and children can see both parents, but where that is not the case we need to take into consideration how the children feel. The practice regarding victims counselling notes is absurd and outright wrong. When the justice committee carried out pre-legislative scrutiny of the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill recently, there was cross-party support for a complete and unconditional ban on the use of counselling records in sexual offence trials. I hope that will be the case. Victims and survivors say that the practice is deeply traumatising, causes severe psychological harm and heightens suicide risk. I plead with the Minister to ban the use of notes in any such cases. The Istanbul Convention recommends around 500 refuge spaces according to our population.”
“I have met women whose marriages have broken down, often as a result of violence. A prison sentence may not be involved. The children are under a court order whereby a father often has visitation rights, but the children do not want to go and are terrified and crying. What is a mother supposed to do? Is she supposed to force a little child who is crying because they do not want to go to spend time with their father? If she did not, she would be the one in violation of a court order. The courts and Tusla need to be better about listening to the voices of children. It is not about the parent's right to see their child; rather, it is about what is right for the child and whether a child has access to one or both parents.”
“Some of the Acts that have been passed recently, such as Coco's Law and the non-fatal strangulation Act, are very welcome. Other legislation is moving through the legislative process, such as Valerie's law and Jennie's law, the domestic abuse register. Things seem very slow and we have to get the legislation right, but the sooner such laws can be enacted, the better. The guardianship of infants (amendment) Bill, or Valerie's law, refers to a parent being killed by another parent and the guardianship of children. There is also an issue when violence is perpetrated against one parent by another which does not lead to death, and children are caught in the middle. A parent who may be in prison, or who has left prison, still has guardianship rights to children. I am concerned about that.”
“For example, I come from County Cavan, where there is no refuge. There are no refuges in Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon or Longford. There are plans, which are moving rapidly, for one in Monaghan. It will be some years before that is in situ and it will take even longer for one in Cavan to be provided. I welcome the fact that some safe houses will open in those counties very soon. If there are refuge spaces in Fermanagh or Armagh, there should be co-operation across the Border to assist families who seek help. There is good co-operation between Women's Aid North and South. Violent perpetrators can skip across the Border to evade arrest when it comes to a violent episode against a partner or former partner, yet are close enough to the person to still be a threat to them. That is something people fear on a regular basis.”
“This issue has been discussed in the Chamber, the Dáil Chamber, the audiovisual room, the justice committee and many other committees. It is good that it is being discussed and different things are being highlighted. However, there is a deep frustration among many organisations like Safe Ireland and Women's Aid that we are still discussing this. There have been improvements - Acts introduced that have helped things and more refuge places - but there is still a lot more to be done. The fact that this is still continuing, not just in this country, is shocking. In Ireland, 282 women have died violently since 1996. In the North, there is a concerning figure of 30 since 2020. It has one of the worst femicide rates in the world. We need to approach this issue on an all-Ireland basis. We need shared refuge spaces.”
“He managed an ambulance service in Australia that was involved in a dispute as well and another in Britain after that. He has a history of industrial disputes about conditions. The staff feel that the management system in the HSE has failed to address the chronic understaffing, pay and morale issues. Management now even wants to cut the pay staff get for overtime. Many of them do a 12-hour shift that seldom finishes after 12 hours. They often end up doing two, three and sometimes four or five hours more. We need a lot of investment in the ambulance service but we first need to solve the dispute that has brought these people to the picket line where they do not want to be. They want to get on with their work.”
“Now, the NAS provides medical intervention en route to the hospital and has saved the lives umpteen times of people who have had heart attacks or are on the verge of strokes. They are able to make interventions that save those people's lives until they get them to the hospital they are going to, so they deserve proper pay and conditions. The Minister for Health needs to get back to the negotiating table to talk to the unions representing these workers. A number of colleagues brought this up this morning. They belong to Government parties. Some of them are in the same party as the Minister. They should talk to her and tell her to get back to the table. This is much too serious to be left on the picket line. Concerns were expressed by a number of those striking about the director of the NAS, Robert Morton. There seems to be a pattern.”
“This morning, I met staff of the National Ambulance Service who are on strike on the picket line in Cavan. The first thing they said to me was that they do not want to be there, they want to be out doing their jobs and it should never have got to this stage. They are looking for the recognition of the upskilling they have undertaken in the past 15 years. One woman who was there told me she has been working for the NAS for 30 years and when she began working there, her job was to transport a patient safely from one location to a hospital setting. She said basically what she had to do was drive faster if the person was more seriously injured or more sick than someone else. She needed to get them there.”
“It is serious. If people cannot stay in their own homes, they will end up in nursing homes and that will cost the State much more money, plus it is not what anybody wants. This needs to be raised with the Minister for Health. We need a plan to increase the number of home care assistants immediately.”
“There are people waiting to get out of hospitals, nursing homes and so on but they cannot because there is no home care provided. We just looked at the situation with home care. There are many home care assistants leaving that profession because they are burned out. They cannot take annual leave because there is no one to replace them. They have too many clients so they are overworked. They are travelling the back roads of Cavan, and we know the state those roads are in. There is the wear and tear on their cars, replacing tyres and getting repairs done. They cannot afford to replace the car. They were very badly impacted by recent fuel increases and there was nothing provided to account for that. We need to seriously look at the home care situation. We need a lot more carers but will not get them if the pay and conditions do not improve.”
“I want to highlight the case of a woman who lives in County Cavan. She is a wheelchair user. She acquired a disability earlier in her life but has lived a very independent life, worked until retirement and never looked for assistance. She never needed it but now she does. She has a shoulder injury and is awaiting approval for surgery on it. She has been approved for home support care but is waiting months for home care assistance to be provided. She cannot get into or out of bed without assistance, which means she is putting a lot of pressure on her family, particularly her sister, who is working full time. She phones every week but the HSE still has not identified any carers. As she says, this is not just her; there are other people in a similar situation.”
“There are 12 of them so it is very hard to watch them. If this could be rolled out soon, it would be welcome. The after-school childcare providers would welcome this. They want to be inclusive and at the moment they feel they cannot be.”
“The AIM programme is excellent for the preschool children. Something like that would need to be extended into the after-school provision as well. In the case of the manager I met, there is a crèche and preschool facility on-site and she is familiar with AIM. She said that is the sort of support you need for the after-school service. She wants to include the twins to whom I referred, for example. I am sure there are many other children who would love to be included in after-school provision. It would be beneficial for them, and, indeed, for other children as well. However, the childcare providers feel it is a safety risk, especially if one of the children is a flight risk, for example, so there needs to be a number of staff who can keep an eye at all times on all the children in their care.”
“It needs to be, as I said, systematic integration and the supports put in there to ensure that all are safe and that all works well. Another point made to me is that most after-school services provide services for primary school-aged children up to the age of 13, but children with additional needs may require services over that age, maybe up to 18 years, especially if they are in a special school setting and require this service. It is even to incorporate that into it.”
“She worked closely with the HSE and the children's disability network team, CDNT, in Monaghan. It is a planned service that integrates the children into the mainstream setting. It is not segregated; it is inclusive. It is providing the supports children need. It is building the capacity of the children in that service. It is working with the CDNT and providing some of the services that the CDNT provides. It is benefiting all of the children. Perhaps a model like this could be looked at for other areas of the country. Maybe it could be done on a pilot basis to see if it would work. As I said, it needs to be planned to ensure that there is systematic integration and it is not just putting children with additional needs, some of which are quite complex, into a mainstream setting and seeing how it works. It needs to be planned.”
“I inquired with other after-school providers to see whether this was the case and whether there were any other supports available for after-school providers to include children with additional needs. I was told that there were no other supports available. Everyone I spoke to was very willing to get training for themselves and their staff so that they could include the children. However, they felt that they would need a reduced ratio or additional support staff. I was then in contact with an after-school provider in Monaghan who provided a specialised after-school. I should say that it is a mainstream service but it includes children with additional needs. This provider identified this need because she said there were parents who could not work because they had nowhere for their children to go once the school day finished.”
“She and I had a meeting with the manager of the facility and the board of management. Their reluctance to accept the children was well founded, in that their concern was for the safety of all the children who would be using the facility and for the staff. The children will be attending primary school but they will be part of an autistic class. The ratio is six children to one special education teacher, with two special needs assistants, SNAs, in the room. Then they will be going to an after-school facility where the ratio is 1:12. There are no additional supports, with twice as many children and only one staff member, with no training in this area.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. In recent years, we have seen a huge increase in after-school facilities. Many of these services are provided either on the school campus or in conjunction with a nearby crèche or preschool. It enables the children to go there after school, do their homework, engage in activities and maybe get a meal or whatever. It is good for all involved. It allows the parents to continue working until 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. However, a problem has emerged where children with additional needs face significant barriers in accessing after-school care. This has been brought to my attention by a parent of five-year-old twins, who are both autistic and are about to start school in September. When she sought admission for them into an after-school facility close to the school they would be attending, she was met with reluctance.”
“We need to see our health professionals recognising the symptoms and responding immediately, but there is no excuse for what this child went through in Cavan General Hospital. We go in there expecting a standard of care. I presume most people get it, but I am very concerned now that any child would be left like this. A child, in particular, should get priority. I want this highlighted with the Minister for Health so that we can get a response on what happened in Cavan General Hospital this week.”
“The calls by the nurse for a doctor to come to see him in the middle of the night were ignored. He was left for 27 hours without food and water, and now has sepsis. Hopefully, he will recover from sepsis. If sepsis gets into your body, it does not leave and can reoccur at any time. It is the biggest killer in the world, but for those who survive sepsis, it can have serious consequences. I know people who have lost limbs as a result of it. Senator McCarthy gave a very good briefing in the audiovisual room on this last week and I have raised the issue here previously. All of those issues are very serious. I commend NESA on the work it is doing on creating awareness of this.”
“He was supposed to go in first thing in the morning but this was at 10.20 p.m., so he was the whole day without food, without water and in pain. Other children on the ward were getting good and he was left; he could not eat. His mouth was all dry and sore because he could not drink. His parents were told that the operation went well. At 4.30 p.m. yesterday, he could not breathe. His eyes were rolling in his head and he actually said to his mother, "I think I am going to die." Thankfully, they are very friendly with some of the organisers of the North-East Sepsis Awareness, NESA, campaign, and all the symptoms indicated he had sepsis. He is being treated now for sepsis and has responded well, thankfully, to that treatment. The issue is clearly that the standard of care was atrocious.”
“A 12-year-old boy's life was put at risk in Cavan General Hospital this week. At 2 p.m. on Monday, a 12-year-old boy, Aaron, was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in extreme pain. An ultrasound was carried out and appendicitis was diagnosed. His parents were told he would be kept overnight, keyhole surgery would be performed the next morning and he would be home in a few hours. On Monday night-Tuesday morning, at approximately 3 a.m., he was in extreme pain and the nurse repeatedly called for a doctor to come to see him and examine him. No doctor came. He was left there. He was prepped for operation on Tuesday from, say, 10 a.m. on. He had been fasting all this time and had no food or water. He was not brought to theatre until 10.20 p.m.”
“It is not much over the minimum wage. Most families also get the working family payment, which they need, but it pushes them further over the threshold. It is means that they have nowhere to live. They are forced to go back and live with other family members or to seek homeless accommodation. We need a proper debate on the social and affordable housing targets and having a good look at what is happening in each area. I call on the Minister for housing to come in here to address this issue, so we can have a good debate and really look at what is happening around specifically social housing, thresholds for social housing and supports for people who are just above the threshold. There is nothing there. They do not have the option of getting a mortgage and buying.”
“I also want to raise a housing issue, which is the social housing income thresholds. Currently, there are three bands. Band 1 is for city areas and commuter counties around Dublin and €40,000 is the threshold, band 2 is €35,000 for a number of other counties and band 3, which County Cavan is in, is only €30,000. I was contacted by a person yesterday. She is a single parent with four children who is working and she is above the social housing income threshold for Cavan. She has just received an eviction notice even though she has been renting the same house for 11 years. She has not got a hope of getting another rental at a price she can afford. There is very little available and what is available is priced out of the market. She cannot look for housing supports, such as HAP. Single people do not have a hope if they are working.”
“Unless there is a compelling reason to the contrary, such as the benefits to crime prevention from sharing information as in this case, Ireland should be making our own decisions on issues in the area of freedom, security and justice.”
“While the Border remains it will unfortunately be used to evade prosecution for road traffic offences so while it is important there is maximum co-operation between North and South in addressing these challenges, the truth is the best solution, as in so many other areas, is Irish unity. It is also worth remembering Protocol 21 attached to the Lisbon treaty protects the right of the Irish people to make decisions in the areas of freedom, justice and security. This is a crucial protection for Irish interests and the Government should be wary of conceding sovereignty on this issue. A slow but steady handing over of sovereignty to the EU undermines democracy and our ability as a country to act in the best interests of the Irish people.”
“The proven framework agreed by EU countries in 2008 was intended for serious criminal offences not routine or low-level enforcement so it is important this data is used strictly for preventing and investigating serious crime, as originally intended. We must ensure data-sharing arrangements do not contribute to the kind of surveillance most people would reject. Separately from an EU framework, we have to recognise we have policing and specifically road traffic policing challenges on the island of Ireland as a result of partition. This particularly impacts Border counties, one of which - County Cavan - I am from.”