Peadar Tóibín
Meath West · Aontú · Ireland
“Lonely Planet. It did a review of Dublin and stated, "Once Dublin’s grand boulevard, O'Connell St has struggled with decline". It stated that vacant buildings, derelict upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”
“The Irish people are a generous and decent people and have been over the past number of years, with the provision of supports to people from Ukraine who are fleeing the war. This is right and just. The war unleashed on Ukraine is absolutely wrong. Aontú will support the reduction in the rate of payment under the scheme.”
“I am very disappointed to see that the Government, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit will vote against an amendment that wants to means test the payment, as an amendment also did on the previous occasion, and put it on a level footing with other housing assistance payments.”
“Landlords are rational and they will make economic decisions to best suit themselves. Landlords have been more inclined to take on Ukrainian tenants over Irish tenants in recent years. This system is discriminatory. It gives an advantage to guests in the country over the people who have lived here for most of their lives.”
“Anyone who sat the leaving certificate economics paper just a few weeks ago will know that demand also has a role. It determines what rents are, the price of houses, etc. It is physics and maths and not ideology. We need to get to a situation where we equalise supply with demand.”
“A global study by TomTom indicated that it is the 38th most congested city globally, behind cities such as London, Toronto and Rome. The task force indicated that the Cork Luas system would be built. That Luas system is in planning and that planning is taking a long while.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,244 lines we hold for Peadar Tóibín, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 12 of 25.
“The ministry for justice in Britain released very interesting statistics in relation to people in prison who declare themselves as transgender. Many of them are in prison because of sexual offences. The vast majority of these trans sex offenders were born male. The ministry for justice statistics show that transgender women exhibit male-type patterns of criminality. It is clear that this data shows self-identification unfortunately is being used opportunistically. The Aontú Bill is designed simply to prevent male-born criminals being placed in women's prisons. Our Bill provides for a gender recognition certificate that does not affect whether a person is deemed male or female for the purpose of applying for the existing rule of single-sex accommodation in prisons. I urge the Government to support it.”
“That is quite incredible because the female prisoners and the female staff have no option but to be in that location and the State is putting male-born sex offenders, men, into those prisons. We have this absurd situation where Barbie Kardashian, who was found guilty of threatening to kill, rape and torture his mother, was granted a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection and as a result was placed in a women's prison. The Government stood over Barbie Kardashian being placed in a women's prison. That is a horrendous dereliction of duty in relation to the Government. It is against all the prevailing winds on a medical basis, the science basis and even the political basis. Yet, the Government stood up for that.”
“I am saying that the gender recognition Act is designed without a gatekeeper and as a result it allows people to use it for bad reasons. Women and girls have the right to safe spaces. It is actually shocking that I have to say that. We have understood that for hundreds of years. The vast majority of physical and sexual attacks that happen to women are carried out by men. Incredibly, many of the parties that sit right beside us here on a regular basis talk about gender-based violence, but they develop a blind spot in relation to the protection of women-only safe spaces. One of the consequences of the gender recognition Act is that it allows for male-born criminals to be placed in women's prisons.”
“It includes self-identification which means that anybody, for any reason, can identify themselves as the opposite gender. I am sure that the vast majority of people who use the gender recognition Act, absolutely feel that they themselves are the opposite gender. However, the gender recognition Act has no gatekeeper. As a result, no doctor or psychiatrist determines whether or not a person is transgender. Anybody can use a gender recognition certificate. That allows for potentially bad actors to seek to use that loophole for opportunistic reasons. I am not saying for a second that any person who has gender dysphoria is any more likely than the general population to have a propensity for bad action. I am not saying that for a second.”
“If we are not actually voting on the basis of our own principles, somebody else is in that seat in many ways. My advice to those TDs is to wake up and make sure they use the time they have here in the best way they can. I mentioned yesterday that Aontú is a pluralist, republican political party. We believe all citizens are equal and should be treated equally and valued no matter what their identity, ethnicity, religion or orientation is. I mentioned that gender dysphoria is real. It is not easy. People who have it should be treated with respect. However, the treatment they get should be on the basis of science, not on the basis of ideology. Basing treatment on ideology is actually quite dangerous. I want to talk about the gender recognition Act. The gender recognition Act is problematic at the moment. I will tell Members why.”
“The safety and protection of children was actually being forgone on the basis of an intellectual fashion. That is a major threat to well-being. The third issue was that only eight TDs out of 174 actually stood up for a vote on this issue. There were 166 TDs who stayed silent and stayed seated in relation to it. A number of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs mentioned to me during the day that they saw the speech we gave on the issue and that they agreed with the speech. That is a problem. I say to TDs, especially new TDs who may be here for a term, or two or three, in that time if they do not stand up for what they believe in, if they do not vote for what they believe in, they may as well not be here. Somebody else might as well be in that seat.”
“I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2015 to make provision for single-sex accommodation in prisons; and to provide for related matters. I want to first make a quick reference to the motion that was brought by the Labour Party yesterday on trans healthcare. It was startling for a number of reasons. First of all, it is probably one of the biggest examples of a disconnect between the Dáil bubble and the people of Ireland on issues. The vast majority of people in this country believe that a woman is a female adult, and do not believe that a man can get pregnant. They also believe that education should be on the basis of science. The second issue that struck me about yesterday's debate was that TDs were willing to throw out scientific evidence on the basis of ideology.”
“It has been reported to me by people who are working within the sector that not enough work has been done on the documentary research to find out the age of an individual and not enough work has been done on the scientific research to be able to pinpoint an individual's age. Is it not the case that in many instances the State does not know the age of the individual or, indeed, the identity of the individuals who are coming into the country?”
“Placing an adult in a Tusla residential unit is a very serious breach of child protection. Aontú has raised this issue a number of times with the Government and we have been told that the Government is doing everything it can to make sure that it does not happen. We are being told that the immigration services know exactly who is coming into the country and that checks are being done. Vadym Davydenko was a Ukrainian boy who was placed in a residential care unit very recently. The suspect in that alleged murder was also placed in that residential home. We now come to understand that the suspect was an adult. Today it has emerged in a report that 192 adults have been placed in children's residential homes in the past three years. This is an incredible figure.”
“In fairness, this is just another layer of slow bureaucracy from the Government. As for some of the powers there, in terms of the judicial reviews I welcome that there is going to be reform in it but hear this, the whole courts system is really slow in this country. Judicial reviews are taking far longer than they should because we are not resourcing the courts. In the planning system as well, the local authorities do not have the staff they need. Regarding An Cóimisiún Pleanála, I was talking to a builder yesterday who has had an application for 100 houses with this body for the past 20 months and no sign of it coming out. Resourcing these aspects are just as important as reforming them as well. I fear that the Government's timeline for this is still far too slow.”
“We have been raising the issues of the slowness in planning, permitting, licensing, tendering, and judicial reviews. In those sectors, we are the slowest in the whole of the European Union in those terms. This is holding back the building of houses in this country. This report today is basically like something from "Yes, Prime Minister". Fine Gael has been in government for 15 years and only now realising there is an infrastructure problem. This particular accelerator programme was started last January. Some workshops were done in June, employment of people began in July and it is only now that the actual report is in place. Most of the elements in the report talk about planning, examining, and talk about actually fully implementing those plans and examinations by 2027.”
“The average price of a house sold last year was €426,000. This is eight times the average income at the moment. The average rental price for a two-bedroom apartment at the moment in this State is over €2,000. It is an incredible situation. We talk about the homeless figures and we do not realise how serious it is. A total of 402 people have died in homelessness just in Dublin in a five-year period. Nobody is actually recording those figures in any other local authority in Ireland. It is incredible. I want to raise a couple of the issues that have been brought about by the accelerated infrastructure report the Government launched today. We in Aontú have been focusing on the dysfunction in the building system for many years now.”
“We now have no offshore wind turbines in the country. There have been more offshore wind conferences held by the Government than there are individual turbines in this country. The Government is worse than useless in the delivery of infrastructure that is necessary for people to survive and as a result, prices are spiking and families are being hurt.”
“The Comptroller and Auditor General has said that only 2.1% of the €190 million fund that was collected to help people in energy arrears has been paid out. It is only €3 million of €190 million that has been collected. The Government has the urgency of a half-cut snail when it comes to helping people with the difficulties with which they are dealing. I have heard other TDs talk about advancements in renewable energy. Some of the information here is quite amazing. Does the Minister of State know how many biodigesters are linked to the gas grid at the moment? There is one. For all the talk over decades about biodigesters and the fact that they can bring in renewable gas and help farmers, only one biodigester is plugged in. There were seven offshore wind turbines but they are being decommissioned.”
“In fact, the Government has increasing carbon taxes set in law for the next five years irrespective of the economic situation of families across the country. It has built in taxation on fuel irrespective of whether people are in fuel poverty. That is absolutely a sin. It is incredible. I do not think this Government actually cares. It has built a dysfunctional energy market, and that dysfunction is hitting customers in the pocket. Deputy Barry Ward talked a few minutes ago about the fact the cost of renewables is lower than the price of gas, yet that is not being passed on to customers. The truth is that the Government's law has built in a link between the price of electricity and gas. Electricity is priced at the highest input costs in terms of electricity, and that is the Government's law.”
“It is not just private companies that are doing it. The ESB is a semi-State body that is meant to be delivering Government policy. It is one of the biggest players in the market and it made a profit of €706 million last year. A profit of €706 million made by a semi-State body during a cost-of-living crisis is absolutely wrong. We then come to the level of taxation on fuel this Government is implementing. It is quite incredible. A reply to an Aontú parliamentary question showed that the Government took in €4.1 billion of taxes on fuel last year, which is the highest total ever, in the jaws of a cost-of-living crisis. Last year, the Government took in €1 billion in carbon taxes, the most it has ever taken, in the jaws of a cost-of-living crisis.”
“Twenty-nine per cent of Irish households are now living in fuel poverty. That is the highest number on record. The percentage of domestic electricity customers in arrears is heading towards 13%. Some 300,000 electricity customers and 183,000 gas customers are in arrears. Since 2021, electricity costs have increased by 69%. The cost of gas has increased by 102% in the same period. Electricity companies are still jacking up those prices. It is incredible. The Minister and the Government always talk about the fact that we have high wholesale prices in Ireland. The fact of the matter is that we have the biggest gap between wholesale prices and retail prices practically throughout the EU. It is not the wholesale price that is the significant problem for so many people. It is the fact the Government allows these companies to price gouge.”
“Daisy Hill, Enniskillen and Causeway all have hinterlands that feed into the South of Ireland in areas where there is great need for hospital services too. Is the Taoiseach speaking to the British Prime Minister about developing an all-Ireland health service?”
“A series health crisis is arising in the North of Ireland at the moment. Sinn Féin, the DUP, the UUP and the Alliance Party are closing down key hospital services in Daisy Hill Hospital, Enniskillen and Causeway Hospital in Derry. These closures are having a significant effect on services. Patients in Craigavon hospital are waiting for 19 hours to see their emergency doctor. The waiting time at the emergency department in the Royal Victoria Hospital is nine hours. One day, there were 40 ambulances stuck at hospitals trying to deliver their patients. The longest waiting time was 13 hours. I pay tribute to the SOS Causeway Hospital campaign and Gemma Brolly, who is involved in that. The boss of the British Medical Association in the North stated that an all-Ireland GP service would be a way to help resolve these crises.”
“What does it say about the echo chamber of this Dáil that practically every single other party in this Dáil will swap science and healthcare for gender ideology? What does it say when every single adult in this Dáil, other than a handful, is putting the healthcare of children at risk to follow an ideological approach? We need to make sure that science is at the heart of everything we do in terms of healthcare.”
“The NHS in Britain has significantly changed its approach, particularly for minors, by ending gender-affirmative care models in youth in England. The US, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have all left WPATH because WPATH is not a clinical protocol. The two most experienced clinicians involved in transgender healthcare in Ireland, Professor O'Shea and Dr. Moran, have made a formal complaint to HIQA about the HSE treatment of children with gender identity issues. They say the HSE has been directing children to potentially damaging overseas affirming services. They have been given leave to carry out a judicial review into HIQA. Logic would dictate that we would listen to that judicial review so that we can understand the best way to approach healthcare in this space.”
“Gender affirmation puts children on a path that can lead to chemicals, puberty blockers and irreversible surgeries and it never deals with the other comorbidities they may be dealing with. They can destroy a person's fertility and cause serious health damage, in some cases leading to children de-transitioning afterwards. Ireland remains wedded to this policy despite the fact that most other western countries are reversing from this ideological approach. The debate in Ireland is actually stuck in the past in this regard. Most of the rest of the world is moving on. The International Olympic Committee is moving to a ban on transgender athletes competing in female Olympic events because it is deeply unfair to women.”
“-----is that it has actually allowed male-born prisoners to be put in women's prisons in this State. It is an incredible situation that we have had individuals who were jailed for horrific sexual offences being located in women's prisons. Barbie Kardashian was found guilty of threatening to kill, rape and torture his mother. Kardashian was granted a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection and he was put in a women's prison, an absolute dereliction of duty by this Government. The Government's policy on gender affirmation is ignoring the potential comorbidities that can often exist with children and lead them to question their gender.”
“The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has links on its websites to materials for teachers that talk about not using the words "boys" and "girls" in classes for the same reason. A former Taoiseach put pressure on Irish Rugby in the Dáil to reverse its decision to make women's rugby female only, despite significant evidence that enormous damage is done by male-born players to female players in that competition. Professor Donal O'Shea of the National Gender Service, which is deeply committed to people with gender dysphoria, stated at an Oireachtas committee that activists are brainwashing politicians-----”
“It is a sentence that comes with ease to most citizens in this country but, incredibly, very few TDs in this Chamber are able to say it. Over the past ten years, this Government, its predecessors and campaigning groups have embarked on a significant campaign of social engineering. Incredibly, the Government has tried to delete the word "woman" from many different aspects of society. It has even tried to delete the word "woman" from maternity legislation. The HSE has used words like "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding". Among the HSE literature, it has produced a document highlighting issues around cervical checks, saying that "people with a cervix" need to come to the HSE. Teachers have been told on in-service days not to use the words "mother" and "father" in class because it is not inclusive.”
“Aontú believes in a compassionate, pluralist Republic. We believe all citizens are equal and should be valued no matter their identify, religion or orientation. Everybody should be treated on the basis of their individual character. Gender dysphoria is real, it is not easy for anybody and citizens who have gender dysphoria should be treated with respect and decency. It is also really important that, as a society, we base our approach on science and evidence. For far too long, this debate in this Chamber has been driven by ideology, and that ideology has been damaging to both children and women. Evidence and science are not optional extras. They are critical in the development of a just and fair society. A woman is a female adult. That sentence is based on logic, science and evidence.”
“The response to the workers who are stuck in traffic is to hike up their tolls and fuel taxes. Some people in Meath are suggesting a toll strike, refusing to pay tolls on the roads. Some are suggesting they block traffic in Dublin in the same way traffic is being blocked for them on a daily basis. I am against that disruption. Rather than going to those lengths, the Tánaiste must do his best to see if he can get a senior Minister or public servant in the room in Navan on Thursday week, to listen to the people on the crisis they are going through.”
“The national development plan review means very little. At best it is talking about the rail line being delivered by 2036 but there is already a landowner talking about taking a judicial review against it, which is going to blow that out of the water. This project is in reverse. We were told we were going to have the railway order in 2026 and now it is being pushed back to the end of 2027. The Government has increased the budget, I agree, but those come after this country being second from the bottom in Europe for ten years in terms of infrastructural spend. All the money the Government pushes on this does not matter unless it fixes the disaster in terms of infrastructure builds. Under this Government, we have the slowest planning, permitting, licensing, tendering and judicial review systems in the European Union.”
“There was one mention of the Navan to Dublin rail line, with no mention of any development that would progress it faster and no ring-fenced funds for it. Bizarrely, there was a mention of building the stations on a line where it has not even been decided what direction the line will go. On Thursday, 4 December, there will be a public meeting of the Meath on Track campaign in Meath. All I am asking the Tánaiste to do at this time is to ask the senior transport Minister to listen to the people of Meath and the frustration in the country around this issue and to attend that meeting and listen to exactly how it is affecting so many people in Meath. Will the Tánaiste commit to that here today?”
“There are 90,000 commuters, 60,000 of whom are forced to use cars because of the lack of public transport. Navan is the biggest town in the country without a rail line. In 1994, Fianna Fáil's Noel Dempsey promised to build the rail line from Navan to Dublin. Now, Deputy Aisling Dempsey, his daughter, is promising the rail line. The promise is now intergenerational. It is incredible. The current delivery, from concept to completion, is 42 years. That means that a person starting work in their early 20s, when it was announced, will have retired and be drawing the pension before it is actually delivered. In 1862, the same rail line was built in a matter of three years with picks and shovels. Yesterday, we saw the launch of the national development plan review.”
“I have no doubt this is leading to the anxiety that many children are experiencing because they are separated from their families for so long. Volunteerism is also dying in many of the commuter hell areas because people have so little energy when they come back from their commute to be able to help in community activities. Traffic congestion in the greater Dublin area is grinding people down. A return journey for tens of thousands of people in Meath is taking four and a half hours daily, and it is approaching five hours. If we think about it, that is 20 hours a week commuting for a 40-hour working week. Meath is the biggest commuter county in the country, the only county in the country where the majority of workers leave the county every day to go to work.”
“The greater Dublin region is grinding to a halt. If you stand on any bridge on the M50 in the morning and look north or south, a stationary line of cars stretches out as far as the eye can see. The cost of congestion is going to reach €1.5 billion by 2040. Dublin is ranked the worst capital in Europe in terms of time and money wasted because of traffic congestion. Incredibly, studies show that the average speed of a car is now 12 km/h. That is slower than the horse-drawn carriages of the 19th century, believe it or not. Hundreds of thousands of people in this region are living in a commuter hell. Many parents are leaving before 6 a.m. and are not back until 7 p.m. in the evening. They are lucky if they get time to even put their kids to bed.”
“We believe an Irish or British citizen should be able to travel on both sides of these islands with freedom, but if people are coming to these countries to seek asylum, they should apply when they move from one island to another. Right now, the Government does not know how many people are coming from Britain through the North of Ireland into the South, or how many people are leaving because there are no exit checks. The situation is in chaos, unfortunately.”
“We need to have an open and respectful conversation about this issue. We need to give leadership to people on this issue. The Government's handling of this has been chaotic so far. We have a common travel area with Britain. Under the current situation, that means we cannot have a big disparity between the regulations in this State and the regulations in Britain. If we have a big disparity, the movement of people will then follow the path of least resistance in terms of regulations. Aontú believes there should be an Irish sea border in relation to the movement of people in the same way there is an Irish sea border with regard to the movement of goods.”
“We stated that if we did not have a respectful conversation on the issue of immigration, that conversation would not disappear. It would just get pushed underground and be used by bad actors for damaging reasons in this country. Now we see that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin have done a significant U-turn on the issue and are calling for change, and we welcome that. However, there are four other political parties in this Chamber that continuously seek to shut down conversations around this issue. There are conversations happening on immigration in nearly every house in the country, in every pub, in every sports ground and in every workplace at present. How can it be that there are going to be conversations about this important issue practically everywhere except in the democratically elected Parliament? It does not make sense.”
“Aontú believes that we as a country should do our best to help those who are fleeing war and violence. We believe that there are many people who come to Ireland and make a really valuable contribution to our society and that there are many essential sectors that would not function properly if we did not have these people here. We believe that everybody who is here should be treated with respect if they are here legally and we believe that the colour of a person's skin is of no more significance than the colour of their eyes. Six years ago, we in Aontú called for a respectful conversation on the issue of immigration and we were slammed by every other political party here in the Dáil. We were accused of damaging cohesion.”
“Some of these locations take up a parking space, which is fine in some cases, but many of our towns and villages are dying currently because people cannot get into them because of massive traffic congestion and the lack of parking spaces. As a result, people are going online and buying their content there. There is a lot for the Government to think about in relation to this legislation.”
“The heart and soul of towns and villages in this country are being gutted because restaurants and pubs are closing at such a rate. It is time for the Government to realise that we should levy less tax on a pint sold in a bar compared to a can sold in a petrol station because they are two completely separate things. Not only is a pint sold in a bar better for people’s mental health and the social well-being of the community, it also generates employment within that pub. For far too long, this Government and previous governments have attacked pubs in this sense and that needs to be changed. The last point I will make on this, which is important, is that we need to start talking about parking spaces in towns.”
“Aontú obviously supports this Bill. We support the arrangements to allow for seating in public spaces for pubs and restaurants without a need to license it. There is a big question here regarding what is happening our pubs in this country. There is a significant fall-off in the number of pubs on an annual basis. There is a significant change in the social behaviour of society. More alcohol is sold in off-licenses every year and less alcohol is sold in pubs every year, and that is bad thing. A pint sold in a pub is a healthier, safer and more beneficial pint because we are becoming an isolated society. People’s mental health is suffering as a result of people not socialising enough in Irish society at the moment. When people consume alcohol alone at home, it is not good for their health or mental health.”
“The children's disability network team, CDNT, in Meath is not fully staffed. According to statistics I received today, there are 20 vacant posts across disability teams in Kells, Dunshaughlin, Navan, Slane and Trim. Separate data received by Aontú today show that the Government is actually reducing the number of college places for speech and language therapists, from 370 in the year before Covid to 355 last year. The Government is reducing the number of students filling the necessary college places on an annual basis. What is the Taoiseach saying to parents whose children have been waiting for 14 months to see the CDNT in County Meath and to the children who are being bounced around endlessly from CAMHS, the CDNTs and other services?”
“Will the British secretary of state retain a veto over the disclosure of the role of paid British agents in the Troubles and will former RUC officers who played a significant role in the Troubles be part of the investigative system that is put in place?”
“The purpose of the British legacy Bill was to grant to amnesty to those who had killed innocent civilians. There appears to be a significant contradiction in the position of the Irish and British Governments in the new joint framework that seeks to replace that. The British Government is briefing that there will be safeguards for British army veterans. I asked Simon Harris this question and he said that was separate from the joint framework and that the British were looking for their own safeguards in their own legislation. Would that separate treatment for British army veterans not undermine a joint framework? Would it not create a lop-sided justice system in the Six Counties? Will that protection for veterans apply to both sides of the conflict?”
“We need to make sure individuals who put deposits down have those deposits ring-fenced in some manner, maybe in an escrow for example, to prevent them losing that, but also that the contracts are fulfilled. Here is the key: two separate companies with the same directors and owners are using the corporate veil to separate their assets from their liabilities. We have seen it before in the likes of Clerys, Paris Bakery and other situations. We need a mechanism to ensure people are held responsible for what they owe people with these things.”
“I appreciate that and I am not going to comment on the insolvency process happening at present, other than to say the State is now on the hook for €700,000 because Revenue is one of those creditors. There are tools the State can use to protect its own interests in this, such as the office of corporate enforcement, which can take a High Court challenge to a liquidator that has been selected. Revenue itself can do the same. It is really unfortunate we have a situation that could well be replicated over and over again in the future. There are plenty of construction companies dealing with the inflating costs of building that could find themselves in difficulty.”
“It frustrates me because Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, had the initial loan that was given to the builder. It allowed that loan to be bought out, which enabled the particular builder to become a secured creditor and be in charge of the liquidation process. These families are now left with nothing. Will the Minister address this matter?”
“I accept the question I am asking the Minister is tangential to the one on the questions paper. I urge him to go off script for the next couple of minutes to address it. We have a situation where houses that were built are vacant. At the heart of this particular problem is that there are two separate companies with the same owners and directors. One company has bought the debt of another company, giving it secured creditor status. This means many other creditors will receive nothing, including these families, and the houses will remain vacant for now. The families are waiting to move into their homes, which are vacant. There is nothing they can do to get what they are entitled to. There is no mechanism on the part of the Government to get them into their homes.”
“I draw the Minister's attention to a number of vacant homes in Ringfort housing estate in Rathmolyon, County Meath. The families concerned did everything right. They paid their deposits, spending tens of thousands of euro, but the builder has refused them their homes. They have been put under massive stress, with some of them putting off starting a family and some having to move back into their parents' home. After all of that, five years later, they are being refused their homes. What can the Minister do to enable these families to move into their homes?”
“I think of the work Senator Sarah O'Reilly and campaigners have done in relation to this in Cavan. It has been talked about but it has not been delivered. We have heard many fine words here today but we are still not seeing the action that is needed in relation to this crisis.”
“Children at Risk in Ireland, a specialist professional therapy service for children, found that there had been a 44% increase in sexual abuse and sexually harmful behaviour against children by children within a two-year period. It is absolutely startling. I still think of the haunting and shocking case of Ana Kriégel, whose life was taken from her when she was so young by two boys who were 13 years old. They had 12,000 violent hardcore pornographic images on their phones but this country has done nothing. Back in 2020, I introduced a Bill to prevent these really profitable companies selling this material to young children and yet we see tumbleweeds on the matter. There is a major issue in terms of refuges in this country. There are still nine counties without refuges.”
“There is growing evidence of a link between children consuming violent hardcore pornography and the increase in sexual violence. The Garda Commissioner has stated there is a growing link. It is incredible that we have been talking about that link for years but are doing nothing about it. The Government is banning the advertisement of junk food because it sees the link between these images being shown to children and increasing obesity and yet it cannot join the dots as regards young boys consuming violent hardcore pornography and the growth of misogyny and sexual violence. Other countries are grappling with this and making changes. The number of children under the age of 18 who have abused children of the same age or younger has increased by 18% in the past year according to Rape Crisis Network Ireland.”