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upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”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.”
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“I have no doubt that is having an effect on how judgments are being made. I recently held a public meeting on crime and antisocial behaviour in Meath. Two women who work in a local shop found two boys involved in shoplifting. When they approached them, those two boys threatened to rape those women if they went to the gardaí. These women now get a lift to the door of their workplace and back every day. It is in incredible that citizens would have to live with such a level of fear in their lives that they cannot go about a normal provincial town feeling safe and secure. According to the Rape Crisis Centre, 40% of people in Ireland will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Some 30% of people experience childhood sexual violence.”
“If a partner abuses a woman to the point that she miscarries, threatens her life or the lives of her children, or seeks to prevent her from disclosing that abuse, that individual deserves more than the current maximum prison sentence of three years. This Dáil should look at minimum sentencing legislation to deal with grievous abuse. Sentencing for sexual assault in this country has been far too lenient. Many perpetrators do not receive any custodial sentence whatsoever. How many times have we read in the newspapers or heard on the news about an individual who has been found guilty of a grievous assault getting a fully suspended sentence? It is an incredible situation. We have a responsibility here. We cannot just say that judges are not making the right decisions. The truth is known. Prisons are significantly overcrowded.”
“Behind each one of these individual figures, there is a real person, a citizen who has had her life ripped away from her. Aontú wants to see gardaí trained to make sure they can deal with domestic violence properly. One of the findings of this report is that 44% of women said that gardaí were not able to help them. That is unacceptable. If we are to be honest with the victims and survivors of this crime, we need to make sure there are more gardaí. There are 53 Garda stations around the country that currently have no assigned garda. In some cases, women feel trapped and unable to disclose their abuse to officials. It takes courage for these individuals to escape the abuse they are suffering. We need enough gardaí and gardaí who are trained properly to deal with anybody who has mustered up the courage to speak out.”
“Some said they were threatened with weapons, subjected to surveillance and had the lives of their children threatened. Women spoke about experiencing homelessness and hypervigilance as a result of the domestic abuse they had been victims of. A third of the women had been subject to abuse by their ex-partners and according to research from a reply to a parliamentary question I received recently there has been a 45% increase in the number of domestic abuse reports made to the Garda in four years. That is startling information. It shows the deeply problematic situation that is unfolding in our country right now. Between 1996 and 2024, 269 women died violently in this country. Some of these cases have not been solved but 87% of those were killed by men. That is another startling fact and atrocious figure.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille seo agus beidh Aontú ag tabhairt tacaíochta dó. I very much welcome this Bill. It makes sense that according to the courts a victim of sexual violence should be able to get the protection order automatically upon the conclusion of the court proceedings. It is appropriate we are having this debate on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I wish to reference the annual report produced by Women's Aid earlier this year. Its contents have stayed with me since I read it and it is obvious the problem we have is getting worse by the year. That report stated more women contacted Women's Aid last year than ever before in its history, which is a 50-year period. The report found some women experienced abuse so severe it resulted in them having miscarriages.”
“I used to work on a construction site 25 years ago as a labourer and I remember we had a Donegal builder at the time. Many people used to come in and tell him "This is wrong, that is wrong, this cannot work" but his attitude was "Just build it up." Sometimes I think of this Dáil like a busy place where everybody can think of why things should not be done but let us just get building it. Let us get ambitious and let us release the levers in terms of making sure it is viable.”
“Some 30 of the top 50 companies are sending their workers abroad to work because they cannot make projects viable here. We need €20 billion to build 50,000 homes. There is €9 billion going in for social housing, which is great and Aontú wants to see significantly more, but there is still a gap of €10 billion in the building of homes. For years, this Government has only had the idea that the private sector should build homes but the truth is the critiques on this side have only had the proposal of building public sector homes. This bird needs two wings to fly. It needs public construction but it also needs private construction. The only way we can do that is to make it viable. Currently, I cannot understand parties holding back in tools and levers, which would make the building of homes more viable.”
“The second biggest issue is missing infrastructure. Uisce Éireann was in with the committee a while ago. I asked when all the gaps in the water infrastructure that are stopping the building of homes would be complete and it said 2050. That is an incredible statistic. The third issue is available zoned land. Builders are not able to find the available zoned land that is serviced to be able to build their homes but there is a big issue of viability here. In the vast majority of counties across the country, many builders are simply not working. They are not building homes and if they are building homes, they are building extensions and a few one-off houses. They currently cannot make money building homes in this country. Construction companies are sending their workers abroad for contracts at present.”
“There is a great character in Meath who I knew for years. In his words, "This Government is improving worse." The Government is in reverse in terms of its projections. A total of 30,000 homes were built last year, down from the year before and far lower than the targets. Planning permissions are falling and we predict worsening figures. There are several key reasons for this. The first is this Government's bureaucracy and red tape. Planning, permits, licensing, tenders and judicial reviews are all way too slow and are all delaying homes. I was talking to a builder in Meath just yesterday who has been waiting 20 months for his application that is still stuck in An Coimisiún Pleanála. That is 20 months he has been waiting for that application to come back. The State is slowing the building of homes.”
“This Government has been an absolute disaster when it comes to building homes. It is by far the biggest failure of this Government over the past while and it is hitting families massively and especially young people hard. House prices are now eight times the average earnings and the average house price sold last year was €426,000, an amazing figure. The average rent currently for a two-bedroom home is €2,000 and the availability of homes has crashed since pre-Covid levels. Incredibly, we have 16,600 people languishing in homes in this country, with 5,200 of those citizens being children. Some 402 people have died in homelessness just in Dublin in a five-year period. The figure is far higher throughout the country but that figure is not even measured in any other local authority outside of Dublin.”
“In just one month in two states in Nigeria, thousands of people have been displaced, 1,100 Christians were murdered and 20 clergy were killed. Will the Tánaiste and the Government use all the international leverage we have to try to end the murders that are happening and bring about peace in these regions?”
“I attended the launch of the Religious Freedom in the World report this morning. It is shocking reading. It estimates that two thirds of the world's population live in countries where practising their faith can cost them their livelihoods, their freedom and their lives. The report states that all faiths are under pressure in different parts of the world. I welcome that the war in Sudan was raised in the Dáil this week. It is a catastrophic event leading to the brutal murder of so many innocent civilians. Nigeria is also witnessing a surge of violence, especially against Christians. Armed groups, such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, have carried out large-scale attacks on churches, villages and religious leaders.”
“Outside of the inquiry process, will the Minister commit to furnishing this House with that basic information and detail, which should be available at any stage to any TD who is asking a parliamentary question of the Minister? The Boston report said that one child went back for 33 surgeries but, because of CHI data, it looked like 33 children were operated on. There is a lot of confusion and a lack of transparency in relation to these figures. Given all that has happened here, the very least that the citizens of Ireland, elected representatives and these families themselves are entitled to is transparency.”
“There is no definition of complex scoliosis in the document so far and we are worried that this is an attempt to water down the number of children who will form part of that inquiry. I am also disappointed that the statement announcing the inquiry was first seen by the advocacy groups of these children in the media. How many children have been removed from CHI waiting lists without their parents’ knowledge? I will ask the question again: how many children like Harvey Morrison Sharrett were wrongly removed from the waiting list? How many children have died while awaiting surgery in this country? How many children have been removed from the waiting lists without surgery having aged out?”
“She said in October that she would answer the question in November, but that question has not been answered as of yet. It is absolutely startling that information is still not available to people at this time. When will the Minister let the Dáil know what is happening in this regard? I asked why CHI has not published its 2024 annual report on its accounts and spending. I have also asked questions around the funds for surgeries for children abroad and why no one on that list at the moment is scheduled for operations abroad. In all the months that we have been talking about CHI, the situation is actually getting worse for so many families. We in Aontú have difficulties regarding this inquiry and, first of all, how it refers to complex scoliosis.”
“In her opening remarks, the Minister said her door was open to TDs to bring specific cases to her attention. I have engaged with her Department on, for example, the case of Mikey, who was so long on the waiting list that he aged out. The Department shut the door on me and said it was not its place to intervene with clinicians regarding the care of children. That is one problem. Second, if we are honest, the Minister has for several months been stonewalling those asking questions on this issue. It has been 14 months since I raised the question of Harvey Morrison Sherratt’s removal from the waiting list. I asked how many other children have been removed from the list and the Minister told me she would answer that question soon.”
“This is at a time one third of farmers are earning a living off the farm, one third are only making a living because they are also doing another job and the remaining third are in poverty. It is absolutely incredible. Where does the Government stand on this issue? From what I can see, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are speaking out both sides of their mouths on the issue of Mercosur. Neither farmers nor I have confidence that the Government will use every available lever to ensure that this deal is ended. Will the Minister of State make a clear declaration, without any equivocation, that this Government will end its passive attitude towards Mercosur and ensure it does not pass? Will he make arrangements and alliances with other European countries with similar views so we can put an end to this threat to Irish farmers?”
“I want to raise the issue of the Mercosur deal. It is a significant threat to the livelihoods of farming families across this country. It was designed by industrialists in the rest of the EU seeking to improve their export opportunities to South America. The Mercosur deal was designed by industrialists in the rest of the EU seeking to improve their export opportunities to South America. It looks like Irish agriculture has been sacrificed on the altar of Mercosur. It beggars belief that, at a time of serious conversation around climate change, beef that has been raised on South American land where trees have been felled and ecosystems have been destroyed is to be brought thousands of miles to this country and the rest of Europe to supplant Irish beef that is produced to a far higher environmental standard.”
“BBC Northern Ireland runs a podcast called "Borderline". The podcast is part of the significant debate on Irish unity that is happening across the country. One of the themes of that podcast is the fact that the Irish Government is not participating in that discussion. Many voices have stated there is a serious reluctance from the Government to even discuss the issue of Irish unity. The debate has moved on. People North and South are now talking about what planning and preparation is necessary for the referendum to be held. Brexit shows the danger of holding a referendum without doing the planning and preparation in the first place.”
“The Taoiseach talks about massive investment, which is welcome, but it is not making a difference on the ground because there are major problems for Irish Water to deliver on infrastructure in terms of planning, permits and tendering etc. When will those be fixed so we can get the system fixed?”
“Keeping the lights and on and water in the taps is surely one of the basic responsibilities of any administration but we live in a country where that is simply not happening. For a country where it seldom stops raining, it hardly goes a week before there is a water or hosepipe ban in this country. In my county of Meath, things are out of control currently. As we speak, a burst mains causing major disruption in Navan. There are multiple outages every week in the system in Enfield. People in Trim can hardly turn the water taps on because of discoloured water or bans on water being used at certain times of the day, etc. Councillor Dave Boyne and I have had to campaign to get water trucks to bring water to other towns in the county.”
“It exposed great wrongs in the system. The key issue for the Government is that Revenue is likely to get burned for €700,000. Will the Taoiseach raise with Revenue the need for it to appeal to the High Court to overturn the current liquidator and seek an independent third-party liquidator?”
“Yesterday, families from Rathmolyon, County Meath, gathered in a Dublin hotel to attend a liquidation meeting. These families spent tens of thousands of euros on deposits for homes five years ago. In the intervening period, many have put off having a family while they were waiting, some were forced to move back into their parents' houses and others have spent €50,000 on rent. Two companies with the same owners and directors have used company law to allow the developer to become a secured creditor, putting himself at the top of a hierarchy of people to be paid in his own liquidation. He has also been put in charge of the liquidation process. His actions will lead to other creditors, families and Revenue getting burned for what is owed to them. The meeting I attended was chaotic. Everything was disputed.”
“As a result, I do not believe Ireland is using its potential position as a catalyst internationally to create the momentum that is necessary economically to check the actions of the Israeli state. That is a major loss and a major mistake. It is a dereliction of duty. There is a responsibility that comes with that. By not acting in those terms, we become responsible for the consequences. Those consequences are dire; they are shocking. They include the atomisation of young children by bombs in tents in places like Gaza and the stealing of land from families in the West Bank. The Government needs to get its act together and implement this legislation ASAP.”
“It is so hard to see. A big frustration of mine is that the Government is speaking from both sides of its mouth on this issue. One of the easiest ways for a government to say no is to say yes and do nothing. That is exactly what the strategy is here. I have seen so many campaign groups come to the gates of Leinster House and TDs file out, get their photographs taken, put their arms around them, have a smile with them and then come back in here and do nothing. There is a disaster in that because the Government is not telling the truth about its purpose and motivation in relation to this. It is incredible that this passed Second Stage in 2018 - nearly eight years ago - and it has languished on Committee Stage since then. I do not believe the Government has the desire to see this through.”
“During the plantation of Ulster, Irish people lost their property and homelands to people coming from Scotland and England at the time. That sowed the seeds for 400 years of conflict. One of the most damaging things to do is to occupy a location, take territory off a location, steal homesteads, property and farms off people, remove them from those locations and simply occupy that area because that grievance does not disappear. It exists for generations beyond that. In terms of Israel's own defence and security, it is sowing the seeds of future damage to its country in the occupation of the West Bank. The use of famine in recent times as a tool of war again strikes a chord with so many Irish people. We suffered shockingly. I think Ireland is the only country in the whole world whose population is still lower today than it was in the 1840s.”
“I believe they have played a role in underwriting it as well. It is a human disaster. I recall when I was young, there were three intractable conflicts - Palestine, the North of Ireland and South Africa. It is incredible that both here in Ireland and in South Africa we have moved past those conflicts, yet Palestine is still locked into an intractable conflict 20 or 30 years later. It frustrates me because Ireland has a proud history in terms of democracy, anti-colonialism, pushing back against nuclear proliferation and pushing for self-determination across the world. In relation to this, we have been laggards in fulfilling our responsibilities. Many Irish people see themselves in the eyes of Palestinian people because our histories are so similar.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo inniu. Gabhaim buíochas leis an nGrúpa Teicniúil um Neamhspleáigh agus Páirtithe as an rún seo a chur os comhair na Dála. The disaster unfolding in Gaza and Palestine is absolutely horrific. It is a significant stain on the international community that it has been allowed to proceed in the manner it has. The images we have seen over the past number of years of an enormously powerful, well-armed Israel Defense Forces absolutely crushing a very poor, unarmed state right beside it are incredible. The injustice of the disparity between the two states is shocking. It has been allowed to proceed. It has been underwritten by the West and by the United States of America. Many countries like Ireland have spoken but in general, for practical purposes, have sat on the sidelines.”
“For the Minister who could not count Covid cases, he is now in charge of the Department of Finance. Instead of accountability, we see promotion under this Government. In fairness to the Tánaiste, he was only in justice for six months. Incredibly, Helen McEntee was in that Department for far longer. We now have the Minister who, after the Dublin riots, walked while flanked by gardaí and said this city is safe.”
“His record in health includes the explosion of costs of the national children's hospital, the shocking collapse of CHI and the CervicalCheck scandal as well. In justice, he saw Garda numbers and morale fall to the floor. In his brief time - six months - in justice, he actually saw the immigration crisis go from bad to worse. The number of deportation orders overturned during his time increased massively.”
“Electric Ireland made super-normal profits, all the while nearly half a million families are in fuel poverty of some sort. It is also clear that this particular announcement was a shock to the Government because the reshuffle is a dog's dinner. Usually in reshuffles, you remove Ministers who are not performing and there are many Ministers not performing here. The Minister, Deputy James Browne, is a Minister for housing in reverse at the moment. The Tánaiste has surfed through a number of different Departments from higher education to health, justice and foreign affairs.”
“It is important to remember this in terms of a critique: Paschal has always a communicated an air of fiscal responsibility and rectitude but the truth is radically different. There is absolutely no doubt that while in position, this Government became synonymous with waste and rip-off politics. From the national children's hospital to the bike shed, the Government has incinerated taxpayers' money on an industrial scale. In terms of the spending of taxpayers' money, it was a free for all. There were dozens of projects way out of line. Nobody enforced accountability, unfortunately, during that time. In terms of costs for families, €1.9 billion in motor tax and VRT was collected last year. There was €4.1 billion collected in fuel taxes last year. Tolls were jacked up.”
“On a personal level, I wish Paschal Donohoe very well. Paschal Donohoe has always been a personable, friendly and amiable character in here. In the handful of times where I saw that approach change, it was clear that he was under serious pressure for serious reasons as well. There is no doubt that the particular roles Paschal has held have been tough jobs that have taken a lot of his time and effort. I wish him luck with this. There is probably nobody happier in the House at the moment than Simon Harris. When he heard the news, he probably let out a sigh of relief that his erstwhile challenger to the leadership of Fine Gael has now left and there is no obvious challenger at this moment in time in Fine Gael.”
“She was told to have that operation. She has to pay between €45,000 and €50,000 and cannot afford it. The NTPF told Sarah to just switch from the waiting list in the Mater hospital to Galway. The problem is that if she simply switches waiting lists and there is not an immediate operation, she will be in trouble. I ask the Tánaiste to make sure that Sarah receives the operation she needs now. The operation happened under the NTPF and it is responsible for the operation happening. It has a responsibility now to make sure Sarah receives the necessary operation so she can survive.”
“Sarah Costello from Trim in County Meath was treated under the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, in a hospital in Belfast for endometriosis. Her surgery went horribly wrong. She had to have an emergency bypass to save her life. She had a cardiac arrest and needed 15 litres of blood. She was left disastrously injured by the operation. Today, she is in bad health and in pain. When Sarah sought help from the Mater hospital she waited for a year. She was told to go to Belfast to see her primary doctor but, of course, she has no doctor in Belfast. She was forced to go privately to a consultant in Galway at a cost to herself. Her scans show that she has an 80% blockage, that she needs a stent immediately and that if this does not happen, her life is in significant danger. She is actually in immediate danger of losing a limb.”
“In the context of taxes, it is incredible that €3 billion worth of VAT was taken in from the construction of houses last year. Some €50,000 of the price of a normal house at the moment comprises VAT and other service charges. The Government reduced the VAT on apartments. Why did the Government not do that in respect of houses? There is a viability crisis. We have to make those houses viable. Why are so many builders at home sitting on their hands, unable to build in the middle of a housing crisis?”
“We have a Bill that would bring that to an end. There is a massive issue with serviced land and serviced zoned land that has been ignored over the past while. The Government talks about an audit of that land. Is it not startling that the Government does not know how much zoned land there is in the country or how much serviced zoned land there is? The Tánaiste is saying that there is not enough, yet we have people at the head of county councils and local authorities saying that they have enough. It is incredible that we have had a housing crisis for 15 years and there is no agreement about where this zoned land is. There is serviced land that is not zoned residential. That is the low-hanging fruit when it comes to building houses quickly, and yet the Government still does not know where that is.”
“The Government's plan is a tweaker's charter. In other words, it is a case of a little bit here, a little bit there, a grant here and a grant there. The Government does not have the ambition that is needed to fix this problem. When will it deliver the radical change that is needed?”
“The tendering process under the Government is one of the slowest in Europe. This has not evolved out of thin air. It has been created by the Government. The lack of infrastructure is hammering the building of homes. Representatives of Uisce Éireann were before the infrastructure committee recently. I asked them how long it is going to take for Uisce Éireann to fill the gaps that are currently acting as a block to the building of homes. They said, proudly, that they will have it done by 2050. That is an incredible situation. At present, Uisce Éireann can hardly keep the water in the taps of houses in County Meath. Thousands of homes are waiting to be built in my county. There is a lack of electricity, water and roads, and that is the Government's responsibility. I have a different view from those in other Opposition parties.”
“I heard about a 30,000-page planning permission application for a particular project and the fact that vans were needed to transport it. In the context of another planning permission application, four separate versions of the same plan were required in order to suit four separate agencies. The greater Dublin drainage project, the purpose of which is to help service 100,000 homes, has been in planning for the past ten years. It is now in judicial review again, and is likely to be tied up for many more years. In Ireland, there are 26 judicial reviews per 1 million people. In Britain, there are five per 1 million. Judicial reviews are becoming a national sport in this country. The issuing of permits and licences in this country under the Government is the slowest in Europe.”
“That was a reduction on the year before and left the Government well short of the target. Planning permissions are falling. Planning permissions for apartments have collapsed. Last year, the Government said that it was going to build 12,930 social homes. It missed that target by 2,300. The key problems are not being tackled. Those problems are Government bureaucracy and red tape, a lack of viability, a lack of key infrastructure and a lack of serviced zoned land. One of the big shocks is that in the middle of a housing crisis, so many construction companies are idle. Many are placing their staff abroad because they cannot work here. They say that no proper pipeline of work is coming through for them here, which is absolutely incredible. The planning situation in this country is mental. It is completely crazy.”
“This Government is a record breaking Government for all the wrong reasons. There have been record rents, record house prices and record numbers of people who are homeless. The average price of a residential property sold in 2025 was €426,000. I could not believe the figure when I saw it. It is eight times the average income at the moment. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is now more than €2,000 per month and the availability of homes to rent has halved since pre-Covid-19 pandemic times. Some 16,600 people are currently languishing in homelessness; 5,200 of them are children and 402 people have died in homelessness in Dublin in five years. For much of the rest of the country that figure is not even measured. The truth is that the Government is going into reverse in housing. Only 30,000 homes were built last year.”
“We have the Government using the stick of higher VAT, VRT, fuel prices, carbon taxes and tolls to get people out of their cars, but those people have no public transport alternatives for getting to work because the Government is not providing that to them. That is the real frustration in society.”
“There are two ways to do it, namely, the carrot and the stick. The carrot is the provision of public transport. Some 80,000 people in my county commute to work daily. They would give their left arms be able to commute to Dublin by train. Navan is the biggest town in the country without a rail line. It is quite incredible. The rail line for Meath has been promised for many a long year. Noel Dempsey promised the rail line in 1994 and now his daughter Aisling is promising it as well. The soonest we can see the rail line arriving in Meath is 2036 and that does not include a delay with the railway order, which has happened in the last couple of weeks. There is a public meeting in Navan in December about that.”
“The public-private partnership that built them collected enough tolls in its first year to pay for the bridges completely. Interestingly enough, Pádraig Flynn signed the contract for the public-private partnership and in a subsequent tribunal it was found the company had given him money. This is how the system works here. The particular company then sold those tolls to the State for €600 million and the State since has taken €2.2 billion in tolls. That is savage and absolutely wrong. We have paid for these bridges ten or 15 times over. How can any Minister make an argument for the collection of tolls on bridges that have been paid for so many times? We have a Government that has a policy of getting drivers out of their cars. It is a fair argument. We want to decarbonise society, so let us use tools to do it.”
“I have great regard for the Minister of State and hope he has the best of luck in this role, but he is nearly a year in it and car drivers are still being significantly financially assaulted in this country. The level of money they have to pay currently is quite incredible. Last year, drivers paid €1.9 billion in VAT and VRT. Last year, car drivers contributed to €4.1 billion in fuel taxes, which is the highest figure in the history of the State. Car drivers are being hammered by tolls. In the last ten years, the M50 toll has collected €2.2 billion. The M50 is a monument to two things from this Government, which are waste on one level and rip-off Ireland on another level. I will give the Minister of State a reason for this. The two M50 bridges were built at a cost of £53 million.”
“What the Government is asking us to believe is that on one level, the Tánaiste has spent 420 days asking questions in relation to why Harvey was taken off the waiting list and he still did not get an answer and, at the same time, a protected disclosure was given to the Department of Health with the answer. That is an incredible thing. Does the Government understand the import of what has just happened? Why has it taken 420 days for the Tánaiste to answer a question? Have the staff or the management involved actually been asked what has happened?”
“It is 420 days since I asked the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, about why Harvey Morrison Sherratt was taken off the waiting list. The Tánaiste has not been able to answer that question in those 420 days. That is an incredible indictment in relation to it. He said in the Dáil that he would immediately ask the HSE and that he would ask the Minister for Health, yet no question has been answered. We saw in The Sunday Times this weekend that a protected disclosure was submitted to the Department of Health. The information in this protected disclosure is catastrophic. The implication is that someone, or a group, took a decision that was not medically based and may have led to the death of Harvey. That is a catastrophic question. The import of that on a government is absolutely enormous.”
“There is a massive child protection question in that regard. What is the Government doing to investigate the matter and to ensure that what happened in this instance will not happen again?”
“I want to raise the serious matter of the death of the Ukrainian child Vadym Davydenko, an unaccompanied minor who was killed in Tusla accommodation. I want to extend my deepest sympathies to his family and friends. It has come to our notice that the suspect in that case may well be an adult. There is documentary evidence to show this. In addition, physical tests are being carried out on the suspect. These may show that he is an adult. Very serious questions arise in relation to international protection and whether those with responsibility in this regard know the individuals who are coming into this country or not. There are also serious questions for the Minister with responsibility for children, because this is not the first time that an adult has been put into accommodation for unaccompanied minors.”