Richard Boyd Barrett
Dún Laoghaire · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“It is absolutely incredible that about 50% to 57% of all professional artists in this country live on or below the poverty line - three times the level of poverty in Irish society generally.”
“On a global level, the consumption of electricity by data centres is due to go up elevenfold by 2030. They are hoovering up the water resources and electricity resources of the planet. There will not be much human creativity, art or music if we have no water and no energy. That is what is going on with these people.”
“St. Joseph's Centre in Shankill is the largest care home dedicated solely to dementia care in the country. SIPTU members feel compelled to take industrial action tomorrow because of the failure of St. John of God's to recognise the work and duties that they do.”
“These people actually want to replace human beings and human creativity with AI. That would literally be the road to disaster for humanity. Some people think about AI as if it is cutting edge and the most advanced thing possible, but AI is like the Neanderthal.”
“Against that background, we are seeing these billionaires who run AI looking to steal en masse all of the artistic and creative output of humanity and to profit from it. The artists rightly are asking what the Government is going to do to prevent them making a bad situation for most artists and performers even worse.”
“I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for bringing this motion forward. As Deputy Paul Murphy indicated, People Before Profit is very happy to support and commend all the artists, organisations, musicians and so on who are campaigning to bring this forward.”
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“It does not suit them to impose sanctions on Israel because in the twisted world they inhabit, they see Israel as essentially a colonial outpost. That is, of course, what it is and always has been. It is a colonial outpost to serve the interests of western powers and if the Palestinian people have to suffer genocide because of that sort of colonial project to control and dominate the region, so be it. The people of Ukraine deserve compensation but so do all victims of the same crimes, including the Palestinians. It is very obvious that the European Union is not concerned or motivated by a humanitarian principle or moral principle. It is riddled with double standards and hypocrisy.”
“Is it that Europe is only concerned with its sphere of influence and is guilty of exactly the same crime as Putin is guilty of and that it is now very obvious that Donald Trump is guilty of? It has a policy of saying that it has the right to control South and Latin America, Cuba and Greenland because that is its sphere of influence and it will take out governments if necessary and threaten to attack people in its sphere of influence. Putin does it. Israel, a US ally and an ally of many in the European Union, is doing the bidding of certain European powers. Therefore, not only will we not sanction them, we will extend them favoured trade status. It is all hypocrisy. All of the moral outrage expressed about Putin is actually nonsense because what is actually motivating the European powers is their own strategic self interest.”
“We have often given money to Palestinians and then Israel blows to bits schools and all sorts of infrastructure into which European money has gone. However, we do not sanction Israel even though we are required to under the Genocide Convention. We continue to extend favoured trade status to Israel. It is absolutely unbelievable. It makes me think that the motivation of the people who run the European Union has nothing to do with the things they say motivate them when they talk about how horrible the occupation of Ukraine is. It is horrible. It makes me think it is not morality that is driving them because if it were morality or concern for the innocent victims of war, illegal military aggression and crimes against humanity, surely it would extend to other people but it does not. Then you ask what is the real motivation here.”
“Two of the leaders of the Global Sumud Flotilla are being kept in detention in an Israeli prison. We are talking about a regime where the wife of one of the Ministers gave him a cake in the shape of a noose to celebrate the idea that they are going to hang lots of Palestinians because they are Palestinians resisting the Israeli occupation. Think about the horrific nature of this regime. The man on the flotilla asked me to ask the Minister of State what the Government is doing about these violations of international maritime law, where there is kidnapping, piracy and so on, to add to all the crimes that Israel is committing. Yet, the European Union does not sanction Israel for it and does not seize its assets. Why are we not seizing its assets for those crimes against our citizens?”
“Yet, the same European Union that professes to be horrified by the crimes of the Putin regime not only does not impose sanctions on Israel for crimes that are as bad or worse but gives favoured trade status to the Israeli regime and gives economic privileges to the regime that is committing those crimes against the Palestinian people on an ongoing basis. The hypocrisy and double standards are staggering. They are beyond belief. The Minister of State might be interested to know that I was just on the phone with an Irish citizen who is on the flotilla and who is very scared. He asked me to tell the Minister of State that he is scared. He is on the same boat as the sister of President Catherine Connolly. He said they are frightened about what is coming down the line.”
“If it is a crime to launch an illegal war against the people of Ukraine, which it is, and if it is a crime to occupy their lands and kill nearly 100,000 people, surely it is the same when Israel does it to the Palestinians. Such is the extent of the crimes that Israel has committed against the Palestinians that it is now in the dock for genocide, the greatest of all possible crimes, as well as for multiple breaches of international law, the commission of crimes against humanity, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, illegal occupation, the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, instigating yet another war against the people of Lebanon, bombing Iran and putting the entire region on fire to such a degree that even ordinary people in this country cannot pay their bills because of the crimes that Israel is committing.”
“It is an entirely reasonable proposition. However, I must say that when you see the determination with which the Irish Government and all the members of the European Union pursue the rightful demand for accountability for the Russian regime for the crimes it has committed against the Ukrainian people and yet see it fail, in the most brazen way, to do the same when it comes to Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people, you cannot help but be absolutely infuriated at the hypocrisy and the double standards of the European Union. You call into question whether they are even concerned about the crimes done to the Ukrainian people.”
“The idea that we should quantify the compensation for the damage done by Putin's brutal and illegal war against Ukraine and that the bill should be sent to Putin and the Russian regime is absolutely right and proper. It is an imperialist war being waged by Putin and has been from the outset. It is criminal and without justification. As well as the immense human damage done - probably in excess of 100,000 lives have been lost - there has also undoubtedly been huge damage done for which the Russian regime and the people who preside over it should have to pay the bill. I certainly would have no problem if the assets of the oligarchs and Putin's coterie of hangers-on had to pick up the bill and that those assets would be used to pay the bill due to ordinary Ukrainians who suffer the consequences of this terrible war.”
“On May Day - International Workers' Day of all days - this Government betrayed hundreds of thousands of pensioners in this country and sabotaged the democracy of this House by refusing to issue the money message for the retired workers Bill, which had passed Second Stage and pre-legislative scrutiny and would give pensioners the right to have a say over the fact that their pensions were slashed and have never recovered from the austerity cuts to pensioners. They campaigned for this. The Government announced this on Friday of all days.”
“Even though they work for the Oireachtas, they are let go at Easter and every time the Dáil is off, during the summer and at Christmas. Their average earnings are €12,000 and because they have organised into unions to fight for their rights, they are now being victimised and taken off the roster. I have been highlighting in recent weeks the northside homecare workers who provide homecare to vulnerable sectors of our society who are out on strike because their wages were slashed in austerity in 2009 and they still have not had their incomes restored. They are fighting for a 9% pay increase and are being victimised as well. Shop stewards were suspended this week for organising trade union action. Workers need to get on the streets to fight back.”
“That is why workers need to take the lesson of the hauliers and get out on the streets, starting with May Day tomorrow, the trades council march, and building up to the budget next year. We need to do what was done in the tax marches in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the working class of this city and across the country mobilised, fought and demanded tax justice because they are certainly not getting it from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. There is a list as long as my arm of workers who are being screwed. School caretakers, from whom I got messages this week, are first into the school and last out. They are let go at Easter, the summer holidays and at Christmas and they have no pensions. The Oireachtas TV workers, who I will mention again, the people who film these proceedings, are let go.”
“All the workers in this country combined, and there are 3.3 million of them, earn €130 billion. In total, they pay €32 billion in tax, which is 25% of their income. There are 170,000 employers in this country. Guess how much they earn? They earn €318 billion between them, which is more than twice what all the workers earn. How much do they pay in tax? Remember the workers who earn a lot less pay €32 billion. The bosses, who earn €318 billion in profits, which is rising every year, pay €23 billion, about 8% of their income. Workers are subsidising the obscene profits and lifestyles of the rich and these people are profiteering off the cost-of-living and housing misery that ordinary working people are suffering.”
“Now, ordinary people in Ireland and across the world are paying the price and the hauliers showed us you have to respond when you are screwed by the consequences of this and a system that more generally favours the rich. That is the fact. The Government made concessions to one group but the widespread sympathy for the hauliers was because huge numbers of other people, who got nothing from the Government's concessions, have been crucified with the cost-of-living and housing crises and are angry about it. They are right to be angry because the fact of the matter is this Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, represent the bosses and the rich. I decided get a few figures on the current distribution of income and tax in this country and it really tells its own story.”
“People power works. That is the lesson of the protests. When people get out and protest, and organise and mobilise, they can force a Government that is failing them to make concessions. Trump's war means every single working person in the world is paying an economic price for Trump's blood lust, his imperialism and his support for the Israeli regime. We are all paying now. People who supported Trump a couple of years ago who thought he was a friend of the little person should frankly hang their heads in shame because he has revealed himself for what he always has been: a billionaire property speculator, in with big business, willing to slaughter people for profit and for the billionaire class.”
“Every week, month and year, working people who have been waiting on social housing lists for years are being thrown off those lists because they get a pay rise or an increment or, as was the case for one civil servant I spoke to this week, are awarded family income supplement. They lose their years on the housing waiting list as a result. They do not have enough income for cost rental. They cannot afford affordable housing or to bid on the open market. When will the Government, as I have asked repeatedly, raise the social housing income thresholds in order that working people in this situation will have some chance of being housed?”
“The judge will not even talk to the defence legal team about the conditions in the court and the conditions under which Daniel is being detained. This is not normal. To simply say we do not interfere is not good enough when an Irish citizen is being treated like this for protesting against a genocide, which the Irish Government even thinks may be a genocide and why it has joined the case. We are asking the Government to send monitors to the trial, to make a public statement in support of Daniel, and to say the way he is being treated by the German legal system is an absolute disgrace. That pressure can impact on the German Government.”
“People have not prevented it because, of course, the genocide continues in Gaza. Daniel, an Irish citizen, and other people acted to do what states have failed to do, to try to disrupt the ability of Elbit Systems in Germany to provide Israel with the weapons to commit a genocide. For this, the German Government is prosecuting them as if they were organised criminals. This is not just for property damage, protesting or public order offences but as organised criminals. It has brought them to a courthouse normally reserved for terrorists and people involved in organised crime. There are riot police all over the place. Restrictions are being imposed which their legal team says are completely abnormal.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, is not the senior minister and he is just reading off the script, which is a bit frustrating given that there is somebody facing very serious charges in a court in Germany and is being treated in an absolutely disgraceful way for protesting against genocide. This is about genocide. Ireland and Germany and 153 other countries are signatories to the Genocide Convention. In case the Minister of State does not know what is in that convention, I will outline what we signed up to. What we signed up to and what every signatory did, after the Holocaust, was to prevent even a suspicion of a possible genocide taking place, and to act to prevent it and to do all in our power. States have failed to do this, self-evidently. This is why Ireland eventually joined South Africa's case against the genocide.”
“They are asking that the Irish Government would send monitors to look over this trial, which will be spread over multiple days across May, June and July. We call on the German Government to stop treating these people as if they are organised criminals when actually they are people upholding international law in protesting against the genocidal horror that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinian people, for which Elbit Systems provides the means for Israel to commit that crime.”
“They are being tried as organised criminals when they represented no physical threat to anybody but were actually acting to protest against genocide. I was talking to an MP from the German Parliament who was going down to monitor the trial and he was not physically allowed into the court. He was told that it was full, but Daniel's mother was in there and she said it was not full at all. The legal team on behalf of the defence is saying they have never seen anything like this. They have called for the judge to recuse herself such is the level of obvious bias. There were riot police in the court physically threatening members of the family and people who were in there, suggesting violence and so on against them. It is a show trial.”
“In the trial that began yesterday, the lawyers defending Daniel and the four other members of the Ulm Five who were involved in the direct action protest against Israel's genocide and the complicity of Germany and Elbit Systems in that genocide, described what happened in the courtroom as completely unprecedented. The lawyers had never seen anything like it. For example, in any normal trial in Germany the person who is on trial, even if they are a terrorist or a neo-Nazi murderer, can sit with their lawyers. They can sit in between their lawyers but in an unprecedented move this is not being allowed to the Irish citizen or to the other members of the Ulm Five. They are put in behind a high-security glass cage, essentially, so they cannot communicate properly with their lawyers.”
“The protest was attempting to uphold the obligations of all states to act to prevent the committing of genocide and which they failed to fulfil under the Genocide Convention. It was a direct action protest but it was not one where anybody was physically threatened or harmed. The people did not run away and they did not resist arrest. Indeed, they waited for the police to come and arrest them and they represented no physical threat to anybody. The German authorities have, however, decided to try to convict them under legislation that is reserved for organised crime and are trying them now in a court that is normally reserved for terrorists and for organised criminals.”
“Daniel Tatlow-Devally has been in prison in Ulm in Germany since September. He is incarcerated for 23 hours a day, effectively in solitary confinement, in pretty shocking conditions in prison. He was not allowed to hug his family until there was intervention by myself and other TDs with the German ambassador several months into Daniel's incarceration. He was not allowed to get books of his own choice. Generally he is kept in pretty awful conditions. The circumstances are that his trial was due to begin yesterday in Stuttgart. He is imprisoned because he engaged in a direct action protest against Elbit Systems, which produces 80% of the weapons for Israel which they have used to commit a genocidal massacre against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
“Okay. The Minister seems a bit more sympathetic on the apprentices, but will he do something about it? The higher education committee recommended it in a report. It is ridiculous. We desperately need qualified apprentices in the trades in particular but also in many areas of the economy. For first- and second-year apprentices to be paid either €7.67 in their first year or €11.50 in their second year is pathetic. Many of them are in their early 20s. Some of them are paying rent or have families. They need to be paid properly. I disagree with the Minister on young people. Corner shops or anything else should not be based on exploiting young people who should be paid the minimum wage.”
“There is a film called "No Country for Old Men". This is no country for young people because the Minister discriminates against them in their entitlement to the minimum wage. People aged under 20 get paid either 90% of the minimum wage, 80% of it or sometimes as low as 70%. Apprentices, who we need a lot more of to help us to build the houses we need in this country, also earn less than the minimum wage in their first and second years, so it is hardly an incentive for young people to stay in this country. I ask the Minister to ensure that whether a person is a first or second year apprentice, he or she will get at least the minimum wage and that, similarly for those aged under 20, these discriminatory rates of minimum wages will be got rid of and that young people will be entitled to the full minimum wage.”
“I spoke to those workers, their union representatives, the Communication Workers Union, CWU, and their shop stewards this morning and they are asking the Government for an intervention. They want to meet the Taoiseach and the senior Minister and they want the Government to intervene with Meta to engage with the union and to, at least, insist something is done about this six-month cooling-off period - it means they cannot get a job elsewhere - so they can get alternative employment.”
“These are the content moderators who protect people against the toxic content you get on social media and all the rest of it, who are then training up the AI that replaces them. Covalen benefits from all sorts of tax breaks and reductions and all that kind of stuff, such as research and development tax credits, no doubt, but refused to recognise the union and now 700 workers, and 300 before that, were told their jobs are gone without a by-your-leave. There will be no redundancy and Covalen refuses to engage with the union. Employers should not be allowed to do that to workers. It is as simple as that. Yet, this Government does not stand with the workers but instead bends over backwards for these companies that exploit workers, make super profits and treats them in this utterly disgraceful way.”
“Some of them are earning about €12,000 per year and are laid off when the Dáil is in recess during the summer holidays, Christmas and all the rest. They are disgraceful conditions for people who are providing an important service for democracy and for this House. Nothing has been done about it. The company making profits from all of this continues to get the contract again and again. It is outrageous. Something needs to be done about it. It is disgraceful that has been let stand. Second, I mentioned the Covalen issues already. I mentioned it earlier on and it has been mentioned here again. Covalen made €26 million in profit the year before last. It is a major contractor for META that is making absolute billions.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for this important motion. I obviously agree with all of the points put forward about collective bargaining rights, providing unions access to the workplace, bringing the minimum wage in line with the living wage and the issue of workers' right to remote working. I want to give a shout out to a few specific groups of workers. The first is the Oireachtas TV workers. They tell me that the people who broadcast these proceedings are being left off the roster because of their union activities and because they have campaigned over what is really shameful. They are doing us and the country a big favour, although maybe it is debatable that they are doing the country a favour by broadcasting what goes on in here but it is a public service.”
“It is an absolute disgrace that many of the benefits of offshore wind will be given away to private for-profit companies, most of which are from other countries. Another problem that flows from the policy the Government has pursued in this area is the displacement of fishers. I received correspondence today from fishers in Dublin Bay who have had an injunction taken out against them by EirGrid, which is doing surveys in respect of offshore wind. Of course, a private company will benefit from it. Even though the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, licence it was granted stated it was not to interfere with fishers or their gear, EirGrid is now taking out an injunction against Dublin fishers who fish in Dublin Bay, saying their gear is in the way and the fishers must get their gear out of the way.”
“Does the Taoiseach agree, when even the billionaires and the millionaires are saying what we have been saying for many years, which is that we should have a tax on the super rich? This should not be on ordinary workers but on the top 1% who have more in this country than €4.5 million. A small tax to fund a little bit of relief for working people would be justified.”
“Even the multimillionaires are now saying that the inequality in wealth is obscene and that the rich need to be taxed. At the time of Davos, hundreds of multimillionaires, and even one or two billionaires, released an open letter to the Davos delegates saying there should be wealth taxes imposed on them. The inequality in wealth is staggering. The 11 billionaires we have in this country, a number that is growing each year, have the same amount of wealth as two thirds of the population. It is absolutely disgusting. It is corrosive of democracy and it is fuelling conflict all over the world. A small tax on these people could generate billions that could give working people relief from the cost-of-living crisis, as we have long argued.”
“Some 700 workers at Covalen, a major contractor for Meta, that incidentally made €26 million in profits last year, have been told their jobs are gone. This is on top of 300 jobs before that. They cannot work for six months because of what Meta requires, and the vast majority of them are getting no redundancy. They are looking to meet the Taoiseach and the senior Minister. We need to discuss their plight because their jobs have been replaced by the AI that they trained. More job losses like this are coming. We need to address this as a matter of urgency.”
“Another concern that was expressed is that because there is more money available from the corporate sector, industry and so on for STEM subjects, the arts could get squeezed and that there will be a pressure because the sector does not want so many people doing postgraduate courses in arts and humanities and wants more of them in areas where the universities can get more money from the corporate sector and industry. There are serious concerns that need to be addressed and assurances need to be given. One would need to explain why this is happening and what exact benefit there is in this change for research, postgraduate researchers and their staff, incomes, career paths and so on.”
“I understand from talking to AMLÉ and the postgraduate workers that IFUT is also concerned about this. I have not talked directly to it since this information came out but clarifications and reassurances need to be given that there will be no question that, for example, the stipends of €25,000 that have been achieved when researchers applied to Research Ireland will be undermined when they go to the colleges and the universities.”
“Now, it will be given to the Department or the supervisor rather than to the individual. People's choice about the things they propose to research will be reduced and put into the hands of the colleges and universities.”
“They are very concerned because the background is that the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation and students' unions fought for stipend increases. They got them up to €25,000. It is still not enough and is much less than their European counterparts. They are also looking for status as workers. They fear that their conditions may be impacted by moving over to universities because if a block grant is going from Research Ireland to universities, potentially the university could say it will have more postgraduate students on stipends of less than €25,000. The universities will not want to be taking them on as workers, which is what the postgraduate students want. The postgraduate student will have less autonomy because, currently, the grant is given to them.”
“We talked earlier on about big announcements without people knowing they were coming. I met earlier with representatives of the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation and Aontas na Mac Léinn Éireann, AMLÉ, the national students' union, about the surprise announcement from Research Ireland that it is pulling out of graduate and postgraduate schemes for PhD and postdoctorate funding. People will now be applying directly to colleges and universities. They are extremely worried that this has come out of nowhere and about what it may mean for the stipend, for the autonomy and independence of postgraduate students and post-doctorate researchers, along with many other concerns. Will the Minister say something to reassure them?”
“First, it is not great to make an announcement like that without consulting the workers. Their clearly declared position is that it should be done through an amendment to the Technological Universities Act 2018. Will the Minister clarify that is what the draft legislation is, when we are going to see it, when it will be published and whether there will be scope for amendment to accommodate a pathway to university status for IADT, which will be the last remaining IT? IADT will not be sustainable unless it has a pathway to university status, but the one that is preferred by the TUI and the staff in IADT is for it to be done through a technological universities Bill because anything else threatens or creates considerable uncertainty for the future of those workers and the terms and conditions of employment they enjoy.”
“The Teachers' Union of Ireland, TUI, deplored the way in which the announcement was made, that it had not been consulted with in advance, that the authorities of Queen's and Dundalk and the Government clearly involved in the discussions around this make an announcement but that there was no consultation with the TUI and with the workers. This needs to be addressed.”
“I can see the attraction of university status for Dundalk as an all-island university, etc., but that leaves Dún Laoghaire IADT out on its own with no clear pathway forward. In particular, I am concerned for the staff and the workers, their terms and conditions and the sustainability of the IADT. If everybody who used to be in an IT is now in a university, who wants to go to IADT, but if IADT is to get university status, is it to be done under the Technological Universities Act 2018 so that the staff retain their existing terms and conditions? That is the way the staff would like it to be done. That is their clear declared position, and they are quite angry.”
“What is the current status of the draft legislation to amend the Technological Universities Act in terms of the facilitation of the partnership that was announced between Dundalk Institute of Technology and Queen's University Belfast? I ask that question in particular because of the potential implications for what will be then the last remaining institute of technology, IT, which is the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT, and whether there is scope within the legislation for its status to be dealt with.”
“I reiterate the point about section 38 and section 39 organisations that it does not help that we have a second-class tier of people working in the health and care services who are on lesser pay and conditions than the people working directly for the HSE. The lack of funding, the lack of proper payment for staff in this area and the lack of planned funding and so on is leading to a crisis management situation for very vulnerable people and their parents.”
“That sounds good and I hope it is the case but if we look at the additional funding in the last budget, it was an extra €40 million. That amounts to about 80 to 100 new homes but there are more than 2,000 adults with intellectual disabilities living with parents over the age of 70. Around 500 of those are with parents who are over the age of 80. They characterise the situation as one where basically, unless somebody dies or gets severely ill, there is no help available. It is a crisis management situation and the allocation of funding to the relevant organisations is way short of what is necessary.”
“They argued that their sons and daughters had a right to be heard, to be planned for and to be housed. Centrally, they said this means funded plans for children with intellectual disabilities when their parents pass on and proper, ring-fenced funding for section 38 and section 39 organisations. How does the Minister of State respond to campaigns like Before We Die and the concerns they are raising?”
“To be honest, bandying around figures will mean very little to those who are concerned about their loved ones being let down. The Before We Die campaign's characterisation of the situation facing parents of children with intellectual disabilities was pretty grim. A lot of it revolved around the lack of planning and related funding for voluntary organisations. The description was fairly stark. They talked about a systemic failure in the State's provision of housing and care for adults with intellectual disabilities and about overreliance on emergency placements, where parents were living in a perpetual state of near or actual crisis. They said that the system was broken and that families were terrified that their loved ones would be placed in cost-effective, for-profit settings.”
“Many organisations that deal with disability and vulnerable sectors of our society are voluntary organisations. That is in itself a problem, but I will set that aside and ask about proper funding for those organisations to be able to look after the most vulnerable in our society. The Before We Die campaign was in the Houses yesterday to highlight the lack of funding to deal with the need for proper housing and residential care for older people with intellectual disabilities when their parents die, get sick and so on. It is an example of the need for extra funding for these organisations to be able to do their jobs properly.”
“He said that he has talked to this person and that person but is he going to respond to this circular and engage with the people behind it? I suggest he meets the people who put it together to discuss what is in it. It is not clear, otherwise, that the Government will not make the same mistakes that led to the crisis we had only a few weeks ago.”
“The Government really needs to realise that we have had revolts on a number of issues because it does not actually listen to the people on the front line. The Minister of State has not responded on the actual circular that has been proposed by the Save our SNAs campaign. It comes from the horse's mouth and is about what SNAs, parents and others believe is required to ensure that their children have the opportunities, supports and resources necessary to reach their full potential and to vindicate their rights to education and full participation in society. Is the Minister of State going to engage with the people who put this circular together? Is he going to engage with the circular? Does he agree with the principles set out in it? He is not really answering my question.”
“It is also about a recognition of the evolution of the role of the SNA as being somebody who removes the barriers and provides the supports necessary for children to have full and equal access to education at all levels. They want to know if the Government will engage with them on this circular, adopt it and it issue it as the circular that is needed.”