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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“The Minister of State has not really answered the question. Let us remember that we had a massive revolt because of the anxiety, stress and fear induced by the Government's attempt to cut SNA supports in many schools, based on an outdated circular that failed to acknowledge the evolution of the role of the SNA and the rights of children to the supports and resources they need. What I have heard the Minister of State do is quote figures but the whole point of the new circular being put forward by parents, SNAs and school communities is that it is not about figures but about the needs of children. It is about a reaffirmation, as they say themselves, of the obligations of the Government under the UNCRPD and the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act, and the rights of children to full and equal access to education.”
“It is only a few weeks since the Government caused fear, panic and stress among parents of children with special needs, school communities and SNAs by threatening swingeing cuts in SNAs in many schools. That was all because of a circular from 2014 which had failed the recognise the evolution of the role of the SNA and the needs of our children with special needs. An alternative circular has been put together by the Save our SNAs campaign group involving parents, SNAs and others. The group wants to know if the Government is going to support and adopt this new circular about the role of the SNAs in our schools.”
“I move: That the Ceann Comhairle direct the Clerk of the Dáil to issue her Writ for the election of a Member to fill the vacancy which has occurred in the membership of the present Dáil consequent on the election as President of Deputy Catherine Connolly, a Member for the constituency of Galway West. Get the posters up.”
“It is the Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill, which calls for us to impose comprehensive economic, political and diplomatic sanctions on Israel because of our obligations under the Genocide Convention, which requires signatories to act to prevent genocide. Does the Minister of State accept that under the Genocide Convention, regardless of EU hypocrisy, double standards and its refusal to move, we, as signatories of that convention, have a moral and legal obligation to act against the crimes that Israel is committing? It is a simple question.”
“The failure of the European Union to suspend the EU association agreement with Israel is an absolute disgrace. Does the Minister of State agree it is a disgrace, given that Israel is in the dock for genocide and has instigated murderous and illegal wars against Lebanon and Iran? Does the Minister of State agree? If his excuse is that Europe will not doing anything but we tried, does he feel Ireland has any responsibility to do anything in the face of the crimes Israel is committing? Specifically, does he think we have any obligations under the Genocide Convention? On 14 May, I will have a Bill coming before the Dáil. Luckily, it has been selected from the lottery.”
“Before the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, which was investigated by a former Irish foreign affairs Minister, Seán MacBride, Hezbollah did not exist. That massacre was essentially orchestrated by the Israelis and Lebanese Phalange fascist forces. At the time, it was deemed by Seán MacBride and the UN to be a genocidal massacre. It was only in the aftermath of that genocidal massacre by Israel and its allies that Hezbollah came into existence. It was a response to the terrorism of the Israeli state, yet we still refuse to sanction that state. We treat it as normal when it is clearly a terrorist state.”
“Despite the fact the Government was forced to raise that issue to call for a re-examination of this thing, it continues to allow the US military to go through Shannon Airport. Flights go through our airspace facilitating the US military machine, which is involved with this regime, committing these crimes. It refuses to pass the occupied territories Bill. It refuses to call for a boycott against the football match that Ireland are playing with Israel despite even UN experts saying we should not be playing football with teams involved in illegal occupation and genocide. In the Taoiseach's speech, the only group whose disarmament he called for was Hezbollah. It was not the Israeli regime, which refused to sign the non-proliferation treaty, NPT, and is in the dock for genocide, but Hezbollah. I wish to give a brief history lesson.”
“The Israeli regime and the United States have rained down death and destruction on thousands of people in a criminal war they instigated in Iran and Lebanon. The Israeli regime has done that following nearly three years of a genocidal slaughter against the Palestinian people. It continues to allow illegal settlers to run amok, terrorising Palestinians on the West Bank. It is now going to introduce a law to execute Palestinians who are resisting an illegal occupation of their land. There are reports in the past week of animals being used to rape Palestinian prisoners under the Israeli authorities. Against that background, the European Union fails to suspend the EU trade association agreement, the special trade status this regime gets.”
“We should be targeting the people who profit from the destruction of the environment. That means the fossil fuel companies, the data centres and the people who are actually holding up the addressing of the climate and biodiversity crisis or, worse, profiting from it. We need to actively encourage people to buy into the green agenda by supporting things like free public transport, giving things like energy credits and rolling out free retrofits, which are paid for through progressive taxation. That is the sort of thing that can bring ordinary people on side with the urgent need to address the climate and biodiversity crisis.”
“There is a pathetically low level of protection of our marine area and the biodiversity in it. What is absolutely critical - this is where I have a genuine disagreement with Deputy O'Gorman and others in the House, including on the left - is that it has to be a just transition. For the 320,000 people who are in electricity arrears, the 180,000 people who are in gas arrears and the one in four people who are suffering energy poverty, according to the ESRI, any further imposition on them of a financial cost over issues like energy flies in the face of any suggestion of a just transition. That is why we oppose the carbon tax. You are discrediting the climate agenda by saying that ordinary people should pay carbon taxes when they are not profiting from the destruction of the environment. They have no choice about the energy they use.”
“Pulling back from any serious efforts, giving up and abandoning to a significant extent attempts to deal with the climate and biodiversity crisis is another one of those pretty pathetic submissions to the Trump agenda. You can look at what Trump's warmongering has now done. It is not only raining down death and destruction - by the way, all of that is an environmental disaster and if that level of militarism continues, the destruction of the climate is an absolute guarantee - but it is also imposing a huge economic and financial cost on ordinary people here. We saw the consequences of that. We need to address this. That means recommitting to the climate targets and addressing biodiversity and things like the marine protected areas, which the Government has dragged its heels on.”
“I thank Deputy O'Gorman for bringing forward this important motion. He is absolutely right to highlight the need for the Government to recommit in a serious way because it seems to have abandoned any serious effort to address the climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens our planet, threatens the ability of the planet to sustain human life in the long run and will certainly impose a huge cost on ordinary people unless it is addressed and addressed as a matter of urgency. It seems that this is one of the many areas in which this Government has bent the knee to Trump and his climate denialism, his warmongering and his obnoxious agenda in general.”
“Parents, who are stressed and have to deal with all these hardships, had to go to all the effort of putting together an alternative circular on special needs because the Government had failed so catastrophically. Give the parents and children the commitments they need that they will have their places and resources and that the Government will engage with the circular and vindicate the rights of children to education.”
“Only because of a crisis and the protests of school communities has the Government been forced to find some additional money. It will almost certainly not be enough to address the issue. Extra money has been allocated because school communities revolted against the intent of the Government to implement swingeing SNA cuts in many schools. We are not getting clear guarantees that everybody will get the special class places they should have in September. We are not getting a clear commitment that the alternative circular has been put together. It appears the circular that led to the crisis will be adopted by the Government. There will be serious engagement with the SNA campaign.”
“At a meeting of the budget scrutiny committee today, we were informed by the Department of public expenditure that there will be an extra €640 million for the education sector. Officials explained that was largely to do with special needs. To me, what that says is that were it not for the protests of school communities, including parents, teachers, principals and SNAs, the Government would, at a minimum, have given €640 million too little to special needs. It would have short-changed children in terms of their right to an education and the educational supports they need. Of course, that is on top of the failure of the Government to deliver on assessments needed by children who are left on waiting lists. When they get assessments, they never ever get the services they need. The legal and moral rights of our children are not being honoured.”
“I ask the Taoiseach to make a public statement directed at the German Government in support of Daniel Tatlow-Devally who is an Irish citizen who has been incarcerated along with four other fellow activists in a German high security prison for 11 months. He is going on trial next Monday because he was involved in a direct action against Elbit Systems that produces weapons in Germany for the Israeli regime and its genocide against the Palestinian people. He is being tried under legislation which is normally reserved for organised criminals. His treatment and the treatment of his fellow activists is outrageous. It was direct action but it was a peaceful protest. They even filmed themselves and in no way resisted arrest. They are being treated shockingly. They are on trial. It starts next Monday.”
“We need urgent explanations and statements from the Ministers on the use of Shannon Airport and Irish airspace by the United States military while it is conducting with Israel its brutal and illegal wars against Iran and Lebanon and the ongoing genocide of the people of Gaza. This is particularly needed given that the number of US overflights has increased by 56% since the Iran war started and that, incredibly, the Department of foreign affairs undercounted US military flights through Irish airspace by 250 flights.”
“Russia was thrown out of international competition for what it was doing in Ukraine. How can our Government not demand that this game is boycotted, that Israel is thrown out of international competition and that this game does not go ahead?”
“I was involved in it - Gaza Action Ireland organised the tour. He was then 12 years old. He was from Gaza. Ballybrack Football Club hosted his team from Gaza, Al Helal FC. The young Gazans beat our team, Ballybrack FC, 2-1, but it was a great day and a great event. He went on to play for the Palestinian youth team. Last year, he was murdered by an Israeli air strike with his brother and seven members of his family. His life was destroyed. I was talking to my friend Dr. Abdul Fattah Abu Srour. He works in Aida refugee camp and is involved in the football pitch that the Israelis are trying to destroy in that camp. It is just a small five-a-side or seven-a-side pitch. The UN experts have said that Israel should be boycotted at international level for its breaches of international law. Other teams are doing it.”
“If it was not for football, it could have been a lot worse, let us put it that way. It is true that the team ethic, the discipline and all that kind of stuff people are taught by football really stands to them for the rest of their lives. It creates friendships and networks and does things for the community. We cannot measure the value of these things. They are so important. However, we need to put the resources into ensuring that clubs I mentioned like St. Joseph's, Dalkey United, Granada, Pearse and all these teams that are fighting for all-weather pitches have decent facilities. As we are building residential development all over the place, we need to provide the facilities and amenities. In the last minute, I want to talk about the Israel-Ireland match. In 2016, a young man called Muhammad Khalifa visited Ireland.”
“As has been mentioned, the lack of all-weather pitches is totally unacceptable. Teams are not able to play for weeks because of the lack of all-weather pitches. Often, we will say things when the national teams do well and, absolutely, give plaudits to the women's national team and in respect of the renaissance we have seen with Troy Parrott and all that in Irish soccer. Let us hope it continues. However, these things do not spring out of nowhere. We have to put in the resources and support. All those volunteers and people are putting enormous work into our young people because it really matters to the young people. I was not an angel when I was when I was young - far from it, actually - but if it was not for football-----”
“They have been fighting since 2007 for a new clubhouse because the old clubhouse is gone. It was a tin can. They have been fighting since 2007. They got planning permission but the council has basically not delivered for them. They are now in an arrangement with Granada, which was also mentioned earlier, which is primarily girls' football teams. It is an amazing success story for girls' football in our area. They have just two senior teams but they are twinned with Granada and they share the same pitches. I was just talking to Richie, one of the main officials in the club, on the phone, who said the people in Sallynoggin are really angry and annoyed as are, obviously, the club officials, that the young women have to change in the open in the fields because there is no clubhouse.”
“I played for Dunedin football club and St. Joseph's, Glasthule, in the Leinster Senior League. I played for UCD. There were all of these amazing people and so many other clubs in the area. Joey's had a better clubhouse than most but in many cases, people were often getting changed in the rain under streetlights in pretty poor facilities or in containers in pretty awful situations. A shower was fairly unheard of when we were playing football. The thing about it is, that situation has not changed for lots of clubs, as has been said. I was playing 30 years ago. Sallynoggin Pearse, which was mentioned earlier, which was originally Pearse Rovers, was the first team that Paul McGrath - one of our greatest ever players - played for. It is a small club now with two senior teams.”
“First, I wish to say that I am personally very grateful to grassroots football and youth football in my area and to all the people - the managers, coaches and officials - who put in their time, as is the case in area after area in town, city and county across the country. These amazing people put their time and energy into me and my teammates on a voluntary basis. I played for nearly every club. Cabinteely Football Club was my first club. They were a tiny club then. Now, they are up in the League of Ireland. Then, St. Joseph's in Sallynoggin had a fantastic team in the schoolboy leagues. They were just wonderful people and it is still a really brilliant club. Both clubs have produced players for the English leagues and internationals. I played for Ballybrack Football Club, again, another great club. I have a great memories of them.”
“This is fuelling deep concern among the family. If the Taoiseach could ask about Ned Connors and the report into his death on behalf of his family, it would be appreciated.”
“I welcome the Northside Home Care Services workers in the Gallery. Deputy Murphy will be raising issues on their behalf, and I absolutely hope the Taoiseach will listen to them. I want to raise another issue. The Taoiseach probably will not know about it but I ask him to raise it with the Minister for justice. Four years ago, Ned Connors died in prison. He died of alcohol poisoning. How the alcohol got into the prison and so on is a question. There was a report done by the prison inspector into the circumstances of his death, but it still has not been published. As of today, there was supposed to be an inquest happening. His family solicitors said the inquest should not go ahead until the prison inspector’s report was published. Apparently, the Minister has for some reason prevented the report from being published.”
“I have just come from a protest outside for Lelia Doolan coming from Shannon on her march, a woman in her 90s marching saying the Irish Government should not be facilitating Trump's warmongering by allowing the US military through Shannon Airport. Given what Trump is doing to people in this country, in the Middle East and in Palestine, does the Taoiseach agree with Lelia Doolan?”
“The Chinese regime has condemned Trump and Israel's bloody war against Iran as irresponsible, reckless and dangerous. That is something coming from that regime. Deputy Geoghegan was talking about zero tolerance against blockades. China has that. For example, in 1989, when students blockaded and demanded democracy, it sent the tanks in. It sent the army in and mowed students down with tanks. It persecutes people in Hong Kong fighting for democracy, people in Tibet, the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong. You name it, they get crushed in China. I would be interested to know what China had to say about its human rights record, but frankly it looks like a pussycat compared to threats to destroy civilisations coming from Donald Trump and what Israel is doing in Lebanon.”
“He made his money from property speculation and now turns out to be a bloodthirsty warmonger as well, whose warmongering is leading to farmers and workers in this country suffering economically as well as death and destruction raining down across the Middle East. We need the Government to use the legislation that Fianna Fáil introduced in 2007 to impose price controls. The Government cannot leave workers behind. Some 320,000 people are in electricity and gas arrears. The number of those arrears has doubled in the past few years. Workers will fight in the same way as the hauliers did if the Government does not do something serious to address their concerns.”
“I reiterate it and remind the Minister of State that it was a Fianna Fáil Government, in 2007, that brought in the Consumer Protection Act, which states that in a situation of emergency, the Government can act to impose orders to control the price of goods that are affected by that emergency. If this is not an emergency, with the hikes in petrol, diesel, home heating oil, gas, and electricity, then I do not know what an emergency looks like. This is self-evidently an emergency. It will potentially get worse because of the warmongering of Donald Trump. I seriously hope the people who were cheering on Donald Trump are thinking about it now. The signs were there. He is a property speculator.”
“People do not protest because they like protesting. They protest because they feel they have no choice and because their backs are against the wall. That is clearly why the hauliers, contractors and small farmers came out and protested. Their backs are against the wall because they have faced absolutely gigantic hikes in the cost of being able to earn and maintain an income. Because they protested, and only because they protested, the Government has been forced to make some concessions to them, although these are still far short of what the protestors actually asked for, namely price controls. People Before Profit are the only people in this Dáil, even to this day, who have said that we need price controls.”
“Yes, the Government should knock heads together, remove unnecessary sequential planning decisions and so on but I am seriously concerned the Government is actually just trying to remove climate obligations through the backdoor and its over-reliance or prioritisation of private developers' interests mean it will be them who benefit from it rather than the public interest.”
“I would like to hear some soothing words of reassurance that it will actually deal with the issues but the fact is the Government hands over responsibility to private developers for so much of the infrastructure, whether it is housing, energy and of course the data centres. I mean, Jesus, by 2030, it is estimated 30% of the electricity in this country will go to the data centres. They are hoovering up the energy we are creating for the benefit of some of the wealthiest companies in the world but doing very little for employment and serving no real purpose other than to make profits for these companies.”
“I seriously ask the question if this will apply to private, for-profit developments? We need renewable wind resources but why is it the Government has given away all of the sites to private companies? When the wind energy and our marine resources are developed for wind energy, we get nothing from it. We are giving to international consortiums. Even the French state will own more of the wind produced off the east coast of Ireland than the people of Ireland will because the Government has given away the sites to the French state energy company. I seriously worry what the Government's motives and objectives are here.”
“The objectors are the problem and the people who put in submissions to developments are the problem and not the 90,000 planning permissions that have been given and granted for houses in this country. Property developers sit on them, however, and do not do anything with them because it is profitable to sit on them and wait for the prices to go up, stay up or they flip the properties. No, there is nothing done about that but the Government is giving out about the objectors and it does not want oversight in respect of climate obligations, that is, the disapplication of section 15. To me, that smacks of LNG. That is what I hear in respect of LNG. We do not want any of the obligations under climate legislation to impact on our ability to develop liquid natural gas infrastructure.”
“They did not ask for a ice hockey rink. I am not against ice hockey, do not get me wrong, but the Government's councillors voted to give the developers the zoning they wanted and the Government will not even tell us how much money they have asked the Department for but the rumour is €60 million to €80 million. Football clubs cannot get an AstroTurf pitch, which costs less than €1 million, but we might be giving a private consortium €60 to €80 million to build ice hockey rinks that nobody asked for. That worries me but it speaks to whom the Government prioritises. When the Government says about this legislation that it wants to remove obstacles, it does not seem to be anything about that but instead it is about the objectors.”
“They cannot get money or AstroTurf pitches for love nor money from the council, even though there is all of this residential development. Then, I hear that private developers have decided in the Cherrywood site that they want to build two ice hockey rinks and a convention centre for about €240 million. They want rezoning for it, which they got. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors voted for it and the developers have asked the State for I do not know how much and the State will not even tell me. I have asked two parliamentary questions and the Department will not tell me for how much it has been asked for a private development for an ice hockey stadium. Nobody in the area is asking for an ice hockey stadium. They want a town centre. They want AstroTurf pitches. They want their bridge. They want the affordable housing they were promised.”
“The Minister should tell me whether this will help get the developers to deliver the town centre. They will not even build a bridge from one part of Cherrywood to the other part, which is needed to link the two together, because it is not profitable for them. They are allowed to get away with this. We have been screaming about it, the residents have been screaming about it and they are allowed get away with it. That is the sort of knocking heads together and getting Departments together I would like to see. Will the Government do something about that? Here is another bit of co-ordination. In the same area where there is all this residential development, we need AstroTurf pitches and sports facilities. The clubs are crying out for them.”
“The developers built all of the houses and made a lot of money. They are still flipping properties and they are still getting rezonings and changes to the SDZs. Whatever developers ask for, they get from the State. They have made a lot of money but for the town centre, which the people who have moved in there need, as well as the amenities and critical structure, there is nothing. Well, sorry, there is one Tesco Express and a big hole in the ground. The developers do not want to build the town centre because it is not really profitable for them. They are building houses and flipping properties after they got planning permission. They have started to sell properties again after getting a recent upzoning of the SDZs at higher densities. That is more money for them but they do not want to build the town centre.”
“In principle, the idea of getting State bodies to co-ordinate to accelerate the delivery of critical infrastructure and removing unnecessary obstacles to its development is a good one. I have concerns about the legislation but I would love to know whether it might be helpful in dealing with an issue in my constituency. This gets to the heart of my anxieties and concerns about what the Government's real motives and objectives are. I have raised a number of times the town centre in Cherrywood, which is the biggest residential development in the country. The entire development was really predicated on there being a town centre so you did not have to get in your car. You could walk everywhere in ten minutes because there would be community facilities, shop facilities and all of the rest of it.”
“The Government has failed to protect people because it prioritises corporations that are making massive profits rather than struggling working people and households in this country.”
“Compare what the Government has given in its total package with the headline "Irish tax relief on jet fuel for airlines operating here to hit €1bn this year". That was last November. A few commercial airlines get an exemption on excise of €1 billion. Profitable companies get more by a significant margin than all the tens of thousands of people who are being hammered with the fuel and energy increases that are crucifying them. It is the Government's priorities that are the problem. Trump and Israel have made this mess worse. Some of those who cheer them on should think seriously about that because this war is costing not just lives, it is also hitting people in their pockets.”
“There are 320,000 people in this country who are in arrears with their energy bills because they just cannot pay them. We have about 700,000 people who are living in poverty, and we have hundreds of thousands of people - and this is what was expressed in the streets - who are absolutely crucified by a cost-of-living crisis that started before Trump's and Israel's disastrous war commenced. It was already crushing people and producing arrears, hardship and suffering. We can add to that the exorbitant rents and accommodation crisis leading young people to leave this country because they cannot afford to live here. Trump's war makes it even worse, and the Government throws crumbs to people that will make almost no difference.”
“I do not know why the Tánaiste set his face against it because when it comes to handouts, as we saw in the budget, they were given to big business on research and development tax credits or, for example, €1 billion last year in excise cuts to the aviation industry to a few very profitable airlines. How can it give it to the big corporate sector but it will not give it to ordinary people who are being crushed with the cost-of-living crisis?”
“In fact, price controls they asked for on petrol, diesel, home heating oil and green diesel were almost exactly what we put in a Bill we brought into this House two years ago and that we brought in again a number of weeks ago almost word for word. They would actually bring down the cost of fuel, green diesel and home heating oil to levels that are affordable and where there would be certainty because all of the measly concessions the Government has given, which are totally inadequate, can be wiped out virtually overnight. Price controls are what is needed.”
“The protesters who were on the streets were there, by their own explanation, because their backs were up to the wall to the extent that they simply could not sustain the fuel price hikes they were enduring. That is on top of a cost-of-living crisis that is absolutely crushing people in terms of the cost of accommodation, energy price hikes, the cost of childcare and so on. It should be obvious to the Tánaiste that the Government has utterly failed to address that crisis. The demands that were made by those who were on the streets, which the Government is refusing to bow to, were for price controls. That is what they asked for.”
“In 1913, Ireland's greatest revolutionary, James Connolly, whose statue is behind us in this building, led the Dublin working class out for a year of disruptive strike action that shut the city down. That is how the trade union movement in this country was formed. It was done in a fight against deprivation, poverty and economic inequality and because of the refusal of the rich and powerful to understand the pain, hardship and suffering that working people were enduring at the time. That is a great tradition. The people who went out protesting last week did so because the Government refused to listen to repeated calls for price controls and effective action to deal with the hardship and suffering affecting people with the cost-of-living crisis.”
“Deputy Coppinger was absolutely right. The Government should intervene and prevent the crime being compounded for those who have suffered in these institutions.”
“She said to me afterwards that she was born in the Highgate mother and baby home, which we did not manage to find. That mattered to me and it matters to her. I got some messages from other people who said they were born in Highgate. We were disappeared to England and then quietly brought back to be adopted. Our outcomes were okay but Sarah was born in Highgate and then was in Bessborough. She is out there protesting; a second generation of people affected by all of this. The thought that we will build on this site, and that the Government will not intervene to make up and compensate for this State's failure of the hundreds of women and children who lie buried in unmarked graves, and for the trauma that has afflicted on the survivors and those affected, is horrendous. The Government can do it. As has been said, it could lodge an objection.”
“The idea we would go from that to prioritising the interests of property developers says it all about the carnival of reaction Connolly warned of. We go from this killing of children, effectively, this starvation of children who were buried in unmarked graves – the disappearance of children – to property developers profiting. We cannot do anything about it even though we are trampling on the sensitivities of people who have been brutalised in these horrific institutions. I was saying at the protest last week that I was born in a mother and baby home. I recently went with my mother to try to find the place. It had been in Highgate in north London and we could not find it. I have been reunited with my mother and the outcome has been a good one. I met somebody at the protest, Sarah - she said it was okay to mention her name - from Cork.”