Robbie Gallagher
Labour Panel · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“I want to raise an issue that I feel is having a very detrimental and suffocating effect on rural Ireland. This is the declining number of taxis available. It is so bad now that it is causing an economic bottleneck and, in my opinion, is also acting as a social barrier.”
“This is killing the night-time economy especially. People would like to go out and socialise, which we would like to see, and go out for a bite to eat or a few drinks or whatever. It is important that we encourage this type of behaviour.”
“I join others in thanking all of the staff in the campus of Leinster House for their hospitality and the manner in which they look after us all year in, year out. I say to all of my colleagues in the Chamber that I enjoy their company, perhaps not all of the time but most of the time I am glad to say.”
“I too would like to raise the urgent case of the approximately 200 people in this country who are living with Friedreich's ataxia. It is a rare and progressive condition that gradually takes away a person's mobility and independence. Unfortunately, there is no cure for this condition but there is hope.”
“Unfortunately, they had to turn around and head home without getting that news. Ten other EU countries have already made this treatment available but Ireland continues to wait while this progressive condition for those who have it continues.”
“I will raise an issue that affects thousands of people in this country but, in my opinion, does not get the attention it deserves. That is the shockingly poor return Irish people are getting on their savings in Irish banks.”
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“I thank the Minister of State. I too acknowledge the commitment, hard work and dedication of the National Ambulance Service throughout the country. In many cases, those personnel are left in a very difficult situation. I want to ensure that the people of Monaghan and Cavan have an adequate ambulance service, but there are concerns about that. I sincerely hope the response given on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, goes some way to assuage the concerns and fears that people genuinely hold. I assure the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, that if the situation does not approve, I will be back looking for more answers. I thank the Minister of State for her response and time.”
“As she can imagine, the thought of not having ambulance cover there is very scary. The community - I speak on behalf of many of them this afternoon - wants answers and to have confidence that County Monaghan in particular, and indeed Cavan, will have cover during those periods. I look forward to the response from the Minister of State.”
“Last week there were 17 12-hour shifts for which no cover was provided locally. This week, I understand, there are 19 shifts which have no cover provided locally. It is a very worrying situation. I understand that the three or four vacancies in question have been vacant for a number of years and that the National Ambulance Service is saying it is finding it difficult to recruit personnel nationally. I have talked to people from different counties and it does not seem to be an issue there. What efforts has the National Ambulance Service made to reach out to the communities in Monaghan and Cavan to put forward the many rewards there would be for serving in the National Ambulance Service? I would hope the Minister of State might have some answers on this issue this afternoon.”
“I understand that currently there are three or four vacancies, or thereabouts, in the Monaghan stations, which are located in Monaghan town and Castleblayney. Heretofore, those vacant shifts were covered by local personnel who kindly volunteered to make themselves available to do overtime in order that the people of Monaghan and Cavan would have a service. For some unknown reason, management at the National Ambulance Service has now decided that it will desist from that option, It is now employing ambulance personnel from as far away as Swords in County Dublin and Dundalk. That might be fine but I understand that if ambulance personnel from Swords or Dundalk, whichever the case may be, are called out to an incident in their own area, that will get first priority and Monaghan could be left with no cover whatsoever, which is quite scary.”
“Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom fáilte mhór a chur roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach seo um thráthnóna. This is the first opportunity I have had since the Minister of State's elevation to high office and I would like to take this opportunity to wish her every success. I have no doubt that she will take her hard work ethic to her Department and that she will make a great success of it. I come here today for the second time inside a week to talk about the lack of ambulance cover in counties Monaghan and Cavan. There seems to be an issue with the rostering of ambulance personnel in both counties, but in particular in County Monaghan. It is an issue that is causing great concern for the people there, as I am sure the Minister of State can appreciate and understand.”
“That might be well and dandy were those crews available, but the likelihood is that those crews might be called out to incidents in their own areas and as a result Monaghan would not be covered by any ambulance crew. That is not good enough. I ask the Deputy Leader to arrange, as a matter of urgency, for the Minister for Health to come to the Chamber so that we can discuss this serious and alarming development, which cannot be allowed continue. Until such time as that happens, I appeal to the National Ambulance Service management at national level to revert to the existing arrangement, whereby local staff kindly facilitated filling those shifts by way of overtime so that the people of Monaghan could have an adequate ambulance service, which they richly deserve, like every other county in the State.”
“I raise my grave concerns about the lack of adequate ambulance services in County Monaghan. This week, 16 12-hour shifts in the county will not be covered by local personnel, while next week, an estimated 19 12-hour shifts will not be covered by local personnel in Monaghan. Until now, we have had about 22 fully rostered staff in the county, located in both Monaghan and Castleblaney. There have for some time been four vacancies, which the National Ambulance Service has been unsuccessful in filling. The four vacant shifts were being filled by the local crews who were on overtime to cover them. Now, management at national level has made a very strange decision that that will no longer be the case and that these shifts will be covered by crews coming from as far away as Finglas, County Dublin, and Dundalk.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his response. As he said, this particular section of road has been in the national development plan for a number of years. In excess of €5.5 million has been spent on the different phases since 2018. There is a concern that some of the surveys that were carried out in conjunction with this have a shelf life and unless this project is moved on, that funding will be lost because the surveys will be outdated. It is important that this funding is found. It is only in the region of €900,000. If we and this Government are serious about road safety then it is absolutely essential that this road gets funding. Hopefully, when the announcement is made in the coming weeks, the €900,000 needed to progress it to the next phase will be in that allocation.”
“I look forward to hearing the response of the Minister of State and hope that my contribution has not fallen on deaf ears.”
“Last year, the local authority sought additional funding of between €900,000 and €1 million to complete phase 3 of the process but, unfortunately, the funding was not forthcoming. l understand that allocations are being considered and an announcement is expected in the coming weeks. It is essential that this piece of roadway is included for funding. In the overall scheme of things, €900,000 does not seem to be an awful lot of money. It is vitally important we make a statement that this Government takes road safety very seriously, and that it is serious about this piece of roadway, which is notorious for a high accident rate, by allocating €900,000 to allow the phase 3 process to be completed so that we can move on to phase 4.”
“It would mean a quicker and more planned route for those travelling from Donegal or Derry towards Dublin. On the land take, which is quite significant, I pay tribute to the local community who have stepped up to the plate. As a result of this new projected roadway, seven family homes will have to be demolished, and one commercial building and 17 farm buildings will have to be removed. For the people concerned, such measures bring a great deal of stress and annoyance. What is compounding this is the fact there has been so little progress on moving this particular stretch of roadway on. The process began back in 2018 and a preferred route corridor was published in 2021. So far, Monaghan County Council, through Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, has spent somewhere in the region of €5.5 million on this piece of roadway.”
“There have been 17 fatal collisions on this stretch of roadway in the past ten years and 24 fatalities in the past 18 years. Behind those statistics lie broken lives and families left with so much grief and a lifetime of heartache. As the traffic volumes continue to grow, the chances of more accidents on this stretch of roadway grow with it. The community is quite frustrated, to put it mildly, with the lack of progress on plans to upgrade this stretch of roadway. In 2018, a process was undertaken to do design work with a view to realigning this particular roadway to make it safer. The ideal scenario is to have a four lane dual carriageway because, as we know, a dual carriageway is three times safer than a single carriageway. Apart from the safety element of this matter, there is a cross-Border element, that is, North-South connectivity.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit chuig an Teach ar maidin. The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. This is my first opportunity to have a dialogue with him in an official capacity in this Chamber. I wish him well and I have no doubt that he will make a great success of the role he finds himself in. I would like to talk to the Minister of State about the stretch of roadway between Castleblayney and Ardee that forms part of the N2, which is the main Dublin to Derry road. Unfortunately, this particular stretch of roadway is infamous for a high collision rate. Sections of the road have been classified as having twice the expected collision rate so, unfortunately, the death toll is alarming and heartbreaking.”
“It costs in the region of €85,000 per annum to keep someone incarcerated in our prisons for 12 months. This is a serious amount of money. There are loads of things at which we can look across community service, such as litter picking, taking graffiti off a wall or tidying up our towns. Surely there is a role that could be played with regard to our forests in the wake of the recent storm we had. These are just a number of areas we should be exploring. We also need to explore who supervises these workers when they are out there. I would be grateful if we could organise a debate on the expansion of community service as soon as possible.”
“There is much debate and commentary about the lack of prison spaces in our country. There is no doubt that there is urgent need for prison places and we should get on with it as a matter of urgency because it is so badly needed. With the best will in the world, it will take years to have a new prison or two new prisons as the case may be. With that in mind, it is a very opportune time for us to have a debate on and conversation about community service, how we can expand community service and what we can learn from other jurisdictions about how they handle community service because there is no doubt that it has a role to play. In light of the current revolving door situation in our prisons, it is an apt subject. I ask the Leader to request that the Minister for Justice come to the House so we can have a debate on it.”