Rose Conway-Walsh
Mayo · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“The very open nature of the Irish economy and over-reliance on FDI and a small number of large US firms exposes an economic vulnerability that covers an underlying deficit of €13 billion. With an all-island approach, we can tackle that properly.”
“An all-island development agency is critical to this prosperity. Competing for investment from multinational companies, based on five interlinked pillars of growth, transformational regions, sustainability and impact as promoted by the IDA is necessary to compete on a global stage.”
“I would need much longer than three minutes to discuss the fiscal implications of a united Ireland, such is the depth and breadth of the work already done. I commend all of those who have done it. Leaving all politics aside, the economic benefits of reunification present unprecedented opportunities for sustainable growth.”
“This morning, workers at Aer Lingus woke up to the devastating news that up to 500 jobs will be cut at the airline, impacting both staff at head office and flight crews. By all measures, Aer Lingus is a profitable company, reporting operating profits of €282 million in 2025. Its parent company, IAG, has operating profits of €5 billion.”
“We need to encourage student mobility across the island. I ask the shared island unit to intervene to provide funding for students from here going to Queen's University and Ulster University. Regarding the data, the NI Executive should work with the ONS, HMRC and the NISRA to improve the data on tax receipts in the North.”
“Will the Government meet representatives of the unions, the Irish Air Line Pilots Association, IALPA, Fórsa and other unions, to ensure that impacted workers receive full and fair redundancy packages and that we have full transparency, while also committing to wider statutory redundancy reforms?”
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“In terms of business supports the Government has abdicated responsibility entirely. I have spoken to oyster farmers who have suffered losses in the hundreds of thousands of euro. They must be supported to restock and repair damaged equipment. Farm businesses are wholly depended on being productive to generate income. I have spoken regularly about the disgraceful ACRES system. We have to put a scheme in place for farmers.”
“What is the Government going to do to acknowledge the vital role played by local, regional and community radio stations? Governments have paid lip service to these radio stations for more than 30 years. They have a public service remit. The Sound and Vision fund is not fit for the purpose we need it to serve. There must be multi-annual funding for news and current affairs. How can we justify giving €750 million to RTÉ and nothing for regional radio stations? The listenership figures reflect 63% for Midwest Radio in Mayo versus less than 20% coverage for our national broadcaster. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. I ask all TDs to address this inequity in the immediate future. I also acknowledge the role played by Castlebar Community Radio and other community radio stations.”
“Maybe we should not be surprised, when businesses in beautiful seaside towns like Newport are forced to pay for water treatment, when there is no water treatment plant there. Who is in charge of people’s right to water? I commend the role of local, community and regional radio stations both on the forewarnings of the status red alert and the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. I do not know where we would have been without them, in my case Midwest Radio, covering County Mayo and the wider region. The diaspora anxiously waited for news as to what was happening to their families and whether their families were safe. Presenters kept going throughout the night with updates, warnings and the outages. That was apart from the company they provided for people living alone, in fear of the worst storm ever.”
“Have they been called into the Government offices to be told this is not good enough? What people in rural Ireland are rightly asking is: “Who is in charge? Where is the Government? Where are the regulators? Where are those who made massive profits on the backs of ordinary people?" The failure of the ESB to ensure the resilience of the network must be put right for households by providing a goodwill payment to customers and by suspending the public service obligation, PSO, levy and the standing charges for those without power. How did Uisce Éireann think it would be possible to ensure water supply without generators? Are businesses going to be asked to pay a standing charge for water when they had no supply for days?”
“Businesses not only experienced structural damage, they incurred the loss of trade due to the temporary closures and not being able to operate fully because of not having phone lines and broadband. Those who are either not covered by insurance or the excess is such that they are unable to claim must be compensated. The 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector must now be brought forward to be effective immediately. Some post offices in County Mayo are still without broadband. They are running on a shoestring. Trying to make manual payments to ensure already vulnerable people have something in their pockets is taking its toll. What financial support is going to be given to these post offices to ensure their sustainability? Where is Eir? Where are the mobile phone companies?”
“People have paid the price for the lack of an effective co-ordinated emergency plan to deal with the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and the delayed Government intervention. They should, and must, be compensated. This abject failure of the Government must be put right. Government funding must be provided for businesses, sporting clubs, voluntary organisations and community groups that have been impacted by the storm, as it was after Storm Babet. Many of these voluntary organisations and community groups were already struggling to keep going. They are still struggling to keep going. There must be a review of core funding to these groups. They proved a vital lifeline in the aftermath of the storm.”
“We are in the 19th day after Storm Éowyn and there are still households and businesses without electricity, telecommunications and without water. I thank all the fieldworkers and their families for their dedication in carrying out this exhausting work, day and night, over the past 19 days. People who were already struggling with the cost of living and the cost of doing business are suffering financial losses that they just cannot sustain. I am not sure the Minister understands the hardship suffered by people who have paid the price for the failure of this Government and successive Governments to invest in the most vital infrastructure, namely, electricity, water and communications.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: - commends the voluntary and community efforts of everyone who stepped up to assist individuals, families, communities, businesses, sporting groups and voluntary organisations following the havoc caused by Storm Éowyn; - recognises the vital communication role played by local, community and regional radio stations; - recognises the outstanding workers from local authorities, the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), Úisce Éireann and phone companies who have been out day and night in miserable and dangerous conditions to restore essential services; - applauds the communities that have stood together, amid the most difficult circumstances, who rallied together by opening their homes, community facilities and ensured help was provided; - acknowledges the difficulties businesses, community and sporting groups continue to face, including significant financial hardship and the prospect of permanent closure; notes: — the lack of an effective co-ordinated emergency plan to deal with the aftermath of Storm Éowyn; — the delayed response of Government to quickly intervene, and the failure to provide any supports to local businesses, sports and community groups left devastated by the storm; — the fact that many businesses, schools, and homes remained without power for unacceptable lengths of time; — the failure of ESB Networks to forward plan by undertaking action to improve their response to unplanned power outages as has been repeatedly directed by the energy regulator since 2021; — the record-breaking profits that electricity generating companies have made in recent years which they have been allowed to keep in full, combined with ESB's refusal to make appropriate use of their €898 million profit last year in response to this national crisis as well as their public comments that the costs of repairing the electricity network may be borne by customers through increased electricity bills; and — Úisce Eireann's lack of forward planning that left key water infrastructure without back-up generation capacity in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn; and calls on the Government to: — provide an adequate level of Government funding to aid and assist businesses, community groups, voluntary organisations and sporting clubs that have been damaged by the storm; — bring forward the reinstatement of a 9 per cent Value-Added Tax (VAT) rate for the hospitality sector; — ensure that the ESB provide a goodwill payment to customers determined by the length of time they were without power, and that they suspend the Public Service Obligation levy and standing charges for those without power for that period; and — expand the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme to include businesses, sporting clubs, voluntary organisations and community groups who have been impacted by the storm as it was after Storm Babet.”
“Nobody benefits from businesses going to the wall, least of all the people who are employed by them and the business owners who have worked so hard. These industries need clarity as to which businesses are affected so that the Government must move at pace with the commitment around the VAT rate. I note that the finance Minister in the North, John O'Dowd, has stated his intention to raise this matter with the British Treasury in respect of businesses in the North. Island harmonisation on this measure is important and is something on which I will be seeking progress. The programme for Government describes the CETA trade agreement as benefiting Irish SMEs. It will do no such thing. It is a bad deal. It is a bad deal for workers' rights, for the environment and for the public purse and it should not be ratified.”
“I welcome the innovations that it will bring and I am delighted that IBEC has supported this work as well, but the Government needs to ensure that further research can be leveraged from that. I welcome in the programme for Government the aim that all Departments would be tasked with having a North-South remit in specific areas of their portfolios. I want to see that developed. Ahead of the general election, the Government committed to lowering the VAT rate on food-based hospitality, entertainment and hairdressing businesses. This does not appear in the programme for Government although media reports have indicated that it will be a part of budget negotiations. That is way too long to wait, particularly in the aftermath of the storm. Reducing the VAT rate has to be brought forward without any further delay.”
“Indeed, the national broadband plan confirms that large parts of rural Ireland still do not have access to high-speed Internet. This is a prerequisite for businesses and must be addressed immediately. The programme for Government makes further commitments to publish a new whole-of-Government action plan for competitiveness and productivity within 12 months. This is critical but such a plan must be completed on a national basis. I urge the Government to undertake the maximum level of engagement with Ministers in the Executive in the North, especially the finance, economy and infrastructure Ministers, as there is much joined-up work that can be done for the betterment of all. The recently launched ESRI macroeconomic model will be vital and a game-changing tool for the development of economic policy throughout the island.”
“I have been contacted by hundreds of businesses following the storm, including farm and fishing enterprises. Many of these businesses were already struggling to stay open. In terms of retail, Mayo is one of the counties with the highest number of vacancies among retail premises. These businesses need help now. Will the Government introduce a scheme to support businesses impacted by the storm? These businesses need to know. The programme for Government commits to publishing and implementing a new digital strategy to fully realise the economic potential of the digital and AI revolution. I would support the introduction of such a strategy and I look forward to working constructively to deliver it. As the Government is aware, however, far too many people throughout the State remain without broadband.”
“As we make statements in the House on the programme for Government, I am acutely aware of the people throughout the State who have been failed since the Government took office. We know this has not happened today or yesterday. It has been happening for years, as we can see in the infrastructural deficits, particularly in the west. Mar a dúirt mé inné the response to the disaster of Storm Éowyn has demonstrated what another five years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will mean for them. Today, the ESB has confirmed that citizens are still without power in County Mayo. They number 2,000 in Galway, 2,750 in County Roscommon and 2,050 in County Leitrim. It prompts one to ask whether this Government's mantra is "to hell or to Connacht". The Government was completely flatfooted even though the likely damage following the storm was well flagged.”
“At the time, he committed to prioritising the issue. Were those hollow words? What has been done in the meantime? Will the Government engage directly with the unions to urgently avert strike action?”
“The programme for Government commits the Government to work with the voluntary sector through industrial relations mechanisms and other processes to progress pay issues that affect the delivery of disability services and the long-term viability of organisations within the sector. We know that SIPTU is due to begin a ballot for strike action by up to 5,000 members working across 21 section 39 organisations. I raised this matter with the former Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, last October, a year on from the pay agreement being reached at the Workplace Relations Commission and the Government's commitment to honour that, but nothing has happened in the meantime. We saw the treatment of section 39 workers take centre stage during the election campaign, thanks to Charlotte Fallon challenging the Tánaiste on the matter.”
“I ask the Minister to please get ACRES sorted and tell me when all of these farmers will be paid their full entitlement, which is what they were promised and they signed up to. Otherwise, there will be other schemes that farmers will just completely turn their backs on.”
“I have an email from somebody trying to get hold of Eir to get CCTV calving cameras systems sorted and so on. There is major hardship for farmers at this time of year between the cost of living, not having enough payments and not knowing when they are going to get paid. This has to be sorted out. Is the Minister putting in place a grant to replace sheds for people who have had severe damage? It would be important for restoring confidence and faith, and farmers would know what to expect, if the grant was at least put in place fairly quickly. I am aware of the fishing sector and the damage done to the fishing industry. I cannot converse with the Minister here today without raising that with him also.”
“The Minister is aware that issues - I refer to probate or other matters - are normally sorted out by the planner, or by the farmer having access to talk to somebody in the Department who can explain why this parcel received a certain designation, or what is happening in relation to it. When one cannot talk to anybody, though, it cannot be sorted out, and therein lies the problem. Untold damage is being done in the relationship between the Government and the Department and farmers and in bringing farmers on board in terms of climate change, biodiversity and everything we need to do. That is why this is so urgent, never mind the fact that we are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. All of these farmers in Mayo who are in ACRES will also have had sheds damaged, fodder damage and lines down.”
“The Department upholds a very rigid set of deadlines that farmers have to adhere to or penalties will issue. However, there is no issue with the Department missing deadline after deadline when it comes to the processing and payment of ACRES payments. The Department needs to be more proactive in contacting farmers. There always seems to be a technical issue on the other side. The farmer and the adviser are left in limbo wondering if it is something on their side, but more often than not it is not something on their side; it is something to do with this famous glitch. We have to sort out what this glitch is. This is landing on his table now because farmers' confidence in ACRES is absolutely on the floor as we speak.”
“The other problem is that if you have a query in relation to your file, you cannot ring the ACRES section. Instead, you have to email that section. This is usually replied to with a generic email which states that the Department is processing payments and will be in touch in due course. This is not good enough. Unlike other schemes like the basic income support for sustainability, BISS, scheme and the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme, farm advisers do not have access to ACRES payments. They do not have this with ACRES. They have no access to payments or issues relating to files. Why is this the case? This has to be changed immediately. They must have access to what is going on. I need to know today that all outstanding payments for 2023 and 2024 will be made immediately because these funds are badly needed for each farm household.”
“That is okay. We probably need four hours or four months on ACRES. Throughout last year, the processing of 3,000 outstanding cases for the 2023 payments was moving very slowly. After the general election was called, the then Minister insisted that ACRES payments were on track for a late November payment. On 5 September, it was suggested on the website of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that 95% of farmers could expect to be paid their ACRES balancing payments by the end of September. That did not happen. Those payments were set aside. A payment run was done for tranche 1, comprising those who joined in 2023. Just 60% of those received a payment for 2024. We can add to the mix around 9,000 farmers who joined tranche 2 of ACRES in 2024, one third of whom have yet to be paid.”
“I have been in contact with the ACRES section in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on a daily basis for weeks and months now. Several thousand farmers in County Mayo and in other counties are still without payment. My question for the Minister is this: when will all of the payments be made for the outstanding ACRES payments that are needed? What is going on? We cannot understand what is going on. To say there is a computer glitch is okay for a day or two but to use the problem of a computer glitch for months on end, while people are not getting paid, is not acceptable. I am hoping that the Minister will have some straight answers for us today. Farmers are left in limbo as they wait to find out whether they are getting an additional payment or a bill for their 2023 participation in the ACRES scheme.”
“I congratulate Deputy Currie as well. I look forward to working with her again in her capacity as a Teachta Dála. I worked with her before on North-South matters of peace and reconciliation. That is very important to both of us. I look forward to working in that vein with Deputy Currie. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Heydon, on his new role. The first challenge for him to tackle is the need to sort out the ACRES debacle. I spoke to him about it yesterday. Honest to God, I have never seen anything like the situation with ACRES. I have been dealing with agriculture since long before I entered politics. This is the worst ever. I would nearly say that the Minister should leave other things aside to get this sorted for now.”
“There are many things to be learned from this. We need action on it. The most immediate action we need is for water and electricity be to reinstated within hours to the areas where it has not yet been, and particularly in Mayo.”
“I hear that an oyster farm has lost €160,000 worth of equipment and products. We cannot sit back. We must put schemes in place but the schemes have to be accessible and we have to get rid of the bureaucracy with it. That Uisce Éireann does not have generators is absolutely crazy and must be fixed. This also applies to the group water schemes. Funding must be made available for this. This has laid absolutely bare how Mayo and rural Ireland have been neglected, and how the ESB and EirGrid have been let away by Governments not making the investments that needed to be made. Again, years ago we asked EirGrid so many times - back when I was on the council - to put some of those lines underground. They told us barefaced lies when they said it could not be done even though we knew from other countries that it could be done.”
“This does not say "urgency" to me. There are lessons to be learned here but, as with many things, I fear that lessons do not get learned. I really want to thank Midwest Radio. We would be absolutely lost without Midwest Radio for communication. When my colleagues and I met the ESB last week I said that they should be taking out adverts on Midwest Radio to communicate with people as well. I hope the role the radio station has played in this will be remembered when funding is distributed for broadcasting. Without the radio people would be completely lost altogether. We talked about farmers earlier. We absolutely have to get farmers' sheds replaced as well. As the Minister will be aware, so many of these farmers are already waiting for their ACRES payments. On top of this now they have no sheds. Many farmers have lost fodder.”
“Very shortly after this somebody from our own constituency rang me to describe to me how the equipment his father was using could not be used. He had the mattress, the sleep apnoea machine, and several other pieces of equipment. When he went to take him to the doctor his father died in front of them. That is the tragedy of it. That is how urgent this is. I cannot understand why the Army was not brought in from day one. We have Defence Forces personnel and they should be trained in all of these things if they are not already trained. If they are not then I suggest they immediately are trained because we will have more storms like this. We did not have the Army in. We did not have the Dáil coming back. It took a number of days for the humanitarian aid to be put in place or to say that people could have alternative accommodation.”
“The crews should have been there, they should have been on standby and things should have been in place to be able to ensure that vulnerable people in particular were looked after. It is wholly unacceptable that there are people still sitting in Mayo who do not know when they will have light or water. As my colleagues have said, the Dáil should have been back here immediately. I feel that if there was a similar catastrophe in Dublin we would be back here sitting in the Dáil. It is not good enough. I was on Midwest Radio this morning and I said that I had been frightened all week that something was going to happen and that somebody was going to die as a result of this in Mayo. I extend my condolences to the family of the man in Donegal who lost his life.”
“Tréaslaím leis an Aire on his new role. I wish him the best of luck. What a baptism of fire. Coming from Mayo, the same county as myself, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, will know how much we have suffered over the last two weeks. The Minister will also know it is absolutely unacceptable that 13 days after the storm people have no light and no water. I know the Minister will also have got all of the cases that have come across my desk in the last two weeks of the real hardship people have suffered with this storm. I put it to the Minister that the response was not good enough and it was not urgent enough. We knew in the days running into this storm that it would be unprecedented and that there had been nothing like it. We are very used to the harshest of storms in the coastal areas but we knew this was going to be something different.”