Ruairí Ó Murchú
Louth · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“It was hardly a shock to me and many others that he decided that the simplicity that was asked for by Sinn Féin last week, such that we would consider preparations for Irish unity, was not acceptable. Most people would see this as a possibility, even those who do not necessarily like the idea.”
“I welcome that. I have spoken previously to the Minister about the necessity of providing Mr. Delaney's report on the incident to Natasha and the wider family.”
“We will all be very interested to see what the new circular is. The Minister of State said it will be announced in September. A needs-based system is what we need. I would like to think the young boy I talked about would be able to avail of this. I will use him as an example. The correct assessments were carried out.”
“We just need to make sure that the circular is fit for purpose and that the young primary school child to whom I refer will be given the supports he requires. I will just finish reading from the communication to which I referred earlier.”
“We need to ensure that the engagement with Lebanon is ongoing. Are we happy with the interaction with the UN? There had been some issues relating to the coroner's court. Everyone needs to do everything that can be done to ensure truth and justice for the family of Private Seán Rooney.”
“I thank the Ceann Comhairle for all the flexibility she allows in this Chamber, and hopefully that will continue as we speak. I welcome an awful lot of what Deputy Devlin said.”
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“We all know the Central Bank needs to be provided with powers to have national restrictive measures, which are necessary to ensure that we are not complicit, as is required by the Genocide Convention. As some of my colleagues have said, the Minister did not say the Bill is unworkable or not legal, and this is not a State that is too worried about infringement actions or legal challenges being taken. In general, the State has faced up to legal challenges, sometimes when it should not have, when ordinary people tried to ensure that their rights were fulfilled. The Palestinian people may not exist in the next while. At this point, we are facilitating the Israeli Government in selling these bonds. The Minister has not come out and said this is unworkable and outlined how the Government is going to deliver.”
“It is hard to believe that we are having this debate. There is absolute acceptance that Israel is an apartheid state that is engaged in genocidal action in Gaza. Another 25 people were killed at a so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid station. I do not know what defence there can be for what Israel is doing on a day-by-day basis. At least 55,000 people have been slaughtered and there is no end in sight. While the Central Bank may not be selling them, it is facilitating these Israeli war bonds. We can have an argument about the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, the legal service available to us, which seems to have the best of legal minds. It is intent on ensuring that the Minister does not do anything that could be unconstitutional or unlawful, yet it was sufficiently happy to draft the Bill and work alongside Deputy Doherty.”
“I appreciate the flexibility the Chair has offered me, but I will need an answer. We need a solution with regard to this. I do not think this is good enough for this family or any other family that finds themselves in these circumstances. The only good news is that the child was seen and dealt with and is thriving at the moment.”
“However, the waiting, the journeys over and back to Britain and Germany and the number of cancellations show this is an abject and absolute disaster. There is a lot more detail beyond that. I would not like to be put in that circumstance.”
“Eventually, the GP referred them to Temple Street neurology department, and it diagnosed the child with epilepsy very quickly and spoke about the necessity to have Keppra medication, which is incredibly dangerous if a child does not have epilepsy. The parents were slow; they did not want to do this. They were actually sent from the service because they said they wanted to wait until a set of tests had been carried out. At that point, an ambulance had been called within a couple of days. I will not have time to deal with the absolute specifics of that, but it was an absolute nightmare. In fairness to the paramedics, they did a blood sugar test and it gave a reading of 0.6. It was a nightmare in the hospital but eventually, the child was diagnosed with hyperinsulinism.”
“I welcome what the Minister of State said at the end. I will provide the information explicitly because it is absolutely necessary. While all this is commendable with regard to cancer care, it does not deal with the issue at hand, which is this child who was diagnosed with hyperinsulinism, and the fact that we have the machine here to carry out this PET-CT scan. There is an issue with regard to the isotopes and then ensuring we have a medical practitioner who is sufficiently licensed. That is something I expect an answer on because it needs to be done. I will also be providing information the mother told me with regard to the issue they had. Following the child having seizures, she went to the GP first of all.”
“The family has been advised that the machine to carry out the isotope testing is available in Ireland but there is no one here able to operate it. The isotopes have to be specifically made and brought in, and in some cases this is from outside the EU. The family asked why the specialist from Manchester could not travel to Ireland to perform the scan here and were advised this relates to medical licensing issues for the medic. We need to know why this machine is not up and running if we have one here. In my follow-up contribution, I will go through some of the desperate circumstances this family was put through. In fairness to the mother, I think the family members did an awful lot of the heavy lifting themselves and got this scan done. I was only too delighted when the child was diagnosed. She is in a far better place now and thriving.”
“They made arrangements to travel to Manchester in January and in February, but these were cancelled at the last minute for several reasons, including the isotope not being available and, on another occasion, contamination of the dye. These problems in Manchester meant the family had to travel to Berlin. The issues they encountered there were incredible. This family was put through a great deal of stress and many issues. At one stage, the clinic in Berlin even told them Manchester had not been paid for the scans so on that basis it could not go ahead. The mother of this child had to pay €4,500 at the last minute. This is an issue that will need to be addressed, but there are many others beyond it.”
“It was raised by a constituent who came to me. Luckily enough, the issue has been dealt with, but I wish to go through the problem that exists here and then the specific difficulties this family had to go through. The parents were told the treatment their child needed was in either England or Germany. They ended up being set up for six medevac planes. Hyperinsulinism is a genetic mutation. The child had lesions on her pancreas and this releases insulin willy-nilly. It is an incredibly serious condition and affects about one in 200,000 people. The parents in this case realised their child needed a PET-CT scan. They were told this could only be done in Manchester and required a specialised isotope dye.”
“Before I turn to my main issue, but on the basis that this is health-related, I commend the staff in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital where I had to undergo a testing procedure. All is very well but I must say the staff there were incredibly professional and made something that should not be enjoyable in any way as enjoyable as it could be and definitely as painless as it could be. I just want to state that on the record. I turn now to an incredibly serious issue for a little child - a baby girl - and for other people and their families. In this case, we are talking about a child born last July. I will go right to the end in the sense that the child was diagnosed with hyperinsulinism. It impacts a number of people but is not that prevalent. The problem here is there was an issue with even being diagnosed in the first place.”
“There has been a feasibility study in the area on geothermal energy, a solution that would probably require a number of parts. I hope to get a promise from the Government on delivering for the people concerned. This obviously became a huge issue when gas prices went through the roof, but it is also an environmental disaster. There is a legal framework in an awful lot of other countries to deal with this issue, but it is an anomaly we still have here.”
“I ask him the Minister of State to come back to me in writing on where that is. Obviously it is very positive. We all want to have schemes that are fit for purpose. We want to see we can actually deliver district heating systems at scale. I return to the Achilles' heel that exists with communal heating systems. I spoke to the Minister before about Carlinn Hall and I spoke to the previous Minister many times. He opened this particular housing estate. It has 200 homes and unfortunately the system that was biomass-fed is now gas-fed. We need to find an alternative. I have spoken to some companies and the SEAI about it. There may be something in train, in which case it is a proposal we will be bringing to the Government.”
“It would be good to have a timeline for when the Minister of State sees that business case being in place. I think we all agree on the necessity of renewables and decarbonisation. We have seen some district heating projects that make complete sense where waste energy, rather than remaining waste, is piped in and used as a means of providing heat. We need as much as possible of this done as soon as possible. The Minister of State talks to the stakeholders, I assume. I would like an update on the interactions with the companies that are looking to put plans in place because they are still talking about how there is insufficient support. We have schemes that are not fit for purpose from a point of view of delivering. I will deal with communal heating systems and the particular issues in a moment.”
“Will the Minister of State provide an update on the preparation of the business case seeking to establish future State funding to support efficient district heating projects? I have spoken to the Minister of State before about the wider issue of district heating. Stakeholders in the industry say the support scheme for renewable heat, for example, needs to be looked at to make it more fit for purpose to deliver district heating. We have a specific issue with communal heating systems which also needs to be addressed, which I will deal with later.”
“If we get our act together, 2,656 houses could be made available. We should not allow these delays, which create other problems. It looks like renters are paying the price for the failures of Government. I do not see any solutions in the dismantling of the rent pressure zones. We could talk about rising homelessness, the homeless services that are under severe pressure-----”
“Had the Government told people in Dundalk, Drogheda or anywhere else in this State that we would be talking about rents of €1,400, €1,600, €2,000 or €2500 and more, they would have been laughed out of the place but that is what the Government has delivered at this point. In fairness to Deputy Gould, who tabled this motion, we are talking about 2,656 vacant council homes. We talk about the complex issue that is housing but this is not very complex. There are 2,656 vacant council houses, 776 of which have been vacant for longer than 12 months. That is a simple solution. The solution is there in front of the Government and it is about ensuring that the money is delivered and the capacity to deliver happens. Then we could have at least 776 families that should have already been housed being housed how.”
“I do not know how many times I have come in here and spoken about housing. It is almost a single transferable speech although previously I might have said that things were not getting better but now it is very obvious for anyone to see that things are getting a lot worse. I have no doubt that the Minister and his Government colleagues have the same types of cases as those coming to my constituency office and are meeting the same types of people on the street, people would previously have been able to rent or buy a house or find some other solution that suited but that does not exist at this point. I will not do what I have done over the last number of months which is go through the Daft.ie figures. They are absolutely ridiculous.”
“How will we put pressure on the British Government regarding delivering for Sean Brown and his family, who have been failed over many years?”
“Up to 25 people, including British state agents, could be linked to this murder. We know that surveillance was lifted for agents under surveillance. We know there are a significant number of issues regarding absolute collusion. I agree with what was said earlier. This was British state policy in Ireland. It was a matter of taking out Irish citizens. We commend the family of Sean Brown, Bellaghy GAA and the wider GAA. The Tánaiste is talking about supporting a full public inquiry as directed by the British courts. When the Taoiseach spoke about this previously, he conflated it to some degree with repealing the British Government's action with regard to the Legacy Act. This would not be sufficient for the family and a number of us in here. I welcome what the Tánaiste said so could I get some reiteration regarding that?”
“At this point, we have a promise from the Tánaiste and the Government in that regard. The Tánaiste made reference to CETA. Most of the parts of that trade agreement are in operation. Our big fear is the investor court system and the chilling impact it has had across the board.”
“The Tánaiste has indicated that we will have some element of clarification by the end of quarter 2 as to what the agreement looks like but we still do not have clarity as to how agreement is to be determined. The Tánaiste is promising the State will be resolute in the sense of what we understand this agreement to be. Mercosur is utterly unacceptable and I cannot see how there will be any movement in that respect. I assume, on the basis of what the Tánaiste said, that the European Commission has not offered, by way of this clarification, that there can be real wins from our point of view. Beyond that, it is a case of maintaining a relationship with those member states that have similar positions and ensuring we look after Irish farming and opposing any agreement that would be detrimental to it.”
“What has the engagement with the Commission been like and, more importantly, what answers have been given by the Commission?”
“We also know that there will be issues in terms of food security into the future. We are always talking in this House about the sustainability of family farms. We have worries about the maintenance of the derogation. Some farmers have been impacted by the loss of the previous nitrates directive derogation. What is the Government's plan in terms of engagement with other like-minded countries? What are its plans for what can be done? What has the engagement with the Commission been like? The Minister mentioned that there had been a meeting on 10 April with other EU countries that opposed Mercosur that Ireland did not attend but he said that there had been a significant amount of engagement. What are the plans coming out of that engagement?”
“The Tánaiste is well aware of the fears in rural Ireland and particularly among farmers. I was worried when we had that briefing in the AV room where it was stated that, to a degree, all deals were done. It is unacceptable if this is a take it or leave it-type scenario, which is the way it was proposed. I ask for detail on the engagements that are happening. What are the engagements with the European Commission at this time? What are we looking at? We all know the issues, which have already been stated, around South American beef. We all understand that, to a degree, what is being done here is a deal to facilitate the sale of German cars and other goods. While that is obviously going to be part of any trade deal, we cannot be the whipping boy and Irish farming cannot suffer on that basis.”
“They believe they are being sold out because they are being told they will have to accept this if they want anything on the derogation, which is obviously unacceptable.”
“I ask the Tánaiste to outline his engagements and position regarding the Mercosur trade agreement. We know the issues that exist for Irish farmers in this regard. They are afraid of 100,000 tonnes of South American beef entering the EU at the expense of deforestation. That means our farmers will need to do more while receiving less from the CAP. We are talking about this in the context of the Irish Government's failure to deliver a workable forestry framework. I attended a meeting with the IFA recently. Its representatives had been in Brussels and spoke about the feeling they had, no more than when we got the briefing last week from the Commission, that this was a done deal.”
“Have we looked at any means by which the Central Bank would not facilitate the sale war bonds that are facilitating genocide? I know the arguments that have been made but infringement proceedings from the EU are not a good enough reason.”
“In the West Bank, people face regular slaughter and what is modern-day colonisation and land grabbing. In Gaza, the Palestinians are facing wipeout. Time is not on our side. Legal minds' belief that it is possible to include services is already in the public domain, whatever the Tánaiste's conversations are going to be with the Attorney General. Those conversations would need to be positive but they need to happen as soon as possible because we need to have this done. I agree with what Deputy Connolly has said. Whatever about the fact that we have an insufficient amount of divestment from firms that are involved in Israel and the occupied territories, it is not in any way acceptable that we would be investing in these war bonds.”
“Is the State looking at any means by which the Central Bank would not facilitate the sale of these war or genocide bonds?”
“Yes. I have already brought up this particular issue. The Tánaiste is going to be dealing with the issue of services until we see delivery. The timeline is vital. I agree with Deputy Murphy. The Tánaiste has to elaborate to some degree on what the legal issues are. It cannot be beyond us to find a solution in order that we can deliver the occupied territories Bill as soon as possible and before we see the absolute end of the Palestinian people. Mahmoud Nawaja, when he was here, spoke about the need to see a tipping point. That tipping point is only going to be reached when states like Ireland take action and, as the Tánaiste said, we see action further afield that makes Israel feel like the pariah state it is as it carries out this genocide.”
“We know the issue that exists with respect to housing - the Tánaiste hears it from ISME, IBEC and others - and then investing in our infrastructure. Will the Tánaiste give an outline of the state of play regarding preparations for supports for businesses and diversification and any engagements there are with those sectors, particularly medtech and pharma, as well as others we believe will be impacted?”
“I will accept that there will not be clarity on the question of what exactly the package is going to look like. I have no doubt about that but I will ask the question. We are making the case for those sectors we would like to protect but every other state in the European Union is making the same arguments. It is necessary that we represent Irish views, needs and wants. We also have to deal with the fact that we have to build up our indigenous sector. We know the issues as regards the failure to invest in infrastructure and, some would say, our excessive reliance on tax incentives. It is vital that we engage with the EU on key products and exports, that we explore new markets, develop supports for jobs in sectors under threat and tackle energy costs that are undermining our business and competitiveness.”
“I accept that the European Union, like any other outfit, is going to come up with something that would impact America. We would obviously like to protect whiskey businesses and whatever, but when we are talking about 50% tariffs, there is not going to be a whole pile of protection for everybody. We just hope that it is more bluster than it is reality.”
“We all get the idea - tariffs and trade wars are bad for all concerned. What has been proposed by the President of the United States could fold a huge level of world trade. It would not be beneficial to America, Ireland or the European Union and would have a huge impact on the global economy, none of it good. I do not think anyone has come up with a way to win a trade war. I agree that we need cooler heads to prevail but a large number of people work in the multinational sector. Some of those sectors invested in the US market, and they will be very concerned. My primary question relates to the EU's response. Could we get more of an update on what this retaliatory package would look like? We all welcome that areas such as pharma and dairy would not be included.”
“We have seen further highly provocative statements by the US President. Some of this is calculated, I have to assume, to spook and bully. We have obviously seen an element of a timeline further down the line with regard to us facing tariffs but it seems, unfortunately, we cannot dismiss them. What is the latest position with respect to engagement with the EU on countertariffs?”
“A large number of people have an issue with the Central Bank facilitating the sale of those bonds. We got the OPLA to do look at the Bill. If the Government disagrees with the Bill, is there another means of dealing with the matter so that we can ensure that our Central Bank is not facilitating this?”
“In fairness, we have to put whatever pressure we can on the EU-Israel association agreement but we also have to deal with what we can domestically. On the occupied territories Bill, when will the scheme be sent to the committee? It is anxious to do the pre-legislative scrutiny, but the committee is not permitted to schedule scrutiny until it has received the Bill. The Tánaiste is well aware of the appetite that exists for the Bill to be enacted by the summer recess. On what date will the committee get the Bill from the Tánaiste and his Department? He keeps talking about legal issues. He says he is open to there being delivery on the issue of services, but we need this expanded upon. What are the legal issues? I do not want to revisit Tuesday's debate. We tabled Israeli war bond legislation.”
“We need to deal with what we have in front of us at the moment. What is the Government's plan? What is the plan of the European Union? Does the Tánaiste foresee this happening in a reasonable timeline? I do not know what "reasonable" means in this context.”
“At this point, there is considerable urgency. We see what people are facing in Gaza. We are talking about the starvation of one in five people. More than 54,000 people have been killed. The most recent figure was 3,924 deaths since the so-called ceasefire. This is a terrible term to use, but Israel okayed 800 truckloads of aid last week. We hear that only 500 made their way in. It is obvious what Israel is doing. We welcome the fact that we are now talking about a clear majority but we need a timeline for this review. We need to see the appropriate measures the Tánaiste has spoken about as soon as possible. We must ensure we do whatever we can. I agree that there is an issue with these clauses. There needs to be a better means of dealing with these issues into the future but the people of Gaza do not have time for us to get better rules.”
“We are watching genocide on a daily basis. It is incredible to many of us that there remains business as usual in trade, even preferential trade, between the EU and Israel. Too many countries have failed to raise their voices, as the Tánaiste has already mentioned to some degree. We have seen movement but we need more. We need the humanitarian conditions that exist in the EU-Israel association agreement to be put in play. If that is the will of many of the people of the EU states in question, then we need the states to follow through.”
“I welcome the Tánaiste's criticism of Russia's warmongering and cynical approach to peace talks. It is important that the international community escalate pressure in that regard. The Irish position has been that Ukraine must be at the negotiating table. There is an absolute logic to that. The European Union needs to be at that negotiating table also. Does the Tánaiste believe more is required from the EU to build international pressure on Russia? That means moving on whatever sanctions can work. I assume the United States will take a position. We will deal with many issues where we are in no way happy with how America is operating in the world but it can play a decent role here. There are means by which the European Union, America and the international community can build a peace process and a sustainable peace.”
“It seems to be running out of patience. Does the Department have an expectation of what may come from the next round of negotiations on 2 June?”
“Obviously, it is incredibly frightening when you are dealing with the reality of underground schools. There is huge desire internationally for peace but the fear is Vladimir Putin is just playing along. The Ukrainian Government obviously has a desire for peace, but I imagine it would have to be on a sustainable basis. It has an appetite for real negotiations. We have seen attacks on energy infrastructure, civilian infrastructure and on the home city of President Zelenskyy, Kryvyi Rih. We all condemn these attacks and it is difficult not to be somewhat cynical about the attitude towards peace of Vladimir Putin. During a recent set of peace talks in Istanbul on 16 May, Russia sent a low-level delegation. How serious are they? We have many issues with the US Administration but it was previously inclined to offer latitude to Russia.”
“We all condemn Vladimir Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine and its recent intensification. It has resulted in a considerable loss of civilian life and many reprehensible attacks on civilian infrastructure. It represents the largest land conflict in Europe for nearly 80 years. Progress towards a ceasefire has been extremely slow. We all hope for a peace, but one that is sustainable. What is the Tánaiste's current understanding of the situation?”
“Once upon a time, Louth County Council would provide information such as that there had been no flooding in a particular area. That option is not open at the moment. There must be engagement between the Minister of State and other Departments to deliver that. We also need to be able to deliver the funding to deal with emergency weather events.”
“Some of the resources that were available around CFRAM have also looked at what can be done from a mitigation perspective in relation to that particular event and what could possibly happen in the future. Obviously, we need that to happen. On Annagassan and Termonfeckin, the OPW is finalising a review. There are discussions on that but we need to see action. I am always worried about timelines, particularly when we are talking about planning permission applications. As we know, planning is a long way from actually delivering. The big issue will be delivery. When I put the question I mentioned to the Minister of State earlier, I hoped there would be an option in regard to the over and back. The problem is CFRAM has done its work and the maps are drawn up. That has had an impact in terms of people getting flood insurance.”
“A preferred option is expected by the middle of 2026, with a planning application expected to be submitted in quarter 2 of 2027. We will be still be waiting a considerable amount of time for that. The Drogheda and Baltray scheme is further behind than that, while the Ardee flood relief scheme, which aims to protect 30 properties, is currently under review by the OPW. We would need to see some of this work happening to a greater degree. Regarding the Carlingford and Greenore scheme, the council has made an application to the OPW for funding for any viable options that provide interim mitigation measures that may improve the conveyance characteristics of the Carlingford drainage system. We are all aware of the big flooding event that happened in 2023 in the Cooley peninsula and Carlingford.”
“The first time I met the Minister of State was in County Louth when I was a county councillor. Our meeting was about flood relief schemes but unfortunately, on some level, it is the big plans that we still need to see delivered. It goes without saying that a significant amount of County Louth, and of Dundalk where I live, is below sea level. This goes back to land reclamation projects completed a few hundred years ago following visits that were made to Holland by Lord Loden, I believe. The fact is that there are plans in place for several schemes, including the Dundalk, Blackrock South scheme which aims to protect 1,880 properties. I am not going to get into the ins and outs of the answer the Minister of State gave me to a parliamentary question but the design options are expected to be presented to the public in quarter 3 of 2025.”
“I have mentioned one of my constituents who, luckily enough, went for a second opinion. His daughter is now doing gymnastics, something that might not have been the case. We need such cases to be included in a review-type process also.”
“She now looks at the scars on her daughter and cries because she is worried that they are the marks of needless suffering. Hers was one of the families that received a letter earlier in the year telling her that her daughter was one of the children reviewed in the audit. She is now struggling to come to terms with what has happened and what is going to happen. She has asked for a mechanism for getting her daughter's medical records. She has also spoken about the fact that she has not found the helpline entirely helpful. She does not blame the people at the other end; they just do not have the information. She spoke on Newstalk about this. We need to provide this information. She does not know what percentage her daughter falls into. We need that information and follow-up.”