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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“They had a moment of hope with a new investigation but what they discovered was a new witness, who was not even questioned during that investigation, had seen suspicious activity in a car the morning Seamus was found that turned out to be connected to SAS incursion that happened soon after in Omeath. This is not acceptable in any way, shape or form. There is a need for the Minister for justice and Garda Commissioner to meet the family who have been failed for far too long.”
“I wish to raise the murder of Seamus Ludlow on 2 May 1976. We are beyond 50 years. We are talking about a family that has been failed. The initial Garda investigation shut up shop within three weeks. The Royal Ulster Constabulary, RUC, provided the names of those believed to be involved back in 1979. We are talking about loyalists and some of them were members of the British Army. They were questioned in 1998 by the RUC. Admissions were made in relation to a number of them being there when the murder happened. We have seen no action over the years. The family have had to go to court. They have been to Europe. The family have not been sufficiently supported.”
“I brought up the issue before of Scoil Bhríde in Shelagh. It is a national school that needs further accommodation. Many parents have been on to me and I have spoken to the school principal and many staff members. The Taoiseach has corresponded but we still do not have the timelines that are necessary and the promises from the planning and building unit, so I request that that would happen. It is a school that would have had to close today. I am requesting that the Taoiseach would add to my voice on the need for Uisce Éireann to deal with the issue of water supply outages in that area and the significant issues that exist. A meeting is needed with Uisce Éireann.”
“On the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the trade element, what interaction has the Minister had from a point of view of ensuring even that can be delivered? The Minister has given a promise now of a couple of weeks in relation to the occupied territories Bill. We really need to see it. I get that it is not the be-all and the end-all but it is a decent first step and we will be followed by others because they are an absolute disgrace, they are genocidal maniacs and they have to be brought to book, and we have to do whatever we can.”
“When we talk about the Global Sumud Flotilla and what the Israelis are doing, what is it? It is kidnapping on international waters. This is absolutely illegal but they do not care. They do not care about anything and that is a fact. We always talk about apartheid South Africa and how it took many factors but one of the major ones was that they were taken to task, they were sanctioned and individual South Africans were made to feel like the pariahs of the world. That put pressure on their government and then they could not trade with anybody, so big business said it needed to get out of that circumstance. That is what brought them to the book, so that is why we need to see action, not words.”
“The Ministers said that this is not a time for words alone, so we need to see action. We all want to see consensus, we all want to see co-operation across Europe, but we need to see the occupied territories Bill passed, including goods and services. It is an absolute disgrace that the EU-Israel association agreement is still in operation. What interaction has the Minister had regarding ensuring that there will be delivery, even if only on the trade element?”
“I commend those on the Global Sumud flotilla. It is a deep shame that people still have to do that to highlight the absolute criminality, that has not been brought to book, of the Israeli regime. We have all been disgusted by the video of Ben-Gvir, who is obviously a thug, a genocidal criminal and an idiot. When most people commit crimes, they do not actually put them on video. This is a guy who has been accused of being a draft-dodger by brothers in arms and his defence was that he was not allowed in the IDF because of his views. That just tells you. He is only one element of Netanyahu's regime. What are we talking about? The death penalty for Palestinians; genocide in Gaza; ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, which many of our peacekeepers have seen; and the attempt to create enough settlements to destroy any chance of a Palestinian state.”
“I accept what the Minister said. It is about making sure we do not end up with an anomaly that allows for people to work in an unregulated system. There is also an absolute requirement to deal with the issue of personal assistants. It is about making sure that happens. All we want is a framework that works so the correct level of homecare and personal assistance can be provided to those who require it. I put a particular emphasis on those with disabilities, because it is sometimes forgotten about.”
“We need to ensure there is no loophole and that we see movement because we also need to make sure we do not have huge disparity between those who work in homecare and personal assistants. We must ensure we look after them, whether they work with older people or those with disabilities who need extra support.”
“In fairness to Deputy Rice, this comes from a point of view of ensuring there is not any workaround. We have spoken previously in relation to this legislation and the whole point is ensuring we have governance, regulation, fair play and a system that works for those who work as home carers but also for those who employ them. That is absolutely necessary. I will also put on the record that, while we welcome that we are dealing with the issue of homecare providers, we need to ensure there is not a long delay in dealing with the issue of personal assistance, PA. I understand that the issue is that it falls between the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality.”
“The only thing I am happy about is that we are bringing this to an end. We are bringing what was a huge crime carried out against the Irish people to an end but we cannot forget the fact there was a huge-----”
“We need to ensure we can offer them something much better and some element of hope of a better life - a life where they can afford the rent and a world where they can buy a house and work one job and not have to work three or four jobs. People used to give out about in the American system. The American dream does not work for most American people. We have almost created an Irish nightmare that is very similar. In terms of the bank bailout, NAMA, IBRC, the history of Anglo Irish Bank and all of it, we are still paying for it now. I will reiterate what my colleagues said. It is good enough that a position, with a salary of €430,000, can literally be found for the chief executive officer of NAMA in the NTMA. I and many others would need some element of explanation for that. I do not think any of this is good enough.”
“We can talk about surpluses and full employment but we have a huge number of people who may be employed in a job that previously would have given them and their families security and it does not at this point. It does not give them any element of security. The Minister of State knows better than others the huge impact it had on politics. It was a breach of trust, particularly for the Minister of State's party, with a huge section of the Irish people. Unfortunately, that has had an impact across the board, in that at times people do not see any solution that politics can provide. At times, because people cannot see a solution, they look in places they never would have considered before.”
“This is the circumstance we have been dealing with in real terms from that period of 2008. The Government's attempts to solve this problem was literally to sell off the family goods at rock bottom prices. As I said, we facilitated a huge number of people in making a huge amount of money and, to a greater degree, we facilitated the Irish people in taking all the pain. We are not in a better circumstance now. Government members will talk about the wonders of FDI, and that is not taking into account the present issues and global instability. They will talk about how they maintain the economy but the fact is the economy is not working for a large number of people.”
“We had no building of houses or plan by government. We went from a situation where the market would sort everything, where all was going well and where we had the Celtic tiger situation, when the Government had moved away from building houses, to a situation where all the moneys dried up. The only people who were facilitated were the vulture funds. We have ended up in a scenario where we have the most dysfunctional housing market in the world. We saw the Daft report and what we expected to happen in relation to the Government's removal of whatever protections were provided. What have we ended up with now? We have ended up with rents that are absolutely through the roof and where people cannot afford to buy or to rent houses. If people are on a social housing list, they are waiting for years.”
“Funding for mental health addiction and drug addiction services have never returned to where it was before 2008. That is the reality. The Government wants to say this was a well executed operation, that it is all over and there is nothing to see here, but the fact is that the people were absolutely screwed and the impact is still being felt. That is why we try to keep the pressure on. It is all well and good talking about services of €9 billion and all of the rest, but people out there feel they are being absolutely hammered. The resources of the State, which could be used to provide some element of mitigation, are not coming through. Land, assets and infrastructure were sold off at a pittance. Action was taken by government that reinforced, through austerity, the circumstances that created a detrimental economic impact across the board.”
“Unfortunately, as always happens, the normal, regular people of Ireland did the heavy lifting. In general, those who caused the problem got off scot-free. What are we talking about? We are talking about a bank bailout and all of the stabilisation measures, which resulted in a net cost of €45.7 billion. Over €5.2 billion was the return on the assets sold by NAMA. Let us be clear. Everything was sold quickly and in a dirty manner. Those outside forces with the money and resources were welcomed in by Governments and able to make an absolute killing. The unfortunate thing was that the people of Ireland had to pay the price and continue to do so. There have been impacts, and not only on individuals, such as those on certain disability payments or whatever else that were cut. Anybody involved in the community sector knows it was hollowed out.”
“The Bill involves the winding up and dissolution of NAMA and bringing the sad story of the IBRC to an end. Nobody will be particularly unhappy about ending this part of Irish history. Nobody can look back to the circumstances that led to this in a positive manner. It is very difficult to look at NAMA, the bank bailout and the entire sorry story without seeing it as being open business for institutional investors and vulture funds and the people who had to pay were the Irish people. I remember the onset of the financial crisis when we went from day to day, week to week and month to month. It was a time and place when people made a detailed study of budgets and how every austerity move would have an impact on them, their lives, their family and their wider community. Nobody knew how we would get out of that set of circumstances.”
“There is an absolute fear of the Irish people on the part of this Government. If it is serious about this, it will put it to the people. It will not do so because it is afraid of the people's view, which is that we cannot remove neutrality or the triple lock. I have yet to see any courage from the Government. It will just follow whoever it needs to follow on the basis of being the best boys in the eyes of the US or the European Union.”
“We have seen the absolute failure to deal with Shannon Airport facilitating the American military through many of its failures and escapades that have led to nothing but death and destruction, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, long before Donald Trump came to power. We are dealing now with the reality and the madness of the attacks on Iran by the US, led by the nose by genocidal Israel. What about Israel? We have a great history of peacekeeping but what have our peacekeepers been dealing with lately? They have been dealing with genocidal, ethnic cleansing acts of an Israeli regime, supported by the US, that is out of control. We are talking about removing one of the protections we have in relation to neutrality and non-alignment. We need independent foreign policy.”
“We have a long history in Ireland of resistance to colonial oppression and of liberation struggle, albeit unfinished. What is this Government promising? It is promising the removal of the triple lock because it does not really matter. The only logic behind removing the triple lock is to move away from our long history of non-alignment and of having clean hands, which there is definitely space for in this modern world. What have we been stopped from doing on the basis of the triple lock? That is what I want to know. My fear is not about what we have been stopped from doing but what this Government is willing to do and who it is willing to align itself with.”
“It is about ensuring we get a timeline that is achievable within the near future, because we want to see the whole issue of retrofitting and the issue of the insufficient maintenance budget dealt with for those who are not in appropriate places. We just need to deliver for all of them.”
“The Minister will always be welcome when we are talking about the opening of social housing in County Louth. The problem is that we need to see a lot more of it, The issue relating to Fulacht Fia or any of the other schemes is the huge numbers of people on the waiting list and of people who believe they may have a chance of getting a house. Unfortunately, the hopes of many will be dashed. To return to the issue of retrofitting, Louth County Council has at times showed a capacity to be able to retrofit more houses than the targets it was given, particularly in the early stages of the programme. It was able to get moneys that were not initially being used by other councils. Even at some stages, they had produced more one year than the target and funding they were provided for again.”
“In a perfect situation, if you can get them on the list for retrofitting, it means that at least you can ensure that they are in a house that is properly insulated and warm and that they will not be facing astronomical costs during the cost-of-living and cost-of-fuel crises with which we are dealing. It is about ensuring that we can deliver in respect of the need that is out there. I am of the view that the timeline is never going to be met.”
“Louth County Council has one of the longest lists for social housing. It must deal with the issue impacting on every local authority at this point , namely an insufficient amount of money to deal with maintenance needs. I constantly deal with those who work for the council and deal with maintenance. The reality is that from time to time you are robbing Peter to pay Paul and cannot always deliver to meet actual needs. People who have been tenants for many years and who may not have looked for anything from the local authority previously will come to you with issues, particularly in relation to windows and doors.”
“Can the Minister provide an updated timeline for the delivery of the retrofit scheme to all social housing units in County Louth? Louth County Council has been very good at delivering on retrofitting and has at times gone beyond its targets. I would like to think that it would be given the facility to get through the entire cohort of social housing units that require to be retrofitted.”
“Even our Toirleach showed up at the last one and probably did a bit more work than I did, but that can happen from time to time. I also welcome the work done by the Bee Kind Project, which engaged Louth Council and Newry, Mourne and Down District Council from the point of view of planting native fruit trees, and engaged with community groups on that. As I am nearly out of time I was going to get into the ins and outs of the impact on our habitats of those species that are facing extinction and the fact that we need to work alongside farmers. We need to make sure funding is derived from outside of the CAP to make the moves that need to be made. A huge amount also needs to be done from the point of view of energy, whether we are talking about biogas or wind energy.”
“A huge amount of work is done and sometimes people underestimate the clean-up. From that comes a connection with what needs to be done in relation to management of biodiversity, combined with ensuring we live in clean communities. I welcome the work done in Bay Estate where I live. Occasionally, I have shown up. In the past number of weeks, I have used the excuse of canvassing and other things not to be at it. I will not bother mentioning any candidates or anything. I am very good like that. I commend the work they do. The Cooley Peninsula Marine Litter Project is a fabulous project. It is quite like Ronseal. I do not think I need to get into what it does. I have been lucky enough to be alongside many of my Sinn Féin councillor colleagues on clean-ups.”
“I thank Deputy McGreehan for mentioning Cú Chulainn, obviously Louth's finest hurler. Hopefully we will see his type again in the near future. It is much needed. I agree with much of what previous speakers have said. We are in an absolute nightmare with regard to biodiversity and the crossover point with climate change. A huge amount of work is being done by communities. Many have mentioned Tidy Towns. The danger with naming one group is that you offend those you do not mention. I will mention Dundalk, Blackrock and Dromiskin and the huge body of work done in those areas. I have to mention Muirhevnamor Community Gardens where there are allotments and community gardens in the middle of a major estate in Dundalk. The connection with community and nature is fundamentally a brilliant thing.”
“I will say this straight out. Given the state of the roads in County Louth, an insufficient amount of money has been put forward for these budgets. The fact is that Louth County Council initially, following Storm Chandra, looked for €1.2 million and then for €2.9 million extra that was necessary due to the huge damage done by the storm. This was done on the basis of works that had not been done over many years and that need to be done and an insufficient amount of resourcing from central government. The fact is that the county council was refused this amount last week. I am not entirely sure how this is going to work out, other than that the roads in the county, particularly in my town of Dundalk, will be particularly bad for the forthcoming period of time. I ask that this be revisited by the Government.”
“Has there been any engagement with the British Government to deal with the issue of the road user levy? This was introduced on all HGVs over 12,000 kg. Southern hauliers have to pay €10 per day to cross the Border. We know there are many Border crossings and how many times that can happen. There is also an administration issue. If you fail to do that, you could have a £300 fine. It is an issue that needs to be dealt with. I have dealt with my colleagues in the North who have brought it up, but it needs agreement with the British Government, which has full control of this issue.”
“The matters raised by Deputies Paula Butterly, Maeve O'Connell, James O'Connor and Malcolm Byrne have been selected for discussion.”
“Deputy Tom Brabazon - To discuss the disruption to DART services in north Dublin. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú - To discuss supports for those with frontotemporal dementia. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - To discuss the loss of medical card access due to age-based insurance restrictions on general practitioners. Deputies Paul Murphy and Ciarán Ahern - To discuss the proposed move of the An Post sorting office in Edmondstown to Lucan. Deputies Cian O'Callaghan, Barry Heneghan, Naoise Ó Muirí and Denise Mitchell - To discuss safeguarding, governance and resourcing at Belmayne Community Special School. Deputy Paula Butterly - To discuss increasing the mandatory retirement age for retained firefighters from 62 to 65. Deputy James O'Connor - To discuss the lack of playing facilities on Carrigtwohill school campus.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Maeve O'Connell - To discuss urban broadband provision. Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss discrepancies in inheritance tax and capital gains tax. Deputy Emer Currie - To discuss the regulation of loot boxes and chance-based microtransactions in video games. Deputy Jen Cummins - To discuss supports for children and students with dyslexia. Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discuss an update on the planned new Courtown Coast Guard building. Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss support mechanisms for families when their childcare centre withdraws from the core funding model. Deputy Colm Burke - To discuss the establishment of a national radiation therapy equipment replacement programme.”
“I am incredibly worried by these moves, which fit into the move away from our independent foreign policy of non-alignment and neutrality. I do not think anyone has an issue with making sure that we are sufficiently resilient as regards protections in terms of cyber and subsea cables, but I do not think that can be correlated. We know that there are companies we should not be dealing with, namely, ones dealing with those engaged in killing civilians by the thousands. That is in no way good enough. When we talk about businesses, we also need to make sure that our services run well. I commend Debbie McCole, my colleague from the ambulance service, who is a Sinn Féin councillor in Drogheda. We should have seen the Government act quicker. We are glad that things are in the Labour Court. We need to see movement on that.”
“The Minister of State, like many here, has spoken to businesses about the complexity and burden placed on those businesses by some of these schemes. We have to look at that. I spoke about energy. We want to see that transition to sustainability, so we will need to see grant schemes that can deliver on same and reduce the long-term costs for businesses. I turn to the amendment of the Science and Technology Act 1987 to remove the requirement of formal Government approval before enterprise agencies engage in activities of primarily military relevance. There is nobody who will not be worried about that, given the interoperability and close relationships of many companies, particularly with those engaged in illegal war. We can talk about the US regime but there is also what we have seen over many years from the genocidal Israeli regime.”
“While I welcome that there was a cost-of-disability forum and consultation and that they will affect next year, we are failing those with disabilities at this moment in time. We all know the benefits we could be seeing with artificial intelligence. However, we have already seen issues. We can talk about Meta. While I was told that the recent job losses at PayPal were different, there has been huge displacement, particularly in the tech sector, as regards artificial intelligence. We need to have a considerable interest in job retention and getting the benefits of artificial intelligence. We also have to look at delivering further jobs even if they are different from the ones being displaced. The Government has to keep an eye on this. It does not make sense that we are not reducing the administrative burden.”
“It is all well and good having task forces and talking about taking action. I was disappointed when Deputy Pa Daly brought forward Sinn Féin legislation to give further powers to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to tackle this, as we had an element of Government support but not a sufficient amount to support the legislation. The Government said it was too early to deal with this and that it was looking at it. We were a long way into high energy costs long before the madness in the Middle East. We need to make sure that we look after people as best we can. We cannot mitigate all the pain, but this Government could have gone further. I reiterate the need for a cost-of-living mini-budget. It is a necessity.”
“As much as I speak about the M1 Dublin to Belfast corridor and its importance for the economy in that part of the world, it is a part of the world where we need to see more seamless interoperability, which I spoke about earlier. We need to see a greater level of balance. We know that this has impacted not only on industrialisation in particular parts of the country, but also on employment and other matters, for example, how we have not facilitated infrastructure like roads, wastewater, clean water, etc. We cannot have a conversation with somebody who runs a small business without talking about the issues that exist for them. Some of those relate to the complexity of filling out grant applications and so on and navigating that system. We have an inability to accept that we are dealing with the most expensive electrical costs in Europe.”
“This means having clear pathways for SMEs to access funding. When we talk about funding schemes or grant schemes, the biggest issue we generally have is the difficulty in accessing them and a complexity that does not necessarily help. We are generally talking about people who run very successful businesses and have capacity. We need to look at this from the point of view of not only having the schemes available but ensuring they are streamlined as much as they can be. This is accepting that due diligence needs to be carried out. What are we speaking about when we refer to SMEs? The latter are 99% of the businesses in the country, and they employ the majority of workers at in or around 68%.”
“When we see the measures in the Bill to strengthen this and help businesses transition successfully to a low-carbon economy, we all accept that it is the only way to go. Therefore, anything that facilitates it is to be welcomed. When we speak about local economies, we sometimes become fixated on the large operators and foreign direct investment. This is not to take away from their importance but we know that an awful lot of Irish-owned SMEs provide the backbone of local economies. We have all seen the issues with the economy being overly exposed and overly reliant on some of these big operators. We need to make sure we have State supports and investment opportunities and that we see facilitation in relation to this. I do not think anyone would complain about any of this. We need to see an expansion of enterprise grants.”
“Everyone in Dundalk heard 2027 being give as one date for the upgrading of the pumping station on Coes Road in Dundalk, but now we hear it could be in 2029. The date for the completion of the treatment plant on Point Road in Dundalk has been put back from 2030 to 2033. None of that is good enough. Not only do we need to make sure we have serviced sites available for industrial development, we also need to make sure that we have the basic infrastructure required. We can have all the legislation the Minister brings forward, but it will not make any difference if we cannot get rid of wastewater. The latter is causing particular issues with regard to housing and flooding, particularly in the part of Dundalk where I live. Sinn Féin has always had a great interest in supporting indigenous enterprise.”
“We know about the need for this in the context of both future industrial development in the Dundalk area and housing. Decisions were made regarding a new development of 502 houses. The latter could not proceed because of insufficient infrastructure. This is an issue that cannot be dropped. In my area, there is a local enterprise office which is linked with Enterprise Ireland. There is also InterTradeIreland, and IDA Ireland has a huge footprint in the area. We need to see new industrial sites to allow for the possibility of having a new WuXi, medtech, pharma or tech of any sort. When the development of housing is refused, industrial development will also be refused. I thought it was utterly shocking that, whatever about me, other elected representatives are bringing up the issue of Uisce Éireann and the need to upgrade the infrastructure.”
“A particular issue exists whereby those who live near the Border cannot work remotely in the other jurisdiction. This creates a difficulty for them and, in particular, for the companies that employ them. I put on the record once again the necessity for this to happen. Their big issue is industrial development and enterprise in the area, and they spoke about the M1 Border corridor and the real benefits we have in the area, including the new relationship between Queen's University Belfast and Dundalk Institute of Technology to develop what will hopefully become Dundalk university college in the very near future. What we really need is infrastructure. The first issue the representatives to whom I refer spoke about was wastewater infrastructure.”
“As my colleague stated, we support anything that improves the lot of business from the point of view of streamlining systems, services and grant application schemes. There are concerns about this legislation that I will deal with. The intent can be fine but unless we have the resourcing and capacity, we will have particular issues. At a meeting of the Good Friday Agreement committee recently, representatives from various chambers of commerce, including those in Dundalk and Newry, contributed. They were almost singing from the same hymn sheet about the work that needs to be done regarding cross-Border co-operation. I have raised this issue many times with Ministers and taoisigh in the context of the necessity of dealing with the taxation issues that exist across the Border.”
“I ask the Minister to outline any progress made in relation to alternatives, be it supply or organics. When does he think we will have a crux in relation to fertiliser supply? Has there been any monitoring of prices and whether there is any price gouging going on? That would be utterly unacceptable.”
“The Minister spoke about farmers engaging with their advisers. Where are we in relation to having a real alternative to fertiliser? I accept that the Strait of Hormuz issue has been caused by others and has little to do with us, but we have to ensure that we build resilience.”
“The Minister spoke about price increases, including the price of CAN having risen by 20% and that of urea by as much as 60%. In the context of his engagement with importers and sellers of fertiliser, has any work been done with regard to ensuring that these price increases are based on a lack of supply rather than someone trying to make a profit on the back of fears that are out there? How has the Minister’s engagement with the European Commission gone? It sounds as if it has not been utterly fruitful in relation to CBAM. What replies has he received? In the previous question I posed to the Minister, he spoke in response about mid-April being crux time. We are well beyond that now. When is it believed that there will be a real issue? I agree with what was said earlier regarding our need to develop resilience.”
“I welcome that the Minister will meet them again, particularly as the Law Society and many of its members, some of whom have contacted me, have stated they are incredibly worried about this. I agree with the Minister that we all want to see our courts system work as efficiently as possible. We have all seen that for too long justice has been denied. We have all seen cases which have taken an extraordinary length of time to make their way through the District and Circuit Courts. However, in a previous answer, the Minister said his Department reviewed more than 350,000 District Court cases, which took place between 2022 and 2023. I would like to know the detail and how that was done because that would seem like a significant amount of work to do. I call on the Minister to meet again with the Law Society. We all want a system that works.”
“The Law Society and others will accept there should be nothing that gives an incentive in relation to solicitors demanding more adjournments on the basis of pay but I am told it generally happens on the basis of the State, whether that is due diligence not being done beforehand, issues in relation to evidence, etc. I ask the Minister about his engagement with the Law Society and the other stakeholders who need this to work.”