Ruth Coppinger
Dublin West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“Next Wednesday, the trial continues of the Ulm five, including the Irish citizen, Daniel Tatlow-Devally. A delegation of TDs and Senators, including me, will attend the trial in Stuttgart next week.”
“This man said of one woman that he would attach her to a concrete block. He said of another that he would set fire to her. Should this person be getting a pay off from the Army? No, of course, he should not. He should have been put on trial.”
“I have very little time left, but I want to put on record that the woman in question was abused by an Army officer using military equipment and surveillance technology, which is extremely scary. She made a complaint, which has never been pursued.”
“When is the victims of crime Act 2017 going to apply the Army? The Women of Honour have pushed for change so that if there is abuse within the Army there will, we hope, be mechanisms to deal with that, but what about women who are abused by Army personnel who are not in the Army?”
“This officer was involved in a GoFundMe campaign, where rapists' names were used as a joke by the various men who contributed to it. I do not think rape is funny and the Army should not either. That GoFundMe campaign was left up for a long time. Why is the Army a law unto itself in relation to gender-based violence?”
“The victim's belief is that the military prosecutor has evidence of a very dangerous man but for some reason, the Army does not seem to be concerned because it has not prosecuted him on those charges. Why would the Army not want to prosecute somebody? Are we at war or something? Why is it so secretive?”
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“No record is available afterwards to check what was said. This is not a trial that would take place in Ireland. Any of these issues would possibly be enough to set aside a conviction. A representative of the Irish Government should be there. Will the Tánaiste request a stenographer at this trial in Stuttgart next Wednesday, in defence of an Irish citizen and others, and due process, as was promised?”
“Next Wednesday, the trial continues of the Ulm five, including the Irish citizen, Daniel Tatlow-Devally. A delegation of TDs and Senators, including me, will attend the trial in Stuttgart next week. The Government was asked to monitor the trial and on 21 May 2026, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, said, "We will ensure that there is fair oversight of this trial." A senior counsel who attended the trial wrote to the Minister and other Ministers on 22 June to state that there is no official record being taken at the trial. There is no stenographer at the trial. There is no audio recording of the trial. Defendants cannot bring their own stenographers or note-takers. The accused rely on court-appointed translators but the lawyers cannot hear what these translators are saying. They cannot confer with their clients.”
“This officer was involved in a GoFundMe campaign, where rapists' names were used as a joke by the various men who contributed to it. I do not think rape is funny and the Army should not either. That GoFundMe campaign was left up for a long time. Why is the Army a law unto itself in relation to gender-based violence? We know it will deal with soldiers but when women are abused the Army has authority over people. It has uniforms, power, weaponry and surveillance to abuse women. Women outside the Army should be protected from people in the Army and should have the same rights as any other woman.”
“This man said of one woman that he would attach her to a concrete block. He said of another that he would set fire to her. Should this person be getting a pay off from the Army? No, of course, he should not. He should have been put on trial. We have to end a situation where these military prosecutions are secret and where the Minister for Defence does not even have the right to intervene. In a letter to the victim, the Minister said that such matters were internal to the Defence Forces and that she had no statutory role and she was considering what options she had. I trust the Minister will look into this, because I know she has an interest in gender-based violence from her previous role. She is the Minister who can do this and can apply the victims' directive.”
“The victim's belief is that the military prosecutor has evidence of a very dangerous man but for some reason, the Army does not seem to be concerned because it has not prosecuted him on those charges. Why would the Army not want to prosecute somebody? Are we at war or something? Why is it so secretive? Why does the Minister have no jurisdiction over what is going on in the Army? I see a letter arrived a day before this question was due in which the Minister says she has no role here. This is just outrageous.”
“I have very little time left, but I want to put on record that the woman in question was abused by an Army officer using military equipment and surveillance technology, which is extremely scary. She made a complaint, which has never been pursued. She found out that a court martial was taking place but it was about smaller charges that were nothing to do with the woman or the other woman either. The feeling of the victim was that this was being facilitated, like an organised pay off of this predator. This may not be true but that was her feeling. Is this officer retired? Is he eligible to retire? Does he have a clean record? Does he have a pension? Will we end up seeing him working in Leinster House?”
“When is the victims of crime Act 2017 going to apply the Army? The Women of Honour have pushed for change so that if there is abuse within the Army there will, we hope, be mechanisms to deal with that, but what about women who are abused by Army personnel who are not in the Army? The Minister knows of this case and I am not going to go into any names or details but it shines a light on how we have a situation where a woman who was abused by an Army officer - and potentially another woman as well - has not been able since 2022 to get information on her case. Nothing is being done by the secretive military tribunals that are operating in the Army.”
“They are exceptionally skilled at deceiving people. They put one face on in public and another face on in private. There is a real problem with character references in these cases. It really is something that needs to be looked at. It has caused huge offence. There is another thing the Minister could clear up. We were told that the Government had already changed the law so that a person had to be in court and ready to give, under oath-----”
“Most people who are given these references are not experts. A constituent contacted me who was the victim of sexual assault. Their brother was convicted of this but got a suspended sentence. This constituent believes that is because references were read out as the very last word in that trial. This man was convicted but then, all of a sudden, these references were read out. The references were from the father of the wife of the perpetrator. How is this person an expert in the dynamics of child sexual abuse? My constituent believes that this had an impact on the judge. We also know from several studies that men - women can obviously also commit gender-based violence but male violence is mainly the issue - who perpetrate domestic violence, coercive control or sexual violence are arch-manipulators.”
“I obviously support the amendment but we do have to return to this whole issue of character references in trials. On the one hand, I know the Minister would say that people have a right to a fair trial and that this is part of the very important constitutional right to a fair trial. That is a bit ironic because we also have non-jury courts. How do those things balance each other or even match? We say that the use of counselling notes and character references must be allowed and yet we can have non-jury trials. This is something that should be examined. The upcoming Oireachtas committee may be able to examine it in more detail because these references are a real problem with regard to gender-based violence, given particular dynamics that pertain to gender-based and sexual violence.”
“However, there are people who wear face coverings not just for religious or cultural reasons, but for medical reasons. I know disabled activists who will not attend any event unless they can wear a mask. The Minister may say they will be protected in that but he knows that things like this can be abused. I am just not sure why he has included this provision in relation to protests. It may need a bit more explanation but here we are on the second last night of the Dáil term. I do not support what the Minister has included. It is something that needs a lot more debate. We all know that some people can cover their faces to intimidate others. I accept that but this is being introduced with 50 other issues in this Bill. I will make a point about character references.”
“However, survivors left here upset that night. They continued and followed the Bill to the Seanad, which was a slightly more positive experience because they at least heard the arguments we had been articulating, which probably got more time there. That made them feel somewhat better. However, particularly that night, they saw that one amendment was voted on and that they were just not listened to. This should not happen again, particularly with an issue of such importance. I will raise two issues. The first is face coverings at protests. I have been at protests where people wore face coverings. During the Covid pandemic, that was obviously a normal thing to do. The Debenhams workers were on strike throughout the pandemic, having been sacked by a multinational. We always encouraged people to wear face coverings, even when outside.”
“I will deal with two of the amendments in a moment, but first I add my voice to those who have already made the point about the modus operandi of how this Bill was developed and evolved with the adding of extra issues again and again. The last night, on the counselling notes issue, every Opposition party recognised it should have been dealt with as a separate issue because of its importance to survivors and because it was the Minister's first Bill on court processes. He has introduced other legislation, including Jennie's law and the law about the children of victims of femicide or murder, which I welcome. However, the way survivors were treated needs to be raised again. The last night we were here, we had approximately 40 minutes for the entire debate and, because we worked together, we at least maximised that time.”
“At that time, students were on their phones trying to cope because the Department of Education did not provide them with equipment to allow them to engage with remote learning. The addiction that many teenagers developed in respect of their phones during the pandemic is the Department's fault. I do not have time to go into all of the other costs that are being imposed on parents. In the context of the issue to which I refer, however, the Department needs to invest.”
“This should be done by means of public procurement. I absolutely agree with the previous speaker. We need to have an audit to establish whether it is good for children to be on screens. There is loads of scientific evidence that it is not good. Certainly, older children and teenagers need laptops or access to computers in order do assessments and assignments and to have a fair chance, which they do not have, in this education system. The Minister of State needs to make this a public procurement issue as opposed to leaving it up to individual schools. If students need equipment, it should be provided. During the pandemic, I returned to teaching at a school in west Tallaght.”
“I will cut to the chase here. The reason for the digital divide is that the Department of education has introduced a syllabus, particularly in senior cycle in secondary school, which has such a high level of assessment, 40% in many cases, that school principals have decided that students need laptops. It is because of the new syllabus the Department has introduced. There was a very good article by the RTÉ education correspondent on this in January. What is happening in schools is that Wriggle and other companies are wooing principals and trying to wine and dine them in order to get contracts. Overnight stays in the K Club and five-star retreats are being offered to principals. I am not saying that principals are going along with this or are doing anything wrong, I am just outlining the facts for the Minister of State.”
“That is because there are racists in this country congealing around the issue of gender-based violence and trying to turn it into a race issue - people who have no interest in violence against women at any other time except if it is carried out by someone who is not Irish.”
“There were two femicides last week. There have been 670 disclosures of abusers threatening to take children from their mothers, as well as rape, non-fatal strangulation against women, stalking online and offline - the list goes on. Every ten minutes a woman or girl is killed by a family member or partner in the world. It is a relentless situation. In Ireland, it is a huge problem. Last week, there was an unbelievable situation where two women were murdered. One, because she was killed by somebody of a different nationality and she potentially was in a relationship with suspect - there has been no trial - she got different treatment. There were comments on her own social media page condemning her and victim-blaming her. Imagine her daughter and her family had to see that.”
“In fact, one third were abused by a former partner, which shows that the old cliche of "Why does she not leave?" is not the solution because the relationship ending does not mean the abuse ends. There are serious challenges within the family justice system, post-separation abuse and the housing crisis which is trapping women and forcing them to choose between violence or homelessness that the Minister has to address. We have all had many contacts on that issue. What kind of abuse are we talking about? Trigger warning for anybody who is listening in, but there were 1,522 disclosures of abuse during pregnancy or just after a baby was born and 1,321 threats to kill women, children and family members or to self-harm. We have to recognise that on this island yesterday, another woman and child were murdered in the family home in Ballymena.”
“I welcome the introduction of Jennie's law. I commend her brother Jason on all of the campaigning he has done over a number of years to bring this about. My hope it will at least bring a stigma to what is called domestic violence. There has not really been the kind of stigma there should have been over the years. I want to put this in context. Women's Aid released its report recently. It shows a 33% increase in violence in the home against women in 2025. That is a 33% increase in disclosures. We do not know if this reflects a similar increase in the level of violence, but I reckon it is a bit of both. More awareness, non-acceptance and less tolerance are also factors. Women's Aid's front-line services heard 62,275 disclosures, an overall increase of one third, as I said. Some 85% of these women were abused by a current or former partner.”
“Recently, the topic of counselling notes was a massive issue for survivors of gender violence. The Minister for justice utterly failed to talk to the rape crisis centre about its proposals or to listen to what survivors had to say. It did not reflect very well at all. It was a very upsetting experience for those people. The latest victim of femicide is being victim-blamed for her own death thanks to media outlets that irresponsibly stoke racism. That should be tackled by this Government as well.”
“The Minister said there should be more resources. Why are there not? There is a budget surplus of €10 billion to €12 billion and the Minister is boasting, or saying, that it is sufficient to give €18 million to Cuan, which is the same as the racehorse industry gets. We have seen that this is a public health emergency. The rape crisis services should not be charities. They should be public services in our health service. Why should people have to go bag packing for a 24-hour helpline or whatever it is? The Too Into You campaign, for example, something I used myself when I was teaching, is funded as part of that €1.3 million. Why is that not being rolled out in every single workplace and school, educating people about toxic relationships? We could prevent femicide happening if we did that.”
“Since Women's Aid has been tracking femicide, it has found that 88% of women were killed by somebody known to them. That includes sons and grandsons. There is a figure from the UK - a mother is more likely to be killed by her own son than by a stranger. Violence against women rocketed during Covid. Why? Because women were stuck in their own homes with their own partners. That disputes any notion that this is anything to do with strangers, asylum seekers or whatever. It became known as a shadow pandemic. What is this Government doing about the pandemic of gender-based violence? It does not strike me that it is treating it as the public health emergency that it is.”
“This society has a very high tolerance for violence against women: rape allegations against multiple footballers playing in the World Cup, and they play on; the US ambassador going to Conor McGregor's pub, somebody found liable in a civil case for rape; the Taoiseach honouring Trump, a predator, and not listening to survivors when they ask about legislative change. When is the Minister going to tackle the violent misogyny being spread by Internet companies? The rise in violent misogyny has run parallel to the rise in the statistics for violence against women. Will the Government contact mainstream media outlets that yesterday irresponsibly stoked up the flames of racism by reporting that an asylum seeker was being sought for the murder? The common denominator in violence against women is men, not a nationality.”
“Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, DRCC, had the highest number of calls since its foundation. It got €3.3 million and had to fundraise €1.8 million itself. Does that really strike the Minister as taking gender-based violence seriously when people have to rely on 5 km runs and bag packs to function? If we compare this with the hospitality VAT cut of €680 million or the €25 million for the greyhound industry, it speaks volumes. The UN has said about gender-related killings, "Initiatives that focus on ... prevention, changing social norms, and engaging whole communities to create zero tolerance for violence against women, work best".”
“There have been two femicides this week in Ireland, a femicide being the killing of a woman because she is a woman. The femicide count in this country has officially surpassed the total of last year and it is only July. We send our solidarity to the loved ones of Adina Constantin and Jamey Carney. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said that figures on violence against women are going in the wrong direction, but what has the Government actually done about them? The most basic thing the Government could do is properly fund the organisations that deal with violence against women. Instead, they are charities. These charities have seen rocketing calls. Women's Aid saw an 11.5% rise last year. There were 62,275 disclosures. It got €1.3 million from the Government. It had to raise €2.7 million in donations.”
“We are the ones who take it on and that has always been the way in my constituency in any case, from what we can see. They are just not situated in the constituency where they get the votes and where these issues are a problem. This is shocking and follows very much in the vein of the international protection legislation that the Government brought through, ignoring human rights concerns and ignoring practical concerns that TDs are making. It is really shameful stuff in order to garner a few brownie points and tell everybody that refugees are to blame for the housing crisis.”
“They just have different demands and needs in terms of the populations and the problems they face. The Minister is taking away all discretion from the likes of Fingal County Council, Dublin City County Council, the other Dublin councils and other cities councils where there will be more people seeking support for homeless accommodation and refugees as well. This will cause havoc. Maybe the people affected do not go to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies. From what I hear anecdotally, they do not. It seems that people who desperately need help tend to come to the parties of the left. It just seems to be that way. The Minister is shaking his head but that is what people tell us, that the Government TDs just do not reply to them and do not get their hands dirty.”
“Thankfully, they were helped. Where would they stand with the local authority or the housing agency providing that accommodation if they had to get residency status for their parents before they could get help? They could have all been out on the street. The Minister is just not thinking, or maybe he is and he does not care. The other thing is the lack of discretion. I represent a constituency that has a massive amount of diversity and of homelessness. It has been so for about 12 years, long before any refugees or asylum seekers came in large numbers to this country. When I was elected to this House in 2014 during the by-election, housing was the biggest issue. There is no discretion for local authorities. I am sure the Minister is not suggesting that Dublin City Council is the same as Sligo County Council.”
“Under this legislation, what would happen to this person because they turned down what the Minister considers a viable offer of homeless accommodation? Thankfully, I was able to contact the relevant authorities, explain why and ask if another offer could be made. I can think of the case of another family in terms of this idea that everybody must be a fully fledged person who is entitled to social housing. There is a Palestinian family in my constituency and their elderly parents, with serious health issues, fled the genocide in Gaza. Some of the family were sleeping on the floor so as to be able to take in the parents and look after them. I am sure the Minister would agree that he would do the same for his family and I would do the same for mine. This family then had a fire in their accommodation and had to be moved.”
“I can think of a couple of cases that have just come my way during the past couple of weeks. I will not identify the person but they were publicised for being a victim of a horrific assault on the street and they are homeless. They came to my office this week with an interpreter and with somebody else. They are working in this country. They had their refugee status granted. They were kicked out of the IPAS accommodation, which is what happens when you get your refugee status. You are left to fend for yourself and to find homeless accommodation. This person refused an offer of accommodation because they were being asked to share with a stranger. The Minister might actually understand that if you are walking up a street and stranger viciously assaults you, you might then actually have a fear of strangers.”
“The only thing I can think of is that this is about, as other TDs have suggested, the Minister virtue-signalling to the far right and people who are racist in this country. We have already had the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach linking homelessness with migrants and asylum seekers and now the Minister is sending out a message with this Bill that a lot of the homeless people are actually asylum seekers and that is why we have this crisis. That is the message the Minister is sending out. The Minister is not in any way thinking of the human consequences of this for victims of trafficking and for very vulnerable people. This is also very likely to be contrary to EU law and human rights law, according to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the Mercy Law Centre, etc.”
“I do not sit on the housing committee, so this has come like a bolt from the blue for anyone who does not because of the suddenness of these changes. I will give some practical examples because this will cause absolute chaos for councillors and TDs who are at the coalface of dealing with the housing crisis. They are the least of my worries, obviously. I am worried about the people who will be affected. I am really shocked to read just now about all of the bodies that have condemned this legislation and the Minister is simply, yet again, not listening. We stood here during the international protection legislation and raised very similar concerns from human rights organisations about that legislation and this fits very much into that mould.”
“Many countries recognise non-binary and intersex people, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Malta, Iceland, even the USA, Australia and New Zealand - I could go on. Will the Government get behind this Bill? It can introduce a Bill of its own, if it likes, but I ask it to support my Bill.”
“Transgender, non-binary and intersex people face discrimination and persecution worldwide. This Saturday, Trans & Intersex Pride will march in Dublin at 2 p.m. I have drafted a Bill, the non-binary and intersex recognition Bill, which I am hoping the Government will support, to give legal rights to such people. It recognises a non-binary gender in the gender recognition certificate - an X marker. It would allow parents the option of an X marker if their child is born with intersex characteristics, something that forces many parents to carry out dangerous surgery. It would provide equality in the law in Ireland, which the Department of Social Protection, in its LGBT+ plan, says it is committed to doing.”
“That is a real fear so many parents have. Another fear is about money. This parent said her son's ATM card is taken off him when he goes into the accommodation. We are talking about private companies and agency staff. There are naturally fears among parents about what might be happening with that. We need a completely different system that is invested in, and not run by private companies for profit. It is time to deal with this with public investment.”
“She is also thinking about what will happen to her son after she dies. She is an older parent, and her son was earmarked for a potential long-term place. She asked if she could view the property and was told no, that she could just be shown photographs as there were people living in the property. Is this for real? Obviously, a parent wants to see where their child is going to end up. Then the place just frittered away. That is something that needs to be looked at. This is a permanent home for somebody. Another issue raised is the fear of violence against sons and daughters. This parent witnessed violence against a client when she was in a park. She duly reported it to the authorities and to the Garda, but if that is going on in a park, what is going on behind closed doors in these facilities where there are no cameras?”
“I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this really important topic about older and disabled people, and what kind of home they can have. The current system is completely unsatisfactory. Older and disabled people are generally in private nursing homes run for profit. I spoke to a parent before this debate about the situation in my constituency. Her son, who gets respite four nights per month, was not able to get that respite for months because a client with severe needs was being accommodated and the whole building had to be cleared for that. It just shows the under-provision of the vital accommodation people need. People with intellectual disabilities losing that familiarity is very upsetting. There is also no respite care in Dublin 15, which is a huge part of the constituency. This parent brought an issue to my attention.”
“If you look at the actual practicalities of what Ireland has done to help the Palestinian people, the answer is nothing. It has not done anything about overhead flights or Shannon. It has not done anything about being the second biggest trader with Israel, mainly because of Intel. Obviously, it does not want to upset Intel. It has now not done anything about the occupied territories Bill. Even for a football match, it will not lift a finger to say to the FAI, which gets €6 million in public funding, not to go ahead and not to sportswash a genocidal Israeli team. It does not even have the gumption to do that. That needs to be marked here today.”
“Many of them would have been disposed to voting for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the years. This has had a transformative impact on people and their political understanding for the past two and a half years. This Bill is the most publicised action the Government could take. We need to mark that we are less than an hour away from it being rammed through with very little impact for Palestinians. I will tell the Minister of State what Palestinians think about the Irish Government. Obviously, Palestinians are desperate. They will take any decent measure done by any government and will welcome it. They welcome the fact the Irish Government is not as bad as other governments but it is not as bad as other governments because the other governments are horrendously bad. What is the Government comparing itself to?”
“There is absolutely no question that this Bill has been neutered because of pressure from big business. The Minister of State should not insult our intelligence by saying anything else. That is what has happened. Dr. Abu Safiya has been mentioned and I hope this Government has made representations about his treatment and detention. What has the Government done about Palestine because I am wracking my brains. Every time we say something, we are told by other Ministers that the Palestinian Authority thinks Ireland is amazing. I talk to Palestinians a lot because there are Palestinians in my constituency and involved in the D15 With Palestine group. I am sure we are all involved in local groups because these groups have sprung up across the country. It is not all young people - in fact, there are people of every single age and every gender.”
“Years ago, it said they would bring in an occupied territories Bill and now what it has is not even a mutation of that. The Minister of State said there is no concern among American big business about this Bill, following the meetings he had. If the Minister of State does a quick Google search, he will see a multitude of articles about it. I have one where the Department of foreign affairs warned about the impact on business and how it might be perceived by American multinationals and big business if the original Bill had been passed. There are numerous articles and officials from the Department of foreign affairs warned about that. I do not know how the Minister of State is meeting people who are not saying anything like that while Department officials are meeting people from a completely different background.”
“In the previous amendment, the Minister of State was sort of reprimanding people for using particular words. I am sorry but he is not going to get a polite debate because we should be absolutely enraged about what is happening to Palestine and the lack of Government action. I urge everybody not to have a polite debate. This has been one of the biggest issues in this country and, indeed, the world for two and a half years. This Government has a chance to do something and it is choosing not to. It is not that the Government saw a chance to build on what Senator Black has done, and I commend the Senator on her amazing work and patience on this issue. I was in the Dáil when the Minister of State’s side of the House, and Fianna Fáil, jumped up and down about this Bill.”
“It has never been explained how Spain and Slovenia can ban goods and services. These are two countries the Minister of State was working with in Europe to get pan-European unified action. Yet, those two countries, two of the Government's chums, were able to pass this and this Government is not. There is one simple reason. Spain, as a major economy, is not beholden to the US, in the same way that this Government is. Successive Governments, not just the Minister of State's, have created an economic policy that is so heavily reliant on foreign direct investment, FDI, that absolutely nothing can be done in any way, shape or form. Let us have Trump in here and bring the Dáil back because he seems to be running the show in this country. We may as well have him in here and listen to his insane ramblings because this whole Bill has been reduced.”
“This is in a settlement on land that was seized from Palestinians and it will continue to be advertised in this country and others. Only a handful of Palestinians are allowed in that area - the ones who work there. There are 760 rooms available in hotels, apartments and Airbnb properties on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some 2,000 people can stay there during August. It shows inhumanity and barbarity to profiteer from and advertise that sort of luxury on the backs and the blood and bones of Palestinians in that area. I am sure the Minister of State agrees that is reprehensible, yet it will continue to be allowed. We have all spoken umpteen times on this issue, and the Government has never explained how Spain and Slovenia could do it and Ireland cannot.”
“I watched a documentary last night in which Bertie Ahern was waxing lyrical about Saipan. There is an idea that Governments do not intervene on sporting occasions. To get back to the Bill, the academics, Dr. Patrick Bresnihan and Dr. Patrick Brodie, have pointed out that this Bill is being reduced in order to save face for companies like Airbnb, insurance brokers and so on. I had a look around on what is available on the Airbnb and Booking.com websites in relation to Israel. The Guardian did a very good exposé of how those two companies are helping Israelis make money off stolen Palestinian land. For example, there is an advertisement for a stunning villa with a private swimming pool and views from the master bedroom of the Judaean Mountains.”
“This Government made a promise to the people that it would bring in an occupied territories Bill. It was a key point and debate in the election. I remember canvassing in local elections and the general election, and it was brought up regularly on doorsteps. Here we are now with an absolute farce of a Bill, which will do very little to help the people of Palestine. It is being done to save face. We know it is because of the fear this Government has of the American regime in regard to in any way, shape or form saying anything. It even said the Ireland-Israel game must go ahead. This was something the Government could have taken a stand on. Even now, it could say to the Football Association of Ireland, FAI, that it would back it up fully in this, on a moral principle.”
“My point is that we have a completely bankrupt and corrupt FIFA that bowed to that pressure and went along with it. Thankfully, the Belgians triumphed, so that was something. All of this is happening. I heard today that the US President may come over for the Irish Open, which coincidently was awarded to his golf course. I am sure there is nothing untoward there. He is going to come over and may be invited to address the Dáil, as other past Presidents have. Sure we might as well let him. Let us reconvene the Dáil early, in fact, for this man who is bringing in fascistic policies. There is no other way to describe what he stands for. He is fomenting hate, targeting minorities, stoking up racism, transphobia and misogyny, and even intervening in a competition that people are meant to enjoy while they watch.”
“A few things have come up in the news today to put this in context. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a renowned surgeon who heroically stayed with the people while they were being genocided by Israel is, unfortunately, probably near death. The man is unrecognisable and there has been an international campaign to have him released, which has unfortunately failed. He said, "They brought me here to kill me" and that he was not going to get out of there. The other news was a Palestinian goalkeeper who was also killed. Then we see the farce taking place over the past few days in the US with the World Cup where the President of the host nation can intervene and get a red card suspended. He did not know what a red card was beforehand, apparently. He knows a lot about sport but not what a red card is and had to find out. That s absolutely disgraceful.”
“It is absolutely embarrassing that anybody would stand up in a parliament in this day and age and justify it but that seems to be what the Minister of State is doing. He spoke about nonsense arguments. I do not see any difference between a domestic pet and a wild animal. They all deserve to be protected. I do not see any difference at all; I do not think they should be treated differently. Maybe that is where we differ in that some animals are more important than others. There is this argument we should treat wild animals in a certain way and capture them for our entertainment. We have to lose these notions and actually decide that animals have their own integral rights to be on the planet without being used for our entertainment.”