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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“That is no problem. Governments have fallen over less than what has happened in relation to Harvey Morrison Sherratt. We found out over the weekend through a protected disclosure that a worker heard or became aware that Harvey had been taken off the waiting list because he was mistakenly, or for whatever reason, considered "palliative" - in itself a horrible phrase. First, his parents were not told and, second, no care plan or treatment plan was drawn up if he was "palliative". This just defies belief. Aside from the fact that he may have ended up dying because of this error, perhaps if he had received the surgery, he would not be dead. The fact is that we have surgeons who would not tell parents about this and who would not organise a care plan for a "palliative" child.”
“It is very concerning that a violent, extremist, far-right group has threatened to attack mosques and any place where there are migrants. Its slogan is "an eye for eye", apparently. A couple of men have been arrested and charged with possession of explosives. This is a very worrying development for families, particularly since there was an attempted murder in broad daylight in Drogheda. I put it to the Taoiseach that this is not just the far right; it is also about politicians across the Dáil who are legitimising racism and the scapegoating of minorities with their language. Some of them come in here declaring that this is the most important issue to be discussed. They are creating a dangerous environment in which there has been an increase of 24% in racism. Aontú had a secret racist WhatsApp group among its young members.”
“Independent Ireland has been putting up stuff. It is disappointing that Sinn Féin is also there. If you do not point to the resources that exist in this society in a massively rich country with a huge budget surplus and huge number of vacant properties and all you do is attack the IPAS system, you are not actually tackling the far right. I am competing in the exact same territory. Take a lesson from the presidential election and Catherine Connolly. You do not have to lean into this stuff. Take a lesson from Zohran Mamdani as well. A lot of people do not want division and hatred stirred up.”
“Simon Harris said that people are shutting down debate and are being divisive. He is being divisive. This has actual repercussions for lots of people in this country, including constituents of mine. It is a very diverse constituency. I did not hear the Government running for a debate on racism when the Indian community was under assault all over the summer. There was no debate in this House. In the minute I have left, it has to be mentioned that it is not just Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Other parties in this House are leaning into racism as well. Aontú was exposed for its youth membership having a brutally antisemitic group chat where the n-word was used throughout. This is somebody who was working in a Deputy's office in these Houses and we are meant to pretend that they did not know he was a racist. He was an absolute fascist.”
“The vast majority in international protection do not want to be in this country. Let us start with that. They do not want to leave their own countries, but there has been a massive increase in genocide, in wars, in militarism and in poverty. Many of the people are Ukrainian, and the Government was all for funding the war in Ukraine as well. We have a capitalist system, to which the Government is wedded, that is bringing nothing but devastation and poverty. What does the Government do? It resorts to increasing racism itself. Misogyny, homophobia and all of that is being resorted to by Trump and it looks like the Government is following suit. I saw photographs yesterday of Georgian people, apparently, being put onto flights. It is the kind of thing I have seen Trump do in the US with the ICE raids. It is absolutely despicable.”
“There is more performance in so many of the other things that he has done. I want to talk about Simon Harris. Let us be clear, he had a disastrous presidential election. The housing crisis is increasing at pace. Fianna Fáil's own backbenchers are rare and savage over it. The Taoiseach has disappeared to a conference he does not even need to be at. Simon Harris does a pivot again to the right and starts to scapegoat minorities in this country, something he has done before. I am not a bit surprised. It is the modus operandi of establishment parties worldwide. In order to compete with the far right, they move further right. I was never very convinced by Simon Harris's liberal foray on repeal any way. I think he is in more comfortable territory right now. We need to say a couple of things.”
“Why are we having this debate? That is the first question I want to ask. A child was horrifically sexually assaulted. We are not discussing gender-based violence. I have just come from a committee that the rape crisis centre set up. Four TDs showed up. Nobody from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael was there. They do not care about that issue. A racist riot followed the assault. Massive harm was done to gardaí. We have seen the attempted murder of families in Drogheda. Then we hear the Minister of State on the radio scapegoating the people who live in IPAS centres, saying that they should pay for their accommodation in which they are not even safe and which is being surrounded by people who sometimes want to harm or kill them. We hear his Minister friend's performative cruelty with the deportation flights that are costing the taxpayer a fortune.”
“The law needs to be changed but they do not have time to wait for that . Elysian Capital, the big venture capitalist company that seems to own it, pulled the plug on this company coming up to the busiest month of the year for couriers, quite amazingly, given it could have recouped some of the debts it was owed. I do not know if the Minister is going to investigate that.”
“I too welcome my socialist colleague Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett back into action. I welcome also the election of a socialist in New York, the belly of the beast of capitalism, Zohran Mamdani. I welcome the Fastway Couriers workers to the Public Gallery today. Perhaps it will be third time lucky because two TDs have already asked the Minister about this. I ask him to look them in the eye and tell them what they are to do for the next 30 days. They have been blindsided by their company. They were told they were making vast profits and then they were dumped. They are told they are not allowed to sign on for any social security measures for 30 days or they risk losing their redundancy and the wages they are owed. They are caught in a complete double bind. We need a statutory instrument to get around this.”
“The money the Government is giving to developers to build apartments could have alternatively been used to fund councils to build public homes that are affordable, socially useful and accessible to the people in these testimonies who are on the lowest rung of the ladder of life.”
“We had a homeless epidemic Dublin 15 and now we have another one. I have never seen anything like this. If I do not bring this to the floor with the Minister for Finance, where can I bring it? What will the Minister's budget do for the scenarios I have outlined? I can send the information for every one of them to the Minister. I am sure he does not need it. Some 105 families have eviction notices and many are in homeless accommodation, yet a land bank is sitting undeveloped because the Government has not taken an interest in it. These are strategic land banks. We could solve the housing crisis in Dublin West if that land was built on. The Minister should be asking questions. He says there is loads of money for the housing crisis.”
“Another person who has a notice of termination for 14 November has three children, one of whom is attending an autism class in Dublin 15 and is in fear of the child losing that place if the family has to go into homeless accommodation. Another woman is breastfeeding and there are many others. A bus driver has been in homeless accommodation in the Celbridge area because he had to vacate the house he had rented since 2006. Is the Minister listening to that? Someone who has been paying another person's mortgage since 2006 is now living in homeless accommodation with mice and cannot sleep at night. The reason I am telling these human interest stories is that these are the repercussions of economic policies of this Government. I am being transported back to 2014 when I was first elected as a TD.”
“One person who had been living in her accommodation for ten years applied for the tenant in situ scheme, but was turned down. She is pregnant with her third child and has been searching for alternative accommodation for a year without success. Another person has already been in emergency homeless accommodation for three years and has to cross the M50 every day with their children. They do not have space. They are depressed and stressed, naturally enough. Another person in homeless accommodation lost out on the scheme. The children have no place to move or play and no freedom to grow. One of her sons has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and needs additional care and attention to support his development, but cannot get it in the conditions the family is in.”
“I have never heard such a thing. It is causing misery. The tenant in situ scheme was cut from €40 million to €20 million. Solidarity councillors and other councillors are dealing with the misery of it, as are our offices. For example, one family we tried to help to apply for it received a reply that unfortunately given the number of active applications for the tenant in situ scheme being progressed in May and the level of funding available, Fingal County Council was not in a position to review closed applications. The funding was finished. That was the only lifeline to save someone from homelessness. I will briefly let the Minister know what is happening to the people who are not able to avail of the tenant in situ scheme and end up being homeless.”
“It is on a long-term strategy of the council. The Minister's officials and those of the Department of housing should be sitting down with every local authority to discuss what can be done to get these land banks up and running, the infrastructure going and so forth and asking them what money they need. They need €200 million straight away. In reply to a question from a councillor on 2 October about how many notices of termination had been given in the Dublin 15 area, Fingal County Council said that it had been told about 105 notices. Therefore, there will be more as not everyone will tell the council due to not being on the council's housing list or whatever. Stop and think about that. There are 105 families with notices of eviction in their hands in Dublin 15 alone, not the whole of Fingal, nowhere else, just in the Blanchardstown area.”
“There is a social crisis, an eviction epidemic, in Dublin 15, up the road from the Minister. The Minister knows it well. It relates to the decisions taken in the budget to give huge VAT cuts to developers rather than finance local authorities to build. There is a document from Fingal County Council about section 28 guidelines and housing growth requirements in Fingal County Council. It mentions a land bank, which the Minister knows well, in Dunsink, Elm Green and Scribblestown that could house 20,000 people. It is the most strategic land bank in the whole of Dublin. It is on a rail line, close to the city centre and it would cater for the homeless epidemic in Blanchardstown, Finglas, Ashtown and many other places and would provide affordable homes for workers. That land bank has been sitting undeveloped for a long time.”
“Another person has a child in an autism unit and, as the Taoiseach knows, it is very hard to get an alternative place if they lose their home. Another woman is still breastfeeding after having her newborn. There are many others with disabilities, autism and neurodiversity. When will we address the fact that instead of throwing money at developers, that money could have been given to councils to develop land banks like this, build real affordable homes and social homes, and end this humanitarian disaster?”
“A document was produced by Fingal County Council which identifies land banks, including one in Dublin 15 which could accommodate 20,000 homes. Today, I received a reply from Fingal County Council. It has 105 families with termination notices or notices of eviction in Dublin 15 alone. I am coming to the Taoiseach as a TD from that area reporting a humanitarian crisis. I want to highlight some of the cases that our councillors are dealing with due to these notices of termination. One person has a child with cerebral palsy. Another person is in homeless accommodation with children who have no space to move and no area to play. Another person is in homeless accommodation and has to cross the M50 every single day.”
“I know it was the former Garda Commissioner who presented this but will the Taoiseach consider revoking this award and sending a message to gardaí and to people in general that violence against women is not acceptable? This garda should not have got an award. He should be in jail. Why is he not in jail? Do no rules apply to gardaí who commit crime?”
“Gardaí who are corrupt, who pervert the course of justice over and over and over again, should not be awarded a medal of bravery for one act. There was no need. He could have been excluded from the award and the other gardaí could have been presented with their awards. What happened to zero tolerance for gender-based violence when the gardaí who are meant to deal with it are guilty of it themselves? There is a high rate, unfortunately, of intimate partner violence among the police and armies internationally. That is a statistic. Apparently, there have been 60 cases involving sexual misconduct in the last three years in An Garda Síochána. Will the Taoiseach call in the Garda Commissioner?”
“His acting Minister for Justice, Heather Humphreys, presented the award and called his acts heroic, absolutely heroic. Should a Minister for Justice not do some due diligence? Will the Taoiseach revoke the award now?”
“He used his official Garda firearm to point to her head and say he was going to blow her brains out. That is what she testified later on at the tribunal. Noel McMahon used his firearm against his wife and he also faked a court safety order against her. Her children were placed into care, Taoiseach. She lost custody of her children because of the actions of this man. Can the Taoiseach imagine the damage that was done to them and to her? Lawyers on behalf of the State, on behalf of the Minister for Justice, in 2018 had to issue a State apology to the woman and damages as well. How does a garda, a bent copper by anyone's standards, a crooked cop, end up getting a Scott medal of bravery only three years after such a State apology? In 2021, Deputy Micheál Martin was Taoiseach. I do not know if he was aware of this award.”
“Is it acceptable that Government Ministers presenting such awards would not look into the background of such people, particularly the Minister for justice who is responsible for the gardaí, law and gender-based violence? Noel McMahon was a detective. The Morris tribunal found that he planted hoax bombs and ammunition across the north west of Ireland in the 1990s to make himself look good for catching the IRA. He bought illicit drugs and planted them in a nightclub in Donegal, and then organised Garda raids. The nightclub owner went to jail because of this. Let us not forget that. It was a miscarriage of justice. The man later got a certificate. On top of this, the detective assaulted two women that we know of. His own wife was a victim of years of abuse.”
“I want to send my solidarity with the girl who apparently was sexual assaulted and to her family. I hope she gets the care as well. I wish to ask the Taoiseach something related to gender-based violence. There was a report by Village magazine and The Ditch yesterday that a garda, who was corrupt and violent towards his wife and another woman, was awarded a medal of bravery from An Garda Síochána in 2021. I do not know why this was not widely reported at the time but it is being reported now. How is it that a disgraced garda who had to resign from the force was brought back for a Scott medal of bravery - the highest medal that one can get? How seriously is gender-based violence taken when a garda - the State had to apologise to his wife for the abuse she suffered - is brought back for such an award?”
“I have also been shown a GoFundMe that the Army had in one of the battalions, where they all used rapists’ names when contributing to the GoFundMe - names like Paddy Jackson, Ted Bundy, Fred West, Jimmy Savile, Larry Murphy, Stuart Olding and so on. Such is the toxic rape culture within the Army that they felt no problem in doing this. It was the “11th POC planting 1200 native trees” GoFundMe. This was sent to this woman as a message that anybody can say anything they want in the Army. Will the Tánaiste please extend the victims of crime Act to the Army, allow people to get information on their cases and allow them to have the right to a review if it is not prosecuted? Will he agree to meet this woman to discuss the situation further? We have had Natasha O'Brien, we have had the Women of Honour and now we have this.”
“Does a woman or person abused by someone in the Army have the same rights as other victims? The victims of crime Act 2017 does not apply to the Army. It applies to the Garda but not to the Army. In June, I raised a case here with the Tánaiste about a woman who was stalked, abused and assaulted by an Army officer. He used Army equipment, even an Army grenade, as part of that harassment. She made a complaint in November 2022. We are nearly three years on and she has heard nothing further about how that case is being prosecuted. She has no right to review it because the victims of crime Act does not apply to the Army. I raised this with the Tánaiste but I did not get any reply back, and neither has the woman since the end of June or July.”
“The Minister is suggesting he might take away the free third level education with his comment there. Yes, there are a couple of issues. It is a bad situation when Young Fine Gael was asking for a €1,500 reduction in fees and only a €500 reduction was given. The union of students in Ireland, AMLÉ, asked for a lot more and has expressed huge disappointment at what the Government has done. The dropout rate in college has increased by 15% in two years and 23% for students who are on the lower income levels. As I said, they are much more likely to drop out. The mental health toll on students is incredibly high. The increase in the fees will affect working class families and people on lower incomes more, as the Government has indicated itself. The SUSI grant eligibility will do very little to rectify that.”
“Although the grants have increased, the reality is that students who are on SUSI grants are much more likely to drop out of college and not finish their degrees.”
“We can all do what we will with figures but the reality is that families and students now are paying €500 more than they were for the last two years. That is the reality because of the removal of the once-off measures and when we take into account the increase in costs, in rents in particular. The average cost of going to college in Dublin, for example, increased this year to €20,777 a year, a 3% increase on last year. The main reason is the huge amount of money people have to pay in rent. On average, in Dublin, the rent that students pay is €1,200. It is roughly the same as the minimum wage in a full-time job. Some 83% of student accommodation is in private hands and that is the reason. There is profiteering and profit gouging going on and students are paying the price. A huge number of students have had to take on part-time jobs.”
“I want to ask about the cost of going to college, particularly following the budget. In effect, people are now paying €500 more in third level fees. We have a cost-of-living crisis and this is impacting the ability of students and families to afford these costs. The poverty rate has actually increased after the budget by all of the metrics the ESRI has used. People are 2% worse off and it is inhibiting people from going to college.”
“I would like to ask the Tánaiste why he gave authorisation for a US military plane to land on Sunday, reportedly, that was en route with either troops or armaments to the Nevatim Israeli military base? He has committed to supporting the Palestinian people and supporting the Palestinian state.”
“Is the Government going to pass the occupied territories Bill in full? The Taoiseach indicated yesterday that it will deal with just one aspect and not with services. We need to know this before the presidential election next week-----”
“A key item to come out of yesterday's briefing was that the waiting list is completely static. Travel abroad has not happened. CHI promises, but it delivers a little bit like the Tánaiste. We need a commitment to a public statutory inquiry - that is what parents are asking for - before we decide how we vote on this motion. I also want to ask about Palestine. It is another area the Tánaiste is responsible for and has made promises about. There has been a horrific genocide for two years, as we know. He has talked the talk but he has not walked the walk.”
“It is very important that since we have the issue of broken promises and confidence on the table, we deal with all the Tánaiste's infamous promises. The first one, of course, relates to 2017 and the promise no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis surgery. The Tánaiste has a habit of making grandiose promises he cannot fulfil and we are now in a situation where Gillian and Stephen in particular, and the other parents, have had to campaign long and hard. Government TDs left the briefing yesterday, which has been referred to many times, giving a commitment they would call for a public statutory inquiry. I want to find out whether we are getting this public statutory inquiry. I have heard about an inquiry, but I have not heard about the nature of it. I will also mention very briefly the spinal surgery waiting list.”
“The impact of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael kowtowing to developers in this country with their light-touch regulation is being paid for by the people of Donegal and in many other places where defective building practices have been allowed to thrive. The Galway tent was mentioned. I know we have State funding of political parties now but it has not stopped the Government from bowing in front of the building industry. It is unbelievable that a levy of 5% ends up being paid by the people seeking to fix their houses when they go and buy concrete products. The Minister needs to listen and there needs to be remedy for people in Donegal immediately.”
“Is the Minister listening to that? People cannot survive in crumbling, damp, unsafe homes. It affects their mental health. People feel it is like a warzone. The motion from the Deputy quite rightly states, "the crisis extends far beyond private homes to schools, health centres, community buildings, critical infrastructure, and cemeteries". We have the same issue in Dublin West. Our local school has closed because it is getting fixed, because it has pyrite, and all of the students have had to be transferred. The community centre has shut down. The whole of Tyrrelstown, which is bereft of facilities at the best of times, had no facilities for ages because the community centre and school had to close. Clubs had to battle to get alternative grounds and venues.”
“Nobody should think that any remediation was granted by the Government. There were public meetings and petitions. I remember holding a public meeting when my daughter was a baby, and she started playing games about pyrite because she had attended so many meetings. It was not granted to people but had to be fought and battled for. The damage this is causing to people's mental health has already been outlined. How a Government can stand over that is beyond me. A study was done by Ulster University professors Oisin Keenan, Karen Kirby et al., "An earthquake in slow motion". I will read some of the statistics from that. A total of 30.4% of people were suffering from severe depression, 26.2% of people from severe anxiety, 4.9% from PTSD and 15.5% from complex post-traumatic stress disorder. A total of 35.5% of the sample had suicidal ideation.”
“People should not be financially assisted; they should have their houses fixed completely, just like they did under the pyrite remediation scheme. My preference would be that a State company would fix everybody's house in a proper way and to standard, but there are specialist companies that did the work relating to pyrite and became experts in it. Companies should fix people's homes. People should not have to raise money, get a grant and do it themselves. I wanted to bring some lessons from the battle we had over pyrite, when people's houses started to crack and the doors started to jam. People know that pyrite does significant damage to homes when it is exposed to the air and to moisture. Often this did not manifest for a number of years, but it began to manifest. We had to battle, by the way.”
“This is an issue not just for Donegal but for the entire country. A precedent is being set by the way the Government is dealing with this issue. I want to send solidarity to all the homeowners and people affected by this issue in Donegal. There are often attempts in this House and outside it to divide and rule between people from so-called urban areas and rural areas. The reality is that I live in a pyrite-affected estate, but the pyrite remediation scheme has been extended to Limerick and other places. It is actually up and running. I just went to check the pyrite remediation website and it is taking new applications as we speak. I want to know why a different approach was taken. The first thing the Minister said in his opening remarks was that the Government had financially assisted people.”
“It speaks to me of an approach that is going to happen where we will all move on now and pretend that Netanyahu was not a war criminal, pretend that Donald Trump is a hero and that the Palestinian people will have no say in their own fate going forward on this peace deal. I wonder what the Taoiseach has to say about that. A lot of people commented on it last night. The Taoiseach still has not put anything else up either.”
“I want to ask the Taoiseach about a post he put up on Twitter yesterday. The Taoiseach welcomed the release of the Israeli hostages, as we all do, but he made absolutely no mention of the Palestinian hostages who were released - people who were seen emaciated talking about torture beyond belief. Many of them found out that their families are dead. Some of them are children. An autistic boy was released from captivity yesterday and there are lots of other children still in prison. A lot of people found the Taoiseach's approach quite unbelievable - not one mention. For a state that is meant to support the Palestinian State and the Palestinian people, the Taoiseach only referred to the Israeli hostages, not the thousands of Palestinian hostages. It was quite unbelievable.”
“The Deputy just happened to be the first person. In relation to Palestine and the ceasefire, I want to ask the Taoiseach, "What now?" What should be the approach of the Government in relation to what has happened? Obviously, any respite for the people of Gaza and for the children of Gaza from the genocide that they have endured for almost two years is hugely welcome. However, of the people who are in charge of this peace deal, Netanyahu was a war criminal last week. He is a war criminal this week. Donald Trump has funded a genocide for 20 months. There was a ceasefire when Donald Trump came to power. These are the people who are congratulating themselves for ending a genocide that they are responsible for. Do Palestinian lives matter? Should Palestinian people have a say?”
“It would be hugely supported in society because it is the cost that is worrying people more than anything else. Average bills are also due to increase €207 more than last year with no support.”
“The Government took a decision in the budget to give huge tax cuts to developers, the fast food industry and the hospitality sector to boost trade and competitiveness. In doing so, it has made people 2% worse off according to the ESRI and the bottom 10% of society are 4.4% worse off. I will specifically ask the Taoiseach about electricity. We have the highest electricity costs in the EU and we hear that retail prices are three times higher than wholesale prices. Massive profiteering is taking place in electricity that will increase poverty, but it is also a huge cost on small businesses, which the Government claims it wants to help. When will we have a not-for-profit electricity sector? The Taoiseach talked as if it was a terrible thing in response to an earlier question.”
“I absolutely do to stop a genocide. They were not blocking the port tunnel. They were up at the port. The Minister of State does not know what they were going to do because they were actually blocked by the Garda. They were not actually blocking anybody.”
“One young woman I know is on crutches. I got a phone call after and went down myself, and I actually saw a second round of pepper spray used. The impact on some of the people and the effect of it was absolutely horrific. I remind the Minister of State there is broad protection for the right to protest, nationally and internationally. If you are walking on a road or even if you are going to block a road, the Garda does not have the right to use pepper spray. Blocking roads is an effective means of protest. It was done for the right to vote for women. It was done for civil rights. It is done for lots of things. The Minister of State wants ineffective protests that achieve very little. He asked me if I think people have the right to block a port for a period of time.”
“The Minister of State asked me a question. I totally agree that workers and young people throughout the world have been the only saving grace as this horrific genocide that we are seeing livestreamed on our phones each day has occurred. Only for the protest movements that are happening, there would be no action at all. The EU has been an utter disgrace throughout this and obviously the US has been a partner in the genocide. The Government is complicit in that it did nothing. I know the Government does not like that being said, but the word "complicit" means doing nothing when you see things happening as well doing something.”
“I hope I get the extra half minute now that the Minister of State got. I will tell the Minister of State what I agree with. I agree that this Government that is meant to support the Palestinian state has utterly failed to carry out action in the past two years to do that. It would not even pass the occupied territories Bill.”
“There was absolutely no justification in using that type of what is basically chemical warfare against peaceful protesters. There was no threat of violence. This pepper spray was not used at the race riot, for example, when gardaí were under attack. I think it was being used for a different reason. There had been an effective protest the previous week that had an impact at the port. By the way, people are entitled to do that. The Garda was determined that would not happen again and it wanted to send a message to pro-Palestine protestors not to go to the port again. That is what I think happened.”
“The regulations also state: "Every effort should be made to resolve an incident without resorting to the use of force." They add that gardaí "should avoid extended or repeat uses of Incapacitant Spray". That certainly did not happen. A councillor there on the day gave witness testimony. A young member of my own party who works with me went down with her friends. She is in her 20s and was not even particularly taking part in the protest and was sprayed with pepper spray. I want to make it very clear that this is double strength pepper spray that the Garda is now using. The impact of it was felt by people for more than two days. Women I know who were the victims of this told me that they showered about three times and they were still burning the next day.”