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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“-----who were promised care. The Government has stalled the treatment of 18 children from Palestine. The Tánaiste can clarify the situation, but it seems as if it has been stalled because those children may be bringing siblings with them. There seems to be an appalling attitude to getting people over here. I have, for example, tried to get the wife of a citizen and constituent over here. That man is a doctor. I have been told to go through the normal process. Is there no extra help for people coming from Gaza, given what is happening there?”
“Given all the Tánaiste has said about recognising there is a genocide and our State's recognition of the Palestinian state, how can we refuse visas to children who are coming here to escape the bombardment in Gaza? Moataz Sarsour GAA Club has been refused visas. From talking and writing with the people involved, I know they have complied on multiple occasions with all the requests of the Department of justice. They have said they found it completely unprofessional and bureaucratic and thought barriers were being put in their way. We have failed to give medical evacuation to Palestinian children-----”
“What interaction has the Tánaiste had with other states, particularly in the EU, about Gaza? His colleagues in the EU Parliament will today apparently endorse Ursula von der Leyen despite her complete approval of the genocide that is taking place. She made comments about Israel's right to defend itself at a time when the Tánaiste has recognised that a genocide is taking place. Ireland will row in and support Ursula von der Leyen in the Parliament today on a vote of confidence. I also want to ask about the visas.”
“They were promised this care months ago. I will also raise the matter of the GAA team from Palestine. I received emails from the GAA regarding the Palestinian hurling club. The GAA wants to bring the Moatez Sarsour club over. It is due to visit Croke Park but it is not getting the visas. It is getting conflicting information. Let us allow those children in, as well as other people.”
“-----when you make a vote, and can come out publicly to explain your stance, but the reality is it is a vote of no confidence. If the parties are not happy about that, they can put one themselves, which should have happened a long time ago. I will raise another issue. The Minister of State and the Government constantly say how much Ireland is doing. There are two examples of basic care that we could give to people suffering the genocide. Medical evacuation for Palestinian children was raised today. Why are children with the most horrific injuries, who we promised to care for in our health system, being blocked and delayed in Gaza? Is it because their siblings might want to come with them? Is that the reason? Are we that cruel that we would not assign people some family support? How can we justify this?”
“We believe that Fine Gael will troop up - it is not fully clear what Fianna Fáil will do - and apparently the Labour Party has also professed its support on the basis that a far-right group is putting the vote. I will tell the Minister of State now-----”
“The Commissioner of the EU, Ursula von der Leyen, is not just complicit in the genocide in Gaza; she is actively supportive of the Israeli state and what it is doing. She still uses the term, "Israel's right to defend itself", right up until now. Even when Gaza is being starved, children are being killed for sport and doctors are being murdered, Israel has the right to defend itself, according to her. It is absolutely shameful that she is heading up the EU. Tomorrow, the Minister of State's party, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and other parties will have the right to send a message on that because there will be a vote of no confidence in Ursula von der Leyen. Any Irish MEP who votes to support her, given what she has done, should hang his or her head in shame. Such MEPs are not representing the views of the majority of Irish people.”
“Now we see Manna, with Deliveroo, will take part in operating 2 million flights whereas it has been 170,000 heretofore. The Minister, Jack Chambers, was apparently asked to emphasise the uncluttered nature of our airspace to allow these drones in. We see that Enterprise Ireland has given Manna grants, as well as raising money from venture capitalists and Coca-Cola. This should never have happened without community approval. Will our skies become as busy as our roads? Are people ready to give up privacy, community cohesion and peace and quiet in our areas? I do not think so but this is being allowed in the name of inevitability and innovation.”
“For a year and a half, the people of Dublin West have been guinea pigs for drone infrastructure. The potential for drones to do very important work for humans is definitely there, such as emergency relief, medicine, reaching isolated places due to geography and so on. Such new infrastructure should be with community assent and approval and not inflicted with no recourse by private companies that are in it for a profit and to deliver coffee, burgers and fast food, not medicine or anything that is essential to human beings. There are incredible levels of noise. There is an erosion of privacy and social cohesion. These are all the issues that should have been explored before this infrastructure was unleashed on the population of Dublin West.”
“I welcome that there will be a protest outside Leinster House at 6 p.m. this evening, where young people will make their position crystal clear on this.”
“Ireland is becoming the most expensive country in Europe to go to college. With the threatened withdrawal of the €1,000 assistance to parents, this will further be the case. Parents and students are making CAO decisions now about whether or not they can limit or pick cheaper courses or courses nearer to where they live, but the Taoiseach will not decide until July. Some 100,000 children are living in consistent poverty. College will become elitist once again, as it always was in decades past. The dropout rate among working class young people is 23%, compared with 11.5% in general. Full-time and part-time jobs are a necessity for working class youth going to college. Will the Taoiseach please give a commitment now, not in July as the cost-of-living crisis bites, that he will restore this?”
“I move amendment No. 22: In page 23, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “Review of provisions of Act 20. The Minister shall, not later than 12 months after the commencement of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act.”.”
“I move amendment No. 21: In page 23, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “Review of provisions of Act 20 . The Minister shall, not later than 12 months after the commencement of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act, and in particular the impact of the definitions of “civil partner”, “widow” and “widower” in this Act.”.”
“Do Members remember the big threat that was made? I remember the divorce referendum. It was said that women would be turfed out of their houses. We have an example of that now. Somebody who may have been abandoned, for example, a victim of domestic violence, who was separated – perhaps not even by their own choice - but who had children with an individual will be in a much worse situation as a result of this change. The likes of Aontú and the Christian gang are not even in here making a peep about it. I just thought that was interesting.”
“This shows part of the problem with the changes the Minister is making to the Bill. When he says that the Department is not going to carry out investigations or be intrusive, I do not mean any offence but the Department does carry out investigations into other aspects of social welfare. We debated a lot of the issues in the groupings of amendments. I am a bit perplexed as to why the parties of marriage are not in here jumping up and down, parties like Aontú and Independent Ireland. They have not opened their mouth in this entire debate, which is a bit surprising because this is undermining marriage, if one likes, as per the point about the previous amendment. This was said by FLAC for example. Assurances were given to people before the divorce referendum that there would not be any impoverishment of women.”
“He highlighted the importance of this pension in addressing the financial impact the death of a parent may have on families. He was absolutely adamant that there should be equal treatment of all the people affected. The Government has decided to make this cost neutral, but that is basically to include a group and take out another group. We are going to see litigation in the future. It is very hard to see why people would not litigate, especially people who have children and then see other people who are cohabiting and do not have children, something I would fully agree with. It is completely unbalanced. It is very disappointing that the Minister has not listened to the professional organisations or to the Opposition.”
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are the two parties in particular that wax lyrical about marriage, how important it is and what a central place it has in the Constitution. In fact, they are actually taking away one of the many reasons people get married, namely, that the other person will be looked after if anything happens, legally, financially and so on. If they separate, they usually make a separation agreement. The Government is throwing that out the window. I want to mention the O'Meara judgment. I will not say "lying", but the Government is absolutely fooling people because in the O'Meara judgment the Chief Justice placed an emphasis on "the rights of all children, and obligations of their parents, irrespective of the status of their parents." The Chief Justice made it very clear.”
“Amendment No. 1 is different from the others in that it is asking for due diligence to be done before a Bill is brought in. It should be the norm. The Minister is acting as if it is unusual to ask for a report on the impact of a Bill. He should have done that previously. TDs from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and other TDs will troop into the House tonight without having a clue what they are voting on. We had a briefing yesterday and most of them acted very shocked. They will line up and presumably go with the party Whip, but people down the line will go to claim this and then ask them why they voted for it. I would not be too quick to do so if I were them. The other issue is marriage.”
“They should not have to do that because we are telling the Minister now that there is a problem and he is just not listening. He is trying to make this cost neutral and does not seem to recognise the impact it will have, primarily on women, by the way, because it is women who are lower paid in general and have living arrangements involving children. It is a real attack on women as well, and that has been said by all of the organisations.”
“I know this for a fact because, from experience and from having spoken to solicitors, separated people are treated exactly the same way as married people in terms of getting death in service benefits and other pensions their partner may have had. The Minister is now opening it up to profit-hungry insurance and life assurance companies to change that situation. They will decide that they can do so because the Government has done so. It is absolutely disgraceful. I ask that the proposed change not be brought in until the Minister has reported on the financial implications of doing so. The legal implications are huge. I have cited pension companies and cases that definitely will be taken to the High Court, Supreme Court or whatever on behalf of separated and divorced people.”
“It made it very clear that all children and partners should be treated equally. We have a bizarre situation now. I know somebody who will benefit from this and I am delighted. I have been briefing them about this Bill for months because they are a single cohabiting person with no children. Somebody who is cohabiting and does not have any children will get this, but somebody who has three, four or five children with their partner and was in receipt of financial support will get nothing. How does the Minister justify this? It is seriously beyond belief the way he is doing this so blithely. It is wrong that the Minister is pushing ahead with this despite all of the cases being made. The Minister hates putting ideas into people's minds but he has now opened the way for private pension companies to discriminate against separated people.”
“If this were to happen next year, I would pay for somebody's funeral, lose maintenance and be in a really difficult situation, regardless of being a TD. This happened before I was elected. I am talking about people in ordinary jobs who are trying to keep their families going. The Minister is okay with this. There is a grant of up to €8,000 for funeral costs, which will be gone for many people. Treoir and other organisations, such as FLAC, which took the case that brought about the change, have asked the Minister not to do this. Its representatives have met the Minister and spoken at briefings. Unfortunately, the Minister has not changed his mind. The Minister is trying to make out the O'Meara judgment said we had to do this. The O'Meara judgment did not say he had to do this.”
“The statements made by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two main parties in respect of the divorce referendum, included a promise that people would not suffer if they were divorced or separated. However, the Minister is now introducing discrimination against people who are separated or divorced. The worst aspect of the Bill relates to children. The Minister is creating a new discrimination against children. I hope the Ombudsman for Children takes this up. I know for a fact there will be legal cases taken in the future on this. I want to highlight another issue, namely, funeral costs. When my partner died last September, I, along with my daughter, organised the funeral. I shared parental responsibilities with my late partner. I paid for the funeral because he did not have any other family.”
“On Committee Stage, I asked what alternative the Minister was providing for separated or divorced partners who had maintenance arrangements in place with a deceased partner and may have been co-parenting and sharing parental costs with their partner, such as getting help to pay their mortgage or rent or to fund their children's education, if they had children. What the Minister said in respect of one-parent families was completely disingenuous because he knew the change would not apply to most people. Payments are means tested. If people work, etc., they do not receive the payments. Families will be plunged into poverty as a result of this. People who have maintenance agreements and support will lose all of that, along with emotional support. The Minister is fine with that. It is quite shocking. This is a breach of faith.”
“Instead, the Minister will apply the legislation to cohabiting people while excluding separated and divorced people. My amendment calls for an assessment to be carried out in advance of the financial hardship that will occur for so many families arising from this change. The Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, One Parent and Treoir, key organisations that deal with lone parents, women and all sorts of one-parent families, have all opposed these changes. The Minister is setting his face against them. I will provide a couple of examples. This is an attack on a universal payment.”
“We should have the right to vote on them, but the Government is using the so-called additional costs reason which, in this case, is inappropriate because the Minister, it could well be argued, is removing a cost. We have no control over this. The lack of attention this Bill has received is very unfortunate. It is very unfortunate that despite all of the political correspondents hanging around the Dáil, none saw fit to write an article on the Bill. The changes the Minister proposes to make on the back of the O'Meara judgment are completely against what the Supreme Court ruled. The Supreme Court wanted to equalise the situation, whereby cohabiting people would have the same entitlements as married, separated and divorced people if their partner died.”
“I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “(3) Before this Act comes into operation the Minister shall publish a report which outlines the following: (a) the degree of financial dependence that families with divorced or separated parents have on those parents; (b) an overview of the legal issues with not providing the same level of access to social protection payments for some children’s families based on the marital status of their separated or divorced parents.”. I am speaking on amendment No. 1. This is a very important amendment, in particular given that our key amendments have been ruled out of order. That is bizarre because we should have a right to debate the changes being made to the Bill by the Government.”
“I do not have time to make all the points I want to but I will mention oxycodone. That it now seems that the Israelis are deliberately putting opioid drugs into flour is disgusting. I also want to put on the record Francesca Albanese's list of companies that have blood on their hands by profiting from this barbarism. Any TD going to 4 July celebrations has a lot to answer for in rewarding the US for what it is doing. I do not have time to name all of the relevant companies, but I will mention Palantir, IBM, Google and Facebook, which have tax-free status in Ireland. Shame on the Irish Government for not taking them to task.”
“The barbaric ruling class in this case comprises the US, which is funding Israel's barbarism; the EU, which is actively sending arms to the Israelis and turning a blind eye; the UK; and the so-called Gulf and Middle Eastern Muslim states that have been completely complicit in what is being done to the Palestinian people. The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Glastonbury is the problem. Apparently, "Death, death to the IDF" is a shocking thing to say but it is not a shocking thing to say when kids are being killed for sport. Naturally, you do not want that army to continue. I offer solidarity to those artists who are using their platforms, potentially suffering commercially and facing terrorism laws in the UK. They are risking sales. I remember Sinéad O'Connor, who was somebody else who took a part.”
“"War is a relic of barbarism only possible because we are governed by a ruling class with barbaric ideas." That was said by James Connolly as he looked at the conflagration that was the First World War. How apt it is now. We have been here previously. People are saying this is something new but, unfortunately, it is a feature of history, including the world wars, the Holocaust, Srebrenica, the 30th anniversary of which is coming up shortly, and Rwanda. Colonialism and genocide go back centuries. The indigenous native Americans had genocide committed against them, as did so many others.”
“The misery of people's lives now trying to get into town or across the city in built-up urban areas of Dublin is outrageous. This is especially the case at a time when we want people to use public transport because of climate change and just a better quality of life. We are actually making it impossible for people. It must be addressed. It is so obvious we must invest in public transport in large, extremely built-up urban areas. Essential workers cannot get to their place of work and students cannot get to college. The situation is really eroding people's quality of life.”
“Turning to ghost buses, I refer to the 37 bus, the Go-Ahead Ireland buses in Tyrrelstown and disappearing bus stops for people in the area. Workers who work in St. Vincent's Hospital and UCD had their journeys significantly added to by changes made by Irish Rail last year. It has meant their journey times to work were severely added to. We need a Luas. We need a light rail system in Blanchardstown. It is just so obvious. We have every multinational out there and a massive number of workers. The Broombridge station is nearby. We need that extended from Broombridge to Blanchardstown. It is quite a greenfield site at the moment and it could and should have been provided. We have had Taoisigh and Ministers, but none of them have ever provided Dublin West with the transport system we need. We now have to say, "Enough".”
“Regarding seating in the Navan Road Parkway station, it has been pointed out by several workers that pregnant women have nowhere to sit. On the Dublin West and Dublin 15 area more generally, we frequently hear TDs from rural areas talking about people in Dublin having a train or a bus outside their doors. There is no such thing. Huge chunks of Dublin 15 are badly served by public transport. Most of Dublin West is reliant on buses. The 39 bus is known as the "coffin ship into town" because every time there is a new development, it is just added on to the 39 bus route, rather than a new bus route being created. It takes one student trying to get to UCD from Ongar three hours to get in at peak time. You could get to Greece in three hours.”
“There are many rail issues in Dublin West. I will briefly mention them and then make some general points. In Ashtown, there is just development after development and high-rise apartments flying up regularly. It is happening at such a rate that the rail service the area does have is jam-packed and dangerous, according to many residents. Either a stop will have to be put on planning permissions granted, which none of us wants because we all know there is a housing crisis, or the transport issues will have to be addressed. There are also many issues further out in the Dublin 15 end of Dublin West. There are no lifts and no disability access in Castleknock train station. This is not acceptable in this day and age.”
“I am glad a meeting is taking place today and, hopefully, things can be resolved. However, I would be extremely concerned if other parents were offered these places and would then have to be told they do not have alternatives. It is a real problem situation. The issue is that, according to the school, it did not have sanction for these two classes by the February deadline and, therefore, it only got the sanction in April and there was an agreement that the February deadline would be waived. That is what we have been told. Hopefully, this can be addressed at the meeting. I repeat that it is good that 16 classes are sanctioned for Dublin 15 but while that sounds like a lot, when we take in the population of the area and the age profile, it is not. We need those classes opened as soon as possible.”
“There is very little time to raise this. We are now in that situation. The parents would have had legitimate expectations from the NCSE that they would receive a placement in the special classes when they opened, and that was the understanding of the principals. I spoke to parents this morning in Dublin 15 who still do not have school places. One parent has twins and another was campaigning with us last year. We still have a crisis of school places.”
“To clarify, St. Mochta’s school in Clonsilla has 900 to 1,000 students. The management agreed to take on a huge cohort under pressure of school places in Dublin West. Six pupils enrolled in that school have approval from the NCSE for special or autism class provision, but they were not on the list that was sent to the school last Friday. We have a bizarre situation where these parents would not have autism classes in the school that they actually attend. That has to be rectified. We do not know how this happened because at a meeting that was convened the other night, the management of the school told TDs that they had verbal approval from the NCSE that these parents would be facilitated. It makes sense because the classes are not even ready yet. It would make sense to remain where they are and then move in when the classes are ready.”
“Thankfully, her child has a school place, but she continues to battle for others. There has to be investment in this. There is a real problem finding teachers. I was shocked that the Minister of State said there was no teacher shortage. We have to call the Government out on this. It is gaslighting to say that. We know there is a teacher shortage. It has been said by all the unions. It is everywhere around the country, but particularly in urban areas, especially Dublin. The Minister of State needs to correct that because it feeds into the inability to find teachers for special education as well.”
“The schools are now closed. The Minister said in a previous meeting that 3,275 were notified to the NCSE as needing a school place for September 2025 and 8% remained without a place. Therefore, we take it that there are 260 children who do not have a school place. That is a real failure. It is far too high. We had a task force. We had protests and all sorts of thing in my area and many other areas last year. Every day, the Minister of State's Department is blocking parents in court who are taking cases over their children's legal right under this Act to a proper assessment and proper education. I will mention Ms Charlotte Cahill, who will attend the committee tomorrow. She received 60 school refusals for her daughter before she found a school place. She was one of the heroic parents who slept outside here.”
“There are some positive points in the review, in that children who were appropriately placed felt included and that their needs were being met. It shows that if the resources were put in, many other children and teenagers could feel that. Unfortunately, I have to emphasise the problems. In the review, 60% of parents had experienced difficulty finding a place in an appropriate setting despite the fact that more than 50% of parents had identified the needs of their children before they went in. Some 26% of parents experienced difficulty finding a school place at all. I imagine the percentage is a lot higher in Dublin and other urban areas, based on the figures we have heard at the education committee. I need to ask again what we asked the Minister of State at the committee last week: how many children do not have a place?”
“Does the Minister remember the promise of €200-per-month childcare that vanished into thin air, which he and Fine Gael promised before the election? The problem is that there is no childcare available to parents in any case. In the Blakestown area of Dublin West, we hear that Ready, Steady, Learn, a not-for-profit early learning childcare service catering for 43 children, could close. A parent from the Blanchardstown-Castleknock area contacted me who is a full-time working parent and despite best efforts cannot get any after-school care for her daughter. Does the Minister agree that private or for-profit childcare cannot work? Can you run a school or college at a profit? No, you cannot, and you cannot do it with childcare either.”
“The justification that there was for the Special Criminal Court in previous decades is long gone. It is completely undemocratic to maintain the court.”
“Perhaps I could comment on the general maintenance of the Special Criminal Court and the idea of maintaining trials without juries. It is ironic that we talked last month about the counselling notes issue and the Minister said it would be unconstitutional because of the pressing right to a fair trial in our Constitution, yet we can have non-jury trials. How does he match that up? Rape victims can have their therapy notes, including their private thoughts, taken by the defence because of the right to a fair trial allegedly, yet we can maintain the Special Criminal Court. It does not stack up. I wanted to make that point. There is no need to maintain the Special Criminal Court. We now have technology and many other means of protecting juries should there be a need to do so. We do not have terrorism.”
“The Minister has one interpretation of what happened, which he took at face value from the Garda Commissioner, despite the fact that there was no footage to back up what he said. Either way, it was a completely unnecessary attack on those protestors. It is clear that this legislation is being brought in because the countries that are funding and whose arms companies are profiting from genocide want to ensure they are not protested against. I also want to mention the Special Criminal Court because I know we will be asked to vote to maintain it next week.”
“Right now, Britain is designating Palestine Action, a group that protests against the state terrorism of Israel and the genocide, as a terrorist organisation. I heard the mother of one young woman who is in jail and not even allowed out on bail, after taking part in a protest, because she is a member of that group. That is the kind of thing that is happening right now. There is an Irish branch of that group as well, called Palestine Action, that has carried out protests here. Will it also be designated under this legislation? Obviously, Mo Chara of Kneecap, and the charges he is facing, has been well-documented. It was a very worrying turn to see peaceful women, Mothers Against Genocide, outside the gates of Leinster House on a Sunday night-Monday morning, being carted off by An Garda Síochána.”
“It made the point that across Europe "the right of peaceful assembly is coming under severe attack, as states increasingly stigmatise, criminalise and crack down on peaceful protesters, imposing unjustified and punitive restrictions, and resorting to ever more oppressive means to stifle dissent". We have seen that in Germany, in France and in every single country. Italy is talking about introducing a seven-year jail sentence for blocking a road on a protest. In all of the countries that Amnesty surveyed, police impunity was a key feature after having carried out repressive acts along with horrendous injuries to protesters and so on. It is a Continent-wide pattern of repressive laws. I see this Bill in that context. It is a systemic rollback on the right to protest. We have already seen that. I will give a couple of examples.”
“It has already been called "the Kneecap clause" by other Deputies, which is the expansion of the definition of the offence of public provocation to commit a terrorist offence. This is the type of law being used against Kneecap right now. I am sure the Minister will agree that the members of the band, Kneecap, are not actually terrorists, whether we like or dislike their music or what they say. The real terrorist is actually Keir Starmer, who is funding a genocide and arming Israel, not Kneecap. What defines terrorism and who defines it? I would love to hear whether the Minister agrees that Israel is a terrorist state and the US and the EU are standing over that. The Amnesty International report, Under Protected and Over Restricted, published last year examined repression in European countries.”
“In regard to Israel, we now know that the Government does call it a genocide but it took quite a while. The reality is that Israeli terrorism is not being addressed. This directive has come from the EU. Most member states support Israel. The EU Commission president said Israel has the right to defend itself, just after it bombed Iran. The people of Gaza are playing their hunger games every day, risking their lives choosing between a hail of bullets or starvation, yet the EU Commission put that statement out. This is the context from which this Bill is coming. This Bill is a massive attack on the right to free speech and expression and on the right to protest, and it would definitely see innocent people who are protesting against terrorism becoming victims of this Bill.”
“The problem with this legislation is defining who are the terrorists in the world right now. The biggest terrorists in the world right now are Israel, the US and Russia. There are many other terrorist states also but they are the big three. To the best of my knowledge, the Government has only condemned one, which is Russia. We are trading and dealing with Israel. We are the second biggest trader, as has been reported. Of course, this Government completely kowtows to the US. I ask again: does the Government condemn the bombing of Iran by the US last weekend? I would like the Minister to answer that because I did not hear any condemnation from the Taoiseach or from the Tánaiste. To bomb a nuclear site is extremely dangerous, and apparently up to 500 people were killed in Iran.”
“In response to a parliamentary question I put to the Tánaiste in April, I was told that an investigation was ongoing and had been referred to the Garda. Which is it? This woman has been given two different stories. I believe the Defence Forces member in question is on special leave with full pay. How long can it continue that the taxpayer is providing full pay for someone who may or may not have committed offences? Another woman has made allegations against the same person. Will the Tánaiste look into this case on behalf of this woman? It is unacceptable. She has been traumatised for years since all of this happened.”