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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“We should look at a few things. A positive aspect of this Bill is that it obliges employers to further engage with workers, after recognition, on their wages and conditions. Unions have suffered extreme losses of membership due to the anti-union sentiment, particularly of American multinationals which are consciously attracted here by our Government, yet a message is sent out that people do not join a union and if they do, they will not be tolerated. That is a conscious policy by the Government. There is an EU directive, which the Government has not implemented, on adequate minimum wages in the EU. It obliges governments to assist where less than 70% are covered by collective bargaining. The Government is meant to make that easier but it ignores this.”
“However, over two thirds of non-union members aged 16 to 24 would vote to establish a union if they could. They are positively disposed towards being in unions. Young workers are significantly less secure and more anxious in their work than older counterparts. One in five young workers are worried about losing their job and having a reduction in pay if they join a union. Half of young workers aged 16 to 34 are worried about a reduction in their pay in particular. That survey was done by UCD. It shows how positively disposed towards unions people actually are. However, they are not joining them. I think there are a number of factors there. There is the anti-union culture that pervades private sector workforces. We also have to say that the trade union leadership should be actively recruiting workers in a much more serious way.”
“Once again, this is a Bill that has had to be brought before the Dáil because the Irish Government persists with this illusion that people have the right to union representation. It is Orwellian that you have the right to join a union but your employer does not have to recognise it, so you really do not have a right. If the Government is serious about workers' rights, this is a key one. In the early 1980s, about 60% of our workforce were in unions. Now it is one in four. The trade union movement is largely becoming public sector. It is becoming more female because women workers are often located in the public sector. There are now more women than men in trade unions, ironically. The people who are being particularly ill-served are young people and migrant workers, who also make up a huge part of our workforce.”
“It is very important that we stand with trans and intersex people, whose rights we affirm in the Republic, and that we show our solidarity and support. Parties that are organised in both the North and the South should have the same position on this matter, North and South.”
“The UK Supreme Court judgment on the definition of a woman impacts trans and intersex people in Northern Ireland. Many of them are living in fear and being driven out of public life, which is the intent of the judgment. The DUP has said that it will look at guidelines for schools, which means there could be further attacks on the rights of trans people. Many of these are eligible to be citizens of Ireland should they so choose. There has also been a ban on trans healthcare in the North. Yesterday, People Before Profit proposed an amendment that could have allowed that ban to be reversed but, unfortunately, it was not taken up by MLAs. People are mobilising in Belfast at 12.30 p.m. this Saturday to march for trans rights because the far right has also singled out this group as a very vulnerable minority.”
“It is not a very nice thing to do to people. It is not the type of care system we want. I plead with the Taoiseach to look into this issue. Unite trade union is organising these workers, which is very good. It has asked that these criteria be dropped and that these workers be allowed to work here and bring their families over. Most of them are nurses; the majority are from India. They have great skills from which we are getting added value. Most of their spouses are also health workers and could help with the labour shortage in the are of health.”
“Care of older people is very important and is generally privatised in terms of nursing homes. The workers who provide this service in nursing homes are essential workers. Many of them were brought over on a special work permit in which the Government was involved. I ask the Taoiseach on a humanitarian basis to listen to the issues raised by these workers. Their wages are too low to allow them to bring their families here, who, by the way, they can support; nobody is asking for any handout. There are so many criteria put in the way. For someone to bring their spouse, for example, they must earn €30,000. In order to bring one child, they must earn €36,000. To bring two children, they must earn €41,000. We are subjecting these workers to enforced family separation while expecting them to look after our families.”
“All schools could also be part of a childcare system, particularly after-school care, the grounds and so on. Many parents have raised with me that a lot of schools will not even allow private providers to use premises for children to attend after-school. That is something every school should be asked to do straight away. These are State-funded schools. Ultimately, we need a system that is completely provided by the State just like we have at primary, secondary and third levels. I find it interesting that every party is saying that right now when it was something that was only said by socialists a few short years ago. The difference is it is never going to happen under this Government. It did not happen with the healthcare system and it will not happen with childcare, because it will be the last thing to be done.”
“People are finding out they are pregnant and are almost, in embryo, putting their children on waiting lists for scarce places. Childcare providers have been driven out for various reasons, primarily because the previous Government tried to subsidise a completely private childcare system. It cannot work. You cannot provide childcare at a profit, just like you cannot provide education or healthcare at a profit either. It is not possible. During the election, one childcare provider in Dublin West that now charges €1,560 a month, which is higher than the €1,000 the motion mentions, increased its fees by 20% even though it was getting subsidies from the State. We need a public childcare system, State provision of land when estates are built, and State underwriting of insurance and other costs.”
“During the general election, you could not move but for tripping over another promotion of €200-a-month childcare. Every party on the Government side was at it. That is what happens in elections and now, unfortunately, we have been told this promise will fade into dust and there will be no movement on it in the upcoming budget. It is extremely cynical and stressful for parents. We have the worst-funded childcare in the OECD. We also have the worst childcare cost-to-wage ratio in Europe, with workers struggling to put their children in childcare. Fingal, the area I represent, has the second most expensive childcare, yet what we are seeing is that it is not the cost, but the lack of availability that is the key problem.”
“Despite this and the acknowledgement by Tusla that it would need 500 social workers to meet the need, at the minute, according to the head of the Irish Association of Social Workers, that number is approximately 250. These are the issues facing the Minister. Action is needed in order that there is the necessary recruitment, that housing is built for essential workers and that wages and conditions will attract people to stay working in the difficult environment of social work and caring professions. There are so many other issues on this matter. There needs to be a massive apology to Grace’s family for what she experienced and, of course, to Grace herself.”
“HIQA found earlier this year that Tusla has serious issues with a lack of social workers, particularly in the Dublin area where 300 children are left without support and stuck on a waiting list where they are deemed as low or medium priority. We know, of course, of the CDNT waiting lists. In my area, the waiting list is up to seven years in one part of Dublin West for children with disabilities and neurodivergence. While Tusla has noted this, it has repeatedly referred to the increased call for services. In its report for last year, in the first nine months, there were more than 70,000 referrals, which is a 2% increase compared to the same period in 2023. It is more than likely, when the final number appears, that 2024 will show the highest number of referrals in its history.”
“First, the wider fact is that the State does not care about children in this country and it certainly cares even less about disabled children. The treatment Grace had and the many failures speak to that. Tusla was found in 2024, as an example, to have paid out €14 million to two for-profit agencies to provide accommodation for children. The staff in one of those agencies were not vetted and did not undergo child protection training despite dealing with vulnerable children. It was also found that this company was used to house two children in need of emergency accommodation after the company was blacklisted. Similarly, in a 2024 report, the Child Law Project found that when a child needed care for disability in specialised units, no staff were available. There are many issues being raised again and again.”
“The second phase of the investigation did not go ahead which was to investigate the placement of other people into that foster home, and also into Fran, one of the children who was in the same house as Grace. Fran’s family came out yesterday talking about the experiences Fran had, in particular the extreme frustration with the report, and that submissions made on behalf of Grace were not included in the report in the end. The family similarly were frustrated that the State stopped the investigation into the second part around the experience of the other children, with Fran being one of those children. Why has that decision been taken? Fran’s family also gave evidence. While there are so many issues that I do not have time to tease out, I wish to bring out some of the wider issues from this.”
“There seems to be an inordinate amount of faith in people in the legal profession, be they senior counsels or judges, to conduct investigations. We are now left with an investigation which published 2,000 pages and six volumes and cost €13.6 million but did not make any major findings against the family or establish that Grace had been subjected to abuse, either emotional or sexual. To say there was no proof goes against everything the whistleblowers and so many others said. It was the reason she was taken out of that home in the first place and paid massive compensation by the State. How can we justify that Grace was not interviewed for this investigation? While I am aware she is profoundly disabled and non-verbal, it has been heavily criticised that ways were not found to do that.”
“The Brothers of Charity stopped placing people in that home. Grace showed signs of abuse in 1995. While in 1996 the health board removed her, this was overturned and she was put back. Plans to remove Grace in 1991 and 2001 were not implemented. We have this horrific catalogue of errors. We again see a whistleblower coming forward in 2007. Grace’s own birth mother happened to request that she be removed when hearing of the abuse. Increasing pressure pushed the Government to set up a commission in 2017. While it was due to report after two years, it was continually postponed. Majorie Farrelly was the sole investigator chosen. More questions need to be answered in this regard. There needs to be serious questions about the type of investigations we set up.”
“This is one of the most upsetting things that has happened in this country that anyone here is likely to be speaking on for a long while. Grace, as she has been called, was intellectually and physically disabled after complications at birth. She is non-verbal and was born to a teenage mother in a mother and baby home. That is a very difficult start in life. She was then placed in foster care, that is, the care of the State. Grace lived with a foster family in the south east of the country for ten years after concerns were first raised about alleged neglect and abuse in that home. It is actually incredible how many warnings were given. While people are told to speak up if they see something, these warnings were not acted upon. We still have no answers as to why. The family of another girl who stayed at the house raised concerns in 1992.”
“There should have been meetings between the housing Minister and Fingal County Council about it, and getting work on it started straight away.”
“With regard to the issues raised about the favoured candidate for the post, the question was whether the Government will investigate these issues, even if the Minister does not want to answer them right now. We do not need a housing tsar to contact Fingal County Council, have a meeting, discuss its needs and then organise the payment for whatever needs to be done. We do not need a housing tsar. It is not as if this has not been done before. Previous Fianna Fáil governments did this in harder times in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. It is not rocket science. What is the role of the housing Minister if somebody has to be hired in and to be called a tsar? The land bank in Dublin West is a strategic land bank for the whole county.”
“According to a council meeting last October, at which councillors from the Minister's party were present, that site could provide 7,000 houses. It is a strategic land bank for the county of Dublin and for the Minister's constituency of Dublin West, where so many are suffering. Will he fund that land bank? Do we need a tsar for that?”
“Is the Minister aware of any other properties Brendan McDonagh may have registered in another name? Is this a case of somebody in the property sector who is gaming the system because he is in the know? Will the Government investigate this now that Mr. McDonagh is moving back to another State job? Why do we need a so-called housing tsar on a salary that is ten times the average wage of a teacher or nurse who cannot afford a house? It is crystal clear what needs to be done. There are State lands and there is money in the State coffers. In the Minister's constituency, Fingal County Council has a huge land bank at Scribblestown, Elmgreen, Dunsink of 247 acres. It has asked the Government for €200 million. All the Minister for public expenditure needs to do is write a cheque. He does not need a housing tsar to do that for him.”
“He is to go back to his other State job on the same salary unless the Government takes action. It was revealed in The Ditch that Mr. McDonagh had bought a house in Cabra under the name of Brendan McDonagh in September 2014 but had used two aliases on the same property. If someone has a love of the Irish language, he or she normally uses aliases and names in other forums and not just in relation to property. PB McDonncha registered the property and Pádraig McDonncha sought five planning permissions on the property. I am just wondering what due diligence the Government did about the candidate. Why would somebody use two different aliases? Does the Minister know? How would a house in Cabra command a rental of €10,226 per week? It is not the Riviera. There are so many questions that need to be investigated.”
“Would the Minister agree that his Government's record on housing over the first 100 days has been an unmitigated disaster? A total of 15,376 people are in emergency accommodation, housing completions are down by 6.7% and social and affordable targets are down by 18%. These are figures that the Government knew about before the election but has not yet explained why it stayed quiet about them. To top it all off, search parties have to be sent out for the housing Minister because nobody has a clue who he is. Before he even took up his post he announced that he needed a housing tsar. What this is bringing back is the golden circle hangover and headaches of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael from past eras. Brendan McDonagh, the favoured candidate, was to be hired on a salary of €430,000.”
“I will also mention that we are now in a new phase of capitalism. Whatever Deputy Lahart thought about the past, reforms are gone now. We are getting into a tariff war where the aim of the broligarchy will be to make workers pay. We have billionaires at the helm in the White House. Workers' interests will be last, as they will unfortunately find out. There has been a shift of wealth to the top. The share of wealth by workers internationally has constantly gone down. In 2013, for example, it was 48% and in 2023 it was 32%. There is vast wealth but more and more of it is leaving workers. The trade union movement needs to make itself relevant again, to borrow from Donal Trump's phrase, and represent workers in this situation.”
“I am sorry I am boring the Minister of State, but this is actually important. Opportunist liquidations have happened in this country previously. They happened at Clerys and others. Will the Government legislate to prevent it happening again? The Debenhams Bill is there. It was moved by my colleague, the former Deputy Mick Barry. It can easily be passed, even if the Government makes amendments to it. The Irish subsidiary of Debenhams was saddled with all the debt. It was an opportunist liquidation. We should prevent that happening again and put workers first in any future liquidation process. That Bill will go to the enterprise and trade committee, if the Government wishes it to. We need to say that this should not happen again. I note that the housing tsar will keep his salary but, in this country, the workers are always last.”
“Then, on 7 March this year, the High Court overturned a meagre, pathetic award the workers were given for lack of consultation. The complaint they launched at the WRC, and the award that was originally granted to them, was challenged by privileged High Court judges who took away some compensation they would have got. It is absolutely disgraceful. These workers took a complaint under the Protection of Employment Act stating that they had not been notified or dealt with and given sufficient consultation, the whole purpose of which is to allow workers time to get together to discuss how to save their jobs. That never happened. The judges turned around and said they had no great hurt or hardship from that. As well as calling out the clear bias of the courts system, I will raise the role of the liquidators and KPMG.”
“They were sacked by a multinational company via email. They fought during a global pandemic, without any great help from their union leadership, during a retail jobs massacre of their jobs. It then became a battle by hundreds of mainly women workers for their agreed redundancy payments. They fought for more than a year. They put up a huge battle. There were pickets to stop stock, which could have paid for their redundancy, being taken out of the shop. There were marches and occupations of shops at Henry Street and elsewhere in Dublin, Cork and Waterford. The picket was never breached in Limerick city, for example, as it got so much community support. What a disgrace this State has delivered to those workers. The phone was never lifted by the then Minister to stop that company leaving the country. Nothing was done to help them.”
“It is regrettable the Minister is not here. There are very few debates or discussions on workers in this Dáil and he should be here. I particularly wanted to ask him - he should come back before the end of the debate - to apologise to workers for the insult he delivered to teachers, who are a huge section of the workforce in this country. He invited somebody who was basically an anti-union billionaire who insulted workers to launch his campaign. I have not heard an apology for that. I was also amused to hear the lecture from Deputy Lahart on how great things were for workers right now. I do not think he ever visited the picket line for Debenhams workers at Tallaght the year it was on. This is the fifth anniversary of the commencement of the Debenhams strike. I will bring home some lessons on that.”
“I am asking the Tánaiste as Minister for foreign affairs and security when we will do something actively to actually support Palestine like ruling out the military use of Shannon, passing the occupied territories Bill and stopping Israeli war bonds being processed in Ireland by the Central Bank?”
“Protesters went to make their case heard that Ireland should not be processing Israeli bonds, which are essentially war bonds, on behalf of the EU, particularly when we are meant to support Palestine. Vanloads of gardaí arrived to remove the protestors. They manhandled them, arrested some and at least one person has been formally arrested. We are seeing protest in support of Palestine that is peaceful being criminalised. The IPSC has posted about this on all its platforms. The Taoiseach seems more concerned about what Kneecap is doing and not the people who are coming to Leinster House and being feted. The Cathaoirleach of the Seanad put a photograph up of that man on his social media as if there was no problem.”
“I hope the Tánaiste can clarify exactly what our position on the Palestinian state is because I am genuinely baffled. On one hand, we recognise the Palestinian state, we support the Palestinian people and we support the ICJ case but, on the other hand, Congressman Brian Mast was hosted in Leinster House last week. He believes all Palestinians are guilty, including Gazan babies. We have also had a severely repressive turn towards Palestine solidarity protests. The Tánaiste will be well aware of what happened to Mothers Against Genocide but last night a protest took place at the Westbury Hotel where the Central Bank Governor was speaking. It was an extremely peaceful protest.”
“We hear that places are allocated but these are fictional and never actually materialise, as we see in the case of the 12 children in Danu. The Minister stated that schools are progressing recruitment but the Minister of State knows there a severe shortage of teachers and that it is even harder for special needs schools. The amendment to the motion indicates there are 3,700 special classes. There are that number of schools in the country. In fact, you would need six special classes in most big urban schools rather than one. You would need one for each year. The amendment also states that the Minister of State will issue a section 37A instruction to one school. That is it. After all the hemming and hawing and blaming principals for not opening schools, the Minister of State is only issuing one such instruction.”
“I welcome the parents and campaigners to the Gallery. I have seen these women at the Dáil more than I have seen some TDs. That is how often they are here. They are absolute heroes for campaigning for their kids in this way. I will mention Dublin 15 because some may be under the illusion that the pilot project in the area has done something magical. It absolutely has not. As has been mentioned, the 12 places that were allocated last September still have not been provided. From talking to people on that task force, I know there is a need for four to six classes immediately. We also need another special school in Dublin West because of the demand from those with autism and complex needs. Words are losing their meaning with this Government.”
“All of this has happened while there have been booming budget surpluses in the coffers of this State. There are multiple issues - infection rates, Wi-Fi, IT, staffing, non-medical grade devices and unnecessary hip operations. Is it not time for the board to resign? It is not in the motion but it is beyond belief that this would not be called for now. There should also be a public inquiry. There are so many issues - it is systemic at this point. Parents are demanding it. We all know it will happen eventually because that is what always happens. People have to push and push for years before it is conceded. I urge the Minister not to delay any longer on these issues. We need a new board to bring forward the children's health services in this country.”
“One spoke about being called into operating theatres where operations were under way and the X-ray had not been used. How is that in any way safe? What is the Minister's feeling on that? We are now hearing about chemotherapy which is reliant on a Wi-Fi connection rather than a hard-wired connection in Crumlin hospital. It beggars belief how children are treated by the health service in this country, particularly disabled children, who seem to pay the highest price for an underfunded health system. Anybody who has been in Temple Street hospital or Crumlin hospital will know that they have been in an absolute state for years. They are also suffering because of staff shortages due to the housing crisis in particular. People cannot afford to make a decent life here. There is also the workload and conditions people are asked to operate in.”
“I have been told about urology devices - peg-feed devices into children's bladders, which parents say were not ethically checked out, are not normally recommended and that this information was only brought to the attention of the Minister yesterday. Does she have concerns about devices being used on children in other ways throughout the health service? I also raise infection rates. The Boston report and internal CHI report on children living with spina bifida showed that Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals had infection rates of 55% and 75%, respectively. In the UK, theatres in several hospitals have been shut down for having a 7% infection rate. How could the infection rate be ten times greater in these hospitals without anybody shouting stop? It is incredible. The X-ray and Wi-Fi issues have been brought to light by whistleblowers.”
“I really wonder why doctors did the surgeries in question and what the Minister thinks was the reason for their being carried out. The hospitals are now being brought together under one board. From talking to parents who have been to different hospitals, I am aware that they all have different systems and that there is competition between staff in some cases. How will they work together? Does the Minister seriously think this board, which presided over these catastrophes, will be able to move forward? Non-medical grade devices, the springs, have already been spoken about quite a lot. Does the Minister feel any other devices have been used in children which have not been ethically or properly tested?”
“We have to ask why that was the case. Is it one doctor or a group of doctors? It is very hard to get any procedure done in the health service. Does the Minister think doctors are experimenting on disabled children? She may think that is hyperbole, but I have just spoken to parents and that is their feeling. It is either that or there is a financial element involved. The issue of disabled children being used to practice on has been raised with me. Parents of children with spina bifida have told me about their experiences generally in the health system, such as in the context of care often not provided by consultants but registrars. They feel it is such a high level it should not be done. There is competition - even unhealthy competition - between the different hospitals. There is a huge rate of failure of procedures.”
“There are obviously problems in adult health but not of the scale we are seeing with CHI. We have all had experience of trying to get treatment for our children in the health service. It is not pleasant, I can tell you, being sent out of Temple Street hospital with a child who has been vomiting for weeks. This is why it is so surprising to hear about doctors performing unnecessary surgeries. Why would a doctor carry out an unnecessary surgery? You cannot get a blood test or a procedure in the health service unless you are dying in front of them. This matter is worthy of examination. I have spoken to parents about why they think this is happening. Let us look at what happened. A massive number of surgeries that were not necessary seem to have been carried out. That fact was brought to light by whistleblowers.”
“Previous speakers referred to obesity, screen time for children, children not getting enough sleep and the importance of playing football. That was quite incredible in the context of a debate designed to deal with a succession of ongoing failures at CHI. I do not want to partake in hyperbole, particularly as health workers are the absolute salt of the earth. Everybody who has any experience of our health service knows the dedication, hard work and stamina it takes to work in such a system, particularly one that is overstretched and overloaded. There are great people working in CHI. However, it does not surprise me that scandals are happening in children's health in particular because this is no country for children. They are treated appallingly by the health service. These things would not happen in adult health.”
“The Government has been trying to move away from any responsibility for what has happened at the hospital. As noted by HIQA, the sheer amount of work and lack of staff has to be partially responsible for the situation, in particular the spring incident. Key oversight staff in Temple Street were moved to the overview of CHI and were never replaced. The Government is well aware of that. In 2023, CHI noted to the HSE that it was 382.8 full-time roles short of being able to run the new children's hospital. We know there is a systemic problem in recruiting staff that has not been addressed. There is nothing for it only for this board to resign and for the Minister to concede that there should be a public inquiry.”
“It was believed that at Temple Street hospital, 60% did not meet the criteria. We know that many of them were paid for privately. The question as to whether there was any financial motive for carrying out those operations is important. Between 2020 and 2023, MAGEC rods were inserted into children during spinal surgeries despite warnings from both the manufacturer and the Health Products Regulatory Authority that they should never be used for that purpose. Such surgeries still went ahead. How can the Minister possibly talk about not giving the red card to this board? How can the board members be expected to take forward this hospital in any way following such a litany of errors? I will also briefly mention staffing, which lies at the heart of so many of the issues.”
“I will mention an issue that has not been brought up, which is infection rates. Two separate parents brought CHI and Temple Street hospital to an inquest over the death of their children due to sepsis in 2022. When questioned whether hospital staff had received any training about sepsis recognition following the death of another child in similar circumstances, a registrar said there had been a review for learning points but was unsure when it had taken place. It seems far above and beyond the norm. The Boston report and an internal CHI report on spinal cases of children living with spina bifida at Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals found rates of 55% and 75% of infection, respectively. Why did nobody call a halt and investigate this? We also have the issue of unnecessary hip operations.”
“This is a litany of systemic failures. It is not one incident here or there. Issues include non-medical springs being used, unnecessary hip operations being carried out, defective equipment repair mechanisms with regard to X-rays, IT - Wi-Fi used in the chemotherapy unit rather than having its own Internet - and infection rates way above the norms. These have been brought to light by whistleblowers. Nothing less than the resignation of the board is needed to allow the hospitals to move forward. A public or statutory inquiry is the demand of parents. I know the Government is consistently setting its face against such an approach on the grounds it would take too long. We know that traditionally, the powers that be have drawn out inquiries for so long because it suits them.”
“At no time did the Minister talk to anyone from Mothers Against Genocide. As for the idea that women would leave police stations and lie about being strip-searched or cavity searched, does the Taoiseach know how humiliating an experience like that would be for anyone, male or female? Does he think they would lie about it? Believe women when they say they have been strip-searched. They will make their own complaint. They will carry on with that complaint, and they stand over what they said. I would like the Taoiseach to call out his Minister and the Commissioner for not listening to the two sides of the story.”
“Serious allegations were made about the policing of a protest by Mothers Against Genocide. Since then, TDs like me have been accused of not telling the truth. More seriously, women involved in the protest have been made out to be liars by the Garda Commissioner and by the Minister for Justice. I want to clarify the situation. What does the Taoiseach think about this turn in policing? We were told that the Commissioner reviewed footage and was satisfied there was no wrongdoing. He stated, "Searches of individuals are not subject to CCTV coverage but I'm entirely [confident] there's no wrongdoing." In other words, he could not have reviewed footage because there is no footage. At the AGSI conference, the Minister said that there was no wrongdoing and that he had full faith in the Commissioner.”
“Article 38.1 of our Constitution talks about the right to "due course of law", so a fair trial is very important. I argue nobody has ever pointed out anything of evidential value taken from a counselling note. This is misogyny, it is medieval and it has to stop. Now is the time for this. Last year, the then Minister for Justice said she would deal with it. She said she wanted this changed and that "I don’t want this to be a feature in court cases", but here we are a year later. We have also had Simon Harris, Micheál Martin and so many others saying it, but the most recent is the DPP, who made a very encouraging and important statement welcoming a Supreme Court judgment that rejected the idea disclosure must be given when evidence is "potentially relevant". This is not required for a fair trial.”
“A survivor of gender-based violence who is very well known but whom I do not want to name in this case said even the thought of having these notes accessed by her abuser was enough to cause trauma. We do not want survivors fighting on a case-by-case basis to have their notes excluded. This needs to be made privileged. We need to adopt privilege and protection for counselling because this malevolent tactic is being used more and more since 2018. The onus is now being put on victims to give their notes. If they do not, they are told their trials will be delayed. What evidence is actually being procured from a therapy note? None whatsoever. They are third-party notes. They are not even from the person. They are made by a therapist. They should not even be inadmissible. What about privacy and what about healthcare?”
“Another survivor, Hazel, said her thoughts, her fears, her shame, her turmoil, shared during the safety of her counselling sessions, could be shared with the person who did that to her. Another survivor, Paula, asked of these sessions that are supposed to be confidential, had he not done enough? He attacked her that night. He invaded her body. She tried to take her life. He is reading this. If he went to counselling, his notes would not be requested. A therapist supporting this Bill made the point the policy of note sharing can discourage the healing journey of survivors and make note-taking a defensive process for therapists rather than keeping a clinical purpose. Now is the time to change this. We cannot delay any longer.”
“Survivors tell us that the retraumatising nature of the courts is a real problem, and we have to listen. That their private thoughts and feelings could be used against them is just incredible. Sarah, a long-time campaigner on this issue and a survivor of an incredibly violent attack, said that in many ways she found her trial more traumatic than the attack. Can Members imagine saying that? She said she would take the attack again before having to set foot in a courtroom. The most heart-breaking obstacle of all, she said, was the seizure of her counselling records. After her body being violated, our courts of justice are allowing a second violation. In fact, they ordered a second violation of her mind.”