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?”
The complete record
Every one of 1,205 lines we hold for Ruth Coppinger, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 5 of 25.
“My question relates to character references. We have seen a spate of them recently from former TDs, many of whom seem to be hanging around the Fianna Fáil party. They do not have any understanding of how damaging this is to the victims of these crimes. Why are we still allowing character references from people who have absolutely no expertise in anything to do with any of these crimes? It is an outrage.”
“I accept what the Minister is saying about needing to check out a person's past. I have helped many people with their naturalisation applications. However, if a person has been investigated and has demonstrated a change in gender and name under the Gender Recognition Act, surely the process is simple enough. It should not take two years. There is an anomaly and it should be reviewed. The Gender Recognition Act was meant to be reviewed in any case to also allow for recognition of non-binary status. That change was recommended and indicated. This is something that will impinge on many people's lives. As far as I know, we still recognise trans people in this country. We should allow them, if they are naturalised, to move to their new name as quickly as possible.”
“This has serious implications for transgender people who are constantly having to explain their gender when they interact with the State, services and so on. It causes difficulty as well when travelling. This is something the Minister needs to look at.”
“The problem is that the use and repute clause is not applied for a marriage certificate, for example. If somebody submits a marriage certificate saying they have now changed their name, it is recognised immediately. So, it can be done but it is not being done in the case of a gender recognition certificate. When people obtain a gender recognition certificate, it is assumed that it can be used straight away. There is nothing said about a period of time that must elapse first. This needs to be looked at in the naturalisation process because my constituent has been forced to cancel their application for citizenship and has lost their fee. They do not want to carry on with obtaining an important State document with their old or so-called dead name. It will be another year before they can have a passport in their new name.”
“I want to raise a flaw or a gap in the naturalisation process in the context of the Gender Recognition Act. I have been contacted by a constituent who last year changed their gender and name through the Gender Recognition Act. That process allows a person not just to register a change of gender but also to alter their name. They are a citizen of another EU state, working and living in Ireland. They applied for naturalisation but cannot progress that application because of the rule that people must be using a name for two years.”
“He could have laid down a much higher bar than he did. For example, it is very broad to say "interests of justice" or "an issue in a trial". That can be interpreted in so many ways and it is not dealing with the central issue, which is that people are having to choose between therapy and a trial. Nothing is going to change with this proposal.”
“The right to a fair trial includes the complainant as well. Does the Minister agree? I am assuming he does but that is never factored in. Gender-based violence is becoming a completely unpunished offence in this and other countries. That is the reality. Only 5% of people disclose to anyone or report it to gardaí. Why does the Minister think that is the case? It is because things like this remain on the books and are routinely used in our courts. The Minister said he listened but one would think he would at least meet the group to discuss its proposal, into which it put a lot of work. Has he listened, for example, to the therapist who had her front door knocked on by four gardaí looking for counselling notes? How is this in any way just? The Minister used the phrase "best interests" of survivors.”
“If our Constitution allows the damaging and harming of survivors, then there is something wrong and the Minister should come forward with a proposal for a referendum. In Tasmania, for example, they have managed to outlaw this practice and notes can only be handed over with the person's consent. This takes into account the fact that some people may want to use their counselling notes. It can be done if there is a will. What the Minister is bringing in is similar to what is in Canada and it has not really reduced requests for access to counselling notes.”
“I appreciate that the Minister had to go further than he was originally intending. He says he listened but he did not listen, for example, to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. I spoke to its representatives yesterday and cannot believe that the Minister had not even met them before tabling his amendments. This is the front-line organisation dealing with survivors and it did a huge amount of work and put forward a very detailed proposal. In that context, I cannot accept the suggestion that the Minister listened. The Minister says that it would be unconstitutional but we could argue that point because there are other constitutional rights that do not seem to be taken into consideration here, such as the right to privacy, to healthcare and so on.”
“As the Minister knows, the issue of counselling notes being used in gender-based violence trials has been a massive issue for survivors. Even the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, GREVIO, has talked about this being an instrument of secondary victimisation. The Minister was forced to amend his own amendments to legislation in this regard because he came back with something that just was not satisfactory. I have only caught sight of the amendments he is proposing, which will be a hearing on a real risk of an unfair trial in the interests of justice or where it is relevant to an issue in a trial. There will still be the chilling effect for survivors and raw records being passed on to judges and defence teams.”
“Stop pretending that it is protecting women and, really, that nonsense where it tries to say that it was because of that. It is very disappointing to hear that Sinn Féin is going to basically scupper this Bill tonight. We have to put pressure on it to change tack.”
“-----because it supported Bríd Smith's Bill in the previous Dáil and now it is responding to the far right and other individuals who criticised it on the vote recently. Now, it is circling the wagons and women's rights have to pay the price. It really is shocking but it is good to bring clarity for people as to where parties stand. Let us be clear: decriminalising is to prevent women being criminalised as well for taking an abortion pill after 12 weeks or whatever in their bedroom. However, it is also to get rid of the chilling effect that prevents doctors from acting to save lives and save health, and it is also forcing doctors to send women abroad with abnormalities because they are not deadly sure. That is why it is decriminalising.”
“I was not surprised because I saw Sinn Fein rushing through a Bill here last Thursday on a three-day wait. I had a Bill on the three-day wait. It is great that Sinn Féin has one eight years after repeal. I knew it was doing it. I feared that and my cynicism proved correct that it would not vote for this Bill tonight. Sinn Féin would say it has its Bill and they did not need to vote for this Bill. It is cynical. It is conservative. It is a shift to the right by Sinn Féin-----”
“Because of cowardly and conservative politicians and in order to get Simon Coveney and others to agree to vote for repeal, that distinction was put in place here. However, that is still no reason to vote against the Bill. Let us be clear, parties and individuals opposing this Bill favour forced birth because, basically, they are saying that anyone who is pregnant - outside of the existing strict criteria - should just be forced to continue with the pregnancy but that there is also the safety valve of the UK and other countries. I was very disappointed but not a bit surprised to hear Deputy David Cullinane say that he does not agree. Who cares if he does not agree? It should not be his decision to tell a pregnant woman what to do with her life and her situation. I found it very arrogant of Deputy Cullinane to stand there and say that.”
“Eight years ago, we were pounding pavements and having thousands of conversations. We won the most important right to bodily autonomy for women in this country in history by means of the efforts of a grassroots movement. Now, some people seem to think that they can roll back that right. We are seeing signs of this even in the Dáil today in some of the comments being made. I want to talk about what the Government has said about legal nuances. In the context of someone travelling in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality, there never should have been a distinction between fatal foetal abnormality and severe foetal abnormality in the first place. There is no such distinction in any other country. It is unscientific because doctors cannot predict it with surety. In other countries, they are just abnormalities.”
“In some cases, nurses are travelling in groups to their workplaces because they are afraid. One member of the INMO said that things like verbal comments and exclusion can have an impact and that this comes on top of everything else you are getting on with. That is a real issue because we rely so heavily on nurses coming here from other jurisdictions. They should be treated with respect. What do nurses want? It is obvious. They want safe working conditions, decent pay so they can actually afford to live, and to feel they are able to keep going in the job. We need massive investment in the health service to provide the staff that are needed and to get rid of the unsafe working conditions nurses are being forced to put up with. We need less applause and fewer statements on International Nurses Day.”
“They face stress, burn-out and unsafe conditions. In a survey, two thirds of nurses said that staffing levels and the skills mix around them did not meet patients' needs. I could go on forever. One quarter of nurses have gone to their GP due to work-related stress in the past 12 months. To be frank, it does not sound like nurses are valued, does it? The INMO has gathered many statistics on this. Some 61% of nurses are considering leaving nursing and 80% report unsafe conditions. Nearly half of all nurses reported pressure to work extra shifts. I will add something else into the mix. It is International Nurses Day, a day on which we also celebrate midwives. Some 15% of the entire HSE workforce come from international areas. There have been 200 racist incidents against nurses in Ireland in the last year.”
“During this whole discussion, there have been elements of déjà vu as regards Covid. I was not here but, like many others, I looked at the screen and saw the applause for nurses in the Dáil. It was the height of hypocrisy. There was applause but no pay rises. Long Covid supports have just been ended. Nurses were urged to go onto the front line. It was mainly nurses who suffered from that condition. I seriously wonder how nurses around the country, particularly those at University Hospital Limerick, and nurses abroad feel hearing this debate. This April was the worst on record for overcrowding in the hospitals. Some 11,175 people were treated on corridors according to the INMO's trolley watch. That long-term degradation of their working conditions has an absolutely massive impact on nurses' well-being and so on.”
“Shush. People are going take the law into their own hands and organise a campaign. Stop the Game was launched last week. Many high-profile sports people, personalities and politicians are now gearing up to organise to stop that game, and I think it will be stopped. Would Deputy Ó Cearúil ever whisht, for goodness sake?”
“The Government will not do something as simple as telling players they do not have to play this game and demanding that Israel should be kicked out of UEFA, like they should be kicked out of Eurovision. Instead, it is pushing the players.”
“I do not know how the Taoiseach can look the leaders of some EU member states in the eye given their complete and utter disregard for what Israel is doing to the people of Palestine. I also want to mention Lebanon and the brutal methods being used there. One in five of the population has been displaced and a total of 2,846 people have been killed, 552 of whom were killed after the ceasefire. Villages are being razed with the methods learned in Gaza, such as the use of bulldozers. There is an illegal occupation of southern Lebanon. What is our Government doing? It is normalising the Israeli State. For example, it is urging players to take part in the disgraceful games coming up in September and October. That is what it is. There is also no occupied territories Bill.”
“I have just come from the picket line on Davitt Road, where National Ambulance Service workers are on strike for 24 hours because the HSE has failed for six years to implement a 5% pay rise that they are due under benchmarking. It is not just the HSE, though. The Government is their employer. They are public sector workers and they are calling for the Taoiseach's intervention. The HSE has accepted upskilling and increased responsibilities for ambulance workers, so why is it a conscious policy to not reward essential workers, whom we absolutely need for front-line services? The stress, the burnout and the tragedy that these workers see and deal with daily is horrific. Why has the HSE not been engaging with them? Will the Taoiseach call for that? Will the Taoiseach directly intervene? These workers do not want to be on strike.”
“The small modular reactors may lower the construction costs but they do not deal with the issue of waste. The Government is not able to build housing in this country, yet it is willing to undertake potentially going nuclear to fund multinationals and their data centres. This is a bogus argument. The Government needs to lower electricity costs and there are other ways of doing it without introducing nuclear power.”
“Will the Government back a plan to introduce nuclear power? Who and what are behind this latest kite the Government is flying? Is this pandering to vested interests, tech companies which want to expand data centres even further in this country? Those data centres are currently consuming about 25% of all our energy. We should not be introducing nuclear power to power data centres. I just want to nail a few lies. Nuclear is a dangerous option; it is not safe. It takes 200,000 years for the waste to become safe. Mining is dangerous. It is not carbon neutral and not sustainable. Accidents are not in the dim and distant past. There have been 57 serious nuclear accidents since 1986. Nor is it cheaper; nuclear energy is three times more expensive than renewables.”
“With regard to the flotilla, I ask that the Minister do something concrete. They are asking for diplomatic protection, for a public investigation as to what happened, including to our own citizens who were brutalised and for economic sanctions against this criminal act by Israel. Will the Minister take action on those three things?”
“An advocate and a voice but no action. That is all the Minister said, basically. Slovenia and Spain passed occupied territories Bills but Ireland will not because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have developed an economic model of Irish capitalism that is so interlinked with American multinationals and, therefore, they do not want to pass it. I want to mention two issues, the first of which is the trial of an Irishman, Daniel Tatlow-Devally, in Germany. Mr. Tatlow-Devally's family has contacted the Minister and TDs to ask that his trial would be observed. Germany has become a police state, in effect, in its opposition to the Palestinian people. Daniel was led into a court with two-mile high bulletproof glass wall, so he could not engage with his solicitors, along with the other defendants. This is extremely concerning in an EU state.”
“When people say academic links should be ended, the Minister constantly says we should separate the two, even though the university links are with companies that are involved in the military assaults. Even with the Ireland and Israel match, the Government is pushing players to participate in that when it knows the Israeli team is steeped in apartheid, in racism and in the IDF itself. When will the Government sanction Israel?”
“They are willing to do it because the flotilla was a response to the inaction of the Irish Government, of the EU state and of international states. What exactly is Ireland's position on Israel? In theory we support the Palestinian people but in practice it is a litany of inaction. Let us consider the occupied territories Bill, for which the Minister has invented new excuses. Slovenia passed a similar Bill last August and Spain has followed suit. What is the problem with Ireland? Why are we so different? As I said, it must be exhausting. In regard to Shannon Airport, under the Minister's watch, there was a 56% surge in US military overflights last month, which coincided with the attacks on Iran and Lebanon. The Minister sees no connection between the two things and there are verbal gymnastics when she is asked to condemn these acts.”
“As the Minister will know, Israeli naval forces attacked the flotilla off the coast of Greece and 180 unarmed humanitarian workers were kidnapped and assaulted. Two of them, Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek were abducted and are now detained in Israel and being tortured. I would fear for their lives. Thiago's mother has just died. Some 22 Irish people took part in the flotilla, of whom seven were also abducted by Israeli forces in international waters 1,000 km off Israeli territory and near an EU state. Three are in Greece continuing the flotilla. Martin Guilfoyle aged 75 had a gun put to his head. Catriona Graham said she was cable tied, manhandled and left without adequate food or water. They were dumped in Greece and the Greek authorities would not even help them either. Why are Irish people willing to take these risks?”
“I want to raise the Government's total inaction on the issue of Palestine. We have just heard the Minister talking about aid, recognising the Palestinian state and of trying to get a motion passed in the EU. These are the three things the Minister mentioned. The Minister did not mention a single sanction. I will raise a number of things the Government could be doing. In her role, it must be exhausting for the Minister trying to come up with new excuses about the occupied territories Bill with some new reason each time as to why it cannot be passed eight years on, when 350 lawyers have already signed a statement saying that it is perfectly in order. I want to raise the plight of the people who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla.”
“There are problems in the culture, and I am sure it is not just UCD but other colleges too. UCD has a DEI Athena Swan Award for its great ability to be inclusive but that is not reflected in reality. Just to say, a rape did take place, regardless of the person not reporting it. You can see why. They tried to get on with their life. We know that from the image that was shared after, in any case.”
“I wonder should the Minister ask for himself or one of his team, if you like, to be engaged in those discussions with the college and the student because it does not help when the dean of medicine walks into lecture halls, spends half an hour undermining a student and is then the person taking part in the discussion around the academic issues. This medical student told me that a significant number of students now perceive the supports available as performative and not something they would engage in because if you speak out, you are going to be ostracised. This is a male student by the way. He said that many of them felt their colleague's credibility and the reputation of the student were being undermined in front of their own eyes and that they would not talk about a rape patient in that way.”
“When she reported text messages she received last year, she was told she might be better to continue her studies in a different college year. These ideas are coming from the top. A medical student wrote to me about the dean of medicine coming into the college, putting up a big QR code in the lecture hall and going through what happened in the court. This student said to me it bordered on victim-blaming and it was shocking to see somebody talking about a rape victim like that. We have real problems still in our colleges.”
“I know there are issues with academic qualifications and I am absolutely not saying this is straightforward but I ask the Minister to intervene with the college even more directly, and I know he met the student. It is absolutely vital we do not have a rapist continuing on and the rape victim being the one who suffers. I also want to mention the culture in UCD. A number of people were emailed this image again, not on the UCD server but to people connected with the protest and the president herself. President Feely was sent this image since this was raised publicly. This person is clearly saying "F you" to everybody else - the brazenness of it. However, this comes from the top because the UCD legal team characterised a rape disclosure as dropping a bombshell. Those were the words it were used. This 21-year-old was crying on the stand.”
“The Government's role in this is that it has a duty to make colleges safe and to have good procedures and practices by authorities. I want to raise the academic issues first, and getting this student back to her dream of becoming a doctor and allowing her to salvage something from this horrific trauma. It has been a month since the dean of medicine responded to the medical student after the talks that took place. She was assured they would reply after Easter but that has not happened. This is going against the thousands who marched and is also a rebuke to that student who put her faith in the process. As she said to me, it was difficult and upsetting to be let down and then have to re-engage. We have an unprecedented situation here and an unprecedented response is called for.”
“As the Tánaiste knows, 7,000 students marched in UCD at the beginning of March in support and solidarity with a student who had been drugged, raped, had image-based sexual abuse used against her and, unfortunately, became pregnant and lost her place on her course. I know the Tánaiste is well aware of the issues. It was very positive, in an era of an epidemic of gender-based violence and where the manosphere is being promoted, to see all genders and students there. They wanted justice for this student and they wanted her reinstated onto the course. They also wanted an end to the multiple sharing of image-based sexual abuse. Unfortunately, those things have not happened. The student has not successfully been reinstated and there have been further images of image-based sexual abuse.”
“I do not know how frequent the L64 the Minister of State mentioned is going to be and it is not clear how many P64 buses there will be either, but at the moment the service is perfectly adequate at peak times and people are losing this. Government needs to listen to what people are saying sometimes.”
“Yes, but nobody wants to sit on a bus and be dragged through Blanchardstown centre. The Minister of State does not seem to know the area, with all due respect. People are often delayed there for 20 minutes. With the original BusConnects plan there were roughly 28,000 complaints. Some 914 of them originated from Blanchardstown and most of them were about the 70 bus route. One third of respondents said there would be a loss or reduction in the existing service. Roughly one third said they did not want to have to get off the bus to transfer into town and one third referenced the requirement for new infrastructure and a new interchange.”
“The reason I was rolling my eyes is I campaigned and marched to get that town centre built. I know how important it is and family members have worked there. My point is that does not mean everyone wants to sit in traffic in it.”
“when it becomes every 15 minutes. It is perfect. It is one of the buses that actually works. In 2018 when this was discussed there was a raft of complaints, public meetings and petitions. Why does government not listen?”
“Yes, but most buses only have a place for one wheelchair and one pram, so I do not accept the idea everybody is going to be able to transfer like that. Let us start with the reality. Who wants to have to get off a bus? Nobody. Once you are on a bus you want to stay on it. However, for some reason BusConnects planners and the NTA are fixated on the idea of routing everything through the Blanchardstown centre, which by the way, coincides with the potential introduction of car parking charges there. That fits in nicely and BusConnects is being cited as the reason to fleece the local community. There is currently a bus that runs from Dunboyne and Littlepace directly onto the N3 with a bus lane and for some reason the planners want to take it away. From 6 a.m. it is every 20 minutes and then from 7 a.m. it is every ten minutes until 8 p.m.”
“The 70 bus that connects Dunboyne and Littlepace to the city centre is going to be cut under the BusConnects plan even though it is the most direct route many people in Dublin 15 have. This is also going to hit people who are not very mobile. It is incredibly ablist to force people to get off a bus and to route everything through Ireland's busiest shopping centre in Blanchardstown. Nobody wanted this and the BusConnects planners have not listened.”
“It now means that any worker should learn from this because if the Government does not like a decision taken in a ballot, it can discriminate against you in order to reward compliance by one group of workers. That is an absolutely disgusting decision and I am asking the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, to reverse it. The Minister of State knows that he cannot stand over it. I am hoping it will be legally challenged on the basis of discrimination on the basis of union membership. It is absolutely shameful by the Government.”
“Teachers are being asked to take on a huge amount of responsibility and these were the issues that determined that vote for State certification through additional assessment components. Teachers now have to verify authenticity in the age of AI, effectively taking over roles that were once done by the State Examinations Commission. They are also being asked to supervise exams or to run exams with significant safety concerns, for example the new laboratory-based assessments. These issues remain unresolved and it is not an isolated pattern. It follows a previous pattern where ASTI members were discriminated against but it is new in not allowing people to apply for promotion.”
“ASTI members are being punished, not because they rejected senior cycle reform, by the way, but because they rejected an unsafe and unsupported implementation model. Despite this, ASTI members are now excluded by their employer from applying for AP1 and AP2 posts while other teachers in the TUI, in no union at all and who did not have a vote or who did not bother to vote will be permitted to apply. Even if they did vote against it, it is a bit like saying that Fine Gael tried to abolish the Seanad and failed, so it should never be allowed to go into the Seanad. It is the exact same situation. This is a clear escalation from past disputes over pay and conditions into direct discrimination in career progression for teachers who are members of the union.”
“I welcome the Sinn Féin motion and call on as many workers as possible to come out this Friday, on May Day, at 6.30 p.m. in Dublin. We need a movement of workers in this country and workers need to learn from what happened during the recent protests. I do not have much time, so I will focus on the mistreatment of workers by the Government, their employer. They are the ASTI members. The Government has taken a decision to restrict access to promotional posts for the senior cycle leaving certificate reform. It will not be open to ASTI members, the biggest second level union in this country, because the ASTI did not vote the way the Government wanted it to vote in a recent ballot. The Government is discriminating on the basis of union membership.”
“People were under that impression. Where is the occupied territories Bill? Senator Frances Black feels that the Government is delaying now on this. Ireland claims to be standing four-square with the Palestinian people, yet it is going to allow, and in fact it has encouraged, the Israeli soccer team to come and play here in October. The Government is out of step with the Irish people on that issue. It has judged that very badly. There will be a campaign to stop that match. The "stop the game" campaign has already started.”
“It is very similar to what was proposed in the occupied territories Bill, and Spain has done likewise. Ireland has done absolutely nothing. It is very easy for the Minister of State to go and virtue signal in the Europe, but he has the power to do something here in Ireland. The first issue is Shannon Airport. There has been a massive increase in overhead flights, which are obviously military related, and the Government has no interest in doing anything about it. Shannon is a major hub for the US military. The second issue is the occupied territories Bill. The Government is sending it back for more legal advice. That is an absolute ruse because 350 lawyers have already examined this and said there is nothing illegal about it. The Government gave a commitment before the elections two years ago that it would move on this.”
“The EU has decided to do absolutely nothing about the genocide being heaped on the Palestinian people. Yesterday, an attempt was made by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland to raise the issue of not just trade but the special trading status that the EU has. The EU is the largest trading partner with Israel, bar none. It is some indictment on the EU that it is now lining up four-square behind an imperialist power that is heaping such misery on the population, such as the death penalty being introduced, gendered violence and sexual violence being committed and people being killed since the ceasefire. Whatever about the EU, because we could talk about that all day, at least Slovenia has introduced laws that have banned trade between Israel and Slovenia in certain conditions.”
“I do not have the time to go into all of the dates and details here. The key issue is why was a therapist treated like a criminal in her home? Why has the Taoiseach and his Government allowed therapy notes of sexual assault survivors to become such an integral part of trials in the first place?”