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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“On 8 April, four gardaí with a search warrant barged into the home of a therapist. They shouted at her and her daughter to put down their phones, not to move and to tell them where her files were. They would not let her take a photograph of the warrant or talk to her solicitor. They said they would seize her phone and laptop. They did all this in front of her daughter, who has health conditions, and said her mother knows what she has done. The therapist had to ask them to stop shouting, such was the level of aggression. What were they looking for? They were looking for the counselling notes of a client. They were not looking for drugs or guns but the counselling notes of a client she was trying to heal. The therapist had arranged with the client to hand over these notes when she returned from being abroad.”
“We should not just be subsidising profitable companies with one-off payments. LNG is a dirty fossil fuel. Let us be clear. There should be no more fossil fuel infrastructure because if it is set up, it will encourage it to be developed yet again. It is not just a stopgap. It will increase our dependence on fossil fuels. We need to invest in renewables and stop this dependence on fossil fuels.”
“It has been warned that if this crisis persists, fertiliser prices will increase and ultimately food prices will rocket, causing huge problems for the poorest people on the planet, but also for western economies. In Ireland, if anything was shown by the recent developments, it was that we should introduce free public transport. It has been done in other countries. The Government is way behind on retrofitting. It is a model that requires large amounts of money upfront and it needs to be rolled out across all homes, not just for people who already have very nice incomes and homes. There is huge energy poverty in Ireland. The motion cites that almost one third of households are in energy poverty. There are huge arrears on gas and electricity bills. The ESB needs to be taken back into public ownership and run on a break-even basis.”
“The Government has utterly reversed - it is not going forward - in climate action and it is following a trend worldwide, where governments have no interest whatsoever. That includes governments that are considered climate deniers like Trump's, but the same goes for the Irish Government. I will mention the dependence on fossil fuels and the food crisis, which the recent protests exemplified. The crisis caused by the US-Israel war on Iran, which the Government sat silently by about when it visited Trump, has highlighted the addiction of capitalism to fossil fuels, utter dependence on intensive agriculture, which is being developed and deepened in this country, and a huge dependence on synthetic fertiliser and pesticides and Gulf-based fossil fuels.”
“I will take three and a half minutes. We are in a situation now where the Government is set to miss its 2030 emissions reduction targets by half and there is no plan to reverse that trajectory. The Environmental Protection Agency's, EPA's, latest reports found the Government has not included any new policies or measures in the climate action plan to 2050 and we will pay for this because €8 billion to €26 billion in compliance costs for missing targets can be imposed. The Government is also encouraging carbon-intensive projects. It is legislating for a State-owned LNG terminal. It is lifting the passenger cap in Dublin Airport, missing retrofitting targets and encouraging data centres, and it is boasting about that as well.”
“The Minister can clarify this point, but it appears that instead of an autism-specific or dedicated additional needs class, part of the day will be spent in mainstream classrooms of 30 where students will struggle and part of the day in a new special model the Minister has created. That will be considered to be the creation of a special class. It is a stroke to sort out the problem of waiting lists for special classes. I have been told of 19 students in Dublin 15 who do not have secondary school places. What the Minister has proposed seems to be the solution to this, but children are entitled to what is best practice. They should not be pushed into a reduced form of education. I want to lend my support to the Save our SNAs campaign. I will raise the idea of an alternative circular at the education committee.”
“I want to start with the Dublin 15 special education task force that was clearly set up to box the issue off the agenda during the general election. The report has not been released. It is becoming like the third secret of Fatima. Will the Government release it? Many parents had to take to the streets and we want to see the recommendations and what the Minister will do about them. Who dreamed up the inclusive special schools the Minister announced? Why would the Minister announce a new model of special classes without talking to Inclusion Ireland, AsIAm, special education teachers, unions, SNAs or parents, that is, the people actually affected by this? The Minister only spoke to the managerial bodies of schools. Is this model more inclusive because there will be more students in the classroom? The numbers will increase from six to 12.”
“Hansfield, in Ongar. It will have to consider putting students on shortened school days, which is reprehensible. The school knows it will get flak for it but feels it has no alternative. It asked for an ANA and SNA review for an increased allocation and it was refused. It has seven new students who need SNAs. Only one student left. It also has 13 emerging students who need support and it has two autism classes in which at least two students have been told by the professional care team that they need one-to-one SNA support. The Government is not providing basic SNAs to the schools that need them. Why is that?”
“Two years ago the parents of Dublin 15 took to the streets, or took to autism-friendly protests in parks, to highlight the dire situation whereby they could not get proper education for disabled, neurodivergent or autistic children. Two years on, we had a special task force in the area, which, as the Taoiseach well knows because it has been raised several times, did a huge review, but that review has not been published. We have 19 secondary school students who do not have school places in the area as well as many primary students. I want to mention one school that has written to me and all TDs, namely Hansfield Educate Together National School. It says it will have to consider putting students on-----”
“Blakestown Community School has very disadvantaged status. It has problems with educational attainment, employment issues, criminality and lone parents. A significant number of children live in care or emergency accommodation. There are English language learners, a huge number of pupils of heritage status other than Irish and children with Traveller identity who do not want to identify as Travellers. The school experiences so many of these issues. If we look at the overall population of schoolgoing age, it is absolutely baffling that one primary school, Ladyswell National School in Mulhuddart, and no secondary school made the DEIS plus list. There is a superleague of poverty now that the Government is forcing schools to compete in. All schools should be getting these supports.”
“The Taoiseach mentioned child poverty. There are a quarter of a million children in forced deprivation, 8% in consistent poverty, and one in five workers is low-paid in an economy that has vast wealth and a budget surplus. The Taoiseach mentioned DEIS plus. In Dublin 15 and much of the constituency I represent, there is huge anger among principals that so many schools have been left off the DEIS plus list. Earlier I raised the two primary schools in Corduff left off DEIS plus even though it is an area where principals have described gangland crime and criminality. I refer also to Blakestown Community School. Not one secondary school in Dublin 15 was included on the list, despite us having the youngest population and huge areas of poverty. All of the orange parts of the map I am holding up are in these areas I am talking about.”
“We need to organise meetings in areas. We need to organise meetings of clubs. It is unbelievable that we have to put Bertie Ahern up as an example. Bertie Ahern refused to issue visas to the Yugoslav team because of the Balkans war at the time. Charlie Haughey intervened about South Africa and apartheid. It is not that they are great; it is just that the Government is so pathetic in comparison and that is really saying a lot.”
“I also want to mention that Beitar, the team Netanyahu supports, has never signed an Arab. In the children's game, they separate Arab and Jew on the basis of apartheid. Members are in the IDF and one of the players is putting up videos about his participation in the attack on Lebanon as well. The women's team put their IDF jerseys on and so forth. I do not want to run out of time; I just want to finish with a couple of things. The Palestine solidarity movement is one of the most positive things that has happened in this country and in the world because it is an antidote to the hate, racism and misogyny we have seen in society. I am appealing and have confidence in this regard but this movement and trade unions and grassroots clubs need to build a massive rank-and-file campaign to stop this match from happening.”
“Three of the biggest teams in Israeli football, namely, Beitar, Maccabi and Hapoel have a horrendous history of racism against Palestinians and a lot of the players playing on the national team play for those clubs. A popular chant for Maccabi is, "Let the IDF win and fuck the Arabs". Another one is, "Why is school out in Gaza? There are no children left there." Does the Minister of State think that is appropriate? Does he think that is normal? Yet, the Government is insisting on normalising this team. It is going to give them visas. They do not even need visas - Palestinians need visas; they do not - to come to this country with their entourage, which is actively participating in a genocide in Palestine and now in Lebanon, and the Minister of State thinks that is okay and that is moral. It is absolutely despicable.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, said the same thing. First, let us have a look at the destruction of sports facilities. Let us have a look at the destruction with 1,007 athletes, at least, being killed in the genocide including 421 footballers, most of them kids; 90% of the infrastructure in Gaza destroyed; and 288 facilities destroyed. The cruelty has not stopped. This is not a normal football federation. I will give the Minister of State the facts again. Six Israeli teams currently play in occupied Palestinian territory in direct contradiction to FIFA and UEFA's own rules but, of course, FIFA and UEFA, being so corrupt, do absolutely nothing about it. Amnesty has noted that UEFA and FIFA are providing funding to the Israel Football Association, which is then giving it to clubs in the illegal settlements.”
“It will not happen, in my opinion, because I think people are going to mobilise. I think they will protest and will stop this game. I noticed that at 6 p.m. tonight, a campaign was launched online to stop the match. This is the beginning; it is the opening salvo in it. Simon Harris said we should decouple sports and politics. We would love to. That is an absolutely facetious thing to say. The Minister of State knows there is no separation. Presumably, the Minister of State is okay with Russia not participating in FIFA. It is, therefore, a political entity. Micheál Martin said it should go ahead and, obviously, we have already talked about the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, saying that the team has no connection to the genocide. This is where the Government is absolutely and utterly wrong.”
“Of all the things that have happened in recent times, it is absolutely disgusting that the Irish Government, which is meant to be a neutral anti-imperialist country, is meant to support the ICJ case against Israel and is meant to support the Palestinian state and people, would not only consider that the game is appropriate but would actively insist and put pressure on the players and the team to play it. Oscar Wilde said that a cynic is someone "who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing". That exemplifies the Government and the people leading it. They have got absolutely no moral backbone whatsoever. The Government is out of touch on this like it was on the fuel issue and the cost of living. It is way out of touch with where people are on this issue. This game should not happen.”
“I echo the comments about grassroots football and the dire lack of funding. The way the clubs manage to provide a service is incredible. I will start by condemning the carry-on of the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, in stopping the funding for the entire League of Ireland based on one event, which was a flare being thrown on a pitch. He thinks that flare is a declaration of war but he is fine with what the Israelis are doing apparently. I will focus my comments on the Ireland-Israel game.”
“The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has added its voice to the call for access to counselling notes to be banned in gender violence trials. We need to see that legislation moved and we need to see what survivors want.”
“There are calls today for an all-island response to the epidemic of gender-based violence. In Northern Ireland, 30 women have been killed since 2020. It is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. A woman is more likely to be killed by her own son than by a stranger. The family and the home are very dangerous places. ROSA in the North has called a protest in Belfast for Saturday, 25 April to respond to the fact that 30 women have been killed and to say not one more should be killed. Two women were murdered in three weeks recently. This was at the same time as the Natalie McNally trial which showed a very premeditated killing by her former partner. In relation to gender-based violence in the South, the Taoiseach mentioned legislative reform but there has been very little such reform that I can think of.”
“Would the Taoiseach agree that, when comparing world leaders, the most dangerous leader in the world right now is clearly the US leader? The psychopathic tendencies in Trump have accelerated since the Taoiseach visited on St. Patrick's Day and the dangers for the world are just incredibly pronounced.”
“I would like to ask the Taoiseach about the consistency of his approach to world leaders and dictators. While the Taoiseach was in China, which was some time ago, the attack on Venezuela took place. The Taoiseach condemned the terrible regime in Venezuela while he was actually in China, which I did think was somewhat ironic. China is not a democracy and there is severe repression. The Taoiseach mentioned the solicitor representing Jimmy Lai being targeted. Were Irish journalists who were part of the Taoiseach's delegation prevented from filming while he was there? Is that the case? This is an example of the Taoiseach staying silent on human rights issues when he is in front of global powers, as he did with Trump.”
“A noose was left in a colleague's locker after they had just dealt with a suicide case. This is a very dangerous environment. Will the Minister investigate this?”
“That is okay. Before the break, I raised at Leaders' Questions the toxic, misogynistic culture in the National Ambulance Service and I have spoken further to workers and clients of the service, including another worker who was raped and sexually assaulted and whose career was ended by complex post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. Inappropriate conduct and grooming on the degree course in Tallaght between older tutors and younger students reported to me. Very worryingly, two people have told me about the unnecessary use of 12-lead electrocardiograms, ECGs, on female patients deemed attractive. In other words, you have to pull up a woman's clothing to put these leads on. I have been told that men are gods in the National Ambulance Service. The bullying and harassment procedures are not followed. It is not good for men either.”
“On the same day that the schools got the news they would not be included in DEIS plus, five members of a local organised crime group were sentenced to jail over an attack which the judge involved said bypassed any notion of humanity and which involved beating, burning, stabbing and branding their victim with the word "rat". Children in these schools are being groomed into crime. They are not able to learn because they come into school having suffered trauma. Those factors have to be taken into account somewhere in the system.”
“I am all for a scientific approach but the Minister of State said: While these challenges are often well understood locally, they are not always captured in data sets that can be fairly and consistently applied across the entire school system. A rules-based national model must rank all schools on the same basis. It cannot substitute locally held knowledge for data that are not available ... Where do locally held factors that are specific to an area come into it? We hear about the Westies and about gangland crime over the years in Corduff. It has those historical local problems, and that should be considered.”
“Obviously, the schools should appeal the decision. Hopefully, they will be brought up to the level of supports needed. There has been a huge problem in this regard. There has been a 500% increase in the number of schools contacting the financial support services unit of the Department because of the rising cost of living. It affects every school. In areas of severe disadvantage, parents do not have the same resources that more middle-class areas have. Are the schools supposed to drop the nurturing and well-being support they are providing because they cannot afford it any longer? I understand the Minister of State is saying they will still get supports from the DEIS scheme. There is one other matter I wish to follow up. The Minister of State mentioned that there is new enhanced data and a way of analysing same.”
“Corduff is marked by the strongest orange colour. In fact, it is even more deprived than some other areas that have been included in the scheme.”
“One in four people there is under 15 years of age. Only one school in Dublin 15 has got onto the DEIS plus scheme. It does not make any sense given the population and social profile of the area. Not one of the 25 secondary schools got on the list, despite having massive diversity. Corduff, Tyrrelstown and Mulhuddart in particular are the fastest-growing areas in the whole of Fingal. Other schools in Blakestown and Mountview, which are currently in the scheme, have also not been included. That seems a bit bizarre. These schools are dealing with the huge and complex social issues of crime and drug addiction that have historically been experienced in the area. In the statistics and data, Corduff is described as very disadvantaged. In the Pobal HP deprivation indices, there is colour coding on maps for the area.”
“They used to pay for four days but they can no longer afford to maintain that level of support. Both schools need a counselling service five days per week. Children often come to school and it is noticed straight away that something has happened to them. The schools want to open nurture rooms but they need to pay staff members to staff such rooms. That is something for which the DEIS plus scheme would provide. It would provide a well-being co-ordinator and extra teaching support. In general, the way this scheme has been implemented is a bit strange. While I am all in favour of the scheme, it seems that a super league is being created whereby schools will nearly have to compete to get on it. As the Minister of States knows, or maybe he does not, Dublin 15 is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country.”
“She has worked in the area for 26 years. The level of disadvantage is massive, with issues such as addiction, poverty and crime. While I do not know whether crime is a criterion for the scheme, I do know that trauma is a criterion. It is mentioned that up to 50% of children in the schools under the DEIS plus scheme will have experienced trauma. One of the issues in Corduff, which is frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons, is that gangs have historically been located there. The principals of the schools in question say that a lot of parents are doing a brilliant job but that others are struggling. The schools have put additional supports in place. For example, both schools are currently paying a trained counsellor and play therapist to work at each school one day per week, at a cost of €350 per day.”
“I am raising the issue of DEIS plus, which is a new scheme announced to give enhanced supports to the most disadvantaged schools in the country. Obviously, I am all in favour of enhanced supports for schools, but there are a number of problems. I bring to the attention of the Minister of State the Corduff area of Dublin 15. I have been contacted by the principals of St. Patrick's Senior National School and St. Patrick’s Junior National School in the area. They will be in the DEIS band 1 scheme but have been excluded from the DEIS plus scheme. One of the principals, Mary O’Riordan, spoke to The Irish Times about this. For example, she said the area has been beset by a vicious feud involving local rival gangs in recent years. There was absolute devastation at the school when they learned they were not included in the new scheme.”
“One of them lives in Dublin 15. I know her. These people should not be allowed anywhere near a protest movement that wants popular support in society. We should call them out.”
“Then there is reportedly a character, Michael McCarthy, who said that Hitler needs to be understood and that he was not all bad. He launched a GoFundMe to raise money for food and drink for the protesters. There is €150,000 in that fund, and a lot of people want to know how somebody like him was allowed to set up a GoFundMe. He has called for mass deportations. He is linked with the far-right and an organised far-right group. That GoFundMe needs to be taken down. Fascists such as Niall McConnell were interviewing some of these protesters. There is the whole issue of the far-right channels being used to promote the protests and far-right individuals controlling WhatsApp groups and pages, apparently, such as the Dublin fuel protest page. These are people who have absolutely nothing to do with rural contractors.”
“Christopher Duffy, for example, used the words "F- around and find out" when Renée Good, a young woman in America, was shot dead by ICE, cheered on a rape threat against Greta Thunberg, used anti-migrant hate and is an out and out misogynist. He was involved in these protests from the outset. James Geoghegan has been widely reported as spreading anti-migrant hate. He is a tax defaulter and an animal abuser. He said the Government was bussing asylum seekers to vote in the elections in 2024. He is a climate denier. A councillor in Kildare, Tom McDonnell, said women need to breed more. That is his history. He is blaming this crisis on people in IPAS centres rather than Donald Trump and Netanyahu and the imperial adventures they are engaged in.”
“We have just seen very militant protests that were widely supported in society because of the acute nature of the cost-of-living crisis and the fact that people were supporting those who were having a go. A marker has been laid, and we need workers to do the same. In the couple of minutes I have, I want to highlight that there were some issues with these protests. It was noted by many people that some far-right individuals and far-right talking points emerged during the protests. There are some who should not have been let near a microphone, never mind allowed to crawl out from under the rocks they were under.”
“None of the issues is resolved even for the sector that protested never mind for the general population. The likelihood is that the cost-of-living crisis is going to get worse. We have psychopaths are running the population. We need workers and trade unions to step into the picture here.”
“I have a feeling that this is a very important week and a turning point in the life of this Government. Militant protests and blockades have taken place in the context of an ever-worsening cost-of-living crisis. People were threatened with repression. They got some repression as well, actually. Yet, a high level of the population supported those protests. Why does the Tánaiste think that is? Also, in opinion polls, people blamed the Government and they blamed Donald Trump and Netanyahu. By the way, the Tánaiste has never once condemned the illegal war on Iran and Lebanon that has fuelled this. I have not heard it. Verbal gymnastics have come from the Government to avoid apportioning blame. I believe that the resolutions the Tánaiste is proposing tonight will not cut any mustard.”
“Although I do not have a connection with rural contractors, that was the feeling of most people. This began with the budget and continued with the package the Government brought in. It would not listen to those in opposition who said it did not deal with the fundamental problem that there is a cost-of-living crisis and that people have huge arrears in the context of their electricity bills. What has the Government introduced today to deal with that? What about home heating oil? How will people heat their homes? What about mortgage arrears, rent arrears-----”
“It has been excruciating listening to the Government talking about misery and missed hospital appointments. The housing Minister has left the House. There is a tsunami of evictions in my constituency. Two thirds of the under-35s are living with their parents. Need I go on? This Government leaves vast wealth untapped and untouched. Eleven billionaires own 85% of the wealth in Ireland. The protests last week were peaceful. They were certainly forceful and impactful. On the idea that critical infrastructure should be left untouched, how does the Government think we won the right to vote and other basic rights in this country? How does it think Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were formed? The majority of people supported the protestors because someone was having a go. That was it.”
“The Dáil agenda has been obliterated to minimise the Opposition's chance to question the Taoiseach about what happened last week, his inept and arrogant handling of the protests and also to debate the package of measures that his Government brought in. We all feel huge sympathy for the Healy-Raes. I do not know if Danny is back from the top of a tractor somewhere. We all feel for the suffering of Michael having to resist the temptation to join him. We have an absolute obligation on behalf of the workers and the disabled to question why the Government has not brought forward one single measure to deal with the suffering people are feeling around the country.”
“I will finish by saying the Special Advocate for Survivors has called for the Government to stop. That is someone the Government appointed. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are trying to bury the truth here and they are happy a private developer is putting this out of the way for them.”
“The Clann Project also pointed out that under the European legislation investigating deaths of children, mothers ascertaining the whereabouts of the disappeared and returning the remains to relatives is part of the State’s human rights obligations which it has not complied with. I was not in the Dáil when the report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes came out but I remember reading that and thinking "Here we go again, another whitewash". That report should not be cited. It should have been voted down by the Government because so much of it was so mild in its manner towards the people running the homes. It did not use all reasonable means to search for the disappeared children, so let us put that one away. Some of those means would be geophysical surveys, radar, electrical resistivity and magnetometry.”
“Fianna Fáil let them away with murder on this since the 1990s and it could have intervened to put a law into effect so no congregation could sell any site where there were potentially graves. This is an outrage. The Clann Project has pointed out the Government is legally bound by the European Court of Human Rights to find any bodies that exist and bring them back in a suitable manner for the families of those affected. Bessborough was a site of systemic oppression, and the Government has made sure that that has not actually happened. In the letter the Clann Project pointed out that planning permission was refused a number of times, so the Government knew this was going to happen eventually. I would say the Government is happy to have this built over, so it is another chapter finished for it.”
“As of last year the congregation is involved in ongoing discussion with the Government regarding financial contributions to a redress scheme for survivors with reports indicating they have resisted demands for payment on the grounds they did not act in an untoward manner. This is despite the fact there was an 80% death rate in some of the years of the home’s existence. Obviously it was not like that in all the years. The congregation was asked for €96.5 million. They have assets of €37 million. I am rounding the figures up. They have almost €2 million in cash in the bank. The nuns sold this site in 2021 and they pocketed €6.85 million. That is the Government’s fault. That never should have happened.”
“As well as that, this is just part of a pattern of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two parties that were in power for the hundred years when all this happened, allowing the church off the hook because they do not want the history of their role in all this examined. That is the conclusion we have to draw. As for the idea the Government is powerless, it was in here passing emergency laws for the hauliers over the past couple of nights and it could have passed emergency laws on this. That land should never have been allowed to be sold by that congregation. The Government should have made sure of that. Which congregation was it? It was the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.”
“It is an outrage that planning permission would be given on this site where over 900 children, that we know of, died but where only 64 graves have ever been found. It has happened despite all the campaigning of survivors and the groups connected with them. I will mention something the Minister for justice said here the other day when this was raised with him. He basically acted like the Government was powerless and that it was terrible altogether. He used the words "... the Government cannot interfere in respect of planning applications" but of course it can. The Government could object to the application via a Minister, for example. Has it done that?”
“Her husband had to come over here to support her recovery so both parents are away, causing terrible trauma and depression for the two children in India. She is continuing to work in our system. In a further twist, because of the fall in her income due to having no sick pay, she is under the financial threshold now for her children to come here. I am asking the Tánaiste to look at her case on compassionate grounds. We cannot inflict such suffering on workers who are here caring for our older people and expect them to be able to survive here. Do we just want guest workers in this country or do we want human beings who have rights, who have community and who are not forcibly separated from their children? I ask the Tánaiste to look into this and to clear the IRP backlog as well.”
“I want to raise the pain and suffering being caused to people doing essential work in this country due to the massive backlog and delays in issuing Irish residence permit, IRP, cards. Some people who had to leave for funerals or because of family illness in India and elsewhere have not been able to get back into the country. I also want to raise the family reunification rules and to mention a woman called Iby, who is working as a healthcare assistant in our country. She applied for visas for her two children some time ago. Iby has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing oncology treatment. Due to this, she has been medically unable to travel to India and has not seen her children for three years.”
“Currently 42,000 Ukrainians are being hosted by Irish families. The cost amounts to about €11 per night, compared to €50 a night if the State were to provide that accommodation, paying commercially to hotels or other private operators. I therefore do not see how anyone can oppose this on a financial basis. A minority of the hosts have asked refugees for top-up payments. It is not a perfect scheme by any means, but one of the advantages of the scheme is that at least people are integrating into local communities and into society. They are not stuck in a huge building somewhere away from the local population. The cost of this will shoot up. Yes, it is performative cruelty, moving in the direction that the Minister has been moving since he got in, bowing down to the far right. It is shameful that Sinn Féin is punching down.”