Ryan O'Meara
Tipperary North · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“The postponement of a decision this week while expert opinion was requested by the committee was incredibly disappointing. I do not know, after hundreds and hundreds of days of people waiting for a medication that they desperately need, how a committee that is paid to do a job still has not made a decision.”
“The Minister mentioned labs, which is fantastic because that is my next point. St. Mary's Secondary School in Nenagh has been approved for its science labs. The tender has been done and the proposed contractor is to be appointed. The school sent its information to the Department on 10 June and followed up on 29 June.”
“I thank the Minister for that. On her final point, I will raise one school to begin with. Presentation Primary School in Thurles originally applied in 2016 for works to its car park and school yard in terms of tarring, relining, safer access and drop-off zones.”
“The ask from this budget from the INTO is very important - 1,000 additional teachers - to help us reduce class sizes for every child to give him or her more attention, to support inclusive education, to meet growing pupil needs, to ease the workload pressure and potential burnout for teachers facing those very high numbers within the clas…”
“I want to read an excerpt from an email I got today in relation to Skyclarys for people with Friedreich's ataxia: At 19 years old, I should be excited about my future. I should be looking forward to building a career, travelling, making memories with friends and planning the life I want to live.”
“I acknowledge the work that was done by the previous Government in reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. Good work was done and, to be fair, in the last budget, good work was done in respect of the capitation grants to schools and that needs to be recognised.”
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“It will get €12 billion by the end of this decade to invest in our wastewater and water infrastructure, which is brilliant for the likes of Nenagh and Cloghjordan, but we need it answerable so we can get the houses built in Ballycommon and so many other areas.”
“Ballycommon is a picturesque village in north Tipperary, located between Nenagh and the shores of Lough Derg in Dromineer. I am here today to convey the deep frustration of the people of Ballycommon in relation to 34 houses that could be built in that village if Uisce Éireann would just do its job. I have submitted a freedom of information, FOI, request to Uisce Éireann asking how much it has spent over the last number of years trucking sewage out of Ballycommon from a plant that does not work to Borrisokane. It will not answer that FOI for me. I cannot get parliamentary questions answered because apparently Uisce Éireann is not answerable to us in this House. I am again calling for changes to be made so we can hold Uisce Éireann to account.”
“For families, people trying to working from home and businesses operating, can the Tánaiste engage with the commercial providers to try and put pressure on them to get into Rathcabbin and give the people there the connectivity they deserve?”
“I raise access to fibre broadband in Rathcabbin village which is in lower Ormond in the very north of my constituency. Rathcabbin is just off the main Birr to Portumna road, very north Tipperary. We have a strange situation where the village itself is in the blue zone so therefore should be provided for by commercial operators. The rural areas around the village are in the amber zone, and provided for in the national development plan through National Broadband Ireland. The rural areas for the most part have fibre broadband connection, but the commercial operators have not gone into the village yet, which is a very difficult position for the people of Rathcabbin who already suffer with bad phone reception in parts as well.”
“That is not an appropriate level of public service either. Over the coming months the committee on education, of which I am a member, will do quite a lot of work on this. The NCSE and the Department of education will be before us, as I am sure the Minister and the Ministers of State will be at some stage too, and I will want to discuss the 2014 circular. It is essential. Next year we will have 25,000 SNAs in this country. That is brilliant, but let us have a circular that reflects the work they actually do.”
“It was wrong then and it is wrong now. Reviews are in and of themselves not necessarily bad. We see reviews every year when it comes to teacher allocations if the pupil-teacher ratio changes in schools, and they are not necessarily bad for SNAs, but as long as they are relying on the 2014 circular, they will not be fair on school communities, teachers, principals, SNAs or the children and families they support. I welcome that the review has been paused. How the NCSE approached this is unacceptable and wrong, and I cannot shy back from that because I have spoken to principals who have faced those letters coming into their schools saying they will lose some SNAs. The individual who wrote the letter did not even put their name at the end of it for the principal to have someone to talk to afterwards.”
“To be quite straight about this, the heart of this problem is the 2014 circular and the recognition only of primary care needs of children. If you spend 30 seconds in this country talking to a special needs assistant about their job, you will know that circular does not even nearly reflect what SNAs do every day. It is a crucial part of the job, but they do so much more: breaks with children who are overstimulated or overwhelmed or who might need even to go for a walk for a few minutes, classroom assistance for other children, children who are a flight risk and children who are school refusers. Those children are not recognised in the same way when it comes to an SNA allocation as those with primary care needs. That is wrong. In 2014 Circular 30 was introduced by a Labour Party Minister for education.”
“In October 2025, An Post wrote to the Department of communications requesting consent for an increase to pensions of 6% from 1 January 2025 and a further increase of 1% from 1 June 2025. Last year, the Department of communications received a request for a pension increase of 2.5% for Eir, formerly Telecom Éireann, pensioners with effect from 1 January 2025. As both Ministers will know, these pensioners do not receive increases in the State pension. They rely on the agreed adjustment mechanisms. The pension schemes are private, well regulated and in strong financial health. Our retired An Post and Eir workers have worked incredibly hard to connect generations of people in this country. They deserve these increases. They are affordable. They need them now.”
“We need to relax rural planning, allow us to build in rural areas and scrap the development contribution that is nothing more than a tax for the privilege of building on our own land. If we address those issues, we can build more houses in rural Ireland and get young people back home and back in to rural Ireland, raising our families for our schools, our clubs and so much more.”
“The NESC report states that Ireland is facing an ageing population over the next number of decades, with declining birth rates and a growing older population. One of the recommendations of the report is that research be carried out into the motives that affect demography, such as the decision to have a baby or to emigrate. We do not a report to tell us that. Every day, I see the vast numbers of young people in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and in Canada, the US, the UK and everywhere in between who have chosen to emigrate to make a life for themselves there rather than settling at home and having a family. This issue is particularly affecting rural Ireland because we cannot build rural, one-off homes to the extent we need.”
“Is mór an trua é nach bhfuil níos mó daoine líofa as Gaeilge sa tír seo, go háirithe i dTiobraid Árann. It is well recognised that immersion in the language is the best way to attain fluency. That is why last summer I asked the Minister for education to look at introducing a mandatory Gaeltacht course for all students studying Gaeilge at leaving certificate level. Another important version of immersion in a language is Irish-medium education but that is not possible at second level in Tipperary because we do not have a Gaelcholáiste. In 2024 and 2025 statistics showed that 23% of parents would send their children to a Gaelcholáiste if one was available locally. At primary level in Tipperary, 4.6% of students are in a Gaelscoil. This rises to 5.2% in south Tipperary but the national average is 6.8%, so Tipperary is well below that.”
“In regard to the community involvement scheme, CIS, and the local improvement scheme, LIS, funding for those in rural areas is absolutely essential, as the first speaker said. I have lanes in north Tipperary and they are so big, I could lose Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere in the potholes at the moment.”
“Agfood.ie , a revamped agrifood portal, was launched by the Minister for agriculture at the National Ploughing Championships last September. Dual-factor authentication, which has become a part of that, is proving quite difficult for a number of farmers who have contacted me, namely, farmers with poor phone coverage or those who have given their phone number to a son or a daughter to help them log in to the system. It is a very good system. It helps with compliance announcements, information from the Department, payment information and projected nitrates information. However, it is making the portal more inaccessible for a lot of farmers who have someone else logging into the portal safely. For them to do so, we need to look at other login methods that would make this technology more accessible for those helping farmers.”
“We need further investment in our roads in Tipperary if we are going to bring the road surfaces and structures up to the standard that is needed. After the rainfall we have seen in recent weeks and months, they are now even more damaged. Sending a team out to fix potholes only does so much. We need to deal with the structure of the roads if we are going to have safer and better ones in north Tipperary. That is what our taxpayers deserve.”
“Other examples are the Cloughjordan to Roscrea road; the Nenagh to Ballina road through Portroe and Newtown; the Nenagh to Carrigahorig road going between Puckaun, Coolbaun and Terryglass; the Nenagh to Dolla road to Tipperary town, particularly going through Curreeney; and the Thurles to Limerick road, in particular going through Ballycahill, Milestone, Rear Cross and Kilcommon. That is a lot of regional roads and I did not even cover all of them in one rural constituency. Tipperary County Council has a huge amount of work to do. It is doing its best but with inflation it can only do so much. I am getting a lot of complaints at the moment about the Thurles to Limerick road, particularly from Rear Cross towards Newport.”
“I wish to talk about road safety in the context of the quality of our roads. I represent, as the Minister of State knows, a rural constituency with a huge number of regional roads where the county council is expected to maintain and improve road surfaces, but it cannot do that to the level we need without a major funding increase. I will give the Minister of State some examples of roads I am talking about: the old N7, now the R445, particularly in Toomevara village; the old N8, now the R639; the Cloughjordan to Borrisokane road; the Cloughjordan to Nenagh road; and the Templemore to Johnstown road. The Portumna to Birr road, between the bridge at Portumna and the bridge in Riverstown, is entirely in my constituency and needs major enhancement works, particularly from the pike back as far as the ferry near Portumna.”
“That is phenomenal, historic and unprecedented, and it is fantastic, but if I want to submit a parliamentary question asking for accountability, I cannot get an answer to it. I want accountability in this House. The people who put me here want accountability in this House and I should be able to expect and, indeed, demand parliamentary question responses from Irish Water. That Standing Order needs to change for the functioning of democracy in this country.”
“If I want to ask how much money Irish Water has spent trucking sewage out of Ballycommon and into another plant because the plant there does not work, I cannot get that answer either. As a Member of Dáil Éireann sent here by the people of Tipperary North and north-west Kilkenny that is absolutely ridiculous. When asking for updates on the very welcome €50 million being spent in Nenagh at the moment on a wastewater treatment plant, I cannot get a parliamentary question response. I avoid writing to Irish Water as often as I can and try to find another avenue because of the absolute shambolic answers we get back from the Oireachtas Members email address time and time again. By 2030, this Government is going to have spent €12.2 billion on water and wastewater infrastructure in this country.”
“It is not because he is not refusing to answer and the Ceann Comhairle is not preventing him from answering it, but it is the way Irish Water was established. It will not answer parliamentary questions. Those who established Irish Water in that Government and those who held those positions should answer why that is the case and why I cannot hold them to account. If I want to ask about water outages in Rathcabbin or previously if I wanted to ask about Gortnahoe, Glengoole or Ballysloe, I will be told Irish Water will not answer a parliamentary question or the Minister cannot answer one through Irish Water. If I want to ask about the wastewater treatment plants in Cloughjordan or Ballycommon, Irish Water cannot answer a parliamentary question on it.”
“When I write a parliamentary question to Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage asking about Irish Water and when it is going to invest in a certain plant or when it is going to do certain works, I get an answer back from the Ceann Comhairle's office saying that under Standing Order 44, this is not a matter for the Minister to respond to and that it is a matter for Uisce Éireann and that I can email Uisce Éireann at oireachtasmembers@water.ie. I am not going to get into that representative's email address today because I do not have the time and, to be honest, my blood pressure cannot deal with trying to explain just how frustrating that is. However, as a Member of this House I am entitled to answers, and I cannot get them. That is not the Minister's fault.”
“I will start with accountability in Irish Water. As the Minister knows, Members of the House have the right to ask parliamentary questions to various Ministers, including to him. If I want to help someone with a driving test, I can write a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport, and he will refer it to the RSA. With regard to health, if I am trying to help someone on a waiting list for cataracts, I can write a parliamentary question for the Minister for Health, and she will refer it to the HSE.”
“My reason for raising this question was to try and fit it in for sports capital funding, but perhaps we could get common sense to prevail here and the Department of sport would advise that section within the Department of education, as the expertise exists within the Minister of State's Department.”
“The example I gave of Youghalarra National School is one that probably will not fit in to what the Minister of State is saying the next round of the sports capital fund will be, but if the Department of education is giving out grants to build something, surely when the Department of sport is trying to build facilities such as AstroTurf pitches, and we want to see AstroTurf pitches because they get so much usage and are so much safer and cleaner for schools in particular, that the Minister of State would be able to engage with the Minister for education to see if the summer works programme can be changed so that, although the funding is not coming from the Minister of State's Department, it is very much sport-related.”
“Is it possible to engage with the Department of education? The Department of education is giving money to build the court but says its surface can only be tarmacadam or concrete or something along those lines when AstroTurf would work and would suit what the Minister of State's Department is trying to do. I think it is absolutely incredible and unbelievable that the school would not be able to do that.”
“I would like to raise the case of Youghalarra National School in Newtown in relation to its summer works programme funding which came from the Department of education. It was a very useful grant and was for the installation of a 608 sq. m ball court. However, to have the best usage of that court and to mitigate against injuries, the board of management wish to have an AstroTurf surface installed on this. This would be very achievable with the funds allocated, but unfortunately the guidelines from the Department of education only allow for tarmac and concrete surfaces to be considered. The reason I have asked this question is that this is a somewhat stand-alone school. For safety reasons, it needs the sports facilities within the school grounds. I am looking to see if we can get a stand-alone application for the school.”
“The programme for Government states that the Government will prioritise the development of physical education halls and sporting facilities, including yards and play areas, for schools in conjunction with the sports capital fund to deliver for both schools and communities. Will the Minister of State therefore consider creating a schools stream within the sports capital grant in which schools can individually - that is very important - apply for sports capital funding?”
“I acknowledge the work of the officials in the Minister of State's Department. The officials I have dealt with in getting answers for clubs in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny in recent years have been fantastic, even for previous payments that we are trying to get out to clubs now. I am delighted to see the Minister of State coming to the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. for a briefing. I also look forward to welcoming him to Tipperary - hopefully, north Tipperary - in the near future for a briefing with a lot of clubs that are in contact with me also.”
“A lot of issues around appeals the last time had to do with the appendices to the grant applications being slightly wrong, just something being slightly inaccurate in them. The information provided by the club had already answered the question, but they had not filled in the exact piece of paperwork to answer the question. They might have sent in a title document or something without signing that piece of paper. It is very important that we not deal with that level of hurdle for voluntary clubs.”
“I thank the Minister of State. From my own experience of dealing with clubs during the last round, I trust that the bureaucratic nature of it is something that has been addressed ahead of the next round opening. I fully understand we are dealing with public moneys here and they have to be spent correctly, but we are also dealing with voluntary organisations that are doing incredible work, often in long-term development plans for their clubs. The level of paperwork and detail they have to go into sometimes can be a bit excessive. Examples that I would give come from the last round when clubs went to appeal. It was announced some time around March 2025 and appeals were decided by September.”
“The sports capital grants are an extremely important funding stream for many of the communities I represent in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. During the lifetime of the previous Government, two different funds were announced for clubs in my constituency. It is nearly two years since sports capital funding was last announced and allocated. Clubs are now spending that funding and looking towards the future. When will the next round of sports capital funding open?”
“We need to get coaches in to get them trained to give every single child and adult, regardless of ability, the full opportunity to participate in sport.”
“A lot of the local clubs I have spoken to are very interested in getting more supports, more funding and more training for their coaches. I think about cases where a child in a family is involved in sport, for example, a soccer club, and there is also a child in the family with some form of disability. If the parents in that family are involved in the club, they will obviously want both of their children, or however many children they have, to have the same chance to be full active participants to the best of their ability. Ballymackey FC, for which I played when under age, has a fantastic football for all initiative. It is absolutely brilliant. It is one of the strongest I have ever seen. It is a strong and growing club. The model of clubs like Ballymackey needs to be brought into other clubs.”
“If we are working towards an Ireland for all, something our party has championed for many years, we have to continue to focus on this area within the Minister's Department.”
“I acknowledge the positive work already under way. The sports capital programme has prioritised accessibility and universal design. Dormant accounts funding has supported disability-specific initiatives and training. Through local sports partnerships, Sport Ireland continues to play a key role in promoting inclusive support at community level. In my constituency, which comprises north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny, there is strong goodwill among clubs, volunteers and families to expand inclusive sporting opportunities. However, many local groups point to ongoing challenges with access to adaptive equipment, suitable facilities, trained coaches and volunteers, and the sustainability of inclusive programmes at grassroots level. The Minister pointed out the reason behind this question, the participation gap of over 30%.”
“Access to sport is not a luxury, it is a right. Participation in sport delivers profound physical and mental health benefits, builds confidence, reduces isolation and strengthens community connection for people of all ages and abilities. For people with disabilities, inclusive access to sport can be life-changing, yet too many still face practical and financial barriers to participation. What efforts is the Minister undertaking to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate in sport?”
“I acknowledge the challenges that are there for homecare providers in terms of the level of staffing that is there and the challenges placed on loved ones and family members when that care is pulled, but also the stress that is being put on carers by being taxed. That is something we really have to look at in the context of a budget.”
“The amount that carers save this State by caring for loved ones at home - in their own home or the loved one's home - is absolutely astronomical. The level of personal care they get and the love they get from the loved one who cares for them should not go unrecognised in the sense that the allowance is being taxed like an income. The carer does not do that work for an income. They do it out of personal care, love and affection for their family member and should not face a tax bill. If that carer did not do that work, how much would it cost the State to have their loved one in a healthcare setting or in a hospital bed when we need those beds, particularly in the mid-west?”
“For those carers who are caring for a loved one at home, that hour in the day or couple of hours in the week could be their only respite. It might be the only break they get to get out the house for an hour or even half an hour and do something for themselves. In the cases where the contracts are being handed back, that is being pulled from them. It is just being taken from them. It is the one respite they can get. While I am on carers and family carers, I want to acknowledge the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the issue he raised last week relating to the Revenue during Questions on Promised Legislation. I understand the good news he got today in relation to back taxes that were being claimed. I acknowledge that the Leas-Cheann Comhairle did an extremely important piece of work. Carer's allowance should not be taxed.”
“That is the reason I am highlighting both cases. They are high-dependency cases. These are two individuals who can stay in their own homes, but only if care is provided. That brings me to my overall point and one that others have made, which is that the contracted hours to private providers clearly are not working in my part of the country and I imagine they are not working in many parts of the country. There is a battle with the HSE to get those hours filled. It can only do so much when it does not have all of the staff to cover the hours that are being allocated to people. It is creating enormous uncertainty, worry, anxiety and massive pressure on the person relying on the care but also the family members who are then trying to step in and cover the care when they simply cannot do it.”
“Another case I have relates to an individual who was getting three calls a day, with one hour for each call, seven days a week. There were three different individuals calling to the home. The family recognised the level of care was exceptional and the individual getting the level of care relied on it, but really appreciated it, needed it and never had a complaint about it. Of the three people who called, one went on maternity leave and another left the job to go into another one, which resulted in the contract being pulled. I have been over and back with the HSE on both of these cases. I will send them on to the Minister of State straight after this debate and thank him for that. To be fair to HSE, it has been very good to come back to me during my engagements with it, but the responses have not solved the problems for us.”
“They no longer receive a schedule in advance, which is highly unsuitable for a family trying to cover the level of care for this individual. This person has motor neurone disease. The person has no mobility and requires the use of hoists to get in and out of chairs and beds. It came as a massive blow to the family to find out that the hours were being cut because the contracted provider could no longer fulfil its contractual obligations. I do not know how a family with the added stress and worry of a family member who needs to be cared for at home can function when people are trying to go to work or to school and having to fit this in around schedules. This person can be cared for best at home with their family in a loving environment, but the family is really struggling now.”
“As many other speakers I am sure will say in the debate and have experienced, it is not really an issue getting hours allocated for someone who needs them, particularly an elderly person in their home, but there is a major challenge in getting those hours filled. I have two examples I would like to share without giving personal details. These are two really challenging cases. We have lots of cases out there of people who need the help at home, but these are two cases that I find hard to understand how these individuals are still in their homes while their care hours have been pulled because private providers are no longer able to meet their contractual obligations. One individual had two carers coming in twice a day, but consistent care ceased in October. I am told that sometimes they receive a reduced schedule or none at all.”
“It is on the consistency of care nationally that I want to focus some of my contribution I acknowledge that the Minister of State and I represent constituencies in the same HSE region, which is HSE mid-west, and I also want to acknowledge his work and passion in this area. I particularly want to acknowledge his recent visit to the Newport day care centre and the work he is doing there. Among other issues we are working on in the constituency, I want to recognise that. I also want to recognise and discuss the major challenges we are facing in north Tipperary in relation to home help hours.”
“I am more interested in the food after the Pilates class. I welcome and support the Bill, which provides a registration framework for home support providers while making it an offence to operate a home support service without registration and incorporating transitional arrangements for existing home support providers. Home support providers will be required to adhere to a registration framework supported by national quality standards developed by HIQA and meet minimum requirements set out under ministerial regulations. The Bill will safeguard service users and raise the quality and consistency of care nationally.”
“I want my constituency of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny to get real affordable housing schemes in our towns and our villages. I gave just some examples; I could give many more. What will the Government do to deliver affordable homes for north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny?”
“The Department of the Taoiseach's 2024 annual report states that 7,126 affordable homes were built, but none of those affordable homes was built in my constituency of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. I will give some examples of areas where we need housing. Towns like Nenagh, Thurles, Roscrea, Borrisokane, Ballina and Newport, Templemore, Borrisoleigh, Urlingford, Freshford, Toomyvara, Cloghjordan and Cappagh White are just examples of towns and villages across north Tipperary, mid-Tipperary, west Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny where young people and families need an affordable home and a start in life, those abroad want to come home, those living at home want a place of their own, and those with unsustainable rents want to afford to live.”
“The people who asked for these images to be created should be prosecuted, too. We should take a very firm stance on this and we should go after every single person who created child pornography in recent weeks.”
“When we talk about a smartphone ban and a social media ban for under-16s, what would those do to protect the women and young children who have been victimised in recent weeks by warped-minded individuals on Grok and X who have asked for these images to be created as well as the horrendous, mindless and numbing individuals who created this to begin with and who stand over it? It is not a veil of incorporation that is creating this. People are responsible for it, like Elon Musk, who is making billions from the technologies he is creating, but the people working for him, too. What sort of human beings are they? They allowed for laws to be broken. They allowed for mechanisms to be created without protections in place for these images to be created of women and children.”
“The more women spoke out at the exploitation and sexual harassment inflicted upon them, the more Grok was asked, and duly complied, to create even more explicit images of the women brave enough to speak out. It was first used to harass women, to inflict emotional and mental harm on them. Then, where women were brave enough to speak out, it was used to intimidate and silence them. I am angry about this. The general public should be angry about this. Parents concerned about online safety should be angry about this, but we have to do something with that anger. For the year since the last general election, many of us in this House have focused on online safety, and rightly so, across all parties. We are working genuinely hard to try to make the online world a safer place.”
“There’s one of me just completely naked with just a bit of string around my waist, one with a ball gag in my mouth and my eyes rolled back. The fact these were able to be generated is mental. The article further states: Some users, mostly men, began to demand to see bruising on the bodies of the women, and for blood to be added to the images. Requests to show women tied up and gagged were instantly [created within minutes]. Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, had pictures of her as a child undressed by Grok. Images of a child actor from "Stranger Things" were produced at the request of warped-minded Grok users of the child in a banana bikini print.”