Seán Crowe
Dublin South-West · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“Tallaght and the wider south-west Dublin region have been among the fastest growing parts of the State for decades, yet transport investment has consistently failed to keep pace with the growth. Thousands of new homes planned and a rising population place even greater pressure on our roads and public transport networks.”
“There is a commitment in the programme for Government to enhance driver training but this has not been of much comfort to learner drivers who cannot get an appointment for a test. Numbers on the waiting lists for driving tests continue to climb and waiting times grow longer.”
“I have raised this on a number of occasions, including with different Governments. Could the Tánaiste give the people who rely on the Tallaght and Dún Laoghaire test centres assurances that a new test centre will be opened in south Dublin in 2026? This is something that needs to be tackled.”
“Economic growth means little if it fails to improve people’s lives. Climate action remains one of the defining challenges of our generation, but the transition to a greener economy must be a just one. Workers, families and rural communities cannot be expected to shoulder the cost while large polluters continue to profit.”
“Mar a dúirt an tAire, Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union comes at a defining moment for Ireland and Europe. Communities across the Continent are facing soaring living costs, deepening inequality, housing crises, climate change and growing international instability.”
“Ireland must be at the heart of drafting Europe’s new strategy for security and defence. We need to ensure that the core principles of European foreign policy include accountability for breaches of international law and meaningful international efforts to secure just and lasting peace in many conflicts just beyond our borders.”
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“The south-west Dublin has waited long enough. Tallaght and the surrounding communities deserve the same ambition and investment as other parts of our capital and that work must begin now.”
“Tallaght and the wider south-west Dublin region have been among the fastest growing parts of the State for decades, yet transport investment has consistently failed to keep pace with the growth. Thousands of new homes planned and a rising population place even greater pressure on our roads and public transport networks. MetroLink south west cannot be treated as a project for the 2040s or beyond. We need a feasibility study as a matter of urgency in order that real consideration and planning can begin. It must be planned and delivered as a national priority. Our communities need a modern high-capacity public transport system that connects people to jobs, education and healthcare. Delivering MetroLink south west will reduce congestion, support sustainable housing developments and help meet our climate commitments.”
“I have raised this on a number of occasions, including with different Governments. Could the Tánaiste give the people who rely on the Tallaght and Dún Laoghaire test centres assurances that a new test centre will be opened in south Dublin in 2026? This is something that needs to be tackled. At this stage I have raised it with a number of Governments.”
“There is a commitment in the programme for Government to enhance driver training but this has not been of much comfort to learner drivers who cannot get an appointment for a test. Numbers on the waiting lists for driving tests continue to climb and waiting times grow longer. Several weeks ago, the Road Safety Authority, RSA, pulled the plug on a proposed new driving centre in Sandyford, despite the Minister saying it was mere weeks away from opening. This would have relieved the enormous backlog affecting in Tallaght and Dún Laoghaire tests centres, which are permanently at the top when it comes to the waiting lists. There are 17,000 on the waiting list for the centre in Tallaght. That represents 10% of the State's total number in a network of 60 test centres.”
“Decisions affecting people’s lives must be transparent, accountably made and subject to meaningful democratic scrutiny. Smaller member states must have their voices respected and citizens must have confidence that Europe acts in their best interests. Ireland’s Presidency should reaffirm the values of solidarity that lie at the heart of the European project. That means standing with workers, supporting struggling communities and defending human rights. Ireland has an opportunity to demonstrate that leadership is measured not by military strength or economic power but by our willingness to stand up for fairness, equality and justice.”
“Ireland must be at the heart of drafting Europe’s new strategy for security and defence. We need to ensure that the core principles of European foreign policy include accountability for breaches of international law and meaningful international efforts to secure just and lasting peace in many conflicts just beyond our borders. Our Presidency should also challenge the growing concentration of wealth and corporate power. Multinational corporations must pay their fair share of tax. Workers’ rights must never be sacrificed in the pursuit of competitiveness. Public services should never be weakened by privatisation or austerity. The European economy must work for citizens not financial markets. Ireland should also advocate democratic reform within the European Union.”
“Economic growth means little if it fails to improve people’s lives. Climate action remains one of the defining challenges of our generation, but the transition to a greener economy must be a just one. Workers, families and rural communities cannot be expected to shoulder the cost while large polluters continue to profit. The European Union must invest in renewable energy, public transport and sustainable agriculture while ensuring jobs with fair pay and conditions are created across every region. Ireland must also use its Presidency to defend peace, international law and human rights. Ireland has a proud tradition of military neutrality and supporting peaceful conflict resolution. At a time when international law is being violated with impunity, Europe must apply the same standards consistently.”
“Mar a dúirt an tAire, Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union comes at a defining moment for Ireland and Europe. Communities across the Continent are facing soaring living costs, deepening inequality, housing crises, climate change and growing international instability. The Presidency presents Ireland with an opportunity not just to just chair meetings or hold photo opportunities but also to provide leadership rooted in equality, solidarity and justice. Our Presidency must place ordinary workers, families and communities rather than corporate interests at the centre of Europe’s agenda. Ireland must champion a pro-social Europe that delivers for working people. Across the European Union, families are struggling to afford basics like housing, childcare, healthcare and energy.”
“The Government hates to consider any project that will last longer than an election cycle because, God forbid, it will not get the credit. Sinn Féin's motion sets out practical, achievable measures that will make a real difference for children, parents and childcare professionals. It is time to move beyond announcements and deliver meaningful action.”
“Families have heard promise after promise from the Government. They were promised childcare provision at €200 a month but there is still no roadmap. There is certainly no timeframe to get even close to that place. The core funding, we heard earlier on, must be reviewed so that providers are supported rather than buried in paperwork and bureaucracy. Every week, I get emails from parents where a childcare provider has pulled out of core funding and the costs of that family have skyrocketed. The Government has made a mess of core funding to the point where it is not viable. Simply saying that childcare must be made cheaper is not enough. There must be investment in capacity, fair play and, above all, long-term planning.”
“Childcare is no longer simply a family issue. It is one of the biggest social and economic challenges facing this State. We heard earlier that parents are paying more than €800 a month in many parts of the country but in Dublin they would be lucky to get change from €1,000 a month. Even then, there are thousands who still cannot secure a childcare place. That is the impossible situation for many families who are trying to work, study and provide the best start in life for their children. I constantly hear from people I am talking to that they cannot afford to have a child, particularly those who have a mortgage. They are putting off having a child until later in life. The figures even suggest that is the pattern. People just cannot afford it and it is an impossible situation for many families.”
“The big question we ask is why the school has not been prioritised. It is a half-finished school. The Minister of State has outlined the number of projects that are planned and the funding that is being allocated, but the question the parents, teachers and pupils are asking is, "Why not our school?" It is a fair question. Children deserve the best and most modern facilities. We cannot live with a process that can last over 25 years. I again ask the Minister of State to go back to his ministerial colleagues and raise this. The school needs to be put on some list. What is happening is unfair and wrong and I do not think anyone could stand over it.”
“The tender process takes long enough without the perpetual delays which dealing with the Department always entails. Will the Minister of State make a commitment to the pupils and teachers from Sancta Maria College that another generation of students will not pass through the school staring at a half-built extension?”
“I am joined by my constituency colleagues, from the Opposition and the Government, in relation to this issue. Sancta Maria College got approval for a new school gym and drama room back in 2001. That is 25 years, a quarter of a century, ago. Right now, the school has two half-built structures after the construction company went into liquidation eight years ago. Generations of students have come and gone without the facilities that were promised. Worse still, there are leaks in the roof and difficulties with the sewerage system. The school has been waiting for more than a year now for a stage 2b report to be responded to by the Department of education. Without the Department's approval, the school cannot move to the tendering process and get the works back on track.”
“Another school in my area lost out because Ukrainian families were moved to the west in the middle of September. This is practical stuff. Will the Government consider introducing flexibility in the allocation of teachers beyond the current cut-off of 30 September?”
“I raise the commitment in the programme for Government to reach a 19:1 student-teacher ratio in our primary schools. In my area, Scoil Maelruain national school was stripped of a teacher because the school was one student short for the coming year. This resulted in four classes being turned into three, with numbers of 29 and 30 students. This flies in the face of the commitment and pushes the class size to the limit. The Tánaiste knows that society and schools have changed. Children and pupils are more transient and not fixed to an area because of the housing crisis, through no fault of their own. This is placing stress on schools as regards class sizes because teachers are allocated for the year based on the rolls on a set day.”
“We must modernise the medical card scheme to guarantee access to care on the basis of need and not on the ability to pay.”
“It is completely detached from a vital aspect of healthcare provision in Ireland. The national oral health policy was published in 2019. We still do not have an implementation plan for that policy. Access to dental care for people with a medical card has collapsed, as other speakers have said. More than half the dentists have withdrawn from the medical card scheme, leaving thousands of patients without the care that they need and are entitled to. Successive Ministers for Health promised that a breakthrough to fix the scheme was imminent, but it is ordinary people in need of urgent care who are suffering. We must invest in a public dental scheme that will prioritise school screening and medical card holders, including the development of a public-only dentist contract.”
“Access to timely, effective and affordable dental care is one of the most important guarantees of a good quality of life. Persistent pain from an abscess or tooth decay is one of the most unpleasant and debilitating things a child or adult can go through. A modern healthcare system should make it a top priority. Instead, the Government parties have long abandoned affordable dental services. It is almost entirely privatised now, as my colleague has said, with the number of dentists directly employed by the HSE dwindling every year. This means more than half of children do not get a dental screening in primary school. This is just a basic check-up and we cannot even provide that. This Government does not even know how many dentists are practising in Ireland or how many dental clinics there are.”
“Little has changed since it has taken every opportunity to drag its feet and water down the Bill until we are left with this token gesture. Why does this Government have such trouble in doing what is obvious, doing the right thing? Irish people rightly demand that we take a principled stance against genocide, and the Government continues to make lame excuses. A truly effective Bill would include services. Nothing else will send a strong, unambiguous statement from Ireland that there can be no impunity for Israel's genocide and its continued illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the forced removal from their land.”
“There must be an effective ban on all trade, including trade in services, with Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. Occupiers must not be allowed to legitimise their occupation through trade, let alone profit from it. The Israeli Government is committed to making it impossible for Palestinian people to maintain a viable homeland. It respects no international laws or norms as it pursues a policy of scorched earth tearing down everything that the Palestinian people have built, including homes and businesses, and burying them beneath the rubble. Sinn Féin supported the original occupied territories Bill that was introduced by Senator Frances Black back in 2018. The only party to oppose the Bill back then was Fine Gael.”
“When the Irish people made their desire for an occupied territories Bill plain during the last election, the then Taoiseach, Deputy Simon Harris, said it would be passed within the first year of any government he was part of. It was clear then and it is clear now that Irish citizens want to see the Government take up a more robust and active policy in support of Palestinians, who are treated as second-class citizens in their own land. Since that election, we have waited 18 months and this Bill is all the Government has managed to produce in all that time. An occupied territories Bill that does not include services might soothe the Government's collective conscience but it will not trouble the genocidal Israeli regime in the slightest.”
“Do we want an Ireland that follows larger powers into military conflicts or an Ireland that stands for diplomacy, peacekeeping, humanitarianism and international law? Do we want decisions about war and peace made by political elites?”
“That would represent a fundamental change in Irish foreign policy, and the Irish people have not consented to it. Let us be clear that advocating for neutrality does not mean neglecting defence. Ireland absolutely needs properly funded defence forces. Our Naval Service, Air Corps and Army have been neglected for years. Recruitment and retention crises have been ignored. Investment is needed to protect Irish waters, ensure cybersecurity and retain emergency response capacity. However, strengthening defence is not the same as abandoning neutrality. A genuinely independent Ireland should be strong on both neutrality and defence. We can defend our people and sovereignty without becoming part of military alliances or surrendering democratic safeguards like the triple lock. At its core, this debate is about what kind of Ireland we want to have.”
“It reflects the lived experience of past generations of Irish people who experienced colonisation, occupation and conflict. That is why the triple lock matters so much. It ensures that Irish soldiers are sent abroad only for peacekeeping and humanitarian purposes, not dragged into foreign wars because of pressure from NATO, the EU military agenda or powerful allies. Yet, what we are hearing now from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is that the triple lock is somehow outdated. We are hearing that it limits Ireland's flexibility and we are hearing calls to remove UN approval altogether. The agenda of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is blatantly obvious. They want the power, as parties in a Government with a Dáil majority, to deploy Irish troops abroad with far fewer restrictions.”
“Clearly, we are living through a dangerous moment in Irish politics. Piece by piece, step by step, there is a growing effort by the Government parties to weaken Irish neutrality and dismantle the triple lock. Neutrality is not weakness; it is a positive expression of Irish independence. It is the belief that Ireland should decide its own path in the world, free from the influence of military blocs, imperial powers or the interests of bigger states. For decades, neutrality has allowed Ireland to speak with some moral authority on the world stage. It has allowed Irish peacekeepers to serve with pride in UN missions. It has allowed us to support diplomacy over war, and peace over profit. That tradition is needed now more than ever.”
“My only experience is going into the Tallaght sorting office, and I have never gone in without other people being there. There are always queues there, which highlights the fact that it is being used. We are told that there is a plan in place. We do not know what the plan is so we are looking for information about that plan. At the end of the day, we need to know where the parcels will go, if they are not delivered to households. A lot of people living in apartments cannot get access to their parcels and so on. Where do they have to go? What is proposed in relation to the location in Lucan is unsuitable. We are looking for a compromise on that. There is also the issue of staff. Most of the staff live locally and are from the locality, whether it is Edmondstown, Tallaght or some of the other areas.”
“Many of the people who are impacted by this would have to go the M50 route with all the challenges in relation to that. Part of the challenge is that we have not got the information from An Post of exactly what it is going to do and staff or local customers have not been informed either.”
“We know that An Post has a plan to relocate these sorting offices. It is not only Edmondstown. It is also talking about closing one in Tallaght and relocating the one in Churchtown, which is in Dublin 14, to Edmondstown. There is a demand in relation to the levels of parcels. It is at Christmas levels at the moment, and it is growing all the time. We accept that there needs to be efficiencies in relation to that but the distance involved is considerable. Travelling from Rathfarnham to Lucan is not straightforward, particularly given chronic traffic congestion across south and west Dublin. Second, public transport options in Rathfarnham and Lucan are limited and indirect for many residents, particularly older people and those with disabilities or those without access to a car. Collecting missed deliveries would become extremely difficult.”
“Successive Governments have steadfastly refused to take any real action to either assist people with an energy credit or tackle the root cause of what makes electricity unaffordable. All Sinn Féin wants to do is protect energy consumers from unfair pricing, price gouging, restrictive practices and anti-competitive behaviours.”
“Being told that the electricity prices are going up and going down without any power to effect change is meaningless and only leaves consumers feeling utterly abandoned. As we speak, hundreds of households are being disconnected each month for falling into arrears on their energy bills. There are over 300,000 households now in energy arrears. That is one in six or one in seven. We all know these people. Simply lighting and heating their homes is becoming increasing unaffordable for many families. Irish workers and families are tired of being ripped off. The cost of electricity in Ireland, as others have said, is 40% above the EU average. How is this happening?”
“I am probably repeating it but surely it is long past the time that Government takes action to protect workers and families from spiralling energy costs. People tell me they are sick and tired of hearing that wholesale electricity costs are going down while their household bills are still eye-wateringly high. One of the main aims of this Sinn Féin legislation is to empower the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to monitor wholesale and retail prices in the energy market and strengthen its powers to monitor anti-competitive behaviour of gas and electricity suppliers. Who would be opposed to that? The CRU must have a greater role in consumer protection and much stronger powers to address energy affordability. Otherwise, what is the point?”
“The European Council's recent meeting was more concerned about a fresh flow of migrants than about stopping the war against Iran and rebuilding what little peace the Middle East has seen in recent decades. We saw how one powerful state can torpedo any attempts to hold Israel to account by revoking the sweetheart trade deal it has with Europe. The EU could be a powerful force for preventing interstate violence and war. It could be a beacon of hope and solidarity among nations. However, right now, it is an inept bystander that is led by the nose by external actors who have no regard for Europeans or their lives. Surely the time has come to stop being so passive and to work together in solidarity to bring peace, stability and economic prosperity to peoples around the world.”
“Europe Day should not be simply about the end of a world war, but should also be a rallying cry to work towards a world without wars. We have huge diplomatic and economic levers. We can use these to effect real change not just in ending conflicts, but also in preventing conflicts from ever occurring through dialogue and sustainable investment to build up economies in the developing world and through divesting from fossil fuels. The EU has been incredibly passive when it comes to threats and bad actors. We are expected to simply weather the impact of high fuel prices caused by the Russian war in Ukraine and the war of aggression against Iran.”
“We do not support a European Union in which a small number of large member states take it on themselves to dictate economic, security or foreign policy to smaller states. As a bloc, the Union provides political cover and trade deals to those who commit genocide and it turns a blind eye to wars of aggression that have had catastrophic impacts on our economies and on the standards of living of workers and their families. Why are we so afraid to say "No" to Israel and the US? Why can we not come together as 27 member states and say what is wrong and what is unacceptable? Why can we not refuse to do business with those who are ethnically cleansing Gaza and the West Bank? Whether it is the result of cowardice or something worse, we have decided that doing business with the oppressor is worth more to us than our principles.”
“When they have not been in Ireland's interests, we have opposed them and campaigned to change them, but always from within and always in a constructive manner with a view to creating an inclusive Europe that reflects the needs and aspirations of all its people, not just the few or the elite. We are not anti-EU and we do not want to see Ireland outside of the EU. We simply see a different path forward in Europe. We seek what is in Ireland's best interests, as do Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and others. We are critical of many of the EU's stances, most often in the area of foreign relations, especially where Palestine is concerned. Along with many others, I believe the stance of the EU when it comes to foreign relations is totally out of step with the stances of the majority of its citizens.”
“Europe Day is meant to be a celebration of peace and unity, when we mark how a continent that emerged from war resolved to work together to ensure future harmony and prosperity. My party, Sinn Féin, is often accused of being sceptical of the EU. That accusation is often thrown around in this House. It may happen in this debate. However, it is simply not the case. Sinn Féin's policies towards the European Union have always been focused on critical engagement. Where measures are in the interests of the Irish people and the peoples of Europe, we support and seek to further them.”
“These are the words of the Fine Gael Party. That was the commitment it made to the people, supposedly in exchange for their support. Fine Gael was returned to office, but there was no referendum. The presidential election has come and gone. It is not as if Fine Gael did not have plenty of opportunity. Former Minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney introduced a Bill in this area in 2019, with the referendum question already worded. The previous Government could have picked up where he left off, and no one in this House, bar, perhaps, the current Taoiseach, would have objected. We cannot go on ignoring the right of all our citizens to have a say. We are reducing their citizenship to little more than a passport. Let us start with giving our Northern countrymen and countrywomen a vote for a President who represents all on our island.”
“Ireland is, in fact, among a small minority of countries that do not allow non-resident citizens any sort of voting rights. One hundred and forty countries currently allow voting in at least some elections. There is a broader discussion to be had in this State about the obstacles to voting. The difficulty in obtaining a postal vote is on that list, along with the poor quality of the electoral register. Let me quote the 2020 general election manifesto of Fine Gael: We support extending the franchise at presidential elections to Irish citizens resident outside the State. This referendum will take place within the first year of Fine Gael being returned to Government. If passed, this will allow Irish citizens in Northern Ireland and around the world to vote in the next presidential election, in 2025.”
“While this Bill is narrower in scope than mine, it would be an important first step and a realisation that the Good Friday Agreement promised that all citizens would be equal. My Bill is still on the Order Paper and ready to go if the Government lends its support to it. There is always talk of the legal and logistical challenges that come with change like this. However, are we really saying we cannot organise polling stations or a postal vote across the North? People queuing up outside embassies in Dublin in order that they can vote in elections back home is a regular sight, and not just in the case of presidential elections. Some countries, including South Africa, allow a special vote for all citizens abroad in their national elections. We act as if it would be the biggest logistical feat since the Berlin airlift.”
“It fell to the Opposition to try to make real the change that the Assembly demanded. Gerry Adams and I introduced a Bill very similar to the one we are debating now in March 2014. It would have been the thirty-fourth amendment to the Constitution. Many referendums have come and gone, and still our Northern citizens are excluded. Our Bill would have granted the franchise to every citizen of Ireland without disqualification on the basis of place of residency. In this regard, I refer to many of the issues the Minister of State dealt with. I would like to think that the President represents us all and that every citizen would have a say in the selection of their representative.”
“In September 2013, 73% of the members of the constitutional convention voted in favour of giving Irish citizens resident in the North a presidential vote. This was not the answer the sitting Fine Gael-Labour Government wanted and that Government missed deadlines in issuing responses to recommendations of the convention, refused to hold referendums on many of its recommendations and held an unsuccessful referendum on the future of the Seanad, without the support of the convention. The Government should have faced up to the democratic demands of that convention to end this disenfranchisement. Instead, it pretended it never happened, as governments always do when citizens' assemblies do not produce the result they want. We are still waiting for meaningful action on the report from the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use.”
“Tacaím leis an mBille seo. Tá sé ag dul sa treo ceart. This Bill is going in the right direction and we will support it. Sinn Féin firmly believes in the core republican principle of equal citizenship and supports the right of all citizens of voting age to vote for the Irish President, regardless of their place of residence. The Good Friday Agreement states the Government recognises the right of all people born in the North to identify as Irish citizens if they wish. We should not treat them as second-class Irish citizens but as full Irish citizens with full voting rights. It is a dreadful exclusion that our citizens in the North are treated with such disdain that they cannot vote for the President of Ireland.”
“The Government is condemning another generation of young workers to live with their parents, denying them a start of life of their own until they are in their 30s or 40s. It will not come as a shock or surprise that this Government has kicked the can down the road on abolishing sub-minimum rates of pay for young people until 2029. If only it were so simple to defer the cost-of-living crisis. Equal pay for equal work was a radical concept more than 100 years ago. It should be the norm for men and women in the 21st century. All workers deserve fairness, dignity and respect for their rights, regardless of their age or gender. We must not only bring the minimum wage into line with the living wage but also reverse the decision to delay its introduction until 2029.”
“One quarter of jobs in this State are classified as involving low pay, insecurity and poor working conditions. The best way to increase pay, productivity and employee retention is through trade unions and collective bargaining. This is especially true at a time when rising inflation and external shocks are having a deep impact on living standards and affordability for workers and their families. I have been a member of a trade union, the ITGWU and SIPTU, long before I ever became a TD. One third of workers under 20 years are making less than the minimum wage. Why does an 18-year-old hold less value than a 21-year-old? It is simply a licence for businesses to exploit the labour of the young. They face the same cost-of-living crisis as other workers, fuel prices and rent costs among them.”
“Israel has crossed every red line and engaged in countless breaches of human rights and international law. We either stand for human rights or we do not. We either stand for international law or we do not. If the EU is to have any credibility on international affairs, weak words like the Council's conclusions are not going to cut it any more.”
“What more needs to be done for the EU-Israel association agreement to be scrapped? Is it another genocide like Gaza? The EU cannot credibly claim to uphold human rights while sustaining preferential trade with a state whose conduct has been found by multiple international bodies as amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Those are the words of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine. It would not even be a trade sanction. It would be simply exercising Article 2 of the agreement that states Israel enjoys special trade privileges so long as it respects human rights. Israel has ethnically cleansed Gaza, expanded its presence in the West Bank and tried to take over 20% of Lebanon. Human rights must be non-negotiable.”
“The European Council assures us that it is "closely monitoring the far-reaching impact of the hostilities". The EU has shown itself to be a paper tiger. We are completely unwilling to use our collective diplomatic and economic power to prevent the US and Israel from riding roughshod over the region and killing who knows how many thousands of people in the process. It rained oil in Tehran but that is okay because Trump and Netanyahu murdered the ayatollah and some of his family. The European Council seems more concerned about "migratory flows towards the European Union" than ending conflicts and saving innocent lives. It has the gall to say that it will put an end to Iran's destabilising activities without a single word about Israel, bar a weak attempt at asking for it to stop invading quite so much of Lebanon.”
“This was another European Council meeting that refused to hold Israel and the US to account for their destabilising actions in the Middle East or to acknowledge those actions. Where was the condemnation of the actions that started this war? Our trade partners are an exception to outrage when it comes to killing children, journalists, ambulance drivers, medical responders and innocent civilians. No one is here to defend Iran's human rights record but, if you were to read the conclusions of the European Council meeting, you would swear that Iran had fired the first shot. The line is that "Developments in Iran and the wider region threaten regional and global security." It is anyone’s best guess what developments are being talked about.”
“The school's most optimistic expectation is that it will take more than four years from the green light through to completion. Can we really stand here and say we cannot build two sets of classrooms and a new school within 12 years? It is just not acceptable. Children in Tallaght are being left behind. That is clearly what is happening. What message does that send to the children in these schools that it has taken 12 years? The Minister of State talks of repairing the roof but it is not repairable. That is what the school is telling us. It is unacceptable. We need some action here. We are asking for at least a meeting with the Minister and the officials.”