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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Every one of 271 lines we hold for Seán Crowe, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 6.
“It just shows how long it takes for a new build to be built. The Department said that it was necessary for this to happen.”
“We are talking about two schools here - the junior and senior schools. All the TDs in the constituency have visited the schools, and we are all of the same mind that work needs to move ahead. In 2011, the Department agreed to two extensions to the junior and senior schools. In 2014, there was a visit to the schools, and the Department felt it was necessary for a rebuild. Ever since, the school authorities have been trying to get the schools built. There is mould, water running down walls, water dripping from the ceiling and tiles collapsing, and the list goes on. Clearly, it is not an ideal situation for hundreds of school children and their teachers in the school. What we are looking for is action relation to this. It has gone on long enough. The parents and school community feel they have been let down and left behind.”
“I agree with others that we must break the back of our dependency on fossil fuels by going all in on renewable energy but where is the just transition that was promised? Why are data centres that are sucking the national grid dry not being forced to introduce district heating systems? That is something that could be done. It would not cost the State anything. It is happening in one of the data centres in my area. Why are ordinary households paying more for energy than the data centres? Why are we turning off renewable energy at night-time when vulnerable citizens are freezing in the homes? Will the Minister of State answer these questions at some stage?”
“As we heard, home heating oil is the most expensive it has been in a generation. Petrol and diesel are on course to exceed the highest prices on record. Ordinary PAYE workers and their families are now bearing the brunt of the €500 million package but will see little benefit as their euro buys less food and other essential staples, like fuel and energy costs, continue to rise beyond their wages. The protest last week should be a wake up call but there is no sense that the Government is listening. As one woman said to me during the week, the Government says it is listening but does not seem to hear anything. That seems to be the problem. The Government says it is listening, but is it? Can it hear the pain people are going through?”
“I do not think it is a radical statement to say that the duty of any government is to protect its most vulnerable citizens from severe shocks to the greatest extent possible. I genuinely do not believe in this case that that is what happened. Unsustainably high energy and fuel prices in the State have made a pre-existing cost-of-living crisis even worse. I believe that the Government further compounded its failure to its citizens by not reconvening the Dáil last week and not introducing emergency supports. I agree with the words of my union, SIPTU, leader, John King, when he said, "Despite the cost of these measures, they contain little to no relief for the vast majority of workers and households, who are left completely exposed to a cost-of-living crisis and mounting inflation." The question we ask here tonight is if this is fair?”
“A peace deal is broken every day when people go without the basics, like water, food and shelter. Israel has now drawn the whole region into the conflict. Who is next? What is next? We cannot afford to stand back this time. We cannot afford to wash our hands of it when we will be standing in the midst of an American President who has facilitated a genocide so that a holiday resort can be erected on top of Gazan graves. We must work in the UN to achieve a resolution for an immediate ceasefire and do what we can to show Israel that its actions are unacceptable.”
“There can be no repeat of last year’s laughing and carry on in the Oval Office while civilians right across the Middle East, including many Irish expats and holidaymakers, are waiting in suspended terror for the next air raid siren to blow. We must use whatever leverage we have in both the EU and UN to bring an immediate end to this conflict before more lives are lost. We must bring the apartheid State of Israel to account for its destabilising influence across the whole region by a cancellation of the association agreement that allows it to trade with the EU. We failed to do so when it murdered over 100,000 innocent people and children in Gaza or when it levelled and ethnically cleansed villages and towns. When was the last time the Government spoke about the man-made famine in and blockade of Gaza?”
“For decades, Israel wanted a US President to launch these types of attacks against Iran, and now Netanyahu has one. An Iranian frigate was torpedoed off the Sri Lankan coast, despite posing no threat to Israel or the US. The US sunk it with all hands and the submarine responsible did not even pause to help the survivors. It was decided that leaving sailors to drown was a war crime a long time ago, yet Trump's spokespersons are bragging about it now. The Spanish have shown us real moral leadership in the past few days. The refusal to be a part of the killing shows a backbone entirely absent when it comes to the use of Shannon Airport. An Taoiseach travels to Washington in one week. It is imperative that Ireland is not used to lend legitimacy to this war of aggression that has brought destruction across the Middle East.”
“They only have to look at their high-tech satellites that were covering Iran that day and they will know in minutes. That is what we have created by standing back and being too cowardly to say, "Stop. No more". We have allowed a normalisation of this behaviour that has eroded international norms and literally blown apart any semblance of the observation of international law. A decapitation strike against the Iranian leadership is not an action of countries interested in reaching a peaceful resolution to nuclear proliferation. Rather, it is the action of an emboldened and rogue nation that thinks it can do whatever it wants because there will be no real consequences. If a country is truly serious about negotiations, it does not wipe out the negotiators or as many of the leaders as it can find.”
“This took place against the backdrop of negotiations to achieve a new nuclear deal, something which the world had been crying out for since Donald Trump tore up the first deal to appear strong on foreign relations to his audience on Fox News. Just three days before US-Israeli strikes, the Omani foreign minister said that significant progress had been achieved but then bombs landed in Tehran and across Iran. That included the bombing of a school, as the Minister mentioned, in Minab that left at least 160 innocent children, and their loved ones waiting to collect them, dead. Days later, the Americans and Israelis still collectively deny their hand in the slaughter. We are supposed to believe that these killers are investigating the source.”
“I begin by saying that the genocide in Gaza and the resulting inaction and silence by the EU made it quite clear to Israel and Trump's America that they had a free hand to do whatever they liked in the region, causing an unprovoked war of aggression that has caused chaos right across the Middle East and left an untold number of dead. Yes, we have seen horrifying reports of crackdowns on recent protests in Iran, and any loss of life when protesting for greater democratic rights and freedoms is to be condemned. That does not justify the slaughter of further innocents by foreign airstrikes, however. There can be no moral high ground in this regard, especially when three generations of a family were wiped out to take out a foreign leader.”
“The other worrying thing is that I believe there is a parental consent form, and that was not taken up either. We can furnish the Minister of State with the information in relation to this case but it raises issues as to whether this is happening in other schools. I have never heard of this type of thing happening before now. What is worrying is the point Deputy Murphy made in relation to the idea that there were too many adults. We are talking about a special school and special circumstances. The replies that seem to be in the letter itself are really worrying. However, it is the wider issue: how many schools are impacted by the fact that the forms have not been collected?”
“We are told this is a pause and that suggests this process will resume and the school could lose its SNA. The system that allocates SNAs is utterly opaque and parents, SNAs and many schools feel it is deliberately made that way. We need clarity and a defined approach that gives certainty. Parents should not have to fight every day for their special needs child.”
“Our issue is about a special school for special children. It is a good example of the uncertainty, fear and distress being created around this SNA issue. The school was told in writing it was losing an SNA and then it was told it was not. There were two emails, with one withdrawn in 40 minutes. The NCSE asked parents to fill in a form outlining the care needs of their child. It is a difficult form to fill in. It is about what is wrong with your child rather than what is right. If a parent fills in the form wrong, the child could lose his or her SNA; so no pressure. Parents were told forms were needed for review and then that they were not needed. Some 30 forms were left in the school; we have seen them. A signed parental consent form was needed and then not required.”
“Fianna Fáil ran in favour of Irish neutrality and said it would not do away with the triple lock and Fine Gael was the same. What has changed?”
“Surely any decision that could lead to significant shifts in foreign and defence policy must only be considered following robust engagement with the Irish people, and we have not seen this. This is the big weakness in the Minister of State's argument. We have not seen that engagement with people. People have not had the opportunity. I have no doubt that if there were a plebiscite, the Government's proposal would be rejected. If the Government is so sure and confident of its position in relation to the Irish people, why does it not put forward a plebiscite on this? It is a simple question. Will the Minister of State give us a simple answer on it? People want to know why the Government is intent on going down this road. We remember previous elections.”
“By removing the triple lock we are signalling to the world that we are ready to cast off our neutrality and embrace the wave of militarism sweeping Europe and the rest of the world. It is not good enough that the Government would use the Irish Defence Forces as a political bargaining chip when it has singularly failed to address the serious problem with retention and recruitment that the Army, the Naval Service and the Air Corps have been experiencing for years. The problem is not with the Security Council or anyone else but that people in this House have run down the Defence Forces. This is the biggest challenge with our Defence Forces as we move forward.”
“I remember the Nice treaty and the Lisbon treaty and the assurances given to the Irish people at the time. I made the point that the Irish people do not trust the Government, they do not trust us and I do not think they trust the people in this Chamber. People have huge difficulties about this. The world needs more honest brokers like a neutral Ireland. We have never been a coloniser. We have never invaded another country. We are respected as peacekeepers and peacemakers. We have experienced conflict and division on our own island and we have practical experience of building peace. This is the approach and it has also allowed us to do vital work, including nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and humanitarianism.”
“Again, it is the issue of the triple lock. The triple lock neutrality protection is something that is valued by Irish people. It is extremely concerning that the Cabinet would so easily approve moves to dismantle the triple lock neutrality protection on the deployment of Irish troops abroad. Most evidence points to the fact that most Irish people believe that the triple lock neutrality protection is necessary and that it is an important protection to ensure our neutrality. If it is to be dismantled, the Irish people need to know exactly how that is going to happen.”
“For instance, if the LÉ Aoibhinn had lost some of its structural integrity, say if there was damage to the hull or something like that, could repairs be carried out without having to tow her to Cork? If we are to conduct operations on the east coast and the west coast, we need capacity to support these operations locally. Is Dún Laoghaire suitable in this regard? Had more serious damage been done, could repairs have been carried out there?”
“I am still at a loss regarding the damage to the LÉ Gobnait . The Minister of State might come back to us again on that matter. The damage to the LÉ Aoibhinn raises questions as to whether Carlisle Pier in Dún Laoghaire is adequate or appropriate for naval use. As the saying goes, "Any port in a storm", but that did not prevent a ship from being damaged and potentially taken out of service. Maybe that could be looked at. It may not be enough to simply take over a pier and stick up a sign saying, "Irish Navy: No Access After This Point". What precisely constitutes the forward operating base on the east coast? When will that be achieved? Why was Dún Laoghaire chosen for this purpose? Would it be possible to conduct significant repairs on damaged vessels there?”
“If we do not have the capacity to crew two ships, then we really only have one ship at a time at a time when we are being told that the Defence Forces are under-capacity in the context of dealing with evolving threats in Europe. The Government has been woefully negligent as regards our security. The waters between Ireland and Britain are of significant strategic importance, not least due to the data cables and energy connector that run between the two islands. Are these vessels fit for service? Is there a possibility that we will see these Samuel Beckett-class ships sailing in the Atlantic?”
“I have a couple of questions. If the Minister of State cannot answer them today, I would appreciate if he could come back to us. Why has it taken so long to get from the date of delivery of the LÉ Gobnait to the point where she is ready for service? We all know that these ships were a considerable investment, but one has hardly seen any use at all. Is it possible for LÉ Gobnait to put to sea for a patrol? What would it take for both Lake-class vessels to sail into the Irish Sea? Can we conduct simultaneous operations with a Samuel Beckett-class ship in the Atlantic and a Lake-class ship in the Irish Sea? This situation also raises questions about our overall state of readiness.”
“Storm Chandra seems like a lifetime away now. It was quite a severe storm, however, as the many flooded homes in my constituency and across the State show. Storms like this are becoming increasingly common because of climate change. We must take on board the lessons that come from these events rather than just striking them off as bad luck. Even ships at berth were not safe. Can the Minister provide an update on the damage to the LÉ Aoibhinn , the repairs needed and if she is still ready to sail?”
“When will the Government deliver a counter-unmanned aerial system, C-UAS? We need to secure sensitive areas. Why has it taken so long? I have asked a number of questions. My apologies.”
“Many would say that we are going backwards rather than forwards. The Government put a plan forward but many would say that it reneged on that, particularly around pay and the poor conditions. The Defence Forces' lack of anti-drone capability has quickly become an embarrassment to Ireland on the European stage. We had to go cap in hand to our neighbours and ask them for a dig out. Anti-drone systems were meant to have been delivered last autumn. Now, we are being told that they may not arrive until after the EU Presidency is over and the most pressing need for them over the last 12 months has passed. It is not just another missed deadline. It is a laundry list of missed and failed deadlines that sums up the Government's defence policy. Is the Government just saving the systems from wear and tear?”
“The most serious issue in our Defence Forces over the past 20 years has been the decline in personnel numbers and the brain drain of highly trained specialist personnel. The core of this issue are pay, conditions and career progression. Of the 43 delayed projects, 12 are in the area of human resources and career development, while another two are to do with pay and conditions. How can we ever expect to truly solve our recruitment and retention problem if we do not address the elephant in the room, that being, we have almost destroyed a life in the Defence Forces as a viable career? Poor pay, poor conditions, poor pensions, and overtime policies in breach of the European Social Charter. When will the Government commit to getting these deadlines back on track and repair some of the damage done to the Defence Forces?”
“I offer apologies from Deputy Ó Laoghaire. He is out with some bugs and has asked me to take his questions. Regarding the revised defence plan deadlines and so-called detailed implementation plan, it is extremely disappointing that dozens of defence spending deadlines have been significantly extended without any apparent explanation. It is embarrassing to say the least, considering that the Government announced a €1.7 billion defence spending plan only last December to much fanfare. Can the Minister explain the root cause of all these delays and how many deadlines have been extended for as long as two to three years?”
“Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Government Independents must stop prioritising the interests of developers, landlords and investment funds at the expense of struggling workers and families. The Government must ban investment funds from buying family homes.”
“The vulture funds can outbid ordinary buyers and then extract obscene rental income, pushing up average rents because their focus is on profit, not community or stability. We have already seen historic numbers of homes snapped up. In some estates, 85% of them have been sold to investment funds, leaving those who have scrimped and saved for home ownership fighting against each other for whatever is left. The Government's small stamp duty increase does nothing to stop this corrosive practice. It has tinkered at the edges while this practice continues. Why do we allow entities with effectively unlimited means to outbid families for homes? Who does this benefit? Not ordinary workers or families. Homes are not commodities; they are the foundation blocks of family life and community.”
“When big funds enter residential markets with deep pockets and all the tax advantages Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael magicians can conjure up, working families are effectively shut out of their own housing market. Workers, young couples, nurses, teachers, doctors, gardaí, construction workers and so many more simply cannot compete financially with institutional buyers, which can outbid any offer and absorb homes that should be available first to Irish families. For years, Sinn Féín has warned that allowing vulture funds and investment vehicles to swoop in and hoover up homes makes the housing crisis worse, not better. These funds see these properties not as homes but as profit-making assets, nothing more than entries in a spreadsheet, while children grow up in family hubs or a relative's box room.”
“It is not republicans and the Irish Government says it is not it, so who is blocking truth about the conflict that happened in Ireland? We need a truth commission now. We called for it 20 years ago. Thirty years ago, people were talking about a truth commission emerging post conflict. That has not happened. It needs to happen if we are to move on.”
“We still do not have all the answers about what happened on 17 May 1974, when a car bomb went off in Monaghan and three others went off in Dublin city centre, one only a couple of hundred yards from where I now stand. The publication of the Kenova report does not draw a line under this period of our history. It only shows the need for greater transparency and accountability. The absence of a truth commission at the heart of the peace process is the greatest obstacle to getting answers for those families. Republicans have never opposed this. Perhaps it is not too late for the British and Irish Governments to come together to form such a process. Who is blocking truth emerging? That is the big question we ask today. Who is blocking truth emerging?”
“Like Operation Denton, it exposes the criminality, collusion and cover-up that was the pattern of the British war in Ireland. Iain Livingstone is on public record as saying, "I can say categorically there was collusion. We know that to be true". The families of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the Miami Showband massacre in 1975 and other atrocities deserve the truth. The Irish Government must insist that all material evidence and other relevant information provided to and examined by Kenova, and other such operations, are now made available to the Irish authorities without further delay. I worked for years with Justice for the Forgotten, an organisation representing the families and survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.”
“I express my sympathy and solidarity with all the families who lost loved ones and those who campaign to this day for truth and justice. My time is brief so it would be impossible to touch on all periods of the conflict in the North that cry out for answers. The British Government would have us believe that it was a neutral peacekeeping force in the North of Ireland, but we know the British Government's security services were involved in hundreds of targeted assassinations and murders of Irish citizens in a dirty war conducted by agents like Stakeknife. Kenova was hindered at every turn by MI5 and the security apparatus of the British state, but it could not hide the truth that collusion was very real and went to the highest levels of the British state.”
“Back in 2014, we were told by the then junior Fine Gael agriculture Minister that "clear and adequate systems and structures [are] in place". Three serving Fine Gael Ministers voted against us on that occasion and said adequate legislation was there. Again, we are in that situation. The Minister of State said he is going to act. That is good, but people want to see that action. In a lot of cases, what we are seeing is a situation that is getting worse. I raised this issue two years ago, when an elderly woman in my own constituency was knocked down by a scrambler motorbike. I was talking to her husband today. She is still recovering. It has an impact on her physically, but there is also the mental impact. Eileen survived that crash in Killinarden, but two years later Grace Lynch did not. It is time for action.”
“I want to be associated with the words of sympathy in relation to the crash on Dublin's North Earl Street. I only have a couple of minutes. I wanted to focus on the dangerous and antisocial use of scramblers on our streets and green spaces. It is nothing new, as my colleagues have said. In a lot of cases, it is young men and boys speeding around dressed in black, some of them in balaclavas, creating an extreme risk to adults, children and particularly our older neighbours in our communities. For years, colleagues have been trying to force the Government to tackle this issue. As has been said, it goes back as far as 2012. Deputy Dessie Ellis has raised it. I think the Deputy had sponsored four Bills at one stage. It is with tragic irony that Grace Lynch lost her life in Finglas, the very area that he represents.”
“Surely people in the darkest moments of their life deserve a calm, safe and professionally staffed environment. Is it too much to ask for dedicated emergency mental health services, 24-7 crisis teams and local supports? We need them now, not in five or ten years.”
“People and their families have been crying out for help and we are powerless to do anything other than to suggest they go to an emergency department, where they can hope to be one of the lucky ones who get help. The healthcare professionals working in our hospitals are amazing but they are not miracle workers and cannot magic up services that do not exist. We cannot continue to funnel people in crisis to emergency departments that are not equipped or resourced to help them. We must ensure hospitals like Tallaght hospital have the appropriate complement of specialist professionals. We must ring-fence investment in mental health crisis assessment and intervention services. Particular attention must be paid to developing an integrated crisis response pathway for children and young people experiencing a mental health crisis.”
“Emergency mental health services in this State are virtually non-existent. On any given day, more than 100 people will present at an emergency department in extreme distress and there just will not be the services and facilities to support them. Emergency mental health services remain underfunded, understaffed and largely unavailable when people need them most. That failure is costing people's lives and it is simply unacceptable. Among the cases that have come through my office, I remember a young man coming in who produced a bread knife, which was very scary. He rolled up his sleeves to reveal he had been self-harming. There were no supports for that young man, who ended up in the local Garda station on that occasion. He is no longer with us.”
“From communications to policy to infrastructure, there is nowhere they cannot have an improvement. People in Knocklyon and hundreds of other communities that face outrageous services or boil water notices each year deserve a lot better than they are getting. My message tonight is that we need to do a lot more. Collectively, I think we all agree that we want to see it being done. It is not being done. It was a mistake to take this away from the local authorities. The challenge now is that while people talk about rural areas and what is happening there, even in urban areas, including Dublin, this is happening too.”
“Both sides of the water infrastructure, water and wastewater, are the responsibility of Irish Water and both are being let fall apart. Since Irish Water was formed, the quality of our rivers and lakes has got worse, not better. We have not a hope of reaching our EU targets for surface quality by 2027, and we are further away than when we started. Irish Water must be more proactive in protecting our waterways rather than just a few targeted actions. It must be empowered and resourced to dictate the protection of our rivers, lakes and coastal lagoons. Forestry and farming have serious impacts on our water quality, and Irish Water cannot limit itself to simply picking up the pieces after the fact. There is a huge job of work to be done and it is required in our water services.”
“Areas in my Dublin constituency are regularly without water for hours and days on end. Last year, in Knocklyon, over a bank holiday weekend, some areas did not have water for up to six days. Our water infrastructure simply is not up to scratch and it is down to a lack of investment. From an inability to provide water to existing homes or to provide for the thousands of future homes we desperately need, I think we all agree that the network is antiquated and dilapidated. Improvements in supply are coming too slowly and it is having a knock-on effect down the line, preventing new housing from being built. Our waterways are increasingly being polluted with urban wastewater being pumped directly into the rivers that we rely on for our drinking water.”
“Look at Venezuela where Trump’s intervention was seemingly based entirely on the principle of seizing the country’s oil, only for the oil companies to embarrass him by deeming the venture not profitable enough. The struggle for resources is only going to get worse and worse. Wars will be fought over them with increasingly regularity as they run out. We must ramp up our renewable energy programmes in Ireland. Renewable energy is energy security with solar and wind to replace oil and gas. Backed up by the Celtic interconnector, we can break free of a reliance on dwindling fuel supplies that come from the most exploited parts of the planet. We must also avoid putting money into the hands of oppressors such as Russia, the UAE and the US. All are bad actors and increasingly all fund their imperialist exploits through oil and gas.”
“We need to finally accept that the rules by which we think the world is run are increasingly disregarded. Might makes it right, and the strongest can annex and vassalise whomever they wish. Whether from east or west, international co-operation is at an all-time low. Multilateralism is becoming an endangered species. This is happening at a crucial time in the fight against climate change and for conflict resolution. Countries that try to stand in the way of war and genocide are excluded and even punished. They are often branded as terrorist sympathisers. Rather than looking to the future and how we divest from oil, conflicts are becoming increasingly bitter about the last of the great oil reserves.”
“Pulled on either side, east and west, the foundation of our economy is built on sand that shakes when Trump comes up with his latest schemes. We cannot derisk our economy any time soon but we must recognise that the rules based order that has existed since the end of the Cold War, and in many ways since the end of the Second World War, have been thrown out by the Americans. Greenland is only the thin end of the wedge. The US ambassador to Iceland has joked publicly that Iceland would be next after Greenland. For an ambassador to even say such things in private would have been unthinkable before Trump was President. Appeasement has never been a successful policy. At best, it only buys you time. We appease and try to please and do not seem to grasp that we are living in a new age of imperialism.”
“This is endorsed by some member states with High Representative Kallas’s comments somehow blaming others for the very real threats by the US on European sovereignty. Her comments on China are of particular interest given that the Taoiseach is only back from a trade mission to the country. It is a stark reminder that in an increasingly federalised Europe, Ireland’s views would be represented less and less and our ability to advocate for peace and conflict resolution would be greatly diminished. Ireland has so much to contribute on the world stage and that would be lessened if our course was determined solely by those in Europe like von der Leyen and Kallas who have done nothing to rein in Israel or the increasingly erratic USA. Our over-reliance on American foreign direct investment places us on very shaky ground.”
“International developments is such a vague concept that it is hard to know where to start. The world is becoming increasingly chaotic and divided, with American strikes in Nigeria; the UAE arming both sides in Sudan; the shambolic ceasefire in Gaza that means that Palestinians are still dying; the ongoing conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that has displaced over a hundred thousand people into Burundi in just the past few weeks; and the ongoing war in Ukraine that grinds on. Reassuringly for Palestinians, we heard that Benjamin Netanyahu, who is responsible for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, is to join Trump's board of peace. The current US Administration sees Europe as a punching bag and as a people that can be bullied and threatened.”
“We need to do something in relation to this and we need to do it now. I am disappointed that the Government is adopting this approach. Collectively, though, we need to come together and sort this out.”
“I am not talking about teenagers but about children who are using it. We have heard people talking about the impact it can have. They are literally risking their lives in relation to it. We have heard about some of the hospitals and adults and children presenting in relation to it. It has become very popular and people think it is safe. Others have spoken about the effects it can have on your brain or collapsed lungs, frostbite and so on. There is a whole range of things. A lot of the young people who are trying it are not particularly interested in that; they just want a legal high. It is so cheap, and, as someone said, it is a gateway. It is probably a gateway for some and probably the first drug they have ever used. I am appealing to the Minister of State. I do not care whose legislation goes forward.”