Sinéad Gibney
Dublin Rathdown · Social Democrats · Ireland
“Unfortunately, those are still not entirely clear. Although the Windsor Framework did look to enshrine that policy of no diminution of rights and the non-divergence of rights on either side of the Border, that has not been clear in how it is going to play out.”
“I want to raise one specific sector. Within my portfolio, the culture sector is a good example of where we could see a much better offering in the joining together of the two economic activities. For example, we have a very vibrant production sector for film and television.”
“The other word that is important to bring into any economic discussion and fiscal discussion around a united Ireland is "holistic" because, unfortunately at times, I see the Government looking at the economy as a discrete part of society and neglecting things that fall outside of economic discussion, economic imperatives, and policymaking…”
“There are ways that we can see how our governance of this jurisdiction can be improved simply by the opportunities that will be presented by opening up constitutional change and the discussions that we are all going to have about how we govern ourselves right now and how we may govern an entire island of Ireland.”
“When the Minister of State referred to office roles in Brussels, was he describing roles in NATO headquarters? The international forces the Minister of State is describing are exactly like the coalition that invaded Iraq.”
“I look forward to coming back to the topic of the triple lock in a few questions' time. I have read with extreme concern the reports over the past week on the lack of support provided by the Department of Defence to Women of Honour, whose members are participating in the Defence Forces tribunal.”
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“The single biggest measure we could take to advance gender equality in the State is to provide high-quality and affordable childcare. Women still take on far more of the care role in the household than men do. When we make it hard to source external care, we penalise women and force them to decide between career and home. What is being done to support providers in the sector? How is the deficit in childcare and early years places being addressed? Will the Government commit to establishing a cross-party committee on childcare?”
“The Government has promised to reduce childcare costs to €200 a month but it is nowhere near meeting that commitment. Families are being forced to pay hundreds of euro more than that every month. Parents all over the country find it almost impossible even to secure a place. The commitment to roll out a public model of childcare and reduce costs to €200 per month has to be more than electioneering. It must become a reality. As someone who raised a daughter alone, I acknowledge the specific challenges faced by single parents trying to access childcare in my constituency. Both financially and logistically, it is a unique barrier to employment and, indeed, to participation in society when we provide so little support to families headed up by people parenting alone.”
“She does not want to opt in to the core funding model because it does not work for her specific set-up. That means it is hard for her to see herself operating beyond another couple of years. When childcare places can be obtained, the cost is often so high, it puts a real strain on families, with some parents being forced out of the workplace. Workers in the sector are without a pay scale or security, with retention of staff remaining a real problem for providers. We need a public model of childcare that will address the multitude of issues being encountered. My colleague Deputy Farrelly has proposed the establishment of a cross-party committee on childcare. This would establish a short-, medium- and long-term plan for the provision of childcare in Ireland.”
“Last week, a mother contacted me who, despite having her child registered before birth, struggled for months before finding childcare to allow her to return to work. Another constituent said to me: "It is not a surprise that families with young children need childcare. How is this still occurring? Young families are being failed at the very first hurdle." The providers of childcare and early years services are also struggling in Dublin Rathdown. We have seen many of them forced to close their doors, with Mountainside Montessori in Leopardstown and Naíonra Seomra Mary in Stepaside being just two of the most recent examples. Another small provider in my constituency told me she has major concerns about the viability of her business in the coming years.”
“It is not news that families with young children require childcare and early years education. Why, then, are these families continuously failed by the State in the provision of those services? In Dublin Rathdown, I am contacted regularly about childcare and early years education. Indeed, it is one of the foremost issues within my constituency. There is a shortage of available places and, rather than seeing new providers coming on stream, we are seeing more and more closures. Costs are too high for parents and providers in the sector are in real difficulty. Young families are desperately struggling to find childcare for their children. I have been contacted by so many parents who are at their wits' end with this.”
“There is so much ignorance in the South about the experience of people in Northern Ireland, who really do feel invisible and discounted by Dáil Éireann at times. The motion goes some way towards addressing that invisibility, so I welcome it.”
“The office of Uachtarán na hÉireann represents who we are, who we want to be and what message we wish to send to the world. In the past 30 years, we have seen how powerful that voice can be for all Irish people in the South and North, and indeed across the world. Therefore, this is not a signal of a vote granted in a meaningless election but something that is important and that sees us embark on a journey towards enfranchisement. We must consider all elements of the Good Friday Agreement. When we base our discussion on this, we also need to address any concerns over cross-community engagement, which is crucial, and legal clarity over jurisdiction. We support this motion. As a graduate of Ulster University and somebody with a network that spans our internal border, I feel very strongly about this issue.”
“When we talk about the principles of franchise, they must flow from that principle laid down in Article 2 - an Irish nation which is inclusive where, no matter your background, if this your home, you belong here. An extension of franchise should not indicate that the presidential election does not matter. Sometimes we hear this commentary that the role of the President is not important anyway and that it is a figurehead position with little function. That argument undermines key principles of how our State is structured because the role of the President speaks to our separation of powers and how important it is to build in those checks and balances. The President is the guardian of Bunreacht na hÉireann and she or he is the representative of the Irish people.”
“We then come to those who are born here, live here and who cannot vote because Article 2 of our Constitution states: "It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation." Despite this, some people who are born here, have spent their whole lives here and who know no other home cannot vote in presidential elections or general elections because their parents are not Irish. We celebrate the new Irish, we are grateful for their contributions but we will not include them, just as we celebrate Irish citizens in the North whom we do not include. All of this happens despite the Twenty-seventh amendment allowing for us to extend these people citizenship as their birthright, as we have heard from other speakers.”
“They need better resourcing and better logistical support, which will inform this key pillar of our democracy. The commission has taken huge steps in making it easier to register and to check and update details but there is a huge amount more that needs to be done. Requiring citizens on this island who we know reside here to register is, in itself, disenfranchising. Every barrier between a citizen and a ballot box is another attempt to exclude. I understand there has to be verification mechanisms and I understand the importance of the integrity of elections, but we are an outlier with our need to take the step to register to vote. The deadlines around that registration are also an issue. All of that curbs people's ability to participate in our democracy and I believe it is something we have to address.”
“Finally, I make the point that extending this particular franchise should not indicate in any way that the presidential election itself does not matter. There are flaws within the electoral register we need to address to make the extension of the franchise workable. Obviously, the establishment of an Coimisiún Toghcháin and the work it has done to date is very welcome but we know there is a huge workload for it to deal with to get to where we need to be. Duplication of registrations on county registers and between counties in an issue, with no system for accounting for death and emigration. We have a disjointed system, handled by local authorities which do not have the resources or the systems to manage some of these gaps in the register.”
“At times, they feel invisible and this is one way we can show they are valued and they are seen by us in Dáil Éireann. However, there are some points which we need to consider in the context of this motion and the broader debate and that is what I will use my time on today. Specifically, there are huge flaws in our electoral register which need to be addressed in order to make this, or indeed any big changes like this, workable. Requiring citizens on this island whom we know reside here to register is, in itself, disenfranchising. We also cannot forget that in this discussion, due to the twenty-seventh amendment, some people who are born here and who have spent their whole lives here are not entitled to vote in anything beyond local elections.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. Molaim Sinn Féin as ucht an rúin seo a chur os comhair na Dála. Caithfimid, i gcomhthéacs an ullmhaithe d’athrú bunreachtúil, smaoineamh anois faoin gcaoi a bhfuil muid ag caitheamh le saoránaigh na hÉireann ó Thuaidh. We in the Social Democrats support the extension of the franchise for the presidential election to both recent emigrants and to those Irish people living in Northern Ireland. We support a united Ireland. As the Good Friday Agreement recognises the birthright of people in the North, and as the constitutional convention recommended - as we have heard - the extension of the vote to those people, we feel this motion goes some way to addressing that. Irish people in the Six Counties feel ignored.”
“The issue will be examined again next month and then, again, nothing will happen while people in Gaza continue to be slaughtered. In abandoning the people of Gaza, the EU has abandoned its own values. I am not sure why anyone would take its so-called commitments to human rights and international law seriously ever again. I am asking the Taoiseach: are you ashamed of the EU?”
“Speaking of which, Taoiseach, are you ashamed of the EU? I know I am. Its descent into moral turpitude has been both swift and shocking. Its silence on Gaza is deafening. No matter what depravity is committed by Israel, the EU refuses to act. No matter how high the death toll, no matter how many children are brutalised, no matter the mass murder, maiming, starvation and decimation, nothing has prompted any action. Israel's genocide has continued unimpeded and uninterrupted by the EU. It has not even managed to agree a joint criticism of Israel yet. A few days ago, I thought there might finally be some action. A review of the EU-Israel association agreement found that Israel was in breach of its human rights obligations but instead of suspending the agreement, the EU did nothing.”
“We have many complex areas of law that can be impenetrable to ordinary people but we cannot let that complexity unfairly deny people the chance to use that law and access justice. Without adequate civil legal aid and timely handling of cases, people cannot afford to use the courts to seek protection even when they have a good case. Those are the features I wanted to raise. I welcome that this error in transposition is being remedied. I look forward to seeing future legislation and a framework that will support artists in the protection of their work.”
“We need a regulatory framework that will keep pace with those new forms of theft of work. If we do not protect the right of creators to their creative work, we will see an atrophy of that creative work and such a loss to our culture here in Ireland. Finally, I wish to speak about access to justice and fair procedure which is a feature of this Bill. The responsibility for adjudicating these matters under this Bill is to be moved to the Circuit Court. While that is a step which strengthens fair procedure, it is vital that the system does not preclude those without the means to take a case from the getting justice they deserve. Civil legal aid in this country is inadequate. We are talking about a group of people who are often just trying to scrape by and cannot access expensive legal representation.”
“I was recently at an AI event where one of the contributors explained that we have 12 Booker Prize winners in Ireland and all 12 works have been taken by Meta to feed its AI machine without the permission of a single one of those authors. This is their voices being stolen, their work being used without their permission, and people are profiting off that voice without giving them their fair share. This sits within that wider context and something that we have to look towards much more progressive legislation for. Not only must they continue to contend with online piracy, but AI companies are illegally scraping that work, training models on their voices, their music, their words, their art, in order that they can feed artificial intelligence machines which will pump out artificial culture and artificial art.”
“It is vital that we do better as a society to support artists through measures around royalties but also wider arts funding and schemes like the basic income for the arts. I am a member of the culture, communications and sport committee and very much welcome the fact that today, or in recent days, we have heard that it will be extended. I will be looking for an expansion of that programme to make sure it reaches more and more artists into the future. Looking at this legislation, however, it seems to me that we are rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic because this is all happening against the backdrop of a world where more and more people are having their copyright violated.”
“That is what will help us get it right and learn from situations like this in order that we can fulfil our EU obligations and our wider obligations to the people affected by the laws we pass. Then there is the fragility I have referred to within the arts sector. As we know, it is already hard enough to make a living from creative work, and royalties and the like can be the difference for people in the arts between paying their bills and not. They sustain people in that craft which we all benefit from. That is important to remember because the arts sector itself is a small enough percentage of our population, but all of us, to an individual, consume arts and culture in different ways in our daily lives and we all benefit from it. "Ag tacú leis na healaíona", as the RTÉ ad that is on all the time goes. We are all consumers of our arts.”
“While core parts of this Bill are a legal requirement to transpose the directive, we should explore ways in which we can strengthen it even further. That raises two points, and they are the next two I want to explore. They are the lessons learned around the transposition and then, as I mentioned, the fragility of the arts sector itself. As regards the lessons to be learned around the transposition, we have had, due to this issue, over 20 years during which artists and producers have had uncertainty about the equitable division of royalties. The correct transposition is welcome, but we should not have to see these things come about due to court rulings. It is really important with this directive and all directives that we get it right the first time, and part of getting it right is that consultation phase.”
“I understand that coming off the back of a court ruling, there was limited consultation available for this legislation, but I am keen to ensure we collectively engage with stakeholders ahead of this Bill becoming law. Coming into politics from the human rights and equality sector, we always talked in that field about how when we develop law and policy in this country, it is so important that those people who will be most impacted by that law or policy are consulted throughout the development of that legislation. It is so important we make sure that we properly engage in meaningful consultation with those in the arts sectors who will be most affected by this and who, as we have heard from other speakers, have been somewhat blindsided by some features within this Bill.”
“Starting with fair remuneration for fair work, it is really unfortunate that we have had this state of affairs that has left uncertainty as to what is an equitable split in royalties until now. That certainty about the defaults gives some small protection against being taken advantage of, particularly for these artists, and it is an issue which obviously disproportionately affects people in the arts sector, which is already a sector where the paid-for work they do is often inadequate. I have many friends working in the music business and the movie business and it is just so difficult to see the commitment and the dedication that are required and the personal sacrifice people have to make to simply make a living within these sectors. As a society, we need to value this work and ensure cothrom na Féinne.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak to today's legislation. While I welcome the Bill, I will speak to some of the broader issues it touches on and deals with and some of the issues that come before us today. They fall into the categories of fair remuneration for fair work, first and foremost, and some of the lessons we should be able to learn around the transposition of the legislation and the errors that were made. I wish to speak also to the fragility of the arts and the creative sector, particularly in light of the wider technological context at the moment and what we see coming down the tracks in terms of artificial intelligence, in particular. Finally, I will speak about access to justice and fair procedure.”
“The corporate sustainability and due diligence directive came about after years of collective work, consultation and engagement. My concern and that of the Social Democrats is that the Omnibus proposals are really being rammed through without any consideration at the same level. Is the Minister in favour of all the measures cited in my question, particularly the risk-based assessment? Does he support their being removed? If so, why? Since this matter is about to be discussed at European Council level, we need more clarity from the Government on what it wants to happen. I have submitted many parliamentary questions on this because we need the clarity. Without it, we have a huge democratic deficit whereby we do not really know what our Government is going to do to shape this vital EU legislation.”
“It has been really difficult to get a straight answer on what the Department wants to keep at EU level and what it is seeking to be simplified. I would appreciate the Minister’s clarity on some of his. I urge him to provide more clarity on exactly what the positions are on this crucial legislation.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. I am glad to hear there are some elements still supported by the Government, but by removing the risk-based assessment for suppliers we are not identifying where the problems are. We cannot guarantee, then, that our clothes, food and phones are not made using slave labour or in factories like those at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, whose collapse killed more than 1,100 garment workers in 2013. A full assessment of low risk for one supplier is potentially being asked for, and this disproportionately affects SMEs. This is not better regulation. Harmonised civil liability gives certainty to business. That is better regulation. Instead, we businesses face having to navigate countless different legal systems.”
“Distributors are already putting labels on products in anticipation of what might happen, so all this would do is cause confusion if the Government were to roll it back. What is the Department's position, as opposed to that of the Department of Health, on the matter?”
“I have not had a drink of alcohol in thirteen and a half years. Alcohol and its negative impacts have played a huge part in my life. I say this and share it because there is hardly a family in Ireland which has not had the same experience. Once again, therefore, what is the Department's position? I know very well that I can seek an answer from the Minister for Health about her position, but the Minister of State has just told me that his Department has corresponded with the Minister for Health on this. What is he trying to say? This is not a new thing. It has been the subject of full consultation. It was introduced by the Taoiseach back in 2018, and it is wrong and unfair to dangle it as a response to tariffs when it will not even help those Irish companies involved because it does not have an impact on exports.”
“If we kept in step with Europe on the smoking ban, we would still not have a smoking ban. This is our opportunity to mitigate a major health issue here in Ireland. It has the backing of the entire medical community. I need to be clear that this Department will not halt or pause the potential introduction of this.”
“The Minister of State began by saying that the topic of the question is a matter for the Minister for Health, yet on 6 April the Minister for Finance mentioned this, on 1 May the Tánaiste mentioned it and on 8 April the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Burke, mentioned it. They all referred to this as a potential measure in the context of tariff mitigation. I will therefore ask the question again. What is the Department's position on removing alcohol labelling as a potential measure next year? This legislation has been in the pipeline since 2018. It positions us as a leader in health measures, just as the smoking ban did many years ago. As the Minister has said, the reality is that there are European measures that we need to measure ourselves by.”
“What is the position of the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment on the introduction of alcohol labelling under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018? I ask this question in light of recent comments citing the potential halting of the introduction of this labelling as a potential measure for businesses in response to tariffs.”
“The property market prices have changed significantly over time and probably nearly doubled in his particular case. This is a problematic spiralling of house prices and Government having to mitigate that in this fixed band issue within the band system.”
“We would like to explore the idea that any discount voted by council should be directed towards lower property bands, or tied in some way to the average or make those people on the lower bands benefit more from the potential 15% discount than those in the higher bands. This is a disproportionate piece which removes the progressive nature of such a tax that is asset-based and instead puts it into the regressive category of taxes in the State. As I said at the outset, there are parts of this Bill which we welcome but, unfortunately, at present, it is problematic in respect of those issues regarding the fundamental flaws in the system, maintaining that decentralisation, disincentivising and tying people into tax bands. I spoke to a colleague just before I came here who told me his band has not changed for nine years.”
“We continue to tie local government's hand and purse strings and we will therefore continue to see people dealing with these most basic issues at a local level. We already see litter, lack of maintenance of paths, lack of community spaces and lack of services all due to a lack of funding. I will mention briefly - and this is something we may pursue as an amendment on Committee Stage - the disproportionate element of this. This is something that was raised by one of our former councillors who tried to deal with it on a voucher basis. Essentially, what he called out was that the current 15% discount is applied in such a way as to benefit property owners with higher value properties. The net discount they are afforded is much higher.”
“Regarding local impact, one of the few things our democratically elected councillors can do is increase the budget of their councils but this system incentivises them to lower it, narrow our tax base and have less guaranteed funding for our communities. When an increase to council revenue does not increase the money available to maintain their communities and support their lives, people resent the collection of local property tax. Of course, councillors will be incentivised to lower it and undermine what little additional budget it will afford us. When the council has too much of a surplus, it must go back to central government. The marginal increase in base levels is welcome but if we do not tackle the structure of how local Government is funded, none of this will work.”
“Those living in those areas do not see the benefits of the money being taken out of their pockets, or being put towards their communities in a significant way. All of us hear our constituents ask, "What am I getting for my local property tax?" Unfortunately, it is a question most of us really grapple with answering. This tax can work and empower councils to make our communities better but the system is set up to breed resentment and a sense of futility. The more local property tax collected, the more central government funding is reduced. This means people cannot see the benefit of their local property tax.”
“We must not only support councils with funding but also ensure the system empowers our democratically elected councillors. When we afford them so few ways to meaningfully impact the funding of the councils and the decisions on what the councils do, we open the door for people to resent democracy and lose faith in public representatives and the State itself. The other element of this I wish to speak to is the disincentivisation created within the system itself. Local authorities with a surplus are still only permitted to keep 22.5% of their local property tax yield to spend at their own discretion. A council that collects a significant amount of local property tax to fund its activities does not reap the benefits.”
“Ireland sits in second last position on both counts, just above Malta. More than 95% of tax revenues are raised by central Government and 93% of public spending is disbursed by central government in Ireland. This is the opposite of countries like Finland, Austria and Denmark. It is important to highlight all those countries happen to have some of the best housing systems in Europe while Ireland has one of the worst. This is a good indicator of the impact centralisation has. With regard to the wider democratic considerations of that centralised model we have here in Ireland, it is not just limited to local property tax; it is a wider issue in our local government. It is not news that we have a severe democratic deficit in our local authorities.”
“It reads: When the monitoring delegation visited the Custom House in Dublin, where the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage resides, it was informed that "local government had been administered and supported from this house for 200 years". The house was used by the British as the location where local government in Ireland was controlled, but after independence also by the Irish central authorities. This was a telling way of expressing how central government views local government - something that is administered and not primarily regarded as self-governing units. This same picture is reflected in the figures regarding taxes and expenditure. Eurostat collects data on the proportion of taxes raised and the amount of public spending by each level of Government each year.”
“Another concern was the insufficient financial resources and autonomy, where local authorities face financial constraints that hinder their ability to provide essential services, with limited discretionary financial resources identified as a key obstacle. The report also noted the centralised local government system. The report states that despite some functions having been "transferred to local authorities", they do not manage "a substantial share of public affairs", indicating non-compliance with the "principle of subsidiarity", which requires decisions to be made at the local level. A paragraph I will read from the conclusion of that report is quite bleak.”
“A 2023 report from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe found that Ireland was compliant in only eight out of 20 principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The report states "there is still a lot to be done before local self-government in Ireland is on par with other European countries." Ireland was found to have one of the lowest scores under the local autonomy index, with Irish local government scoring a rank just above Hungary, the Russian Federation and Moldova. Some of the key concerns highlighted in the report include limited democratic decision-making powers, where Irish local authorities have limited powers, leading to a democratic deficit due to the "imbalance" between elected councillors and chief executives.”
“It is unfortunate that pre-legislative scrutiny has not been facilitated for this Bill. I appreciate the timeline that is being dealt with, but I believe a shorter pre-legislative scrutiny process could have been facilitated rather than the full eight weeks. In his opening comments, the Minister said these changes were "fair and progressive". Unfortunately, the system itself is not fair. I would go as far as to say that some of the changes proposed here are not fair or progressive at all. The two issues I want to focus on are decentralisation and disincentivisation. Ireland is one of the most centralised countries in Europe. The local property tax was meant to address this, but the way it has been set up means it has made little progress in giving local government more autonomy.”
“While certain aspects of this Bill are welcome, such as the exemption adjustments and consideration for homes with defective blocks, it fundamentally fails to address some of the issues at the core of our local property tax system. These are issues that have long been raised by the Social Democrats. Our cofounder, Catherine Murphy, highlighted these issues from the outset. We would like to welcome it as a progressive tax. We support the local property tax and the protection of the tax base. This is something we campaigned on in the last election. We do not hide the fact that we support the protection and expansion of our core tax base. This should be a progressive tax as a tax on assets but, unfortunately, it is diminished because the system itself is so fundamentally flawed.”
“Under Standing Order 35(3), I wish to move an amendment to the Order of Business. Grocery prices are currently out of control and are continuing to soar. Compared to 2021, families are now spending about €3,000 more in the supermarket. Along with all the other increases we are seeing in the prices of energy, rent and houses, this is having a devastating impact on families who are having to choose between heating and eating or simply struggling to put food on the table. We need statements and we need them this week. We would like to see them on Thursday afternoon. We need to hear what the Government is going to do to tackle this.”
“The optional protocol to the convention against torture and the national preventative mechanism, if properly implemented, would mean that this is prevented and never actually happens. HIQA would have better facilities for both unannounced and announced visits. There would be mechanisms in each sector, meaning there would be an inspector of prisons in justice and HIQA for the healthcare and nursing home sectors, but they would be beefed up in terms of their strengths and powers. That is the legislation we need. Proposals have been in place for a decade but legislation has not been passed. That is something the Department should examine. What we need for older people is safety, security and certainty, and these are elements which can bring that about.”
“I want to talk about prevention because I come from the human rights space, where a lot of work goes into prevention. In 2017, when I was director of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, we discussed the ratification of the convention against torture and the implementation of a national preventative mechanism. We are still talking about that. Legislation has not been passed. That is something that can provide for the preventative mechanisms which will make sure that this does not happen because it goes beyond the remit of HIQA. It is a fantastic organisation in a lot of ways and there are really good people and structures in it, but it has been fighting constantly for an additional remit to allow it to do its job.”
“That is the vision of Sláintecare, in terms of healthcare and the public system, that we know we want to get to, namely, universal healthcare provision. We are also missing a trick as a population and Government. We talk a lot about automation and the displacement of labour we will see through automation. The one sector that cannot be automated is care. We can never rely on robots and machines to provide care. Yet, we continue to undervalue care in our society. Of course, it is mostly carried out by women. I am referring to care roles in nursing homes, voluntary care roles in communities and families and teaching roles. They are all areas where, if we actually placed more value on them, we could invest in our future, future-proof our labour force and provide for the choice we want.”
“When we talk about choice, what we are saying is that older people should be facilitated into their older years and their families and communities should also be facilitated to allow them to make the choices they want to make in respect of their own health care. If that means remaining at home or living in facilitated environments or nursing homes, that spectrum of choice needs to be available to them. In terms of public care, it is sad that we are seeing, as in so many areas, a trend towards privatisation. We heard earlier about the trend in direct provision where instead of building State-run centres there has been a reliance on private facilities. Similarly, in this area we have so much reliance on private providers when this is something the State should be providing.”
“Growing old is a privilege, one which, it is to be hoped, many of us in the Chamber will be able to enjoy. In Ireland we have a lot to do in order to deal with our attitudes toward ageing and the way we treasure and nurture our older population. We should not infantalise them, as we did during Covid. When it comes to this issue around care, we need to offer choice. The reality is that we are all living longer and are healthier, and are also facing into much more complex healthcare plans for people as we age because of the demographic realities. Choice, public care and prevention are the key elements we need to focus on this area.”