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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“Earlier, I referenced three topics: the digital omnibus, the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the ECHR. I welcome Ireland’s moves on the EU-Israel Association Agreement but I want to know what more is going to be done. How are we going to keep the pressure on to suspend the agreement and bring Europe's response to the Israeli genocide into line with our actions against Russia? Second, I wish to ask about the digital omnibus. Last week, in error, I referenced the Fianna Fáil grouping as the EPP. I apologise for that. I sometimes get mixed up between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael; who would have thought it? I would be curious to know about the Renew Europe grouping. When I first spoke to the Minister of State’s Renew grouping colleague, Michael McNamara MEP in Brussels about this, he said there was more of a split in the Renew grouping.”
“It is not okay and I seek assurances from the Government, particularly as we approach the EU Presidency, as we are looking to take a seat at the UN Human Rights Council and in a time of increased global conflict, that the Government will commit to the ECHR and remove any suggestion to follow the Chișinãu process.”
“It is trying to say that we want the ECHR and that we have created this framework above member states within the European Union to which we are all accountable. Indeed, it is across the Council of Europe and allows us to ensure member states build their economies and societies within a human rights framework. The word “human” is sacrosanct in this regard, however. Everyone gets to enjoy those rights. To carve out a little bit around immigration so that we can essentially drop our standards for inhuman and degrading treatment and torture when it comes to those individuals is a precedent that I am not willing to tolerate and one everyone in this House should be enraged at. If we start coming after migrants, we are going to see various other groups in society targeted quite quickly after that.”
“Based on those conclusions surrounding migration at the EU Council, why has the Government committed to the Chișinãu process? What is the precise reason? How can the Government reconcile that with our previously outspoken record on human rights, particularly in areas like the Middle East and Ukraine? We are putting ourselves forward for membership of the UN Human Rights Council in the second half of next year. We consider ourselves as a State to punch above our weight when it comes to human rights diplomacy. What this is doing and what the Irish Government has committed to do in undermining the European Convention on Human Rights, ECHR, is launch a full-frontal assault on human rights. We all notice that it is not called the “European convention on human – unless you are a migrant – rights”. That is essentially what this is trying to do.”
“I would like to understand this, in particular in light of the security risks and privacy concerns around the European digital identity wallet. What assurances can the Minister of State provide that any digital omnibus package will address those vulnerabilities, rather than accelerate their adoption without the adequate protections that citizens require? I want to speak to something else the Taoiseach failed to mention. I will read out the direct quote from the conclusion of the Council meeting: On the basis of the lessons learned from the 2015 migration crisis and to avoid a similar situation, the EU is ready to fully mobilise its diplomatic, legal, operational and financial tools to prevent uncontrolled migratory movements to the EU and preserve security in Europe.”
“The Taoiseach used those words in his contribution. He said the work will reduce administrative burdens for business. It is deregulation under the guise of simplification and harmonisation. One thing that was lacking in the Taoiseach's speech was any reference to rights and protections. Normally, he at least pays lip service to the issue but there is nothing in his contribution about the fact that while we allow businesses to flourish and create systems and ecosystems for businesses to use technology to advance business and enterprise in Europe, we must also protect the rights and protections enjoyed by citizens and consumers in the European Union. That is, essentially, what the European Union is most proud of.”
“How will we keep it on the agenda and make sure that the EU-Israel association agreement, in line with its human rights commitments, is fully suspended? I want to talk about the digital omnibus, which I have raised on previous occasions. In the Taoiseach's contribution at the outset of this debate, we heard a lot about the competitive elements of AI and the enterprise and innovation space, all of which is welcome. I acknowledge that there is a place in a simplification agenda for small businesses, in particular, to address the duplications in different directives that require them to meet compliance standards in multiple ways. I get that. However, what nobody in the Government ranks seems to want to admit is that the simplification agenda has been hijacked by big tech to push for deregulation.”
“I welcome and commend the fact that Ireland was one of the voices in recent days to put forward the suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement. It is insane that that has not happened to date. Europe is operating with hypocrisy in sanctioning Russia but not Israel. I remind the House that the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement does not involve sanctions. Rather, it is the revocation of a privilege. Israel enjoys a preferential status in trading with Europe and to suspend the agreement is not to apply sanctions, which is what we need to do. Our first step towards the application of sanctions is dropping the preferential treatment we currently provide to Israel. What will the Government continue to do in this regard? As I said, I welcome that we were one of the countries pushing for this.”
“Will the Tánaiste stand in support of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as he raises his voice louder than ever before in calling out Israel's war crimes? And where oh where is our occupied territories Bill, which the Tánaiste promised would be on the Dáil floor last November?”
“Reports of double- and now triple-tap strikes are coming through from southern Lebanon. This is when the site of an initial air strike is hit again while medical personnel are in attendance. Four medical personnel were killed yesterday in Mayfadoun. These included two paramedic volunteers: a young man of 22 and a boy of just 16 years old. These are war crimes being committed by Israel and they are chillingly familiar as the tactics it has used in Gaza for the past two and a half years, with the death toll now rising to 72,000. Meanwhile, this globe fails to hold Israel to account. Why is the Government not speaking up more? When did it last push for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement? What is it actively doing towards that?”
“An interpretative ruling of this kind is really a form of quasi-legislation which in practice amounts to a de facto amendment of CETA. Even though such an interpretative decision might well – and probably would — involve a (potential) charge on public funds in the course of what might well amount to the de facto amendment of an international agreement, there would be no procedure whereby the prior consent of Dáil Éireann could be obtained in the manner required by Article 29.5.2. That is Article 29.5.2° of our Constitution. The killer point is that the defence provided in section 25A of the Bill only works if the claim comes before our courts. This is a false protection the Government is putting forward under section 25A. It is a scurrilous vehicle to bypass the constitutional protection we all treasure. It leaves our State exposed.”
“Does the Minister of State understand the ability of the CETA joint committee to amend the text of CETA, which is effectively what Mr. Justice Hogan described as "quasi-legislative" capacity bypassing the Oireachtas? If the Minister of State is wrong, we will be exposed for 20 years even after we signal withdrawal and possibly more given that the whole EU may need to withdraw. The CETA joint committee can amend elements of the text, adding to interpretations on areas where we will be exposed. I will read from paragraph 17 of Mr. Justice Hogan's judgment in the Costello case: Would the ratification of CETA be unconstitutional inasmuch as Article 25 CETA allows for the Joint Committee to give interpretative decisions which bind the CETA Tribunals, thus compromising the democracy guarantee in Article 5 of the Constitution? Answer: Yes.”
“This is in particular when we consider that the new section 25A(1) is not limited to the ratification of CETA but also includes the advanced framework agreement between the European Union and its member states and the Republic of Chile and, alarmingly, any other international agreements. To be clear, this involves rewriting our entire approach to trade. These amendments are set out to build in those better safeguards and the due diligence we believe is appropriate for any such activity by any Government. It is in that spirit that these amendments are put forward.”
“I will pick up on a couple of the comments from the previous debate which apply to this amendment as well. I am still dumbstruck that we had no pre-legislative scrutiny. There is virtually no debate tonight, or not enough. I agree with Deputy Gogarty in that as much as I value the debate on football, it could have been pushed back for a week and we could have had more opportunity to properly analyse this. We should have had experts giving their opinions on this. We have had so many expressions of concern regarding all of this. Putting aside the fact CETA will expose the State to investor state dispute claims and awards with relatively little protection, the Government's proposed section 25A will allow the Minister to make trade details with barely any Government scrutiny, so with hardly any due diligence.”
“The ICS, which is the body through which companies will seek award from this State via CETA represents a mere repackaging of the ISDS systems that have been denounced across the world by human rights groups and academics alike. As such, there is plenty of evidence and we are not misinterpreting what the ICS is. We know full well the difference between the ISDS and the ICS and we are not fearmongering.”
“In 2017, Vermillion produced 75% of France's oil and lobbied alongside several other companies against the Hulot law, which was a progressive French policy that sought the end of fossil fuel extraction and banned the renewal of exploitation permits. The mere threat of awards was enough to make the French Government backtrack on its policy and instead it allowed all current exploration and exploitation projects by oil companies to continue being developed without any constraints for more than 20 years. I could go on listing the many human rights abuses ISDS schemes have caused or the moments big corporations took money from taxpayers like with Lone Pine Resources versus Canada, a case that has been unresolved since 2013 that could see Canada lose more than €100 million.”
“In response to the Minister of State's comments on Deputy Ó Laoghaire's remarks, a single vote under Article 29.5.2° is sufficient to ratify and the Government planned to do that on CETA after less than two hours of debate in a situation where such a ratification would have had multiple breaches of our Constitution. The Supreme Court, in response, identified a potential but unvalidated path to ratify, but not to protect Ireland. I agree with others that the Minister of State's allegations of fearmongering are completely unfounded because we have seen time and again and have detailed examples of where these investor courts have been problematic. He should consider instances like France and the Canadian oil and gas company Vermillion.”
“I was at a round table today discussing AI and the regulatory gap because I see this same deregulation under the banner of simplification and harmonisation across all Government policy right now. I heard a European expert describe the EPP, the Minister of State's European grouping, as uncritically pro-business”
“If these concerns alone do not demonstrate that this agreement requires far more intense Government scrutiny than a discussion tucked away for an hour before home time, I do not know what does. This amendment, and many of the amendments we are looking at this evening, seek to strengthen the safeguards and the obligations of due diligence on any Minister in the handling of treaty negotiations and trade negotiations. All we are trying to do is bulwark against what I see as handing over our sovereignty willingly to arbitrary investor courts that will haul us over the coals. It will have a chilling effect on this House, on the parliamentary procedures of this country and on our ability to build any sort of just transition or build into our policymaking any social or ethical concerns.”
“The Government continues to rush ahead despite expressions of concern from two Supreme Court justices, one sitting and one former, Mr. Justice Charleton and Mr. Justice Hogan, respectively. Indeed, Mr. Justice Charleton has said that CETA has "...unlimited powers of interpretation of a vague set of principles within the treaty." This is a pretty concerning statement, but this Government does not seem to care and is instead ploughing ahead with a Bill that could have extreme consequences for us all. We should not be surprised, however, because it is an action befitting of this Government. It is trade at any cost, which leads to deregulation and rash decisions made in the pursuit of wealth, with no thought given to the long-term economic health of this country .”
“Sadly, I too would like to start by expressing my absolute disgust that this debate will be guillotined after just an hour. It railroads any meaningful analysis of the Bill. I am under no impression that most of our amendments are going to go undebated tonight and undiscussed. That a mere hour has been dedicated to discuss what will ultimately be a transformative agreement for this economy and for our future trading partnerships is deeply disturbing. From the beginning, this Government has demonstrated carelessness in the oversight of the ratification of CETA. We have seen that through the constitutional challenges. The lack of pre-legislative scrutiny for this Bill is scandalous. The Dáil select committee and the joint committee have heard no independent expert advice as part of the legislative process for this Bill.”
“I add my condemnation of the Minister’s comments and reaction as classist, divisive and harmful to people and to a sport that is the lifeblood of so many of our most deprived communities.”
“Niamh Tallon, founder of Her Sport, highlighted recently that the FAI and RTÉ both put out messaging that the men’s World Cup qualifiers could lead to the first World Cup qualification by Ireland in 20 years, which ignored the fact that the women’s squad competed in the 2023 World Cup. These standards and recognition matter in coverage. I mention also League of Ireland women because there really is something magic with that league. Today, I am proud to wear the kit of my local club, DLR Waves. The standard of football and incredible athletes we have in DLR Waves and across the league as well as the fan communities building around the country are phenomenal and I urge everyone here to get to a fixture.”
“As a staff member of a League of Ireland club said to my office yesterday, you cannot grow the game from success; you have to prime it for success. We have the potential to be a top-tier nation in the game and we are at an important and exciting time with growth in women’s football, so let us deliver for our domestic league, elite pathways and our national side and be vanguards for equality in football. Media coverage is another area that is important for the women’s game. It is great to see increased coverage of our women’s fixtures over the last number of years but we need to see this in broader media coverage.”
“It is fantastic to see crowds making their way to Dalymount after work for evening fixtures or families making the trip to watch a Rovers game in Tallaght Stadium at the weekend. The growth in our domestic game is undeniable. Viewership is up, attendance is up and participation across demographics is up, as are the crucial gifts to society delivered by football and sport more widely, like community, respect, solidarity, integration, friendship, health and well-being. However, in order to harness this growth, we must invest in it through the community sports facilities fund, the large-scale sports infrastructure fund and every avenue we have. The women’s game is certainly an area that needs continued and further investment.”
“Pitch space, especially in urban areas, is increasingly difficult for clubs to secure. Rosemount Mulvey Football Club in Dundrum have had to fight so hard for a second pitch and have told me of the very real fear of having to turn kids away because they simply cannot accommodate more members. While I am confident Rosemount’s particular issue will soon be resolved, other clubs around the country are experiencing the same pitch issues. Many clubs struggle with a lack of facilities for playing, changing and conditioning, and in Ireland only 34% of clubs at grassroots level have female toilets. We know what the dropout rates are for girls in sport so basic facility provision is an absolute must. We have to meet the moment when it comes to football in Ireland.”
“Some 63% of our domestic league players who are members of the Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland voted against Ireland fulfilling the Nations League Israel fixture and celebrated managers like Brian Kerr and Stephen Bradley have used their voices to condemn the sportswashing being carried out - and this is sportswashing. Week in and week out, fans at games hold Palestine flags in the stands to call for solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. This response by so many involved in Irish football is truly something to be proud of in the face of unprecedented attempts at sportswashing. As the Social Democrats spokesperson on sports people come to me with their many concerns about the funding and governance of sport here, including football and including my constituency of Dublin Rathdown.”
“It is also wrong that the decision was made by the FAI to participate in the Nations League Israel fixture. However, it has been heartening to see our domestic football community’s response to the genocide and to sportswashing. In November, a resolution was passed by FAI members to submit a motion to UEFA to ban Israel from its European club and international competitions. The resolution requested the immediate suspension of Israel from European competitions and cited violations by Israel’s football association of two provisions of UEFA statutes, the first being its failure to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and the second being Israeli clubs playing in occupied Palestinian territory without the consent of the Palestinian Football Association.”
“Picking up on the last speaker's comments, I too express my solidarity with Deputy Byrne and acknowledge the very difficult period she has been through and how well she has held herself throughout. I congratulate the Republic of Ireland women’s team on their win yesterday against Poland in the World Cup qualifiers. I will speak about sportswashing, grassroots facilities, the League of Ireland and supporting the women’s game at this critical juncture. Football is the largest participation sport in the world and the largest participation sport in Ireland. It has such potential for good in our world but sportswashing is a blight on the game and has been rampant over the last period. FIFA and UEFA permitting Israel’s Nations League participation while a genocide is carried out is both abhorrent and damaging.”
“It is not about what we are spending as a State that we are so enraged at but how we are spending it. The Government simply relies on market solutions. Where it spends money is easing it for private sector contributions which it expects will help citizens but which is failing again and again to do so.”
“That was something the Department spoke about a number of years ago but all we hear now is energy affordability. The Minister is denying the lived reality of many people in society who simply cannot pay for heating anymore - the 300,000 households which are in arrears. Those people are not being helped by the many, many statistics the Minister quoted. Yesterday, I listened to the contributions from the Minister’s benches on both the motion of confidence and the financial resolutions. In particular, I listened to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, who spoke about the real harsh realities that we as a State and we as a globe facing. Despite the constant narrative from this Government that we do not understand, we are well aware there is no magic money tree.”
“Many, including myself, are living from one wage to the next with little financial security. As a single mother, I do not qualify for support such as the fuel allowance or back to school schemes due to strict means testing criteria that do not reflect the true cost of living after tax. People in my position are working hard yet still struggling daily to afford basic necessities such as food, electricity and heating. We feel overlooked and forgotten despite our efforts to contribute positively to society. The Minister in his statement spoke about a task force for the renewables space, which is welcome, of course, but people are sick of hearing about task forces, strategies and reports. They want meaningful change in their lives and it is not coming. Another thing that was lacking in the Minister’s statement was mention of energy poverty.”
“I thank the Minister for being here this morning. I am very proud to support this motion. It embodies what the Social Democrats stand for - targeted supports which support the people in society who most need them at this point of crisis right now, and a long-term vision for how we can work our way out of these crises and inoculate ourselves as a State against the next one to come along. While I appreciate the Minister acknowledging our calm and civilised manner in the delivery of this motion, I can tell him that we are as enraged as the constituents we represent at this Government's continued failure to deal with the cost-of-living crisis that is reaching is every single life in this country. I am going to read to the Minister something from my inbox this week.”
“They were dealing with damp and mould and with local authorities who simply failed to fix it. The knock-on impacts and the generational poverty that we are baking in those communities and those families is hugely problematic. This is something that the Government must take into account. It is not just about the local authorities. While I appreciate that it is their responsibility, ultimately, to carry these things through, they need to be given the support, with both a carrot and stick element, by the Department to actually deliver for these families.”
“I am careful about what I raise in the Chamber as Topical Issues because I appreciate that a lot of this responsibility falls to the local authorities. However, in my previous role in the rights and equality space, I did some work with a group that was involved in a case that went to Europe. I want to reference that case because the obligation lies on the Government and does not just sit with the local authorities. The European Committee of Social Rights in 2017 found that Ireland violated Article 16 of the European Social Charter due to substandard social housing. The issues that I am seeing in St. Nathy's and other places in my constituency are exactly the same as the issues faced by the 20 different social housing estates that were involved in that case.”
“I thank the Minister of State for those details. I appreciate that funding is important but I assure him that the €31 million is not reaching some of the families that I am speaking to. I want to emphasise, as I did in my initial contribution, that this is not just about funding. The way in which some of these families are being treated is also an issue. There are complex ways in which people arrive into situations of deprivation and poverty. They do not want to be in arrears and for them to then be penalised for being in arrears and not be able to access other accommodation that is more suitable, which will then help to lift them out of all of the other elements of poverty, is problematic.”
“Instead of saying we will wait for the next tranche of social housing, which again is an answer that some of these tenants get as they are told they will be available in the next tranche, we need to fix the conditions that people are living in right now.”
“I also want to call out the work of local groups, including the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, that help families in the area. They see the situations that people live in, which are simply not mirrored in the private tenancies people enjoy in the same neighbourhood. This is simply not good enough for me. The State and the local authority as a landlord have to acknowledge this. It drives people into places of shame and stigma. As I have said, there are so many other ancillary and knock-on issues that people experience because of this. We need to look at how local authorities can provide for adequate standards of social housing in the portfolio of offerings they have.”
“This does not mean we need to jack up the rents, as happened recently with Dublin City Council, but by funding it centrally as a core part of what local authorities do and should do. I want to say from a human rights perspective how problematic this is. Obviously, we do not constitutionally recognise the right to housing, but if we accept there is a right for people to have a roof over their heads, if we do not provide for this and for adequate accommodation, it is so hard to realise the other rights that are fundamental to us, such as the right to education, the right to employment and the right to health. They are all impacted by the right to housing. Without a roof over our heads, it is impossible to realise them. I want to name-check specifically St. Nathy's in Churchtown, which I found to be in a particularly dire condition.”
“There were lovely moments with the children, speaking to them about their experiences. Despite all the odds, they really are thriving in various ways, but they are facing such awful challenges. Some children cannot bring their friends around to play. Their parents cannot have their friends around for a cup of tea. They have to time activities because the smell can be so unbearable at various times of the day that they cannot use certain rooms. They have to recycle clothes and toys because they get so damp and covered in mould. This is one of the areas where we really see the price of poverty; because they cannot fix these issues, they end up bearing multiple additional costs. We have massive housing lists but it is absolutely crucial that we have the funding available for local authorities to maintain the housing stock they already have.”
“There are blocks of flats all with the same issues of damp and mould but tenants are sometimes told it is their fault when clearly these are structural issues. I have spoken to families who have been told that while their living conditions are inadequate, they are not eligible for transfer because they are in arrears. We all know the complexity and difficulty that people go through to get to a point of being in arrears and how difficult it is to get out of arrears. To compound this by stating their accommodation crisis cannot be fixed really is hugely problematic. Their health and well-being are severely impacted because they cannot pay rent for flats that are covered in mould and damp. I will bring this to life for the Minister of State, because when I went for these visits, I spoke to some of the families involved.”
“I welcome the opportunity to raise the issue of the maintenance of social housing in Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown. I am a TD for the Rathdown constituency and there is often an assumption it is an affluent area only. I have to say I have made it my business to make sure those living in deprivation in my constituency know I will represent them in Dáil Éireann as the only Opposition TD and a new TD in the constituency, because many people in the community are simply forgotten. My team and I have got a huge number of queries about this and I have visited some of the homes to see for myself. I have genuinely been appalled at the standard of accommodation that some of our social housing residents live in. The key issue is that they are simply living in substandard conditions and I would like to get into some of the detail around it.”
“One of my main messages within that forum was that there was too much dominance of legal thinking and too little humility and compassion. In that exercise I listened to survivors of mother and baby homes. I was struck by how many of them have shaped their lives around their experiences. These people have got qualifications in human rights so they can argue their case. They have fought for decades for justice and to be seen and heard, and many of them will die before they ever see it. This current development is just another demonstration and display of this Government's failure to grasp that concept. When we as a State have so brutally failed a group of people, the Government and all of us must show utter humility and absolute compassion when we engage with people and deal with all of these issues.”
“The nub of the issue, in terms of the outrage currently being experienced within the survivor community, is the treatment by this Government and successive Governments of victims of State wrongdoing. The Government needs to display compassion, humility and understanding, but that is not coming through and has not come through in the context of the survivors of industrial schools, Magdalene laundries and symphysiotomy. The list goes on. Instead, what we see is a litigious, legally minded and legally focused response to victims of State wrongdoing and ultimately an attitude of waiting for people to die out and for the problem to simply die. In my role in a previous organisation, I advised the interdepartmental working group on the redress programme for the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.”
“It just makes me so sad that this is what this Government is thinking of doing and that it wants to phase this out, when we know that it works and we know that those families who host have got so much out of this. In my previous role, I warned that there would be a two-tier response because of the temporary protection directive and how much better its terms and conditions are compared to the international protection system. However, all this Government seems to do when it is presented with that problem is go to the lowest common denominator. There is a way we can make the system better for everybody without simply going to the lowest common denominator.”
“We will have more pressure on the private rental market and more homelessness. It is beyond frustrating and disappointing that we see this Government turn its back on those who have fled an ongoing war and who have no home to return to. I feel the need to say it is deeply wrong. I too have hosted somebody, not from Ukraine. This was a young man from Ethiopia who had aged out of the Tusla foster system. Tusla seeks out people who will rent out rooms at a nominal rate in order that they can get on their feet essentially in readiness for a horrifically competitive private rental market which few are ready for. I know the value it brought to him and to his life and I know what it brought to me.”
“Every month we are faced with spiralling homelessness figures, and instead of addressing that crisis, the solution being put forward by the Government is performative cruelty and pandering to the far right. This will not put properties back on the rental market for "native Irish", which seems to be the goal here. This will not make anyone's lives better. We will see many people's lives made much worse. All the words we have heard in the Chamber in recent years about unwavering support for Ukraine ring hollow when we see a measure put through that is deliberately hurting Ukrainians in Ireland. These are real people and real families involved in both hosting and being hosted. They are part of our communities, and the removal of this support means they will all be worse off.”
“An elderly woman has hosted a mother and son these past years, and if this payment ceases, her property will not go back on the market because she did this not to be a landlady but, as the Minister of State pointed out, out of solidarity. This family spoke about the vulnerability their Ukrainian guests face as they do not have the means to rent privately. They spoke about how this mother and son's home in Ukraine is rubble now and that they have nowhere to return to. They rightly pointed out that the war is not set to end anytime soon. Cén fáth, mar sin, a bhfuil an Rialtas ag cur deiridh leis an tacaíocht seo? Stopping this payment means putting an additional 40,000 people into an already dire housing market.”
“When the war in Ukraine broke out four years ago, one of the few pieces of hope and light in that time was the warmth, the generosity and the solidarity many people showed to those fleeing. They opened up their homes and provided those who had lost everything with somewhere they could feel safe. We talk about integration in this country and this scheme is a brilliant example of it. It formed the basis of bonds, friendships and involvement in communities in every corner of this country. These bonds meant that just last week we saw Ukrainians marching in local St. Patrick's Day parades up and down the country, celebrating the communities they are now a part of. One family my office spoke to told us about the bonds they have formed with the Ukrainian family they host.”
“The IDF is killing with impunity there, bombing civilian infrastructure, and forcing the displacement of 1 million people. My question is: how can the Taoiseach watch what is happening, not just in recent weeks, but for years, and continue to do nothing? When is the occupied territories Bill going to emerge from the black hole it has been hidden in? When is this Government going to act and not just think against Israeli violence?”