Sorca Clarke
Longford-Westmeath · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“Online platforms that promote and facilitate suicide need to be stopped. I commend the team of The Journal Investigates for its work in exposing these sinister forums, which are banned in other jurisdictions but accessible here. They prey on vulnerable people and they encourage them into irreversible decisions.”
“I agree with the Minister on the issue of consistency. I do not believe anybody in this House would argue against schools with the greatest need having the greatest level of support.”
“This is about fairness and equity. The Minister mentioned the HP deprivation index. In the HP index, Granard scores higher than seven out of the ten areas that have been chosen in Longford. This does not make sense. Sacred Heart has been a DEIS band 1 school for 20 years. Since then, the demand on the school has increased dramatically.”
“Are there some learnings the Minister and her Department can take from this situation so that no other school is left in this position? If Sacred Heart meets that threshold for DEIS plus, can the Minister ensure it receives that designation without any further unnecessary delay?”
“When DEIS plus schools were announced in May, St. Joseph's and St. Michael's in Longford town were rightly included. However, Sacred Heart school in Granard, despite sharing the same DEIS history and facing significant educational disadvantage, was excluded and is now awaiting the outcome of an appeal.”
“The additional supports that would come with DEIS plus, the extra leadership, enhanced family supports and the additional educational resources would make a real and tangible difference to the children that this school educates.”
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“I welcome this amendment. It is incredibly positive. For far too long those who have lived and who have endured domestic abuse have seen that abuse in other areas outside of the family home. To think that it could be extended to somebody who is suffering with their mental health is absolutely deplorable. This amendment is a good one and we will certainly support it.”
“It will pass the blame to anybody rather than taking responsibility for its failures. When did the Minister of State's moral compass do a 180° turn and enable him to decide this was good enough? When did he make the decision that this was good enough for the families languishing on council housing lists?”
“Every local authority has boarded-up housing because the Government simply refuses to fund them sufficiently to maintain the properties and return them to use. I have spoken to families who are sleeping in cars or living in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation or overcrowded box rooms and sitting rooms while 93 council houses are boarded up and rotting behind padlocks. I firmly believe the homeless figure is underestimated. I know of people who have presented as homeless and been refused assistance. I know families with young children who presented as homeless and were not only refused assistance but were threatened with referrals to Tusla. That is absolutely scandalous and it needs to stop. What is happening is beyond shameful. It shows up the Government for what it truly is.”
“I was going to start by saying there is nothing more insulting to families languishing on the housing list than the sight of an empty house. The Minister of State found a new insult when he stood up and said his policies are working. I tip my hat to him for having more faces than Clerys clock when it comes to the housing crisis. Every single one of those boarded-up houses is a constant reminder of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on housing. If they cared about families and children growing up in bed and breakfast accommodation, those houses would not be empty and the Minister of State would be moving heaven and earth to get people on housing lists into them. In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, there are 93 such properties.”
“For the Government and the Minister, it is now time to choose. They can continue as the financial gateway for genocide or they can shut it down now and reclaim what little moral standing is possible.”
“This is weaponised starvation, with hospitals bombed, aid blocked and civilians slaughtered while Israel raises billions through genocide bonds, using Irish approval to fund its reign of death and destruction. This Sinn Féin Bill gives the Minister the explicit power to stop the Irish Central Bank from facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds across the EU. This is not just about legality; it is about morality. We cannot be the country that decries injustice with one hand and posts the cheque with the other. Ireland has a proud anticolonial past because we know what it means to be starved, to be occupied and to be silenced. We will not stand by when it happens again to any other nation. The legislation is here to stop this. It is watertight and it reflects the will of the Irish people.”
“Ireland is being used to finance genocide via the Central Bank. We are the only EU member granting permission to the State of Israel for the sale of genocide bonds, bonds that Israel itself openly advertises as funding its so-called war effort. Let us be clear. What is happening in Palestine is not a war; it is a campaign of starvation, destruction and ethnic cleansing. Palestinian men, women and children are being exterminated as the world watches on. It is sickening and it exposes the colonialist underbelly of so-called Western values. In recent weeks, acute child malnutrition increased by more than 80%, the price of wheat flour increased by 3,000%, the World Food Programme ran out of food and the World Central Kitchen closed its operations. This is not a famine.”
“What message does that send to the 14-year-old girl at the gates of Leinster House this evening? What message does it send to those parents who are waiting in absolute turmoil?”
“Families are left in a cruel limbo. Parents watch as their children struggle, knowing that early intervention, proven to make a real difference, is being withheld because of inaction and indifference and because the system that is supposed to help is in fact failing them. Delays are not a glitch. They are systemic, persistent and unjust and that deepens inequality. They punish those who are already carrying more than their fair share of the burden. A legal obligation is not optional, and every day that passes without emergency action is another day lost for a child who cannot afford to wait. To hear the Taoiseach say this afternoon that he thinks the problem here is the law itself is absolutely mind-boggling. The Government cannot comply with the law, so it will simply change the law.”
“As well as being a TD, I am the mother of four amazing children, two of whom have autism. The assessment of need road is very familiar to me. I cannot say I have walked it, because you do not walk this road but endure it. You climb, you fall and you pick yourself up repeatedly. The Government's ongoing inability to uphold the legal requirement to complete AONs within six months is unjustifiable. This is not just a missed deadline; it is a breach of legal duty. More important, it is a betrayal of vulnerable children and their families. The assessment of need is not a bureaucratic formality. It is a key element to identifying and providing proper supports that children rely on to thrive. Delaying assessment means delaying therapies, supports and a chance of a more equal and dignified life for those children.”
“I know a young family who will be paying €1,200 per month for childcare, having paid €450 for a deposit for a child who was more than 40 places down a waiting list. That is a reflection of the level of need in the childcare sector and that is what the Government needs to get to grips with.”
“I would like to know if the Department has responded. I raised this matter with the Minister almost a month ago and I am still waiting for a response, which is, frankly, not good enough. Has the Minister responded to Westmeath childcare? Will she address the issues in Kinnegad? Towns like Kinnegad cannot wait on the never-never for a vague promise contained in the programme for Government with absolutely no reference to a timeline and no detail on a term of reference while parents remain on the phone night and day to every possible provider, not only in their own town but in other counties. That is the level of unmet need that exists in just one town in my constituency. I could go on and on about every other town because I am not aware of one service provider in my constituency which has capacity.”
“The parents are overwhelmingly positive about the service which has been in operation for 20 years but, be that as it may, that service will close and those parents are at their wits' end. There is no capacity in local services and no capacity in local towns. There is no capacity even across the county line. Parents who work, particularly over the summer, are beside themselves trying to find alternatives. Westmeath County Council is only too aware that demand outweighs supply, not only in Kinnegad but across Westmeath. It will work with any new provider, whether it is an ECCE service, a school aged team or those working with children aged from birth to three years, because there is unmet demand in every single one of those areas. I understand Westmeath childcare has been in contact with the Department.”
“My constituency of Longford-Westmeath is no different from every other one mentioned this evening when it comes to the challenges in the early years sector. Parents are facing high prices and an eternal struggle to find places, while educators constantly have to fight for better pay, terms and conditions. The Government's amendment will ring very hollow for one area of my constituency. Further developments and investments mean nothing to parents in Kinnegad, where the Montessori is due to close at the end of June. The Minister, Deputy Foley, spoke of identified unmet demand and unmet need. She should come to Kinnegad which is a perfect example of both of them. Those parents received notice that the Montessori is to close.”
“That is the very least parents, patients, future patients and the good staff who work in our medical services deserve. I will make a brief comment regarding the contribution of my colleague Deputy Brian Brennan during the previous segment. I do not think he quite realises how powerful his contribution was. I hope he will look back on the video because I believe he will then see it.”
“We know that parents sought second opinions and that there are cases where those second opinions not only said that the children did not require surgery, but that the diagnosis itself was incorrect. We also know that some children were pushed towards surgery on both hips even though it was only required on one. These revelations come as the completion of HIQA's investigation into non-medical grade implants in several children found severe governance and institutional failures at Children's Health Ireland. These failures cannot be carried over to the new children's hospital. These failures can never be repeated. Trust has been shattered. We have no confidence in the board or executive of CHI. Who could after this? The Government must appoint a new board to lead a major cultural and governance overhaul at CHI.”
“No parent should feel like that after a child has had surgery. At the very least, those parents now deserve certainty and clarity. There was a protected disclosure in September 2023 and the Department was notified in May 2024 but the audit that started in summer 2024 has yet to complete or publish a final report. I acknowledge the Minister's statements in the previous segment, however. A draft report on 147 case samples from 2021 to 2023 across 14 surgeons and three hospitals found that 79% of hip surgeries at Cappagh were not necessary, 60% at Temple Street were not necessary and 2% at Crumlin were not necessary. There is a question that now needs to be asked. What about those before 2021?”
“We all want to ensure that, as we transition to the new children's hospital, it provides the best quality care with the highest standards of governance, management, ethics, open disclosure and communication between families and medics. However, we simply cannot say that was provided to the children and families failed by the scandal of unnecessary hip surgeries at CHI. A scandal that goes back a decade or more and that happened under the watch of several Ministers for Health demands an extensive investigation. It also demands that those responsible for the failures be held to account. While the Government has known for about a year, parents tell me that they only became aware of the audit after The Ditch reported on it. They feel very strongly that concerns were hidden from them. That is wrong.”
“They have been left in crisis with nowhere to turn. These families expressed utter shock and, in certain cases, revulsion about the fact that the State spends so little on the mental health budget. What is being spent is well below both what was recommended in the Sláintecare report and what is spent in the UK.”
“Parents across the country have been telling me of the difficulties they are experiencing in the context of their children accessing appropriate mental health care. They talk to me about hurdle after hurdle and being handed off from one service to another service, with no actual proper service being provided for their children. One parent told me how their child had been refused support, despite expressing suicidal ideation. Another father told me that their child had been admitted to accident and emergency six times - three times for suicide attempts - before support was put in place. Another child was discharged from hospital without there being any follow-up support put in place or doctors being informed of their suicidal ideation. This is not only exasperating and frightening for families, it is deeply harmful to those children.”
“A total of 76,000 claims were received but he failed to mention how many have been refused. It is crystal clear that the scheme needs to be reviewed urgently. With the Chair's indulgence, I cannot speak about Storm Éowyn without mentioning another Éowyn, my daughter, who is also a force of nature but for good.”
“People were encouraged to apply for the scheme but staff in the Minister's Department seem to have been operating in somewhat of an information vacuum. When I spoke to them on occasion, they did not realise that constituents of mine had been refused payment. Their applications were still shown as pending on the computer system, despite my having the letters of refusal in my hand. Those letters were unsigned and undated. The lesson that should ring home very clearly for the Government is not the mantra that lessons will be learned but the RTÉ headline, "Do they know we're still here?". That is a question that should never have to be asked by anybody after a storm like Storm Éowyn. The Minister's figures suggest that the €6.8 million that has been paid out is for 28,000 claims, which amounts to approximately €240 per application.”
“An offer of hope was put out initially by the Taoiseach, followed by the Minister for enterprise in respect of businesses, by way of the humanitarian assistance scheme. This followed what was, and was predicted to be, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit Ireland. When that offer was pulled away for some, it really was like rubbing salt in their wounds. The Minister spoke of preventing hardship. A man in my area in his 80s who lives alone was very fearful of the storm. He used what little savings he had to get in some extra meagre supplies in order that he could stay safe by not leaving home. He had to put all those supplies in the bin when his electricity went and his freezer stopped working. He was refused humanitarian assistance. That is a new low. It is finding a new bottom of the barrel to scrape.”
“I echo what has been said regarding the response of the emergency services and those on the front line. I include in that another group, namely, the people who went out of their way who make sure their neighbours were safe. They are very rarely recognised. I know of one instance where an elderly man had been without contact with any other human for three days before his neighbours went out with chainsaws to take away the trees that were on the road and enable him to get out of his property. We should recognise people like that. My constituents were left with no electricity, Internet or mobile telephone signal and, in many cases, no water. Their homes, sheds and businesses were damaged. Their lives were damaged.”
“We want this scheme to continue and we want it to continue with the current rules with no new restrictions and the same levels of funding because the Minister has an obligation to protect those vulnerable families that are so desperately in need of long-term secure homes.”
“The emerging trend of parents with young children seeking emergency accommodation being threatened with referrals to Tusla is nothing less than repugnant. These parents are incredibly aware of the difficult position they are in - they are literally living it - yet the tenant in situ scheme, which has prevented some 2,500 households from becoming homeless has been in turmoil and there are hundreds of applications left in limbo. Any effort to restrict this scheme will put greater numbers of people at risk of homelessness and disincentivise landlords from engaging. Sinn Féin fully supports the tenant in situ scheme. Our alternative housing plan proposed funding 2,000 acquisitions in 2025 and 6,500 in total over five years.”
“For the past decade, with the exception of the period when Covid measures were in place, the number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been rising. There are 46 properties to rent in the entirety of my constituency, which is two counties, namely Longford and Westmeath. A very basic two-bedroom property is now well over €1,000 per month and an actual shed is €270 per week. The Department's homeless report showed that from January 2024 to January 2025 there has been a 17% increase in adults accessing emergency accommodation in Westmeath. The figure in Longford has remained static. This is cold comfort to the couple yesterday who were refused bed and breakfast vouchers for themselves and their four-month-old baby and who had literally no idea where they were to spend the night.”
“One word comes to mind when I see the trauma and hear the fear and upset in parents' voices, which is cruelty, because that is what this is. It is entirely preventable. The Department is well aware of where these children are and what their additional needs are, but the Department and successive governments have failed and failed again to plan. I want to be clear: this is not the responsibility of schools. This is not the responsibility of school leaders and it sure is not the responsibility of parents. The responsibility lies squarely on successive Governments. The Government needs to fix this and it needs to do so this urgently because each and every one of those children is entitled to the best possible education and to reach the best possible educational outcomes.”
“Every child has a right to an appropriate education. Year after year, we can set our watches by parents coming onto local radio stations, on the phone and through email to say that their child with additional needs cannot find a school place, only now it is the principals too who are on the local radio stations. Producers on those shows are ringing local TDs because they are so profoundly affected by the parents who apply to 20, 22, 23 or 25 schools and get 25 rejection letters. Everybody knows that if you have a child with additional needs, there are days when it feels like you are pushing a rock up a mountain. That is exactly the situation that our current education system is creating for these families.”
“The Minister of State is right that we are losing far too many people to suicide but that is the result of an understaffed, under-resourced and underfunded system.”
“Legislation to regulate CAMHS brought forward by my colleagues in Sinn Féin was kicked down the road by the Government, which then failed to deliver on its aims. The Bill to reform the Mental Health Act 2001 was put on the long finger and only introduced more than two years after pre-legislative scrutiny had been completed. The new programme for Government has less detail on mental health than the one presented five years ago. The Government's legacy is one of heartbreak and of children being denied every opportunity to reach their full potential. A constituent of mine, following discharge from the adolescent mental health service at 18, was told that the adult service simply could not offer the services she needed. Overnight, her needs no longer existed, according to the assessment of her referral.”
“In the lifetime of the last Government, there was an increase of 81% in the number of children waiting for a first-time appointment with CAMHS. There are 795 children waiting for a CAMHS appointment in CHO 8 area alone. There was an increase of 145% in the number of children waiting for longer than a year over the Minister of State's last term. In 2020, 9,689 children were on waiting lists for psychology. By 2024, that had grown to 18,368. On that same CAMHS, both the Maskey report and the Mental Health Commission reported children being misdiagnosed, mistreated and lost in the system. While the Government is putting €9 million aside for mobile phone pouches, the Minister of State's speech references the €2.9 million in additional funding for CAMHS.”
“We propose universal counselling and integrated mental and well-being services; a new child and youth mental health service to replace CAMHS and provide integrated early intervention services; additional community CAMHS teams, CAMHS-ID teams, inpatient beds and early intervention in psychosis teams; multiannual funding certainty for the clinical programmes for eating disorders, ADHD in adults and self-harm and suicide reduction; 20 additional eating disorder inpatient beds and community-based services; the full emergency department roll-out of self-harm and suicide reduction programmes and embedding them across primary care and everyday clinical practice; an action plan to combat loneliness and isolation; the reopening of Keltoi, the residential dual-diagnosis facility; consultant liaison psychiatrists and suicide crisis assessment nurses in every emergency department and primary care centre; and importantly the development of an all-island mother and baby perinatal mental health unit.”
“Our fully costed mental health action plan would transform services and give hope to those who need it by funding measures to two and a half the times the degree the previous Government did over the previous five years.”
“Statements and conversations on mental health are always welcome, no matter where they take place. However, we must be very clear and cut through the soundbites coming from Government not only since the election, but since 2020. There are many words that the parents of children who are not only not on a CAMHS waiting list, but who cannot even get in the door of CAMHS to be put on a waiting list, would use to describe this Government and previous Governments. This can be compared to Sinn Féin's commitment. Our position is very clear; regardless of where you live, if you have a mental health crisis, you will receive the right care.”
“I can count on both hands the number of times I have been stopped at a Garda checkpoint. Enforcement has a very big role to play.”
“That has an impact on road safety because those cars should not be there, but they are there because of the cost of using the toll road. Allowing the tolls to increase does not just affect the drivers, it affects road safety in other areas and it places an additional financial burden on the local authorities in those areas to maintain the roads they should not need to maintain to such an extent because that volume of traffic should not exist on them. I do not hold myself up as any form of mechanic and I would never give mechanical advice, but even I know that the chassis of a car that has been spot welded back together should never pass an NCT, but it has done. I am driving for 25 years, which is when I bought my first car. I have never been breathalysed – not once.”
“Based on that research and others, motorways are the safest roadways we have in our network, despite the high speed people are travelling at. In my constituency a significant number of people travel on the M4 to Dublin for work and leisure activities. The Minister must be mindful of the other decisions that are taken that have an impact on road safety. The M4 is a very good example of that. It is now the second most expensive toll road in this State. It runs parallel to the old road, which means you can either spend €1,700 a year to travel on a safe road or you can travel on the old road. The old road takes people through towns and villages. This is pushing traffic onto roads that were never designed to take such a high level of traffic, but it also takes people past housing estates, schools and pedestrians walking on the streets.”
“The Minister is correct when he speaks about complacency on the progress we have made. It is a significant problem. Every fatality and every life lost on our roads is one too many, and so are the life-changing injuries, where in a blink of an eye somebody's life has changed so profoundly, oftentimes because of a split-second decision that is made on our roads. I draw the House's attention to a piece of research that was carried out last year by University College Cork. It stated that three-lane roads with climbing lanes have fatal accident rates eight times higher than motorways. Undivided roads are six times more dangerous than motorways, and dual carriageways are three times more dangerous. The lack of physical barriers on undivided roads must be addressed.”
“I wish to raise with the Taoiseach the very serious and concerning case of a personal trainer who operated a rehabilitation and fitness centre in Mullingar. This man has been convicted and sentenced for sexually assaulting a woman he was treating for chronic pain and covertly recording 18 hours of footage of another 35 women in various states of undress. However, on release from prison, because of gaps in legislation and regulation, and despite being on the sex offenders register, this man will be able to resume the same work. This convicted sexual predator could return to work in the same environment-----”
“Survivors and their advocates had some hope the Government was prepared to make meaningful changes, that those survivors of sexual violence in our legal system would be treated fairly. Survivors navigate a justice system, speaking of how they were personally affected what somebody else inflicted on them, and those notes being introduced to a court creates further trauma. Survivors of sexual violence should never have to fear the system that is meant to protect them and to deliver justice for them. This row-back is simply not good enough, nor is the lack of clarity around the wording. That needs to be undone because this needs to be crystal clear. What does amending the legislation look like? What does the Government intend to do? More importantly, when does it intend to do it?”
“What has changed for those who have to stand in a court of law and face those who have victimised them and subjected them to such vile attacks? The answer is absolutely nothing. The trauma for victims of counselling notes being disclosed and presented in trials remains the same, and it stops people in their tracks. Victims' willingness to come forward, make criminal complaints and pursue justice through the courts is already low, and the probability of having their personal counselling records dissected and used against them is not a choice any person should ever be faced with making. The fear of having deeply personal and sensitive information dragged into a courtroom and scrutinised by the very system from which they seek justice has deterred many women from seeking that same justice and left others avoiding counselling altogether.”
“I will address the part of the programme for Government that references zero tolerance of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. We all know the devastating effect on victims when their personal counselling notes are used in court as evidence in rape and sexual assault cases. This has been outlined repeatedly by the Rape Crisis Network and other advocacy services. Last summer, the then Minister for Justice indicated that she was hopeful that preparatory work relating to banning this practice would be completed by the end of 2024. Simon Harris spoke about outlawing it entirely. That commitment, given so firmly last summer, has been rowed back on in the programme for Government. What has changed for the survivors?”