Tom Clonan
University of Dublin · Independent · Ireland
“It is appalling; you could not make it up. However, as this is a very grave and dark thing, they raised these concerns by way of protected disclosures in February 2025. Here we are, 18 months later, and no action has been properly taken. Those protected disclosures have not been processed about a child safety issue.”
“I thank the Senator. The Adult Safeguarding Strategy Bill that I hope to introduce fills the gap that exists in Irish legislation around adult safeguarding for our elderly citizens and for all of us who at some point in life will need care. This Bill is consistent with what the Government has set out in the programme for Government.”
“They told me one of them was informed of a child sexual assault or the potential for one - even a rape of a child - and under the guidelines, this requires mandatory reporting, so they set about reporting it to An Garda Síochána and Tusla.”
“A woman came into the clinic and expressed concerns - and I am sorry to use this language here - that she had discovered her spouse - her husband - was accessing child pornography images and films through his devices. These are crime scenes. This is the sexual abuse and rape of children.”
“This should be dealt with with energy and urgency, because all this talk about process is not child-centred. It is administration-centred and it is a classic HSE tactic to cover up, deny and delay grave matters. I want to know why this particular manager is pushing back on mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.”
“I thank the Minister of State for reading out the statement on behalf of the Minister, Deputy MacNeill. None of these remarks are directed personally at the Minister of State, but to be honest, ChatGPT could have written that response. In it, the Minister, Deputy MacNeill says she and the HSE cannot comment on individual cases.”
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Every one of 631 lines we hold for Tom Clonan, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 13.
“As Senator Costello said, there are some 200 people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy whose lives are slipping away from them. Do Members remember the kids who were caught in the cave in Thailand in 2018? The whole world came to a halt to rescue those children. We have children and young adults, beautiful Irish people, who are suffering in this way, and there is nothing. For shame. I am so angry. When I go home and look at my son and I see him struggle, I think that, for these parents, there is an intervention that can help them and prolong their children’s lives but the Government will just not do it. Action it. Do something for the time your are in this House. The other issue I wish to raise is the announcement that the triple lock is to be abolished. That is a major mistake. It is a fundamental error of judgment.”
“I was outside at 3 p.m. in the rain with five beautiful young Irish citizens who suffer from Friedreich's ataxia. This is a degenerative condition that causes consecutive and cumulative failure of the nervous and muscular systems. It is not a good way to die. I have had a sibling die a slow and painful death. I have a son who I now hear struggling for breath. Why are we allowing this to take place in our Republic? Why are they out there with their parents in the rain? One of the mums, who is from Clonmel, asked me why the Government has taken Skyclarys off the programme today in the Houses of the Oireachtas, and I do not know the answer to that. I suspect it is because we, as a society - you and I - do not assign the same human value to disabled citizens as we do to so-called able-bodied citizens.”
“I have the proof that this is happening. The Minister of State does not know and cannot know and therefore cannot assert that there are no weapons transiting through Irish airspace. That is a credible assertion. I want to be clear, when I said he was out of his depth, it was because I was interrupted and because the observation he made is manifestly and self-evidently incorrect. That is all.”
“On a point of order, the Minister of State interrupted my contribution to refute it. To be very clear for the record of this House, I have considerable consideration to what I said here and for it be refuted in that manner, to assert something does not make it so.”
“Danny Fitzpatrick, who recently retired from the Defence Forces and is a veteran of many missions in Europe and elsewhere, has just written a PhD on complex PTSD in members of the Defence Forces. He acknowledges that there are no proper provisions and no proper mental health supports in our Defence Forces. Our soldiers are seeing villagers being ethnically cleansed around them. In all previous interventions in Lebanon, the IDF has murdered UN peacekeepers. The risk to our troops is very real and present. We should not make any contribution to the transit of munitions, ordnance, weapons delivery systems or cluster munitions to that area.”
“I cannot think of another nation in the European Union that would permit or tolerate this. I ask the Minister of State to look into it. Our troops are witnessing the destruction of all the little towns and villages around them. They will have seen, as I did, the hundreds of children who come out to follow the Irish armoured personnel carriers. The vicarious harm and trauma of seeing injury to innocent civilians and being powerless to intervene is recognised in the international literature as one of the primary risk factors and accelerators for complex post-traumatic stress disorder. As part of the overall package, what is being done for our returning troops? What extra supports are being put in place to deal with their complex PTSD and the associated risk factors? Dr.”
“In lending urgency to the demands for action set out in the motion, I highlight that the Israelis are now carrying out ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, in and among the villages where hundreds of our young men and women - the very best of us - are posted. That really should prompt firmer action on the part of the Government. What I find really disturbing are the reports by The Guardian that the Israelis are using cluster munitions in and around Irish positions in places like Deir Al-Ahmar, Wadi Deir Siryan and the little towns and villages that we veterans know so well. Those cluster munitions are being transited to Israel through our airspace and through Shannon Airport. Under the international reciprocal agreement, Irish taxpayers are paying a financial contribution to the transit of those weapons for use in proximity to our troops.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. I commend our colleagues in Fianna Fáil on setting out this motion with clarity and detail. I thank my colleagues on this side of the House for their amendments. I echo all the sentiments expressed in this debate. We must be very clear that the blueprint for conflict in the 21st century is being firmly set out in Gaza. To the new term "urbanicide" coined to describe Russia's actions in Ukraine, we can now add "medicide" to describe the targeting of nurses, doctors and paramedics and their deliberate murder in double- and triple-tap attacks. A total of 70,000 people have been killed, the majority of them women and children. That is infanticide, femicide and patricide. It is genocide.”
“I echo what Senator Cosgrove said, that every child in Ireland should be taught in primary school how to grow something, whether it is in a window box in an apartment or in a back garden or allotment. We have to reinvigorate those skills. I thank Senator Boyhan for this motion and encourage the participation of women in farming. They are 51% of the population and women and girls are key to the future of this Republic and to us even as a species.”
“I would not underestimate the power and the potential of women because that was a female phenomenon. I understand that Ireland could in theory feed 60 million people. I agree with Senator Clifford-Lee that there is a major concern around food security. We are a bit obsessed at the moment about drones and AI and so on, but if you ain't got food, you ain't got nothing. I am shocked to hear that we have gone from 600 to just 60 vegetable producers in Ireland. We only have 300 potato producers. We really need to support farmers because it is essential for food security and our national future. With the changes in climate, Europe is the continent that is warming at the fastest rate throughout the world. Ireland will play a vital role in food security but we cannot afford to lose the skill sets.”
“Those two divisions had been earmarked to invade Ireland under the German plan, Unternehmen Grün , Operation Green, which was supposed to happen in parallel with Operation Sea Lion and the Battle of Britain. In that time of absolute devastation, conflict and crisis, the Soviets had to move all of their heavy oil, coal and steel industries east of the Urals and start them from scratch. They also had to do the same with agriculture. Some 99% of the labour in the oil, steel and coal plants and 99% of the labour in their farms were women. During that period from 1943 to 1945, all of the production records of the Soviet Union were broken and were never reached again, even in the sixties, seventies and eighties, notwithstanding the mechanisation and improvements in technology and so on.”
“I am proud to co-sponsor Senator Boyhan's motion. You might ask what a fellow from Finglas would know about farming. On my dad's side, they had a farm in County Meath near Killyon, Hill of Down, so I have been around cattle in the 1970s. I got sunburned on the bog in 1976, so I have some inkling. I wanted to talk about the great time of geopolitical turbulence in the 20th century, a time of dictators and unbridled aggression, something that we are sadly becoming familiar with today. In Operation Barbarossa, the Russians had everything destroyed, including Ukrainians. The Soviet Union was decimated in this scorched-earth policy. Two German divisions went to Minsk and Smolensk and predated the land and killed everything - all the cattle, all the fowl - and destroyed all of the land.”
“We are the only jurisdiction in the European Union with no parliamentary oversight over our intelligence agency, which is to say, An Garda Síochána. I have asked about this over and over. It is a matter for an Taoiseach to come in here and explain. We need to have a debate on why our Joint Committee on Defence and National Security has no oversight of defence and national security issues, particularly in the context of the largest atrocity carried out during the Troubles. What role did we play in that?”
“Yes, the British security services were involved in the bombings in Dublin and Monaghan. In the same way the families of Omagh bombing victims would like to know who was responsible and what was known here in the Republic, I, as a Dublin person, and, I am sure, many in this Chamber would like to know who killed the 300 people who died as a result of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and what level of knowledge did the security services here have. What makes us different? When I made the statement last night, the Minister of State who was deputising for the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, said that if I had concerns about how An Garda Síochána conducted its role during the Troubles, I should contact it to report them. That is nonsense.”
“Last night, after making my speech here, which the Cathaoirleach allowed me to do, I was contacted out of the blue by a very senior retired member of An Garda Síochána who gave me further information to corroborate this. So we know that the security services were involved in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. In the same way the people of Omagh would like to know-----”
“Given the scale of unmet need that exists, it seems shameful and unethical that the facility is in place but that the HSE has not engaged as it indicated it would. The second issue is one I raised last week during the debate on the Omagh bombing Bill and again last night. As a staff officer for the Chief of Staff in 1999, on the 25th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, I was approached by a colleague, a senior officer in the Ordnance Corps, who told me that on the day of the bombings, he had discovered a specific item of ordnance which was standard British Army issue. He filled out his ordnance report, and two days later he was approach by a senior member of An Garda Síochána and a member of the British security services attached to the British embassy and asked to redact it. He refused to do so.”
“I want to raise two issues. One relates to a healthcare facility called Caleb's House in Carrigart, County Donegal. It is a state-of-the-art residential setting, ready to go and fully staffed with healthcare assistants and a person in charge. Unfortunately, the HSE and the regional health organisation are unwilling to provide the required funding that was promised initially. We have unmet needs for adults with intellectual disabilities throughout the Republic, and here we have a HIQA-approved facility that is ready to go but nothing seems to be happening. I ask that we prevail upon the Minister to try to join the dots here. Some of our representatives from Donegal might see if they can look into this and expedite matters.”
“That is the spirit in which I address this, because in the same way we would like to know what happened to our families in Dublin and Monaghan in the 1970s, so too the people of Omagh want to know. The Republic was the centre of gravity in the logistics and supply chain effort of the Troubles and we should be ethically and politically obliged to tell the truth and step up to the plate.”
“As a staff officer to the Chief of Staff, I was approached by a senior ordnance officer at the rank of commandant who told me that he was on the scene of the bombing in Dublin and found components of that improvised explosive device that were standard British army issue. He believed that the British security services had assisted in, facilitated and supported that bomb attack. Two nights later, having filled in his ordnance forensic report, he was approached and asked to redact it by a senior member of An Garda Síochána and a member of a British intelligence agency who was based in the British Embassy in Dublin. He refused to do so. That matter should be pursued. Where is that document now? Has it been destroyed? If so, by whom - by which director of intelligence or other authorised officer in the Defence Forces - and why?”
“Given the prospect of an all-island settlement, this is an issue of such importance that if those individuals or officeholders, for example, members of the Defence Forces who were directors of intelligence, are unwilling to come forward, speak about what actually happened and give an honest and frank account, they should be compelled to do so. They took an oath of allegiance that requires them to uphold the Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann. We all did. It would be interesting to see them discharge their responsibilities and duties under that oath and not to usurp the authority of the State, the aspirations set out in our Constitution and the will of the Irish people. Of course, Irish people want to know what happened on the day of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.”
“However, is it not interesting that the one that was intercepted south of the Border was intercepted prior to detonation whereas the one bound for Omagh in Northern Ireland was allowed to continue on its way across the Border? We need to be ethical and upfront. As I said last week, we have a narrow window of opportunity to talk to senior members of An Garda Síochána, many of whom are still alive and might be persuaded to give an account of what actually happened during the Troubles and the role the Irish State and Irish security services played in that dirty war. We cannot stand on any supposed moral platform if we are not prepared to be upfront.”
“I outlined a number of clear examples of this. There has been little interest in these disclosures, which I find curious to say the least. That was the purpose behind the amendment I proposed. It is also worth noting that another car bomb, which was very similar in design and construction to the one that detonated in Omagh killing so many people, was intercepted by An Garda Síochána on its way to a roll-on roll-off ferry in Dublin. It was apparently bound for Cheltenham, to be detonated when members of the royal family were there. Similar to the bomb used in Omagh that went off prematurely, if this other car bomb had gone off prematurely on board a car ferry going across the Irish Sea, the loss of life and catastrophic consequences do not bear thinking about.”
“It was then transported somewhere else within the Republic and 140 kg or thereabouts of fertiliser-based explosives were placed in it, along with a time-powered unit and a detonator. It is my understanding that this vehicle was shadowed and surveilled up to the point at which it crossed the Border and entered Northern Ireland. If members of An Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces are unwilling to come forward to give evidence or do not offer themselves willingly and with consent, in the interests of truth and reconciliation, they should be compelled to do so. I am also aware that very senior members of our security services actively engaged - I do not want to use the word "colluded" - with all of the British security services, including the then RUC Special Branch, the force research unit, British military intelligence, MI5 and MI6.”
“Notwithstanding the ceasefires, a lot of activity continued. In relation to the desire for the people of Omagh to know what happened to their loved ones, there is an emphasis in the Omagh Bombing Inquiry on what the UK authorities or British security services knew. I know from direct first-hand experience, not from hearsay, that the Irish authorities knew a great deal about this bomb. Last week, I raised the fact that the vehicle used was carefully selected in Carrickmacross and stolen on 13 August. Even though it had a southern registration plate, it was an import from Northern Ireland - it was a Vauxhall Cavalier and not an Opel Vectra. A Northern Irish registration plate was then put on it.”
“I thank the Minister of State and his officials for being here this evening. I spoke at length with the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, about this issue last week. I made the point that this is a vocational House where we bring life and industrial experience to bear on legislation as it progresses through the Houses. Having been an Army officer serving on the command stand-to on the day of the Omagh bombing and having been a staff officer at the time to the Chief of Staff, who attended the monthly intelligence briefings, I am very aware of the security environment that pertained post the Good Friday Agreement and in the few weeks after the signing of that historic document. We were aware that certain groups continued to monitor, surveil and shadow very prominent members of society for assassination or abduction.”
“At some point in the future, if we cannot have some sort of an oral history project like we did after the Civil War, we should compel retired members of the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána, at the most senior levels, to give their accounts of what actually happened during the Troubles.”
“He was visited at home two days later by a senior member of An Garda Síochána and a person from the British intelligence services who was attached to the British embassy. He was asked to redact his report but he refused to do so. In the same way that we would like to know who carried out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, I know that our brothers and sisters in Northern Ireland would like to know with equal earnestness and interest who carried out the bomb that killed so many people in Omagh. There is an onus upon us and it behoves to be honest and ask the right questions.”
“We cannot have peace and reconciliation without truth. In May 1974, when I was seven years old, I was in town with my mother and grandmother. I was an altar boy in St. Canice's Church in Finglas, if you can believe it. We were getting my communion outfit. We were up around Henry Street when the devices went off in the Dublin bombings, which led to the deaths of 33 people and left 300 injured. What I remember about it was there was a bang and all the pigeons flew upwards. However, in 1999, when I was staff officer for the Chief of Staff, I was approached by a senior ordnance officer - I will be very brief - who disclosed to me that as an Army ordnance officer at the scene, he recovered a time-powered unit and detonator that were consistent with British Army issue. He filed that in his ordnance report.”
“We know from the Smithwick tribunal of inquiry and investigations into the killings of senior RUC officers Buchanan and Breen after they left Dundalk Garda station that there was collusion on all sides of the Border, between An Garda Síochána, which is the primary intelligence agency of the State, MI5, MI6, the RUC, RUC special branch, GCHQ - signals in Cheltenham - British Army intelligence, the force research unit, the Provisional IRA and loyalist groups. There was collusion on all sides. I would like to know if there are any plans for the Irish Government to explore that because in advance of any all-island settlement, we need to fully understand how we, if you like, fought the Troubles from the point of view of the Republic. I think we have to be intellectually and ethically honest about it.”
“I know there is a kind of queasiness to ask people to give an account of what happened on their watch after the issue around the Boston tapes, but our grandparents and great-grandparents made a very good job of trying to find out what actually happened. I think that is something the Minister and Government should consider in the narrowing window of opportunity to find out what actually happened during the Troubles. It was a dirty war and it was fought on all sides in a dark manner.”
“In regard to the stated intent of the inquiries to find out what the UK authorities knew, I would say they knew a certain amount but the Irish authorities certainly knew a lot more. My concern would be that An Garda Síochána had knowledge of the preparation of this device and may have been aware of its location and direction of travel until it exited our jurisdiction and went into the Six Counties. A lot of the people, including the director of intelligence who was in post at that time and senior members of An Garda Síochána, are still alive. However, the window of opportunity to do something like we did after the Civil War, when we took an oral history from all of the participants in the Civil War and the War of Independence, is closing very quickly.”
“In the late eighties and early nineties, there were approximately 60,000 armed personnel in Northern Ireland. Fermanagh, south Tyrone and Armagh, where this attack took place, was the laboratory for the surveillance society. You would have had surveillance cameras and one armed person for every eight or nine civilians. Is that where you would hide your weapons and explosives and prepare your attacks on crown forces? No. You would prepare for them, assemble them and plan them within the Republic. We have known, in the military and intelligence communities, since the start of the Troubles that the Republic has been the launchpad and, if you like, centre of gravity for the logistics, training and planning of attacks on what we referred to as Northern Ireland security forces.”
“We were very well aware at that time that, within the Six Counties, and notwithstanding the Good Friday Agreement, Operation Banner, the longest lasting operation in the British Army, was still very much in place. At the height of that operation, there were approximately 10,000 to 12,000 full-time Royal Ulster Constabulary, RUC, members, 8,000 to 10,000 part-time RUC members, 10,000 members of the Ulster Defence Regiment, UDR, the largest regiment of the British Army, and approximately 10,000 part-time members of the UDR. Along with that, there were regular British Army units that rotated through Northern Ireland from Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn and Holywood. There were also what were called roulement battalions all along the Border, and these were usually elite units - the Parachute Regiment, 45 Commando, etc.”
“In a book that has just been published, Only a Soldier Knows: Life on the Front Lines with the Irish Defence Forces by Lieutenant Colonel Ray Lane, a very experienced and highly decorated ordnance officer, he recalls finding a site in County Louth, along the Border, where he felt that explosives of the type that had been used in Omagh were tested within the Republic. When I was an officer, from 1998 to 2000, I was assigned to the Chief of Staff's branch. As such, I attended the monthly intelligence briefs as a staff officer for the Chief of Staff, which were held on a monthly basis. They were presided over by the director of intelligence and director of operations and attended by all the general officers commanding of the Defence Forces.”
“That continued right up until about 2000 that I know, but I retired after that so I do not know how long that lasted. I have a couple of observations to make about this. The car was a Vauxhall Cavalier, which would be known as an Opel Vectra here. That car was stolen on 13 August, apparently, in Carrickmacross. Whoever stole it carried out sufficient reconnaissance to ensure that the car they stole had a 1991 Donegal registration plate. It was not an Opel Vectra but a Vauxhall Cavalier that had been presumably bought in the North of Ireland and then imported here. They switched the number plates and put a northern registration on it. Then they transported the vehicle somewhere and loaded up the explosives.”
“I was on duty that day on the command stand 2, a quick reaction force in Cathal Brugha Barracks which covers the entire Eastern Command, as it was then, up to the Border. We got word, through the military authorities, of this incident. At the time, we would have been routinely tasked to accompany ordnance explosives officers to go out and investigate situations like that. It was obviously in the Six Counties and just outside of our jurisdiction, but we were aware, through the intelligence brief at the time, that dissident republicans and other groups were still very active after the Good Friday Agreement. They were still surveilling targets, carrying out surveillance, monitoring people and selecting targets for abduction and possibly assassination.”
“I thank the Minister for coming to the House today. I very much welcome the Bill and the statement of intent of the Irish authorities to co-operate with the Omagh bombing inquiry. I sit on a vocational panel. It is one of the ways in which we differ from the Lower House, in that we bring to bear our life and professional experience in the Chamber. I have a couple of observations to make. On 15 August 1998, when the bomb was detonated in Omagh, it was claimed by the then Real IRA that it went off prematurely, so it was a highly unstable device containing 140 kg of fertiliser-based explosives. That would have been the bulk charge and there would have been a time-powered unit and a detonator of sorts.”
“The Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, are completely out of their depth. I have asked over and over again for a debate. We must get either the Minister or the Taoiseach into the Chamber to explain why we do not have a Minister for Defence and why the Committee on Defence and National Security is not allowed to ask these questions.”
“It has again been reported that cluster munitions, which ironically were banned at an international convention in Ireland, at Croke Park in 2008, are being transported through Irish airspace to the Israeli military to be used in places such as Wadi Zibqin, Wadi Barghouz and Deir Siryan, all of which are in and around Irish troops, where Irish troops are trying to protect the Lebanese civilians who are being ethnically cleansed. What country allows the export of alumina to Russia's war machine and says, "We stand with Ukraine"? What country refuses to inspect or find the payload details of aircraft, for which Irish taxpayers are paying the navigation fees, for weapons that will be used in and around young Irish men and women in the service of peace? We have a complete lack of situational awareness.”
“I am also concerned that Rusal, which is owned by an oligarch connected to Vladimir Putin, has applied for and received permission to expand the red sludge bauxite pit of tailings and slurry it has in the Shannon Estuary. This is being challenged by Limerick residents before the High Court. On 26 March, Paul Cunningham of RTÉ reported that the Minister announced that the Government had initiated two reviews into the export of alumina, which is now being used in the killing of innocent Ukrainian civilians and defenders. That was six weeks ago. What is happening?”
“I echo the congratulations to Senator Nicole Ryan. It is great news and I am delighted for her. Last night at 9.20 p.m., the Minister for Defence, Deputy McEntee, broadcast a statement on X: I condemn the launch of hundreds of bombs and drones on Ukraine last night ... Ireland stands with Ukraine and for peace. Yet, in recent years Ireland has exported millions of tonnes of alumina to Russian smelters in Krasnogorsk, where the high grade aluminium rods and bricks are used in the construction of the propulsion systems for reverse engineered Shahed drones and for the casings of hypersonic missiles. On the one hand, Ireland says we stand with Ukraine and for peace and, on the other, we allow the export of this material.”
“Not one of the agencies that support women experiencing domestic and sexual violence came out and supported me. The only person who did so was a colleague of the Minister's, Ms Paulyn Marrinan Quinn, a senior counsel. The questions we have to address as a society are why there is this tacit acceptance and why there is push-back, a word used by one of my colleagues earlier, when we try to address this elephant in the room. One assault or abuse every 15 minutes is completely unacceptable.”
“For the industry to claim that it does not have the technological means or the skill set to do that is completely and utterly disingenuous. It is a lie. We compelled the automotive industry to put in airbags, seat belts, motion sensors and tracking controls at huge expense to that industry. Are the tech bros really telling us they cannot use the same algorithms they are using to groom our children to switch that content off? It is not that they cannot do it; it is that they will not do it. Ireland has a leadership role in this, given how many of them are headquartered in our jurisdiction, and I know that the Minister is very proactive. A couple of speakers said that men need to be involved in this debate and to speak out. I did that and I experienced immediate and sustained retaliation for that.”
“There are significant challenges in dealing with An Garda Síochána and making a complaint and a report. This is an area that really has to be looked at. I have been reading about the Oireachtas joint committee on media and communications and the great work it has been doing in attempting to hold the social media conglomerates to account. The conglomerates argue that there are issues around privacy and identity that they have to protect and so on but that is all horse feathers. In the last two years, Palantir and other AI-enhanced algorithms and programmes have identified people, their addresses, their age and their relatives in order to kill them. There is nothing difficult about identifying people who are under age. No child should have access to pornography and the toxic content that is online.”
“I am not blaming the Government or politicians. I do not see the urgency in our society to deal with this. There is a tacit acceptance that women and children will be abused. That also extends to the LGBTQI community, where there are particular risk factors and accelerating factors. I would also say that 98% of disabled women have expressed a fear that they face significant obstacles in reporting and trying to deal with abuse. They are particularly vulnerable. We have that intersectional, interconnected, whole-of-society and whole-of-government set of concerns where fear of homelessness and precarious living conditions accelerate the risk and make people more vulnerable to this type of abuse. I have been dealing, for the last two years, with a young woman with an intellectual disability who was raped in State-funded care.”
“Every single person in this room, in these Houses or down on Grafton Street has this abuse in their own direct or extended family. One in three. It reminds me of the expression, and again I do not mean to trivialise things, that it is not the monster under the bed we need to teach our children about but it is the monster in the bed, whoever that may be. We saw an enormous moral panic being engendered over a very small number of people being infected by hantavirus on a cruise ship. The Government jet was mobilised, and quite rightly so, and people were wearing hazmat suits. Yet, a woman is abused every 15 minutes. To paraphrase Senator Clifford-Lee, I agree that it is no longer swept under the carpet but it is definitely the elephant in the room. I do not see urgency on the part of our society.”
“Senators Stephenson, Clifford-Lee and Flynn touched on the misogyny in our society and the patriarchal underpinnings that not only normalise violence against women, coercion and subordination, but fetishise it in every aspect, including popular culture, our so-called learned culture, our courts and every other aspect. In Ireland, one woman every 15 minutes and one child every hour - 24-7, 365 days a year - is the target of abuse. I do not want to trivialise this issue but if a woman was bitten by a dog every 15 minutes or if a child was electrocuted by a toaster every hour in Ireland, it would bring the nation to a halt. One in three women suffers psychological, physical and sexual abuse from an intimate partner. That is extraordinary. We all know this.”
“Curim fáilte roimh an Aire and his official. I commend my colleagues from Fianna Fáil on bringing forward this Private Members' motion. It is on occasions such as this when we get to speak in a collegial fashion that one can see the power of collective action and political will to deal with an issue. I find this issue very shocking. The Minister knows my track record when it comes to domestic, and particularly gender-based and sexual, violence. According to Women's Aid, a woman is abused every 15 minutes in this country. That happens every 15 minutes, 356 days of the year, 24 hours a day. It is an extraordinary phenomenon. We know that because these women have come forward with their experiences of abuse and have raised concerns. I rather suspect it is a lot higher. We must consider the reasons for this.”
“Will the Government actually do something and make disability allowance a non-means-tested payment to take tens of thousands of families out of enduring poverty as a consequence of the cost of having a disability in Ireland?”
“The disability allowance, at the moment, comes to a total of €12,400 per annum, so even the disability allowance itself does not meet the extra cost of disability. What is happening in the Aviva Stadium tomorrow is that non-funded disabled persons' organisations have not been invited to that forum. It is a PR stunt and a photo opportunity with members of my community - people like my son and wheelchair users who go there in utmost good faith, with the highest of motivation, and end up being used as props for press conferences, PR and spin. The Government already knows only too well what the cost of disability is, so there must be no more roadshows, lip service and this kind of performative PR and spin, which I imagine costs the taxpayer a great deal of money.”