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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“In any all-island settlement, we are going to have to redesign public expenditure and reform, social protection, education and health, but we are also going to have to fundamentally redesign policing, the administration of justice, defence, intelligence and security. I do not believe that Óglaigh na hÉireann and An Garda Síochána will exist in 15 years' time. They will have been replaced by something like "Police Service Ireland" or "Defence Forces Ireland". Who knows? These conversations have to take place. It is suggested that we are going to have legislation put through this House before Christmas to abolish the triple lock. It is all part of the same conversation. I am asking that we have a proper, calm and rational debate, like the statements on migration last night, about neutrality and what the future is for defence on this island.”
“I will not take up the full three minutes but at least I have some idea. All these issues around defence, security and intelligence are coming together. We are not in a position to generate intelligence meaningfully. An Garda Síochána is the primary intelligence agency in the State. It does not have the resources, national technical means, signals, etc. It just does not have them to proactively generate intelligence. All these things together are bringing forward a very profound question around defence and security. Also, on the political horizon, we have a united Ireland. It is coming, ready or not and irrespective of what anybody has to say about it, it is going to happen in the next ten to 15 years. We need, therefore, to have a proper debate in this Chamber about how we prepare for that.”
“It is because of the erosion of Óglaigh na hÉireann over the last number of years. It also brings to the fore the fact that we are not in a position to provide the basic, minimum level of security for our Presidency of the European Union. I do not have a watch, Chair. I apologise; I do not know where I am on the time.”
“I raise a number of colliding issues that are of great urgency. One is the presence of a Russian spy ship, Yantar , not far from Irish waters. This is a surveillance vessel which is part of the Russian order of battle. It has been in Irish waters almost consistently for a number of years now. It is obvious, based on the circumstances, that it is mapping not just our subsea oceanic fibre optic cables that connect transatlantically and carry one third of European Union data between Ireland and the United States, but all the cables that connect continental Europe with the United States. These pass through Irish waters at some point where they drop off the continental shelf. It is clear that we do not have the capacity to sufficiently monitor or intercept or shadow these vessels, and that is through no fault of our Naval Service.”
“We must reclaim our Tricolour - the gold, white and green of a thousand welcomes. Our flag is gold, white, green, black, yellow and brown, and pre-heart attack pink if someone looks at me. I welcome and commend this debate. We should be allowed to show leadership and have this debate without fear of censure or calumny and accusations of everything from racism to xenophobia.”
“She now teaches Spanish in a secondary school. She taught my daughter Spanish. There is Charity, Agata, the Carolines - Caroline T, Caroline Melissa and Caroline C - Ngwenya - call me Gwen - Ade, Fayomi - call me Femi - Guo Guan - call me Kenny - Dragan, and Mohammed - call me Mo. These are all undocumented, in many cases, young men and women of military service age who have looked after my family and are part of my family. I welcome this debate because we have to come up with a humane and sensible mechanism for dealing with migration. If we do not and are afraid to discuss it and are censored or cancelled then we hand the discussion over to people who are not humane, who hide behind our Tricolour and dominate the discourse. We must take that high ground and show leadership in this House.”
“There is Maryam, Andresa, Camille, Camilla, Percivale - call me Percy - Nyara, Dzerzhinsky - call me Darren - Alici, Viktoria - call me Vicky - Fatima, Nana, Vileja, Oseweza - call me Suzy - and Tedeku - call me Teddy. Arjan and Bibbin are two beautiful young Indian men who look after my son's most intimate care needs. Arjan, the most beautiful young man one will see, told me that people are looking at him in a way that makes him feel frightened. There is Samuel, who, after the Dublin riots, will not go to O'Connell Street and the Ilac Centre where my son used to get a free frappuccino and a puppuccino for the dog. For shame. Fatima, Nana, Vileja, Oseweza, Tedeku, Arjan, Bibbin, Abiba. I asked Abiba why she picked Ireland. She said she ended up here because of a threat that was made to her life.”
“There is a book called The Book of Invasions, which is a pseudohistory written to try to give some sort of a hagiography to Ireland. They talked about Fir Bolg and Tuatha Dé Danann. Fir Bolg means small men with a big belly. Therefore, genetically my Irishness is proven here. However, The Book of Invasions has been discredited. Anybody who talks about the arrival of new Irish as an invasion or deluge is equally invalidated and discredited. Who are the people who are coming? There is Giovanni, who, like my mother used to lick her hand to smooth my hair, will not allow my son to leave the house unless his hair is fixed properly, and who fixes his t-shirt to make sure that he looks well.”
“Maybe we should be sent home. Some of us migrating from the Central Eurasian steppe became Visigoths and Ostrogoths in west and east Europe. Travelling across - I will bypass the Saxons - there were the Celts. We have the genetic imprint of our brothers and sisters from the Central Eurasian plain. We also have a strong genetic imprint from Galicia. They came up on the Gulf Stream and settled here. Who are the Irish? We are everybody. When a person goes to Stockholm, Oslo or Portugal, they see Irish faces - our own faces. I see my face in an African face or an Asian face. I see my face in every human being’s face. There is no other; we are all human beings. We all deserve to live where we choose, albeit within the framework of a sensible, humane and just system of evaluation. That is who we are.”
“We can accommodate and accept all change as part of this ongoing flux and change in our culture. On the question of the indigenous Irish or aboriginal Irish, who are we? Homo sapiens has been around for about 250 000 years with this software installed. Continental Europe has been inhabited by homo sapiens for about 50,000 years, but interestingly, Ireland has only been continuously inhabited for about 10,000 years, so who are we? The clue is in the name - Hibernia, the winter island. The Romans came - "Veni, vidi, vici; I came, I saw, I conquered." They came, they saw, they shivered. We can imagine the Italians arriving in Ireland, which was full of forests with the Irish looking out at them and they decided not to stay. So, who are the Irish? Genetic testing shows that we come from steppe herders from the Central Eurasian plain.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome this motion on migration and commend my colleagues in Fine Gael on bringing forward this very important debate. I particularly welcome the publication of a new migration and integration strategy, and I hope I have time at the end to elaborate on that a little. There are concerns expressed by some voices in Irish society, and Senator Byrne mentioned extremes on both sides. They talk about the indigenous aboriginal Irish and they talk about protecting our culture. Culture is not fixed but rather it evolves. It is a vibrant, living, emerging thing. If a culture is fixed, it is dead and it no longer exists. We should not have concerns and we should be confident as Irish people about our culture and how it has travelled globally.”
“By what international authority? If we do that, it will have no legal standing. It will be de facto an invasion or occupying force. I say especially to our Fianna Fáil colleagues that they need to ask questions of their Minister. He has been publishing statements on digital platforms that show that he is clearly out of his depth, making factually inaccurate observations about the EU's involvement in international conflict. We really need to have a serious debate here in this House because the Government is setting its face against the Irish people. It is a serious error of judgment to go ahead and abolish the triple lock. We should instead invest in our defences and our sovereign neutral status. We cannot even defend ourselves during the Presidency of the European Union. We need to have a proper debate.”
“As I correctly predicted on that committee over and over again, the days of peacekeeping are over. That term should not be used by Ministers in our Cabinet to describe the activities and the potential future activities of Irish soldiers in any mandated or non-mandated mission going forward. The stability force that is proposed will most likely be dominated by Sunni troops, probably from the Turkish military or the Gulf states, and it will be a fighting force. Hamas has already declared that it will not accept it. That is the future of our foreign deployments. Notwithstanding the merits or demerits of that UN Security Council resolution, by what international authority will we send our troops overseas in the absence of a triple lock? Will we accept a decision from Brussels, from the EU military staff, from NATO?”
“It is the sum of all fears as the parent of an 18-year-old, a 21-year-old, a 23-year old and a 24-year-old. Your heart is in your mouth when they go out and you just want them to come home. My heart and my deepest sympathies go out to the families and friends in the communities who have lost those five beautiful young people. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha dílse. I want to raise again the issue of the triple lock. The Cathaoirleach and I have sat on the defence and national security committee and have heard expert after so-called expert tell us that there will be no more Security Council resolutions. Lo and behold, we have one for an international stability force in Gaza, to be headed up by no less a personage than President Trump, with Tony Blair as his second-in-command.”
“After this presidential election, whatever the outcome, I would like to see a debate in this Chamber about the language and the vocabulary that we need to mobilise to protect these Houses and our democratic processes.”
“I noticed last night on Virgin Media how tired Heather Humphreys looked and I have seen over the last couple of weeks how tired Deputy Catherine Connolly is. There is a cohort of would-be candidates here, though, who did not put in the footwork and did not canvass sufficiently to get their signatures. We all know, every single one of us, including the Cathaoirleach and the Leader, that the calculus of numbers is harsh. If you do not have the numbers then you do not get to sit on this seat. You do not get to represent the people who put us here. There is a growing authoritarian and coercive voice in Irish society, which transplants onto the right, that is demanding that we subvert our democratic processes and that is demanding that we spoil the vote.”
“Those voices, with their growing anger, discontent and disrespect for our democratic processes, are now asking us to spoil the vote. I find that reprehensible and unacceptable. I will tell the House why. Today, I hosted a group of disabled citizens in Buswells Hotel who are advocating for their role and status in society. Some of them have to be lifted out of bed in the morning, hoisted, toileted and dressed, yet they got in here to make their point in a respectful manner. In The Helix in DCU last week, we had dozens of disabled citizens and carers. Despite the enormous challenges they face, they came in to participate in our democratic process. Now, I do not agree with many of the positions put forward by some of the candidates but I respect each and every one of them and I wish them well in this contest.”
“I raise the difference between political ambition and political entitlement. It has come very much to the fore during this presidential campaign. Ambition is when you are not happy with the state of affairs and the status quo and not happy with your role and status in life. To change that situation, though, you put the work in. We have seen two candidates who have put considerable work in over the past number of weeks. It is a bruising contest. Entitlement, then, is when someone is not happy with the status quo , but it is everyone else's fault. During this presidential election campaign, unfortunately, we have seen a growing number of voices and a clamour for those who feel that somehow they should be entitled to be on the ballot without having actually done the work.”
“I do not think that just because something yields revenue to the State it should be an injustice that is perpetrated on families like the Sextons and all our families. I appreciate the answer, but I would be grateful if the Minister of State could ask the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, to consider righting this wrong.”
“Unfortunately, we live in an era of moral legalism. It may well be the case that the Attorney General argues that it does not breach the Equal Status Acts, but it is clearly wrong. In a time of moral legalism it has never been more difficult to tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong. I put it to the Minister of State that it has never been more important that we draw a distinction between what is right and what is wrong. I heard it very clearly in his answer. An amount of €854 million is not an inconsiderable sum of money, and I know that Paschal Donohoe would say that if he were here. However, that is not the basis on which we should make a decision as to whether something is right or wrong.”
“This actually breaches the Equal Status Acts because it discriminates against people on the basis of their family status. Couples may rightly leave €400,000 to a registered charity, for example, My Little Pony, and capital acquisitions tax does not have to be paid on that. Yet, if a couple who do not have children want to leave the same amount to a niece or a nephew who might be trying to make their way in life and get a roof over his or her head, he or she has to pay €118,000. That is both unfair and inequitable. The Minister has argued that this is constitutional, but it is something he could change. It would be very positive if he did so. It would be relatively cost neutral to do it and it would right a grievous wrong. It would help not just people who do not have children but their extended families, which is all of us.”
“However, if that person happens not to have children and leaves the property to a beloved niece or nephew, he or she has to pay €118,000 in tax, which is completely unfair. The State does not need this money. In previous responses on this matter, the Minister stated that there is a presumption of constitutionality for this legislation unless the courts find differently. He said that the CAT legislation enjoys that presumption of constitutionality. I doubt that because the Irish for household is teaghlach, which contains a much broader definition of what constitutes a family. It is not just the mother and father; it is also the elderly, like Peig Sayers ina suí next to the fire, and that community of relatives who help to raise families in this Republic of ours. We are rightly proud of our extended families.”
“If people in Ireland who do not have children – I do not like the term "childless" because it almost contains within it an assumption that there is a lesser or lower status applying to people who just do not happen to have children – leave anything in their wills, those who inherit must pay full capital acquisition tax. I believe that is unfair, discriminatory and inequitable. It is self-evident. This is something that affects every single constituency in this Republic. It affects every Member of this House and the Dáil. It also affects our families. For example, if somebody leaves a property worth €400,000 in their will to a son or daughter, they pay no capital acquisitions tax, which is right and proper.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming here this morning. I am raising this matter on behalf of James, Sheila and Kieran Sexton. They are Cork based. They find themselves in a very difficult position because they do not have children. James and Sheila are a married couple. James’s brother Kieran has returned from London, as many Irish people do over the generations. Kieran has come home to the family home where he has, at the age of 58, been diagnosed with an incurable cancer, lymphoma, and he is trying to get his financial affairs in order. This raises the core subject of this Commencement this morning, which is about inheritance tax discrimination. This is something I was not aware of.”
“I appreciate that. I have the email from Noel McGree asking me to speak about this on behalf of his family. I appreciate the sensitivity and tragedy of young people losing their family home. Transparency International Ireland recognises that whistleblower reprisal is a feature internationally, but it is almost a universal feature of speaking truth to power in Ireland. As a House, we should do everything in our power to support those affected. If possible, we should have a debate at some point on whistleblower reprisal, a dynamic that should become a criminal offence.”
“Unfortunately, despite the protections contained within the whistleblower legislation and EU directives, which are supposed to protect whistleblowers against reprisal, by appointment this morning, Noel McGree and his wife, Antoinette McGree, were evicted from their family home at 10 a.m., and with them their sons Matthew and Harry, aged 22 and 17, respectively. To outline part of the reason they were evicted, due to the reprisal visited upon Noel McGree within the Prison Service, he felt he was in an unsafe work environment and took sick leave. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, his payment was compromised and he now finds himself in this situation. I remind the House that whistleblowers-----”
“I wish to mark this occasion by welcoming the release of the remaining hostages to their families in Israel. In this House - with the leadership shown by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste and this Government and that which preceded it - we have had many dark moments recognising the loss of life in Gaza and the ongoing genocide, which has now come to what will hopefully be a permanent halt. At this current point, I really hope it will be a permanent ceasefire. I wish to raise the issue of the whistleblower, Mr. Noel McGree, a member of the Irish Prison Service who blew the whistle on wrongdoing in the Irish Prison Service, which was subsequently investigated by retired Judge William Early, who found that serious wrongdoing had taken place within the Prison Service to the tune of approximately €20 million of a cost to the taxpayer.”
“If there has been no progress, as a member of the Joint Committee on Health I will ensure we will add it to the work schedule and get the Secretary General of the Department, the Minister and the HSE in to answer these questions. I am proud to see Senator Craughwell use his voice for his daughter's voice. We might add our voices to that in this House to advocate for the very simple and modest request set out in the Private Members' motion. Of all of the Private Members' motions we have had in the House over the past three years, this one will stay in my memory. As our Sinn Féin colleague said, it was heartfelt. I appreciate the support we are getting from our Government colleagues across the floor.”
“The people who carry out this service experience recurring moral distress and cumulative moral injury due to seeing suboptimal outcomes for want of the simple interventions that their higher specialist training and expertise indicates should be there. Not only do we need to look after the patients; we need to look after our teams. That is one of the reasons we cannot retain people and so many of our wonderful therapists and medical professionals are in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. It is because they look after them. We are talking about funding of €400,000 or €500,000. I will commit to checking in with the team from the Dublin Dental University Hospital and Senator Craughwell in six months' time.”
“The difference between that and €1.3 million is, not to be facile or trite, less than the price of a bike shed. Such funding would have a significant impact. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, cannot be here but the officials are present. This is a matter that should be dealt with now. The experts are in the room and the Minister has been told about the situation. When the Minister found out about this and what she did about it are the main questions. This is not a big ask; we are talking about €400,000 or €500,000. That should be done within the week, or certainly within the month. I cannot think of a reason that could not happen. The figure is extraordinary. There is a medical health professional in our family who also operates in a system that is inadequately resourced and funded, with all of the workforce challenges involved.”
“I thank Senator Craughwell for drafting the motion. The motion refers to a recurring theme across the health service. A proper national head and neck cancer pathway, in particular for oral cancers, with all of the associated workforce required to support it, and proper dental oncology care are required. The Minister has heard the statistics. Some 400 patients per annum present with oral cancers and the profile is younger and younger. For lack of a proper integrated service, the outcomes and prognoses can be quite stark. There is a 9% increase in mortality for every four-week period of delay. What surprises and shocks me is that the amount of funding being sought is €1.3 million. There is already funding of €900,000, to which the Minister referred in the response.”
“Staff are on the front line and are living every day in the workplace the shortcomings that have been set out here. Senator Craughwell is using his voice as a legislator, Senator and father. I have a son who has a neuromuscular disease which is progressive and is also losing his voice. I am aware of the lack of a proper treatment pathway for those conditions. It is fragmented. Notwithstanding the best efforts of the wonderful team in St. Vincent's, it was suggested to us that we would have to do the voice banking for him due to a lack of proper physiotherapy support and would have to find funding. His 17-year-old brother would have to look at old family videos and see whether he could harvest audio of his voice. This is completely unacceptable in a developed European Union country. I take on board what is set out.”
“I welcome everybody from the Dublin Dental University Hospital to the Chamber, in particular Rebecca. It was lovely to meet her. I am working with her dad who has taught me everything I know, or at least some of the things I know. I am delighted to hear the Government is not going to oppose the motion. Frankly, it is something that one could not oppose. It is a categoric and ethical imperative to support the work our colleagues are doing in the Dublin Dental University Hospital. This is a rare occasion when we see people from the front line in the House. Regarding all of the failures in our health service, it is not Bernard Gloster, Robert Watt from the Department or the Minister's officials who will be held to account. Rather, it will be individuals by way of the Irish Medical Council or litigation.”
“I feel like that too but without you, without us, there would be silence. Every single family is traumatised. Every single family is suffering moral injury and moral distress for the lack of a human rights approach. I would like a debate on this in the House almost a year to the day since we signed the optional protocol to the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is abundantly clear that the Government has not got the message on disability rights. We need a debate on that matter.”
“He has autism and a learning disability. He is a beautiful, loving boy who has many challenging needs and has no supports or services. My little girl suffers from time to time with serious stress and anxiety over her realisation that one day, she will become her brother's carer. This is a father's worst nightmare for what is currently my life will one day become hers. I would not change my life for anyone's. My whole life, my whole reason on earth, is to care for my children. I know my little girl will grow up and become a person in her own right but who will care for my son when I am gone? That sadness lives with me every day for I know that nobody will look after and care for him as much as me. I know that sometimes it feels like you are beating your head off a wall when it comes to carers' and disability rights in this country.”
“I wish to make some comments in light of the budget. While I welcome the modest increase in spending on disability and caring supports, the Government still has not come to grips with the fundamental human rights-based approach to disability that is necessary. The question of political judgment has been bandied about in the past number of days. I argue that political judgment on disability rights still has not got the message after last year's referendums. Let us see what happens in this month's presidential election. I want to read from an email I got from a lady regarding disability. It really stopped me in my tracks: Hi Tom. I have been following you on social media for a while and for some reason, at 3.30 a.m. on a Saturday, I feel compelled to tell you my story. My 11-year-old girl feels a lot of stress and worry about her brother.”
“To assert that the triple lock has nothing to do with Irish neutrality is utterly false. It is a disgraceful thing to say. It is like suggesting that the steering and brakes in a car are not related to each other. They are intimately linked, and we need to have a constitutional guarantee and expression of military neutrality in the same way that Switzerland and Austria do. I ask for a debate on that matter.”
“That was a full-spectrum combat mission, which involved the killing of hundreds and thousands of Afghan civilians and the displacement of others by the belligerent parties on both sides. That is what peace enforcement means. The era of peacekeeping, I am sorry to say, as we have seen from the unilateral decision of the Security Council to rescind the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, mandate, is over. We are in a new reality where henceforth it will be peace enforcement. We need to think really carefully about how we wish to participate in that. I am arguing that if the Government is going to use its majority to dispense with the triple lock, we need to have some other safeguards - maybe a secret ballot in the Dáil that is not whipped - but we have to do something.”
“I was there in December of 1996 during Operation Lodestar, which was a NATO-led SFOR mission that led to full-spectrum combat operations, including air strikes on television and radio stations in Belgrade and involving collateral damage and civilian casualties. That is what we are talking about. The continual and repeated use of the word "peacekeeping" is completely inaccurate. We need to be really careful about what we decide in these Houses in the coming months in relation to the triple lock. It behoves our presidential candidates to at least address the concerns of the Irish people directly in relation to what peace enforcement truly means. We have had Irish troops participate in peace enforcement in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2016.”
“We will not have even a double or single lock; things will just be done by means of a Cabinet decision and a simple Government majority. In recent days, I have heard the presidential candidates talk about Ireland perhaps participating in a mission outside the scope of the triple lock that would not have a UN Security Council mandate. People, including former Members of this House, have declared an interest in Irish participation in, for example, a stabilisation force in Ukraine. A stabilisation force, or an SFOR, is a war-fighting mission. The last one we had was in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
“I want to address the issue of neutrality and the triple lock. In the presidential election campaign, we have had a debate and interviews with the candidates, particularly the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil candidates, on the campaign trail. The issues of the triple lock and neutrality have come up repeatedly. Much of what has been articulated consists of misinformation. I am not going to say disinformation, because that is active deception, but it is factually incorrect information about the status of the triple lock. If we remove the triple lock, it gives any future Irish Government the power to send any number of troops to any conflict in the world by means of a simple Government majority. The proposed legislation will not modify the triple lock; it will simply abolish it.”
“I move: “That Seanad Éireann: - condemns outright all of the violence perpetrated in and around the Gaza Strip from 7th October, 2023 to this time; - condemns outright any proposal, including that of the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, for the displacement, concentration, or removal by the IDF of the population of the Gaza Strip to any restricted areas or places within the Gaza Strip, or for their expulsion or displacement to any other territory or state; - reconfirms its support for a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; - calls on the Government to secure the earliest possible enactment of the occupied territories legislation; - calls for the immediate, permanent and unconditional cessation of all military and paramilitary activity in the Gaza Strip and for the unconditional release of all hostages seized in the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on 7th October, 2023; - calls for the immediate restoration under United Nations supervision of food, medicines and other humanitarian aid distribution for all civilians in the Gaza Strip; - calls on all parties to the conflict and their international allies to abide strictly and completely by the requirements of international law; - calls on the European Union and its member states to use all their capacities, including imposition of sanctions, to uphold international law to protect the people of the Gaza Strip from further suffering and death, and to vindicate the human rights of all civilians there.””
“When we resume, I would like to have a debate where we could have a clear resolution in this House on our support for the people of Palestine and a push back on anybody who suggests this is antisemitism on our part.”
“Netanyahu's cabinet is also multi-confessional, so criticism of its actions is not antisemitic; it is simply criticism of war crimes and of a war criminal. For this suggestion to be made in response to any criticism by the Irish of the genocide and ethnic cleansing that is taking place is in itself Hibernophobic; it is in itself a racist slur. We all remember "No blacks, no Irish, no dogs". To suggest that the attitudes, views, opinions and moral distress experienced by Irish people when we see our brothers and sisters being slaughtered in this manner is antisemitic is, in and of itself, a reprehensible racist slur against the Irish.”
“I ask that perhaps we could have some sort of a debate or a resolution here in the House when we resume after the summer recess. In the meantime, I ask if we could prevail upon the relevant Ministers to assist these people. I want to refer to statements made in a committee of these Houses yesterday by our former colleague, Mr. Alan Shatter, in which he suggested that criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank are antisemitic. I have great respect for Mr. Shatter as a legislator and as a former Minister for Justice, but that is a reprehensible slur on the Irish people. I have said it before: the Israel Defense Forces are a multi-confessional force. They have Jews, Bedouins, Druze, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims and Christians.”
“Ibtasem Abo Haaera and her son, Ahmed, who has haemophilia, are being told that at the end of the summer they are going to be removed and sent to other parts of the country. Again, they have no resources, no social connections and no ability to do anything. We have invited these people here. At the global summit in May, the Tánaiste quite rightly said he was delighted and proud to be able to help these families. Let us think of what is happening in Gaza. In the case of Ibtasem, and Ahmed, her husband and young son, Ameen, are in Gaza, and they do not know what their situation is. People are being slaughtered daily as they queue for water and food. These people are among the most vulnerable. This is an issue that will come to a head at the end of the summer and beginning of September.”
“I thank the Cathaoirleach for his accommodation. I have two matters I want to raise. One is the issue of 12 Palestinian families from Gaza who were invited here. They were medically evacuated from Gaza in extremis . These are very sick children who were invited here by the Cabinet, which agreed to their medical evacuation. They arrived just at the beginning of the year. Now that their treatment is under way, they are being told they are going to be decongregated and moved to different parts of the country. This has placed them in an almost untenable position. They are people like Shahad Anwar, who is only 19. She is here with her little brother, Salim, who is 16. These are seriously ill children, with little English.”
“The ongoing reprisal against the senior therapist has to stop now because it will deter other people of integrity from coming forward if they fear reprisal and retaliation within the west and north west region.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I am very reassured to hear that the CEO of the HSE, Mr. Gloster, shares the concerns of these three therapists. To look at this in the round, they were so concerned that they reached out to a public representative looking for help. My background is in researching systemic and systematic sexual violence in the Defence Forces. When reprisal is visited on the person who discloses such sexual abuse, the problem persists. That is why we have had 25 years of ongoing abuse of women in the Defence Forces, notwithstanding the original disclosures that were made. The harm is not reduced. That is my concern here. The Minister of State is alarmed at the manner in which this matter has been handled. It has not been dealt with properly. The most important thing here is the welfare of children.”
“This is one of the most qualified and experienced clinicians in their area. To be told they would never be promoted, having raised a concern around a risk of sexual abuse to children beggars belief. We wanted the Minister of State to make a statement on the matter and indicate what action can be taken.”