Natasha Newsome Drennan

Genocide is taking place in Gaza. There is widespread ethnic cleansing happening across Palestine. Israel is an apartheid state. Almost every week, weapons are being transported through Ireland to Israel and these weapons are being used to continue that genocide and ethnic cleansing and to uphold the brutal system of apartheid. There is absolutely no denying this. While there is no absence of talk…

Across Kilkenny, almost 100 council-owned homes lie empty. Over 60 of them will remain empty throughout 2025. Almost one third have been boarded up for over a year. Dozens of families and people in dire need of housing have been blocked from a home of their own this year. While the Government will try to pass the blame on to the local council, the fault and blame lies solely at the feet of the Gov…

I welcome this opportunity to contribute on the crucial issue of flood relief schemes. My home county of Kilkenny has borne the brunt of devastating floods far too often in recent times. We do not need to look too far into the past; we all remember the damage done across Kilkenny by Storm Babet in 2023, when the banks of the River Nore broke, leaving Kilkenny city suffering heavy flooding and scor…

Part of the N25, in particular the stretch out past the Rhu Glenn Hotel, can be described in no other terms than a deadly accident black spot. Over the past number of years, there have been several fatal road accidents along this road. The road traffic report clearly states that the road has completely exceeded the safe number of vehicles. It has a 360% increase in road users. The community has re…

The volume of traffic on this route has increased hugely. For 2024, we are looking at a figure of 15,000. That should be 8,000 or 9,000. This route has hugely exceeded what it was built for. There are also 11 local road junctions along this road now. This road was not built for those. We have what is the main route for Wexford traffic coming in to go to the hospitals. More than 80 people have died…

I thank the Independent Group for bringing forward this motion. As someone who has worked as a carer in the disabilities sector for 18 years, I am acutely aware of the struggles facing this sector. This motion clearly sets out the vital role carers and front-line healthcare workers play in our society. The role they carry out every day across Ireland is a quiet but vital contribution to Irish soc…

The United Nations has reported that up to 14,000 children in Gaza are at risk of starving to death in the next 48 hours. That is the same number of children under the age of 18 living in Carlow. It is unimaginable to picture that amount of death for such innocent children - 14,000 childhoods erased in 48 hours. The genocide in Gaza is reaching levels of unimaginable horror. Yesterday, the EU Fore…

Over 15,000 children are currently awaiting an assessment of need. By the end of this year, that number is expected to soar to over 24,000. The law set out in the Disability Act clearly states children must be assessed within six months, but only 7% of children are assessed within that timeframe. Day after day, the Government is breaking the law and, in doing so, failing vulnerable children. Afte…

I thank my colleague Deputy Ó Broin for his work on this motion. Right across counties Carlow and Kilkenny, we have towns and villages crying out for an increase in housing. These towns and villages have prime sites for housing developments that are unusable simply because the Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has failed to invest in adequate and fit-for-purpose infrastructure. It is common …

This Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the historic signing of the Schuman Declaration just five years after the end of the Second World War. To paraphrase that declaration, it was intended that the pooling of Europe's resources would change the destinies of regions long devoted to the manufacture of munitions of war. Today, 75 years later, the core of that vision has been abandoned. Instead of…

Four weeks ago, I raised with the Taoiseach the case of four-year-old William Jonathan Moore who has been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As I said at the time, his condition is so rare that no treatment is available in Ireland or the EU. William has been accepted for treatment at the Boston Children's Hospital but the United States is not covered under th…

We have already sent them to you. I then sent them to you again. It keeps going back to the Minister for Health but I am not getting a response.

We need to be frank. Public confidence in the board at Children's Health Ireland is shattered and is in pieces. It is beyond repair. These unnecessary hip surgeries are a national scandal, a scandal of which we still do not know the depth. Thousands of hip surgeries have taken place over the past decade. There are possibly hundreds of cases of children who underwent highly traumatic surgeries that…

I strongly welcome the allocation of time today to discuss Uisce Éireann. This week, the community of Castlecomer in north Kilkenny received yet another notification of overnight water restrictions. This is a recurring issue that they have endured for years. This time the cause is critically low water levels. It is now April. We have not even reached the summer months and Castlecomer's water suppl…

This is welcome legislation from the Government. An increasing cohort of workers opt to work past their planned retirement age, some into their late 60s or even into their 70s. While this is fundamentally a personal choice for many, it would be naïve to ignore the external factors which put workers into a situation where they feel they have no choice but to keep working. These factors are direct r…

I am getting to it. It is the cost to them. Now, Ireland’s energy costs are the most expensive in the EU. The consequences are stark. Research carried out by ALONE shows one in three people over 65 are at risk of poverty. This is a national disgrace. After a lifetime of contribution to society, a third of our elders face possible poverty. Is it any wonder so many feel compelled to work past retire…

We are in the midst of a housing crisis that is worsening month by month. It is the actions of this Government, its refusal to listen to experts and its insistence that the market will provide that has accelerated this crisis so rapidly. All we see from this Government is its head in the sand as it refuses to admit the market has failed. These actions have failed rural Ireland so severely on hous…

The Government should not be putting-----

I raise the case of a young William Jonathan Moore, a four-year-old boy from Kilkenny who has been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD. This condition is so rare that no treatment is available in Ireland. William has been accepted at the Boston Children's Hospital for treatment. However, as I am sure the Taoiseach is aware, the treatment abroad scheme does…

It is only available in the United States.

I strongly welcome this motion. Earlier today in the audiovisual room, a group of young family carers gave a powerful description of the work they do and the impact the lack of supports - and the utter lack of State support - is having. Carers are the backbone of our society. They are the quiet, everyday heroes who give everything to care for loved ones. The respect and high regard that carers are…

The ordinary people of counties Carlow and Kilkenny are paying the price of the failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Month after month, the housing crisis deepens. Average rents in Carlow and Kilkenny are almost €1,600 a month, which is a staggering burden for workers and families. Scores of people want to build or buy their own home across Kilkenny. They have worked hard and saved up but becau…

On Saturday, we mark International Women's Day. We celebrate the resilience, strength and the invaluable contributions women make every day in Irish society but we must also confront the inequalities that persist in our society. I raise in particular the immense role women across Ireland contribute as carers for those in need. We all recognise that carers are the backbone and support for so many i…

We need to see meaningful action that will bring positive change. This International Women's Day, let us raise our voices as a society to say we value carers as an essential part of our society and we demand they are given the support and respect of which they are so deserving. I commend my own mother, who looked after my father, and was a carer for a number of years. Their role is vital and we c…

We are debating an issue that touches every family and community across Ireland, which is the future of healthcare for our ageing population. This is far more than just a policy discussion. It is about ensuring dignity, safety and quality of life for our parents, grandparents and, one day, ourselves. The facts are clear. By 2030, more than 1 million people in Ireland will be aged 65 or older. By 2…