Richard O'Donoghue

I thank all the students who are here today and all their families who are encouraging them to go to college. Parents now have to choose. If they have two children to go to college, they may not be able to afford it. Inflation costs at the moment are putting a massive strain on family life for the students and for all families. The Government has not provided adequate accommodation for students to…

Look at them in the eye. Why cannot you look at them in the eye?

This is the first time you stuck your head up since you came in.

Now for round two.

I thank the speakers who spoke in support of this motion. However, I saw the reply from the Minister and the 28 proposals amending what we proposed. They are a copy and paste. That does not give me any encouragement that the Minister is listening. What does Independent Ireland have that the Government and Department do not have? We have common sense. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, said on t…

Garda Tom Flavin was suspended from An Garda Síochána in 2018. He has been cleared of all 22 charges. It took the legal system seven years for a Garda investigation. He has now been reinstated. He had his sergeant exam done before he was suspended. Seven years were lost to a Garda investigation and others are ongoing. How long does it take for the Garda to investigate itself? We did without eight …

The report by "RTÉ Investigates" makes me sick to my stomach that this could happen. I look at the nursing homes around Limerick and other nursing homes I have visited. Through social events that we do, such as vintage events, we recreate lives of people who are in the nursing homes. We bring in some of the older stuff to them and see what the nursing homes do. I have been at a lot of nursing home…

I am a believer. I grew up believing there are Thirty-two Counties in Ireland, not Twenty-Six Counties. We are the island of Ireland. Call me old school; that is the way I was brought up. People from the North of Ireland can run for President but would not be able to vote for themselves. They are from Ireland. It is the island of Ireland. That is the bottom line. How many people who have left thes…

In Limerick, Local Link is operating at capacity. To improve the system, people are looking for more services. Local Link would not be in our area were it not for private operators. We would not have it otherwise. I appreciate the investment the Department is putting into Local Link, but there is no joined up thinking. It is doing one route. It should be doing a figure 8 on all links such that whe…

For people who do not understand it, RPZs are rent pressure zones. Where do we go? How did we get here in the first place? We got here because of a lack of infrastructure. What have we done over the past six years? I have been asking our Government to look at development-led infrastructure but what we did was that we set up Irish Water. Irish Water was set up to collect money for existing water pr…

I am the chairperson of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, and I am delighted to be Independent Ireland's first chairperson. An invitation to the Minister to attend our meeting next Tuesday was sent by the clerk to the committee. We had facilitated the Minister, in that he could not make it two weeks ago. We changed people around and other people appeared before us. However, we got a note back …

We will be sharing time. We will each have three and a half minutes. There is a housing crisis. We need to deliver houses. I am offering my services to the Minister, as I have offered them to other Ministers, to help to deliver houses. I do so in light of the experience I have and the knowledge I have that Irish Water is not providing value for money. It will not deliver the infrastructure needed…

What everybody has said has been repetitive. Everyone is on the same page. I believe the Minister of State is also on the same page and would like to see what we can do. Can the Minister of State imagine if anyone in this House had to go hungry? We can walk out the door, go into a canteen and eat. Imagine he was here, looking at the food, while starving, knowing that his brothers, sisters, mother …

The Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) (Amendment) Bill 2025 is a crucial piece of legislation. I will start off by looking at how Debenhams managed to pull the wool over the Government's and its employees' eyes, and leave this country with no accountability. It set up a UK sister company and set up online. All its online business was imported into this country through a UK company, w…

Limerick is standing with Cork.

I will talk about widows' pensions. Pensions for widows do not discriminate by age. Recipients can be in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s or any age. However, it is worrying for people. I will tell one or two stories. One is about a mother with three children whose husband died. They had a house with a mortgage and she is in receipt of the widow's pension for which she said she is grateful. However, if sh…

I thank the Taoiseach for his response and look forward to meeting with the Minister on this. I am under no illusions; there are many criteria under different payments the Government must consider under different circumstances. When it comes to people losing a loved one, however, and they are trying to survive, whether they have children, there are massive overheads, even with current inflation c…

People are dying younger than that.

If we ever have a case again where we have a design like the children's hospital, can the Government please not do it? Look at what we have done in Limerick: we built a box. People want boxes to be built because one can add onto a box or put a box down. They want care. Consider the cost of maintaining the children's hospital, with round curtains, round glass, and furnishings that have to be specia…

One could build boxes.

Accountability is at the very heart of this. The Minister is new to her role. She has hit the ground running, and I appreciate that. However, what has happened in Cappagh and Temple Street hospitals is unforgivable. There has to be accountability. We can look at it and nod our heads all day long, but at least now we are going the right direction. There will be no more hiding for anyone. My first …

Independent Ireland brought this motion before the House in order for the Government to see common sense. Independent Ireland recently received the chairmanship of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. The first thing the committee will look at is the cost of healthcare in this country and the value it gives for money, including the overspends. We will not discuss the National Children's Hospital …

Every day we come to the House, we are hear about housing, housing, housing. During the week, the EPA released a report on the inspections of septic tanks by local authorities. Areas were targeted where septic tanks were near rivers. The councils completed 1,390 inspections of tanks and found that 82% of the tanks were inadequate. We are talking about meeting housing targets here. What the EPA has…

A lot of them.

In the first part of his remarks, the Taoiseach said he had met with representatives of Irish Water. Maybe he needs to bring me with him to teach them a bit of common sense and give them some ideas and solutions. The Taoiseach mentioned the EPA and septic tanks. Yes, there are grants but the problem with the grant system for septic tanks is that in 2013 the Taoiseach brought in a system where peop…