Robert O'Donoghue

This motion could not have come at a better time. Last week, a constituent was on to me. She told me that her child had finished school on Tuesday, 30 June and the next day the first payment request from the school had landed in her inbox. That is not the end of it. Between now and August, parents will receive email after email or app notification after app notification reminding them to pay. Some…

There is an issue that has come to me in Dublin Fingal West, although it affects the country at large. I refer to the spiralling cost of summer camps and the financial burden it is placing on households earning lower to middle incomes. One parent told me that they were paying €160 a week for three hours over four days. If a family has two or three children, that cost may put these opportunities co…

Yes, but on a means-tested basis.

2. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to support the growth of Ireland’s horticulture sector in budget 2027 (details supplied). [52390/26]

Budget 2027 needs to support the growth of Ireland's horticulture sector through targeted investment in growers and targeted supports to attract new growers and encourage generational renewal. Investment in start-up grants, financial assistance with access to land, investment in education and training to upskill our workforce, investment in mentoring, and capital supports will help remove barriers…

Horticulture is under enormous pressure. We are facing some of the most serious challenges we have seen in years, including increased input costs, energy costs and labour costs. We are still importing fruit and vegetables that we could grow ourselves. I live in north County Dublin, the market garden capital of Ireland. We produce approximately 47% of Ireland's field vegetables. We need to keep sup…

I welcome phase 2 of the pilot. We have a problem in that the average age of growers is probably over 60. We need targeted supports to encourage new entrants and generational renewal in the sector. Horticultural is a viable career but we need to expand the horticultural apprentice scheme and invest in our youth. Finally, the Minister of State and I will agree that we all need to buy more Irish pr…

I raise an issue brought to me by my constituents in Dublin Fingal West, primarily in north County Dublin, namely, the rising costs of summer camps and the impact this is having on middle and lower income families. For example, the cost of one four-day summer camp is running at €150 per child. For families with two or three children, this quickly becomes impossible to manage. Many parents are jugg…

I thank the Minister of State. It is good to see the Department is aware of the issue. The NCS is a good scheme but it is generally for childcare, and I am asking more specifically about summer camps. I am not sure if the NCS is usable in summer camps, though I am open to correction on that. We are looking for targeted supports. Like the NCS, we support school meals, childcare and school transport…

I thank Deputy Quaide and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion. I also want to acknowledge the Before We Die campaign in my own constituency of Dublin Fingal West and the Remember Us group from Balbriggan, which continues to campaign with such determination. I have met families in my constituency and listened to their very personal stories and I thank them for sharing th…

I will start with a comparison. There is perhaps no clearer illustration of the value of European membership than the experience of our nearest neighbour, as mentioned by the Taoiseach in a different speech yesterday. A decade has passed since Brexit. Of course, that decision was for the British people, and we respect their democratic choice. It is equally important, however, to recognise the less…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. In the Labour Party, we support this legislation because it recognises something that many of us recognise from our constituencies. Our post offices are not simply businesses; they are part of the social fabric that knits our communities together. They are places we can trust. In many towns and villages, they are one of the few remaining public serv…

The EU Presidency gives Ireland the opportunity to set the agenda, lead discussions and influence decisions that will be felt across Europe, including Ireland, in the coming years. We should use that opportunity ambitiously. Over the next six months, there will be hundreds of meetings and countless headlines, but for the families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis here and with issues like …

We both know that Europe works by consensus and that there is only so much we can do to facilitate as an honest broker. While competitiveness is incredibly important, with the capital markets union and the 28th regime coming forward, workers' rights were not mentioned once yesterday at the event in Dublin Castle. This gives us an opportunity to bring the Irish people with us rather than this Presi…

If we wait around long enough in here, two opportunities can come in a day - much like the 33 bus, which I am going to again raise in regard to its reliability. I acknowledge that the Minister's priority is to make the route more reliable rather than increasing the service this year. I also recognise that recruitment challenges and traffic congestion have contributed to cancellations across the 33…

As we assume the EU Presidency, it is important we set out the context we now face globally. To one side of Europe, we have an aggressive Russia which, to this day, continues to take the lives of Ukrainians in its illegal war, while to the other side, we have the United States which, for the first time since the Second World War, has an outwardly aggressive tone towards its dealings with Europe. W…

I thank Deputy Kerrane for bringing forward this motion. While I support it, I do not believe it goes far enough. Again, we are skirting around the fundamental issue that is wrong with the early years sector. The truth is that this sector will never be properly fixed as long as we continue to rely on a private provision model. The Minister might point to the €1.6 billion and to the public that see…

Hear, hear.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this matter today. This debate is particularly poignant for me because one of the members of my staff is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Mark, whom I work alongside every day, is someone I value enormously - he is my friend and someone whose experiences remind me that these discussions are not abstract debates. They are about real people, real lives …

I thank the Minister of State for taking Topical Issues again - two days in a row. I must be following him around. It is appreciated. I wish to raise a matter today, similar to the previous speaker, around the growing concerns for families in Lusk, in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West. Repeated water outages have taken place for the past couple of weeks affecting two estates, in particular Kel…

I thank the Minister of State. I have seen the reference to undocumented branches. If pipes were put in 50 or 60 years ago, the mapping may not have been as good as it is today. I accept and understand that. I welcome that Uisce Éireann is engaging with the businesses but if it could speak to the two crèche owners in particular, it would certainly alleviate some of the frustrations felt by the res…

I want to highlight a deeply concerning situation facing Balscadden National School in my constituency in Dublin Fingal West. The school is simply asking for appropriate educational provision for children with additional needs. It has been informed by the Department that it will only provide a single special educational needs, SEN, classroom through a modular build. This decision appears to be bas…

I thank the Minister of State. I will convey this to the school principal, Mr. White. While seeking the two SEN classrooms is probably not as common as it should be, it is good to hear that the Department is working closely with the school. I feel that myself and my Dublin Fingal West colleagues are like a broken record at this point. It is the fastest-growing local authority area in Ireland. I am…

I want to acknowledge my party colleagues today for bringing forward this motion because ordinary working - people I represent Dublin Fingal West - are to the pins of their collars trying to pay for heating their homes, filling the cars and putting food on the table. Ireland has the highest costs of energy prices in the EU, and why? It is because this Government continues to hand incentives, disco…

65. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if consideration has been given to the establishment of an independent governance authority for local sports and athletics clubs to oversee committee conduct, ensure compliance with governance standards, provide independent dispute resolution mechanisms and support transparency and accountability in club administ…