Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin

People in Bunclody, Enniscorthy, Aughrim and Arklow are still trying to pick up their lives after the recent floods. The cameras have gone, the spotlight has moved on, and the Minister and the Taoiseach have arrived to tell the people the money is there, these things take time and there is no magic wand. I think people in Wicklow-Wexford know that. They have been waiting for decades while the Gov…

We have seen a flood of deepfake sexual images generated by AI, often depicting children. As we know, Coco's Law criminalised the non-consensual recording or distribution of intimate images. However, it remains unclear whether the 2020 Act covers the creation of such images. It is important that the law keeps up with technology. In that context, the Government has been moving at snail's pace in ma…

This debate is on road safety. I will tell the Minister of State all about road safety in County Wexford and the area of south Wicklow where I live. We have been forced to drive on deadly, dangerous roads for three decades now. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will verify this. Roads are disintegrating in front of our very eyes; I kid you not. Even today, on the East Coast FM news, an engineer said h…

I have only spoken for two minutes.

I was told I had three minutes, but anyway.

I would welcome any Government Bill if it will deal with the present chaotic system of IPAS processing enforcement, as well as the speculation that is going on in villages all across this island. We definitely need to see faster processing of asylum claims, a more efficient decision-making process and less time spent by applicants in State accommodation, which is enriching cowboy developers and sp…

As the Minister knows, childcare costs are completely out of control. Many people are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage. Shockingly, nearly 1,000 childcare providers have closed their doors over the past six years. That is incredible. The Federation of Early Childhood Providers stated that childcare facilities are closing because of rising costs and the lack of funding from the Government…

Data from the EPA makes for frightening reading in terms of the quality of our water and the need for proper wastewater and water treatment plants. Avoca, in my local area, is one of 15 locations in Ireland where raw sewage is still being discharged every day, as identified by the EPA. Avoca must be prioritised as a village for upgrading. We were also promised progress with the long-awaited new st…

While AI has many benefits for convenience, it is not a force for good, and therefore must be regulated, as Grok's widespread generation of sexually explicit images of children has proven. Grok is run by the platform of X and the European headquarters of X is just a 20-minute walk from this Chamber, so there is no excuse for the Government not to act immediately. While AI is a form of high-tech pl…

As the Minister of State knows well, County Wexford is experiencing a mental health crisis due to the lack of an acute mental health facility since the closure of St. Senan's psychiatric hospital in 2013. This facility served as the primary mental health institution in the region for over 150 years. There has been no replacement, meaning there is no acute mental health unit in Wexford. This is sho…

I acknowledge what the local teams are doing. They are doing brilliant work at Tara House, Arden House and lots of other places. I am glad to hear that the Minister of State accepts that there are no acute beds in County Wexford and that she will look at that this year. I am just reflecting what every politician in Wexford is saying and what the people coming to me are saying. They are saying that…

On a similar note, ba mhaith liom uasdátú ar Ghaelscoil an Inbhir Mhóir agus Gaelcholáiste na Mara. I would like an update on the commencement date for Gaelcholáiste na Mara and Ghaelscoil an Inbhir Mhóir. When will there be shovels in the ground for their new campus at Kilbride? I appreciate the Taoiseach might not have the answers now but I ask that he get them for me. Pupils in the schools have…

The single-use, flashy and flavoured disposable vapes that are targeting our children definitely need to be banned. However, the Government Bill only targets products which are being phased out anyway. Sinn Féin has been raising this issue for years. Ireland is years behind the curve in comparison with many countries. Vapes and nicotine pouches in particular pose a very serious health risk to chi…

The Government is very much out of step with the farmers in my constituency, Wicklow-Wexford, who marched in Athlone on Saturday. The Government could have stopped Mercosur but never made any effort to block it over the 25 years it was in the making. There was no real effort to reach out to other countries to form a blocking minority. Just before Christmas, Sinn Féin had a Private Members' Bill in…

The EU has failed Ireland's fishing industry repeatedly and we are once more paying the price for the chronic overfishing of shared stocks by big boats from third countries. The recent EU fisheries deal from Brussels is a betrayal of the fishing industry and has been described as catastrophic. We are talking about 2,300 community jobs in coastal communities, including in Arklow and Courtown, being…

The CETA agreement is dangerous for Ireland and may even be worse than Mercosur. I do not believe it is in the interests of the Irish people. I urge the Government not to ratify it and, if necessary, to put it to the people to decide in a referendum. It undermines our sovereignty and, basically, our right to decide our own destiny. It risks entrenching the corporate power of billionaires over Iris…

This time last year I was still teaching special education, something I have done for many of my 34 years working as a primary school teacher. I have never seen the crisis of assessment of need as bad as it is at present, so much so that the inspirational 15-year-old Cara Darmody has felt forced to sleep outside the gates of this House once again on such a horrible winter's evening. In County Wick…

The Courtown-Arklow Coast Guard unit does incredible work on the Wicklow-Wexford coast and put their lives at risk to protect others. The least they deserve is proper and safe working conditions in a modern workplace in the form of a new Coast Guard station. A total of 23 men and woman had been working out of a 10 ft by 20 ft room in Courtown using the same sink for making tea and coffee as they d…

Irish agriculture, public health and the environment cannot be sacrificed for the sake of Ursula von der Leyen selling more German cars in South America. The time has come for Government TDs from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents to stand with farmers instead of speaking out of both sides of their mouths, running with the hare and pulling with the hound. We have a large farming communit…

People in rural Ireland, such as in my own area of Wicklow-Wexford, need to use a car. They are particularly impacted by the rising cost of motoring. They are getting fleeced with fuel costs, rip-off insurance, which was just mentioned, parking charges and maintenance for service repairs including NCT, especially for those using rural back roads, which are in dire condition where I live. There are…

I want to raise the 16-year-long injustice that has been inflicted on the Arklow fisherman, CJ Gaffney, and his family. They have lost everything. It is has been described as a life sentence. They have been 16 years campaigning for justice, compensation and improved safety standards for fishing vessels but mainly compensation. They have taken their battle to the Netherlands, Germany and Brussels, …

The Government's policy to date in the area of IPAS processing and enforcement has been reckless, farcical and absurd. The State simply could not be bothered applying its own rules. The structures of Tusla have been a sham, which was something I highlighted at an Oireachtas committee meeting just weeks ago. Sadly, just a few days after that, we saw the end result of this reckless policy when a ten…

The Government caused the problem. The people need to direct their anger at that Government.

There is certainly a crisis in men's health and it is great that we are having this discussion today. It is quite an historic occasion. A recent report for the South East Technological University, SETU, revealed that 40% of male deaths that occurred before the age of 75 were premature and many were preventable. County Wexford ranks second in this State in terms of premature male mortality rates p…

I wish to raise the issue of school funding, specifically regarding schools that have gained a new teaching post this year. Could the Tánaiste look into the specific case of Tinahely National School? I know he knows the area. Such schools were targeted for the new mainstream teacher grant of €9,200. The new school principal, Pádraig O'Connor, has been in regular contact with the Department but he …