Catherine Connolly

It is unfair the way it has worked out.

91. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 105 of 29 April 2025, the status of the development of a school (details supplied), currently at stage 2(b); the timeline for the completion of the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31299/25]

My question on the status of the development of a school is specific. I have given the details. It is currently at stage 2(b). I would be grateful if the Minister could give me a more precise timeline for the completion of the project and more specific details.

I thank the Minister of State. He clearly and honestly acknowledged that this has been going on for some time. Even if we take 2018 as the start, when it was redesigned, we are in the eighth year now in which this school has been in dire need of a new school. I know it is at stage 2(b) and the Minister of State has confirmed the submission was given to the Department in March of this year. Maybe h…

I appreciate that hands-on approach and that the Minister of State is going to come back. However, he can imagine the frustration over such a length of time. The Minister of State said that this takes some time to review. What time roughly? Are we talking six months, three months, nine months? How many are in that? What is the difficulty? What is the delay? Maybe if he cannot come now, if he can d…

I reiterate what the previous speaker said about copies of the Minister of State's speech. It is very handy to have a copy of the speech and I looked for it. It is slipping in gradually with various Ministers whereby we do not get the speech. It is very useful to have it. I want to use my time, as I have done repeatedly since 2018, to discuss this matter and I want to focus on sprats. The Governm…

I have no doubt the Minister has feelings of horror like we have and like he expressed. My difficulty is that he is demonstrating a classic case of cognitive dissonance because he holds beliefs in his head that are clashing with each other. While his feelings are the same as ours, his actions are different. In doing those actions, he seeks to rationalise them, which is the classic way of resolving…

I will stay with the theme of housing and, in particular, the emergency task force that was set up in Galway in 2019. At the end of last year, during the last meeting for which I have minutes, the new chair said the delivery to date is "not a happy picture". This was referring to the failure to deliver housing in Galway city and county. Lots of issues and obstacles were raised. One is the lack of…

What about the local TDs?

That is great.

There are not 25 TDs in Galway.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. I cannot tell you how many times I have spoken on this issue. I will come to the housing task force, the minutes of which the Minister was instrumental in getting us. When we talk about empty houses tonight, we are doing so against a background of the highest ever number of homeless people: 15,580, 4,475 of whom are children. This Government is taking pri…

136. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 99 of 13 February 2025, for an update on the plans to review and strengthen the ethics in public office legislation, following the completion of the review of the statutory framework in December 2022; and if he will make a statement on the ma…

I have to agree with the previous speaker on this. I looked back to April. This is not a priority. In its 2009 annual report, SIPO "recommends that the Department of Finance should draft new legislation to be based on best practice for dealing with conflicts of interests and ... consolidate". Fast forward to the 2021 annual report, SIPO states "For a number of years, the Commission has called for …

I will stick with what SIPO tells us. I will go back to 2019 and to the submission to public consultation on the regulatory impact analysis. It states that SIPO's "mandate includes oversight of the electoral Act". It then goes on to outline some of the challenges for SIPO in this role and the lack of independence of SIPO in terms of budgets, staffing and reporting to the Oireachtas. It states that…

They were outlined by SIPO in 2019.

I am returning to the issue of Palestine and the genocide that is going on there. This morning, we listened to RTÉ's report of what the Palestinian ambassador to the UN said. He spoke of how flames and hunger were devouring Palestinian children. We also listened to an eyewitness account of a doctor on the ground. I will provide a few figures, but how have we reached this point? How have we let thi…

We all may well be appalled and sickened, but the Government is refusing to face the elephant in the room. Israel has an umbilical cord attachment to America. America, followed by the EU, is the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, and the Irish Government is waiting for a morally corrupt and inept EU to take action. The EU is the second biggest supplier of arms to the genocide. Let us call a spad…

He can say a lot of things, and then we watch Shannon being used, an occupied territories Bill that is going nowhere and trade with Europe. Ours is a small country. It is time we led, given our history. It is time we called for an absolute ceasefire, led in the UN, made our words mean something and called out that narrative for what it is. Israel is a rogue state. It is not a democratic state. Tha…

You stand up-----

-----and account for what we are going to do when you say there are war crimes and a genocide.

I would be delighted.

Palaver?

Now what are you going to do about it?

Good. When?