Catherine Connolly

Before the summer?

I am not throwing brickbats.

I want to share with the Tánaiste a positive letter I got from Galway City Council. It is delightful. I am told the council is incredibly proud of the impact the energy retrofit programme is having in providing warmer and more efficient homes and helping to reduce energy poverty. It is a delightful letter except the family about whom I raised representations has gone on a waiting list and the city…

The Minister of State and I have had an engagement on this before. First, the scheme in Galway has not been prevented because of objections or bureaucracy. Second, the catchment flood risk assessment and management was the biggest flood risk assessment and it affected two thirds of the population. It was a brilliant piece of work. It was completed in 2018. Unfortunately, when the consultants were …

169. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 37 of 11 February 2025, the timeline for the passage of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 that incorporates a ban on imports and services from these areas, supported by the advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation and se…

I understand this question is in a group, such is Deputies' concern about the occupied territories Bill or, to give it its proper name, the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, which incorporates a ban on imports and services from the occupied areas, supported by the advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation and settlements issued on 19 July 2024 by the In…

When questions are grouped, the Deputy with the first question gets 30 seconds and everyone in the group gets the same time, thereafter, one minute. No one is deprived of time.

Does the Tánaiste see the date on the occupied territories Bill? It is 2018. It is now 2025. I welcome that some progress has been made. However, it has taken the deaths and slaughter of 54,000 Palestinians, and that figure, which I read out this morning, is totally inaccurate. According to The Lancet, the figure is much higher than that. At the very least, this occupied territories Bill needs to…

The occupied territories Bill, however limited, has to be passed for goods and services. It is the least we can do. The constant refrain that Europe might take infringement proceedings against us is unacceptable. Let us face that if it happens. There is a genocide happening in our name while we stand here and talk, so we need to take action. The limited way that the Government is dealing with the …

I have no difficulty with the technical amendments, but I will use my time now and at the end of the debate to say that I am most unhappy with the Bill. I cannot support it in its present form. The Minister said she is responding to the needs of survivors. We have a special advocate, and when that special advocate was appointed there was a press release which stated the Government would value and…

I will speak specifically on the amendment but first, regarding what the Deputy Ó Muirí just said, the Ombudsman's report on the Magdalen scheme was utterly scathing. It is worth reading what was said. While I am not going to read it again, it was utterly scathing of the way the scheme was administered. Prior to that, Mr. Justice Quirke, a High Court judge, had recommended that the special medical…

Can I speak on this? I was not sure what the format was. I want to support any Bill that gives supports to survivors. I am now in a dilemma as I cannot support this Bill. I will outline why this is the case. I will go back over 22 years of apologies. As usual, I thank the staff in the library for their wonderful work setting this out. I recommend it to any new TD. The library can set out the whole…

I welcome the family. I wish we did not have to welcome them here. I welcome the apology and I welcome the changes that are proposed for a review of the bail laws, particularly that relating to a four-month time limit. I welcome that there will be a change in legislation regarding a direction from a judge to allow lesser charges to be put. I welcome that there has already been a change to legislat…

This is our second report and we are waiting on a third one. In this second report, we are told the percentages of the pelvic procedures carried out not reaching the criteria are so high that a further inquiry is mandated. The Minister is doing this now in respect of a look back at all of the patients, and I welcome it. We then look at what the percentages were because we cannot repeat them often …

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this Bill to the House. I refer to the legal opinion the party received. The Minister might have looked at it. It said there was a strong argument for putting forward this Private Members' Bill based on public policy. They see no difficulty in putting that forward based on public policy. "Public policy" is a phrase the Minister did not use. The Minister also did not …

4. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to increase the provision of student accommodation in Galway; when the new national student accommodation strategy will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26176/25]

My question relates to student accommodation in Galway. Where is the national strategy? I ask this in the context of a city where a recent survey found that almost one fifth of students at the University of Galway are living with family members or are in emergency accommodation. Those surveyed represented 8.5% of the student population. About 12% of respondents reported that they were living with …

Will the strategy be published later this year?

I welcome the standardised design. It is very practical. That has been done all over England with great cost savings. Let us go back to Galway. Approximately 19,000 students are in what I still call the NUIG. Then there is the Atlantic Technological University, ATU. There are more than 40,000 students in Galway in just two third level institutions. I know the Minister does not like the term "vultu…

I am not straying into the housing area. I am putting the issue into the context of a city where we have a massive housing crisis. I do not exaggerate. People have been on a waiting list for 20 years. We jump for joy when someone gets a house after 15 years. That is the context. In addition, we have two universities. A disaster of a decision was taken years ago before the arrival of the ATU. The C…

I dtús báire, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an ngrúpa teicniúil. I thank the technical group for once again putting the spotlight on the absence of services and the failure of successive Governments to recognise the invaluable work that caregivers give us. I am not going to use my own words. I am going to use the Policy Statement on Care published by the Irish Human Rights and Equality C…

It is okay.

There are two of us left, so it is-----

That is okay. I just wish to be fair to the other speakers. I know it is difficult for the Chair. I have attended many protests, as all my colleagues have done. There was a time when I was most uncomfortable with the chant "Israel is a terrorist state" because I am an absolute democrat. I have no such reluctance now and I am ashamed that I was not comfortable with that chant because Israel is a t…

I wish the Minister of State the best. I welcome his passion today and his invitation to all of us to go out into the country. There is a lot more than that to be done, however. He knows that more than anyone. If we go back, we declared biodiversity a climate emergency back in May 2019. The Minister at the time, Josepha Madigan, said that, “We are losing biodiversity around the globe at a rate unp…