Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Before I call on the Acting Leader to outline the Order of Business, I welcome to the Gallery the executive director of the Maine Farm Bureau, Julie Ann Smith. She is most welcome to Seanad Éireann. I thank her for coming. Those of our Members who are on the agricultural panel will be delighted to meet her and discuss farm policy in the United States and here.

The Order of Business is No. 1, Employment Permits Bill 2022 - Report and Final Stages, to be taken at 3.15 p.m. and to adjourn at 5 p.m. if not previously concluded; and No. 2, Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024 – Second Stage, to be taken at 5 p.m. and to conclude at 7 p.m. if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed ten minutes, all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, and the Minister to be given no less than ten minutes to reply to the debate.

I am sure the Acting Leader and Leas-Chathaoirleach will join with me and others in recognising the efforts of careful and true diplomacy over rhetoric and rushing to judgment. I refer to the approach taken by the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, around the situation in the Middle East and the careful way he has managed his brief over recent months in reaching a point where today Ireland, together with Norway and Spain, will recognise the State of Palestine.

There have been motions in this House and elsewhere in an effort to make certain statements on occasion. While these were important in isolation, they did recognise the big prize. The big prize for me today is that this State has reached a point where the majority of the Irish people are in support of the Government. We are in tandem with two other nations and I suspect others are in a process of moving towards that. Over 140 nations around the world now recognise Palestine. It has been slow and arduous to bring people on that journey. There are historic reasons why some countries have yet to get there but the work of the Tánaiste, in particular, and his officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been slow and painstaking. They were criticised along the way for not saying things and doing things on occasion. That now pales into insignificance when we see the point we have reached. There has to be a new direction towards the two-state solution, which was on the cards a number of decades ago and now has to become centre-stage again as we try to bring about the conditions for a peaceful settlement.

Of course the first thing that will have to happen is a ceasefire. The release of hostages will have to be the next step, then a slow journey towards rebuilding some kind of normalised society. The efforts by some, and particularly by the Israeli Government, to portray Ireland as somehow supporting Hamas were a deflection and I am glad the mainstream of Irish society did not really take on board the idea of creating a video with Irish dancers and Irish music while Hamas terrorists committed outrageous crimes.

It does not do anything for international diplomacy. Israel would have been better advised to have started talking to leaders of its own government and within its political circles about how it might use diplomacy towards a lasting and peaceful settlement. Of course, there is nothing in the decision taken by the three states that would be in any way supportive of the outrageous actions of Hamas last October. Hamas is a terrorist organisation that has done great damage to the Palestinian people, but it is the Palestinian people who are important here. There is continued bombardment of their safe zones, settlements and encampments they have been asked to move to. We saw 14 of them were killed the other day, which was outrageous, and at a time when Israel has said it is just going after Hamas. The response is not proportionate and the ICJ has identified that. Let us hope the hard work of Ireland pays dividends. Some have talked about us being involved in military alliances and moving in certain ways. We have really shown that the best comes out in Ireland when trying to find peaceful solutions and in being actors towards delivering for peace. Again, we see that by the decision that has been taken today.

I also welcome our visitor from Maine and hope she has a successful trip in Ireland.

It will not be long until the preparations for budget 2025 have been made. I raise the issue of holding the VAT rate at 9% and having a distinction between food and accommodation. Small restaurants, bars and pubs provide a great service not just to our economy but also to the tourism industry. They provide a great service to this country and a lot of them are under pressure. We all know from our daily jobs and activities that they are under pressure from increases in wages and so forth that have, rightly, taken place over recent years. It would be a great addition for them to hold on to the 9% VAT rate. The Government has to have a serious look at holding that 9% VAT rate for food for the foreseeable future.

The Government support schemes have been very welcome and they will give some respite to small businesses in particular. The big businesses will survive, but the small businesses could close. We see a lot of small businesses closing and changing for one reason or another. Those business support schemes will give small businesses that bit of respite, as I have said. The 9% VAT rate is a more solid issue for them going into the future. The business support schemes are a once-off payment, whereas I hope the Government continues with the 9% rate for the years ahead. They are big employers and employ a considerable number of people, whether permanent or temporary. They provide a great service for younger people on a temporary basis, during the summer and during holiday time at Easter and Christmas. The wages they pay are very welcome for the students who go to third-level colleges. They are great for the economy, students and our towns. Were the VAT to stay at 9%, it would lifeblood to them. I hope the Acting Leader might be able to communicate that or that we may have a debate on it in the very near future because the budget preparation will go ahead very shortly.

I would like the Minister for Finance to confirm whether he plans to amend the inheritance and capital gains tax in budget 2025.

In September 2023, the then Minister for Finance was asked in the Dáil if he would consider the concept of a notional spouse with respect to capital acquisitions tax and inheritance tax. The concept would reconsider tax thresholds for family members such as brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews as if they were a spouse for specific tax purposes. The current group A threshold for beneficiaries of gifts or inheritance is €335,000 for parent-to-child transfers. The CSO published a residential property price index on 17 October 2023 stating that the average price of a residential property had reached €366,653 in the 12 months up to June 2023. This means that the average house price in Ireland is in excess of the parent-to-child transfer threshold. For group B, the category into which nieces, nephews and siblings fall, the threshold also remains at €32,500, which is now meagrely over the annual minimum wage of €25,756. The threshold for group C is €16,250, and this is mostly for non-family relationships, such as friends, carers and possibly those deemed to be in a durable or casual relationship.

If this Government is serious about easing the housing crisis and listening to the needs of the public facing an ever worsening cost-of-living crisis, or wishes to honour its long-desired empowerment of durable relationships, perhaps it might consider tangible help and relief to people who wish to help out nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, friends and also their own children by way of a financial gift. The people of this country most impacted by this are the new working and middle classes of Ireland, who have worked long and hard and contributed for decades to support our failing State, only to watch opportunity, support and social housing preference going to the new arrivals and those not contributing economically to the upkeep and prosperity of the State.

As a nation, our younger generation is facing drastic impediments regarding access to the housing market. Just under 70% of 25- to 29-year-olds live with their parents, and there are limited opportunities to enter the rental or home-ownership markets. If a parent, either by a gift or inheritance, wishes to give their child a step-up in these conditions, our Government is not assisting in any way. This is an insult to the hard-working people of our country who purchase family homes and adequately prepare to leave a legacy for their families after a long life of hard work.

In conclusion, the Government will have to take steps to give people a chance to have financial prosperity. The working and middle classes are the temperature gauge of a prosperous State, and this Government has squeezed and sold out our workers for far too long.

The only topic I can speak on today is the unspeakable horrors we have seen play out in Rafah. I have looked at photos of charred babies who were burned to death. I have watched the video of a man holding up the headless body of a child while fires burn in the background, and shouts and pleas for mercy ring out. I wonder is it mercy from whom - Israel or the world? Western Rafah is where the Israeli army forced Palestinian refugees to flee for their own safety, and those little children were supposed to be safe there.

Of course, today is a proud and emotional day as the national flag of Palestine flies at our Parliament for the first time. It flies beside our own tricolour, a flag of peace, and the flag of Ukraine, where Russia's brutal attack rages on. I think of how differently the big global powers responded to the invasion of Ukraine compared with the effective wipe-out of Gaza. Now that Ireland recognises Palestinian statehood, we must do more to forge a path to peace. It is the only ethical and moral thing left to do.

In 1984, 40 years ago, a courageous group of Dunnes Stores workers led by Mary Manning refused to sell South African goods as a protest against the apartheid regime. This small yet significant act of defiance sparked a movement that would reverberate around the world. Despite threats and suspensions, these workers stood firm, embodying the principle that ethical convictions must outweigh personal and professional costs. Their strike lasted almost three years, ultimately leading to the Government banning South African imports, the first complete ban by a western nation. This victory was not only a triumph for the workers but also a critical blow against apartheid, demonstrating the effectiveness of international solidarity.

As we consider the plight of Palestinians today, the lessons from the Dunnes Stores strike remain relevant. Our support for Palestine should not be mere rhetoric. It is incredibly important that we have now recognised Palestinian statehood but I believe our support must translate into tangible actions such as supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions, BDS, movement against Israeli apartheid. All of us here today can do that in our day-to-day lives if we choose to when we consider our goods and our purchasing power. Purchasing power speaks volumes under the capitalist society in which we live.

We can use power individually ourselves, but we also have options at a political level.

I do not believe that the occupied territories Bill is enough anymore. The Government must engage in a full-blown boycott of Israeli goods, just as we did in the 1980s in protest of apartheid South Africa. We must not allow American bombs and weapons land on Irish soil. The Government of Ireland must engage in a full-blown economic-cultural sanction against Israel.

We cannot undo the damage that has been done to the Palestinian people but now we must do something. We have had perpetual statements in both Houses on this, and I am not sure if it is even worthwhile calling for more statements on it. I ask the Acting Leader to feed back to the Government that I think we need to do more and step up more. We need to move from flying the flag outside to actual full-blown economic sanctions against Israel.

I raise the plight of thalidomide victims again in this House. I ask that An Taoiseach prioritises the talks with the Irish Thalidomide Association and that there is a conclusion to the saga and hell that thalidomide victims have had to go through for more than 60 years. They absolutely deserve a State apology, the acknowledgement of victims who are not as yet acknowledged, adequate healthcare packages and adequate compensation. Thalidomide victims are victims of something done to them and done to their mothers. Sadly, with 60 years of abuse and wear and tear on their bodies, they need help. The continuation of this shows the worst of bureaucracy that a State can deliver. It is absolutely unjust, disgusting and immoral that we still have victims of thalidomide who are unacknowledged and who this country has not apologised to. I urge An Taoiseach to pick up where the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, left off when he was Taoiseach and make sure a resolution is made as quickly as possible. These people are not getting any younger. The mothers who were left behind are still alive are not getting any younger. We do not want to see another mammy of a thalidomide victim die without an apology and an acknowledgement that it was the State’s fault. It was the tablet’s fault. It was not their fault that their children were born victims and disfigured because of a medication. I urge An Taoiseach to bring this to a conclusion and give some people peace of mind and a bit of contentment in their remaining years.

Before I call on Senator Victor Boyhan, I welcome our colleague, Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, along with her guests from the north inner city, one of whom distinguished himself in protecting children in the inner city in that awful, horrific attack. For that, we are eternally grateful to Caio Benicio. I thank him and Louise Domingues for being here today and I thank Mr. Benicio for what he did on that terrible day. We are forever grateful.

I join with the Leas-Chathaoirleach in welcoming our special guests and I thank Senator Fitzpatrick. Mr. Benicio made a great and significant contribution and input. I have no doubt we will hear more about him in the future. Well done and many thanks.

I join with Senator McGreehan in respect of the Irish Thalidomide Association. It is something that has been sitting on all our desks for a long time. Yet again, I too appeal to the Government to re-engage with the Irish Thalidomide Association in its quest for justice. That goes for all of us on all sides of these Houses. It has gone on for too long. Thalidomide, a chemical ingredient, was sold in Ireland from 1957 to 1961 to alleviate morning sickness. It was withdrawn internationally in 1961 after it was found to have caused major birth defects. Babies were born with shortened or no limbs, with painful damage to nerve ends, organs, hearing and eyesight. There are now estimated to be around 40 survivors in Ireland. I particularly acknowledge the work of thalidomide survivor, Finola Cassidy, who is, after all, the spokesperson of the association and again has called for the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to support their call for justice.

They have had many promises and have met many of us in these Houses and, each week, they think they are going to have progress but there is none. It is very disappointing. It is disingenuous to raise people's expectations. There are so few of these people left. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has indicated that he is anxious to provide bespoke healthcare services to all the survivors, but is that enough? I think they are looking for a lot more, and rightly so. Survivors want a formal State apology and an appropriate compensation package and, above all, they want adequate provisions for medical expenses and their lives going forward. I ask that we all join in asking the Acting Leader to communicate with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Government to see if we can have meaningful re-engagement in this really important quest for justice.

I would like to request a debate in this Chamber on the future of sustainable transport in Ireland. As bus gates are introduced along Dublin's quays, more streets become pedestrianised and more people live further away from their work, consciousness of cost arises. We need to imagine a transport system that is fit for all. We know Ireland is ranked as one of the highest EU emitters per capita. We heard all the figures this morning. As part of our climate action plan, this would also be a welcome help. In calling for this debate, I think sustainable transport should include VAT reductions on electric bicycles and car rentals, waiving tolls off peak and a reduction in bus fares. This co-ordinated plan with all these different streams of travel would certainly be a help and make it more possible for people to get to work without the use of cars. It could also culminate in a tax-free shared mobility allowance akin to the bike to work scheme. If we could introduce something like that for people for whom the bike to work scheme is not practical, it would be useful.

I know that, as a member of the media committee, the Acting Leader will have some interest in what I am about to say. Since the call for the European elections started, the short amount of time allocated to candidates on RTÉ News to try to get their points across is appalling. Then we get the also-running - people who might be less known. The ones who have some bit of a profile are brought onto the news and they are expected to make their pitch in three minutes. The also-running do not get on the six o'clock news. They do not get to make their points in any public way whatsoever. It is an appalling way for the national broadcaster to treat what is an extremely important election for Ireland.

Having said that, some of the candidates that have been on are going to fix housing and health in Ireland from Brussels. This is great news. I am delighted to hear it. I would love to know how they are going to do it. Maybe there was one sensible statement made and that was about getting money from the European Investment Bank or at least supporting that. Let us start being realistic with the electorate and talk about the things we can really influence and not try to move into the area of TDs and county councillors. That is where their job is - on the ground in Ireland dealing with Irish issues at the coalface. The European Parliament is different. It is about European control over what comes into and goes out of Ireland.

This brings me to the issue of defence. Dr. Eoin Drea, senior research officer at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, has an article on Politico this morning about the appalling state of our country, entitled, "Ireland’s the ultimate defense freeloader". He sets out in great detail how we have freeloaded on our European neighbours for far too long. Right now, we are an open door into Europe for drug and people traffickers and those who wish to sail over our cables in the Atlantic.

I am aware the Acting Leader, Senator Byrne, has an interest in that and he has often spoken on it. More of us in Leinster House need to be talking about defence to try to get us to where we should be going. I have huge praise for the Chief of Staff for being elected to his European role but it is not good enough. It really is not good enough.

Next Wednesday, 5 June, is the start of the leaving certificate examinations. It is important that this House at some stage has a debate about how we actually deal with the 13,000 or 14,000 kids who are sitting their leaving certificate and junior certificate exams who have dyslexia. A significant campaign has gone on in recent years to try to make sure this cohort of children gets extra time in exams. Extra time in exams happens across the entire European profile of schools. Places like Germany, France and the UK all give extra time but Ireland does not. I cannot understand how we are in another leaving certificate process and this is happening again. There seems to be no movement from the Department of Education. We need the Minister to come to this Chamber to give us her vision of what happens regarding dyslexic kids. The stress they are put under is totally inappropriate. In the next few weeks they will be under time pressure going through exams because it takes them longer to compute the issues that are put in front of them. They are probably the brightest in the class but they just need that little bit of extra time to get through it. That they get the extra time at third level but not in junior and leaving certificate exams is an awful insult to the students who are fighting so hard to do well in exams.

There is another issue. This is not just about English, geography or history. The maths questions are a huge issue. It takes some students longer to go through those because of the wordy nature of the maths questions now. There is no acknowledgement from the Department about those issues at all. It is appropriate now that the Minister should come to the House to tell us her vision for these 13,000 children who will be put through examinations that will put them under exceptional mental and physical pressure because we will not do what happens across the entire European platform and we will not do what happens at third level. I really am lost for words here. This is not the first time I have raised this issue and I will continue to raise it. I ask the Acting Leader to make sure the Minister comes to the Chamber before the recess because this needs to be hammered out. We cannot have another leaving certificate where they are going to be caught for extra time and they will not have the ability to finish the exams. It is just unfair. All I ask is to get fairness back into the exam process.

I wish to raise the issue of how we talk about climate. No doubt we will have a discussion in these Houses very soon again about climate. I was very sorry I was unable to be present at the education committee this morning. I know the Acting Leader was there. It is very important we had the hearings we did. The committee heard from young people and various bodies, including the Union of Students in Ireland and the Irish Second-Level Students' Union, about how climate and the challenges around climate are to be talked about in our school system and the response that needs to be made.

There is absolutely no doubt that massive climate change is happening and there is absolutely no doubt there has been a massive increase in emissions of CO2 and other gasses from man-made activity. Where there is not absolute consensus and where there is a respectable minority view is around to what extent climate change can be explained by anthropogenic activity. It would be wrong to engage in a kind of groupthink that pretends there are not Nobel Prize-winning physicists, for example, who have a minority view around this. I say this because I am concerned about the impact of climate alarmism on the rising generation. There was a phrase from the Irish Second-Level Students' Union statement that:

We must acknowledge climate discussions can have a profound impact on students in our education system. The planet is in crisis and that can be hard for many. We must be prepared for the impact of eco-grief which already grips many today.

We must not be prepared for the impact of that. We must arrest that development in schools and we must help young people be resilient. We must encourage sustainable practices. We must help them be climate aware but we must help them live in the world as we have it and prepare this world better for the future.

I am worried about an excessive politicisation of our curriculum, where a certain kind of Chicken Licken, the-sky-is-falling analysis pervades all talk around climate. I worry that might contribute to what might be called a fragilisation, if such a word exists, of younger people.

We need to be serious about climate, but we need to be careful about talking about it as an emergency. There are many emergencies in our world, from human trafficking to what is going on in Gaza and a whole lot of other places. However, we may be losing our way in how we bring forward the next generation and educate them about climate and climate responsibility. If we are talking about eco-grief and preparing students for it, then somebody somewhere high up in the education chain has lost it.

I thank all Senators for their contributions. There were a number of requests for statements on various issues, which I will bring back to the relevant Departments.

Senators Dooley and Hoey raised the question of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the horrific scenes we are currently witnessing in Rafah. They welcomed the decision of Ireland, along with Norway and Spain, to recognise the State of Palestine today. As Senator Dooley said, the recognition of the State of Palestine in no way condones the horrific actions of Hamas. As a State, we continue to call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages, and a move towards a long-term peaceful solution, where all the people of Palestine and Israel can live in peace and security. On Senator Hoey's point about the shows of international solidarity, there are many examples whereby we can show solidarity with innocent civilians who are suffering.

It is clear that discussion on the budget is now moving into full swing because a number of budgetary matters were raised. I suspect that we will see many more contributions on budgetary matters in the months ahead. Senator Burke once again raised the issue of the restoration of the temporary 9% VAT rate in the case of food, which he looked at in the context of supporting the very important tourism and hospitality industry. The Ministers for Finance and public expenditure are considering all these issues.

I noticed Senator Keogan in her discussion of capital gains tax raised the concept of a notional spouse or, indeed, where a durable relationship exists-----

In making her budget submissions to the Minister, I might ask the Senator to quite clearly define what she means by a durable relationship. In the context of something like tax, we should provide certainty on that. I thought that there was a relative degree of certainty as to what a durable relationship meant but, given that Senator Keogan has now-----

-----for capital gains tax in the context of durable relationships, providing a definition could certainly be helpful.

Senators McGreehan and Boyhan raised the issue of victims of thalidomide, as both have done in the House previously. They have both been very strong advocates on behalf of the Irish Thalidomide Association. I agree that this has gone on for far too long. What the House could do is invite statements on the issue of thalidomide at some stage. I certainly echo and agree with their calls on that issue.

Senator Davitt raised the matter of sustainable transport, which, again, relates to budgetary considerations. He will be aware that this Government has presided over very significant reductions in transport fees and provided incentives for people to use public transport. However, looking at things like a VAT reduction on electric bikes, in the context of budgetary considerations, to support active travel is something I am quite certain the Minister for Finance would consider.

I can request that we have a debate.

Senator Craughwell knows that I agree with him on the defence issues he raised.

Whenever there are elections, there will always be questions as to who gets coverage and who does not, and inevitably some people will be aggrieved. There is the difficulty of trying to give coverage to everybody. We all have our own views as to who should or should not have coverage. Whether people agree with it or not, RTÉ set out the grounds on which it would invite people onto any of its broadcasts.

I agree with Senator Craughwell on competences of the European Parliament. It is important that we send Members to the European Parliament who understand how the EU operates and can have an impact there. Anybody who is elected will have to join one of the groups within the European Parliament and perhaps in debates in the future it would make more sense that each of the European parliamentary groupings and those who wish to join them should have one representative on each of the programmes so that then a decision can be made among all the candidates who aspire to join whatever group as to who the candidates for a particular programme might happen to be.

Senator Lombard raised the very valid issue of students with dyslexia sitting leaving cert and junior cert exams, an issue he has raised regularly in this House. He is correct that far more allowances are made in higher education for those who have dyslexia. I think it is something we can discuss and raise with the Minister for Education.

Senator Mullen raised the question of climate change. I attended the education committee this morning and there were some very insightful contributions from students, and representatives of the ISSU and USI. I am inclined to agree with the Senator that when it comes to education it should be constructive. I have never favoured a fire-and-brimstone approach to education whether it is in the teaching of climate sustainability or in the teaching of religion.

It needs to be much more discursive and evidence based. As the Senator said, there is very clear evidence that we are seeing climate change and a biodiversity challenge. It is important that all of us within society are equipped with the tools to be able to respond to that. It should be done very much on an evidence base. I am quite certain, and it is quite welcome, that the education committee is discussing this and that the voices of young people and students are heard within that debate.