Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will continue with another quote.

There is a very disappointing complacency - almost a smugness - in the ... response to issues of this kind. It is now standard practice and a mantra ... [to] just itemise what ... [is seen] as positives and so on but ... not deal with the hard questions that are asked.

Again, those are not my words; that was what the Tánaiste said to the Taoiseach when he fobbed him off back in 2017, just like the Tánaiste has just fobbed me off. I ask him again to please just deal with the questions I have asked him. When will the CDNTs be fully staffed? When will a new transport scheme be introduced? Am I to presume that is a "No" on the ratification of the optional protocol?

People have heard enough broken promises and enough itemisation of things like that. All they want are basic services, services the State has an obligation to provide and to which people have a right. Is it really too much to ask to be prioritised rather than forgotten, or for anybody in government to act with urgency? The Tánaiste has just listed off a few things. His long-term priority of special education needs has amounted to precisely zero special schools in Cork South-West. He referred to children's disability network teams. Not one of them is fully staffed. Pay parity for section 39 workers is still not there.

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