Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I endorse what Senator Darragh O'Brien stated with regard to the unanimous proposal by the Dáil six years ago concerning the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. I note that at the time the then Clerk of the Dáil communicated the unanimous resolution to the House of Commons and to the Government of the United Kingdom, and the silence and lack of response since then is deafening. I will say no more on it. If the shoe was on the other foot, I am sure there would be clamour in the United Kingdom or in the North.

I primarily rise today to ask the Leader to get the relevant Minister - I am unsure whether it is under the Departments of Education and Skills or Social Protection - to immediately reverse the mean removal of the €20 SOLAS training allowance to those in the national learning networks throughout the country. I received a brief e-mail from one such person, who I will not name. It states that some national learning network students will speak at the AV Room in Leinster House today at 2 p.m. about the removal of the €20 SOLAS training allowance and how it has impacted on their lives and that the correspondent is a constituent and would like if I could come to hear how this cut is impacting on the amount of money that the students have during their training. The invitation states that these disadvantaged persons have decided not to stay in bed and want a better life, but the removal of the training allowance is holding them back, and asks is this the direction that a government should take or is it some sort of a stunt coming up to the end of term that will be forgotten in September.

I raised a similar issue about the advocacy for those who are deaf yesterday and I will raise it again tomorrow morning, if necessary. Somebody must listen to the plight of these people. Imagine these people, who are in some way disadvantaged, trying to get back into society and trying to make a case for themselves, having to travel from west Cork, Donegal, Mayo and elsewhere to meet us here today on an issue of removing a paltry sum of €20 of a training allowance. Shame on us all as public representatives. We are letting these people down. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, to ask the relevant Minister, be it the Minister for Education and Skills or the Minister for Social Protection, to have this cut reversed immediately and to come into this House today, not tomorrow, to explain why these students should travel from all over Ireland to meet us here today on an issue that is beyond explanation.