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

Recently the Minister’s party leader claimed the Social Democrats believe Ireland is a failed state. It seems as if he was literally making stuff up and saying it on national radio. I have always acknowledged the country's many positives and successes and I have consistently pointed out the profound sense of disconnect many people have as a result of that. This is a disconnect between a GDP that makes us one of the richest countries in the world and nearly 4,500 children growing up in emergency accommodation; a disconnect between full employment and 500,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms; and a disconnect between a €24 billion surplus and nearly 600,000 people living in poverty. No, we are not a failed State but the Government is failing far too many people and that failure is not inevitable. It is not an accident either. It is a product of political choices that have been made at Cabinet tables in this Government and previous Governments, political choices about what to spend money on and how much, political choices that led to a 15% increase in the number of children experiencing deprivation last year alone, political choices that led to disability services becoming threadbare and dysfunctional, political choices that resulted in a failure to meet social and affordable housing targets every single year and political choices that have set us up to fail when it comes to meeting our climate targets.

This week’s budget was also full of choices about what to prioritise and what issues were deemed not so important. I listened to the Minister for the last few minutes trying to defend the €9 million that was allocated to schools to buy phone pouches. This was done because, fair enough, the Minister for Education wants schools to ban phones but she does not have the power to do that. We can all agree on the need to prioritise mental health and children's mental health but to prioritise phone pouches with regard to that does not make a whole lot of sense to most people. This is €9 million spent on a pet project that schools were not crying out for. It is a lot of money and could have done some real good. That €9 million could have been used to invest in special schools. There is not a single special school in my constituency of Cork South-West. The money could have been used to fund therapists in St. Killian’s Special School in Mayfield, which was promised supports from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that never materialised. There have been no occupational therapists, speech and language therapists or behavioural therapists in that special school or any other since 2020 when Fianna Fáil entered government. The Tánaiste said he disagreed with the decision that resulted in therapists being removed from schools. Well a Fianna Fáil Minister holds that brief, a Fianna Fáil TD is the disability Minister and Deputy Chambers is the Minister for Finance. What has been done about it? Nothing, as far as I can see while children with additional needs are repeatedly failed - failed not by anonymous systems but by political choices. Does the Minister at the very least accept that his Government has failed these children with additional needs?

See this speech in context