John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Katherine Zappone's call for a review of the changes to the lone parent's allowance. I do not believe that initially this was meant to be a cut that would result in people losing money. The idea was to try to find more work for people but, unfortunately, situations will arise where people will lose money and they need to be addressed.

I support Senator Paul Coghlan's point about what happened outside the Kildare Street gate yesterday. It was outrageous. It is legally unacceptable that these anarchists could hold the Parliament to ransom. Senator Mooney and I engaged with them and they consider themselves to be democrats. None of the Deputies or Senators could leave this area from 3 p.m. yesterday until almost 10 p.m. It is amazing that, legally, a parliamentarian cannot be stopped by a garda on the way to or from the Seanad or the Dáil and yet these protestors managed to do that yesterday. Many Deputies and Senators had genuine reasons for leaving Leinster House yesterday but that did not matter. The people protesting did not care that somebody had a hospital appointment or that Senator Landy wanted to go home last night for personal reasons. They stopped his car and threw bollards at it. They spat at him. He had to abandon his car. He had no legal protection.

I agree that people have the right to protest but we have to define what is a protest. We have to make the distinction between a protest and total disruption. Buses bringing people home from work had to stop for 40 minutes outside Leinster House. Eventually, the people had to leave the buses and walk home or get taxis. People travelling in their cars to collect their children after work, some of whom might have been lone parents, could not collect them because of the protest. These people did not care. Would that be allowed outside Downing Street or the White House? The answer is that it would not be allowed.

We can be critical of the gardaí and people were critical of them when nothing happened on the occasion the Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton, was held hostage in her car for two and a half hours. People said the gardaí were wrong because they did not act. That was followed some weeks later by a garda friend of mine pulling a lady off the bonnet of the Taoiseach's car, who then fell against a bollard. He is now the subject of an investigation by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. We have to know where to draw the line. We need clear legislation that outlines what is and what is not a protest and that must be done as a matter of urgency.