Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

Everybody seems to be banging their heads off the wall. I admire his courage and bravery.

I raise a matter that has gone under radar because of the all of the other matters being brought up here. As far as I know, there has been zero media coverage on it. I am not sure how many people know that there are four people outside the gates of Dáil Éireann on hunger strike. They are victims of industrial and reformation school abuse and they are looking for justice. I met with them two days ago and they have very reasonable asks: access to a Health (Amendment) Act card and a contributory pension. I understand that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, met with them and had nothing concrete to offer them. This needs to be addressed before the situation escalates. I am extremely concerned for the well-being of these survivors. They have been on hunger strike for 12 days and are showing no signs of giving up. One of the ladies out there is 74 years-of-age. When I spoke to her, I felt she was very fragile. We cannot leave survivors of abuse sitting out in the cold while we all head back home to our constituencies at the weekend. The most vulnerable people in our society should not have to take such drastic action to be heard. I ask that the Minister comes to this Chamber and makes a statement on this today.