RTÉ accountability and related debates
Sinn Féin, Labour and People Before Profit opposed agreement, criticising Minister Catherine Martin’s handling of the RTÉ controversy and demanding questions in the Dáil. Deputy Whitmore then raised a separate call for a debate on nature restoration, and Deputy Boyd Barrett also added a demand for a disability-focused referendum discussion.
It is not agreed. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is refusing to answer questions when she comes before the Dáil tomorrow. The same Minister was quite prepared to go on live television and, without prior notice, sack Ms Siún Ní Raghallaigh but is not prepared to come before the Chamber and answer questions. The Minister has badly mishandled the RTÉ debacle and has now added to the chaos. A lack of transparency and accountability has broken public trust in RTÉ and it now seems the Minister is not prepared to be fully transparent and accountable. That is not an acceptable situation so we press that the Minister not just make a statement, but also take questions, when she appears before the House.
Comment on this
I, too, call for the Minister to take questions in the Dáil tomorrow.
It is important, in particular after we saw what was, in effect, a summary dismissal of the chair of the RTÉ board on Thursday night, that is, the forced resignation of Siún Ní Raghallaigh.
I also seek a debate on rough sleeping and what the Government proposes to do to tackle the crisis of rough sleepers. There are more than 1,000 international protection applicants sleeping rough on the streets of our capital city, many around the corner from here on Mount Street. It is a particularly poignant issue for us following the death in my area at the weekend of a local homeless woman, Ann Delaney on Aungier Street. I offer my sympathies and condolences to her family. I attended the vigil on Aungier Street last night. What does the Government propose to do to address the growing crisis of rough sleepers and people who are left without shelter and are forced to sleep on our streets?
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Today was an historic day in the European Parliament, where we saw the nature restoration law passed. Unfortunately, it is disappointing that two of our MEPs, one from Sinn Féin and an Independent, voted against it. The reality is that what they are voting against is to restore nature and to bring our natural environment back to a point where it is not on the brink of collapse, which is what we are seeing at the moment. Some 81% of habitats in Europe are in poor condition and many of our species are on the verge of extinction. I would like a debate in the Dáil, not only on the nature restoration law and also how the Government will transpose it, but also the biodiversity action plan the Minister recently brought in. Biodiversity and nature do not get enough coverage in the Chamber. Considering the citizens assembly and all of the community support for this, it is an issue that we tend not to address in the Chamber. I would like to see more debate on it and now is a good opportunity to have that.
Comment on this
People Before Profit also wrote to the Business Committee to ask that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, be willing to take questions and have a back-and-forth debate so that we can get to the bottom of the shambolic mess in RTÉ. The Government should agree to that.
I want to raise another issue about the forthcoming referendum. People with disabilities are absolutely furious about the failure of the Government to insert rights for people with disabilities into the Constitution in the care referendum. People Before Profit is voting "Yes" in both of the referendums, but we are doing so distinctly unenthusiastically. Many people with disabilities who would otherwise have voted "Yes" are seriously considering voting "No" on the care referendum because of the pathetic failure to put in clear constitutional commitments to rights for people with disabilities. If the Government wants to address their concerns, we should have an urgent debate on the optional protocol and inserting real rights for people with disabilities so that they have legal equality in this country.