Cara Darmody begins 50-hour protest to highlight disability assessment delays
Cara, aged 14, from Ardfinnan in Co Tipperary, said the Disability Act has been "systemically broken" for almost a decade as delays for assessments of needs look set to reach 25,000.
Cara was initially motivated to pursue her advocacy because her two brothers — 12-year-old Neil and 8-year-old John — are autistic and have severe to profound intellectual disabilities.
The issue of the backlog will be raised today throughout the Dáil schedule, with the opposition backing a Sinn Féin motion on the issue.
An assessment of need is carried out to identify if a child, children, or young person has a disability. It is designed to identify their health needs as well as service requirements.
Once the HSE receives an application, there is a legal requirement for the assessment of needs to be completed within six months.
The number of applications overdue for completion at the end of March 2025 stood at 15,296 — an 8% increase on the figure from the end of 2024.
However, throughout the first quarter of this year, just 7% of assessments were completed within the timeframes set out in the Disability Act 2005 and its accompanying regulations.
In response to a parliamentary question from Labour TD Alan Kelly, the HSE said demand for the assessments continues to outstrip system capacity — despite increases in activity and commissions to private assessors.
The HSE anticipates that, by the end of the year, there could be as many as 24,796 assessments due for completion.
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Sunday World
9 hours ago
- Sunday World
Ex-Provo says he's proud IRA chiefs asked him to tell world their war was over
Séanna Walsh became the first IRA man for decades to stand in front of a camera and talk on behalf of the organisation without a mask Seanna Walsh, announces that IRA leadership has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign in 2005. The former Provo who told the world the IRA's war was over has revealed it remains one of the proudest moments of his life – but he had to get his daughters' approval first. Séanna Walsh spoke to the Sunday World on the week of the 20th anniversary of the jaw-dropping statement that declared an end to the IRA's violent campaign which saw them murder more than 1,700 people. On July 28, 2005, Séanna became the first IRA man for decades to stand in front of a camera and talk on behalf of the organisation without a mask. In a DVD that was distributed all over the world, he said the terrorist group was laying down its arms and was committing to a new peaceful strategy of achieving its goal of a united Ireland. Not everyone believed them but 20 years on only the most diehard unionist would argue that the IRA still exists as a violent force. Seanna Walsh, announces that IRA leadership has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign in 2005. Séanna (68) reveals this week why he thinks he was chosen to deliver that message, how he had check it was okay with his family first and how he feels about it 20 years later. While a number of ceasefires had been announced and collapsed since 1994, the 2005 statement saw the start of the decommissioning of weapons. The IRA statement delivered by Séanna said that members had been instructed to use exclusively peaceful means and not to engage in any other activities whatsoever. 'I had to be unmasked,' says Séanna – now a Sinn Féin Belfast city councillor – told the Sunday World. 'It had to be that way because we were doing something different. 'It was the defining moment of my life as a republican and I'm very proud of the fact the IRA leadership asked me to be the person to read the statement. 'I wasn't wearing a mask because we had to move away from that but I wasn't worried because I was quite convinced the days of the armed conflict were over. Séanna Walsh reflects on delivering historic IRA statement 20 years on News in 90 Seconds, Friday August 1 'It was made in the grounds of the Roddy's (Roddy McCorley's Club) and there's a museum there today and you can push the button and play the video and actually there's a recording of me reading the statement in English but also in Irish.' Walsh was a 48-year-old father-of-three when he made the statement which lasted just over four minutes and was filmed in the grounds of the west Belfast club. By then he'd already been in jail three times for his role in violent republicanism – in fact by the time he was released in 1998 he'd spent more time behind bars than out – and his track record was one of the reasons he believes he was chosen to read out the statement. 'I didn't ask them why I was chosen,' says Walsh. 'I was approached by an IRA comrade and that's as much as I can say. I suppose it's because I was confident enough to do it. 'I think they asked me because of the fact I'd served time in the Cages (Long Kesh), where I first met Bobby Sands, and where I shared a cell with him and we became very close friends. 'Then during the hunger strike period I was back in the H-Blocks and suffered the abuse of the blanket protest and was then in charge of the H-Blocks after Bik McFarlane stood down. 'On being released I went back to the struggle and was recaptured a third time and sentenced to 22 years the third time and was finally released in 1998. 'When I was asked would I be prepared to be the one to read the statement to camera and this would go out globally, I had to take a step back and I told them I'll have to think about this because I have three daughters, two of which were teens and the other was only a child. 'I needed to sit down and go through it all with my family – my wife is a long-standing republican in her own right and shared a cell in jail in Armagh with Mairéad Farrell for a number of years. 'So my wife was okay with it and the girls were absolutely supportive – the one thing I was most concerned about was the way that stuff like this can impact on their opportunities to travel and them being at that age. 'So I sat down with them and talked it over with them and I came back and said 'yes I'll do it'. I was a bit concerned about putting myself above the parapet and making myself a target of abuse because we were putting it up to the establishment in a way we hadn't really done before.' For the record, Walsh was jailed for terrorist offences including robbing banks, having a rifle and being caught with explosives but he sticks by the controversial claim that there was 'no alternative'. But he says the growth of Sinn Féin in the Republic actually pushed the IRA closer to a ceasefire as they found Dublin a colder house than before. 'Nationalists and certainly republicans felt there was no alternative to armed struggle but when republicans were convinced that there was a viable alternative to ending British government interference in this part of Ireland without recourse to armed struggle, they jumped at it with both hands and grasped it,' he says. 'To talk about 2005 you really have to talk about the statement Gerry Adams made in April where he talks about the time is now right for the IRA to leave the stage. 'That triggered a whole period of consultation across the republican family... it was time for the IRA to leave the stage because it was leading to excuses on the part of other people, the people in opposition to ourselves. 'When you look back in the years when Sinn Féin was a political party and their strength lay in the North, the Dublin government were a lot less hostile after the IRA ceasefire but Sinn Féin's strength was growing in the south and they were becoming, as far as they were concerned, a threat politically to the southern establishment and that's when things started becoming problematic with the Dublin government.' He says the archives will show that neither unionism nor the British government believed his statement was completely genuine. 'If you look back at the archives the British downplayed it, the unionists totally poo-pooed it and even then later in the year when you had the statement from De Chastelain (chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning), that he was satisfied guns had been put beyond use you still had this scepticism in unionism that didn't believe it.' Last weekend, Séanna took part in a discussion about his historic statement along with Gerry Adams, chaired by Mairéad Farrell TD – niece of IRA member Mairéad who was shot dead in Gibraltar – in Belfast's Balmoral Hotel. Speaking before the event, Gerry Adams voiced regret that the statement of 2005 took so long to come, suggesting the UK government was focused on 'defeating republicanism'. He said: 'It took decades and one of my regrets is that it took so long. In my humble opinion it took so long because the two governments, particularly the British government, only sought peace on its terms, which meant defeat the IRA, it meant defeat republicanism and that doesn't work, our people are resolute.' He added: 'The proof of it is that 20 years later the IRA isn't a feature.'
Irish Examiner
16 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: We need more gardaí but facial recognition could help the force do its job
Many claims are made to support the widespread introduction of facial recognition technology (FRT). Mostly they relate to policing and the efficiencies which could be gained in an era when An Garda Síochána continuously finds it difficult to fill vacancies. This was underlined this week when it was revealed that 7,000 fewer drug searches were carried out last year, compared to 2022. They dropped 15% for the entire country, but by as much as 43% in Clare/Tipperary and 34% in Cork City. If this is a consequence, as officers maintain, of fewer gardaí 'on the streets' then what will happen when almost 1,900 members of the force become eligible to retire over the next three years? There is an inexorable logic to future demands that this shortfall be managed, in part, by more widespread use of technology. Unfortunately, that runs directly into mounting worries about civil liberties and the rights of ordinary citizens to pursue legitimate interests free from unjustified official intrusion and oversight. Politicians recognise the dangers of being portrayed as agents of some form of deep state. They have been slow to introduce body cameras for guards and our government is taking baby steps on plans for incorporation of real-time facial recognition technology into next gen surveillance techniques. Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan has said a bill currently before the Dáil will not provide for the use of real-time FRT but its future deployment has not been ruled out in cases of terrorism, national security, and missing persons 'with strict safeguards'. This would have to be considered for inclusion in any subsequent bill. Live facial recognition technology uses video footage of crowds passing a camera and automatically compares their images against a police database of people on a 'watch list'. Senior officers will, no doubt, be keenly observing what happens next door. The UK, along with Germany, is already Europe's leading exponent of CCTV with more than 5m units in position compared to the few thousand we have in Ireland. Now the Metropolitan Police, the UK's largest force, is set to double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments every week. It justifies the move as part of a restructuring to offset the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff in a budgetary crisis. Its new tactics will be implemented at the sometimes tempestuous Notting Hill Carnival at the end of this month. The Met's commissioner, Mark Rowley, says: It's a fantastic piece of technology. It's very responsibly used, and that's why most of the public support it. The problem for civil liberties campaigners resides in the last line of that quote. The majority of citizens don't like society being under-policed, something which they equate with criminals being given an easy run and producing the kind of gloomy results contained in the recent drug search statistics. Last year, British police scanned some 4.7m faces using the technology, more than double the figure for 2023. Most senior officers believe the cameras are on their way to becoming 'commonplace' in England and Wales. The challenge for our society is to ensure the law on FRT, and any protection it contains for the rights of citizens, does not get outpaced by its use. Crimefighting success in nearby jurisdictions is likely to increase clamour for its deployment. When happiness is the best revenge The tariffs announced on Friday for 69 trading partners of the US — ranging from 41% for Syria to 10% for the UK — have all the hallmarks of a running joke. But a joke of the worst possible kind, one which has gone on too long. Shoppers enjoying a hula hoop demonstration in Cork in the run-up to Christmas, 1958. Joan Anderson, who sparked the hula hoop craze in the US died this week aged 101. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive It would be easy to complain this morning but, to draw a lesson from Monty Python, it is better to look on the bright side of life. And there is plenty there to lighten our load. American scientists have just confirmed that the world's longest streak of lightning — a 'megaflash' — covered more than 500 miles, from Texas to the outskirts of Kansas City. Meanwhile a holidaymaker rockpooling on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has rediscovered a species of jellyfish, Depastrum cyathiforme, thought to have been extinct for 50 years. If both these reports carry a whiff of what used to known in newsrooms as 'the silly season', then we commend the heartwarming story following the death of the Australian woman who brought the concept of the hula hoop to the US, igniting one of the biggest crazes of the previous century. Joan Anderson, who died this week aged 101, failed to gain financially from a fad which had hundreds of millions of participants. She filed a lawsuit against the toy company which exploited her idea and eventually settled for minor compensation. But, in a message we might all usefully reflect on in 2025, Joan said: 'Why be angry with something you can't change? The world isn't fair but life goes on. 'I had a great life. My husband lived to be 87 and we had 63 wonderful years together. 'Happiness is the best revenge.' What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Last supper for Gregg Wallace 'Who's the Daddy?' It's just the sort of slang phrase you can imagine being used by Gregg Wallace at the height of his laddish popularity as a TV personality, something that viewers will be able to experience for conceivably the last time starting next week. Allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and language were made against presenter Gregg Wallace after the forthcoming MasterChef series was recorded. Picture: BBC/PA It's certainly an adequate description of MasterChef, which in its various iterations, can be viewed as the durable forerunner of international format programming. From its launch in 1990, under the rather different stewardship of Loyd Grossman, it has been mimicked by a number of hugely successful shows all utilising a comfortingly predictable participatory and voyeuristic formula. What is common to all these programmes is that they contain lesser or greater amounts of humiliation for the contestants and the occasional soupcon of cruelty, presumably just enough to meet modern tastes without, showrunners hope, tipping over into something darker. The global MasterChef franchise has been better than most at attracting interest, watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. The upcoming series, filmed last year and which will begin on BBC One next Wednesday, was produced before allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and language were made against Wallace. His co-presenter John Torode was accused of making a racist comment — euphemistically known as 'the N-word' — at a social gathering more than five years ago. He says he has no recollection of doing so. After an independent review by the Lewis Silkin legal practice, which also has offices in Dublin and Belfast, Torode was told that his contract with the BBC would not be renewed. The Silkin team upheld 45 allegations against Wallace including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact over a 17-year-timeline. The decision on whether to air this latest series featuring the two sacked presenters has been fraught. It has been on hold since the accusations emerged with the BBC deciding it should go ahead after most of the contestants supported its broadcast. John Torode and Gregg Wallace. The decision on whether to air the already-recorded latest series of MasterChef featuring the two sacked presenters has been fraught. File picture: PA/BBC/Shine TV Most, but not all. One participant wanted the whole show canned, and has now been edited out of the final version. 'For me, it's about the enabling environment,' she said. 'It's that complicity. Those individual powerful men do not [act] in isolation. There is an enabling environment, turning a blind eye ... it's about years of these institutions not being accountable.' Sincere though these expressions are, based on the evidence this seems extreme. All potential viewers have the sanction of the on-off button. How many use it is likely to determine whether we get to see the Celebrity MasterChef series and the Christmas special. Wallace looks to be a serious loser. His access to international networks is being replaced by his reported plan to launch a private chat room (€13.50 a month) for men over the age of 50. 'Real talk, real support — hosted by Gregg Wallace. Fitness, food, lifestyle, laughs. Sign up below and pop in to say hello' — says the blurb. It sounds a more measured approach than one of his responses to complaints made against him. On that occasion, ignoring the dictum that, when you are in a hole, you should stop digging, he hit out at 'middle class women of a certain age'. Perhaps this is a lesson learned. Perhaps chippy masculinity will come back into fashion. But that is probably not the way to bet.
Agriland
2 days ago
- Agriland
Government Needs to Invest in Irish Wool Industry Td
The government has been urged to invest in the Irish wool industry, particularly scouring and processing. Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, Martin Kenny has said that sheep farmers are busy at present shearing, which needs to be done for the welfare of the sheep. Despite wool being a natural product that has many uses such as clothing, insulation and fertiliser, the price farmers are currently receiving is at "rock bottom", he said. "It costs more for the farmer to shear the ewe than they get for the fleece. There are many farmers with sheds full of wool for three and four years that they are unable to get sold," the deputy said. "I am told that some are having to pay to get rid of it." He said the development of a wool industry in Ireland needs to be state-led, "as we cannot wait for private industry to establish it". "The government needs to invest in the establishment of a large-scale wool scouring and processing plant," the deputy said. 'There is an industry for wool products in the country and there is a market for Irish wool products. "However, there are many wool garments sold in Ireland that are made from imported wool such as Merino wool.'Some Irish wool may not be suitable for clothing, but it still has a use in textiles such as carpets and rugs and for insulation." There is an opportunity for an Irish wool industry that would provide another source of income to farmers and create more jobs in wool processing, the deputy added, and government "needs to step up to the plate here and invest". The programme for government committed to examining the feasibility of a wool scouring plant in Ireland. According to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, two research projects are currently underway to assess sustainable approaches to wool scouring in Ireland. "In 2024, my department announced funding of €574,683 for the Spring Wool research project," the minister said in response to a recent parliamentary question. "Among other things, this project is examining the feasibility of a mobile wool scouring unit that is compliant with wastewater regulations. "The treatment of wastewater from the scouring process is a major obstacle to the growth of the wool sector. The work is being coordinated by the Munster Technological University." The second research project, Regenerative Value Systems for Irish Grown Wool in Ireland, is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. "This project is examining the economics of wool production within a circular bioeconomy," the minister explained. "Key objectives are to investigate various business models for scalable scouring and to assess the potential for local scouring across the island of Ireland." He said his department will examine the outcome of both research projects, "which will help inform government of the feasibility of establishing a scouring plant in Ireland".
