Programme for Government
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I fully accept that families and people in specific situations may be very angry and annoyed at the absence of a prosecution. I fully understand the concerns of the Nkencho family in respect of what happened but, whatever way you look at this, I see having an independent Director of Public Prosecutions as a strength in our system. I see other systems. The Deputy talked about the United States. Prosecutorial services in the US are very embroiled in politics. In certain states, becoming an attorney general can depend on your politics. I am not too sure that is ideal either.
Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about emergency accommodation numbers. There are big issues involved. There is a wider issue there. Emergency accommodation is a complex issue.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04