An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Linda Nelson Murray (FG), Industrial and Commercial Panel

Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an TD nua, Seán Kyne. I just thought I would say that in Seán's language as he had such good Irish. I hope I pronounced it well.
There is no such thing as a hopeless cause. I definitely learned that yesterday when I went to the Joshua Community's centre in Navan. It was my first time visiting. I ended up spending about two and a half hours in the centre. I am probably a little bit ignorant of everything that is going on with people who are vulnerable and homeless and it was definitely an experience for me to visit that centre yesterday. At the centre there are projects aimed at those who feel they need a fresh start or new direction. These people may have been unemployed for a long time. This includes those who may have suffered with substance abuse. I met one person yesterday who suffered a very severe drug addiction up until ten years ago when she found the centre. The community is in Cavan as well as Meath and Senator O'Reilly was mentioned yesterday. The community was able to help this person do courses and seek employment.
On seeing someone's life completely at one of the scale being turned around to the other end of the scale, I was just blown away. It opened a thought for me as to what can be done to support places like this. People were going in there yesterday to have a shower. They may have been going in to grab a toothbrush and toothpaste or simple little things like a change of socks. These are things that so many of us take for granted. It was a very humbling experience for me. I wanted to use my time today to raise the Joshua Community and to open the conversation even more. My colleague, Senator Aubrey McCarthy brings it up a lot in this House, as do many other Senators, but we should have a good, strong debate about what the Government can do to support people who are going out of their way to help vulnerable people in Ireland. In my community, I can see first-hand the impact it is having.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26