An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I acknowledge the Irish ladies football team last night. Even though they ultimately were not successful in directly qualifying for the World Cup, I think they are on the up. They are fantastic. Carla Ward is doing an amazing job. I second Senator Collins's amendment.
I was in touch over the past week with a lady called Serca Darcy, who has breast cancer. She is 35 years of age. She has worked in hairdressing since she was 15. She opened her own salon and has employed a couple of people for the past 12 years. She has worked very hard. She has been working hard since she was 15 years of age. She has paid tax. She was self-employed for part of this time and created employment to pay VAT every two months, rent and rates. She has two young children with a mortgage and childcare at a time when the cost of everything is increasing. Serca has been applying for some financial supports - any financial support. She has applied for four different types of support from the Department of Social Protection. Her spouse has an income that is over €530, although not much over that. It is not a huge income but they have a mortgage, childcare, utility bills and two young children and the costs are coming at them from everywhere. Serca needs childcare because she is not strong enough to care for the kids when she is undergoing chemotherapy. They are really struggling to stay afloat. They are going from a two-salary household to a one-salary household. They do not have an extravagant lifestyle. Their outgoings are not taken into account. There must be a safety net for people like Serca and her family. They cannot be thrown to the wolves. The Department needs to ensure that when it looks at a situation like that involving Serca, it does not just send the application back saying it has been refused. The Department needs to say "look, you don't qualify for this but this is something you may qualify for". Every time an application goes is made, it is refused and it takes up to a month to process with additional information. Breast cancer is stressful and traumatising enough without having to navigate social welfare obstacles. There needs to be some sort of humanity and common sense in the way that the Department works not just for Serca but for other people like her. We need the Minister to come in here to debate this issue because it is about humanity and treating people right - people who have contributed so much to their community and to society.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10