Mark Daly — 2026-06-09

Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters

CC Mark Daly · Administrative Panel

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Summary of this debate

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Will the Minister tell us when the Department or South East Technological University, SETU, advised Carlow College it was not going to transfer into SETU? Did Carlow College ask for students and staff to be transferred to SETU for the two years of the teach-out phase?

Will the Minister commit to engage directly with Carlow College, SETU and staff representatives to explore whether redeployment or transfer opportunities can still be facilitated? The engagement has been guided by four primary objectives: to protect the interests of Carlow College students to ensure the completion of their programmes; to ensure clear, fair and transparent treatment of staff; to secure the future educational use of the campus in Carlow town; and to protect the heritage and legacy of Carlow College, recognising its contribution to education in the south east over many generations.

Built by scoring every sentence in the debate on how distinctive its language is, then quoting the highest-scoring ones back word for word and in the order spoken. Nothing is paraphrased or invented — if a sentence appears here, it was said in the chamber. Drawn from 6,927 words across 28 contributions by 9 speakers.

Most used terms in this debate

How often each word appears across the whole debate, ranked by how distinctive it is to this debate rather than common to all parliamentary language.

carlow 34

college 35

setu 16

neurological 15

waiting 37

gym 14

senator 35

athletic 12

neurology 11

care 30

health 32

people 46

The full debate

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CC Mark Daly this contribution

I welcome our Cabinet member and Minister, Deputy James Lawless, to the House. You are most welcome to Seanad Éireann.

I am sure you will join me in welcoming from the Illinois Senate its president, my good friend Don Harmon, Senator Laura Murphy, the assistant majority leader, Senator May Cappel, state Senator, Representative Jackie Haas, assistant leader, Jeff Keicher, conference chair, Natalie Murphy, state Senator, and the extremely honourable Fran Hurley, who is one of the national co-chairs of the American Irish State Legislators Caucus. She is one of the founding members and has served and continues to serve in many ways in the Illinois House of Representatives. I thank Fran, Don and all the team from Illinois for their visit to Ireland. They are going to go to Cork and I think they are joining the Galway crew later in the week. Of course, Chicago and Galway have a great link. I thank them for being here. They had meetings today in relation to trade, investment and, critically, the Good Friday Agreement, the ongoing support by the United States and state legislators for the peace process. As I have said many times, there are people alive in Ireland today because the United States got involved but also stayed involved in the peace process. For that, we are truly grateful.

Our first Commencement matter is from Senator Stephenson.