The Uneducated PT Podcast - 135: Inside Ireland’s Child Protection Crisis: Ken O’Flynn TD

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

In Episode 135, Karl O’Rourke sits down with Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn for an in-depth and candid conversation about some of the most talked-about issues in Irish public life today. From culture and identity to child protection and the future of young people in Ireland, this episode tackles big questions with honesty and insight. Ken begins by sharing his background, how he entered politics, and what drives his work as a TD for Cork North Central. The discussion then moves through key national topics, including: Whether Ireland is becoming a hostile place for LGBT people The Government’s shifting approach to immigration and why attitudes may be changing How potential policy changes in the UK could affect Ireland under the Common Travel Area Serious concerns raised about Tusla’s child protection services A UCD study highlighting the risks faced by young people in residential care How the Periodic Payment Order system affects families like Jack Hegarty’s The debate around biology in sport and safeguarding And finally, what Ireland must do to ensure young people feel they have a future here It is a wide ranging conversation with competing ideas, strong viewpoints, and a focus on the real challenges facing Irish society today. If you enjoy thoughtful discussions with people shaping public debate, make sure to subscribe on YouTube or follow on Spotify so you never miss an episode.

Welcome to the uneducated PT podcast with me, your host, Carlo Rourke. This is where we have interests and conversations and try to learn a little bit more about the world. If you like conversations like this, make sure you're subscribed so we can build a platform and get better and better guests on over time. Yeah, really, yeah. Oh, geez, there's great money to be made. Yeah, I suppose you charge a lot and it's probably a dozen costs much. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, true. Are we, are we, sorry?

Welcome back to the uneducated PT podcast. This is where we bring on intelligent people to teach me about topics. I don't understand and that is why Ken is here. Ken, before we get into a couple of different kind of, you know, topics that we're going to touch on, things like immigration, things like Tustla as well, I just wanted to start by letting you give a quick background into, you know, how you got into Irish politics, what you were doing before, obviously we were just speaking about, you know, working in the pubs, and what does your role look like today in regards to Irish politics?

That's a lot of questions, yes. First question was, how did I get into politics? Well, politics was always an our host. Yes. My dad was a TD for Tina Foyle. Okay, right. And he retired in 2011, I think it was. So quite some time ago.

So politics was always in our house. My mother's family were very political. So my mother was the person who joined the political parties first and got involved in that system. And lo and behold, my father joined after, or he was enrolled or enlisted, you know. But republicanism and old IRA and all those stories we grew up on from my grandparents and great-grandparents, you know, they would have been, you know, I would have had family members that were heavily involved in Republican movements back in 1916, 1920.

I would have grown up with stories of my grandmother telling stories about how the Black and Tens broke into the house and, you know, all those type of stories. And you know what, you know, you hear these people who come from, I hate the word political dynasty because I don't think, you know, I'm a political dynasty by any means. You know, I think you have to be about six generations of your dynasty. But, you know, you hear these people who say, oh, yeah, because their dad was a teedy or their one was a teedy or whatever. And they said, oh, we never spoke politics in the house. And we never, it was all his family like, go away, you.

You know what? The reality is, in our house, we lived and bred politics. Yeah. And it was discussed morning, noon and night. And it was about what was in the papers, what was in current affairs, whether it was Irish politics, British politics, or, you know, what was happening in the north was very, very popular in our house. in the 80s of course and you know it was it was from French American Australian politics

you know and it was day and night and I loved it my younger brother hated it I was so you had brother so yeah so but you know you you know I loved it and I was the one that was always interested and always wanted to hear the stories of my parents coming home from a political meeting or something that happened on the streets or something that's happening in the city or what happened last night in Cork City Council yeah oh that's sort of stuff. I loved all that. And I don't know, maybe there's something wrong with me. It probably is.

But that was, that was like going to a football match for me. Really? Yeah. And I would quite often go into City Hall when I was in my teens. Really? And my dad would be in the chamber in City Hall on a, because it was due mandate. You could be a councillor and be TD at the time. And, you know, I can remember sitting and watching the entire proceedings and being interested did it, you know. And then it's

to say to my dad afterwards, Jesus, when he said that, why didn't you say this day? This is what I would have said that. Exactly. Exactly. So there was an awful lot of that. So, yeah,

so I suppose that's my background politically. So to make the transition to be the candidate myself and things like that, yeah, it's been a long road. I've served 16 years in Cork City Council.

And I have to say, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed people I've worked with very much so. in particular some of the officials I found very, very decent and very honourable to work with and, you know, it was kind of exciting kind of when you get big projects across the line and things of that and, you know, look, I did love it, but the ambition was always to be in national politics because I feel I had something to say or something to contribute.

Can I ask you even to distinguish kind of maybe like the difference in everyday roles in regards to that and then into going national as well? But all politics is local, right? So the everyday role hasn't changed for me about the tree that I got trimmed back for a lady up in Dublin Hill the other day to, you know, making a representation about, you know, somebody's house that there's a problem with or a heating problem with. And they're very important. Yeah. They're very important to that person because they're the bloody biggest issue in their lives at that time, you know. So all politics being local is very much so. The transition for me is trying to keep that level.

going of local politics being available to your constituents I do I usually do about four hours of canvassing on either a freight at night or a Saturday morning yeah in different parts of the city or different parts of the county yeah to just meet with people I go to different churches on a on a Sunday not because I'm going to three masses every you know thinking how holy I am but I go there and I meet a lot of people and you know you might get they might say to me Ken there's a pot all on the road. Would you ever get on to somebody about that? Or they might have a national issue that they want me to bring up. The one thing I have noticed in the last 12 months since I've

been elected is the amount of people that contact me from all over the country. I wasn't expecting that. I don't know why I wasn't expecting it, but I wasn't expecting it. And it was people that said, look, I heard you make a speech in the Doyle or I saw it on parliamentary TV or I saw it on independent Ireland website or I got a clip of it on YouTube or whatever. Somebody chaired it. And I'd like you to talk about this or I'd like to inform you more about it. Why do you think they're coming to you now? One of the things I brought up, which is being addressed this week in the Doyle, we have a motion before the Doyle, is about whistleblowing in this country. And there was a number,

a huge amount of people reached out to me from Limerick, Dublin, people up as far as Ross Common, people from the Garda section, from people in civil defence, people in the women of honour, people to do with whistleblowing all over the country Tusla, all that sort of stuff and it was an eye-opener across the entire whistleblowers. What are people saying

in regards that I don't feel safe to... The one thing that has come across to me, right? And whether it's a guard or whistleblower, Irish prison service whistleblower, somebody who's involved in whistleblowing at the very highest level of banking inquiries, there is a motor-operandum, exactly the same. It's an unwritten

handbook and it's destroy the person's reputation, destroy the person's livelihood and destroy the person's mental health. And one whistleblower said to me recently, he said, I don't know if I was mad before. It was a whistleblower. He said, but I'm certainly mad. No. But the things that have been done to people in this country who are calling out either financial regularity or calling out doctors putting springs into babies and infants in CHI, the amount of people that have been persecuted, have been ridiculed, have been financially destroyed, have been reputationally destroyed.

You know, I've met people who never had anything in their lives. I never did anything. It didn't even have as much as a parking ticket. And then ended up with the names that you can't trust him. He's interested in kids. He's a child molester.

He's that. He's not safe with this. The stories I've heard from whistleblowers and the amount of money that has been paid out to whistleblowers when they're proved, when they've proven their, you know, it's unbelievable. And yet we don't have a free legal aid system for whistleblowers. So if I make a protective disclosure, and I'll talk about this in the doy now in the next couple of days, but if I make a protective disclosure and the modus operandum that it's going out there,

the handbook that is unwritten, that is going out there, you know, your life is destroyed. You don't, and you have the state agency, such as two slurs, the state agency, such as in Garda, or Irish prison services, and they have buckets of money behind them.

They can pay out because it's your taxpayers' money, it's my taxpayers' money. That's what they're going to do. Instead of addressing the problem, we're going to meet them head on with the challenge.

The whistleblower doesn't. The whistleblower isn't entitled to free legal aid once they've made their protective distortion. So the protection isn't there for them. And that was dropped last minute

in the Whistleblower Act. And that needs to be reinstated. You know, at the moment, And I don't want to go into bore you with details. But at the moment, there was submissions sought by the European Union throughout all the member states. And the European Union said, you know, we want to hear from whistleblowers.

How better does the European Union protect whistleblowers? 50% of the submissions that were given in all of Europe came from the Republic of Ireland. Now, there is something seriously wrong in society or there's something seriously wrong with whistleblower law in this country. 50% of all the submissions in the European Union came. from the Republic of Ireland. So look, we are addressing that. We have what we call a PMB, a private member's motion going through the house on Wednesday. Jerry McKay will be there

in the gallery, in the public gallery, and a number of well-known whistleblowers. People that have, you know, have gone through horrible ordeals in their lives and totally, absolutely, no need whatsoever for it. So we'll be bringing that to the light. We're having a press conference after that and we will be bringing private members legislation in 2026 to protect them and we are taking a large delegation of whistleblowers out to Europe to present to the European Union and present to MEPs on the inefficient laws that we have in this country and how they're not being acted upon. Why did you choose independent Ireland? Like you said your dad was a fiend fall man and do you want to go into that? I'd say there's a few debates on that.

So I left phenofile. I closed the door very softly on phenophile. I presented myself as a candidate to phenophile at a general, for general election. I was after approving myself as a poll topper on three occasions to the phenophile organization. Yeah, it's difficult. When you ask the question, it was a very difficult period that I went through at the time. and to leave that part of your life but creative differences

I suppose is the best way to this that's a political way I've said it is that but you know people know why I left and where I went and I don't think I my type of personality or the type of person I am didn't really suit the type of phenofoil type of person that they want today

like Mihal likes a certain type of person who you know it's a bit like the you know the nodding dog that you buy in the Chinese shops and, you know, the ones waving the hand and so you're nodding all the time and agreeing. I've always been a person to speak my mind. Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong,

at least it's my opinion. At least, you know, that's what I believe. That doesn't suit a lot of people in politics. But I think it's the right way to be. Yeah. I think it's the right way to be, and it's the authentic way to be. Do you think that's why people feel

that they can come to you in regards to them kind of whistleblowing incidents because it can be apparent that you're speaking what you feel. Well, look, yeah, I hate saying about myself. There's a genuineness to me. But there is. There's things that, you know, I sit down and meet with people at times,

and I think the most generous thing you can be to people is with your time. Yeah, you know? And, you know, you just hear stories, whether it's somebody that's been in the, whether it's one of the women of honor, whether it's one of the whistleblowers and the guarder cases

and you just hear what they're going through and you just if I don't give them a voice who's going to do it it's not going to be a backbencher from Fine Fidel or Finnegeal that is afraid of rock in the boat because they mightn't be promoted

at the next junior ministry or they might not get the next committee chairmanship or whatever if I don't do it who's going to do it for them and you know what the opposition isn't much better I look around at opposition parties

and they're afraid to take on the civil service. They're afraid to take on or say what needs to be said. They're afraid, you know, and I hear it all the time, in particular about Sinn Féin. People are very angry and annoyed with Sinn Féin at the moment. And they're annoyed with them because they felt they had a group that they could depend on. They felt that there was a group that was on their side. And the one thing that people have said to me, they'll tell you one thing at the door. And then they go into Leinster House and they say an absolute different thing.

Because I think it's the right thing to say because they don't want to get a bad kind of reputation off the Irish times or the independent or whatever, you know, you know, everything has gone so PC now. Everything, everyone is afraid to say something, you know, or they'll say, oh, but you can't say that publicly. Why the hell can't you say it publicly? Some things just need to be said. And, you know, if I take the battering and I get it wrong, I get it wrong.

But at least I said it, at least we started a conversation. Well, in regards to them three main parties, they all had the same stance on immigration. and now what's your opinion on Simon Harris coming out and saying that Ireland's migration numbers are too high after kind of years of the government? I have to say, you know, like only that it happened to myself, I wouldn't believe it happened.

We've been very strong on our immigration states and we've been not aggressive about it but we've said this is what we believe. We want tighter regulations. I'm very hot-blooded about the situation and I've said it in the Doyle and I've set it outside of the Doyle. I don't believe people should be entering this country

without a passport. I think the idea of people tearing up passports is just absolutely insane to me. I have it on very good authority from a member of the immigration staff who said to me there was a man entered Dublin airport and one of these standard questions they have to ask is how did you enter Dublin airport

and he said laughingly, hot air balloon. I'm sorry, you're here actually to seek... You're here coming into this country to look for help to look for asylum. If you were a genuine asylum seeker, I don't think you'll be doing that. And there are people that are economic migrants coming into the country

and freeloading and sponging after crossing their way through Europe. And I think the reality for me is that if you arrived from a war-torn country and you're genuine, absolutely. You should be looked after and you should be helped as much as possible. But bringing in thousands and thousands of people,

jamming them into hotels of different ethnic minorities, minorities, different religious views and fusing them all together was always a bad idea. And here is a country who already has 16,000 Irish people in sheltered accommodation, homeless situations, emergency accommodation, 6,000 of those are children. And you think you can manage 100,000 Ukrainians and maybe 30,000, 40,000 more from outside other countries? your track record on running direct provisions is poor to say the least.

So how do you justify, you can manage that? And then you look at the Danish model where they've managed their migration and they've made sure that it's under control and they've made sure that it's genuine cases and they've made sure that, you know, and this is within Europe, this is within Europe that they were able to do that. They were able to ensure that their country was safe. They were able to ensure that they were looking at people. that could be removed very quickly if they were a threat to the state.

They introduced laws that protected their borders, that protected their citizens and didn't destroy their economy. 1.1 billion euros spent last year on migration centres. Where are we going to get the money from? And I'm sick to death of listening to Mihal and Simon across the way saying, oh, we're the wealthiest country in the nation, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. I'm sorry, but go down to my list. Lareldi and talk to my neighbours and talk to my friends and talk to the woman who's digging through her handbag and talk to talk to me on a Thursday day when I'm

back and I'm looking into the fake a Japanese basket man saying that was 72 quit yeah what did we buy yeah I don't think anyone feels that we're the wealthiest country I certainly don't feel wealthy or my home heating bill came in the other day and you know the oil and the whole and you're thinking just geez where we're and then you're shrink inflation on top of it but let me go back to Simon Harris yeah why did why did he flip-flop do you think what's That's his modus operandum, right? I'll tell you one thing about Harris.

The man that called me a dog whistler in the Doyle six months ago and shouted with, I think it was a junior minister with him, I can't think of his name, Neil, Nile, Richmond, and dog whistling, calling me the dog whistler because asking genuine questions, that was about the 1.7 million that was spent on Ukrainian cars at the time, asking a genuine question where was the fund coming from

and where did it come out of and to be called a dog whistler and then for himself and his junior minister to shout over shame shame shame you know as if I was at the Game of Thrones and you're looking at these guys

are he in the real world at all and then he comes out six months later when he begins to realise that he hasn't been listening to the Irish population that he hasn't been listening to his own party members that he hasn't been listening to people on the ground. Because only by talking to people,

only by listening to people on the ground and saying, there's something wrong here. But what's wrong, I think, in Irish politics is ministers surround themselves with yes men. And, you know, oh, yes, minister, that's a great idea. That was a fantastic speech minister.

You know what? I have two people working inside my office, Kieran and Eileen, and they're absolutely fabulous. I know them a long time. And they'll come into the office and I call Eileen Mamie. Even though she's the same age as myself, I think she's a bit younger than me, but I call her mammy and the two of them will say, well, you made a boss of that today, Ken. Keep you on your towels, basically.

Absolutely, no, but they'll tell you straight out. You're screwing up here, you're doing well on this, this was very good, you need to work better on that, and you never call this person back, you know, and I'm not taking the abuse with it. And they're brilliant. You have to surround yourself with people that will stand up to you and that will tell you straight out, you're going down the wrong direction. Do you think that's why it's important if you're in, like, politics on a national level that you're still surrounding yourself with the public and talking to people, like you said. You have to be talking to people. Yeah. You know, you're not going, like, you go into that building and, you know, there's very few windows in that building.

You never realise the time. I remember the other day, I said, we'll go for something to eat. I said, it's lunchtime, and it's 5 o'clock, right? So you do kind of get lost in everything that's going on and say there. And you can be surrounded with the sycophans who all want to be promoted, or they all want to be promoted, or they all want this, job as an advisor or they want to be well this day body you end up in a bubble really do and you do and you can see it I never drink in the Doyle bar yeah um I have I have had I had a pint of Guinness with my husband there um last Christmas and uh I think that's okay only now they do to serve a nice

Guinness yeah there's a nice Guinness now I try it in me so I have to say you're more than welcome to call it but I don't go drinking with TDs and there's there's a big culture of that I don't like that um I'm there to do it and I'm not look I'm not anti-dry drink or something like that. You know, I had the bar and restaurant myself. But I like, I think you have to be professional about it as well. And I think, I think you need to be talking to people. I think you need to be getting the, the hearing what's really affecting people, what's on the ground. Because very often what's in the print media is their agenda. Yeah. And whether it's the times, the independent, the observer, whatever, it's their opinion. There's the, you know, public

opinion and published opinion can be very very different at times and when you sit down and you talk to the fellow in the corner in Albert Lynch's pub in Mallow or you go down to the groves in Blackpool or you go over to the top of the hill in Grana Brahe and you talk to people and they have a very different agenda they've a very different view on life and they'll tell you very straight out what's affecting them and what's not affecting them and what they're interested in and very often it's very different to what you're being told by NGOs by what you're told by groups that have spent hundreds of

thousands of euros on research and this thing and that thing and the other and we've had an academic in to tell us this and the other you know go up and sit in Mary's kitchen yeah and have a cup of tea with her and meet the husband that comes in or the three unfil of that you know are the young fella that's stuck inside the box room who's 36 yeah and he's earning 70 grand a year and he can't buy a house go up and talk to people like that and you'll see where the country is yeah and you'll see where people are very anxious about and very angry about and now that the government are changing their tune on immigration and

Could you explain the implications of, let's say, if the UK tighten up its asylum and migration rules, what that could mean for Ireland? Okay, so, yeah, so again, the government is being reactionary rather than proactive, okay? So what's going to happen, what's been announced in the UK, we will see something very similar to the Danish model being implemented in the UK. So that is a tightening up of border control. That is a lot of deportations. The fear we have in this country and correctly, and Jim O'Callaghan was right. about this. I have to say, call a spade a spade when somebody is right, they're right. He said, if we don't act with the UK on this, and we don't have the same, we will, and I believe

it, I said it on TV the other night, I was admonished by some finified senator afterwards, but Ireland will become a dumping ground for refugees. So if there is, if there is hard, if there's a hard border to get into the UK, to retain your citizenship in the UK, to access of services in the UK, where are you going to go? And bear in mind that there is 80% of the people that are landing claiming asylum are coming into Belfast. Okay? So we're only a couple of hours away. Yeah.

Okay. And with 400 kilometers of open border. The problem that I see, and I think it hasn't been, the elephant in the room that I'm seeing all the time, if there's somebody coming in and they're in Belfast and they're claiming asylum there, and the Irish government isn't talking to the British government, I would imagine there's an awful lot of people on a double bubble claiming asylum there. I claim an asylum here and getting two sets of social welfare. Yeah, absolutely.

There has to be, look, criminality is there. And we have to tough, like, it's not about being cruel to people. We want to toughen up, independent Iran said, we want the genuine cases, absolutely. But we want to toughen up on immigration where you have huge amounts of criminal activity in the prostitution world, moving women and children through Ireland, through the UK, And we have to tighten up on that immediately. That's human trafficking. That's the most awful thing.

And I think one of the cruelest things that you can do in life is leave somebody languishing in an IPAS centre for eight, nine years while their appeal process is going through and their appeal process is going through and their appeal. The only people making money out of that are solicitors. Yeah, yeah. And they're able to get free legal aid, right? Or the guy who's whistleblowing can't get free legal aid.

You know, like the world is very unevenly divided. with these things. And it drives people insane. People are not annoyed that we have refugees in the country or we have somebody with a different religion or perhaps a different colour to us. They're not annoyed about that. They're annoyed about the fact that we have Irish people on the streets. We have people in the Simon community that are queuing up to get into Simon for 11 o'clock at night, that are told you have to leave at 7 o'clock in the morning, that are wandering the streets are own Irish people. And then you'll see somebody coming into the country without Without the decency, claiming aside and without the decency of coming in with their real documentation or their passports, that's been handed a medical card, that's been handed private accommodation, they've been handed their toiletries, they've been handed three meals a day, plus social welfare payment on top of that.

In all fairness. Yeah, well, they tried to claim that it's compassion, but the way that... Well, let's be compassionate to everybody. Yeah. Let's treat everybody equally. Well, it's actually very, it's not compassionate at all in that regard because other people end up suffering through that as well. and one thing you touched on there that I wanted to actually get your thoughts on

so a recent inspection in Dublin North City found Tuzla's Child Protection Service not safe, adequate or timely with delays of over six months in screening at risk for kids leaving them without support what's your view on this and how broken do you think?

TUSLA is a disgrace of an organisation it spends thousands and thousands of euros every year trying to destroy whistleblowers lives yeah right Toosla is not fit for purpose I think the reality is that these are the questions

actually I put down and found out information actually about Toosla there seems to be every day there seems to be a scandal after scandal after scandal with Toesla

I don't know what's going on that I really don't Do you think we could have They're not fit for purpose Do you think we could have something like at the level of like even with the UK grooming

gangs in regards to you know people keeping quiet about something I know I read a UCD study on child there's a UCD study led by Mary Canning called Protecting Against Predators. I don't know if you read it

which found that kids, especially girls in residential care, are being targeted for sexual exploitation by organised predatory groups and yeah they're essentially saying that they're treating missing from care as behaviour problems as we've

heard when, you know, Tustra made that statement about a young girl absconding and you know, this would be a little... That really made my blood boil. Where this could be a lot... A 10-year-old absconded. Yeah, where this could be a lot more sinister than that, but there doesn't seem to be any real investigations.

There's no investigations, there's no data. It's like pulling teeth from the organisation. Look, we do recognise that human trafficking is a big problem in this country. I think we have to work out who these children are, identify what they are. I think if you drill down into a lot of it, it is related to human trafficking, whether we like it or not. and it's a horrible underbelly

that is, you know, if it's happened, look, the reality is is that there's information that will tell you what's happened in Sweden. There's information of what will tell you happened in Denmark. The collection of information is happening in the UK.

The collection of information is happening in France. Yet in Ireland, there is no collection of information. Yeah. Now, if you're telling me that it's happening all over mainland Europe, I don't think there's a magic button or there's something that happens when you fly into Ireland, you're not a paedophile anymore.

Yeah, like you follow the trends. Exactly. If it's happening in the UK, there must be something happening here as well. Yeah. What scale it's on, we don't know, because we don't have data. Because they're not giving us the data. You know, you look for the Irish prison service data, and you ask, they can give you the ethnic background of somebody if they're a traveller.

If they're a member of the travelling community, they'll give you that information, how many travellers are on Irish prisons. They won't tell you how many people serving in, currently in Irish prisons have refugee status or have sought asylum. Isn't it not funny that they won't give you that data, but then they'll make claims on... Like, what are you going to do? Like, what are you going to do? Like, give the people the data. Leave us make decisions on that, rational decisions, rather than a lunatic from the far right, coming along and saying every man that enters the country is a rapist.

And we've seen that as well, and there's a good, there's one, there's quite a few of them go out like that. Well, isn't that funny? It's like the more you try and hide things and... The more suspicious you get, but it also means the more radical than the opposite side can become as well because you decided to kind of shut off everything rather than put everything into the light. Correct. Lay it out all on the table.

Have the adult conversation in the room and address it. And that's the only way you can get over kind of a conflict or an opposite. And if you look, like everyone is saying this is far right and the Danish model is far right and everything is far right. Actually, it's the social Democrats have been in power for three elections in Denmark.

So, you know, so a socialist party brought in these things, you know. So it's not, it's about protecting your country. It's about doing the right thing for your people. It's about doing the right thing for yourselves. And for everybody that's coming in. And if you, look, if Ireland put up its hands for a stay, and we had the Roger Colorman stuff when he sent out all the tweets, inviting everyone to Ireland, you know, that was absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah, crazy. Ridiculous. And I likened it at the time to, if I had a house party. You know how you hear about these house parties when, you know, 15, 16 girls have it house parties and they put up on Facebook or... Project X, it's called. It's a film there.

It's a Snapchat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. People use house party in mind and then a thousand people are running. Well, that's what it would be, yeah, and you have all sorts coming in, you don't know who's in there. Exactly.

Yeah. And it's, look, it's common sense. It's about having a small bit of cop on and a small bit of common sense and saying, well, Jesus, lads, you know, we can't do this. Yeah. We can't do this.

enough. Why do you think that common sense has been lacking for so many years? I think there's a lot of people that want to be the good boys in Europe and they want to be the best boys in Europe. I think there's a lot of people now with political ambitions, more so than there was. I grew up in the 80s, okay? So I remember

the big conflict at the time was Charlie Hohie or Garrett Fitzgerald, right? It was a big battle between the two of them. But they were both very interested in being Taoiseach and governing the country. There's now people that are going into politics and the ambition isn't to be the leader of the Republic of Ireland or to govern the country.

The ambition now is like, what's the next job after this? What's the next, where can I be? What position in Europe can I get? Is it EU commissioner? Is it a job in a private bank in New York? Where am I going next? And I think politicians, a lot of politicians who are now in the sphere of politics

and have never had life outside politics they've never done what I've done ran your own bar ran your own restaurant dealt with 39 members of staff sat up in a Thursday night saying oh my God

to pay 39 members of staff and what have I done all those sort of things you know life experiences there seems to be an inertia in government and ministers without real life experience

and of course you have a couple that are barristers and a couple that are teachers and whatever but they've never ran their businesses. They've never, they've never, and they kind of, they kind of have that policy of will go in as the minister and we'll chair the department as a chairman role, rather than a managing director's role. Do you think that leads into the kind of like waste of money we've

seen the government spend on certain projects? It seems like the government seemed to, what was there something about spending 750,000 on 14 pieces of stairs in a park recently? I saw that I saw Hictalante's piece on that but there you go like you walk and you know

people that visit me in Linderhouse and I've had a lot of visitors up in the from Cork and I remember there was a group of ladies came from Mallow

the Mallow I think Mallow's women's shed I think it was and lovely women and you know what they wanted to see they didn't want to see the chamber

they didn't want to see the Dyle Bar they wanted to see where's the bike shed let's see if it was We could get our money back, actually, if we charged to visit the bike shed. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. But, like, there you go.

Nobody accountable. Yeah. Nobody accountable for that. And I do think, you know, maybe we did need a bike shed. I don't know how 300 grand was spent in another 200 grand across from it for e-charging electric cars that nobody seems to have. Yeah. I don't know how you come up with that money. I don't know how you spend $2 million on the other side at the Department of Finance and the back entrance to the Taoiseachs buildings.

where they put $2 million into a shed that controls the gate. That now has a cracked pipe underneath it so nobody can work out of it because of the smell. And it's nobody, nobody is responsible for that. Yeah, so it's like there's any accountability at all. Nobody's sat. If you made that decision inside your private company, you know, the board of directors or the managing director

would get rid of you. It's a waste of money. You've wasted money. nobody is sacked for that nobody is held responsible for it and it's over and over again whether it's scanners for for art museums

whether it's printers that can't fit into rooms costing a million quid and there's no joint up thinking yeah the children hospital that's not finished out 27 29 times it's been told no delays again you know equipment that couldn't go into the rooms because they built the rooms too small for the equipment

does somebody not talk to the other person and the way you can get away with this in the civil and public service the way you can get away with it because it's not your money you can't be sacked from the job and nobody is accountable and decisions now seem to be made

by committee and it's committee after committee and meeting after meeting nobody takes personal responsibility nobody signs off in it and nobody is held responsible for it beggars belief and if I was running my business today

in that way would be out of business with him. Yeah, yeah. And I look across at the ministers that are there, and I've personal time for quite a few of them, you know, I would have known them through tears from different things from Cork City Council up. Yeah. And you're kind of going,

nice person, but you're not fit for the jobs. Yeah. You're not capable of the job. Yeah. And that's a lot of it. And people that are afraid to make decisions because the civil service gets their arms around them and say, oh, minister, you can't do that.

and you know I don't know if you remember you're probably too young to remember yes minister that TV show but the reality is there is not much

of a difference between the Sor Humphreys and there's plenty of Saw Humphreys around yeah well that's even the same word I'll give you an example of that yeah go ahead I got a call from the Irish Times today

telling me that I've put down over 2,000 PQs which is the questions to various ministers questions to departments parliamentary questions are called and I said okay I said, I don't know.

How many you put down? He said, no, there's 2,100 something in it. And he said, but there is complaints. I said, okay. And I said, yes, some of the people in certain departments think you're sending too many. But busy is your job. You are paid to be busy.

It's my job to ask questions. So they're essentially complaining because they're getting work. Yeah, yeah. You know, pick a different job. Yeah. But busy is your job. You're paid to be busy. my job is to be answerable to the constituency that I represent

and the people that I represent in Leinsterhouse and your job is to answer the fucking questions you know it just I was you know I was quite shocked when he rang me and said that to me rather than saying well done but instead getting the oh you're asking too many questions well you know what I have news for you I'm not going to stop asking questions

yeah you know perhaps if you answer them properly in the first place I wouldn't have to put another 10 to get the truth Speaking on even accountability and asking questions, where do you think this country is in regards to free speech and the media? I'm worried about it. Yeah. In particular when you see things in the UK where you can go to prison now for sending out a tweet or looking at something. Yeah, there's an insane amount of people being arrested. And I think even if they don't serve jail time, it's more the humiliation of being pulled out of your house and arrested.

And it's shocking to see that. I certainly don't want to see this state go that way. Yeah. You know, the reality is that we've had people in, I think, Sweden, it was, where we had somebody make some statement about prayer and he was arrested. Yeah, same. Scotland, the laws there are, you know, if you pray in a group of six, it could be conceived as holding a religious meeting in your house.

Yeah. They're bizarre to me. That's bizarre. And I have enough respect for people in the... House, there's a lot of people, I disagree with it entirely on their stance. Like, you know, the people for profit would be very different, look at life very, very different to me. Social Democrats would look at life very, very different to me.

And that's okay, and I know one of the Labour Party TDs last weekend said I was awful and because I quoted figures, I quoted facts and I was the most awful person in the room because, you know, sometimes the facts. Yeah. But sometimes facts, you know, it damages their cause. And I think there's a lot of people don't want to see these hate speech laws because then you stop talking. And then, you know, you've shut down the debate.

And they think that's the great thing to do. Well, you know, I would argue differently. And I would say always, let's have the debate. Let's be respectful to each other. And let's base it on facts and figures. Okay? Prove me wrong or I'll prove you wrong. Either one or the other.

But let's have the conversation, let's have the debate, and let's be adult about it. Don't start calling people Nazis. If you say something, you're a racist, you're a Nazi, you're this, you're that, you're the other. Remove the name calling from that. Let's do it on facts and figures, okay? But once you take that logic away and you're saying you can't say it, and publicly you can't say it, you can't make a statement here and you can't make a statement there on Twitter or Facebook or whatever social media post is there at the moment, that becomes very, very dangerous.

because then it goes underground that's when it gets radicalised that's when it gets radicalised and that's how Nazi Germany rose it was about to say it was in the beer halls in Frankfurt and the beer halls in Munich

where these type of conversations were underground and it was the whispers and it was the disinformation you know if I say something wrong take me on and I'm big enough and ugly enough

to put up my hands and say Jesus lads I got it wrong I really like that phrase is like the best way to come back against hate speeches better speeches to, like, have it out in public and just beat their argument. Yeah, 100%. And I think, in France, God rest of Charlie Kirk was brilliant at that.

Yeah. It was absolutely brilliant of that, you know. And it's, debate me. Yeah. And that was his line, I think, debate, debate me. Challenge me. Yeah. You know, and sometimes, you know, I'm big enough to realize I don't get everything right.

Yeah. And I don't think I should be crucified either because you get something wrong here and there or you say something. you said, jeez, that was the wrong thing to say or I meant to say this rather than that, you know, you have to put your hands up and say, yeah, I got it, but we'll get over it and we'll get on with it. I think what happens to a lot of people is

they feel like they know a topic because they've probably been, you know, manipulated through media to believe a certain thing, and then when they actually get confronted and asked questions about it and they can't actually stand up to their argument, then their ego gets hurt a little bit and then it turns into either a screaming match

or you're hateful or whatever it is. They call politics show business for ugly people. There's a lot of ugly people with a lot of ugly talk trying to be in show business in the dial. And, you know, it doesn't help the debate. It doesn't help society. It doesn't help things

move on. But I think we're going down a very, very dangerous road. We have to preserve free speech. People should have the right to their opinion. Yeah. And, you know, you can say to them, no, that's not fact. Yeah. That's not fact.

Or they have their opinion. And that's, you have to respect. Look, you know, how often have you gone to the pub with your buddy? And he says to you, I believe this, or Liverpool is a better team than Manchester United. You know, you might box the head off another for verbally for 10, 50 minutes and whatever. But you go home and you say, well, you know. It is what it is. You know, it is.

But sometimes you come to an agreement about who the best player is in this team or who is pretty much. I think that's the different now that we live in a social media dynamic where people think that they have the power now to block you or even worse cancel you, essentially. And that's, I think that's the most dangerous thing. Yeah. Cancelling people because of they have an opinion. Yeah. And I think that's dangerous. And I just feel that we're going, where history has a way of repeating itself.

And if you push it down to the doldrums and if you don't talk about it and if you think, and if you're said, well, that's, you can't say that now. You can't do this and you have to be very careful here. But you say, I think that's when you're going to a very dangerous place. So free speech needs to be free. And we need to listen to everybody, you know? And even fools say wise things every now and again. And it's true. And that goes back to my original point about being out knocking on doors

four or five hours a week or meeting people outside the church or being in the supermarket or whatever, talking to people. You know what? Look, my grandfather had a great old saying, you know, I didn't go to school, but I met the scholars on the way home. And there was many a scholar I met that never went to school. And brilliant words of advice and brilliant opinions from people. and people with real lived experiences, real lived experiences and people that you don't expect to be angry about life are, you know, and I've, you know, I'm always amazed when I meet mothers of sons in their 20s and their 30s, our daughters, 20s and 30s, who are saying, you know, where do we go wrong? You know, we sacrificed all our lives. We didn't go on the two holidays the year and we got them better educated than we ever were in our lives.

And here they are up in a box room, earning $70,000 a year, and can't buy a house. You know, you listen to people like that and their lived experiences. And that really puts Ireland in perspective for you, you know, or you meet people that are struggling at the tillies. Yeah. Can I ask you about Labor TD, Connor Sheen, because you obviously touched on what he recently shared that he avoided holding his same-sex partner's hand in public out of fear of abuse,

highlighting what he sees as rise in homophobia in Ireland. We also see that in other ways of people trying to kind of deem Ireland as a racist country or a homophobic country or a transphobic country. What were your thoughts on that statement?

You know I'm openly gay. And I've been married for the last three years to an absolute saint. I don't know how he's still married to me, but anyway. You know what? I read the remarks and I remember picking up the phone to another very good friend of mine who's gay also

and saying, I'm going to send us up that I'll just read this. And are we just lucky or what's wrong? And he just says, okay, he said, it's not like that at all. No, Fran and I don't often hold hands on the street, okay? We just don't. It's not out of fear, anything like that.

Quite often he links me. Walking down the streets of Cork, Mallow, the streets of Dublin. We've come out of gay bars. We've not so much really because we're not big into the nightclough. You've got to a certain age. It's the cosy Irish pub.

I'm telling you. It's an old man's pub is what I mean like. But like, you know, I don't get it. You walk into my local pub and people say to me, Ken, where's friend to Nate? Yeah. Right? You know, like this argument of Ireland is homophobic

and I'm afraid to walk down the street. I think you're pandering to the media. Yeah, I don't think, you know what, people are far too busy in their lives anyway to worry about who you're sleeping with, who I'm sleeping with, or what you do in the privacy or your own bedroom. If you're not hurting anyone, most people don't give a damn. And most people aren't that interested. Of course you're going to get the odd comment here and there where somebody's going to be nasty.

I have to say, I experience more homophobia in San Francisco. Really? walking down the street than I ever did in Dublin or Cork or Limerick Like I've Like for all my years living in Ireland I've never really

experienced it like in terms of even Just observing people It's like Ireland's more pro- I've found it's more progressive than ever And I just find a weird statements I find when you tell somebody Like oh this is my husband or I'm gay or whatever

Some fellas do say to you Am I going to looking. Yeah. The only bit of attention they've ever got, you know what I mean? I won't get it off the wife, I won't imagine. So at least, not as great fellas, they say, oh, look it. You know what?

I just don't. They probably go into the George just to get a bit of attention. No, but like, you know, I just found the comments very bizarre. And I think Ireland has moved on so much more. And I think, you know, to be pandering to this kind of media attention, oh look at me, I'm afraid to walk down the street. You know, you got your headline. well done but don't do it at the cost of the Irish people is that what it is do you think do you think it's just clicks it's like because that like that's going to get clicks you

know saying I haven't experienced it you know look there is homophobic attacks there is horrible things said yes of course I've experienced one or two of them myself okay online yeah but you know what you get over it yeah I've never physically been threatened in Ireland yeah I've never felt unsafe in Ireland yeah I've never felt people being overly aggressive to me because I was gay. Never. Do we have a bit of a kind of oppressed mindset in Ireland I think there's certain people that will do anything for a headline. Yeah. Perhaps maybe a Dalarianism for them maybe it's I'm a celebrity get me over here or Love Island or something like that you know it's it's that sort of mindset I need to get some clickbait I need to get

somebody talking about me I need to get somebody feeling sorry for me. It's It seems like victimhood is currency in this down edge. It is for certain people. Yeah. It is for certain people. It's a bit like the naughty child. Yeah. And why are they doing it?

Well, they're looking for attention. Whether it's good attention or bad attention, they're looking for attention. Yeah. And I just thought, I just thought Ireland has moved on an awful lot. Of course there's homophobic attacks. We know that. Of course there is homophobia out there. But I don't believe Ireland is anywhere at an unsafe level at this stage.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, the proof of the pudding is the, you know, I remember talking to my dad about the gay marriage referendum and I said, well, how are you voting, you know, I assumed he was voting anyway, the way, the way, that would be a good, that would have been a nice political debate at the dinner table. No, no, I remember I'm looking at me and the hopefully goes, ah, I think he should be as miserable as me. And, you know, he wasn't very popular with the mother on the day, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, you know, I think we've moved on so much. And I think there's so much to be celebrated and there's so much acceptance there. There's people say to me, like, I always get a bit of a kick out of it. You know, I meet elderly ladies and elderly gentlemen. I said, and how's your husband? You know, and it's, you know, you're not expecting it from them. Yeah. You know, and I don't know why I'm not expecting it from them.

But it's always very refreshing and very nice. And I, you know, and I find, I just found those comments from, from Deputy, Sheehan, yeah. I just found him unusual, unhelpful, and I think they didn't come from a genuine. No, he has his reality of life. I have my lived experience and he has his lived experience. Maybe it's very, very different. Maybe he's being heckled because he's a member of the Labour Party.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really not, you know. Yeah. But there's a good point to be made there in terms of like, okay, it's not to diminish anyone's personal experience because people, do receive hate in all sorts of ways. But then if you want to be, if you're going to talk about Ireland as a collective,

you have to talk about it in the collective. And I think if you're talking about it in a collective, we're a very open country. Far more positive than his. Yeah. And my experience, and that of my friends, and I have friends from their 20s into their 50s, 60s who were gay,

had a very, very different experience. And I'm sorry, genuinely, if it is his lived experience, I feel very sorry. Absolutely. I feel very sorry for the guy. But it's not my lived experience and it's not the lived experience that I've seen.

Yeah. But then it's all so dangerous because you're saying, okay, Ireland is homophobic and I'm turning around and like, well, hold on, none of my friends are homophobic. The multitude of gay people

that I've trained in the gym have always had welcoming into the gym. You know, I have a cousin who was gay. He's never, you know. So I think when you're trying to brand a country as homophobic, there's some it feels like

there's some hidden agenda there and I had that time and Mercer on here last week and he spoke about how

you know Ireland was getting deemed as a racist country and he's like okay well I've experienced racism in my life

once or twice but you know if I'm gonna look at the collective of my life experiences in Ireland it's 99% positive yeah

yeah and that's a very good way to look at it and I think the same I've had maybe one or two remarks well since I became a TD really

you know from the old You know, you go into the profile and they have two friends and no photographs, you know, I wonder who you really are. But, you know, you say to yourself, you know, you get on whether I get over. Yeah. But my experience, thank God, has been much, much better than his. And my experience has been much more positive. And I think that's the majority of the experience. And most people don't give a damn who you sleep with.

You know, they're too busy in their own lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to touch on, you spoke about this as well online, and it's something that I spoke about and got a lot of backlash online. Why, why don't we get into trouble? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the IOC believes in biology again.

What's your thoughts on that? Sorry, you're going to have to repeat that to me. So the Olympics essentially, obviously, they're not going to have, you know, transgender. women in in in in sport i obviously it was there i don't know what you said or but i'll tell you what i what i what i well i all i said essentially there's a man and there's a woman yeah yeah yeah that's what i believe yeah um there is the one in 600 million chance that you are born intersex except that that's science yeah um you have an x chromosome you have an x a

ex-wife chromosome yeah and i don't look no matter how much and i don't mean to be disrespectful for people but no matter how much makeup you put on or how many blockers you take or how many operations you have, you're still made of a certain DNA. And if you want to live your life that way, you know what, if you're not hurting anyone, I don't give a damn. But the idea that somebody goes into a boxing match and is physically stronger and, you know, obviously physically stronger, you shouldn't be allowed in women's sports.

Women's sports is for women. That's it. I don't want to be nasty to anyone, but why not become a boxer? I don't know. Look, I don't know. I don't understand the attraction of being a male dressed as a woman going into a boxing match with a woman.

Anywhere else where a man beat a woman like that. To be arrested. To rounds of applause essentially as well. Like, I spoke about a man, a cleaf situation, and, you know, I said it in the most respectful way ever. It's like everyone has their personal choice to live their life any way that they want to. And, you know, but it was very clear that the IBA did chromosome tests in two labs shown male biology. And essentially, the IOC, it was, okay, does your passport say what gender you are? Then, you know, that's the sport you enter.

I don't understand. I don't understand the amount of, you know, conversation that we're having about these things at the moment, I don't get it. Well, this was essentially going to be my question. I understand, but the sports situation is, you know, if you're female, you should be in female sports, if you're male, you should be in male sports. Which sounds obvious, but obviously we've gone through kind of. Yeah, the obvious isn't so obvious.

Yeah, and this is kind of the question that I wanted to lead on with this is like, how do we learn from these ideologies that, you know, really get out of hand? like we've seen obviously kids traumatised from gender affirming care we've seen you know women at risk in prisons and obviously female athletes silence for speaking up from the exact people who are supposed to be champions

champion women's rights this is the thing you know I look at this far left speeches at times and from my country and from other countries and you know they're standing up for this and we're standing up for that and then they're shouting everyone down with a different opinion

I really don't like that at all I think that's very very dangerous don't show people down for having a different opinion but you can't fight or argue with science and that's what it comes back to you can't argue with fact and if that is the fact

that is the fact you have an X chromosome an X way chromosome that's it everything else is superfluous to that fact so you know I think we have to be mindful of people and as I said earlier you know if you want to call yourself Mary

tomorrow or call yourself Joanne tomorrow or you know or Joanne wants to call herself Bob I have no problem with that yeah I have no problem with that that's what you want I may not call you miss or sir you know don't get aggressive with me if I misgender you you know I find the entire thing just so surreal and bizarre I so much more the things going on in my own life to be dealing with this type of rubbish yeah yeah but I just I You know, I do question at times and I say to myself, you know, is this a trend? Is there more to this?

Like, I'm not sure if the amount of people that are being told, you know, do you feel comfortable in your body or this type of idea of, you know, this, that and the other, you know, do you need, is there a deeper help that you need? you know is there is there something wrong more in the background and I'm not saying it's a mental health disease or anything like that but I think there is well I think they did they did they did have data in the states that showed that um you know after COVID the rise of people wanting to affirm to a different gender was actually rise and obviously there was a lot of men mental health issues that came from the back of COVID and kids kind of grown up on on smartphone read a story the other day that, you know, it seems genuine, that somebody tried to identify as a wolf and, you know, ended up getting mauled by a pack of wolves. And, like, I read

the interview. And, you know, like, what's going through people's head? You know, 50 years ago, if I had identified as Napoleon, I'd be in a mental institution. So, you know, I think there's some serious questions need to be asked and I think there's a lot of help in understanding they need to be given to people. I think there's people at times that are reaching out for help

and need it and perhaps they're being guided a different direction. Well I think that's a big topic in terms of the mental health situation. There's a lot of regret as well around people that have gone into a trans lifestyle and come back out. Well especially for kids there's like

you're essentially giving giving them irreversible operations that, you know, how many children, do you know, when they were younger, they might have been a bit of a tomboy and stuff like that. And then now they're like, oh, you're in the wrong body. That's what adults are essentially telling them. Well, nobody should tell you you're in the wrong body, you know. Look, if you feel that way yourself, you know, there's a very long road ahead of you, you know. And I think at 13, 14, 15, should you be able to make them decisions? I don't think I knew who I was. Yeah, yeah. And that's being honest about it.

I think deep down I knew I was attracted to men, but you know, you put that away and you try to compartmentalize that and all that sort of stuff. So, you know, I think there's decisions you need to make. And by the way, the decisions I made when I was 18 or 19. Yeah. You look back and you say to yourself, what was I doing?

Cisions I made last week. You look at some haircuts. There we go. There we go. You can't get a tattoo, but you can change your name. And you can't go on the sunbeds. Yeah. But you can change your... Look, I think there needs to be a deeper understanding

and there needs to be a lot of counselling around it. Yeah. I think we don't need to be using it as an issue or weaponising it as an issue. Yeah. I think there's a lot of mental health situation and there's a lot of help that we need to give people. And I think we have to be respectful of people

that are genuine. Yeah, yeah. But equally, I don't think the ramming of it down your throat and pushing of that. I think there's more tolerant. for the conversation around transgenderism years ago when it wasn't actually ran down everyone's throat over the past it turned into an ideology then you know I know

I know one transgender man to a woman in Cork and I actually went to school with my dad and there was never an issue about it of course people said you know she was a he yeah yeah there was never a drama about it or an excitement about it you know it was you know, there's just something happened. Well, I've spoke to people who have transitioned when they were 25, 26

also agreeing with me that this isn't something that they should be given to kids. There is an awful lot of, and it's being documented, I believe, in the UK as well as the United States, that there is a lot of information now around those that have transitioned and later in life

and the connections there. And there's a lot, you have to dig down through data at times because the left have a tendency to throw, Oh, the amount of trans people that have been killed in the world, I don't think there's one trans person has ever been killed in Ireland. Very few in the UK. A lot of it happens from what I understand in Brazil.

No, that would have to do a lot of the time with trans men or men being women, I'm probably saying it all wrong because I get totally mixed up with all these new gender. This is the day you have to tiptoe around the conversation. No, because my brother said to be wondering, you know there's a hundred something, you know, there's a hundred and something, you know. But, no, there's, you know, I think the story, the story is,

what I was informed with is that there's a lot of trans men or women who have converted to being women in Brazil working in the sex industry. And there is an awful lot of violence in this, in the prostitution industry in Brazil and that's a lot of that is related and that gets parked into a lot of the data about transphobia and it has very little to do with trans it's more to do with people that are trans and or in prostitution in in south america and and sometimes yeah quite dangerous lifestyle exactly yeah prostitution is a dangerous

lifestyle yeah a lot of these and we touched on human trafficking and a lot of these are related to money issues and uh violent criminal gangs Wasn't there an NGO in Ireland that just got closed down about trying to illegalise prostitution? I saw that. I think Ben Scannon had something up recently. I didn't read too much of it. The only NGO that really got shut down in Ireland, and this really sums up Ireland to me, was the NGO that was tracking public money being spent. Oh, right. So a positive

So an NGO that said This is how your money is being spent This is how your taxpayers money Are funding this NGO How they're funding this state board You could track everything And I can't think of the name But I could flash it across the screen

Later that I texted to you But I spoke about it in the Doyle And it was closed down It cost $600,000 to set up $250,000 to shut down The Department of Finances It can all be done in-house Two years on

I think it was called Benefax They didn't want the spotlight on Didn't want the spotlight and never continued on in the department. It's funny that, isn't it? The one NGO that tracked your money that might be able to work out who took a decision on the bicycle shed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that sums up the civil service in Ireland. Yeah.

Do you think in terms of the transgender conversation, do you think that it should be taught in skills? I know Helen McEntee's husband has shares in a, in, um, uh, in, um, um, um, um, um, one of these companies that obviously make the money off. Well, you might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment on Mr. McIntie's financial affairs I wouldn't know. I'd have to use parliamentary privilege. To ask any questions like that, I do have some questions actually down around something like that recently. I think the idea of teaching trans-issues and transgenderism to eight- and nine-year-old. which is the plan of Helen McEnteman, she was the Department of Education.

She's been moved out of that, as we know. Hopefully the new minister, Hildegard Nocton, will reevaluate it. I just think it's far too young. Yeah. I just think it's far too young. You know, my niece is nine years old. She's half Swedish. She goes to a Swedish school from where they live. And I don't think they give that sort of education even.

And, you know, Sweden is meant to be the one of the most progressive schools in our progressive education systems. Yeah. I'm just kind of, you just kind of sit back and say, why would you, you know? And, you know, as I said, I have a niece who's nine. I have a nephew who's six and a nephew who's one and a half. They know that their two uncles are married. But that's about it. You know? And they know that two men can marry and two women can marry. but I don't think at nine years old they need to know what we're doing in the privacy of our own home and I just think this kind of

pushing, it does seem like pushing agendas again and you know God you know what when I look back in my own childhood you know I was more worried about going out and playing football or stealing my brother's bike because there was only one bike

we were children of the 80s there's only one bike in our house stealing my brother's bike before he got out to finish in the homework fast things and that that's what I was on my mind when I was eight years old and nine years old

it wasn't about who sleeps with who and what they do and what is this and what is that you know I just you know

do you worry for the future of kids in this country when you think about kind of pushing kind of ideologies like that and also you know essentially grown up on screens

and maybe not having the childhood that you might have grown up in a play based childhood versus like a screen based childhood I wonder I do but I wonder how much of that is me being funny-duddy-duddy-ism.

You know, I remember like my grandmother lived with us, you know, so we had all that kind of influence as well, you know, and my grandma, like, you know, like, you know, they've seen in the Golden Girls picture at Sicily 1932, my grandmother was pitcher at Blackpool, you know, and it was, you wouldn't do that in my day, you know,

there's all those kinds of, so maybe there's a bit of that. Yeah. Do I fear about children I do. You know what? I fear about, the big fear I have, right, is that I wonder when my nieces and nephews

ever be able to afford a home. Ever be able to have the quality of life that we have. And by the way, the quality of life that my parents had was much better than the quality of life we have. Right? And my parents were the same. They started off with 20 pounds in their pockets

and they built up two fine businesses you know but we're able to buy a house at at 18 and 21 yeah you know they got married at 18 and 21 imagine that now but we're able to buy we're able to purchase a property we're able to have children to a point where my mother sold her business and got to the stage where she said okay I'm going to stay at home with the kids and that was their choice um we went to a good school and my father was able to was able to look after rare three children on one man's wages yeah and my that was able to didn't miss out in our childhood you know and and you just think will my nieces or nephews ever have that quality of life you know will they ever be able to get on the

property ladder and you know you're and you know you're and you know you're seeing people coming up in Ireland better educated than they ever were before yeah yeah yeah and it's frightening yeah it really is frightening so you know I've great faith I in in the next generation I look at the three of them you know and they're all very different personality ways you know my godson is my favorite but I hope they don't watch this you can clip that sentence no no

I'm the I'm the I'm the uncle that gives the presence and Fran is the favorite uncle I don't want to get that but they're still happy to see you now anyway you have the presents but Fran is the favorite uncle anyway

but look you know I have great faith in the future and you have to be positive about it I have to say, look, the little bit that I'm doing here and there and, you know, the changes that I'm trying to make. Yeah. You know, I hope that'll benefit. Can I ask you one question?

Is there any, is there ever any conversations in the doll about population decline in Ireland? Because like you spoke about there, you know, two people getting married at 18 and 21, being able to own a home, being able to have a family. Obviously, Ireland's population, or, right, is at 1.5, so it's below the level that it's supposed to be. But yet our population has increased tremendously.

Yeah. Like we're now at a population situation where the plan for 2035 arrived in 2025. Okay, so we have a big problem when it comes to our infrastructure. Yeah. We have a big problem when it comes to planning for housing, water infrastructure, ESB infrastructure. And we seem to be way advanced on the population plan we have for 2040. So there's huge challenges ahead of us there. And again, going back to what I was saying,

earlier about ministers taking on roles, you have to now as a minister, I believe, you don't have to, you can't plan for the next five years. You have to be planning for the next generation. That's the big difference between a politician and a statesman. Statesman plans for the next generation, you know, real good men plant trees that they'll never sit in the shade of and good women. And there are some. There are some good in, there are some good in Sorry, let me rephrase that. There's some good men and women all over the Doyle, I have to say. But there are big challenges there that aren't being addressed.

It's the inertia. It's not my problem. It's the sure what can we do. It's the ringing of the hands and we'll issue another apology and we'll say, we must do better. I hate when I hear, and you see it an awful lot on the front bench, is we must learn from this mistake. Nothing is ever learned from the mistake. Nothing is ever learned from the mistake.

And no one's ever kept accountable for the mistake either, which... 100%. Yeah. 100%. Ken, if people wanted to keep up with the work that you do, where can they find you? I'm now on Twitter, or X. X, yeah. I'm on Facebook and I'm on Instagram.

I'm on all this. You're quite active on it as well, aren't you? I'm active on the Facebook. Yeah. Right? The Twitter, I'm only a new... I'm a newbie. I want to find an app where you can just say one thing in it all. You know, whoever invents that app.

Yeah, you're, it's going to be a billionaire. You're speaking to different generations depending on what social media is. It's a different audience, you know? I'm on TikTok as well. I put up the speeches on TikTok. The one challenge that I find, honestly, is the keeping up with the DMs

and the messages that go. And, you know, I look at something. It comes in my private Facebook because I have Ken O'Flynn and I have Ken O'Flynn TD. Something comes in here. And then I'm saying, Jesus, Tom, sent me a message there and where is it and you're looking at WhatsApp, you're looking at all these messages that are coming through and you're looking at where did the message

come from. So it does take a bit of time. I'm very fortunate that the team in the office as well have that as well. But look, I'm never too far away from the constituency. If people want to find me, the constituency offices in Mallow, there's a constituency office in Blackpool, you know, You'll find me on a Friday night in Albert Lynch's. You'll find me, you'll find me on a Thursday night after coming back from the day and sighting Tesco's or Dunn's or Aldi or little in that off. You'll be out with the people somewhere anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah, giving out about prices.

Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, so, yeah, so social, look, social media is very helpful to me, I have to say. Yeah. It's a great way of getting communication out there. the communication back, I try to tell people, please email me. Because then you have a complete record

of things. It's a lot easier. And sometimes you just miss something. Yeah, yeah. Or there's kind of spams that things go into as well, you know, when you're not following people back.

Yeah. So yeah, so Instagram, Twitter, X and Facebook. That's where you can find me. That was a long-winded answer. No, no, perfect. We'll have it all in the show notes. Anyway, I can't appreciate it.

Folks, that was the uneducated PT podcast with me, your host Carlo Rock. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube and make sure. you follow along on Spotify so you never miss an episode i'll see on the next one