Tully delighted with Seanad election

Newly-elected Sinn Féin Senator Pauline Tully has vowed to be a strong voice for the people when she takes her seat in the Upper House of the Oireachtas.

The former schoolteacher was among the first elected to the Cultural and Educational panel, when counting took place last Thursday and concluded on Friday.

Ms Tully fills the spot vacated by her party colleague Fintan Warfield, who served the panel since April 2016. She lost her own seat in the Dáil after failing to get re-elected last November.

The mum of two was her party’s spokesperson on Disability and Carers and TD for Cavan-Monaghan during the last Dáil term. She was also a member of the Oireachtas Committee of Disability Matters and a member of the time-limited Autism Committee set up to consider matters relating to the services and supports provided by the State for autistic people.

She now hopes to continue that work as a member of the Seanad.

“Being a spokesperson for Disability and Carers, education plays such a big part in that, there is such a lack of special educational facilities in Ireland, so the two cross over in that regard and I want to continue advocating for people in those situations certainly.”

Senator Tully already has set her sights on chasing down what has happened to the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. Under the EPSEN, children with special educational needs should be educated in an inclusive setting, unless this would not be in the best interests of the child.

A review of EPSEN was initiated by then Minister Josepha Madigan in December 2021 to modernise and reflect the experiences of students, staff and families. An EPSEN Review Steering Group and Advisory Group convened in June last year to analyse the information gathered and propose recommendations, with a report for government arising.

The review was supposed to conclude towards the end of last year, but little of note has emerged since.

“I don’t know if it’s finished, but it goes hand in hand with the Disability Act and that really needs to be updated as well,” says Senator Tully, who admits that her own party had previously campaigned for the Seanad to be scrapped.

Deputy Tully agrees that the representative body she is now part of “requires reform”.

“We felt it wasn’t being utilised maybe as it should be, and it wasn’t as representative as maybe it needs to be. It does need reform. The way you’re elected is archaic, and only a select few get a vote or say on who gets to be there. But that doesn’t take anything away from the important work that does take place. “It has a remit to look at legislation from the Dáil and propose amendments. Now the amendments aren’t binding, but sometimes they are. Also, Bills can be initiated in the Seanad, and have been. Take for instance the Occupied Territories Bill, that was a Frances Black initiative.”

Senators also take up roles in various Joint Committees of the Oireachtas. Deputy Tully is hopeful of reprising her role on the Oireachtas Committee of Disability Matters again.

“I’d be hopeful of taking up a position on committees either on disabilities or education, they’d have my interest and be my priority. I was on the Good Friday Agreement Committee and would have no problem going back on that again as well if the opportunity arose.”

Senator Tully intends to use her new position to highlight the need for better disability services, particularly around education, in Cavan-Monaghan.

Before the Committee of Disability Matters sat, the plight of people with additional needs might have appeared on the Dáil agenda once a week. Now, Senator Tully says, it has become a “constant topic of discussion as it should” with people tuning in from around the country to find out what was being talked about.

With more families with children with additional needs, as Senator Tully puts it, parents are not just looking for educational security for their child in the short-term, but longer term as well. “The services and supports are just not there, either for children or their families, and that is something that has to improve. We have to change that.”