I recently met a lady in a supermarket on a fixed income with two adult dependants. She had forgotten her phone which had her loyalty card on it. Panic set in because she did not have it. After we sorted it all out, she told me she could not buy the same groceries on her fixed income as she could a year or two ago. She was quite upset and emotional about it. The CSO today said food and drink prices are up 4.6% compared with 1.8% for everything else, on average, across the country. There is no doubt gouging is going…

Hear, hear.

I recently met MABS and was taken aback by the range of issues people had. I have listened attentively to what the Minister said today about cost-of-living measures. I acknowledge those actions. In the past three years, however, there have been a range of one-off cost-of-living measures in budgets, which have been welcomed. I want to get all the nonsense out of the way and ask definitively if the Minister for Finance is saying there will be no one-off cost-of-living measures in this year's budget. There will be not…

It is concerning how we got to this stage today where we are dealing with these motions in the manner in which we are dealing with them. Frankly, it is unacceptable that we are dealing with such important motions in this haphazard way. The fact one of the motions had to be withdrawn by the Minister at the last minute just goes to show how shoddily this issue is being dealt with. Why was this proposed to be dealt with here and then 48 hours later it was taken off? The Minister might explain that to the House. The fi…

What was shown on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme - well done to those who made it - was disgraceful. We have many fine private nursing homes, but when we allow the development of a for-profit model for investors - there are large-scale investors in a large proportion of these nursing homes, as the Minister of State knows - that have borrowed money at low interest rates and there is no sectoral agreement on workers, we are looking for trouble. We have a lax regulatory regime whereby HIQA simply does not have the p…

I thank the Minister of State for being here but I have to start by saying the tradition of Topical Issues being dealt with by the appropriate Departments and Ministers needs to come back. It is not fair on the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin. She is not in that Department. It is a retrograde step that any time there are Topical Issues here, the chances of having a Minister from the Department are few. There are three Ministers in this Department and not one of them could be here in front of the House. I do not th…

I am aware of the group. I also have a degree of sympathy in the sense that I believe the previous Government, of which the Minister of State was not part, did very little on this. The new biomethane group was set up. However, I would like the Minister of State to answer the following. When will the regulatory framework be put in place? What are the timelines on it? She has not told us. Second, in regard to planning, every county development plan in Ireland says something different on this. I have gone through a fe…

I attended a public meeting on Monday night in Ballymackey outside Nenagh organised by a biogas concern group. I also met groups here a week earlier. Despite the issue of the location of the plan possibly being unsuitable, which road networks alone would dictate, we are committed as a country to achieving certain renewable goals in this area by 2030. It is proposed that there would be over 200 of these plants. There is no regulatory process for how these plants will be put in place. There are no planning guidelines…

We need to be very careful with this Bill. The Minister needs to get this right because there are legitimate concerns about it. The purpose of the Bill is to give effect to the EU directive 2017/541 on combating terrorism, which is to a large extent directed at the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon. The Bill includes offences of travelling to commit a terrorist offence, facilitating travel to commit a terrorist offence and receiving training for terrorism. Essentially, the 2017 directive is an updated version of…

Yes, it is.

Please be assured that I have been here a long time and I have seen what is brought up in relation to Bills. I was made aware of this Garda operation some time ago. It was months ago, long before this young man took his own life. Members will be aware that journalist John Lee wrote about it in the Mail on Sunday . So much has happened in this case that does not add up. This creates a nervousness for me regarding this new legislation. It is clear and obvious that what he was doing was totally wrong. None of us can a…

Under section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner must inform the Minister for justice about any major issues. On 1 June, Evan Fitzgerald tragically and very publicly took his own life after getting bail on being charged after an undercover Garda operation. Why did the Garda Commissioner not brief the Minister for justice on the details of this case and the facts that there was an undercover operation and that the guns were supplied by An Garda Síochána? More important, is it appropriate and r…

After the confusion of last week, I thank the Minister for coming in himself to deal with this issue. There are a range of issues relating to resources for An Garda Síochána that I discussed with the GRA and the AGSI yesterday. Today, I specifically ask about the resource the public knows as our Garda stations. In particular, is the Minister aware of the report done by the Office of Public Works, with the State Claims Agency and An Garda Síochána, in December 2016 on a review of asbestos surveys of Garda buildings?…

It is very difficult for there to be claims when there is no awareness. How could there be claims if people were not aware that these buildings had high levels of asbestos? How could there be claims? How did they even know? I repeat that the head of the State Claims Agency said that unless remedial work was undertaken, the State Claims Agency would be unable to defend future claims. That leads me to believe there has already been a claim. This report was done by the State Claims Agency, An Garda Síochána and the OP…

That is very condescending.

How could the Department of justice confirm in writing to a member of the media that the issue in relation to Evan Fitzgerald's tragic case was referred to Fiosrú on 10 May and the Minister could not comment because of that, yet at the justice committee yesterday the Commissioner said he referred it on 18 to 19 May? How could the Department of justice and the Minister say it was referred more than a week before it was referred? How could they say it was referred a week before the Commissioner actually referred it? …

I am referring to this poor, tragic, vulnerable individual who passed away. How is it that reports from The Irish Times and other media-----

-----stated that when Judge Zaidan-----

-----asked what the providence of the guns was, the Garda said, "investigations are ongoing" into who sold the guns?

Investigations are ongoing and we now know the guns were actually given to him by An Garda Síochána. How could An Garda Síochána say in court-----