Excuse me, I am not making any conflation. I am actually talking about lived experience. Is the Deputy calling me a liar?
On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 105 of 744 decisive votes (4 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAB | Labour | 1,621 | 2020-03-19 – 2026-09-17 |
Membership spells on record: LAB 2007-07-23–2011-04-25 · LAB 2011-02-25–2016-03-09 · LAB 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · LAB 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · LAB 2024-11-29–present
Excuse me, I am not making any conflation. I am actually talking about lived experience. Is the Deputy calling me a liar?
I am representing the issue.
I did not start this.
We will get through the meat of the Bill on Committee Stage because so much is missing. The facts are that the Government is deliberately putting out spurious messages on migration and what is going on here is a bloody disgrace. The people who have come into this country from other countries and who work here are welcome. That is the message the Government should be sending out, rather than leaving us to do it.
Tell your colleagues.
We need a serious discussion in here about Garda leadership, the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Director of Public Prosecutions after what happened in Limerick yesterday, where a retired superintendent and four gardaí were found innocent on 39 charges. That took seven years. How much did this bloody well cost the taxpayer, and it is not finished yet? It is not acceptable. We need a debate on this. The Garda Representative Association has called it a witch hunt.
We need to discuss in this Chamber how this came about. The public demands answers.
Yesterday, at the media committee, we had testimony from Gráinne Seoige in relation to her experiences during the general election and subsequently. It was harrowing and I thank her for coming forward. We have all heard of many other cases of what has happened to many people, mostly women, in regard to AI tools and social media companies. In fact, I would call them publishers. They are not platforms; they are actually e-commerce companies. They make money and this is how they make money. We need to think about how …
I thank the Tánaiste. I am worried when I hear him talk about the Irish European Presidency. That is five months away but we do not have five weeks. He mentioned the volume of cases. How many will end up going to the very end to a prosecution? We have a situation whereby if we do not bring in legislation, this continuous sexualisation without their consent of women and men and the sharing of those images will continue and will not be prosecuted, unless we act now. That is a fact. That is why we are bringing this fo…
Any chance of a speech?
Where are they?
The Minister is meant to produce the speech. And do not speak like that. That is unbecoming.
But the speech should be provided. This is a most comprehensive Bill.
And the Minister speaking like that to Members of the Opposition is not acceptable.
It is the Minister's responsibility to produce the speech.
No, it is the Minister's responsibility to share it.
I have been there, done that.
Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.
I will be sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Conor Sheehan. I do not like to criticise the Minister or his Department but bringing in a Bill in this way is crazy. There is so much in it. It is all over the place. That is why we wanted the Minister's speech. He said he spoke off the cuff. Frankly, most of the time he does.
On this occasion, he read it verbatim. The reason he read it verbatim was he has to be very careful about what he is saying on a lot of these things. From a legislative point of view, it is very tricky. This is not good practice and I am surprised at the Minister for behaving in this way in this House. This is so diverse. It includes pepper spray, community service orders, counselling records on sexual offences, sex for rent, changes to bail, remote hearings, electronic documents for court, DNA analysis, issues wit…