I thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling this very important motion. At the heart of it are some matters we need to address, of which planning is the most fundamental. Planning controversies have dogged the political system for as long as I can remember. The Labour Party is interested, and we had a long discussion on this at our parliamentary party meeting yesterday, in the log cabin suggestion, which is one that is worthy of investigation. I will say this much about the planning system in Ireland; I remind …

We have developments in my constituency that are deathtraps. We had planning regulations and oversight that did not work, which allowed people to make a quick buck and destroyed the lives of those who were living in those dwellings. They bought them in good faith and, when they discovered those dwellings were defective, had no ability to move against the person, persons or entities that sold them the properties. I deal with that every single day. We are also dealing with the legacy issue of developments that were g…

I welcome to the Public Gallery a gentleman called Luke King, who is a student in Pobalscoil Neasáin in Donaghmede. He is part of the Northside Partnership young community leaders group, which has made a number of presentations recently to me and to the Lord Mayor on vaping, the reform of the leaving certificate and drug use in its community. He is here with the ambition hopefully to come back as a Deputy in future years. I hope that he enjoys the debate today. As the Minister knows, the main purpose of the Constru…

The FAI has commissioned a report into the horse and greyhound racing fund. Apparently, the report states that as a country we have spent €1.5 billion on this fund over the past 20 years, of which €1 billion has come from a direct levy on betting and €0.5 billion has come from the Exchequer. Some 80% of that goes to the horse racing industry and 80% of that is spent on prize money. Effectively, the vast bulk of this €1.5 billion spent in the last 20 years on the horse and greyhound racing fund has been spent on pri…

------into the horse and greyhound racing fund because I do not think the level of funding we give it stands up to scrutiny.

Not according to this report.

Will the Taoiseach not do a review?

This amendment, which was tabled by Deputy Paul Murphy, goes to the crux of people's comfort or otherwise with the Bill. The demonstration test is something I have discussed with academics, including Jennifer Schweppe and others. I have spoken to Seamus Taylor, who effectively wrote the book on hate crime. He says that, in his experience, it is essential to the effectiveness of the Bill. It is true that it is only England, Wales and Northern Ireland that have this demonstration test in their legislation. It is an o…

Unfortunately, when a murder happens, for too many people it is just something they see on the news and there is not really the horror or disgust that should happen when somebody’s life is lost in a particular location or address. It is something that people might raise their eyebrows at; they might see it on the news and move on. If you live in, work in or care about a community where a murder takes place, the consequences are devastating. The idea that a child going to school should get used to Garda tape being a…

I do not have much to add to what has been said. The Labour Party welcomes this proposal with regard to this particularly troubling type of crime and area. The lives of those who are at the rough end of this criminal endeavour are often destroyed and it is disproportionately women and children who are affected. As Deputy Costello said, to raise public consciousness of this issue we need to raise the voices of those who are directly affected by issues such as human trafficking. As has been stated, the sex trade is h…

This Bill is very welcome and, as others said, there is a crisis at the heart of our court system as to their sittings, an issue we have often debated. The lack of judges has been reported upon by any number of media outlets. How judges are appointed has been part of the political debate for a number of years. However, we cannot get beyond the fact that our courts system is grinding to a halt because of the lack of judges. Now we have political consensus across the House that more judges are needed. The level of de…

-----unbelievable.

This is about homes and the Taoiseach is point scoring.

All you have-----

The Taoiseach needs a history lesson.

The Taoiseach cannot-----

It is not agreed. At the risk of being accused of point scoring, I raise the issue of facial recognition technology and the determination of the Minister for Justice to include this as an amendment to the bodycam Bill. We are not necessarily opposing facial recognition technology, but we are mindful that EU legislation is pending and that this recognition technology has been very problematic in places such as London and San Francisco. We require stand-alone legislation to deal with this comprehensively as well as p…

In light of recent reports into the Irish Defence Forces and the London Metropolitan Police, will the Minister initiate a comprehensive review of institutional and cultural practices in An Garda Síochána and the Prison Service to ensure that no such issues exist in these forces?

I am interested in what the Minister spoke about with regard to cultural audits into An Garda Síochána and the Prison Service. What he is saying is welcome. In politics, we always react to a scandal. We always do a review after the fact. What was discovered in the Metropolitan Police in London was absolutely shocking with the level of racism and misogyny and the difficulties within that police force. Then we discovered that issues also existed within the Irish Defence Forces, which would not have been a surprise fo…

It could be argued though that there were probably oversight structures within the Defence Forces as well over the past 23 years and they may have made that argument as well in order to defend how they were operating. We are on the same page here. We need the Minister to come back to the House in six months to give an update to Members as to what those cultural audits have discovered. We need to be proactive. Far too often, as they say in politics, we react to a scandal, a report, to somebody speaking out - a whist…