I see. I confused myself.

This is a truly important debate. It is disappointing that other than Labour Party Deputies, the only other Member present is the Minister of State charged with responding to the motion. What our spokesperson, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, has done in crafting this comprehensive, thoughtful motion is to shine a light on an issue that impacts on all communities in our country, including every village, town, city and rural area. Everyone in this House knows that. We know we have a massive issue with drug abuse, drug-related ill…

The scale of the unfolding hunger crisis in Somalia and in its neighbours in the Horn of Africa is truly shocking. It clearly demands an urgent and comprehensive international response. My question is simply to ask the Minister to set out what that response is.

Few of us who witnessed it at the time will forget the visit of then President Mary Robinson to Somalia in 1992. After three days of visiting camps and meeting starving people, she broke down and wept at a press conference in neighbouring Kenya. People will remember that. Thirty years later it is happening again, only on an even greater scale. In a year of unprecedented hunger, according to the World Food Programme, 828 million people will go to bed hungry tonight. In the Horn of Africa, four consecutive failed rai…

I warmly welcome the Government's focus on these matters. Both the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, have a clear focus on the issue of hunger. Ireland has championed, with the United States, hunger at the United Nations as an absolute priority but now 22 million people face starvation in the Horn of Africa. There is an immediate issue that needs to be resolved as best we can, ensuring that that does not happen and those people do not succumb and that they survive. Of course, the M…

Despite my longevity in this House, I am always confused about how questions are grouped. My question, Question No. 91, which was not in the previous group, deals specifically with LGBT rights for visitors to the World Cup in Qatar, yet it was not encompassed in that group.

Is it?

How these things happen confuses me. I will move on to the questions. A number of Deputies have raised the issue of Iran. It was dealt with previously. It merits considerable focus in this House. Most of us are-----

Exactly. We have time to tease out exactly what is happening in Iran and the information being circulated by the Iranian ambassador here, which many of us will have received, and the ongoing struggle, as the Minister said, of young people and women in taking a stand against oppression. I am interested in the Minister's view.

I think this House should praise, without question, the bravery of Iran's national soccer team yesterday. While others did not take a stand, they risked their safety by taking a clear stand against their own government yesterday on a fundamental issue. The Irish Times reports that at least 58 Iranian children have been killed since the anti-regime protests began, following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, including a 9-year-old, Kian Pirfalak, who was one of seven people killed last Wednesday in the city of Ize…

The Minister is right in his contention no reasonable person would say the death of a nine-year-old or the deaths of 58 children could in any way be justified by the restoration of order. The Minister has told us, basically, that in that interaction with the ambassador, he was told falsehoods. That is very worrying. Has the Minister summoned him back since to ask him to correct and give accurate information? Surely the role of an ambassador is to ensure the presentation given to a host country where he has diplomat…

All European debate is still dominated by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. It remains critical that Russia is called out at every international forum, whether a meeting of the EU Council, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which recently met in Kigali and brought together parliamentarians from every nation, or the G20. Russia must be isolated as the sole aggressor responsible for the untold hardship being endured by the people of Ukraine and by the entire world in terms of food shortages, fuel…

No excuse.

Two minutes.

I have two questions. First, I want to revisit the question just posed. I find the Minister of State's response entirely unacceptable. I refer to the notion of not overreacting. There has never, from my recollection, been a situation where the Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann was sanctioned and told he was not allowed to visit a country with which we have diplomatic relations. Where 50 Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, including members of the Government, including the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, are told without…

Would the Minister of State not call in the Russian ambassador and ask whether there is truth in it?

An bhfuil cóip den óráid ar fáil?

I am just asking for a copy of the speech.

Water is a most precious resource. Much has been written about the fact that the next war that will happen on this planet will be not over oil but rather over water. We on this island are notionally blessed to have an abundance of water. As every council engineer and Irish Water engineer will tell us, there is a fundamental difference between water falling from the sky and water arriving treated and potable in our taps. We should begin by acknowledging that we have failed, as a country, to provide adequate water an…

I am sure he was an excellent contractor, if he had only come quickly. My issue was not the work but rather the alacrity with which it was done. As I said, we will leave these matters to the negotiations of the trade union movement. My concern is that when the full work is transferred to the single utility, Uisce Éireann, we do not compound the problem. There were 50 individual leaks on Coolballow Road in Wexford and there had to be a campaign before action was taken. We need to do better.