This is something I have been talking about on behalf of various workers since I came in in 2016 and as workers' spokesperson for People Before Profit. There has been a real war on pensions, particularly defined benefit pensions, over the past ten years or so. The narrative is that we are living too long, and we cannot afford this, so we have to tackle it. Therefore, instead of longevity in life being something to celebrate and be excited about, and instead of making provisions for people to have longer mortality a…

Could I not take half a minute?

So the Ceann Comhairle wants me to shut up now and come back and do six minutes tomorrow.

Would it be okay to speak for two minutes now and not come back tomorrow?

Compared with an hour, two minutes is nothing.

My very last point is on the retired workers themselves. I have introduced a Bill to amend the Industrial Relations Act to give retired workers the right to be represented where their pensions have been interfered with. It is shocking to think that they can say nothing, as happened during the austerity years to all our public sector workers, particularly those in the semi-States. In goes the State and takes out the workers' pension fund and they never get to say tickety-boo about it. The decent thing to do, if we a…

A statement made by Joe Biden to the effect that Israel has an ironclad guarantee of US support is making headline news today. We should all acknowledge that this is no surprise whatsoever. Israel has always had an ironclad guarantee of US support. The US has always had Israel's back, particularly during the genocide in Gaza. The only thing the US has ever done is urge Israel to be careful, to use caution and to be precise. Now, it has doubled down on what has been a legacy of complete support for Israel since the …

We do not know whether the hardware being used to kill women and children in Gaza is being brought through the airport. It is a disgraceful compromise in the context of our position of neutrality to allow that not just to happen but to happen more frequently.

The Government needs to make a statement on ending the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.

On the last point, Shannonwatch has reported a huge increase since October in the number of US military flights stopping over in Shannon. That means something. I do not know where the Tánaiste gets that level of confidence that there is no military use of the aircraft that are stopping in Shannon because we do not inspect them. We do not get on board and inspect the cargo, see who the passengers are or find out what their intentions are. If you cannot do that at the very least, God help us and God help Gaza because…

It would be grand if the planes were inspected. We might believe the Tánaiste.

That is what everyone is saying except the Tánaiste.

This is ridiculous; we are talking about a genocide happening in Gaza.

And the Tánaiste keeps slipping away from the crucial question I am asking him.

What about the behaviour of the US as a state? What about the ironclad guarantee to Israel? Is that okay?

An ironclad guarantee is not an assertion.

In many shapes and forms it undermines our policy. Let us be honest about it.

The BusConnects plan is ploughing ahead across Dublin. We in People Before Profit truly welcome improved public transport. I always advocate for free, frequent public transport as a means to alleviate traffic problems and to help climate initiatives. The Minister for Transport disagrees. Having said that, there are serious problems with how BusConnects is being implemented, mostly because the community - I specifically want to talk about the community in Ballyfermot - has not been consulted about major changes in i…

The Department, which takes a hands-off approach, says that the NTA deals with these matters and it does not.

We need an intervention by the Department to tell the NTA to talk to the community.