I thank the Minister of State for the written report, because it is good to have all those facts in writing. What I wish to ascertain concerns the problem that arose last year, having had the announcement from the Government that all DEIS schools would have access to the meals programme of hot meals for national schools and cold food for secondary schools, with regard to schools throughout the country. The deputy head of the Irish Primary Principals' Network, IPPN, Ms Tobin, has stated she must tell parents it is n…

As today is 1 March, the Minister for Health should by now have the final report of the review of abortion legislation. This review was to look at the evidence of the operation of the Act. This evidence was collected from women who use the service and health professionals who provide it. We know from research carried out by the National Women's Council of Ireland and others that women still have to travel to Britain to receive abortion care, which defies the whole basis of what we attempted to do in repealing the e…

Could the Taoiseach press him to give us a timeline for publication of the review? He has never given that to us.

My question to the Taoiseach relates to the report of an independent review that is to be given to the Minister for Defence, Deputy Micheál Martin, today into allegations of bullying and harassment in the Defence Forces, namely, the women who featured in the high-profile radio documentary, "Women of Honour", in late 2021. These are female Defence Forces members who acted as whistleblowers in regard to their own treatment of bullying and sexual harassment in the military. The Minister for Defence said he is fully co…

I draw the attention of the Taoiseach to the recent Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report showing that at 42 sites, factories and landfills posed a pollution threat to our water sources. The EPA has stated that five of those sites have been put on a priority list for enforcement action after serious and repeated concerns were raised over discharges to local water sources. Of the five, four are in the meat or dairy sector, namely, Kepak Athleague, North Cork Co-Op Creameries, Aurivo Dairy Ingredients and West…

It is a matter of national security if we do not have decent water.

This morning, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, gave an extraordinary interview on a number of fronts, not least his guarded defence of the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins. What was more worrying was his attitude to the hike in prices by Electric Ireland. He sounded like an innocent bystander, pretty much as the Taoiseach has sounded today on the same topic. The Government seems to think it cannot do anything to intervene. May I remind the Government of the Consumer Protection Act 2007, sections 61 and 62 of wh…

Exactly. Innocent bystanders.

I want to return to the question of what the EU discussed in regard to migration. I know the meeting was prior to the tragedy that happened in the Mediterranean, where at least 62 people, including a month-old baby and twin toddlers who were among 12 children, drowned coming from countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. We know that the accurate number of deaths recorded in the Mediterranean Sea cannot be ascertained, and that between 2014 and 2018, in a four-year period, about 12,000 people who drowned were …

The ESB, founded in the 1920s, is run on a not-for-profit basis.

It put the lights on everywhere in the country.

Let the migrants work.

Shocking figures from the HSE today show us that 27% of all deaths during Covid were of people in nursing homes. It is a shocking reminder of how we failed the most vulnerable cohort during the pandemic. I, along with others in this House, sat on a special Dáil committee during the Covid pandemic, which made a priority recommendation that the State should conduct a full inquiry into the deaths of these people in nursing homes during that crisis. We are still waiting to hear news of that inquiry. That committee also…

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. I thank friends and comrades in the NAS and Dublin Fire Brigade for talking to me in the last while and sharing notes with me. I am proud to say that I have got to know many of them very well over the past few years, particularly since I was a councillor. DFB was and still is run by the council. It is still under-funded. It always has been. I forget the year, but at one point the city manager, as he was then called – he is now called the CEO, which is a set of words that sh…

The Minister of State is probably aware of this but on Friday, 3 March, the climate movement will be back on the streets for the first time in a long time. I am delighted to see Extinction Rebellion and FridaysForFuture taking the climate crisis seriously and marching from Parnell Square at 12 noon to this House. I want to ask the Minister of State to please clarify for me and them the Government’s plans to deal with the recent figures from the EPA that show that Ireland has a very significant increase in CO2 emiss…

Far from being on target to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030, or by 5% per year, according to An Taisce, which is littered with eminent scientists on this issue, we are on track to exceed the combined ten-year carbon budget by between 23% and 36%. That is exceeding the budget and we are on track to do that. The climate movement will not be cheering the Green Party. Almost three years into its decision to prop up Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government, we are beginning to see clearly what a disaster …

I did not want the Minister of State to take my criticism personally. They are political criticisms and they are criticisms of the Minister of State's party propping up a neoliberal and right-wing set of parties. Those parties are bound to fail on climate because they believe in the capitalist model of doing business and economics, as the Green Party apparently does because it voted against every measure that any progressive element of the Opposition has tried to bring in, including curbing the proliferation of dat…

Stop voting against our measures.

Will the Minister of State support the progress to Committee Stage of the Industrial Relations (Provisions in Respect of Pension Entitlements of Retired Workers) Bill 2021 and outline what proposals his Department has to enhance the representative rights of retired workers and will he make a statement on the matter?

I note what the Minister of State said about the status of retired workers and the dangers of a third party coming into negotiations. Nevertheless, what these workers are seeking is that if they have a problem with their pensions after the six-month limitation of their having left work has passed, they would be able to go to the WRC. They want that six-month limitation to be lifted to allow them to go to the WRC at any stage after the six months if their pensions become the subject of negotiations. We have seen thi…