I had a lot more to say but I am under time pressure. I will revisit the question of those living with district heating systems. Many of them are approaching a lot of Deputies. These systems are not regulated by the CRU so they do not fall under any regulation. The utilities can charge what they like. They charge much more than what the Minister and I pay for gas coming into our homes. On top of that, the people affected live mainly in apartment complexes. Many of them are good earners but they are paying bills tha…

I will write to the Minister.

I will start by quoting an Afghani international protection applicant who arrived in Ireland on 26 January: "I have nowhere to go, I'm tired and I'm afraid I will die in the cold." This was when the Government announced it had no more accommodation for international protection applicants. On top of that are the 5,000 people who have the right to leave direct provision but are still stuck in it because they have nowhere to go. It is baffling the Minister's party in particular made it a point of principle in designin…

I recognise the changed landscape to which the Minister referred, but I wish the Government would recognise that that change is taking place in the middle of a housing crisis. There seems to be a refusal by every member of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to recognise that a large part of the accommodation problem has to do with the disgraceful housing crisis in which we have found ourselves. It is giving rise to decent people supporting far-right rhetoric because they have been ten, 12 or 15 years on the…

I cannot help but say that sometimes I have to pinch myself and ask if I am in a Parliament where there are Government and Opposition benches, because I have listened to have a dozen or so speeches from Government party Deputies in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael lashing out of it the Minister for Health and previous Ministers and governments for this scandal. They are still, however, members of the parties responsible for it. They are still in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, even though they are condemning the behaviour…

-----to ensure this is changed and that something happens. That is the very least that they could do. Máiréad Enright said something very clear in her article in The Journal , that "the State is a peculiar ... defendant because it is the plaintiff’s protector as well as ... [the] opponent". That should mean the State must behave as a model litigant in cases against ordinary citizens but it has not. It has been said by all of the Deputies here that it has been a David and Goliath story where the State has taken on t…

The litigation was the strategy.

Nobody said it was a strategy.

And a member of Fine Gael.

On behalf of People Before Profit we send our solidarity and sympathy to the victims of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. The death toll has risen to 11,000 and the World Health Organization has warned that it could rise to 20,000. I want to raise the question of aid to this very desperate area in this desperate scenario. Aid has always been weaponised and there have been sanctions in place against Syria. These are sanctions by the EU and the US. I am no friend of Assad or the Syrian regime and what it has done,…

Very good, and the Taoiseach will use his voice and insist. Fair play to him.

I move: That leave be granted to withdraw the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) (Amendment) Bill 2022.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 to provide for abortion on request prior to foetal viability; to abolish the 3 day waiting period for abortion on request; to allow for abortion on grounds of fatal foetal abnormality that are likely to lead to the death of the foetus either before or within a year of birth; to allow for abortion where there is a risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant w…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I am glad to see the Taoiseach's Department is bringing down the gender pay gap, which is good. However, an 11.2% average nationally is still not good enough. Women earning less than men in comparable jobs is something that should be confined to the history books and should not be the current situation in the 21st century. It is also worth noting that there is a gender pension gap and that the Joint Committee on Social Protection heard that women retire earning 35% less than their male counterparts. The proposed au…

We can say we have formally legislation passed by the Dáil that has provided equal pay for equal work, but we need action. Really, the question we should be discussing here is how we can address it through union organisation and the right to join a union to fight for this equality.

There is some homework.

It is rare that this happens but yesterday some areas of Dublin got good news. The people of the Liberties learned that Dublin City Council has directed the immediate commencement of a process that will enable it to carry out preservation works of the historic Iveagh Markets. It is, however, short in its budget and has said it will be calling on the State to provide funding to preserve this wonderful building, which the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, spoke about in this House quite recently. It is a credit to th…

It is very new news.

Lá le Bríde faoi mhaise daoibh freisin. This is my day, so I hope I have success with this topic. I know which Minister of State is taking this matter. I will use photographs and hand them to him when I am leaving. What I am looking at here is the age old question of mould and damp in local authority housing, and I want to remind the House that in 2015 a landmark collective complaint against Ireland from across 20 local authority estates was taken to the European Court of Justice. In 2017, the court found Ireland g…