No room at the inn, is there not, Deputy McGrath?

What about the importance of dealing with the climate catastrophe that we are facing?

I wish to share time with Deputy Boyd Barrett. I welcome everybody into the Gallery. It is not our Gallery; it is theirs. It is always good to see the public come in to the Parliament because it has that dynamic of putting manners on lots of people in here. They are very welcome. I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion prior to the end of the year because it is hugely important that we discuss this. I doubt it will be our last discussion on the matter. On the previous occasion we had a discussion on this, the Mini…

I have met the soon-to-be former residents of the unauthorised structure on Liberty Lane, in Dublin 8, and I have spoken to the fire officers who checked out the place. They have very serious concerns about this unauthorised structure. Planning enforcement from Dublin City Council, DCC, has ordered it to be closed, and 27 people will be without homes in the week before Christmas. My question to the Taoiseach is what consequences in respect of criminal negligence there are for a landlord like Cathal Garrad, who rent…

I asked about consequences for the landlord and criminal negligence.

I want to talk again about the risk to tenants who have to live in accommodation under reckless landlords. The tenants of Liberty Lane, Dublin 8, have for two years been paying €500 and €600 per month for a tin box with wires dangling around the kitchen area and bathroom area, and with two showers between 27 of them. Twenty-seven people now face homelessness in the weeks before Christmas. Would the Taoiseach join me in calling on the landlord, who is one of our own, to do the decent thing? Nowadays people go on abo…

Does the Taoiseach agree the tenants should have the rent returned to them?

In the same vein, I want to say this is the worst November on record for the trolley crisis. It is the last day of November today and it is the worst November on record. It has also been the warmest November on record so God knows what we will face when the weather gets really cold. We need to look at the health service in a very serious light. Figures tell us that in comparison with the EU, we have 2.7 beds available per 1,000 of the population, while the average in the EU is 5.7 per 1,000. Yet, our expenditure pe…

Retention is the problem.

In particular for nurses.

Half of the beds in Linn Dara have closed because psychiatric nurses cannot afford to live in Dublin. There is a real problem with retaining nurses.

Today, a young man from UCD Ronan Browne is taking the drastic action of a hunger and thirst strike to force some action on climate change. I support that young man. The behaviour of the Irish State has not inspired the young generation who are extremely worried about the future. There is a glaring contradiction between what the Taoiseach says and what he does. I previously asked him about the stance Ireland took on the directive on corporate sustainability and due diligence. The Taoiseach reported that he campaign…

Sorry, I asked the Taoiseach about Ireland’s stance. He said that he is happy to strike a balance-----

-----but he has not illustrated what that balance amounts to.

It does not say.

It says that the Government supports a balance.

Yes, finance. They are balancing the needs of finance and the needs of the planet. How do they balance that?

I want to start by being absolutely honest about COP27 from my perspective. It has been a colossal failure and nothing of real substance has been achieved. As one report noted, it will make no difference whatsoever, the fossil fuel industry will continue to expand, greenhouse gas emissions will increase and the climate crisis will get worse. As if to copper-fasten this, the Minister granted a licence to Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc before he flew to Egypt. We will see thousands, if not millions of tonnes of addi…

On behalf of People Before Profit I express our solidarity to the victims. I thank those who came forward to raise this issue and brought it into the public eye. We owe them a deep debt of gratitude. There was something different about this particular revelation. We have been heaped with revelations of abuse of men, women and children by clerics and the churches over recent decades. What was different about this was the sense of shock across society that it involves a school such as Blackrock College in a middle-cl…

I thank the Independent Group for tabling this motion. How we deal with the central issues of transport, climate change and future planning for our society is important for Galway and every region and city in the country. This morning, I listened to an interview with an economist about planning our economy. He was critical of the approach taken by the Government on all levels. One example he used was the lack of planning related to climate change. The obvious point was that it is inevitable. It will happen and will…