No, a Cheann Comhairle. I was just asking for a glass of water. I have nothing to say.

We are all aware of the many cheerleader Deputies who want to see liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminals built, but I want to come at this from a different angle. The Taoiseach was recently lobbied by Wesley Edens of New Fortress Energy, and only last week the same company distributed leaflets in the Shannon and Clare area promoting the use of liquefied natural gas and quoting all three coalition party leaders as being supportive of it. Are we walking into the building of LNG terminals in this country, which will bl…

So the future is dependency on fossil fuels.

I ask the Minister of State to get back to me on the issue of the CIÉ regular wages scheme statutory instrument. Five weeks ago, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, told me it would be signed within two weeks. Thousands of workers are waiting for this statutory instrument to be signed and it has already taken two years for the State to respond. This is not a great way to treat transport workers and it is certainly not a great sign of the respect and priority we give public transport. I ask the Minister o…

The members of the MLSA in the Gallery are very welcome. They have come from the picket line to the Dáil. That is how democracy should be. We are delighted to have their issues aired here. I hope the debates will help MLSA members understand how the system works and better equip them to be able to argue against what they are hearing. There is an idea in ecology of a keystone species, that is, a species that occupies a niche in the whole ecological system and when that species is damaged or removed it has profound e…

On 18 May, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, welcomed that 92% of early learning and care and school age childcare providers had signed up to the transition fund which would allow for a freeze of parental fees. That means that 8% of providers have not signed up to it. We do not know how many childcare places those 8% represent. It means that many are forcing parents to pay increased fees. Some in my constituency have nowhere else to go. It is the only childcare provider in the area. Some working parents are paying an …

What about the 8% who have not signed up, not the 92% who have?

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. Liz Truss said recently: "We will not rest until those responsible for atrocities, including military commanders and individuals ... have faced justice." I deliberately left out four words, namely, "in the Putin regime". What type of hypocrisy is this coming from the mouth of the British Government? The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill does the opposite of Ms Truss's declaration in respect of her Government's legacy in Northern Ireland. The Relatives fo…

My question to the Minister is about the scoping report into the death of Shane O'Farrell that was insisted upon by the previous Minister, Deputy Flanagan, over two years ago. It is almost 11 years since Shane O'Farrell was killed in his home town of Monaghan. There has been a litany of failures by the State in delivering justice for the O'Farrell family. This delay is compounding that injustice, and I ask the Minister to give the House a clear timeframe on the delivery of that scoping report, which is way too long…

I acknowledge that the Minister's answer is progress from the previous answers we have received. Being on the verge of completion is not an answer as to a timeframe. It then has to go to the Attorney General for his view and that will be sought before there is any publication of the scoping report. I remind people generally in the public that this scoping exercise was sought as part of the journey for reaching the truth for the O'Farrell family. That journey, however, has actually become an odyssey and it has becom…

I have to accept the Minister's bona fides in this matter, as I have said. However, it is almost 11 years since the terrible killing of this young man. It should never have happened, as we all know. Had justice been applied as it should have been, the killer would have been in custody instead of being loose on the roads and able to carry out a hit-and-run killing. Many questions need to be answered by the State and the justice system. I hope the scoping exercise has attempted to answer many of those questions. Howe…

My question relates to the final point the Minister made in respect of the previous question, namely, GSOC and the role it plays. Could she give details on the plan to reform GSOC, the accountability or oversight by Dáil Éireann or another body that the current structure allows for and the mechanism available to revisit GSOC investigations that may have failed to discover facts or wrongdoing? Could she make a statement on the matter? I am thinking about the Terence Wheelock case in particular. It is an obvious one …

Will we have the ability to look back at cases that clearly failed?

I heard the Minister of State speak about this in the media and earlier in the House. Frankly, she sounds more like an observer than somebody who has responsibility for it. We are facing a huge crisis in child and adolescent mental health. It is in the news every day. People are constantly ringing radio programmes, such as Joe Duffy's radio programme, about the crisis being faced. Linn Dara serves people from outside the direct community. As has been said, this is like Groundhog Day. Exactly this time five years ag…

The Minister of State says she was informed on 11 May that there was a problem with staffing. She was probably informed on 11 May but the Department and the HSE had known that there was a problem with staffing. As I said earlier, it is like Groundhog Day. We can go right back to 2017, to a replica with the same number of beds and the same period of time. The question is: what will the health services do to retain nurses? To get an answer to that, the Minister of State must sit down with the PNA and other nursing un…

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. I will begin by acknowledging all the communities out there. There are very many across my own constituency and they are growing daily. They are really engaged and energised in direct action to fight to help repair and preserve the biodiversity in their neighbourhoods. It is great to see it. I want to thank Jane Stout and Micheál Ó Cinnéide for their review and their work. It is an excellent piece of work and highlights well the problems and systemic neglect of our NPWS. I…

It is hard to know what is left to be said about this debacle, other than for me to be very critical of how the Government has behaved over the past two weeks. The Government brought us into this Chamber, into repeated committee meetings and into media debates under a pretence. That pretence was that it was willing to engage and listen to the concerns of the Opposition, the women of Ireland and those of us who marked out the movement to repeal the eighth amendment. The Government has not listened to anything. The a…

-----and we attempt to form a left Government. That Government, because of this document, will never be able to take full control and ownership of a hospital that was built with public money. It will never happen because one of the clauses accompanying the reduced level of rent states that St. Vincent's Holdings will never be challenged by the State and taken off the pitch. I ask the current Government to bear that in mind. It should also bear in mind that people more conservative than the Minister of State, Deputy…

Today the Tánaiste said the two weeks that we were given to consider the deal around the new national maternity hospital were given to look at what additional safeguards could be added. That question remains. What additional safeguards can be added? I am standing here because I am sore sitting. We have been sitting at long meetings about this issue all week. I will sit at more of them next week and the week after if necessary. But we have to make progress. The progress we have to make has to be based on a certain a…

If it was, we would be the landowners.