Some 31 Deputies and Senators signed an open letter on this matter to the Minister and he responded by sending officials from his Department to the Saudi ambassador. We have to ratchet up our response because Saudi Arabia has certainly raised the bar. Yesterday, Ms al-Hathloul was transferred and she had one day's notice that she was to appear in court after 1,000 days of illegal detention. Her family said they were shocked when they saw her in court. She was shaking uncontrollably and she was very weak. She has be…

A direct approach and as strong an approach as possible would achieve a huge amount more than what has been done so far. It is absolutely required because the Saudi regime, which is very wealthy and powerful and recently hosted the G20 summit, has clearly offered lots of platitudes about human rights. It talked about all the forums the Minister just mentioned and all the dialogue it has but it makes no odds when it comes to the repression of those who seek their own liberty. Due to its wealth and power, it seems to…

To be honest I find much of this debate amusing and I am somewhat surprised we are having it. We are having it nonetheless. One of the most amusing statements today came from the Minister, who said the great strength of the Judiciary is its non-political character. I was in knots of laughter when I heard that comment. In essence, many Deputies are expressing outrage that the Government used a vacancy on the Supreme Court to appoint a politically connected person because that person was politically connected rather …

On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it is worth making the point - we discussed this issue last week - that the budget given out by the Minister for Justice to support organisations providing support to women suffering from violence is only a fraction of the overall budget for the greyhound racing. It says a lot about our society that we think more of this cruel industry than we do of protecting women who are very vulnerable. Having read the Minister's statement, it strikes me t…

My question concerns reports on staff who have been let go from tracking and tracing during the Covid-19 crisis and are being replaced by people on CPL contracts. I asked the Minister a question, which was passed to the HSE, on the numbers of those redeployed from other services who come from speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and the psychologist professions. I asked this because there are tens of thousands of parents who are anxiously waiting for those services for their children. They include the …

I asked about the guarantee and the 18 speech and language therapists.

I want to talk about teachers, schools and whether schools should remain closed or open. There is a bit of a war on teachers, both in elements of the media and in some of the political statements being made. It is as if teachers are being told that the schools are safe, and that they should get over themselves, go in and do their work. There is considerable worry among teachers, however. I raised with the Tánaiste recently the question of the forgotten families, the hundreds of children who stay at home because the…

I am happy to pass on the details. I did pass on information to the Tánaiste about the forgotten families. It was a week or two ago but I have heard nothing back. The Tánaiste said he would check it out, what is happening with these 500 children who cannot access online services from schools because they are not supposed to be at home according to the official policy of the HSE and the Department of Education. In fact, they are staying at home because they do not want to bring the virus back to vulnerable siblings …

I just read a press release from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties calling for urgent action on image-based sexual abuse. It says that the creation and distribution of private sexual images without consent is not revenge porn but is image-based sexual abuse. I learned this morning of a good friend and councillor of People Before Profit who suffered from this a number of years ago when she was a student. Clearly, it has been rumbling on for too long, but now it has been escalated to an extent that it is becoming …

It was hard work but a very interesting experience being on the committee. I thank everybody who made an appearance before us because we heard some really telling reports. There are many things we did not look at, least of all the schools because they had not returned and we did not have the experience of the return. Maybe there is a case to be said for looking at them in future. For me, one of the most important things to come out of the committee was the public inquiry into what happened in the nursing homes. We …

It is clear that in the best traditions of capitalism, many employers and firms in this current crisis have decided not to waste a good crisis. For them the pandemic is seen as an opportunity to wrestle greater productivity from workers. One study suggests that the productivity of workers working from home has risen dramatically, by up to around 13%. This change, from one end, avoids long commutes and expensive travel for workers, but that advantage has been wiped out by employers enforcing long hours and placing g…

Exactly two weeks ago, I raised the case of the imminent deportation of two care workers from Zimbabwe. I see yesterday Deputy Gannon raised the same issue. The Taoiseach's response to him was: "I do not know the individual cases [about those working in the health service]...If Deputy Gannon has the details [please pass them on]... I will follow them up." When I raised it with the Taoiseach two weeks ago, I passed on the details. I then found out that the Taoiseach's civil servant passed them on to another civil se…

-----live in this country with respect?

I am not the Taoiseach.

But the Taoiseach did not deal with this.

I did not-----

Nothing happened. I sent in the details. This is ridiculous.

I want to focus in my contribution on the community sector and how it has impacted on working-class communities in my constituency and throughout Dublin and other cities. If we look back to the recession in 2008 and the cuts that followed, we can see and track how the dismantling of community development, anti-poverty and equality sector funding was very disproportionate. The severe cuts that were made by the then Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition were estimated to be 35% for the community sector as against 7% in m…

I and others have continually raised the question of PDFORRA and its affiliation to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, over the past number of years. The reason we support the campaign for PDFORRA to affiliate and to receive full recognition is not that we believe the ICTU is a panacea for all of the issues but that at least it would allow a systemic way in which Defence Forces personnel could have their issues raised and advanced. They are the lowest paid in the public services. They have been haemorrhaging…

The Minister more or less just read back to me a reply to a parliamentary question I tabled in October. I really did not need that answer because, no matter what the Minister said, whatever moves have been made in the past 12 months have not addressed the situation of low pay, poor conditions and appalling accommodation in the Defence Forces. Frankly, it is insulting and does not address the systemic issues in all grades. If the Minister really wants to signal that he is doing something on this, then his minimum st…