I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this historic debate on behalf of my colleagues in the Regional Group. I would like to welcome the ambassador of Ukraine, H.E. Ms Larysa Gerasko, to the Chamber. I congratulate her armed forces on repelling the Russian attack against her capital city. When we consider the atrocities that took place in Bucha only a few days ago, we shudder to think what would have occurred had Kyiv fallen to the Russians. I would also like to single out two ambassadors in the G…

I am very grateful to contribute to this historic debate on behalf of my colleagues in the Regional Group. I would like to welcome the ambassador of Ukraine, H.E. Ms Larysa Gerasko, to the Chamber. I congratulate her armed forces on repelling the Russian attack against her capital city. When we consider the atrocities that took place in Bucha only a few days ago, we shudder to think what would have occurred had Kyiv fallen to the Russians. I would also like to single out two ambassadors in the Gallery, the Finnish …

I am delighted to speak on this very important motion on vacant and derelict housing. I pay tribute to Deputy Denis Naughten and our group administrator, Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, who did most of the heavy lifting in preparing the motion. I very much support the motion. It provides a comprehensive and detailed blueprint. I endorse all the recommendations it contains. I will highlight three proposals in particular. The first is one which the Minister of State highlighted, namely, that the Government should provide addi…

I thank People Before Profit for bringing this very important Bill to the Chamber for debate this morning as it allows us discuss Ireland's military posture. It is very topical and timely. In the limited time available to me I will focus on a niche area that has not been discussed yet this morning, namely, how dependent our Defence Forces are on training and cross-training with other militaries. My big concern about the Bill relates to the wording therein. It says that the State should not "aid foreign powers in an…

I welcome the Minister of State's opening statement, which was very detailed, technical and useful. I also welcome the Bill, which was supposed to have been pushed through some 15 years ago. Unfortunately, tragic events overtook us at the time. The initialism "IMF" is, for good reason, quite an emotive one for people in this country. It is synonymous with our economic crash and the terrible national humiliation that led to the bailout, the troika and the years of austerity, the tail end of which are still with us e…

As the Minister is aware, the Defence Forces representative associations have been locked out of national wage talks for decades now. It is one of the reasons our troops are the most poorly paid public servants in the country. The Commission on the Defence Forces reported in January and has recommended to the Government that associate membership of ICTU be provided to both PDFORRA and RACO. I am mindful that the next round of national wage talks will begin in May. Has the Government taken any decisions on this rega…

I will focus my questions on the situation in Ukraine, starting with the refugee component. Everyone in the House is aware that almost 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in this jurisdiction in the last number of weeks. In fairness to the Irish public, their response has been extraordinary. They have opened up their hearts and homes to people fleeing war from the opposite side of the Continent. The main point of entry to this State for Ukrainian refugees is Dublin Airport but the main points of departure from th…

I thank the Minister for outlining the Government's position. I am glad Deputy Gannon mentioned the appalling atrocity in Mariupol yesterday, namely, the bombing of the maternity and children's hospital. I was recently contacted by the HSE, which pointed out that there is some small spare capacity in our neonatal ICUs in Ireland. There is a national neonatal transport programme available whereby hospitals in Dublin link up with the Air Corps to transfer very critically ill children from abroad. Ireland has the capa…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate which is timely and appropriate. I am happy to support the addition of hate speech and hate crimes to the EU list of crimes that are indictable. As Deputies, we all appreciate the importance of freedom of speech. While we should be allowed freedom of expression inside this Chamber and beyond, the majority of us appreciate also that there are limits to that. Freedom of speech is not an absolute right. There is a threshold beyond which we should not stray. Reassu…

In light of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine and the fact that President Zelenskyy is addressing a number of parliaments around Europe and, indeed, the world, the Regional Group is of the view that he should be invited to address the joint Houses of the Oireachtas by video link at his convenience. I would be grateful if the Business Committee could hold an urgent meeting with regard to scheduling such an engagement. We spoke to the Ukrainian ambassador this morning and she is very much in favour of…

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I will not speak for long, given my views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are well known at this stage. I very much welcome the report from Amnesty International. It may not be universally accepted, but it is certainly consistent with many similar reports in recent years and it chimes with my experience in the region over the past decade. Based on the report and what is happening on the ground, we can understand the inequality, discrimination, lack …

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I wholeheartedly approve of and endorse the motion. As the House will be aware, I have been raising concerns about the Ukraine situation in recent months. Unfortunately, those concerns were well founded and now we are in a very dodgy place whereby Europe is once again at war, for the first time in the 21st century from the point of view of a land war. I utterly condemn the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, that is, not only the fact it is …

Second, we have a no-fly zone for Russian aircraft over the country at present. As for whether we can enforce it or not, we all know the answer to that. We should explore extending that to shipping as well to ban Russian ships from our ports and from our territorial waters. The Minister, through the European Union, should also have an additional range of sanctions available for primarily one reason. The Russian forces have thermobaric munitions in Ukraine at present. They are not officially classed as weapons of ma…

I thank the Minister, Deputy Coveney, for his opening statement. I welcome the Ukrainian ambassador, H.E. Larysa Gerasko, and her wonderful team to the Chamber. I hope they feel welcome because they certainly are. My views on the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and crisis are well-known at this stage from previous contributions on Leaders' Questions prior to and since Christmas and at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. There is no point in me repeating what I have already said. Unfortunately,…

I thank the Minister of State for his opening statement, which was very useful. I listened to it in great detail. I am delighted to be in the Chamber to make a contribution to this very important debate on establishing two citizens' assemblies, one on a directly elected mayor for Dublin and the other on the biodiversity crisis. As a Deputy representing rural and regional Ireland, I will focus my comments on the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. That is the most appropriate focus for me to take. I welcome the…

I thank the Minister of State for her detailed opening statement. I am again grateful for the opportunity to speak on the topic of disability in the Chamber. People from that group are physically under-represented in Leinster House. It is important that they are not under-represented from an advocacy point of view. That is why I am delighted to be here with my Regional Group colleagues to do our bit in that regard. We all appreciate that disability matters are broad and multifaceted and, at times, can be quite comp…

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for their detailed opening statements. I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate and I very much welcome the publication of the report. I join with other Deputies in commending the 16 commissioners for their hard work over the past 13 or 14 months. They delivered the report pretty much on time, despite the Covid pandemic. I would also like to thank every single Deputy and every single party in this House. Long before I became a Member of this …

I wish the Tánaiste good afternoon. My questions will be focused on the situation in Ukraine and more specifically how it relates to the situation in Ireland. I think every Deputy will recall the dying days of the Celtic tiger, when our financial regulators were utterly clueless about the risks emerging on the horizon and provided absolutely no early warning whatsoever. Even as the storm was breaking our financial regulators were oblivious to the risk. They were telling us there was nothing to see here and that eve…

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. It is semi-reassuring to know contingency planning has at least commenced. We have a tradition in this House, and perhaps in this country and beyond, of retrospective analysis. We always look back at an event and say we should have done more of this or less of that. Perhaps this is one time we can get ahead of the event and do some proper planning. It would prevent any emergency debates or any poor decision-making in the middle of the night. My advice would be to use the next ten…

My question concerns the organisational capacity review of the Department of Defence. It has been ongoing for 12 months now. I would be grateful if the Taoiseach could update the House regarding where the review stands now. Is it complete? Is it going to be published? If so, is there an indicative date regarding when it will be published?