-----do her very best to cause no further harm?

In April of last year, the then Fianna Fáil Minister of State at the Department of Transport, and now Minister for public expenditure, described the prior hiring of 30 testers as not enough. He assured us that we would see significant progress between October and the end of the year and that we would get back to a ten-week waiting time early in the following year. It is now early 2025 and the backlog has increased by nearly 10,000 in the past three months, having increased by more than 4,000 since mid-January alone…

I would also like to congratulate the new Ministers, especially the Minister of State, Niamh Smyth, from my constituency. Well done and congratulations to you all. Will the Minister outline the total number and value of goods and services with military applications that have been sanctioned with Israel since the onset of its genocide in Palestine?

I understand the Department's position is that the officials provide a thorough risk-assessment to ensure that, in the Minister of State's own words, as far as possible, items are only used for their stated purpose. The Government has intervened in a case before the International Court of Justice where Israel is on trial for the crime of genocide. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Fine Gael Party leader, has referenced revenge, deliberate starvation and war crimes committed by Israel. Does the Mini…

In 2022, Ireland's dual-use exports to Israel amounted to €10.7 million, yet in the first eight months of the genocide, those exports ballooned to €32.1 million. Now, the Minister of State tells us that over the period of the genocide, seven licences have been approved from Ireland. At a time when Israel's economy is struggling, does the Minister of State not find this in any way suspect? What evaluations were carried out on risk of diversion or undesirable use of these exports and what were the findings? How many …

In counties such as Monaghan, rather than tar as a new dawn, as one Minister described it, people instead continue to damage their suspension and blow out tyres following yet another false dawn. Despite all the bluster of Ministers, maintenance and road repair funding in County Monaghan will not increase significantly to improve road repairs. That is because 43% of the additional funding that has been promised this time will be used for speed limit signage. That is an increase of 2,745 per cent for speed signage; n…

Comhghairdeas, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. We all wish to see an environment of co-operation fostered between the Department of agriculture and farmers in order that farmers would feel that they, as the primary producers, were viewed by the Department as its primary stakeholder. All too often, however, the relationship is antagonistic. Part of the reason for this is that the Department is all-too-quick to impose fines on farmers and claw back a few pounds already paid, such as in the case of the BEAM scheme with which…

There has been a long-standing issue regarding the lack of domestic violence refuges in counties Cavan and Monaghan. In its submission to the justice committee on refuges in August 2021, Safe Ireland, the national policy service support and development hub for 39 specialist domestic violence services, many of which provide refuge, highlighted that there were nine counties without refuge accommodation. Almost three years later, the Sinn Féin leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, highlighted that nine counties still lack…

I thank the Minister of State. It is disappointing the Minister for Justice is not here, as we could have had a more substantive engagement. I reiterate that Cavan and Monaghan are only being considered for one refuge and ask that the Minister considers two refuges, one for each county. Why are we being treated unfairly in those counties? As well as enduring emotional, psychological and physical abuse, all too often the victims of domestic abuse bear the additional burden of their lives being torn asunder, in parti…

Pre-election claims to the effect that the Government would deliver 40,000 homes last year now hang like an albatross around the neck of its credibility. The housing crisis permeates virtually every corner of Irish society. Schools are unable to hire teachers, gardaí are unable to secure accommodation in the communities in which they serve and students have been abandoned, while renters and aspiring homeowners have been cast utterly adrift. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste speak of these claims as genuine belief and …

Is onóir mhór í dom labhairt anseo mar Theachta Dála do Dháilcheantar an Chabháin agus Muineachán. I am proud to stand here today for the first time as an elected representative of the people of Cavan and Monaghan. Mine is the same constituency that returned hunger striker Kieran Doherty in 1981 and in 1997 returned my friend and colleague, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, as the first Sinn Féin TD in more than a generation. This same constituency has now returned its strongest Sinn Féin Oireachtas team in living memory which…