I have a point of order.

I have a point of order and it is important. The Leader of the Opposition corrected the record this morning on a teenager's age but there is a major issue outstanding and it needs to be addressed today. The Leader of the Opposition knew last year-----

-----that a child was being targeted by a Member of the Oireachtas.

It is a point of order.

Perhaps messages were being sent from this very building-----

The reputation of this institution is at stake.

That is fine.

Let us be honest - we can no longer describe Sinn Féin as a party to be trusted in managing any aspect of child protection or child welfare. In fact, it is emerging to be much closer to a secret society where protecting the organisation is absolutely paramount above all other considerations including the welfare of children and teenagers. All we need to do is look at its track record in this regard. IRA member Seamus Marley raped two teenage boys in an IRA safe house in the 1990s. One of those boys later found hims…

On a point of order, are we getting any input into the Order of Business this week? I ask for time to be urgently set aside for Deputy McDonald to make a statement on the issue of child abuse committed by a member of Sinn Féin-----

-----and the furnishing of character references for that person by members of Deputy McDonald's team.

It is crucial that these questions are answered in a timely fashion.

Can I ask that, when the Order of Business for next week is being discussed, we-----

As the Taoiseach highlighted earlier, we have tragically lost 97 people on our roads this year, which is 12 more than at this time last year. We urgently need to act to avoid further loss of life. I have long advocated the creation of a road safety commissioner with the authority and resources to deliver on our commitment to zero deaths by 2050. The chair of the RSA has said there is merit in exploring that concept. I am quoting her directly here: It would be better if we had more powers to bring all the actors [in…

Some 72 people have lost their lives on Irish roads so far this year. That is more than three people every week who have not arrived home safely to their families. This is a crisis. If we were losing three people a week on our rail or bus network, they would be shut down immediately until we had investigated why it was happening. We have a Road Safety Authority that has not shared crash location data for eight years. We had traffic light cameras that were working and we switched them off. We have just two average s…

Ireland has an exceptional track record in educational attainment, both in the length of time our young people stay in education and the academic standards they achieve during that time. In recent months, the Minister has proposed to extend child benefit to 18-year-olds in full-time education. When does she think those changes will come into effect? How many students does she think will benefit?

I thank the Minister. I am seeking one further point of clarification. Do the parents of children who have reached the age of 18 and are still in full-time education have to go through any verification process, or is this just an automated payment and their current child benefit payment will extend into that additional year?

The Irish Epilepsy Association has consistently advocated for the provision of the free travel pass to people with epilepsy who have been deemed ineligible to drive. The Minister has responded very generously to that request and now proposes to make the free travel pass available to people with epilepsy. Will she outline the details of the scheme and particularly how the application process will work?

First of all, I offer my deepest sympathy, that of my family, and that of the Fine Gael family in Galway East to John's wife, Finola, his children, and his siblings Richard and Mary on the passing of an extraordinary man. Many of us in this room, about this time 20 years ago, were involved in our first-ever election campaign seeking to be elected in the local elections of 2004. I imagine many of us had a general idea as to why we were getting involved in politics. For me, they were numerous, but in seeking to disti…

Earlier, in defending our public service media, the Minister cited the fact that we live in a world full of misinformation, fallacies and conspiracy theories. In Europe right now, we have been experiencing a deeply disturbing, 45-fold increase in measles cases in the last couple of years, and we had 42,000 people infected in 2023 compared to 941 in 2022. A lot of that rise can be attributed to a dam-burst of misinformation about the MMR vaccine. The UK is undergoing what it is describing as a national incident and …

The programme for Government contains a commitment to carry out an audit of school buildings across the country to ensure we have adequate capacity for future enrolment. There is a major capacity issue presenting in Athenry. Fortunately, we are seeing significant population growth in Athenry and its environs, but the secondary school capacity in the town is simply incapable of dealing with the numbers presenting. It is envisaged that next September there will be a shortfall of up to 100 secondary school places in A…