This feels like 2022 all over again. Honestly, workers and families just cannot seem to catch a break when it comes to this cost-of-living crisis. We have seen fuel prices surge over the past two weeks and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have sat on their hands and twiddled their fingers here for two weeks. Then, while people have been worrying and going through massive stress, the Government parties come into the Chamber and say to people they are going to do something for them but they have to wait until the next Cabin…

When Fine Gael entered Government in 2011, we had 641 children living in emergency accommodation. After 15 years of Fine Gael in government, propped up by Fianna Fáil for most of the time, we now have over 5,000 children homeless. That is a disgrace. It is not an accident. It is a direct result of the Government's bad policies. One example of that is cutting the funding for the tenant in situ scheme. In 2024, the scheme in Dublin City Council had €115 million in funding. Last year, guess what was is? Last year, it …

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. We need a debate on the review into CAMHS in North Kerry. This is a deeply concerning issue that highlights serious failures relating to the care of children and young people. The lives of young people and their families have been turned upside down due to the failures of the service. We need a debate on this topic as a matter of urgency.

I will start by thanking all the emergency response workers, council teams and other staff who did their very best to help residents affected by the recent flooding incidents. In my own constituency, we had separate incidents of flooding. We had the tidal flood waters in Clontarf. Then there was significant flooding in the northern part of the constituency, in and around Clongriffin. We saw properties and underground car parks flooded. We had roads that were impassable and a number of rivers burst their banks. We a…

Back in January 2024, the vultures swooped in and bought up 46 of 54 family homes at Belcamp Manor in Dublin Bay North. The then Taoiseach, Simon Harris, wrote to the finance Minister saying that the bulk purchasing of family homes cannot be tolerated. However, it has continued, except now it is happening on the Minister for Finance, Simon Harris's, watch. The investment funds snapping up these homes are now renting them back at eye-watering prices. Some of these funds are not paying any tax on that rent because th…

Signing up to the EU asylum and migration pact is not in Ireland's interest. What the Government is essentially doing is handing over control of decisions on migration to the European Union. Sinn Féin has always been of the opinion that Ireland, not Europe, should be the one that makes decisions on these important issues. That is why we oppose the majority of measures in this pact. The reality is that our asylum and international protection system has been a complete and utter mess for decades. We have seen familie…

I welcome this very straightforward amendment to Coco's Law. It makes it very clear that the crime of recording or distributing non-consensual intimate images of a person also extends to images and videos created by AI. Over recent months, we have seen an explosion in the use of AI technology distributing sexual abuse material, particularly of women and children. The use of AI bots to abuse people online is completely unacceptable. This has to be stopped. The way we do this is by bringing this Bill forward and putt…

I welcome the chance to speak on this Bill. I want to acknowledge the hard work social workers, link workers and family support workers, etc., do but the reality is the public has lost confidence in Tusla over the years. We need to see steps to rebuild trust. I want to highlight concerns over the future independence of the guardians ad litem, GALs. Their job is to be the voice of the child in court proceedings. It is as simple as that. In some cases, GALs can be critical of the social work Department. They need to …

The staff at Northside Home Care Services are back in work today after being on strike last week and they have not ruled out further action. These workers provide supports to some of the most vulnerable in our community. Some of the staff I met on the picket line in Coolock have been doing this job for over 25 years and they were not included in the pay deal for section 39 workers because they were reclassified. Instead of management and the HSE engaging with the union, the HSE threatened their jobs. It warned that…

We have had years of underinvestment in water, electricity and public transport. One thing annoys people no end: listening to Government Ministers boast about how well the economy is doing when basic services that should be world-class are in a state of despair. On the broader issues of water and repairs, I will give Irish Water some credit. Its communications for upcoming planned works have improved but in terms of outages, problems with supplies and identifying where repairs need to happen, the delays are just un…

Here we go again. The Government has decided to kick the can down the road on a common-sense Bill. It knows there is no way that anybody would oppose this Bill so instead it decided to delay it by nine months. Government talks about all of us working together. Yet here we have a positive piece of work and instead of supporting it going to Committee Stage and teasing out any of the issues he has, the Minister has decided to delay it. In my constituency, the use of nitrous oxide by teenagers has been an ongoing probl…

They have had seven months.

Like any technology, there are pros and cons when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence. It has the potential to be incredibly important in areas like healthcare, science and technology. We saw that at the Young Scientist exhibition last week in the RDS, where many of the projects demonstrated to us how it could be a force for good. A school from my own constituency, Gaelcholáiste Reachrann, had a really impressive project on how AI could improve mental health supports. Indeed, the overall winning project …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Mercosur trade deal and I welcome the farmers to the Gallery this evening. As an urban TD I have to put on the record that I have been contacted by a large number of constituents who have raised this trade deal with me in the run-up to last week's vote. They were concerned about two things, namely, food safety and the damage to the environment. I was shocked to read the report produced by the Irish Farmers' Journal . Its journalists travelled to Brazil and investigated just…

Hear, hear.

The line Minister's statement on Friday night when she spoke about the three-month pause was tone deaf. It did not address any of the concerns of patients and their families and the issues that they raised about this ill-thought-out and cruel decision. The reason for the postponement is very clear. It is not because Sinn Féin warned the Government in October about the difficulties that this would cause patients both in terms of costs and health outcomes. In fact, the Government ignored us back then. The reason the …

What about the blister packs?

We need to get in on this.

I will start by thanking our Coast Guard and rescue teams across this island. In my own constituency of Dublin Bay North, I know the huge amount of work they do, the really dangerous conditions they sometimes have to go out in and the number of times they have prevented disasters on our coasts and in our seas. Being honest, I could not believe what I was reading in terms of this new roster system. We have crews working 24-hour shifts but those shifts are only being recorded as 16 and a half hours. That means the Ir…

The IAA and the Department of Transport need to make sure the safety of our rescue crews is a top priority.