The Minister is still not giving them an answer.

When it comes to the Middle East, we cannot allow a nuclear-armed rogue state to spread chaos throughout the region. That is why Israel has to be stopped. Chants from a music festival are not the story, the daily mass murder of civilians by Israel is the story. Since Tuesday morning, more than 100 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, Israel bombed a café that it knew was being used by journalists – killing 24 people. This morning, Israel continues to lure starving men, wo…

Retail.

I honestly cannot think of anywhere else in the world that would treat a major historical site, one that is so central to the modern history of their country, in such a disrespectful manner.

The GPO should be preserved for generations and should become a focal point, along with the preservation and restoration of nearby Moore Street. They should be part of a historical and cultural quarter of the city that respects the importance of the history of 1916. I do not know about the other Deputies, but I could not believe my ears when the Taoiseach spoke about putting first-class retail into the GPO. Holy moly. The place is already surrounded by retail. Has the Taoiseach not seen that? This is the main stree…

What about the GPO?

The GPO.

Shameful.

Fianna Fáil sits by and says nothing.

Fianna Fáil stands by.

St. Luke's Youth Club and community centre in Kilmore West has been closed since 2023. The centre was used by many groups within the community, from football clubs to ladies groups and summer projects. In 2023, I contacted Dublin City Council, DCC, regarding the closure of the building. I received an email - I have it here for the Minister of State - informing me that a report into the works that were needed would be completed by the first week in January 2024. Rolling on, it is June 2025 and still no works have be…

With respect, Kilmore only got four lines in the reply. That is not on the Minister of State - he was given that to read. This was a specific question about a specific area where we feel we are going around in circles. We have been engaging with Dublin City Council and officials. We are asking for support from the Minister of State’s Department to get this over the line. Councillors on the north central area committee were recently told that the issue would be looked at. What we are asking for is commitment. I than…

I, like so many others who watched that "Prime Time" programme, found it very disturbing and upsetting. Our older citizens who are in nursing homes deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Frankly, there is no excuse for what we witnessed on our television screens. I cannot imagine the upset this programme generated for families across this State, with people wondering if their relative or friend was treated the very same way once visiting time was over. I acknowledge the whistleblowers who came forward and …

Irish people living in the North can stand for the Presidency and serve as President, as Mary McAleese did, but cannot vote for the President. That unfairness is at the heart of this motion. We recently saw the Assembly support the call to extend voting rights to all of Ireland. The President is the representative of the Irish nation, and that nation does not just stop at an imaginary line that was dreamt up by the British and imposed on us over 100 years ago. On the Border issue, I, like everybody else here, would…

We did not just wake up in this housing crisis; it has been going on for decades. We have seen plan after plan. Does the Minister remember rebuilding Ireland? That failed. Now we have Housing for All. In the meantime, and while this plan is going on, we have longer housing lists, people waiting to be housed, more unaffordable housing and record homelessness. Like many people outside the gate tonight, I am sick and tired of listening to the Government blame everybody else; it is always everybody else's fault. The Go…

He is not answering them.

There is nothing more disgraceful than knowing we have thousands of families and children homeless or in insecure accommodation while we have thousands of empty council homes around the country boarded up and left to rot. We constantly hear the Government saying that bringing vacant properties back into use is key to tackling the housing crisis and yet we have over 2,600 council houses boarded up across this State. We need these houses turned around and brought back into use for families and workers. There are peop…

You are.

The delays relating to driving tests have been going on for far too long. What is happening is causing huge stress for workers and is resulting in some having to turn down jobs or delay their starting dates while others, including college students, have longer commutes each week. When these delays started to become a serious problem a few years back, the excuse was that the backlog was due to Covid. That does not wash any more. The delays at the Raheny test centre in my constituency have jumped from 20 weeks in Jan…

We all want to see an early years sector that works for society. We want educators to be paid fairly. We want enough capacity to ensure children get places in their local community. We want to see childcare fees that are affordable for families. To do all that, we need the State to take the lead and not just leave it all to private providers. In my constituency of Dublin Bay North, we have seen a lot of new homes being built, which are mostly filled by young families. There is then a scramble to secure childcare pl…