-----supporting South Africa through the ICJ.

I acknowledge Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. Without question we will support it wholeheartedly. A cost-of-disability payment is long overdue. It is fair, it is practical and it recognises what the State has known for years, which is that living with a disability in Ireland carries a very real financial cost. Its omission from last year's budget was profoundly disappointing. The Government’s own Indecon report found that people with disabilities face extra costs of between €9,000 and €11,000 every singl…

There has been a lot of talk from the Government benches this week about economic stability and about protecting our competitiveness. The previous speaker just verified that. That is absolutely fair enough. However, I believe that this year the Government has chosen big corporations over people who need protection the most. If one wants to make an argument that multinationals are vital to the economy, which clearly they are, let us be consistent. Investing in people is every bit as economically transformative as in…

I thank the Minister of State for being here to discuss what is frankly a crisis in the way the State approaches youth work in the north inner city. Over the past few weeks we have all seen the headlines on the spate of crimes in the area. I am not going to sensationalise what is happening. Instead, I want to force this Government to acknowledge that these young people, some of them not even out of their teenage years, are being pulled into drug-running and dealing because we have failed them long before members of…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The north-east inner city task force is referenced quite a bit in the Chamber and other Deputies ask for similar schemes to be applied in their own areas. Why would they not? A substantial amount has been allocated over a nearly seven-year period. We should remember why that task force was initiated. It was initiated to confront the crime, drug-dealing and violent feud that tore the soul out of this city, but looking at the outcomes seven years later, despite consider…

Earlier this week, my party leader, Deputy Cairns, asked a very simple question. In what other profession in this country are people subjected to a means test, just to be recognised for the work they do? It is a stark question that gets to the heart of the matter. That is what this is about. Carers are professionals in every sense of the word. They do the work that is essential to the running of our health system, work that saves this State over €20 billion every single year, yet they are treated as though their co…

I will begin by joining Deputy Gibney in welcoming her friends Bushra and Mohammed to the Chamber. Their presence here is really welcome and we hope they will be joined by Bushra's other children very shortly. I will also acknowledge the 22 citizens who are on board the flotilla heading for Gaza, two of whom are colleagues of ours. They are bringing medical supplies, including prosthetic legs. All of us across the Chamber who know the people on board are genuinely fearful of what might happen to them as a consequen…

My eagerness to speak on this subject stems from the fact that I understand sport has an incredible impact, not only in our communities and in the lives of the people who get to benefit from it. When we debate the impact of the sports capital programme, the large-scale sport infrastructure fund and the major sporting events programme, it is important that we talk honestly about how we measure success when it comes to sport in this State. Recent discussions have taken place in regard to the NFL, for example. There w…

In the Irish Examiner this morning, Cormac O'Keeffe gave voice to what many of us working in the area already know. Throughout Dublin city, even youth workers are starting to feel scared as they go about their work, such are the levels of increased violence and intimidation. I find that extraordinary. What is more extraordinary is that the Minister's Government has, over the last two terms, initiated two separate task forces for Dublin city centre in different ways. One amounted to basically a couple of press relea…

Are they wrong?

I will tell the people-----

What strikes me reading through the Estimate is how little ambition the Government is showing when it comes to targeting vulnerable young people, tackling domestic violence and living up to our obligations on prisons and immigration. Once again, we are presented with tables that look busy on the page but that fail utterly to meet the needs of the people who depend on a functioning and fair justice system. On youth diversion, Vote 24 sets aside €33.2 million for youth justice interventions this year, up from €30.5 m…

I too welcome our guests in the Gallery. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion tonight. It is timely. Many households will be looking in on this debate with eagerness because winter is approaching. We broadly agree with most aspects of the motion before us this evening. We live in a country where energy prices are among the highest in Europe. That reality is hitting households hard, with hundreds of thousands of families in arrears and many more just keeping their heads above water. The truth is that en…

I stand to speak on the statements on migration. There are many wonderful aspects to it. I would like to talk about the experience and enhancement of communities the length and breadth of the country, but there is also something we just cannot step away from at the moment. Things feel different. It feels like the racism has increased and like the fear in the communities who contact my office has started to become a lot more palpable. We are witnessing attacks on the street and the targeting of people because of the…

I acknowledge the speakers who brought the motion to the Dáil but I will not be supporting it. I will not say it contains no good ideas but it loses all reason where it refers to the temporary removal of personal items such as PlayStations, Xboxes and smartphones. Are we serious here? Am I right to believe the Government is not opposing a motion that calls for someone to go into somebody's house and take away their PlayStation? Who exactly? A garda? Is the Government messing? Are we not serious people here? I hear …

I thank the Minister of State for taking this issue tonight. A couple of week ago, I visited the neonatal unit of the Rotunda Hospital, which is just off Parnell Street in my own constituency of Dublin 1. While there, I met the clinicians there who are being asked to work in conditions that are incredibly unsuited to the importance of the work and to the vulnerability of the babies who they care for while there. The impression you could not help but leave with is that although there are amazing clinicians in the Ro…

Yes, that is completely as I expected. I understand and accept completely that as legislators, we do not, nor should we, have a role over planning but we do have leadership roles. We do have voice. We are elected to represent the people of our constituencies and to have a say about what is common sense, what is basic humanity and what is just nonsensical. I found it unfathomable when I walked into that room and saw the clinicians and the babies in the incubators. I did not get a chance to meet their parents that da…

Homelessness.

I welcome the Bill. We support it fully but intend to table some amendments on Committee Stage which we think will strengthen it. In my constituency, particularly in the north-inner city, and in a number of other constituencies in Ireland, there is a heartbreaking sight that many of us have grown accustomed to: young people, children, teenagers, kids on scramblers, kids hanging around corners with nothing to do, kids being used - I mean that word very deliberately - as runners in drug networks, carrying out drop-of…

I will raise an issue about a local school. In normal circumstances, I would not expect for one second the Taoiseach to have intimate details about a school in my constituency. The school is Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square. There was a moment during the last Dáil term when the name of that school was on all our lips because of the tragedy that befell the community there. Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire was promised a school building would be delivered and completed. It found out earlier this week that this …