In six years of having been here and having been a regular contributor to Topical Issue debates, this is the first time I have had a senior Minister here to respond. While I will often disagree with the Minister and we will often clash, I do not doubt for a second his dedication to the issues he is in charge of. There has unquestionably been an increase in the Garda presence in the commercial city centre of Dublin over the past six months. The Minister and his Department should be commended on that. Many retailers …

I think the Minister misunderstood what I was implying when I spoke about the increased presence of gardaí in the city centre. I was not suggesting for a second that gardaí were being taken from various Garda stations and being brought into the city centre. What I was suggesting was that perhaps there is a policy of containment of problems in residential areas such that they are not coming into commercial areas. That is the feedback I get from residents. There was an initiative in the north inner city ten or 12 yea…

It is not something that could be described as safe, even with the increased Garda presence. Next week after the voting block, I will walk across with the Minister. I walk through there every night.

We can have a look. It is clearly not meeting the standard required, although there have clearly been improvements. I believe we need a different form of policing in commercial areas from that in residential areas. It requires a different strategy and a different approach, not quite a municipal police force but something similar. Residential policing and the policing of more commercial areas are different. We need community gardaí in our communities knocking on doors and introducing themselves, and we need gardaí o…

They can raise their own Topical Issues.

I extend the condolences of the Social Democrats on the death of disability activist, Jacqui Browne. Her loss will be greatly felt. The details in today's Women's Aid report are deeply disturbing but not surprising. We know domestic and gender-based violence is insidious. It thrives in silence, shame and in the shadows but it is everywhere, in every parish, every institution and every workplace. Last year, more than 41,000 women contacted Women's Aid. The scale is staggering but it is only the surface. One in three…

I fully concur that the responsibility lies with men to address this pervasive issue. However, that does not absolve the State of its responsibility, and the State is in neglect of its responsibilities across a variety of fields when it comes to men's violence against women, be that the provision of refuge centres, the collation of data or the regulation of social media platforms. I absolutely agree that technology has changed since I was younger. I can only imagine the terror of parents of young girls in this coun…

I intend to speak about the Offences Against the State Act, in particular the continued operation of the Special Criminal Court. This is not just a matter of law. It is a question of principle, of how we, as a republic, administer justice in the most serious cases and of what kind of country we want to be by virtue of that fact. The Special Criminal Court was never meant to be permanent. It was introduced as an emergency measure during a time of deep national threat, a time when the State was under pressure from th…

We woke up this morning to news that, finally, a proposal was going to the Cabinet on the implementation of the recommendations of the Dublin city task force. I thought this was brilliant and that perhaps now, after four press conferences and about two years, we would get some detail. I listened but we got a rehash of the same announcements that had been made three times at this point and absolutely nothing else. The city is in decline and needs leadership. We thought this was what the announcement was going to be …

What about the task force?

I thank Sinn Féin for introducing the motion. I welcome the fact that the Government is not opposing it. Extending presidential voting rights to Irish citizens living in the North should never be seen as a radical demand. It represents a necessary and overdue recognition of the promises made in the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement was not just about ending conflict; rather, it was a commitment to a shared and equal future. It recognised that people in the North have a right to identify as Irish or British, or …

I thank Deputy O'Gorman for bringing forward this motion. It is timely and important. While I join my colleagues in welcoming the rise in public transport use, I cannot ignore the serious and growing issue of capacity and overcrowding, particularly on the Luas red line, which serves many of my constituents in Dublin Central. It is not just a matter of inconvenience; it is a matter of safety and, at times, dignity for passengers, particularly those with additional needs such as wheelchair users, parents with buggies…

I turn to another gross institutional failure of the State, namely, the Irish Prison Service, which is in crisis as we speak. That is not a word that I use lightly. Right now, 5,415 people are in our prisons, with more than 400 of them sleeping on floors. Prison officers and inmates are living and working in dangerously overcrowded and volatile conditions. We have been repeatedly warned that there are immediate safety risks. Inmates are being held in degrading conditions. We have heard stories of people being confi…

-----when it comes to this action. It is imprisoning the vulnerable to send a message, all while more serious offenders operating within the machinery of organised crime are let out the back door early. This is performative cruelty at its most blatant. Organised crime groups are thriving in communities that are already deeply neglected. Releasing those involved in these networks will send a chillingly clear message that these communities will continue to flounder while the mid-level gangs entrenched within them wil…

The Government is putting people in prison for coming into the country.

It is sometimes difficult not to interrupt the Taoiseach when he is purposely distorting-----

It is sometimes difficult not to interrupt when the Taoiseach is purposely distorting what exactly it is that he is trying to say. Politics is about choices. He knows this. We have prisons that are overcrowded to the point where multiple sources, including those in the area of security and civil servants, have confirmed that a number of prisoners, including those suspected to be members of organised crime gangs, have been released. While the Government is doing this, other people detained in our prisons are awaitin…

We have a situation that is detrimental to the human condition. For the purposes of the Government's performative cruelty, we are now putting people who are awaiting deportation flights into prison. They are in every prison, including Mountjoy and Dóchas. People are being taken out of IPAS centres and brought to prison. All the while, the Government is releasing drug dealers back into communities. That is its choice. That is no distortion. The Government has to own that because that is the choice it is making.

Sorry?

This is ridiculous.