We asked for specifics. The Tánaiste knows well that we hear a lot about UN Security Council vetoes. The reality is that it has only happened once, more than 20 years ago. The law was clarified in 2006 to help to address that specific situation. It is in the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006. It has not stopped Irish peacekeepers from participating in missions. The UN needs reform but we should be working on that from the inside instead of abandoning it as a requirement. I again ask the Tánaiste to remove the Government…

No, you were not.

I asked about the double lock or single lock.

I thank Deputy Coppinger for tabling the motion. I acknowledge the guests we have in the Gallery. My party leader, Deputy Cairns, has been in touch to acknowledge the presence of Mr. David French. She has been working alongside him to bring forward Valerie's law. We will continue to push this as heavily as we can from the Opposition benches, although it would be infinitely easier if it came from the Government. It has become absolutely routine to be confronted with new reports highlighting the devastating impacts o…

I also welcome our special guests to the Chamber today. Three years ago Ukraine suffered an invasion of the most horrific form, an invasion the likes of which we thought was left behind in the 20th century and the horrors that emanated from the Second World War. Then we looked at the tanks rolling down the roads towards Kyiv and an image that will stay in my mind is the horrific bombing of the maternity hospital in Mariupol. In the three years that have passed since, those who have come here from Ukraine have broug…

Almost every single week, I have listened to the Taoiseach responding in a very tedious manner to legitimate questions from the Opposition, including ourselves in the Social Democrats. He asks where our solutions are and what we would do differently. I have a simple question now. Where is the housing Minister? It is becoming farcical at this point. Parliamentary debate means that we present in our time, which does not come for us regularly - it is about six opportunities a year - and we use it to discuss housing. W…

I listened to the previous Government speaker who repeated something said yesterday. It is almost as if you cannot talk about regulation if you have a social media account. What a banal and boring analysis of the situation.

It is the equivalent of saying you are not allowed talk about banking regulation if you have a bank account. The only person I remember in the Chamber who could meet that standard was the former leader of Fianna Fáil. What a weird analogy. For years we were sold the dream that automation and AI would free people from drudgery, allowing society to prosper and with fewer working hours and more leisure. Any of us who watched the inauguration of Trump saw the tech billionaires lined up behind him have only one purpose …

The Taoiseach is presiding over a Government that seems to see crime as something to be responded to only after the fact. I read the programme for Government once again earlier, I heard the Taoiseach's statements and I listened to the Minister for Justice on the radio over the weekend. There does not seem to be any co-ordinated strategy for a violence reduction approach. I hear the Taoiseach talking about increased sentences for knife crime from five to seven years and I have heard him mention body-worn cameras. Wh…

Where is the strategy, then?

I support this motion and I will continue to do so as it progresses through the Dáil because it is about giving young people back the opportunities that they lost after Brexit. Regardless of what the scheme is called, whether it is the UK-EU youth experience or otherwise, I hope it actually enables the British Labour Party to find its courage and recognise swiftly and loudly that Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster. For years, young people from the EU and Britain could easily move between countries for work and…

Yesterday I listened again as the Minister for Justice became a commentator-in-chief and stated that parts of Dublin are unsafe. How long do those parts of Dublin have to remain unsafe? What exactly does the Government intend to do to increase not only perceptions of safety in our city but also actual safety? Last year we saw the first increase in Garda numbers since 2020. The increase in question was 196. At the current rate of increase, it would take two decades to bring the force up to the 18,000 recommended by …

When I consider the programme for Government we are now asked to speak about, the image that comes to mind is from the plinth in the early stages of the Dáil when a number of members of the Government, who are now established as members of the Government, stood there and said they would support this Government through the good times and the bad. That phrase has been reiterated in different contexts, in the media and in this Chamber for a variety of reasons. Humility demands of us that we also acknowledge that those…

In November of last year, a mere three months ago, I sat with the Taoiseach in a committee room for a meeting of the foreign affairs committee and he assured all those present and, more importantly, the public watching at home that one of the first acts of this new Dáil would be the enactment of the occupied territories Bill. It is now very clear that this is not his intention. This morning, we woke up to the President of the United States and the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu divulging that they intend to ethnic…

Are you?

That is without question.

I do not take ethnic cleansing lightly.

That is the-----

Earlier today during Questions on Promised Legislation, I took the unusual step of actually asking about legislation that was promised. It was promised by the Taoiseach, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, last November, when he told members of the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee that it would be a first priority of a new government to enact the occupied territories Bill. The same person was the leader of the then Fianna Fáil Government when they introduced Second Stage of the same legisl…

I am not sure which absurdity to oppose first but I will start with the Government allowing itself another two weeks to avoid Dáil scrutiny, not answer questions and not be held to account in the traditional manner of this Parliament. The public will simply not stand for it. It is ludicrous and was opposed in the Business Committee. We need to demonstrate a little bit of leadership here. We all know the issues. The front of The Irish Times this morning tells us that Trump has removed the United States from internat…