I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply and appreciate his response on an issue I raised previously. That is highly beneficial. I noted that a lot of young people are being groomed into the drugs industry. They are given electric bikes and then zoom up and down different networks and pathways in the area. I fully believe that those young people are victims. I am not looking for a criminal response but a pathway out of this. The Minister of State has responsibility for local government. The pitches…

I echo the words of so many on the welcome return of power-sharing in the North. As a student of history and as someone who has sat in this Chamber for the past four years, the words "historic" and "monumental" are too often overused. The scenes of Michelle O'Neill as Northern Ireland's First Minister and Emma Little-Pengelly as deputy First Minister were, however, truly historic and monumental. I was watching it live on TV and one could not help but note other issues of this significant event as it happened. An ol…

I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 2: To delete all words after "recognises" and substitute the following: "— public service journalism - accurate and impartial reporting in the public interest – is a central pillar of Irish society and democracy; — confidence in Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) has reached an all-time low as a result of successive scandals, undermining public trust in the institution; and — the spread of misinformation and disinformation is growing exponentially on social media platforms and havin…

Will the Minister for Education outline how the contents of her Department’s Circular 0002/2024 provides for additional therapeutic, behavioural and psychological supports for schools, given the current lack thereof, which remains a major barrier to fully inclusive education, and will she provide an explanation for the reduction of allocated special education teaching, SET, hours for schools throughout the country? That was the question I submitted a week and a half ago. Given the information that has been sent to …

More important still is the need to ascertain whether, in next year's allocation, the complex needs of individual students will be disregarded within the criteria. Will the Minister of State clarify that? Where a student has a multitude of complex issues, will that be disregarded? If that is the case, it is a retrograde step. It is not just me saying this. I genuinely have no interest in coming into this Chamber and expounding my own view as an individual TD. I have been contacted by a variety of TDs, principals, S…

There was not.

You are wrong in what you are saying.

Complex needs will not be captured by standardised tests. That is the crux of the argument as to why this is a poor mechanism for categorising complex needs. A multitude of different complex needs are individualised to students within the school setting. That will not be captured under the new model. I again assure the Minister of State that I did not wake up this morning and decide to come in and challenge her on this. It is the teachers, parents and others who have absolute belief in the students concerned who mo…

They are not.

Last week, the Tánaiste said that he believes "and will be calling for sanctions to be applied to extreme terrorist settlers on the West Bank." He went further still and said that Ireland must appear to act unilaterally and introduce our own travel bans if the EU cannot agree to these types of sanctions against those settlers. I will ask the Tánaiste a very direct question and I would appreciate a direct answer. Would those sanctions, which I very much welcome, be applied to extreme settlers in the Israeli Governme…

They live there.

Answer the question.

Can the Government do it?

I thank Deputy Kenny for his work on this Bill, his advocacy on the issue and the heart he brings to it. It is incredibly welcome. The Social Democrats will support the Bill. For many years, the Social Democrats have favoured a health-based approach to drugs. That is why we believe a policy of decriminalisation should be pursued in respect of the possession of drugs for personal use. It was welcome that the report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use also reflected this position, with, among others, its recommend…

I again ask for time to be allowed to speak about the city of Dublin. The Taoiseach may be aware that an application was made yesterday to construct a fence around the Ambassador Theatre, which was built in 1764. This would obliterate part of the cultural heritage of our city. We need a consultative forum led by this Chamber in which we can bring all agencies together to discuss the city of Dublin and how we can make it safer, remove the blight of antisocial behaviour, confront dereliction, open up vacant sites and…

I begin with a lesser point in the scale of what we are discussing. This is the third week in a row we have discussed the International Court of Justice, the highest court in global affairs, at which a case regarding genocide is being considered. On each occasion, the Tánaiste has been present to listen to one speaker before leaving the House. We do not operate a Westminster-style of politics. We have a multi-party system. In his contribution, the Tánaiste raised other contributions that were made last week and tha…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, for being present for this Topical Issue. This is an issue I raised previously and it has still not been addressed. Frankly, ostensibly it should be a Dublin City Council issue but in the absence of actions I have been forced to bring it to the Chamber once again. I believe I raised it with the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. Sheriff YC in the north inner city is a football team that caters to some of the most vulnerable children in the area. It provides leade…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Dublin City Council has done a lot of great work around the north inner city and the city more generally - there is no disputing that - but there has been an omission in respect of soccer pitches for predominantly working-class kids in and around the city centre. There is no 11-a-side pitch in the north inner city at all. There is an AstroTurf facility in Grangegorman. It is extraordinarily expensive, at €190 per game. There is the AUL Complex, where there are similar…

I begin with the words of the German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht: The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!" When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in …

I would love to be sitting here today for post-European Council statements and talking about the plethora of different issues I would like to discuss in respect of migration, the supports we should be providing to those seeking sanctuary, accession candidates, artificial intelligence policy and rule of law violations. How can we all step back from the realisation that in the past few days we have discussed the fact that a genocide is taking place - as most of us vehemently believe - in the shadow of negligence, at …