Members of our Defence Forces have experienced some of the most egregious treatment and conditions of any workforce in our country’s history. It has been harrowing listening to the stories of the all-too-many members who were victims of a broken system. It was a system of abuse. Imagine how difficult it must have been to live through that trauma. It is for this reason I can act only as a conduit for those who know better but do not have a voice on this floor, namely, those who were failed by our defence institution…

I move amendment No. 2: To delete "strongly consider an intervention in the South Africa v Israel case at the ICJ, as a matter of urgency after the Court has made its order on preliminary measures" and substitute with "will intervene in the South Africa v Israel case at the ICJ, as a matter of urgency after the Court has made its order on preliminary measures".

I move amendment No. 3: To insert the following after "appropriate process to do so and following the necessary legal and policy analysis;" "— appoint a senior team of legal officials chaired independently to assess questions of the risk of, and/or ongoing genocide and/or failures to prevent and punish incitement to genocide by Israel and Ireland’s obligations under the Genocide Convention; — ensure that the above-mentioned assessment will include consideration of Israel’s apparent use of 2,000lb bombs and other ex…

I do not welcome that a motion for a debate on an issue of this importance was given to the Opposition at 1.50 p.m. We had less than one hour to draw up amendments. This is not even close to being acceptable. To be quite frank, in its current format this motion offers absolutely nothing of substance to the debate. The motion the Government has presented, in its current form, skirts around the issue and makes no explicit commitment to intervene on the side of South Africa in its charge that a genocide is being initi…

We know your own approach to housing.

I welcome this Bill. It is absolutely necessary that the plight of children in poverty is treated with the seriousness it deserves. The report and review that provide the basis for this Bill are a multitude of steps in the right direction but I should point out that as UNICEF stated in a recent publication, Ireland has made progress in reducing child poverty but it still exists at a completely unacceptable level across the country. Not a single child should suffer from poverty, yet UNICEF still found one in seven c…

I had intended to ask the Taoiseach to put the full weight of his office behind the campaign to rejuvenate O'Connell Street fully, but since he has left-----

-----I want to highlight a particular issue there. Walking down O'Connell Street and on to Parnell Square, which we have rightly discussed many times over the past couple of weeks because of the tragedy that happened there, we cannot step away from the level of dereliction and decay that has been allowed to settle in to that part of town. One building stands out for me because it is the first closed building I see as I walk down O'Connell Street near the Parnell Monument, namely, the Ambassador Theatre. The Ambassa…

-----and the Government in terms of bringing these buildings back to life.

I am sorry, a Cheann Comhairle.

It is MCD.

This European Council meeting has the potential to be very significant but I fear it will just go as exactly as the one five weeks ago did. There will be words, expressions of concern, equivocation, and justification of the slaughter and genocide that is happening. The frustration I have, which the Social Democrats would like to express first and foremost, is that it has been three and a half weeks since we had a substantial debate in the Chamber about the types of sanctions that should be placed on the State of Is…

My vote today is not intended to be personal to any one individual. My vote today is in the name of those who love the city in Dublin, who engage with it, who live in it, who work in it and who wish to send their children to school in it safely. Confidence in any form derives from a feeling of security. It has been a very long time since anybody who engages with the city of Dublin in the manners I have outlined has felt in any way secure. The vote I cast today will be in their name. That feeling of not being safe i…

I am asking the Minister about her and her Department's priorities when considering her recent call, as opposed to the enactment of legislation, for mobile phones to be banned in primary schools.

I thank the Minister for her response. I do not doubt for a second or mean to diminish the importance placed on online safety for children in primary and secondary school, but in the context of the horrific events we have seen in the past week, I wish to reference the area of priorities. As we concern ourselves with what children are viewing online nationally, I cannot step away from what primary school children often witness when they walk outside of the school gates in the inner city and other parts of Dublin and…

I assure the Minister she does not need to tell me that the incident is not-----

I appreciate that. We can also appreciate that in more middle-class and suburban areas of the country, I often find parents campaigning to remove a fast food restaurant from outside of school gates. In the inner city and surrounding areas that I represent, too often over the years I have received calls from parents and members of the school community to remove open drug dealing from outside of the school or vulnerable people in various states of intoxication from outside a school. We have to take this issue serious…

The Taoiseach began by saying that he is keen to hear feedback from the community. Let me tell the Minister about some of the feedback from the parents in Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire as regards what they have experienced over the past 24 hours. Can she imagine what the parents of those children have experienced over the weekend since last Thursday? What would her expectation be if that was her school, where her kids would be? Earlier, at 2.30 p.m., those parents collected their children from that school. What would …

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. At its most basic, removal of the triple lock would make it easier for Irish troops to be deployed on military operations overseas. While some might think that is a good thing, I certainly do not. In practice, it means the State could send military personnel overseas on missions not mandated by the UN, since the clause that has served us so well for decades will have been removed. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have not clarified which potential missions currently rest…

Another position previously held by the Government and which it now seems to have stepped away from is state recognition for Palestine. Next Wednesday marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The Tánaiste was asked as early as September when the Government would take the decision to recognise Palestine. He said he would do so but would wait until it would make the biggest impact. I cannot think of a better time to do it and when the impact would be greater than when Palestine is at ris…