To highlight an example, we cannot keep drugs out of a single prison not only in Ireland, but in Europe or the US. People who believe, as what we have heard from the Deputies to my right, that is possible and that perpetuates the problem.

Not everything else has been tried. We have had a form of war on drugs for nigh on 50 years in this country. Deputy Durkan referenced the great Tony Gregory, who did stellar and immensely courageous work in this Chamber in bringing names to those people who flooded the communities upwards of 40 years ago. That should always be remembered. It is, however, four decades later and the definition of "insanity" is replicating the same approach over and over again and expecting different results. The same people who worke…

The Portuguese model does work.

I would also offer another example for the Deputy maybe to investigate, which is the Icelandic model. The Icelandic model of intervention in organised crime, once again, is about early intervention. It gives, by right, every young person in that country access to culture and drama because a gateway to engaging in criminality and that form of desperation is poverty and a lack of opportunity. Certainly, through the Governments led by Fine Gael and others, we have not had that approach yet. I have presented some solut…

Step three is to make it more difficult for organised criminal actors to pursue power and profit. We do this by targeting problem-orientated policing and visible community policing around the clock. We need to separate the functions of the police so that personnel who are expected to engage and build relationships in those communities are not the same people we ask to start going in and knocking down doors. That has to stop. Community policing is absolutely essential. It involves building up a relationship where pe…

No, no, no.

Bullying, harassment, intimidation, discrimination, assault and rape - what is hazing if not a form of torture? - are the conditions for women in the Defence Forces, as captured in this report. They are nothing short of medieval. The report by the independent review group has revealed heinous crimes of the very worst kind, many of which may still be happening to this day. The details and magnitude of the findings are shocking and deeply disturbing but as the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre put it, they are not surprising…

I want to speak about Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, Parnell Square in Dublin 1. Some of the stories and the image given of the square paint a pretty negative picture of the building itself, but contained in it are incredible teachers and wonderful students who for decades have been failed by the infrastructure and not by the intention of those who teach and provide care within it. Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire has been housed in unsuitable emergency accommodation for 20 years. This is despite a suitable location being a…

I thank the Minister of State for stepping in to give the response. I appreciate this is not his Department. I am also conscious that should an answer such as this be given about a school in his area, he would not be satisfied. None of us would be. I appreciate there are capital construction costs and increasing construction costs due to a number of factors, not least the war in Ukraine. However, this school is crumbling at the seams. Everyone comes here and speaks about the needs in their constituencies, and that …

I acknowledge the Labour Party for bringing forward this important motion. I must highlight the Minister's initial response. She set an unfortunate tone when she said that the motion represents yet another cynical attempt by the Opposition to undermine and misrepresent all that the Government continues to achieve in education. Are we not involved in successive campaigns by parents reaching out to us to tell us that their sons and daughters have experienced decades of learning in neglected school buildings and been …

Today's session began with a rather crass debate as to whether 4,000 notices of termination would result in 4,000 families being evicted. The Taoiseach maintains that this would not be the case, and that is fine. What modelling does the Government have of exactly how many families will be evicted? What percentage of the figure of 4,000 to which I refer does the Taoiseach find tolerable? More importantly, where will the people I represent and who come to my office go? The Taoiseach stated that they should go to Free…

Will the Minister for Social Protection ask her Department to ensure that households that have accumulated significant debts, including arrears on bills and prepayment meters, have access to sufficient support to avoid a long-term legacy of indebtedness and reduced financial resilience among the poorest households in Ireland?

I thank the Minister of State for his response. If we cast our minds back to the colder months of last year and early this year, in November, December and January, the issue on most of our lips was energy poverty and the number of families being cast into it. Two in every five households were experiencing energy poverty at that time. If we turn then to today, while the weather has changed and the dependence on heating homes is lower, the debts accrued by those families have not gone away. They had to borrow to pay …

That is really important information about the heating supplement being paid outside of the winter months. How many families are aware of that? For example, if you take the figure of two out of every five families in the country being cast into energy poverty several months ago, I imagine some sort of awareness campaign is needed so people know there are supports. I accept there are supports. I do not think anybody here willingly or wantonly has cast people into energy poverty but such is the experience in family h…

I want to ask the Minister for Education if she will provide an update regarding the review of the eligibility criteria of the deferred leaving certificate examinations; when the criteria to be applied to this year's exams will be communicated to students, schools, and parents; if a distinction will continue to be made between medical emergencies before and during the examinations; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

As the Minister is aware, Epilepsy Ireland has long campaigned to ensure that if a student experiences a medical emergency, such as a seizure, during the leaving certificate exam and is unable to complete the exam, he or she should be given the opportunity to resit the exam within the deferred exam cycle. The fact that this is not already the case is beyond belief. I raised this matter with the Minister about 18 months ago. I implore her to ensure that those who experience seizures, or other medical emergencies, du…

I do not doubt the Minister's passion for the issue. An exception was previously made for a student who experienced appendicitis during an exam. Let us not treat differently those who experience a seizure, as some unfortunately do. Let us take it that all of us across the Chamber, including the Minister and I, agree that if a student who experiences epilepsy has a seizure during an exam, it is only fair and right that he or she gets to repeat the exam during that exam cycle. The system we have at the minute places …

Contained in the programme for Government is a commitment to have a referendum on placing a right to housing in our Constitution. I believe it was last March, a year ago, when the Minister responsible for housing, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, announced that the wording of the referendum was due in the early part of this year. While I understand the wording is tied up in legal argument at the commission, the Government’s actions have inevitably resulted in homelessness rather than a right to housing. Will the referendum …

It is not an exaggeration to say that Phibsborough junction in my constituency is literally riddled with air pollution. Locals say the smell and the heaviness of the air are inescapable as are the negative effects on one's body. Some in the area, including businesses, feel they are forced to keep their windows closed as what is allowed in when they open them is the furthest thing from clean. In a world where we have rightly become sensitive to the underlying health conditions of the immunocompromised, we cannot sta…

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. I do not doubt for a second how close the issue is to his heart. The issue is also close to my heart and the hearts of the people in my constituency of Dublin Central who seem to be disproportionately impacted by it. Inner-city communities are, by their very nature, areas that are going to be disproportionately impacted by a multitude of different issues. One that is very hard to separate ourselves from is an inequality of clean air. That is very much wh…