Remember that. When you are asking other people to retract a statement, remember that false equivalence you made there. People are living in poverty in this country. It is a pathetic excuse that we cannot have free antigen testing for everybody in society for the excuse that was given by the Minister for Health yesterday. People are cut to the bone. They cannot be expected to pay for antigen testing. Imagine being a carer in a one-parent family in this country. We need free antigen testing because it keeps everybod…

There has to be one for every person living in poverty.

That is not true.

The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, made the point that----

This is very serious. People cannot afford-----

I was interrupted. You did not mind interrupting me------

People cannot afford them. They need free antigen testing.

Rather than feigning outrage at opportune times, I have tried to be consistent in my engagement with the Taoiseach on the reopening of schools. On five occasions since September, I have used this session to ask for stronger mitigation measures in our schools. I ask again where the air filtration devices and the CO2 monitors in every classroom are, as per the recommendation of the joint committee in January 2020. Where are the antigen tests that were recommended in July 2021 by the European Centre for Disease Preven…

It is a disaster.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Education Act 1998 and to provide for related matters. This Bill seeks to guarantee that young people and children can access relationship and sexual education that is unbiased, fact-based and scientifically accurate in all schools that receive State funding. I thank the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers and my parliamentary assistant, Diane McSweeney, for the work they have undertaken on this Bill over recent months. Although there…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

This is an incredibly wide-ranging Bill, as my colleague said. One matter that is a huge concern in constituencies such as mine and in those of other Deputies is the issue of scrambler bikes. This has been discussed not only in this House but also in local authorities in search of a resolution. I hope this Bill brings some resolution to this serious issue but there will have to be amendments made on Committee Stage for that to happen. There will have to be broader engagement with the Garda and other sectors on some…

With this Science Week and the Science Weeks in recent years, we can all have a much better appreciation of the work of scientists, researchers, engineers and healthcare professionals who have dedicated themselves to serving people in a multitude of different ways. Through their craft, through their dedication to their talent and through their copious amounts of research, we went from discovery of a virus that traversed our world, causing so much pain, uncertainty and loss, to the creation of a vaccine in less than…

One in six people testing positive for Covid-19 over the last month have been children of primary school age. I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach several times during this session. We need infinitely stronger mitigation measures in our schools. Over the weekend the Taoiseach started to talk about antigen testing, as did the Minister for Health. The Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, started talking about it in October. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, stated that antigen testing may be …

I thank the Taoiseach for a comprehensive presentation. I will start by focusing on the parts on which we find agreement. The Taoiseach's statements, both today and in the past week, in relation to Europe and the Polish challenge to the primacy of EU law were strong and effective. I do not think we can equivocate in this belief. There seems to be a change of tone from Ursula von der Leyen, who seems to be somewhat equivocating and trying to find a compromise with people who are not being fair players on the rights …

I have a minute but in that time I will list some of the very serious issues facing our primary schools. There is a substitute teacher crisis taking place, one the Department of Education has denied and worsened by lack of action. More than 650 primary schools are not covered in the primary schools substitute teacher supply panels. There are school principals on Twitter looking for substitute teachers at the moment. Primary schools only received a fraction of the CO2 monitors required, relative to the number of cla…

What about air filtration devices?

It was indeed a very comprehensive opening statement from the Taoiseach. It was nine pages long. The most eye-catching part of it was what was missing, namely, any mention of Poland. I accept the Government parties have referenced it but it was not in the statement. One of the most important aspects of the EU, its cohesion and its values will concern the issue of Poland. We need to put that front and centre in our statements and I was surprised it was not. When we talk about what has just occurred in Poland, and th…

The Minister of State got two words into what I believe was the final page of his speech before he mentioned some areas of the divergence between Ireland and Singapore. Let me be very clear that there are very significant areas of divergence between Ireland and Singapore, which make the passing of a trade agreement difficult. I will say some words on them because I, like my colleagues across the Chamber, believe it is very important that we highlight these areas of quite significant human rights abuses and violatio…

Can we change its constitution?