I thank the Minister for her statement. I appreciate that she cannot give a positive or conclusive answer about the ongoing GSOC investigation but the family have called for a public inquiry into the death of their son. The Minister will acknowledge that some of the vitriol and toxic messaging about George's death and the incidents around it, particularly on social media, has been absolutely horrible and horrifying for the family. Some of the stuff that has been said about that family is utterly reprehensible. It i…

I welcome that. To give an overview of the history of GSOC, many people have found the GSOC model and its findings to be unsatisfactory because it is essentially the police investigating the police in this circumstance and in other situations where lethal force was used by the police. There must be a public inquiry into this matter and there has to be accountability and transparency, not only for the Nkencho family, their supporters and friends, but for the community as a whole. What played out on that day was abso…

This segment is about promised legislation. What I will ask the Tánaiste today was promised and was legislated for but it was never implemented. The Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act dates back to December 2015. This was welcome legislation that replaced antiquated laws around the wards of court. Incredibly, after five and a half years, it has not been implemented. Things work slowly in the Chamber but this is incredibly slow. Why has there been such a delay and when will the Act be implemented replacing the …

I want to focus on children and young people in the context of the public health emergency we have gone through. It has had a terrible effect on that cohort. This week's report from the Irish Youth Foundation, Generation Pandemic, paints quite a stark picture of disadvantaged children and the pandemic. One aspect of the report relates to children and young people who have fallen out of the school system and probably fallen out of groups they would have had. Usually when that happens - not always but sometimes - the…

If the Minister of State wants to see what is wrong with the housing policies of successive Governments, he need only look at the recent media reports of vulture funds, cuckoo funds, financial institutions or whatever one wants to call them buying up tracts of housing. They come to Ireland for one purpose only, and that is to make profits at the expense of first-time buyers, renters and the citizens of this country who want to find a home. Mullen Park in Maynooth was just one incident. In Lucan in my constituency, …

I welcome the Minister's statement. Every time he makes a statement on the roll-out of the vaccine it is positive and we have this terrible pandemic on the retreat. I got my vaccine yesterday. It was a great experience in Citywest. I was a little emotional about it because the last 15 months have been extremely difficult for a lot of people in this country. There is a huge collective effort to vaccinate people and I commend everybody involved in the programme. We are all so grateful for the roll-out of the vaccine …

My question refers to the commitment in the programme for Government to phase out direct provision. As the Minister will know, direct provision has existed in this country for more than 20 years. What was meant to be a temporary solution has become permanent, with devastating consequences for those in direct provision. I would like to hear the Minister's answer to this question.

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. I welcome the Government's commitment to phase out direct provision, which as I have said previously, has been a cruel system for those seeking sanctuary in Ireland. When they came to Ireland, they were given sanctuary but in a system of direct provision that sometimes lasted for up to seven to eight years. It is good that it is being phased out. How confident is the Minister that it will be phased out in the lifetime of this Government and has he encountered any re…

The most important people in this debate are the people who find themselves in direct provision. People have exited direct provision and played a huge part at community and national level, having worked and raised families here. They are a great addition to their communities. There is a cohort of over 7,000 people still in direct provision, some of them for many years and in pretty bad situations in terms of accommodation. In terms of a request, they want the processing system to be reviewed. It is not acceptable t…

Today, thousands of taxi drivers are assembling in Dublin city. Over the past 15 months, their industry and livelihoods have essentially been destroyed. This industry has suffered hugely in that period. Taxi drivers are calling on the Government for extra supports for their industry and their livelihoods, and also for a moratorium on new leases in respect of taxi plates. They met the Taoiseach recently, but they have been left very frustrated about their industry. They hope to literally get back on the road, but wi…

I thank Sinn Féin for proposing this motion and the NGOs that put the motion together. We have had many duels with the Minister in this Chamber about this matter. I have said that I do not doubt the Minister's sincerity in this regard; what I doubt is his policy of appeasing apartheid Israel. It does not work, and it never will. One cannot appease racists and murderers. Even today, the hypocrisy of the European Union is unbelievable. It says it will sanction Belarus. A number of days ago Israel was murdering childr…

I want to say this Bill addresses enormous problems in the care of older people in Ireland but it does not really address the profound problems we have in that provision. The past 15 months have exposed the inadequacies of the model of residential and long-term elderly care in Ireland, particularly around staffing levels, medical expertise, resources, including personal protective equipment, and payment and treatment of staff. There are limitations in the model we have. As Deputy Shortall said, 20 years ago the rat…

Over the past eight days, the state of Israel has rained terror and murder on the people of Gaza. In those eight days, more than 200 people have been killed, including 60 children, murdered for doing nothing, murdered because they were Palestinian. The world is watching while the state of Israel conducts collective punishment against the Palestinian people on occupied lands. When is the right time to expel the Israeli ambassador to Ireland? If it is not now, when will it be? This has been going on for generations. …

Will the Government expel the ambassador?

I commend all of the Debenhams workers who will be watching this debate today. They have been a shining light in the past 15 months of darkness and they have given many working people a fillip and a sense of solidarity. It has been a horrendous 15 months for everybody in Ireland and across the globe. Throughout summer, autumn, spring and winter, these workers stuck it out and stood together. Throughout a global pandemic, they wintered this one out in order that they and other workers can summer anywhere. In years t…

Most people watching tonight's debate will be asking themselves what Israel needs to do for a country like Ireland, or any others, to start treating it as a normal state. According to this document from Human Rights Watch, Israel practices "the crimes of apartheid and persecution". It is a state that exists on division, racism and state violence and a state that uses subjugation as a weapon to oppress the Palestinian people. Over the past 36 hours, the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, have killed 30 civilians, including…

Unfortunately, I find the Minister's words hollow. Expressing his concerns to the Israeli ambassador is a weak response, to say the least. His counterparts in the EU are weak as well. Consider what is happening with the EU and the deal with Israel regarding economic development. It is incredible. Israel is not a normal state. It is a racist state, and it exists on racism.

Today was significant in the fight against this pandemic. Today, the Biden Administration made an announcement, and other Deputies have mentioned this, with regard to waving intellectual property rights. This is significant for the people's vaccine. The EU has made soundings that it will review its position. Given that an astronomical amount of public money has been given to some of these companies it is the least that humanity could expect from them. The announcement by the Biden Administration has not gone down w…

I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will agree that older people have paid a terrible price over the past 14 months. The pandemic has robbed some of them of their lives and final moments they should have had with their families. Bonding and togetherness have been temporarily stolen but this generation is resilient and will overcome. We will all meet again very soon. My question is in regard to a call from the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists, ISCP. The pandemic has impacted on older people's …

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry if he is present. I welcome the Labour Party motion on autism services. It is a very well-thought-out motion and nobody could argue with the contents of it. A number of Deputies from Dublin Mid-West recently met the Minister for State in respect of ongoing issues in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7, which I represent as part of Dublin Mid-West. It was quite a hopeful meeting, but I will hold my counsel. CHO 7 has one of the longest waiting lists for basic services for ch…