I will be sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. I welcome everyone in the Public Gallery tonight - the young people and their parents. We, too, will be supporting the motion, which is very good. We have been here before. It is only five or six months ago that we discussed the same issue. It does not give me any pleasure to say it but successive Governments have let the families down. That is not a personal jibe at the Minister. I do not try to personalise issues, but the Minister will admit that the Government and …

It is good that Stormont is functional again. It is certainly historic in that it breaks the long lineage of unionist dominance for over 100 years in the northern part of Ireland. I would argue that, for the last two years, there has been a democratic veto by the DUP on spurious grounds in regard to the protocol. There are many factors relating to that protocol. As a result of that veto, working people of the North of Ireland have been greatly damaged with regard to public services. That has only been compounded by…

It is good news that a special committee is being set up to consider the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use. That is a good development about which I have a number of questions. First, when will that committee commence and, second, how long will it go on for? If it goes on for a protracted period, it could run into the next general election and then nothing will happen. I hope the special committee will be short-lived, running for only three or four months. That would at least give the Governmen…

Institutional investment funds play a major role in the rental sector and I would suggest that this has a very detrimental effect. They bought very cheap about a decade ago and now rent very high. These funds come in many forms with many names. This is a family show so I will not mention some of the names people have for them. In recent months, a plebiscite was held in Berlin with regard to property bought by these large funds. Berliners have, by popular vote, told the state government to confiscate the assets of t…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am sharing time with Deputies Murphy and Boyd Barrett. I thank the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, for its assistance with this Bill. Even though it is a very short Bill, the office did a lot of work to determine its permissibility and found it legally permissible under many stipulations of law, including European law. It found that, if there was political will, this could be legislated for. That is important to note. I welcome our esteemed guests f…

I thank colleagues for their contributions. This discussion has been a little more progressive than the debate in the House 11 years ago on a similar proposal. I completely disagree with some of the views expressed. An argument that has always really annoyed me is that cannabis is a gateway to harder drugs. That is absolute rubbish. When people talk about harder drugs, they are referring to heroin. The gateway to heroin is not cannabis; it is poverty, alienation and serious trauma. We should remember that alcohol h…

My question concerns the ongoing situation in the West Bank. As we have witnessed, it is not just since October 2023 that there has been an upscaling of oppression in the West Bank so I would like to hear the Tánaiste's comments on what is happening.

That is welcome. There seems to be intensification of the oppression in the West Bank. Of the 358 people who have been murdered by Israelis, 100 were children. What have they done to the Israeli state? Some of the footage is unbelievable - children on streets just being shot dead. It is arbitrary. It is not just a policy of arbitrary detention, arbitrary killing and arbitrary destruction; it is about the arbitrary reoccupation of the West Bank. This is ongoing. Since October 2023, some 5,000 people have been impris…

I agree. Settler violence against Palestinians has intensified. This is a policy of the Israeli Government to drive Palestinians from land and to use intimidation and violence against Palestinians. This is ongoing. However, there must be accountability. One of the schools mentioned by the Tánaiste, in a village called Khirbet Zanuta, was funded by Irish Aid and was completely destroyed. There must be accountability not only for settler violence but also for violence by the Israeli state. There must be sanctions. I …

Is there compensation that the Israelis-----

Earlier this week, the Health Research Board, HRB, published a report on the future of the medical cannabis access programme, MCAP. It is an extensive report of over 220 pages. While it addresses the limitations around medical cannabis, it endorses expanding the programme, particularly for people with nerve pain and neuropathic pain. Thus far, the MCAP has been extremely restrictive, with only 50 people prescribed medical cannabis since the scheme was set up in 2019. The majority of people who want to access the pr…

Tomorrow, the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use will publish its final report. It will be an historic day in the context of this issue. The assembly has made 30 recommendations calling for reform of our current drug policy. It has stated that drug use and misuse is a public health issue, rather than a criminal one. Overall, the sentiment is that the status quo of criminalisation does not work. This policy of criminalisation has been the State's default position for the past six decades. That has stigmatised, marginal…

One of the main elements of the report was not paying lip service to our approach but changing the legislation. The Taoiseach said criminalising people for possession of small amounts of drugs, no matter what the drugs are, is simply a waste of resources for the State. Whether people use drugs or not is irrelevant. The proliferation of drugs and availability of drugs is widespread. It is impossible. People in the law enforcement area have said that law enforcement alone simply cannot curtail the availability of dru…

In October, the Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use made more than 30 recommendations in respect of our drugs policy. Has the Taoiseach received that report from the chair of the assembly? If so, when will he make it public? Most importantly, what does the Government plan to do to implement those recommendations?

My question relates to the Minister's engagements and, in particular, her recent meeting with representatives of the big social media platforms. We have already seen that social media plays a significant role for the far right and how it spreads its disinformation and rhetoric. Will the Minister give us a progress report on how she got on with those social media platforms?

I thank the Minister. These platforms make a vast amount of money. A vast number of people engage in social media, the large majority of whom are responsible and do not spread hate. However, in recent years, certain agitators have used rhetoric and tones it is incredible they get away with. Social media platforms have a responsibility, for those who are viewing this stuff and for society as a whole, to close these people down. I do not watch most of that stuff but I have done so in recent times. The free rein that …

Some of these agitators are benefiting financially from the content they put up online. In fact, that is how they grow their status and following. They solicit people to fund their content, most of which is inflammatory and causes hate. This has been going on for a considerable time. I hope that during the Minister's engagement, particularly with the bigger companies, she relayed that this cannot go on. This is a threat to society. These people have a political ideology that is based on hatred and racism and they w…

I commend the authors of the report, in particular, the Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus. This is a comprehensive motion and a tapestry for a framework on the nature of rights-based care and the evolution of care. At one stage in our history, people in care were institutionalised. That model obviously does not work and the community-based system in place now is better than the system we had in the past. Things have moved on but during one notch in time, the pandemic, we saw the divide in our health system between…

My question relates to Irish citizens in Gaza. I compiled the question two or three weeks ago. The Tánaiste had to reschedule this session. Irish citizens are still in Gaza. There was really good news about Emily Hand, the Irish-Israeli girl who was released. I would like to hear the Tánaiste's thoughts on resolving the issue of Irish citizens who are still in Gaza.

I commend the officials, especially those in the Irish Embassy in Cairo, who have done a huge amount of work on this. There was a glimmer of hope and humanity at the weekend when Emily Hand was released. Children have paid a terrible price in the past eight weeks, regardless of their nationality. My heart sinks to see any child kidnapped or murdered. A terrible thing is happening. Irish citizens are still in Gaza, in particular Zak Hania. My understanding is that he is not allowed to leave because the Israeli state…