In January, an investment fund bought up 85% of the homes in a housing estate in Dublin. Back then, the housing Minister said that he would review the useless 10% stamp duty on the bulk purchasing of homes. Two months on, nothing has happened. The Government has not acted, and this week we have yet another report on the disastrous impact of vulture funds snapping up homes. According to the Central Bank, in 2021 alone vulture funds spent more than €1 billion buying up second-hand homes, which they then put up for re…

Israel is continuing its relentless attack on Gaza. More than 30,000 people have been killed and starvation is being used as a weapon of war. At the weekend, distressing images of a ten-year-old child with cerebral palsy, Yazan al-Kafarneh, circulated online. He needed a specialised diet that he was not able to get, so, reduced to skin and bone, he starved to death alongside 20 other children. The Israeli Government continues to deny food aid to Gaza. Last Thursday, over 100 people were killed and more than 750 inj…

Last year the Government marked International Women's Day by announcing that it would be holding a referendum to remove the constitutional reference to a woman’s role in the home, and that it would take place this year on International Women's Day. Here we are three years after the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality, and with completely different language from what was recommended. I said when the referendum date was announced, and I will say it again, that holding these referendums on International Women’s Day …

I thank Deputy Tully for bringing forward this motion. It is welcome that the Government has finally made a commitment to ratifying the optional protocol within the next 12 months. Ireland ratified the convention in 2018. We were the last country in the EU to do that and six years on, we have not ratified the optional protocol. The optional protocol is poorly named. Far from being an optional addition, it is a crucial tool for the implementation of the UNCRPD. All states which signed the convention are obliged to t…

We are running out of time to stop the climate crisis becoming a catastrophe. Every day, every equivocation and every cowardly U-turn makes that work so much harder. We know that people in Ireland are especially worried about the impact of climate change. We only need to look at the recent flooding events in Midleton to get a glimpse of what the future holds. According to new research from the Environmental Protection Agency today, three quarters of people believe that extreme weather poses a risk to their communit…

The Minister either did not hear my contribution or questions or he just did not have a defence for our climate targets, which are what I am asking about. While I obviously welcomed the Government MEPs voting for the nature restoration law, I did not ask the Minister about that issue, which is the only one he replied on. The reality is that independent expert groups believe Ireland is on course to massively miss our climate targets. If the Government cannot accept that reality, it is quite worrying. There is no den…

What will the Minister do about it?

Does the Minister accept the Government will not meet the targets?

There is a great deal of hurt and anger in the country at the moment. Many disabled people and their carers feel forgotten and abandoned by the Government and the referendum. The proposed amendment only gives recognition to care within the family. The Social Democrats attempted to amend this wording to include care in the community and ensure that the State had an explicit obligation to provide that care, but the Government rejected our amendment and guillotined the legislation. Despite this, the Social Democrats h…

The simple fact of the matter is that it is within the Government's power to address the issues faced by people with disabilities. It does not need a referendum to fully staff the children's disability network teams, to provide more personal assistance hours, to replace the transport schemes that Fine Gael scrapped over a decade ago or to ratify the optional protocol. Every year, when we come in here for the budget, I go straight to the section of the budget on disability. Year after year, there is no meaningful at…

I was glad to hear the announcement earlier this month that an interim payment will be paid to tranche 1 participants in the ACRES scheme. This was something that I and Members of other Opposition groups had been calling for since the delays in payments were announced. Many people who rely on those payments were in touch with us. Commitments were made to farmers to support them when they signed up for a scheme to try to make a positive environmental impact. It is essential that farmers have confidence in the scheme…

Small-scale fishers operate on very tight margins. The ongoing rise in fuel costs over the past few years has impacted these boats significantly. Other countries such as France and Spain have supported small scale fishers with high fuel costs through the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. Will the Minister introduce a similar scheme to assist small scale fishers with fuel costs?

The Minister indicated that supports have been made available by the Government to fleets in the form of tax rebates. As he said, it is not accessible for the owners of smaller boats that do not operate on big enough margins to register for VAT. That is a support only in place for larger players. Small boats generally operate using petrol engines as opposed to diesel. There are no supports available to those fishers. The Minister says he accepts that, but what is his response? Rising fuel costs over the past few ye…

Is it all allocated now?

It is just not good enough that larger boats are supported by Government in so many ways and that inshore fishers tend to be ignored. They pay a higher cost for fuel in the first place. Fuel costs in bigger ports are lower due to demand and supply for bigger vessels. Small boats operating from small piers and harbours have to buy it at local petrol stations at much higher costs. The small-scale fleet crucially accounts for the vast majority - more than half - of employment in the sector. It cannot continue to be ex…

I want to extend my sympathies to Deputy Michael Collins on the tragic loss of his nephew. My thoughts are with Michael's family and friends and the wider community. I am grateful for the opportunity to talk about the provision of healthcare and GP services in rural areas. In Cork South West, we are very familiar with the pressures on and failures relating to health services in rural communities. The blunt truth is that the current GP model is not working and has not done so for a very long time. The GP contract is…

Last night, the Minister for disability, Deputy O'Gorman, said that Ireland is "falling down in terms of our response to disabled people". For one, Ireland is not falling down. It is the Government. Then, the Minister suggested that a specific referendum on disability rights might be required to prevent this in the future. At this point, I am not sure if the Government is aware of this, but it should not need a referendum to force it to provide rights and services to people with disabilities. It could just do it. J…

The Government could bring pay parity to children's disability network teams. It could provide adequate personal assistance hours. It could, a decade on from scrapping it, introduce a transport scheme.

The list goes on. If the Taoiseach has any interest in addressing these shortcomings, he could start by ratifying the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. Will he do that before the family and care referendums?

The Social Democrats are fully supportive of continuing the accommodation recognition payment scheme. Some 25% of Ukrainians who have sought protection in Ireland are in host accommodation and pledged properties. Over 21,000 people are currently being hosted in nearly 10,500 homes across the country. The EU average for hosting is approximately 8% to 9%. The level of support and solidarity Irish hosts have shown to Ukrainians is incredible. It is indicative of the welcoming society that we are - a country that under…