I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Michael O'Regan at the weekend. He had a huge love of and interest in politics. On a personal level, he was also very warm, humorous and kind. I extend my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. The Children's Rights Alliance, in its annual report card, gave the Government a D-minus for family homelessness. Child homelessness has risen by 55% since this Government took office. We now have nearly 4,000 children growing up in emergency accommodation. There has …

This is the kind of spin I am referring to when I say that people feel that sense of hopelessness, because the Taoiseach is talking about going from an A to a B in all of these different categories. As I said, child homelessness is up by 55% since this Government took office. This is the main figure that needs to be addressed. On the eviction ban, in almost every single month since the Taoiseach has been in office, child homelessness has increased. The biggest decreases we saw were while the eviction ban was in pla…

I thank the Minister for coming in to take questions and answers. It might be a surprise to people watching at home but we do not normally get the chance to do the back and forth, which is kind of shocking in itself but I thank the Minister for doing it today. It is great to be able to actually put the questions to a Minister and get the answers. I also want to thank the Minister for recognising the organisations and making them producer organisations. That is hugely valuable for decision-making. Having more repres…

I will come onto the quotas next. My question was about the basic infrastructure and the foreshore licence.

I really hope that is realised and that it becomes a more effective and efficient system. The Minister asked where we draw the line. Like I said, other countries for example drew the line 100 m out from the shoreline. I am saying we may need to look at that. We may look at that and find out that this is not doable. I am asking the Minister to look at it and then I really hope the system is made more efficient as well. The second point I wanted to raise with the Minister relates to the quotas. He always goes into th…

It is important to state, just for the record, that how those quotas are divvied out is the Minister's decision. It is blatantly and disproportionately in favour of the larger players. It is something we see a playbook for from this and successive Governments, that there is a disproportionate favour for those big players and that the smaller people in the business have massively lost out. The reality is it is impacting the inshore sector at the moment with markets for brown crab and stuff being much less. There is …

Is there a timeline?

The words "RTÉ" and "crisis" are now almost synonymous. Repeated scandals have hugely damaged public trust and confidence. Kevin Bakhurst and key members of the board are back in front of the Oireachtas committee today and there is a long way to go to rebuild trust in RTÉ. Senior management has an important role to play in this. We need a strong public service broadcaster that delivers important public service journalism in the public interest. To do this, we need a credible plan that addresses the enormous corpora…

This has been discussed at length. In general, the public is sick of the same debates and conversations happening over and over and people are starting to tune out. That dampens the public appetite for a public service broadcaster and the value of all of that. A limited number of options are available and at some point the Government will have to pick some of them. The Taoiseach says he is in favour of some Exchequer funding; we agree with him and think there should be some guaranteed multi-annual Exchequer funding…

Last year, Rafah was home to approximately 250,000 people. Now, 1.5 million people are in Rafah because Palestinians were told to go there as they would be safe. Yesterday morning, Israeli airstrikes targeted Rafah, killing dozens of people. The targeting of Rafah is a massive escalation of Israel's invasion of Gaza that requires a change in approach by our Government. What actions is the Government taking as a result? The Taoiseach mentioned he contacted the European Commission President on the EU-Israel trade agr…

I send our sympathies to the families and friends of the young people who died and were injured in the horrific crash in Carlow last night. Such a shocking loss of so many young lives is devastating and my thoughts are with them today. I will start with a quote: The story for people with disabilities continues to worsen year after year. Access to therapies is simply appalling and respite care and opportunities for work for people with disabilities are very poor. The assessment of need statutory rules are continuous…

I will continue with another quote. There is a very disappointing complacency - almost a smugness - in the ... response to issues of this kind. It is now standard practice and a mantra ... [to] just itemise what ... [is seen] as positives and so on but ... not deal with the hard questions that are asked. Again, those are not my words; that was what the Tánaiste said to the Taoiseach when he fobbed him off back in 2017, just like the Tánaiste has just fobbed me off. I ask him again to please just deal with the quest…

Will the Tánaiste answer the questions, please?

Will the Tánaiste answer the questions, please?

Will the Tánaiste please answer the questions before his time is up?

Examining it for four years.

A review of our abortion law was concluded by Marie O’Shea nine months ago. Her report could not have been clearer. Among the recommendations she made was that the mandatory three-day waiting period be removed, the threatened criminalisation of doctors ended and far more clarity given on providing abortion in cases of foetal abnormalities. Instead of acting on the report, the Government kicked it over to the health committee. That committee sent a report back to Government before Christmas recommending it proceed w…

At the weekend, 11 ministers in the Israeli Government attended a conference calling for Israeli settlement in the Gaza strip. Detailed maps were displayed which showed the areas of the Gaza strip where settlements would be established. Among the ministers to attend was the national security minister, Ben-Gvir, and the finance minister, Smotrich. This will not come as any surprise. Both men are far-right extremists who support the creation and expansion of illegal settlements. Ben-Gvir was appointed national securi…

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?

There are challenges within our immigration and asylum system but they are challenges of the Government's own making. They are not the fault of people seeking asylum or of migrants seeking to build a life for themselves and their families here in Ireland. We simply would not function as a country without migration. We would not staff our public services or our private enterprises. We probably all have friends, family members and loved ones who come from abroad, people who we simply could not imagine life without. O…