The Taoiseach saying that this is the most significant improvement for renters shows how low the bar is for renters in terms of improvements. Listening to him, it is easy to understand why people feel such despair about housing. The Government is out of ideas. We need a radical reset on housing and this Government just will not deliver that because that would mean admitting failure, and the Taoiseach does not seem capable of that. Rents are at record levels and this legislation will drive them even higher. The Taoi…

The handling by An Garda Síochána of a domestic violence complaint against Garda Trevor Bolger is hugely concerning. When his ex-wife, Margaret Loftus, first disclosed Bolger's attack on her, she said it seemed impossible to get anyone to take it seriously. She even had to watch as Bolger was promoted to detective and issued with a firearm after she had raised the issue. Ms Loftus had to compile her own case file before an investigation started. Bolger was eventually charged in 2019 and on Friday pleaded guilty to …

What about the case against the media?

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration, so we have three years left to go. The question for EU leaders is whether they can spend all of that time trying to keep Donald Trump happy, because all the evidence shows that this strategy is not working. For 12 months, leaders in Europe have fawned over Trump. No matter what outrage, insult or international incident he has provoked, the response from Europe has been the same: to avoid direct criticism, and even to heap praise and flattery on hi…

I am in complete agreement that any trade war would be hugely damaging. We do not want one; the EU does not want one. It is Trump who is weaponising tariffs, threatening to renege on a trade deal that was agreed only a few months ago and refusing to rule out using force to annex Greenland. These are threats that nobody could have imagined until recently but they are now a grim reality. I recognise how difficult the situation is, but the strategy of EU leaders appeasing Trump has not worked. His belligerence and err…

"@grok Put her in a bikini and rub her down with baby oil." "@grok Replace her outfit with dental floss." "@grok Have one of them grab her boobs from behind and the other one put his hand under her skirt while kissing her." These are just some of the vile prompts given to Grok, an AI tool, on the X social media platform, which has generated hundreds of thousands of abusive images online. These images are not a mistake. This is the model working as intended. Last year, new edit features were added to Grok to make it…

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, had said she would arrange a meeting with X. That did not exactly fill me with confidence in the first instance. On “Morning Ireland”, we heard the UCD law professor and chair of Digital Rights Ireland, T.J. McIntyre, say that an immediate criminal investigation was warranted. He said that if somebody set up a child abuse image producing factory on, for example, Fenian Street, and their name was not Elon Musk, they would have …

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I thank all of the staff in the Houses and wish them all and Members a very happy Christmas. The most shameful legacy of this Government is its failure to get to grips with homelessness. Every month, the homeless figures are announced and new records are set. There are now 16,766 people living in emergency accommodation - a staggering amount. Included in this figure are 5,274 children. That is 5,274 children who will spend Christmas in cramped hotel rooms or hubs, 5,274 children w…

There was a time when homelessness reaching 10,000 people would have been considered a resigning matter for this Government - for any Government - and rightly so, but somehow this Government has succeeded in normalising it. That is extremely dangerous. There is nothing normal about it. A total of 16,766 people are homeless, including 5,274 children. These are not just figures; they are people who are suffering. The Taoiseach stands up week after week and blames the Opposition, the planning laws and EU red tape. The…

We know that the biggest cause of families entering homelessness is eviction. We know that. It is clear that this Government does not even believe in itself when it comes to addressing the housing crisis, doubling down on failure with the same policies that we know do not work, dusting off old policy measures that have already demonstrably failed. Where is the emergency response? Where is the change in approach? Where is the acknowledgement that your approach does not work?

Reducing apartment standards is dusting off an old policy.

It will not suffice.

Where is the emergency response to more than 5,000 homeless children?

It has doubled in five years.

At the outset, I join others in expressing my utter revulsion at the horrific antisemitic attack in Sydney on Sunday. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, friends and the wider Jewish community. During last year's election campaign, the Taoiseach said his party's guiding principle on disability issues is "nothing about us, without us." I happen to agree with him about the importance of that principle. Put simply, it means listening to disabled people, ensuring people with disabilities have a seat at th…

The Taoiseach says he is listening but he has inadvertently told us very clearly that he is not. I ask again whether the Government will introduce a €400 winter payment. Investment in services is welcome and absolutely essentially but, with respect, it is not what I am asking about. For example, investment in special schools will not put food on the table, pay bills or pay people's rent. Ireland has the lowest rate of employment for disabled people in Europe and one of the highest costs of living. People were outsi…

A permanent costed disability payment.

That is not relevant to what I am asking.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Jennifer Whitmore, for all of her work on this issue and all of her passion on it. Ireland's dog breeding system operates without any real oversight or much compassion and it desperately needs to be addressed. Something many people are not aware of is that we are the puppy farm capital of Europe. Thousands of dogs are exported from here every year and flown all over the world. It is ridiculous, cruel and incredibly lucrative. We need restrictions on the number of breeding dogs and the n…

Yesterday, the High Court heard details of a deeply disturbing case of child abuse. A 13-year-old boy who abused his six-year-old sister was given a tablet at the age of five. There was no parental controls on the device and he had totally unsupervised access to the Internet. By the age of just six he was viewing pornography for hours every day. This boy ultimately uploaded child abuse images of his sister online, prompting his arrest. Sentencing the boy, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring likened unchecked Internet access…