We supported them.

When?

There is no timeline.

Very briefly, and I appreciate that a Cheann Comhairle. On behalf of the Labour Party, I want to express our sincere thanks to you, Mick, for all of the immense work and all the great service you have given. We wish you the very best of luck for the future and wish your family all the very best of luck too. Go raibh maith agat.

I want to pay tribute to the family of Martin Lynn, the young man killed in an unprovoked one-punch attack outside his Dublin home in 2023. His sister Sharon Lynn expressed her disappointment at the weekend after the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, chose not to appeal his killer's sentence for manslaughter. I have met with Sharon, along with my colleagues Deputies George Lawlor and Robert O'Donoghue. We met with Sharon and her partner Anthony, and we want to reissue our sincere condolences to them on their lo…

At the outset, I want to acknowledge the death of former Minister of State and Labour TD for Waterford, Brian O’Shea. My condolences and those of the Labour Party are with his wife, Eileen, their family and with his community. Let us talk about the Taoiseach’s so-called reforms to the rental sector. He has billed the Residential Tenancies Board amendment Bill as a reset of rental protections but in reality, it is yet another chaotic intervention – the seventh rewrite of rental rules in a decade. That fact alone tel…

Of private rents.

I thank the Taoiseach for his kind words about the late Brian O’Shea. That is appreciated. I did have to laugh when the Taoiseach used the word “incoherent” about my contribution. It is his housing policy that is incoherent. It is his measures on renters that are incoherent. Let me give him two examples. In Galway this week, with our Councillor Helen Ogbu, I heard about students renting Monday to Friday in Galway city who have to move all their possessions out of their apartments on a Friday, so that their landlord…

There were 5,450-----

Fianna Fáil delivered homes at scale through a State construction company.

Carers do incredible work out of love and in service to our State, but they continue to face penalties despite the invaluable work they do. I have heard heartbreaking testimony from carers across the State, overwhelmingly women, who are now living on the bread line after providing years of unpaid care. I want to raise a specific issue, namely pensions. I have heard from women carers who stepped outside the paid workforce to carry out care. They feel hoodwinked now because nobody explained to them their care-related…

I express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Grace Lynch, the 16-year-old girl who tragically died, killed in that horrific scrambler collision on Sunday. We have all seen the heartbreaking footage of Grace's mother Siobhán addressing a vigil last night as she described the unimaginable pain of watching her young daughter take her last breath. I pay tribute to Siobhán Lynch for showing such courage in the face of such outright grief and for calling for changes to the law so that no other family has…

I welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to taking urgent action to remove scramblers from our roads and to address illegal usage of e-scooters and quads, but we need action. I am grateful to my colleagues, Deputies Sherlock and Ahern, who point out practical things that could be done now. We were promised 150 additional road traffic gardaí. Let us see those gardaí in place because this is about enforcement. Let us the see the sort of actions that have been taken elsewhere. In Manchester, drone units have been deployed…

I want to raise the emergency affecting communities across this island as a result of the fallout from Storm Chandra. A friend sent a photo of a woman's car floating in her driveway in south Dublin. Enniscorthy looks like a lake and the M50 was closed due to flooding earlier. There are power cuts, battered homes, stalled commutes and flooded homes. It is nearly a week to the day since the Government voted down a Labour Party motion on flexible and remote work, one that put forward practical ways of addressing the r…

I commend my colleagues Deputies Mark Wall and Ciarán Ahern for proposing this important motion. The Government’s counter-motion is deeply disappointing. It does not mention at all the crucial issue of the right to flexible work, which is very disappointing. The motion proposes a series of practical short- and longer-term measures that could and should be adopted by the Government to ensure better quality of life for workers, families and communities. It would also help our planet because it also emphasises the nee…

Today, I want to raise a single issue: the harrowing case of former Garda, Margaret Loftus. I commend her on her immense courage in coming forward to speak publicly about her experience. Speaking on RTÉ's "Prime Time" last night, she described years of torture at the hands of her ex-husband, Garda Trevor Bolger. Last week, his three-month sentence for assault was suspended following his guilty plea to a low-end charge. Margaret Loftus described compellingly how her ex-husband exerted control over her right up to se…

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. There is one very practical measure that Women's Aid has recommended could and should be adopted by An Garda Síochána immediately following this very disturbing case. There needs to be clear guidelines on how the Garda addresses a situation where a report of violence is made against a serving garda. These guidelines need to be easily accessible to the public, so that victims or survivors can be reassured and are not deterred from coming forward. In particular, they must be re…

We need to ensure as a society that we are taking this very seriously.

Yes, absolutely.

Last Tuesday, I raised with the Taoiseach the serious threat posed by US President Trump to Europe and to international law with his proposed annexation of Greenland. Over the weekend we have seen the threats from Trump become ever more serious. He has ratcheted up his language. He is essentially looking to blackmail his European allies with yet more tariffs. With these latest Oval Office outbursts, we are seeing dysfunction in D.C. wreaking havoc across the world. This is cause for huge concern. Not content with t…