Will the Government take on our renter's rights Bill in light of this astronomical rise we are seeing in rents across the country?

It is not enough.

Of course, we need a mix.

The Government is not-----

The Taoiseach was inviting it.

Today, as the Taoiseach knows and as we all know, marks the beginning of the 50-hour protest by young Cara Darmody. Like others, I welcome Cara and her father Mark to the Gallery. Cara is an incredible campaigner for the rights of children with additional needs, and she is only 14 years old. She is staging this protest to raise awareness of what is an emergency, the Government's failure to comply with the Disability Act. The Taoiseach has just said in response that the status quo is "not tenable". Of course the sta…

That is not what we have seen. It is two years to the week this week since we in Labour brought a Dáil motion, with the great support and encouragement of Cara Darmody, setting out a constructive plan to take on and address these waiting lists and to treat the chronic delay in diagnoses like the national emergency it is. Many of us will recall that on that day in this House, the then Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, made a powerful speech acknowledging responsibility for failure and the profound impact on children…

I listened carefully when the Taoiseach said the issue is not one of resources but one of capacity. Then he threw out a number of hypothetical ways in which capacity could be addressed. However, the Government has not done anything to address capacity. I sat yesterday in my own constituency with two desperate mothers who are desperate to get school places for their children. The Taoiseach spoke about school places. The failure of the Government on school places for children with additional needs is shameful. The tw…

Will you meet Cara?

Good.

The news from Gaza is getting worse and worse each day and as famine takes hold, we all fear that Israel's announcement that it will allow aid into Gaza is as illusory as it was the last time. Gaza needs 600 trucks every day and just five were let through. Meanwhile, more and more children are being killed and maimed with surgeons speaking about the horrors of having to amputate the limbs of tiny children. Whole families have been killed under this brutal, genocidal bombardment. The human suffering in Gaza requires…

I wish to ask about Government policy on accommodation and international protection. On Friday, we saw the Government confirm it would not proceed with opening an international protection accommodation services, IPAS, centre in Coolock on the former Crown Paints site. We are all aware there has been a very violent and nasty campaign against the opening of an IPAS centre there. There were local public representatives who bravely stood in support of integration and with a welcome for those who come here fleeing perse…

Yes.

I thank the Taoiseach for the briefing. First, I wish to express my own deep solidarity and that of the Labour Party with the people of Ukraine as they face what the Taoiseach has rightly described as an existential threat to their country and, indeed, to European democracy as a result of Russia’s brutal war and bombardment. I want to ask about three specific ways that we can show solidarity in a practical sense from Ireland. The first is on pressing further for EU membership for Ukraine, which the Taoiseach said c…

On 4 March, the Taoiseach told me, rather tetchily, "There is no resiling or rowing back from our commitment to addressing the issue of climate change". All I had done that day was to raise concerns that the new Government was not serious about climate action. That view was grounded in my reading of the programme for Government and the Taoiseach's ministerial appointments. He was quick to tell me then how wrong I was but I will give him an example of why I was right. On energy infrastructure, it is clear that the G…

I stand by my remarks. Actions speak louder than words. For all the Taoiseach's protestations, we are not seeing actions from this Government that indicate a seriousness about tackling climate change. This is not just a matter of presentation. The Taoiseach said it is irresponsible to oppose LNG. He again raised the issue of energy security but a commercial LNG plant is not about guaranteeing energy security. What would be ways of guaranteeing energy security would be investing in renewables, ensuring that we have …

I want to raise concerns with the Taoiseach about the Government's so-called free HRT scheme. I pay tribute to Joe Duffy, who has announced his retirement from "Liveline", for shining a light through the programme on the experiences of women in menopause, women dealing with a cancer diagnosis and others whose lives have been made liveable by access to hormone replacement therapy. As we all know, the cost is prohibitive and supply remains an issue. The Taoiseach announced a very welcome new HRT scheme that would be …

I begin by offering my deepest condolences also to the family of the late Garda Kevin Flatley, his wife, Una, his children, Aoife and Erin, his entire community and his colleagues in An Garda Síochána. On behalf of the Labour Party, I pay tribute to Garda Flatley and the dangerous work he did, and all his colleagues do, in front-line policing. We all owe them an enormous debt for keeping our communities safe and we all think of that as we hear the awful news of his tragic death. I also express sympathies to the fam…

Of course, we support any initiatives that will help to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction but it is simply not good enough for the Taoiseach, as leader of the party that has held the housing brief for five years, to pass the buck to local authorities. That is not good enough. He speaks of a "razor-like focus" on tackling vacancy and dereliction. That is exactly what we are not seeing from his Government and his Minister for housing. We are seeing an absolute vacancy as regards policy. We hear from our c…

We welcome anything.