I want to speak with the Taoiseach about provision for children. First, I welcome the intervention by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, in response to our Labour Party motion on services for autistic children and children with disabilities. I commend the Minister of State on committing to bring our Labour Party proposal to Cabinet. If six regional testing teams are not functional by 1 August, she has committed the State to paying for assessments of need of children who are waiting more than three months. That…

Certainly, I agree that budget surpluses do give choices but the kite flying by the Taoiseach's own party this week suggests that his choice is to insist on a Fine Gael ideological agenda of tax cutting at the expense of providing the necessary public investment to deliver services for people who are struggling to make ends meet. It is at the expense of investment in meaningful measures to tackle child poverty, which is a commitment the Taoiseach made, and yet we see more than 188,000 children living in poverty, su…

The figures show it.

Employees in Meta's Irish operation are set to be informed of further layoffs today. This is distressing news for so many. This year, we have heard many announcements of tech redundancies with a repeated pattern in tech companies of employees being hired en masse and then fired, again in large numbers, for the sake of so-called efficiency. In these difficult times, we in the Labour Party believe Government must act to rebalance power between workers and corporations. Workers need not only a right to bargain collect…

We need a debate about the accountability of social media companies. I think everyone is aware that Meta has just been fined a record amount of €1.2 billion for breaches relating to the transfer of personal data, the largest ever EU privacy fine. The Data Protection Commissioner disagreed with the decision in this regard but was overruled by other EU countries. This comes in the wake of the horrific attack on a child in Navan, County Meath, a video of which was shared millions of times across multiple social media …

It has been well over a year since the start of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine. I have just come from a briefing that I hosted with members of Ukrainian Action. They gave us valuable insights into the experiences of those many thousands of Ukrainians who have sought refuge here and who have been joined by people from other countries fleeing conflict and persecution. They have received an immense welcome from the majority of people in communities across the country. They are extremely grateful for, and apprecia…

I join with others in raising the issue of services for autistic children, children with autism. Yesterday I met with a group of parents in Athy, County Kildare, and heard directly from them about their difficult experiences in seeking to access education and services not only for their children but for those whose children had turned 18. Services for young adults are sorely lacking. I appeal to the Taoiseach to ensure more can be done on that and also of course to flag that tomorrow morning we will again raise thi…

For several weeks we have raised the issue of price gouging in the retail sector. In the two weeks since the retail forum met, nothing has changed. My colleague Deputy Ged Nash has published a Bill to address the lack of enforcement powers for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC. We ask the Taoiseach and the Government to take up our Bill, adopt it, and ensure we have proper, strengthened powers to take on the retailers.

I spoke earlier on the Ukrainian action briefing I had the pleasure of hosting today. I am very grateful to the members of Ukrainian Action in Ireland who gave us an overview of the findings of their second national survey. It is very welcome to see just how well the majority of Ukrainian people here are doing and how integrated they are. Nearly a quarter of those who responded to the survey are now in employment and many more are actively seeking work. However, the housing issue remains a huge challenge for member…

I want to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he has plans to ensure that residents who are selected from the social housing list to join a new-build co-operative home ownership scheme are not charged development levies due to the dwellings being classed as "private", and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. This issue was raised with me by one of our most experienced councillors in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Denis O’Callaghan. He tells me a co-operative housing scheme of 42 units is under construction in the area by Co-operative Housing Ireland, of which 34 will be rental and eight built as co-operative home owned. Eight families opted into the scheme who were selected from the social housing lists on the council. The local authority insists these eight dwellings are subjec…

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The levies work out at approximately €13,500 per house. They are placing a huge burden on the eight families. The councillor has asked the planners to waive the levy but they will not. I am concerned about whether policies adopted by Government are being passed consistently onto councils. We see, unfortunately, serious inconsistencies in the application of the tenant in situ scheme across councils. It appears from the Minister of State’s answer that not all councils may be app…

The answer the Minister of State has given exemplifies the difficulties with the Government's approach to planning. There is a serious element of passing the buck between central government and local authorities. We have seen it in the tenant in situ scheme, in Government proposals around the first refusal scheme and in the lack of planning and co-ordination between central government and local authorities following the lifting of the temporary no-fault eviction ban. We in the Opposition have put forward clear prop…

I join with colleagues in condemning yesterday's brutal attack on the young child in Navan. I express my sympathy and solidarity on behalf of Labour with the family and young boy concerned. I hope he makes a speedy recovery. It was an appalling attack. We all join in sympathy with him and his family. Yesterday, we learned that global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years according to the World Meteorological Organization. This rise in temperature is fuelled by heat-trapping greenh…

We in the Labour Party have always sought to support any constructive and progressive measures on climate advanced by the Government. Equally, we are hugely critical of the fact that the Government has missed targets. There is a lack of urgency to tackle this worrying rise in emissions from Ireland. This is happening at a time of record budget surpluses. The Government has a unique opportunity to invest that money in housing infrastructure, for sure, but also in climate infrastructure. Instead, there has been a lac…

It absolutely was.

I will return to the issue of accommodation for refugees, which I raised earlier this week as well as last week. I visited Mount Street Lower again yesterday and was concerned to see so many people still forced to sleep there in tents. I was also concerned to see the unacceptable protests and blockades against refugee accommodation in Inch, County Clare. I think we are better than that. I express support for the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and his Department in their determination to secure accommodation for all who…

Food prices and the price of basic groceries are continuing to rise, putting serious strain on households trying to afford just the bare necessities of life. We are seeing price reductions that are not being passed on to consumers. We are seeing profit margins for big retailers increasing and the Minister's retail forum last week was utterly toothless. It did not give retailers any reason to lower prices. Yesterday, my Labour Party colleague, Deputy Nash, launched draft legislation on excessive pricing which seeks …

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this debate on behalf of the Labour Party. The survey sadly confirms the high prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland. It is shocking, but not surprising, to read that 28% of men and 52% of all women experience sexual violence over the course of their lifetimes. This publication comes in the wake some years ago of the Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, SAVI, report, which perhaps first disclosed the true extent and prevalence of DSGBV. It also comes in the wake of the …

Along with my Labour colleagues, I condemn outright the horrific attacks that took place in my constituency this weekend with the burning of tents on Sandwith Street and the intimidation of individuals forced to sleep in tents in and around the Mount Street area. I met with these people over the weekend. I met with people who travelled to Ireland to seek refuge and to make a contribution to our society and who instead have been given no choice but to sleep on the streets awaiting the processing of their application…