First, I express my solidarity with the people of Sudan who have been affected by this terrible conflict that is ongoing there. Could the Taoiseach assure that Irish citizens who are trapped there, from whom we have heard some very distressing experiences, have been safely evacuated? I know a ceasefire has come into effect, so I hope it will hold and that there will be a lasting peace there. I wrote to the Taoiseach and spoke with him previously about national security briefings for Opposition leaders. I renew my c…

I express my thoughts, sympathies and solidarity with the two workers injured following the explosion at the Stryker plant in Carrigtohill, County Cork, on Tuesday. We understand one of those workers remains in a critical condition on life support. I extend my solidarity and that of my Labour Party colleagues to the workers and their families. My office and that of my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, has been in contact with SIPTU this week concerning this awful incident. The Labour Party backs SIPTU's call for an urgen…

Union engagement.

Union engagement is a separate issue.

When will the Cabinet committee on health be reviewing or considering the report by Maura Quinn into the proposed secondment of the former Chief Medical Officer, CMO, to Trinity College Dublin? In our view, the report raises a number of serious issues about dysfunction at the heart of Government. First, there was a total lack of proper processes in the appointment as outlined. Second, there was a failure of ministerial accountability where it appears the Minister for Health did not know about, or was not made aware…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the vitally important issue of vacant homes and the vacant home tax. Labour is glad to support this motion from the Social Democrats and I commend Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and his colleagues for putting it forward. As I said last night in the debate on the Sinn Féin motion, this motion is the latest in a series of constructive policy proposals being put forward by Opposition parties, providing suggestions, proposals, worked solutions and ways of resolving the housing disaster. I…

I wish to raise the plight of workers who face their livelihoods being taken away from them. I draw the Minister's attention to a report from Mr. Donal MacNamee in the Business Post on Sunday about plans to lay off 225 workers from the Irish offices of Indeed, the online recruitment platform. We understand that as many as 640 jobs at Indeed are likely to be affected by the global cuts being made. That will be approximately half of their Irish workforce. Indeed's offices are in my constituency of Dublin Bay South, o…

Is mór an náire líon na ndaoine sa tír seo atá gan dídean. Níl tithe á dtógáil agus tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta ag dul in olcas. In the face of a worsening housing crisis, yesterday saw more evidence of the Government's failed policies on housing. Let us remind ourselves that last year, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, committed to delivering 9,000 new-build social homes and 4,000 affordable homes. However, yesterday it emerged that the Government has delivered just a fractio…

That is-----

That is all he ever does.

Frankly, the Taoiseach has reached a new low with his attempt-----

The Taoiseach has reached a new low. That was a ridiculous attempt at political point scoring in the face of the brutal facts-----

It is all very well smirking and being smug and self-congratulatory, but that is not the help that families in the country need-----

Public representatives from the Government and Opposition parties have nowhere to tell people to go because there are no homes available in our communities. There are no affordable homes, no homes for rent and no homes for sale. This is the failure of the Taoiseach's Government. It is a testament to the failed policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and of their over-reliance on a private sector and on a market that has patently failed to deliver the homes needed, which the Taoiseach himself has acknowledged. He has …

-----when the Taoiseach's own Government colleagues, let us not forget, in Fianna Fáil, were the party which crashed the economy in the 2007-11 Government. Let us not forget that. We have had seven years of prosperity since 2016, but-----

-----the Taoiseach's party and Fianna Fáil have patently failed to deliver the infrastructure we need, particularly the houses our communities need.

The Taoiseach has lost the rag.

While households are struggling to buy basic goods, we are seeing companies reaping record profits. We know that food shopping costs are expected to increase by an additional €1,200 for people this year alone. While no one denies the inflationary effect of the pandemic and of the war in Ukraine, the reality is that we are seeing very serious profiteering from large corporations which is amplifying price inflation. This has been referred to as greed-flation and, indeed, a European Central Bank, ECB, paper in March h…

I thank the Taoiseach for that comprehensive report on the constructive visit by the US President, Mr. Joe Biden, to Ireland last week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. In the President's speech in the Oireachtas, and in his other speeches, he made some welcome and positive interventions in seeking to further the peace process and ensure support for the Windsor Framework. He also touched on a number of other issues, as the Taoiseach said, including climate change, corporate responsibility a…

When will the Cabinet committee on health be reviewing or considering the report by Maura Quinn into the proposed secondment of the former Chief Medical Officer, CMO, to Trinity College Dublin? In our view, the report raises a number of serious issues about dysfunction at the heart of Government. First, there was a total lack of proper processes in the appointment as outlined. Second, there was a failure of ministerial accountability where it appears the Minister for Health did not know about, or was not made aware…