Last week, I put several questions to the Taoiseach about ethical standards in Fine Gael, and I have just been sitting here, as we all have, listening to the exchanges between Fine Gael and Sinn Féin over dodgy donations and funny money, we might say. I know we are going to return to the issue later. I want to raise with the Taoiseach an issue that is very serious because of the enormous real-life harm and consequences that have been inflicted on children and families as a result. I am speaking about the damning re…

I thank the Taoiseach for his response but it does not sound as if he and the Government are bringing the necessary urgency to this. I am conscious, as I think we all are, that Dr. Susan Finnerty found her findings so stark that she published them as an interim report. There is an urgent need for action to address that report. As I said, it is over ten years since an expert group recommended reform of the Mental Health Act to ensure all parts of existing legislation relating to children would be in a separate stand…

Can the Taoiseach say when?

I have written to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and others over a number of months seeking an answer about the better co-ordination by the Government of services for those who come here seeking protection or refugee status, including those who come here from Ukraine. I am very concerned about today's report that Citywest transit hub is to pause the entry of new international protection arrivals to emergency accommodation. I ask that the Ta…

I want to raise the proposed €200 million deal between Coillte and UK investment fund, Gresham House. It is incomprehensible to us in the Labour Party why a State body is going to do all the work while foreign investors will be able to reap financial profits. We have seen across other sectors, including housing, healthcare and education, our society suffering the consequences of an over-reliance on the private sector. Childcare is another case in point. The Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss recently made clea…

The housing crisis, as we know, continues to worsen and Mike Allen warned on “News at One” of the growing shortage of accommodation. Last week, Threshold warned that the majority of tenants it had helped towards the end of 2022 were at risk of homelessness due to the landlord selling their property. When the eviction ban was being introduced, I repeatedly raised with the Government the urgent need to ramp up the tenant in situ scheme to secure people's homes and prevent homelessness. As there is likely to be a floo…

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications launched another new strategy in the past week. This one related to electric vehicles with a new charging infrastructure strategy that will see €100 million invested over three years. I have raised concerns with the Minister about this issue on a number of occasions because we are just seeing a far too slow delivery on electric vehicle, EV, charging infrastructure. In the case of people who want to change to an electric car but who live in an apartment bl…

On the issue of health in the context of the Cabinet committee, I raised earlier the unacceptable failures in the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. We have continued to see unacceptable conditions in our health service over the winter season, with thousands of people marching across the country at the weekend. There were especially big crowds in Limerick and Navan, which the Labour Party was proud to support. Years of under-resourcing have put lives at risk and a full security audit is now require…

Yesterday, I spoke about the need to implement urgent ethical reform to counteract the sowing of distrust in politics by agents of the far right. It is also vitally important that we provide wraparound supports for those who stand for election. In the last number of weeks we have seen multiple instances of intimidation and violence against Deputies, Senators and councillors. Jennifer Bray’s startling article in The Irish Times showed the gendered nature of that intimidation. We have heard the harrowing experiences …

Will it establish a dedicated and resourced office in Leinster House to provide support to public representatives at local and national level who are subject to intimidation?

Cross-party.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I wish a happy new year to all. What has emerged in the past week about the conduct of not one, but two Fine Gael Ministers is deeply concerning. It raises fundamental questions about standards in public life, standards in public office, trust in politics, the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy. A Minister of State has already resigned without answering any questions and, further, the Minister responsible for ethics reform is now under investigation for undisclos…

With respect, the Taoiseach has not answered any of my questions. Indeed, his response has shed no clarity and perhaps obscured things further. The crucial point is that we cannot see any return to the bad old days, when politics in Ireland was plagued by corruption, grubby deals and cronyism. We cannot see that. We need to be sure that will not happen again. I repeat my question. In respect of the former Minister of State, Deputy English, is that behaviour, namely, the submission of false information on a planning…

It is a valid political question.

As I said, I welcome that we will have a statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform at 5 p.m. I reiterate that there does not seem to be any facility for a response to questions raised by us in opposition. They are valid questions that many of us have already asked the Taoiseach on the floor of this House. There is precedent for having a statement of this nature where there is an opportunity for a response to be provided. I think the Taoiseach provided a response of that sort himself previously in …

No.

On a point of order-----

Six or seven minutes per Opposition speaker-----

-----would allow time for questions and answers from the Minister.

It is the back-and-forth.