Internal records from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage revealed last Thursday in the Irish Daily Mail confirmed the Housing for All targets are not adequate to meet the growing need. When the Government plan was published, the Labour Party made it clear that Ireland needed close to 50,000 homes per year, rather than the target of below 30,000 under Housing for All. The Department's records show 42,000 homes per year are needed, meaning there will be a shortfall, even according to the Departm…

Will the Government commit to introducing a right to paid leave for early miscarriage and reproductive health-related reasons? In 2021, the Labour Party introduced the Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill in the Seanad. If passed, it would allow a woman who experienced an early miscarriage leave from the workplace of up to 20 days and up to ten days of paid leave to any employee who needed time off work to undergo IVF or other reproductive healthcare treatments. The Government assur…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The Taoiseach is welcome back from COP27. Yesterday, I welcomed that he was attending COP27 and that the Government was represented there by him. I called for more urgent action here at home to tackle the climate catastrophe. I think it has been promised that we will have a debate on COP27 in the next week or so. I look forward to hearing more about that then. I turn to the plight of the 3,000 people in Ireland, many of whom live and work in my constituency, who are employed by Fa…

I thank the Taoiseach. It is indeed sad and difficult news. I know of friends, neighbours and constituents who are in a situation where two partners are both working for tech companies. They have massive mortgages and enormous childcare fees. They are locked into these commitments and are facing an uncertain future in which they see prospective job losses. I absolutely accept there has been enormous expansion in the sector, supported by State investment. Let us not forget that. Indeed, I understand the State invest…

I want to raise the trolley crisis in our public healthcare system. We see 572 patients in hospitals without a bed this morning, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO. Some 100,000 people have gone without a bed so far this year. The public health service is in danger of collapse if this trolley crisis is not resolved. I was in Limerick on Monday and I heard from many people there about the chronic overcrowding and waiting list problems in University Hospital Limerick, UHL. Can the Taoiseach…

I am glad the Taoiseach is not here today. It is very important that he is representing Ireland at COP27 in Egypt today because it is vital that we see really strong leadership at national and international level on tackling the climate catastrophe. As COP has got under way, we have been hearing increasingly bleak prognoses from world leaders. We heard António Guterres, UN Secretary General, say we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator. He is not mincing his words, nor is our former Pres…

I thank the Minister. He spoke of progress and of the potential for wind energy, but we have been speaking about this potential for a long time without having put in place the necessary infrastructure to deliver at scale on the sort of energy generation capacity offshore wind can provide. The Minister also spoke of the climate action plan 2023 and said it will go to the Government shortly. When is that going to come before this House? I ask because we have previously seen foot-dragging and delays in the production …

In the middle of a housing disaster, with a whole generation locked out of affordable home ownership, building is simply not taking place at the scale or speed necessary. Yesterday in Limerick, I saw a promised housing site that has lain idle for decades, despite being in public ownership. It is now in the control of the Land Development Agency which, apparently, has are no plans even to commence the planning process until 2028. That is an extraordinary delay. The Government must overhaul the planning and public co…

Will the Bill be with us before Christmas?

On behalf of the Labour Party, I extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the people of Creeslough and the broader community in Donegal on the terrible tragedy that struck their community on what was otherwise, until then, a normal Friday afternoon, on 7 October, just a month ago. Even a month on, it is still unbelievable for all of us to recall just how suddenly and brutally ten lives were lost on that day. The names of those who perished have been read into the Dáil record. Those lives lost were James O'F…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for her intervention. We are less than 12 hours away from the looming deadline in Northern Ireland where it appears that yet another election will be called. The people of Northern Ireland have been left without a functioning Executive for six months as we approach a deepened winter cost-of-living crisis and as we see significant issues around governance and day-to-day administration that need to be resolved but cannot be resolved without a functioning Administration in the North. …

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. He stated clearly the Government position that there is no need for a new election. I agree entirely. All of us in this House would agree. The last Stormont election was just 24 weeks ago. Clearly, there are very pressing issues affecting the people in Northern Ireland every day, particularly with the cost-of-living crisis, and they need a functioning Executive and a functioning assembly to resolve those issues. Given we are facing a last chance today to resolve the matter withou…

I will raise the plight of children with autism, who are still being failed by the State. Back in July, we in Labour put forward a motion on the need for better co-ordination and improved services for children with autism that got cross-party support and yet, over recent days, Deputy Ó Ríordáin and I have been hearing from school principals who are deeply concerned at a new instruction from the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, that they are to carry out assessments of need on their own pupils in the pl…

The "Prime Time" programme on O'Connell Street highlighted again the many problems impacting on our city centre. It is not only a feature of the north-east inner city but also in my own constituency where residents in the south inner city have raised with me many concerns around crime and anti-social behaviour in their areas. Clearly this is a multifaceted problem requiring a multi-agency approach. Key to it is the presence of more visible community policing on the streets and I have raised that with local police a…

Yes.

It is both, I think.

Since we are speaking about the shared island dialogue and the All-Island Women's Forum, I want to pay tribute to May Blood, from the Shankill area of Belfast, who died last week. May Blood was a committed trade unionist who fought for better conditions for the workforce, mainly women, in the linen mills. She was also a president of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland and played an invaluable grassroots role in the peace process through her work as a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. One o…

Yesterday, I raised the issue of the efforts being made to house Ukrainian refugees and, indeed, others coming here seeking international protection and fleeing persecution abroad. On behalf of the Labour Party, I sought a briefing for Opposition leaders and spokespersons as we are keen to engage constructively with the Government in assisting what has to be a collective national effort to ensure sufficient accommodation is available for those who come here seeking refuge and that we do not see any more people slee…

I welcome the opportunity to speak for the Labour Party on this Bill. I join with Deputy O'Rourke in expressing frustration at the truncated nature of the debate and the fact that it is all being compressed into such a short timeframe. It was particularly regrettable that the Minister of State did not get to finish his speech on the record but it is also frustrating for Opposition Deputies to be given such a short and tight timeframe in which to submit amendments and deal with legislation on such an important issue…

The Labour Party very much welcomes the fact that the Government is moving to introduce the winter eviction ban or at least the deferment of termination dates. Many of us in opposition have been pressing for that for some time. I also support the amendments put forward in this grouping. At their most basic, what they seek to do is to ensure that an effective eviction ban will be in place for longer because the longer we can uphold the eviction ban legally and within the terms of the Constitution and the more we can…