The Select Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has completed its consideration of the Proceeds of Crime and Related Matters Bill 2025 and has made amendments thereto.

I welcome the members of the finance committee from Greenland, who have just arrived in the viewing Gallery.

I want to speak to the Taoiseach today about the four people who were on hunger strike for 50 days until 10 November. He met with them, and an agreement was reached. He signed the letter outlining the promises that the Government has made to these survivors who were wronged in childhood and are continually wronged in adulthood. Three and a half weeks have passed. There is a new Minister for Education and Youth, and the survivors have written to the Minister asking for a meeting and for the supports to start, but no…

I thank Deputy McGettigan and other Deputies very much for tabling these amendments. We had a good debate on this Bill in October. As a new TD, I am learning how all this process goes.

Forgive me if I am doing this incorrectly, even today.

We are all learning. We discussed a proposal that funding which had not been used already would be used and put back into buildings and things like that. I said at the time that I have worked in further education buildings which need to be retrofitted. I understand what the Minister is saying. For the learners and teachers in a building that is draughty and cold - it may have ivy coming into it - a retrofitting of the building is so important. It may not be too old. From an environmental point of view, I would like…

I welcome the amendment and accept what the Minister has said on the EU legislation that could facilitate it. It would be great if it was facilitated. I agree with what has been said on apprenticeships. The further and higher education committee has spoken of it at length in recent months. Wonderful witnesses have come in and told us the stories of how amazing they have to be to motivate themselves, get involved with an employer and become an apprentice, and of the hurdles they face to get there. It is in a way eas…

I raise deeply worrying and entirely unacceptable issues for apartment owners and renters who are experiencing them in my constituency of Dublin South-Central. Let me paint a picture for the Minister of State. When I visited some of these apartment blocks, I saw fire safety hazards and potential for flooding. In another apartment block, I saw water coming into people's homes. This was not from a river. They do not know where this water is coming from. It has dripped into their home so much that it is now forming mo…

I am happy measures are being put in place and the scheme is coming onstream. However, for these people who are living there, the time is now. How much time does the Government need? When can they access this? The difficulty is the communal areas. If people are not paying in and if everyone is not in the OMC, what seems to be happening is that they are not able to access the remedial fund. When that happens, those areas are not being looked after because there is no one able to do it. What happens then for apartmen…

For years, we have watched mothers on our television screens as they scream, cry and mourn the death of their children. We have seen children and babies covered in blood and dust as they suffer in hospitals with no medical equipment. We have seen tiny bodies covered in white cloths waiting to be buried, their family members rocking them back and forth to ease the absolute horror of holding their dead baby or child. As a mother of four, I cannot imagine holding any of my children dead in my arms. It is every single …

The St. Vincent de Paul is expecting 250,000 calls in advance of Christmas this year. It outlines that one-parent families and low-income workers, as well as people with disabilities and carers, are those who are most likely not to be able to afford the basics. St. Vincent de Paul has said that it is ready and that it will spend tens of millions of euros supporting people with food, vouchers, groceries, electricity and fuel. As the Taoiseach is aware, I worked in the school completion programme and in youth work fo…

The recurring theme of my time in this Chamber is talking about special education. Today I want to bring up the NCSE asking parents to notify it before 1 October if their child needs space in a school. This is fantastic because it means the process is supposed to move on further.

I have been assured by both the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, that despite the fact 1 October has passed, this will not prevent any child who gets a diagnosis or a letter of eligibility afterwards from being considered. This is not the experience of many parents who have contacted me. Some of them are from the Tánaiste’s constituency. If you look at the website today and go to the portal, you will see it says it is closed. There is no way to navigate that.

I am able to say to parents what I have been told and they are able to get around it that way but this must be much clearer for parents. It is very difficult. I am speaking on behalf of other parents who have told me it is difficult to have a child with a disability and additional needs and navigate that system. Will the Tánaiste please ask the Minister to get the NCSE to clarify that situation for parents, so they are not in this loop. They seem to be stuck in a gap.

I am delighted to contribute to this debate today during Science Week. As spokesperson for this area, I have had the pleasure over the last number of months of meeting many groups, organisations and people working in this area. I would like to talk about the main issues that could prevent us from being a world-class leader in science if they are not addressed. We need to ensure that our primary schools are fully resourced for those naturally inquisitive minds that children have. The Minister talked about curiosity …

First, I wish to commend my colleague, Dr. Aidan Farrelly, on his work on this Bill. For the benefit of those people in the Chamber who do not know, Deputy Farrelly is not just a TD and spokesperson for young people but he is also an expert in the area of youth work. His PhD work was about youth work, so it can safely be said of Deputy Farrelly that he is extremely well placed to bring this Bill forward, having worked as a youth worker and achieved the highest level of education in this area. I was also a youth wor…

It is day 47 and four people are outside the House, as has been previously stated. Their requests are not huge. They are getting conflicting information. Sometimes agreements are made, then it is changing and it is back again. This is causing trust issues. When agreements are not written down, they can change. They need to be written down. Yesterday, they were very happy with the meeting with the mediator. The difficulty is the mediator is not available until next week. That leaves another week. We are now on day 4…

The atmosphere in this country has changed and it is entering into uncertain times. People are at their wits' end with regard to housing, public services, the lack of facilities in their communities and just feeling left behind by this Government. What should be centre stage for this Government is ensuring that this country has functional public services, has a thriving economy and is safe for people who live here and come here for safety. However, what we see is dysfunction and emptiness. People do not feel they c…

I welcome the Sinn Féin Bill and thank that party's Members for their work on it. The use of school uniforms is often debated by parents, patrons and researchers. Some people love uniforms and others do not. The Social Democrats support this Bill, however, if the Ceann Comhairle will indulge me, I will speak about having school uniforms in the first place. I will not take up too much time on this but Ireland is one of only three countries in Europe that has uniforms in our State schools. The other countries are the…

Before I start, I have some visitors in the Gallery from a school who are on leaving certificate applied, LCA, work experience. I want to say thank you to them. They have done excellent work so far this week. I would like to pay tribute in this debate to a group of my constituents in Dublin South-Central, the Dublin 12 Men's Shed. I had the pleasure of going to visit them recently with my constituency manager, Amy King, who is also in the Gallery. We had a really inspiring discussion with them. They have become emb…