I wish the Minister the very best of luck in his new role. I look forward to working with him. How does the Government plan to protect third level students who are in digs accommodation? Over recent weeks and months, we have had people into the audiovisual room explaining the very difficult situation they are in with regard to their accommodation. Digs accommodation may not be the first preference for many students and it may not be ideal for either the student or the landlord but, in a housing crisis, it is often …

I thank the Minister for that. I agree that there needs to be a variety of accommodation. My own daughter is in college and travels quite a long distance to get there-----

-----because there is no on-campus accommodation, which would be ideal for a great many people. It is also very expensive. I live in Dublin 8 and quite a lot of student accommodation was built in the area over recent years. However, it is totally unaffordable for the average student with rents of €1,250 per month. If it is a five-week month, it is €1,350. That accommodation is totally unaffordable for most students. Digs accommodation is affordable but the difficulty is that, as we have heard over the last while, s…

The flipside is that parents sending children into digs accommodation cannot be sure they will be fully protected. That is also a challenge. I agree with the Minister that there definitely needs to be balance from the perspective of both the landlord or digs provider and of the student. These students are often in their first year and do not have a big network so we need to have that protection in place. The students union at the University of Galway did a survey of members and found that 28% of students said their…

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role. I wish him the best of luck and look forward to working with him over the course of this term. I will be speaking on pathways to youth work at third level. Youth work in Ireland is decades old. There are many types of youth work and they exist in every community in the country. Youth workers do a job that is sometimes mistaken or misunderstood by others, and that has led, in my opinion and the opinion of many youth workers and organisations throughout the countr…

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. The increase in funding for youth work is very welcome. The role I had immediately after youth work was working in the school completion programme. While there have been increases in funding for both of those sectors, during the austerity era youth work and the school completion programme were cut so dramatically and so drastically that they have not recovered to pre-austerity levels. While there have been increases in funding, they are not back to the original le…

This motion is about giving voice to the people of Ireland. It is a matter that goes beyond policy; it is about democracy. The Government's attempt to remove the triple lock without public consultation is not just a policy change but a fundamental shift in Ireland's stance on the global stage and yet the people have not been asked. During the most recent election, neutrality and the triple lock did not really feature at all as issues affecting people’s lives. Issues like housing, health and education were a key foc…

-----because it is not about that. I want to be very clear on that.

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Labour Party as an rún seo. Fáilte to all the young carers, those from Family Carers Ireland who are in the Visitors Gallery and those watching. I support this crucial motion because for too long, young carers in this country have been invisible as they work in their homes providing vital assistance to loved ones in their families and communities. The sacrifices they make go unrecognised, their struggles are unheard and their futures are put at risk all because we have fai…

As this is my first Topical Issue, hopefully I will get the timing and all the rest of it right. I thank the Minister of State for taking this and wish him the very best of luck in his new role. I do not think I have congratulated him yet. Today, I am asking about families in Dublin 8 who are looking to have a multidenominational secondary school for their children. They have been campaigning for a number of years and I have been involved with them over the past little while. I suppose mine is one of those original…

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive answer. Yes, it is not the answer I want but God loves a trier. The reconfiguration process has been very slow to date. The previous programme for Government had it that, I think, 400 schools would be transferred. Unfortunately, that number has not been reached yet and I did not see it in the programme for Government this time. The survey has been promised for quite a long time and I am anxious to know when exactly it will happen. The reply said there was no unmet…

Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as an tairiscint seo. I ask the Government to engage with the Opposition on housing because, frankly, the policies the former is putting forward are ensuring that people go into homelessness, and that includes families, children and hard-working individuals. They are facing homelessness and there is absolutely no reason for it. This scheme is a solution, and it is just so frustrating that we face this situation and have to argue over this. This scheme was set up to help to prevent home…

On International Women's Day, every day and every year, this House has statements on issues facing women. I feel a bit heavier this year because of the number of domestic violence services that have come into the audiovisual room here since I was elected in November. A motion tabled by Deputy Coppinger has been debated. The issue of gender-based violence in this country is not reducing; in fact, it might be completely out of control. So many women are dying in their homes or are being abused in their homes that tod…

Táim an-sásta cúpla focal a labhairt ar Sheachtain na Gaeilge. Tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge since July 2023. Bhí mé sa Ghaeltacht in Oideas Gael i nGleann Cholm Cille i gContae Dhún na nGall. Bhí an-craic againn. Níl mé ábalta a lán Ghaeilge a labhairt ach táim ábalta í a thuiscint. Nuair a bhí mé elected, rinne mé cúrsa Gaeilge online. Tá na ranganna go hiontach. Táim ag léamh an leabhar Beidh tú Alright: An Irish Language Journey le Joe McHugh, a bhí mar Aire Stáit na Gaeilge nuair nach raibh a lán Gaeilge aige. Nua…

I wish the Minister the best of luck in his new role. I have been contacted by many constituents in Dublin South-Central since I was elected in November - in fact, when I was a councillor from June until November 2024, people were contacting me about this issue - about the lack of a Garda presence and the persistent antisocial behaviour around the Fatima Luas station in Rialto. It has been reported to me that people of all ages, including children, are dealing drugs there openly and without challenge. Last summer –…

That organisation and my own local GAA club, Kevin's Hurling and Camogie Club, have been fighting for decades for sporting facilities. We are looking for pitches. I know we are getting close to St. Teresa's Gardens having those pitches and the same is true of Marrowbone Lane, but many of the children who need that service now will be adults by the time those facilities come in. In fact, a lot of people who were children when this process started are now adults. We really need that to be moved on and for all the pow…

I have not used that name since I was in school. Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as an tairiscint seo. Irish is a beautiful language with a cultural identity with which many people want to identify but do not because of the challenges they had in learning Irish in our education system. Our cultural identity with the Irish language is seeing a renaissance of late and we have a beautiful movie, "An Cailín Ciúin", with which many people engaged. Thanks to Kneecap, we have music a…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Coppinger as an tairiscint seo. While writing my speech, I found the words came with great difficulty. This was not because I did not know what to say, it was because I was afraid that once I started to speak I would not be able to stop and would get so annoyed that my words would go beyond what is allowable in this Chamber. Having listened to testimonies from people around the country, I cannot help but be furious and frightened. In the late 1990s, I worked in a domestic violence p…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach agus le Sinn Féin as an rún seo. Earlier today, I went onto the RSA website and input the location for my nearest test centre at Charlestown in Dublin. If I applied for my driving test today, I would be able to sit it in the week beginning 4 August. That is 23 weeks away. I did not clog up the system because I did my test in 1994. Many contributors have said that this is the worst it has ever been. I remember stories from when I was growing up. We always slagged my …

I wish to raise two points on the issue of housing - the housing disaster - and how it affects the education system. First, students who wish to attend third level courses in institutions of their choice are curtailed because affordable student accommodation is not possible. For the ordinary student, it is unaffordable. Therefore, they may choose a course that is not their top priority in order to allow them to commute because they need to live at home as they cannot afford to rent. They might decide not to go to t…