The commitment was to 50%.

There is hardly a greater avoidable tragedy in Irish society than child poverty. It destroys and limits lives. It affects everything, including emotional development, educational attainment, mental health, physical well-being, career opportunities and income in later life. Poverty does not just contribute to bad outcomes. It has a direct and negative causal impact on children, particularly when it starts early in childhood and persists throughout. It does not only have a human cost in scarred and damaged lives but …

It is more than five weeks since parents in Wicklow were told the school bus service for which they had applied and paid, and on which they relied, was no longer available for their children to get them to school. Parents were left in the lurch. Very little information was given to them. No reason was given as to why this happened or when it would be resolved. Many parents, unfortunately, had to give up work. Ironically childcare workers and even a teacher have had to take leave and are considering giving up work b…

I thank Sinn Féin, specifically Deputy Funchion, for bringing forward this motion. The Deputy has worked collaboratively on the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, focusing on issues relating to children and their welfare. What is in the Sinn Féin motion is not a surprise to anyone. The majority of people recognise that childcare costs are far too high and are putting huge pressure on parents and social structures in our society. They also recognise that the rates of pay are no…

We welcome this Bill and the opportunity to have a debate on it today. Over the past few years, we have seen the impact and huge community and societal cost of the prices. There have been record energy prices for consumers, and record levels of energy poverty and disconnections. At the same time, along with the incredible impact on our communities and individuals, there have been record profits for energy companies. That is a clear illustration that our energy market is not robust enough to deal with external shock…

I look forward to it. I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for tabling the motion. It is an incredibly important issue and has been such for many years. It is the primary issue for many people in communities. There are 12,847 people homeless and I suspect it is the only thing they have on their minds at the moment. I was looking forward to the opportunity to have a grown-up conversation about different policies and proposals but, unfortunately, the Minister used his time to make disingenuous political points. That undermines…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, for being here today, but I do wish the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, was present, because this is a huge issue. It has been a big issue for a number of weeks now. We are not seeing the kind of response that is needed on this issue from the Department of Education, the office of the Minister or, indeed, Bus Éireann. I am raising this issue on behalf of hundreds of parents and students in Wicklow who are still not able to get the school bus transport schem…

With all due respect to the Minister of State, my question was related to bus cancellations in Wicklow and he did not mention Wicklow once in this reply. Could he please tell me what I will tell parents in Wicklow who do not have a seat on a school bus for their children tomorrow and next week? While he can play with words and say that they the routes were not cancelled but were handed back, the end result for parents is exactly the same. Parents are giving up jobs and moving their children to different towns. It i…

Could I say something?

I was just saying I will make myself available for a Topical Issue next week so the Minister can come in and address it. I know parents are really worried about it, and I will make sure I can get in for that, if it is possible.

Retained firefighters are balloting this week with an indication from their union, SIPTU, to reject the offer. The firefighters are disappointed with the offer that is on the table as it does not address the low value of the retainer and the precarious nature of their pay structure. I do not want to pre-empt the results of the ballot but the feedback I am getting is entirely negative. Given that the Dáil is rising, this is something on which I would like some clarity from the Tánaiste. We are talking about workers …

That is an unfair representation.

Barnardo's is again raising the issue of child poverty and the increasing number of families being pulled into poverty and deprivation. It is calling on the Government to target child poverty and ensure families hit by it will be protected in the upcoming budget. The Taoiseach said that when he first took up office that he wanted to focus on this area. It is timely for us to have a debate in the Dáil on child poverty and the measures the Government is taking to address it.

I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion. First, I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State and of the Department on biodiversity. Compared to previous Governments and previous Ministers, the Minister of State has really tried to grab this issue and make substantive changes. The reform of the national parks is one of those changes. The staff of the national parks are all there because they are dedicated to and passionate about biodiversity. Sometimes the structures or lack of resources get in the way …

I believe I am speaking for the majority of parents of secondary school children when I say we are sick and tired of forking out huge amounts of money each year for school books. We are tired of having to recycle perfectly good books and of buying electronic codes that cannot be transferred between siblings. It is hugely costly and wasteful. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of school books recycled or thrown out every year, simply because of small changes or because the electronic codes cannot be s…

I welcome the debate on this long-overdue legislation which the Social Democrats will be supporting. I acknowledge the work done by abortion rights campaigners to get us to this point, particularly Together for Safety. Without their tireless campaigning for safe access zones, I believe this legislation would have fallen off this Government's agenda and would have been delayed even further than it has been already. Despite this Government's long-standing commitment to legislate for safe access zones and cross-party …

I will wait to speak on my amendment, which I think is next anyway.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 7, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “Reporting 4. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the application of, including the use of the proceeds from, the Temporary Solidarity Contribution.”. This is my only amendment, unfortunately, because the remainder have also been ruled out of order due to the money message. There are questions to be asked about the money message because the amendments we …

Article 17 specifies what the proceeds from the temporary solidarity contribution will be used for. It does not specify any reporting mechanisms, from what I can see. It refers only to using it for final energy customers and the other provisions the Minister of State read out. My amendment relates specifically to reporting to this House on what the temporary solidarity contribution has been used for and how it has been applied. As I said, that reporting has to go to the EU as it stands. As part of the directive, th…

At no point has the Minister of State mentioned that there will be requirements for him or the Department to report to the Dáil. The EU will not tell them they have to report to the Dáil. There is an understanding of subsidiarity here. The EU will not tell the Government what it has to come in and tell us. The Minister of State will not be reporting to this Dáil on this matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will be reporting to the EU. All I ask is that the report the Government gives to the EU would …