It is not. Affordability is.

On behalf of the Independent Group, I thank staff across all the grades and work areas for their help and support and their generosity of spirit over the past Dáil term. My question relates to the survivors and families of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. I met with representatives of the families recently and I presume the situation has not changed. I was informed that despite promising he would meet the families, the Tánaiste has not yet met them. They met civil servants but they have not met the Tánaiste direct…

Yes, it was at the ceremony that the Tánaiste committed to meeting the relatives.

The Tánaiste has not met them.

Could the Tánaiste confirm that he will meet them during the election, which is a busy time?

For well over two years I have been putting this question to a number of Ministers and nothing fundamental has changed. This is the last opportunity I will have to raise this issue. There is a critical lack of public health nurses in Dublin 12 and Dublin 8. There are in many cases no development checks happening for children. These are vital checks, as the Taoiseach knows. I have mother after mother coming in to me or contacting me about their children not being offered appointments. I have met mothers who were tol…

I ask the Minister to clarify a statement in a press release from his Department on 23 September 2024 to the effect that ratifying the second optional protocol would mean that Ireland is officially bound by the terms under international law. It is linked to another question. Can a guarantee be provided that the second optional protocol to the UNCRC will be ratified before the end of the term of the Thirty-third Dáil? Has his Department finalised the outstanding legal obstacles? If not, I ask the Minister to outline…

I thank the Minister. He said it was signed in 2000 and we are still waiting for ratification. Certain legislative hurdles have had to be dealt with before we can reach that stage. The Minister said that, following enactment of the legislation, officials in his Department will work with the Office of the Attorney General on the next steps to ensure readiness across all relevant Departments. The two relevant pieces of legislation have been signed by the President. How quickly can the Minister move this forward? Can …

I would welcome any step that can put the protocol in place so that it is not put on the long finger again when there may be a new Minister in place. It is important to do that. The Minister had said that he expected an awareness-raising campaign to commence in early 2024, and details of the campaign had yet to be decided. Can he provide me with an update on the campaign and what he has done from early 2024 to date?

I am Deputy Joan Collins.

Unfortunately, I cannot support this motion. This is not an endorsement of the Government's five-year total failure on housing. It is not even a rejection of the motion's argument for how an affordable housing scheme could work. I generally support Sinn Féin's housing policy. We discussed it at our branch meeting in Dublin South-Central recently. What I object to is the shift in focus that has taken place across the political spectrum away from the proper provision of public housing on public land. Public housing o…

What about the inheritance tax?

The are real fears about the danger facing Irish troops from Israeli forces. We still have flights carrying munitions through Irish airspace to arm a country that is pointing tanks at our troops and firing on UN positions. We recognised the State of Palestine and that was an important act of solidarity. The next step is to immediately pass the occupied territories Bill and ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. To trade with such a brutal system engaged in such blatant brutality makes us compl…

We will wait until next week and then see what the report is.

I move amendment No. 9: In page 8, betwen lines 9 and 10 to insert the following: “(2) The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on the cost of extending the fuel allowance to those in receipt of the working family payment.”. We discussed this already. It was also discussed with the Minister's officials last week. When I asked a particular question, they stated that a specific report was being worked through. I was amazed by what they said, whi…

I have tabled two amendments to this Bill. I have been working on one for a while and the other, from a constituent, was raised with me recently. The first amendment is to review extending the fuel allowance to those in receipt of working family payments. This is a demand I have been making at successive budgets. It has been called for for years by numerous groups working with people living in poverty and deprivation. Between 2018 and 2023, we saw household energy costs go up by over 100%. Since 2022, energy costs …

First, I welcome these statements on World Mental Health Day. It is vital we mark what has become a crisis that has touched practically every family in the country. I wish to express my solidarity with the many people suffering with mental health and depression, with those families who have lost loved ones to suicide, and also people working within the mental health services. Everybody should be recognised not just today but every day into the future. Today needs to be a reminder of how far we have to go and not ju…

I echo the 75% of people in a poll published at the weekend who said this budget was an attempt to buy the next election. This budget was a give-away budget to hide from the electorate that the Government has given up on making any real or structural change in the country. It ignored calls made across civil society, by the Dáil and by people living in poverty, in deprivation, on low pay and fixed incomes that there would be targeted relief. I have no problem with universal cost-of-living payments to help everyone m…

I have been dealing with the case of Marianne Byrne, a worker at the Cobh Heritage Centre in Cork. Marianne is a low-paid worker who has given 26 years of dedicated service. She was offered a 50 cent per hour increase by her employer after 16 years without a pay increase. Colleagues in a similar position were given raises of €1.50 an hour. Cobh Heritage Centre justified this paltry offer by saying Marianne had received a €2 pay increase 15 years ago. You could not make this up. Marianne was represented by Unite the…

I thank the Minister but I am not very happy with that response. He refers to this being a specific WRC case. The case has been adjudicated upon. The centre has been told to pay Marianne the 85 cent extra, that is €14.85 per hour. That has gone through and it has been done. What I am raising is that we have a public body not implementing the WRC adjudication. If one has public bodies which are not doing it, we will certainly see private bodies which will not recognise any WRC recommendation. It is an absolute scand…