None of us on this side of the House can say that there are no measures in the budget which people will welcome. There is no doubt about that. It is very much the fundamentals I wish to deal with in respect of the budget and previous budgets. This is a budget to buy time for a broken system which the Government does not have the political will to fix. It is a budget which will increase inequality in this country. Ireland, like almost every country in the world, has seen a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom …

Anything extra going into people's pockets is welcome, even if they were underwhelming increases of €4 in some cases. What I saw today, however, as did most people in this country, was a Government that is out of touch. We live in a time of declining standards of living. Wages have fallen behind inflation and there are record figures for homelessness and evictions, as well as record costs in housing, healthcare, energy and the other necessities of life. What we needed today was a radical budget for real change; wha…

After months of repeated reports of systematic non-payment of wages, sick pay and holiday pay, Iceland workers are now facing mass redundancy, as we have seen that company loaded with debt and run into the ground by the boss, Mr. Naeem Maniar. The Government stood by and let this wage theft happen, despite multiple appeals by the union representing workers, that is, the Independent Workers' Union, for intervention to protect workers. We saw this happen with the Debenhams workers. We have seen this happen with other…

Absolutely. I agree 100%.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion to the Dáil. I have been working with a group of small childcare providers in my constituency and I was happy to stand with them, and with hundreds of others, last week at the Federation of Early Childhood Providers' demonstration. The Taoiseach said the demonstration was "not warranted" and caused "great inconvenience". What I believe is unwarranted and inconvenient is parents having to juggle work, to make ends meet and a childcare system implemented by the State that is…

I am delighted to be speaking on the Bill. I welcome its introduction to create a DSGBV agency. There is widespread support for this move. It is a positive step forward in providing services for the victims of this violence. Ireland has no real infrastructure to deliver co-ordinated DSGBV services, and what services do exist are grossly under-resourced and underfunded. The point has been made continuously in this Chamber and by Deputies today that the Istanbul Convention states clearly that we need 476 family place…

I, too, am supporting the Private Members' motion regarding the suspension of the scrutiny requirement for the Eviction Ban Bill 2022 put forward by People Before Profit-Solidarity. For months now, Members of the Government have stood up in this House and have said the eviction ban did not work. We see the results now. We see more people facing eviction and more people homeless. I would like to see the Minister of State tell a family with a notice to quit that the eviction ban did not work, because the Government h…

The National Transport Authority, NTA, plans to remove the 13, 68 and 69 buses which run from Clondalkin, Ratoath, down the Naas Road through Bluebell, Inchicore and into the city centre through Thomas Street, Camden Street and Islandbridge, and replace them with a single hourly service. There is significant opposition from commuters affected by this plan and the connecting communities action group is running surveys to oppose it. This move creates a public transport black spot and is a disaster for the elderly and…

It has refused to meet them.

I will take about four minutes and Deputy Connolly will take whatever time she needs. I welcome the introduction of a cap on market revenues for energy companies, just as I welcomed the temporary solidarity contribution, but it comes far too late. The damage was done last winter. We all saw the obscene profits energy companies made while people were freezing in their homes because they could not afford to heat their homes. Some one in three people live in energy poverty, and those companies made billions out of pus…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the affordable housing motion put forward by Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. It is an important issue to keep on raising. It is important to hold the Government and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to account for the crisis we are in now and have been facing for the past ten or 12 years. It has been clear for a long time that the housing crisis is out of the Government's control. Every report we get sees homelessness hit record after rec…

The cost-of-living crisis has not gone away. This is an ongoing crisis that has decimated peoples wages, savings and ability to make ends meet. People have seen thousands of euro extra in energy and mortgage payments, and thousands are never going to get it back. They have covered that cost by emptying their savings, putting themselves in debt, and through a massive reduction in the standard of living for many in this country. This crisis has reduced how much people can afford to eat and whether they can afford to …

That will take years.

They need their wages now.

Let them pay their wages first. They cannot be expected to wait.

First, I send my solidarity to the Palestinian people in the face of the latest onslaught by the Israeli state. At least 12 Palestinians have been murdered, including four children. More than 3,000 people have been forced to leave their homes over recent weeks as the Israeli army assaulted Jenin refugee camp. These people had already lost their homes and been forced to live in a refugee camp through the decades of Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing. They are returning now to the destruction that Israel visited …

As we know, five years ago people in this country voted in overwhelming numbers to confirm that abortion services are a vital and legitimate part of women's healthcare. We voted to have abortion services seen under the law as a legitimate healthcare service provided by the State. To date, that democratic choice has not been realised with over 775 women having to travel to obtain abortion services in the UK since the referendum. The majority of these women travelled for health-related reasons. I welcome the Bill as …

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and I appreciate that. I must first say that I am disappointed that the Tánaiste is not here to take this Topical Issue matter. These are very important issues. Time is allocated for Topical Issue Debate to deal with these affairs. We will, however, receive a stock reply from the Minister of State who is here at the moment. We have brought this issue to the House due to the worryingly rapid decline of the health and conditions for imprisoned members of independent trade unions in Belarus…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply and for the efforts that have been made to date in relation to the report that he has given there. It is obvious that the people in Belarus are being subjected to one of the most major crackdowns in their history. It was Jim Larkin who famously said that "an injury to one is an injury to all". It is in that spirit of solidarity that we have raised this issue here today. The rights of citizens and workers are the bedrock of any civilised society. It follows then that the w…

Ceann Comhairle, can I ask why?