A serious crisis is building up, as noted by the Irish Primary Principals Network. We could have a case where children are sent home from class because schools cannot provide teachers.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to respond to budget 2022 and I branded it the "lousy fiver" budget because that is exactly what it is. It is a lousy €3 budget, a lousy €2 budget, a lousy €5 fuel allowance budget at a time social welfare recipients are feeling the pinch because of inflation, particularly energy price inflation. These are the people who have borne the brunt of the Covid pandemic and the budget was an opportunity for this Government to repay them by putting a few bob in their pockets. I did not mak…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on budget 2022. To me and many others, this will, in many ways, be summed up as the "fiver budget" of 2022. I would call it the "lousy fiver budget" of 2022. Let us consider the State old age pension. Age Action Ireland has shown that when inflation is taken into account, the real value of the State pension has fallen by more than €10 per week in the past year. That is €542 in a year. To lose that much money is a considerable drop in income. Age Action's pre-budget submission call…

I welcome this People Before Profit-Solidarity Private Members' motion on the very important issue of energy prices. The figures set out in the motion speak for themselves. Without action on the part of the Government, many people face a very difficult winter in just keeping their lights on and staying warm. Some 400,000 households in this State experience fuel poverty. It is estimated that 10% of income goes on heating. Ireland, North and South, has the highest excess winter mortality rates at 2,800 cold-related d…

The Minister of State is aware of this issue, given that contact was made with her this year when she advised that it was a matter for the Minister for Transport and that all correspondence should be sent to him. I will provide the background. The carriages are a regular sight in and around the St. Stephen's Green area as well as St. James's Gate. In May 2019, carriage drivers led a convoy to Leinster House to ask that new by-laws be made in respect of drivers in the capital. Since 2018, Dublin City Council has not…

I welcome that work on this matter is progressing. I have checked the legislative programme for 2021 and there is nothing within it in regard to this issue, which would indicate it is not being prepared. Will the Minister of State give me a date for when a general scheme of a Bill will be forthcoming? At this stage, we are in a very difficult situation in that anyone over the age of 16 years can operate a horse-drawn carriage for hire or reward. There is no regulation, no inspections for insurance, no vehicle roadw…

I am seeking the Minister's views on the developing escalation in the Pacific between the US, the UK, Australia and China. Will he seek an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the increased militarisation in the area? As he will see from my question, I am raising the recent development of a new military alliance between the US, UK and Australia. This agreement means a transfer of technology from the US and UK to allow Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines and will also involve an increase…

This AUKUS agreement represents an increase in the military build-up in the area which will undoubtedly meet with a response from China. Despite claims to the contrary by the US and China, this is an escalation towards a new cold war, reminiscent of that between the US and the former Soviet Union. As Ireland now holds the presidency of the Security Council, will the Minister and the Government commit, as a matter of urgency, to seeking a meeting of the Security Council to discuss these issues? I note that the multi…

I accept the Minister's point that the member states of the UN Security Council have to agree, but we have to start applying pressure. Where are the alliances Ireland is making with other countries to apply pressure to discuss this? China now has a territorial claim on approximately 90% of the South China Sea. This is contested by other countries in the region. There is an international ruling which states that at least 50% of it is international waters. China is building islands on rocks and reefs which are, in fa…

I thank the Minister of State. Most people in Opposition recognise that climate change is happening. There is no doubt about it. We saw the wildfires in Greece, the fatal floods in Belgium and Germany and record temperatures in Sicily and there is no doubt that Europe is now squarely on the front line of a climate crisis. We also saw what happened in the United States and the loss of permafrost lands in the steppes. Ice glaciers have been also melting in the northern hemisphere. All these changes are having an impa…

Yes, the two years. There was also the reaction of not delivering doses of the vaccines needed in the Third World. Therefore, people are asking many questions regarding how governments are going to respond to the climate issue, as well as big companies. Some 100 companies have been the source of 70% of the world's emissions since 1988. The relentless exploitation of the world's oil, gas and coal reserves by 20 fossil fuel companies can be directly linked to more than one third of all emissions in the modern era. Th…

In December 2018, the then Minister for Health-----

In December 2018, the then Minister for Health pledged to introduce stand-alone legislation in 2019 to allow healthcare workers to go about their work and people to access reproductive health services without intimidation. Those pickets are still taking place. We are receiving emails from women and men who feel they have been stigmatised, shamed and intimidated as they access reproductive healthcare. The legislative programme for this autumn states that the safe access to termination of pregnancy services Bill is t…

The housing and homelessness crisis will continue and get worse unless there is a fundamental and radical change in how housing is delivered. The Government's housing strategy is not the fundamental and radical change needed. The right to an affordable home with security of tenure is a basic human right which should be enshrined in the Constitution. I believe many Deputies believe in that right but not many believe it should be enshrined in the Constitution. To vindicate that right, we need a sufficient supply of a…

Today the Minister announced plans to bring forward proposals to establish a task force on waiting lists and to seek extra funding to resource this in the forthcoming budget. This is to be welcomed but the question has to be asked, why is it only now, with waiting lists approaching nearly 1 million, that emergency action is being considered? The plan to provide three new elective hospitals in Dublin, Galway and Cork is also long overdue. The response of our public health service staff to the Covid-19 pandemic shows…

Like many other Deputies who have spoken, I absolutely endorse the Ombudsman for Children's report, A Better Normal. I want to hear how the Government is going to implement the report. The Minister made a fair point in his introduction that other issues and plans have been put in place but this report goes deeply into the situation faced by children in poverty as we come out of the pandemic. Like many Ombudsman reports, the report in question sees a problem, investigates in great detail where the problem is and wha…

Twenty years ago, the then Fianna Fáil Minister with responsibility for housing, Noel Dempsey, introduced the Part V requirement, set at 20% of new developments, to be set aside for purchase by local authorities for council housing. They were to be purchased at existing use value. However, after lobbying by developers and the construction industry, no doubt involving the Galway tent and brown envelopes, this figure was reduced to 10%. Mr. Dempsey's successor as housing Minister nearly tore the Part V requirement to…

The resignations of Professor Tom Keane, chair of the Sláintecare advisory committee, and Laura Magahy, executive director of the Sláintecare programme, to reshape the health service have now been followed by the resignation of Professor Geraldine McCarthy, chair of the South/South West Hospital Group, who in a letter to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, expressed concerns about the lack of progress in implementing Sláintecare reforms. These developments may be followed up by further resignations fr…

I do not think anyone should point the finger at staff. What Covid- 19 has demonstrated is how universal public healthcare can be delivered from the point of view of access for everybody to public healthcare, to vaccinations, to PCR testing, to GPs and to hospital care. That is not in question here. However, that Covid care is a model for how Sláintecare has to be implemented. Covid-19 was pushed by Government and politically driven. We had an advisory group, NPHET, and we had staff willing and able to put themselv…

All backed by public money.