I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for facilitating me. My question concerns the withdrawal and cessation of the Airport Hopper public transport bus service from Tallaght to Dublin Airport, which ceased without warning very recently. My key concerns are that there was a lack of public communication of the fact that the service was going to cease and that passengers were not informed that it was ceasing, which left them stranded on the day. From correspondence I have had, the NTA appears to have been unaware of this,…

What about Sinn Féin's legacy?

I am grateful to the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, for taking this topical issue. I want to raise the issue of the Sacred Heart school in Killinarden in my constituency. It is a DEIS school. I am grateful for the fact that the DEIS programme has been essential in addressing the disadvantage in the school. Sacred Heart and the Killinarden area are ninth out of just over 3,000 disadvantaged areas in the country. Therefore, it is an area considered to have high deprivation, but that is not what I want to focus on.…

I thank the Minister of State for the response. My understanding from the school is that the FSSU has got involved a second time. Part of its advice to the school was that it reach out to the community. I want to let the FSSU know, as a TD from the area, that it really needs to grasp the breadth and intensity of the challenges that face the school in this area. It is not possible for this school to reach out to the community for assistance. The ancillary grant in 2023 and 2024 amounted to €8,268, but the school's a…

Jimmy Stynes was a great footballer. He was one of the first sportsmen in Ireland to go to Australia and play Australian rules football. He is the late Jimmy Stynes, I regret to say. He was a neighbour of mine. My claim to fame is that I played a bit of football with him when I was a juvenile. Why am I mentioning him? When I was seven, eight or nine, his mum had a company car. She worked for a company and it was unheard of for a woman to have that kind of position when I was young and to have a company car. It was …

On a point of order, can the Deputy name one neofascist in this Chamber?

Can the Deputy name one neofascist in this Chamber?

In the course of Deputy Devine's contribution, I incorrectly understood or misinterpreted her as referring to people on this side of the House or in the Chamber. I have known her for a long time. We were colleagues on South Dublin County Council and I understand that nothing she said was not allowable under Standing Orders so I apologise unreservedly for that and I hope she accepts that it was said in the spirit of the debate.

You talked about them wasting their time dancing.

You did.

Stop the clock as well, a Cheann Comhairle.

I support a robust Garda response to crime. I support dedicated transport police on our public transport to police it and especially in my constituency of Dublin South-West to police public transport modes like the Luas red line. I support facial recognition technology. I support a ban on masks at public protests. I support the confiscation and destruction of scrambler and quad bikes and scooters, including e-scooters, when they are used to engage in antisocial behaviour and reckless endangerment of people and to c…

He is at a briefing.

He is at a briefing.

He is at a briefing.

I want to put it on the record-----

I am raising the issue of public transport again. This Government and the previous Government committed heretofore unknown and unseen resources into public transport. What I want to raise may initially sound like the failure of a bus route but it points to a larger systems failure which both the Government and the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, need to look at. This is from a constituent working in the city who has no other option but to travel to work by bus, which happens to be the 15B service in Rathfar…

I wish to echo, without repeating, some of the points made by Deputy Hearne about homelessness. The parliamentary reporters could nearly copy and paste his words into my speech. I am not being trite in saying that. The biggest housing issue that is raised in the emails that come into my inbox every week relate to threatened evictions and homelessness. I congratulate the Minister and his team on their appointment. I welcome the election of Deputy Hearne, whose words I have read and listened to with interest. He has …

Bipartisanship, the political process by which opposing political parties find common ground through compromise, has, as we all know, been dying a slow death in the US to the point where it does not exist anymore except, remarkably, on St. Patrick's Day. Republican and Democrat Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen vie with each other to participate in the events relating to what is a unique political day and to make themselves available to Irish politicians of every political hue, North and South. Does the Ta…

Hear, hear.