Like my colleague, I have always been supportive of the local post office. We recognise the importance of the local post office. I have told the story in this House of how I always believed that a visit to the post office took about two and a half hours because I remember my grandmother going to collect the pension and coming back two and a half hours later. I remember one of my first visits to the post office and being astonished that I was in and out within three or four minutes unlike my grandmother who was coll…

As I was reading through the entire Bill earlier today and over the weekend, memories started flooding back into my mind, stories of my grandparents, their parents, the republican struggles and the stories of their involvement in republicanism in Cork. In the house where I grew up, The Wolfe Tones was the only record played on a regular basis. I welcome this Bill. I truly do because it has merit. There are problems with it. There are little bits and pieces that need tweaking. I appeal to the Government to have an o…

Scoil Padre Pio in Churchfield, Cork, is a DEIS plus school catering for five special needs classes. They are operating in prefabs installed in 2005. The prefabs are now costing the State roughly €110,000 per year to maintain. Additionally, despite the energy grants, it is costing the school about €34,000 per year to heat those prefabs with storage heaters. The school has been stuck at stage 2 for the last three years. It has not been accepted onto the list for 2026-27. I invite the Tánaiste, along with the Ministe…

I acknowledge Aontú for tabling this motion in good faith. It names a crisis that is biting every man, woman and child in this country. Families with two incomes are working harder than their parents ever did and having less to show for it. Grocery bills are up 40%, energy bills are up nearly 60% and rent is at a level unthinkable ten years ago. The diagnosis, like much of this motion, is correct. However, the correct diagnosis followed by the wrong prescription does not cure the patient. The hard truth this House …

I am sure that the Taoiseach will join me in welcoming the Mayfield chit chat group, which is celebrating its second birthday in Leinster House.

My ladies from Mayfield. As the Taoiseach is aware, 54% of submissions made to the European Commission from all member states regarding the EU whistleblower directive came from Ireland. That is a huge and unusual amount. We had 15 whistleblowers in Leinster House last week. A number of them outlined that they were still not happy with whistleblower law in this country. They made submissions on that to the Taoiseach. What training is now given to the Garda Síochána? Have gardaí received training? The previous Minist…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion to the floor. It is one of the more important motions we have spoken on. It is 36 minutes past midnight in the House. That is a great testament to everybody who has stayed here to contribute to the debate and be part of the debate. Childcare is one of the biggest issues that hits us at the doorsteps, certainly at the last general election. As my colleague just said, I was listening to people who said with great hope that childcare would be €200. Those people feel extremely…

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply to both of us. I appreciate what the Tánaiste is saying. He has had 30 meetings, as he said. There are questions to be answered, however. While I agree with and welcome the entire scheme as it is important to get people, especially younger people saving and into that routine, it does need to be thrashed out by the Oireachtas. I suspect we may need legislation on it. The questions I want to put to the Tánaiste, and I think these are the questions on everybody’s lips, are: what exac…

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I appreciate he is going to open consultation with, and have a briefing for, the Opposition. I think there will be a lot of support across the House for that. I again ask the Tánaiste to look at the UK’s individual savings account, ISA, in respect of which a commitment has been given, in the wake of having met the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There is a problem with taxation. At the moment, if a person invests €10,000, for example, and that person is being taxed on it every eight…

I am sure the Tánaiste will join me by offering his sympathies and the sympathies of the Government on the passing of Sr. Colette Hickey, who passed away at the age of 108. She was the founder of Edel House Cork and the first winner of the 1993 Cork Person of the Year Award for the tremendous work she did for our city. This week, we have reports in the press of 265 people aged 65 or older living in emergency accommodation. A total of 146 of them live in Dublin alone. These are men and women who should be well settl…

I am looking forward to meeting Valerie O'Sullivan, our city chief executive, and informing her that the Government will make moneys available for housing plans for older people. There is another elephant in the room which I want to make the Government aware of, that is, people who lost their houses back in the 2008 to 2009 period. They are now in rented accommodation and back on their feet. Some of them have restarted businesses. Some of them are back working but they are renting. A number of these people are rapi…

I congratulate Deputy Charles Ward on tabling this motion in the House. I am aware of the tremendous work he has done on redress and I want to acknowledge that here today. This motion goes to the heart of trust between the State and the homeowners affected by defective concrete. The defective concrete grant scheme allows foundations to be retained under IS 465:2026 but the research behind the standard has already found that minerals have been discovered in concrete, with early signs of internal oxidation and sulpha…

Some 43 years ago, the killing of Declan Flynn shocked Ireland. There were thousands who marched through Dublin afterwards to refuse to accept violence against gay people. I speak today as a gay man and I am proud of the history and of the rights the gay and lesbian community has won over those years. That violence did not end in 1982. In 2022, Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee were tragically murdered in County Sligo, because they were gay men. Their deaths are proof that hatred towards this community is not a thing …

My colleague has spoken about the positives and negatives of AI. I want to concentrate more on the technicalities of the Bill. I want to be clear from the outset what this Bill is and what it is not. Whatever we are being told it is certainly not a modest piece of housekeeping. Indeed, it is a scaffolding for an entire, new, State-run, artificial intelligence regulator, a Bill which now has 139 sections and four schedules, a statutory body and a sanctions regime reaching €35 million, or up to 7% of a company’s glob…

Action 1.7 of the LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2021 contains a commitment to taking into account LGBTI+ needs in public libraries and compiling and updating a reading list under the Healthy Ireland at Your Library initiative. That includes reading materials recommended for children as young as 12. Will the Tánaiste indicate who exactly reviews the reading list and the age-appropriateness of the material on it before it goes to libraries, which are serving children as young as 12? What Minister, Department or agen…

Cork alone has 1,788 derelict properties. Nationally, nearly 19,000 homes sit idle while people sleep on sofas or in their cars, working adults are in their parents' box rooms and there will be over 17,000 people in homeless services tonight. The Government has a derelict levy which is obviously not working. The Government has watched some of the local authorities fail to collect a single cent. The Minister for Finance is now blaming local government. It is worth noting that 31 of the local authorities are largely …

In this case, the Government is blaming its Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors.

The matter that has caused great distress in communities and volunteer organisations across this country is a sudden collapse of tickets.ie . Last week, organisers who logged in to draw down moneys owed to them, moneys that had already been paid by ordinary people buying tickets in good faith, were met instead with a webpage telling them that the company, Tickets.ie, and Oshi Software Limited had ceased trading and were heading into liquidation. There was no warning and no telephone call, only a webpage telling the…

The reality is that the Minister will have to come up with something in respect of these groups. Many of the festivals will not survive. Some have gone ahead or will go ahead but they are carrying huge deficits. They will go into liquidation. Some are limited companies, some are parish councils and some are community organisations. We will have a serious deficit if the Government does not invest in our festivals and does not come up with emergency funding or an emergency package. I have written to the Minister and …

Last week, the Minister for children, Norma Foley, said that she was not familiar with the sexually explicit book What's the T? when asked whether it was appropriate for a recommendation by the State-funded body and promoted by Raidió Teilifís Éireann to children as young as 15. Since then, the former Minister, Charlie Flanagan, has publicly stated that he raised concerns with the Minister, Deputy Foley, in December 2023. He asked her to read that book. The question is: which is it? Is it the word of the Minister f…