I understand the need to get the money to where it needs to be. With the greatest of respect, the Minister does not need to do a review to understand that kids who are in foster care are among the most likely to be experiencing deprivation. They are effectively in the care of the State. I urge the Minister to look at that again because the means test is unfair. We are not talking in the context of a large budget. We are not talking about a large amount of money. I understand that big budgets are made up of many sma…

The child poverty monitor published recently by the Children's Rights Alliance makes for very depressing and alarming reading. Far from being equal to its commitment to tackling child poverty, the Government is overseeing a rise in rates of child poverty. The Minister and I both know that the only way to address this issue in any meaningful way is through in-cash payments that are targeted directly at those who need them. I ask him to outline his plans in this regard.

My worry is that we have had targets previously and they were missed by a mile. A concerted effort is needed. When we talk about deprivation and child poverty, we are talking about households in which members are unable to afford two pairs of properly fitting shoes that are in good condition and suitable for daily activities, or a warm waterproof coat. It is unimaginable that poverty on this scale is happening in the State when it really does not need to be occurring. The statistics show who needs to be targeted, i…

The Minister must acknowledge that the direction of travel is not good, as we see from the SILC data. I respect what he is saying and it may be that the data starts going in a different direction, but I do not believe it will. A lot of the investment he mentioned involved one-off, non-recurring payments to deal with an acute cost-of-living crisis. That crisis has not gone away and is still acute. The Government is saying there will be no one-off measures in the next budget. How will it tackle the rates of child pov…

I thank the Deputies for tabling this motion and giving us the chance to have this discussion. The Minister of State said the implementation of the new fares strategy is making fares fairer. It is for some people, definitely, but for the people I represent in Dublin Fingal West, since Darragh O'Brien became transport Minister, the cost of commuting from Balbriggan and Skerries has increased by over €400 per annum. The cost for children using public transport has increased by 300%. I welcome that the NTA will look a…

The Taoiseach had five minutes. If he did have an answer, he could have given it in five minutes.

It sometimes strikes me that if it was not for incompetence, there would be no competence at all with this Government. There are 15,500 people homeless. Of those, 5,000 are children. That is evidence for anyone with eyes to see that the Government’s policy is failing. They do not need us to tell them - Government members should be able to see that for themselves. I am sure they do not go home in the evening when they have finished work and think they are proud of those homeless figures. I am sure that when they ref…

Hear, hear.

In 2004 the Sunday Independent reported on the Rostrevor nursing home in Rathgar. It had obtained a report that was dated August 2000. That report described the facility as being dirty and grubby throughout. It referenced an elderly man being fed his meals on a commode. Further inspections revealed that health board recommendations had not been implemented. A frail elderly man was found cold and unkempt. The report said that there was little evidence of continence wear provision for clients. The indignity of this i…

Housing crisis.

Suigh síos. An embarrassment.

Your time is up. Go on, you are out of ideas.

Do you want to phone a friend?

He did not say that.

The Minister of State has some neck to move that amendment. I thank Deputy Gould for bringing forward the motion and for all his work on this issue. There are 126 boarded-up homes in Fingal County Council's area. That amounts to 500 men, women and children who could be housed. Can the Minister of State imagine what it must be like for people to walk past those houses when they are living in overcrowded and unsuitable accommodation that absolutely interferes with their ability to live a decent life? They walk down t…

Climate change is here. The Minister of State knows this. It is very real. Coastal towns in constituencies like mine are very much on the front line of this emergency. Extreme weather is inevitable and the Government’s record on climate preparedness is absolutely shocking. Yesterday, The Irish Times reported that the EPA has published its latest projections in respect of Ireland’s climate targets for 2030. Those projections are very bad news for Ireland. The State has the worst emissions levels per capita in Europe…

I thank Deputy Duncan Smith for moving this motion. We in Sinn Féin are proud to be co-signatories. I send my solidarity to Sophie Ní Choimín, atá ar stailc ocrais anois. Earlier this month, Dr. Trish Scanlan reminded us in the audiovisual room that for death to be counted by the Gazan health Ministry, three criteria must be fulfilled: the person must have died as a result of a violent attack; the person must be presented to a hospital; and someone must be able to identify the person. These criteria do not include …

I was in Liberty Hall when Clerys closed down. I remember the shock of the workers. They were completely shell-shocked. In any man's language, we could call it a tactical insolvency. The response of the Government through the Minister for labour at the time, Joan Burton, was to turn Liberty Hall into a dole office. She just gave the workers advice on how to access social welfare. She said there was nothing there for them and she certainly was not prepared to do anything for them. We see this again and again. There …

Parents are very worried tonight. They are worried that their child might have had an unnecessary operation. They look to the Government for answers but all they seem to get is an endless commentary. I heard the Minister's commentator-in-chief, her boss, the Tánaiste on the news earlier. He was outraged. He described, in detail, the long lists of all the people whom he thinks should have been paying attention, conveniently forgetting his own role as a former Minister for Health and the role of his own Government in…

I thank the Minister for heckling me.