You know that your party has made a career out of objecting to housing in Dublin.

Look at O'Devaney Gardens, the first affordable house site delivered in more than 20 years.

Your own leader objected to it.

Your leader has objected.

On you.

It is on Sinn Féin.

Yes, but you are weaponising the planning process to block housing delivery.

You are weaponising the planning process.

On Sinn Féin.

We take responsibility for delivering-----

You are well over 30 seconds at this point.

You are well over.

We have heard the speech a couple of times.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for her forbearance and patience with us. I thank Martin and all of the staff of the Seanad Office on behalf of the Fianna Fáil group. It is a tremendous personal honour and privilege for me to serve with all of the Senators. We only operate to our best because of the support we are given by the staff of the Houses and we are eternally grateful. Enjoy your break from us and we will be back with a vengeance in September.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting my Commencement matter. I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad. It is always good to have a return visitor here in the Seanad and he is always very welcome. This morning, I seek an update on the Government's response to the final report of the local democracy task force and particularly its recommendations around strengthening our local democracy and local government and reviewing or potentially revising the local electoral boundaries. At the outset, I thank the counci…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. It would be nice to have a copy of it; we will get it from the transcript. However, I have to say it is terribly disappointing. The Minister of State's response has essentially just described the process. We are all aware of the process. We are all very engaged in and understand how many people participated and contributed, and how many councillors and officials gave of their time, energy and talents to produce a report. The Government has a very significant task and …

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting my Commencement matter this morning. It called for the Government to respond to the final report from the local democracy task force. I submitted that Commencement matter as our party’s spokesperson for local government. It is an issue that I have raised a number of times in the course of the past year. I commended the Government on establishing the local democracy task force and making its work plan time-bound. I commended the councillors, the Association of Irish Local Gove…

I will refrain from joining in the Kerry celebrations. I wish both Kerry and Mayo well. I am hugely disappointed for the boys in blue. We were robbed, obviously, but I will not dwell on that point.

I really hope the Dublin women will achieve justice in Thurles next weekend for the Kerry triumph against the men's team. Last week, the Government announced that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, had acquired the Carlton site on O'Connell Street. I welcome that news. Anybody arriving in Dublin from Mayo, Kerry or any part of the country will come up O'Connell Street. For almost 30 years, that site has been more or less derelict. The Government has a massive opportunity now to develop the site. It has been acq…

Yesterday, the jury in the case of the stabbing of the little girl on Parnell Square came back with a guilty verdict. I acknowledge the jury's work. I welcome the guilty verdict. In 15 seconds on 23 November 2023, the world changed for a little girl, her family and all of the community of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire. It absolutely shook our community. The verdict will not turn back the clock but I really do hope it brings some sense of justice to the little girl's family and the whole community of Gaelscoil Choláist…