I join in the welcome to our visitors from the west. They are very welcome. They are in great company with the esteemed Senator Crowe and I hope he looks after them well. I am sure he will. I have just heard the very sad news that Brother Kevin Crowley has passed away. Kevin Crowley hailed from Cork and he passed away in his home county. He came to my constituency of Dublin Central many years ago. It is very sad news. For 56 years, Kevin, the volunteers and the people in the Capuchin Day Centre have never turned an…

I welcome that history will be made in the Oireachtas this afternoon when the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade commences pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (prohibition of importation of goods) Bill 2025. The legislation is an opportunity for us, as a very small country, to lead the international community on this issue and to make history. Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, and, ultimately, its passing, will assert our solidarity w…

Hear, hear.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I appreciate the Minister of State's attendance. This is an important issue. Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire is a primary school that has been located in temporary facilities - the Minister of State may struggle to believe this - for 23 years. To give a perspective on the human impact of that amount of time, the principal, Paul Hansard, a very fine principal and school teacher, attended the school himself. He went to secondary school, college, became a teacher and has been the principa…

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that he has been sent with a reply from the Minister for Education and Youth. It is disappointing that the Minister herself is not here, considering the importance of this school project and the unacceptable delays with it. The reply the Minister of State has been provided with - I thank him for sharing it with the House - basically confirms everything we all know. I ask him to go back to the Minister and her officials and specifically request that she Minister will meet …

I return to the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and continue to express our concerns for the human atrocities being perpetrated there. We have moved to a point where we are not talking about women, children and men dying of starvation. We are talking about them dying of thirst. Water is something we take for granted. I reiterate our criticism of the division within the EU in its approach to tackling this war. I appreciate that the EU is unified in its commitment to a ceasefire and the provision of humanitarian aid an…

I welcome the approval yesterday by the Government of the city task force, a plan for Dublin city. This is a really important moment in the history of our capital. The plan has three primary objectives, namely, to get more people living in the city, to have safer and cleaner public streets and public spaces. and to have an always-on vibrant city that respects our heritage. They are three no-brainer objectives that we should all be able to get behind. We first called for a dedicated authority to regenerate the inner…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House and for the work he and his Department have done to bring forward this interim legislation. With almost 250,000 registered tenancies in the country, an awful lot of people living in rented accommodation need what the Minister is promising to deliver through this legislation and all the other work he is doing: certainty, stability and clarity. It is important that people have security and know they have a home that meets their needs. I know the Minister understands the cr…

Now.

On a point of clarification, the amendment is well-intentioned and we all share the objective of reducing the cost of rent and homes and making them more affordable for everyone, but do the Members who are proposing the amendment have analysis of what the impact would be? Is it something they could share with us?

I offer my deepest sympathies and condolences to the family of Carmencita Hederman. Carmencita served as a Dublin city councillor for 25 years and she served in the Seanad. I had the pleasure of serving with her daughter Wendy on Dublin City Council. I offer my deepest sympathies to her family and friends at this time. I have raised Dublin city a number of times in this Chamber. I welcome the announcement from the Taoiseach that he intends to bring a memo to Government next week to establish a Dublin city task forc…

It absolutely misrepresented the work of the drugs committee, the intention of the drugs committee and, most importantly, the Fianna Fáil Members in this House, in the Lower House and on the committee. I ask that those comments be retracted.

On a point of order, it is really important that in this House, when we discuss issues, we do so in an accurate and objective way. It is misrepresenting the situation to suggest that taking a health-led approach is soft on drugs, and that is exactly what the Senator said.

It is not a soft-----

It is not. It is objectively not.

Senator-----

It is not. It is inviting the Senator to engage in informed debate-----

-----to actually progress the debate and to progress the issue.

It is a really serious issue-----

-----that merits-----