I set out for the Taoiseach a story that I think is very worrying. The teachers' unions are expressing alarm over the fact that teachers are relocating from Dublin because they cannot afford to live here. They cannot afford the rents. They cannot afford to get a mortgage. These are the facts on the ground. I asked the Taoiseach whether he shared concerns about this. I asked him what is the Government's assessment of this phenomenon. I asked furthermore whether he will meet the teaching unions on this matter. I aske…

Yes but I asked the Taoiseach about teachers.

I am well aware of that.

Yes. Well, any answer, whether in 30 seconds or two seconds, would be great.

I have raised with the Taoiseach many times the real stress on families now with the costs of getting children back to school in September. I have also acknowledged that it is welcome that the back to school allowance has been increased by €100. We also ask that this allowance be extended. Many middle-income families are struggling badly, and they will not qualify for one red cent. I want the Taoiseach to reconsider this and to make the allowance available to those households. We reckon that 500,000 additional chil…

We could all meet on Bere Island.

The horrific outcomes of sub-standard Celtic-tiger building practices and the widespread use of blocks and backfill with deleterious materials such as pyrite, mica and pyrrhotite remain with us today. Last week, we witnessed in the Chamber the heartbreak and devastation of families let down by the Government's substandard defective blocks legislation, but today I want to raise the issue of a large apartment development in my constituency called Ivy Exchange. It was built during a time of reckless building practices…

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth first contacted the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach seeking an investigation into the leaking of details of the mother and baby homes commission of investigation report in January 2021. We have subsequently raised the outcome of this investigation on a number of occasions but to no avail. The Taoiseach has, in fact, accepted our concerns with regard to the Government's protection of such sensitive documentation and informati…

As was recognised at the World Economic Forum, the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis. In reality, we have yet to experience the full impact of Russia's entrenched aggression against Ukraine on Europe's energy supply. Collectively, we face a massive challenge to counter climate change, forge a new path in energy production and secure a cleaner future for our island. The cornerstones of our strategy can and must be energy independence, security and affordability. The State has to be the driver of the str…

It is a 15-minute slot. Sinn Féin tabled its motion of no confidence in the Government opposite because we believe that change is needed now more than ever. The Government in those benches is out of touch, clearly out of ideas and now out of time - a Government that is unravelling before our very eyes, which has lost the support of the people, if indeed it ever had it. Last week it lost its Dáil majority. Now the Taoiseach scrambles to get the votes to win a confidence motion. The writing is on the wall for him. Th…

It is one designed to prop up extortionate house prices and to saddle people with additional debt, and the Taoiseach boasts that people in desperation will reach for that measure. That is nauseating. The scourge of homelessness is back to record levels. People in families who never thought that they would ever be in such an horrific situation find themselves in emergency accommodation, if they can get emergency accommodation. Children still grow up in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation robbed of a decent ch…

Let me suggest that the Minister be at the front of the queue when this Government packs its bags to go. It is time now for a housing Minister who will implement policies that turn the tide with a housing strategy that really matches the scale of the challenge because housing can be fixed. There is no doubt about that-----

-----but it will require a new Government with the right priorities-----

-----making the right choices. Simply put, we need a government that builds public homes on public land at a massive scale and these must be homes-----

-----that ordinary people can afford to rent or buy.

Strike two against this failed Government relates to health. Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, so many are denied the medical care that they badly need. Our hospitals are chronically overcrowded and we have a never-ending trolley crisis. Waiting lists have ballooned to record levels. Children with conditions, such as scoliosis or spina bifida, wait years for life-changing surgery. Mental health and disability services are on the floor as families and communities cry out for help. Despite all the promises of change, …

The Government will instead wait for 12 weeks before intervening. Ministers are quick to homilise and to tell those of us in opposition that we do not have a monopoly on empathy for people who are suffering.

I agree with that, but a government does not get to stop at empathy. The Government does not get to empathise and then do nothing for people who are overwhelmed by a cost-of-living crisis, the likes of which we have not seen since the 1980s. It is the responsibility of Government to act because empathy without help or action is pity. Workers and families do not want the pity of Government; they want solutions and relief. They want a government that is fit and capable of doing its job. Individually, each of these fa…

I speak directly to the Independent Deputies whose support keeps this week an ineffective Government in power. We have all had ringside seats to witness the repeated incompetence of this coalition. These parties have failed the people of the Independent Deputies' constituencies and all they get from them are shrugs of the shoulders, excuses, alibis and heckling - they are good at that. Let me ask the Independent Deputies in all sincerity: is that good enough for the people they represent? Can they honestly look the…

With their eyes wide open, that is the question each of the Independent Deputies will answer with his or her vote today.