I find that hard to believe.

My God.

During consideration of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act last year Sinn Féin proposed, in an amendment, that appointments to the Climate Change Advisory Council should take the form of a public appointments process, based on the process of appointment to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Our amendment was rejected by the Government. It cannot be news to the Taoiseach that it is the general expectation that a transparent public appointments process is in place for such appo…

In response to my colleague Deputy Pearse Doherty two weeks ago, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Simon Coveney, stated unequivocally that the families of the victims of abuse at Ard Gréine Court in Stranorlar, County Donegal, deserve to get the full truth and to see the full Brandon report; not an executive summary or an extended executive summary but the full report. Leaks of this report to the media tell us that there were 118 occurrences of sexually inappropriate behaviour, which impacted 18 victims, al…

The Taoiseach and I have previously discussed the unintended consequences of the programme for Government commitment in regard to the children's disability network teams. Full-time therapies have been taken out of some special schools, to be accessed instead through community HSE services. This policy has had negative outcomes for children and I know the Taoiseach shares some of my concern in that regard. I want to raise again the outstanding issues at Carmona School in Glenageary. I thank the Taoiseach for pursuin…

I send all of our best wishes to our colleague the Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, and wish him a full and speedy recovery. The failure of the Government to plan for the Covid surge has created substantial pressure. GP services are overwhelmed, and schools are struggling. In large swathes of the country, people cannot get a PCR test while the Government still dithers on antigen testing. In our hospitals, especially ICUs, we see the sharpest impact. The capacity crisis in ICUs did not happen overnight. A HSE-comm…

Despite the Taoiseach's attempts to reassure or to advance the pretence that we have enough capacity in our hospitals, the evidence is that we had staff protesting outside Connolly hospital and, for example, in Limerick hospital other beds are being repurposed for use as ICU beds. It is very clear the capacity falls well short of what is needed and that fact was established as far back as 2009. The fact also is that there was not an ICU bed for that transplant operation to occur, which was very traumatic for all co…

They are not agreed. There are serious questions now arising right across the State in regard to testing capacity. People could not book a PCR test yesterday in Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Waterford, and we are getting similar reports from across the country. Meanwhile, the Government is dithering still on antigen testing. We need to make time for the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to come before the House to make a statement on this matter and to take questions. There is, as was said earlier, huge…

According to the Taoiseach, there is no problem with testing.

It is not agreed.

That is not sufficient.

Not agreed.

Last week, the Government effectively shut down the late-night economy. Four weeks from Christmas, thousands of workers and businesses are now prevented from earning the money that pays their bills, yet at its meeting yesterday the Cabinet economic sub-committee did not even consider restoring the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. How does the Taoiseach expect these workers to make ends meet? Businesses also face great uncertainty as cuts to the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, are scheduled to kick in from …

As the Taoiseach noted, the social impact assessment framework examines the demographic profile of public services users and how they are impacted by the Government's budgetary decisions. We are told these assessments should complement other budget impact assessments such as equality budgeting, which was first introduced as a pilot scheme four years ago. The 2019 OECD scan of equality budgeting in Ireland highlighted significant challenges and shortfalls in the initiative's structure and implementation. The OECD re…

Will the Taoiseach clarify whether it is the intention of Government to implement in full the OECD's equality budgeting recommendations?

Last night the Taoiseach announced measures to curb the Covid-19 surge. Nobody wanted a backwards step in the progress won over a long, hard and often heartbreaking 18 months. We now find ourselves in a very difficult situation. Difficult situations require decisive leadership, forward planning and thoughtful management, all of which are absent from the Taoiseach’s Government. Indeed, there has been Government paralysis facing into this wave of infection. The surge in Covid-19 numbers did not happen overnight. Publ…

He was not giving them-----

It is a source of deep regret to me that not alone can Mícheál Martin's Government not take decisive action, but that he is singularly unable to answer very straightforward questions again.

The facts are these: the Government is behind the curve on antigen testing and on the booster programme and the facts stack that up.

Attacking me and conjuring up all of this does not prove anything. Let us deal with the most immediate matter at hand. The Government has taken a decision which shuts down late-night industries, such as events, hospitality etc. This is going to have an impact on thousands of workers who can no longer earn their living. I ask the Taoiseach to forget his political smoke and mirrors, and I put it to him as a matter of just straightforward fairness that those workers and businesses have to be supported.