For Grace Lynch, last Sunday began like any other. Spending time with her family, having breakfast, talking about her plans for the day, texting friends and having the craic with her sisters and baby brother. Later, on Sunday afternoon, Grace went to meet her boyfriend. She never came home. As she crossed the Ratoath Road a short distance from her home, Grace was mowed down by a scrambler bike. Hit at full speed and with full force, her body was thrown across the road. She was rushed to Connolly Hospital where doct…

Of course, there are no words of consolation that can in any way reflect the loss of Siobhán and Martin, Grace's wider family, her community and her friends too. Of course, that is the case. Her life was lost needlessly and, as I said, it was predictable. It was predictable that a life would be lost and yet the law dragged its feet. I hope the Taoiseach hears that anger from Finglas. The people in that community have their arms around Grace's family and they will mind them but, no more than the communities in Bally…

Get you out of government.

What does the Government have against renters? Its new legislation guts rent pressure zones and allows rents to be reset to full market levels between tenancies. From 1 March, this will have the effect of driving rents even higher. Who demanded the introduction of the Bill that has been brought forward? It was not renters, who are drowning under record rents, or small or medium-sized landlords. The Bill was written for one group only, namely the vulture funds and corporate landlords that are gouging renters month a…

And new tenancies.

I wrote to the Taoiseach this morning regarding Bord Bia's chair, Larry Murrin, whose position I now believe to be completely untenable given that his company was importing Brazilian beef. I hope he will act on my letter. The childcare system is in crisis.

I am about to bring up my issue now.

I was merely informing the Taoiseach of a piece of correspondence.

I do not think the defensive response is entirely necessary, but how and ever, people can judge that for themselves.

Unaffordable fees are crippling families. Parents, in many cases, pay the equivalent of a mortgage each month. Across the State, as the Taoiseach knows, there are nearly 50,000 children on waiting lists denied a childcare place. Many parents find themselves relying on family members to mind their children while they are at work. Some are forced to cut back on their hours or consider leaving their jobs entirely. Now we hear that mounting cost pressures have seen nearly 1,000 early childcare facilities close their do…

What is that all about?

The Taoiseach, of course, sabotaged my efforts but there you go.

The nub of it is, the Taoiseach promised affordable childcare and he has not delivered it. He failed to produce the childcare places that are necessary and I would like to know what he is going to do about this in the here and now, not in 2027 or 2028.

Families are struggling, children are left without places. What is the Taoiseach's response now? Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.

That is what global means.

Obviously I have hit a bit of a nerve there with the Taoiseach. Maybe it is just me, but I do not think a chair of Bord Bia whose company was importing Brazilian beef stands on credible ground. That is a view that I hold and I know that will be held by many farmers and people beyond that. On the childcare issue, the Government is not serious about providing the right number of places. There are 50,000 children now waiting for a place. The Taoiseach's big idea is to provide only 800 places over the next number of ye…

Finally, he has done nothing on core funding. He had a specific promise in the programme for Government to review core funding, and to raise it, but there was not a gíog from him.

The Taoiseach is not serious about childcare. He is quite happy to let working families struggle and to have children left behind.

Some 1,000 providers have closed. Did the Taoiseach miss that?

You might stop the clock and put it back to-----