I am the only person respecting the visitors.

Is the Minister of State watching the reaction in the Gallery? The visitors know, as I do, that what he said is wrong.

There is an immediate need for the Government to intervene to end the delay in evacuating very sick and injured children from Gaza to Ireland for urgent medical treatment. Last year, as the Taoiseach knows, the Government agreed to evacuate 30 of these children. There were two successful evacuations of 12 children in December and May. However, the vital evacuation of the remaining 18 children has been stopped due to bureaucratic wrangling within Government Departments over visas. At least eight children were identi…

No child is safe in Gaza. The Israeli genocide has mercilessly slaughtered children with abandon and the international community has watched on. The commitment made by this State and Government is a very modest one to take 30 children. They should be evacuated with all due haste. According to the medics who will treat these children, not alone have eight children been identified by the World Health Organization and the HSE as needing urgent care, but the assessments are complete, the doctors are ready and the hospi…

By the way, I have been in contact with the Tánaiste and he informed me that there was in fact a necessity-----

-----for a memo to Cabinet. I do not know what the communications are like within Government; I am not really interested in that. I am interested in the children-----

-----and the need to evacuate them now for the treatment they need.

Anois.

They are not wrong.

This is not about me; it is about the children in Gaza.

What will students and their families be asked to pay for college in September? Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? The Minister for higher education last night claimed that he believes in giving straight answers to a straight question, and then delivered a ten-minute speech in which he gaslit students and failed to answer that question at all. We have now had ten days of Government Ministers, including the Taoiseach, refusing to give a straight answer to that simple question. It is the question that was on the lips of st…

That is in October.

The most recent meeting of the European Council placed a heavy focus on the ramping-up of EU defence readiness. Of course, under the Commission Presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, the term "defence readiness" is simply code for the acceleration of a militarisation agenda, an agenda that pushes Europe into a new arms race, an agenda that will see the European Union spend an unprecedented €800 billion on arms. These are all signs of a European Union going in the wrong direction. Russia's criminal invasion of Ukraine,…

Indeed, the Tánaiste's plan to align Ireland with the von der Leyen Commission's new EU militarisation instrument, security action for Europe, shows exactly why our neutrality must be defended to the hilt. We are talking about a proposal that would raid the coffers of EU social funds for €150 billion and redirect that money to military purposes.

The ordinary people of Ireland will not surrender our neutrality just so Micheál Martin or Simon Harris can get a pat on the head from the high and mighty at the European Commission. The mothers and fathers of Ireland did not raise their sons and daughters to be sent off and die-----

-----in imperialist wars of aggression, in conflicts that have nothing to do with this country because, make no mistake, that is where the plan of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to demolish our neutrality leads us. That is where von der Leyen's turbo-charged militarisation leads us. So, with everything we have got, we are going to stand up and defend our neutrality and in doing so, we will safeguard the future for our people, a future of hope over fear, a future of diplomacy over conflict, a future of peace over war. I …

Cuirim fáilte roimh Bridie McNally, who is here with us today. It is her birthday and she is here with a group of very lively women from County Monaghan. Fáilte agus breithlá shona duit, Bridie. She is also Deputy Bennett's mother - I should probably have said that. Can the Taoiseach be straight with students and their parents? Can he tell them when they get their bill for their college fees in September how much they will be asked to pay? Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? That is the very simple question that has been …

It is nine days since the Taoiseach's Minister took to the national airwaves to announce that there would be a hike in student fees. He did that. He took that initiative.

Those very families the Taoiseach describes - working families and families on middle incomes - are now left in a situation where the Taoiseach cannot answer a straightforward question. It is a question they need an answer to now because they have to plan their finances for their young people going to university and college and accessing the places he has described. It is incredible that he cannot answer a straightforward question. Is it €2,000 or €3,000? I invite him again to answer that question directly because …

They want to know what fees they are going to pay.