I resisted in my opening remarks citing the children's hospital, but I now feel moved to do so as it is the example of the type of incompetence and waste we have seen writ large. It all has its foundations in a Government culture of utter disregard for public money, which is reflected in the response the Taoiseach gave. He said that all of this is incomprehensible, not acceptable and not good enough and then that someone else has to answer for it. I value the National Gallery and it has to do its job and give its a…

I asked whether this matter was raised at Cabinet.

I want to know what the Taoiseach and the Government will do-----

-----about this and other instances of waste like this.

Says the man who does not build consistent levels of social housing.

Who is responsible for that?

The ultimate check and balance in the Oireachtas is, of course, that the Opposition holds the Government to account. Central to this are slots for Leaders Questions and Priority Questions that are the Opposition's opportunity to hold the Taoiseach and his Government to account, yet they persist in holding that logic on its head, the most basic premise upon which we carry out our democratic business. They gave us their word that the Government would withdraw its proposals to placate Deputy Michael Lowry and his coll…

It is unacceptable. It will not fly. I am on my feet to make that clear to the Taoiseach.

The parents of children with special needs face a constant battle to find school places for their children. The idea that any child is forced into a lottery for the chance of getting a school place is unthinkable, and yet it is happening. The child's future is down to the luck of the draw. The child whose number does not come up is left behind. The mother of Jay Meehan from Waterford is quoted today in the media as saying it is like playing the EuroMillions for her child's future. Parents are frustrated, exhausted …

Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. That is a very generous allocation.

Access to general practitioners is under pressure right across the State but particularly in some areas of very grave disadvantage, one of which is Summerhill in Dublin 1. For the past eight years the Summerhill Family Practice operated by the charity GP Care For All, has provided 2,632 people with GP services in the north inner city. That service is under threat because of Revenue rules. This matter has been brought to the attention of the Ministers for Finance, public expenditure and reform, and Health. There has…

I raise with the Taoiseach the remarks made by the US President - or I should say the threat made by the US President - in respect of the Gaza Strip, in which he openly countenanced the mass expulsion of the Palestinian population and the annexation and seizure of those lands and their development, he seemed to suggest, into some form of Riviera. I would like the Taoiseach to agree with me that any such threat runs directly against the protections of international law and humanitarian law for a refugee population. …

"Housing delivery is the number one priority for this Government." That is the opening line of the statement issued by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste following the first meeting of the Cabinet committee on housing. From this meeting, they had promised a slate of new and dynamic ideas, they said, to tackle the housing crisis, but that has not materialised. In fact, they have brought nothing new at all. The truth is that the Government's housing plan is in freefall after its figure of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was di…

I can only surmise that the Taoiseach wishes to deflect and comment on Sinn Féin's policies because he knows he has been caught out. He has been found out. He spoofed during the election campaign. He presented a work of fiction. It was fact flexibility from Fianna Fáil. What a novel thing - not. Now he is in the hot seat again and there is an expectation of delivery and he is showing no serious intent, much less any capacity, to actually deliver the affordable homes that working people require at scale, and no real…

The Government has missed social and affordable housing targets every single year on the Taoiseach's watch and the typical home, as I told him, is €200,000 more expensive than it was over a decade ago.

The Taoiseach claims progress but the residential property price index demonstrates-----

-----prices are up by 8.7% in the last 12 months.

You are failing, Taoiseach. Why do you not just stand up and accept that fact?

Who is in government?

How long is the Taoiseach in government?