Níl aon deacracht ann.

Today, the Taoiseach will ram through his legislation for the highest number of super junior and junior Ministers in the history of the State. I refer to the jobs-for-the-boys-and-girls Bill that will give rise to bumper top-ups in salaries and expenses for all involved, including a pay hike of €45,000, additional expenses of €32,000 and salaries of €200,000 for super junior Ministers. The divvying up of this power is, of course, part of the grubby deal the Government struck with Deputy Michael Lowry. I do not thin…

Ten minutes?

Jesus.

You want ten minutes of me.

I am more than happy to speak for ten minutes; I have a lot to say. Forty thousand is the number of new homes the Taoiseach and Simon Harris said they would build last year. It is a number that was repeated again and again throughout 2024, going into overdrive in the lead-up to last November’s general election. Let me recall for the Taoiseach some of his bluster. On social media in October, he said the country was coming close to having 40,000 homes built in 2024. On Virgin Media, again in October, he said "we've n…

For the first time, the Taoiseach and, by extension, the Government have openly accepted that they have missed their targets. I suppose that is progress of some sort. The fact remains that the Taoiseach deliberately and repeatedly used a figure of 40,000 new homes for 2024 when he has to have known that this was not going to be delivered. He cites Deutsche Bank but he knows that by the final quarter, the CSO, ESRI, the Central Bank itself, all of that data reflected that 40,000 was always fictitious. It was never r…

Oh wow.

They are not agreed.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Contrary to the Taoiseach's assertion, the actual priority for this new cobbled-together grubby-deal Government is actually jobs for the boys, and for the few girls who might be lucky enough to make an appearance. Its desire to divvy out the spoils of government is unparalleled in the history of this House. The Order of Business proposes more positions, more allowances and more expense for the taxpayer but the Government wants all of this without even basic pre-legislative scrutiny. The…

ESB Group is enormously profitable. It receives significant funding from the taxpayer by way of the public service obligation levy. Yesterday, the CEO of the ESB stated that the cost of repairing damage to the network caused by the recent storm would be borne by customers in their bills. We have previously discussed the hardship that has been wrought by the storm, where so many of the ESB's customers went without power for weeks. Indeed, some 17,000 remain without power. Remember that over the past four years, ESB …

If you walk down Henry Street in Dublin, just outside Dunnes Stores you will find two plaques. The plaques are inscribed with the names of 11 courageous Dunnes Stores workers who went on strike in 1984 and took to the picket lines in protest against the company's handling of goods from apartheid South Africa. For more than two and a half years, Mary Manning and her colleagues sustained their inspirational stand. It was a stand which directly led to the then Government introducing a ban on the importation of goods f…

The assertion by US President Donald Trump, the leader of the free world, that the dispossessed, impoverished and brutalised refugee population of Gaza should be permanently exiled to facilitate Israeli occupation and those wishing to construct a dystopian riviera is astounding in its cruelty and demonstrates utter disregard for human rights and international law. The only way to stop Israel is to sanction Israel. Just as Ireland took the lead by sanctioning apartheid South Africa in 1987, it must take the lead tod…

What are they?

Explain them.

We can tut-tut if we want to.

You should have set out your rationale.

Absolute waffle.

It is not agreed. I want to raise again the issue of suspending the House for two weeks. It has been quite some time since the election. We all know that there are huge challenges facing the country and, indeed, an expectation that we all get down to work. I see no reason and no rationale for a further two-week delay. In fact, people will regard it as quite scandalous, given the time-wasting so far, that we would rise for a further two weeks. We object to the Government proposal on that basis.

I do welcome the fact the Government has now, finally, acknowledged that there has to be a differentiation between Government and Opposition-----