We will see all right.

We will see all right. I look forward-----

I look forward to the debate that will ensue-----

-----when we place our costed, thoughtful, deliverable plan-----

-----that is directed at delivering affordable homes for families, as well as affordable rents and finally tackling the scourge of homelessness. It is a plan rooted in concern for citizens and communities and not kowtowing to the high and mighty vulture funds, cuckoo funds, the big developers and the corporate landlords. That is the Fine Gael way, a Cheann Comhairle, and I look forward to the debate and challenging the Taoiseach on that.

It is a fact the Government's belated housing targets are 20% below what is required according to its own Housing Commission. These are not Sinn Féin figures; they are the Government's figures. The Government has yet again failed to recognise the scale of the crisis and the need we face. I asked the Taoiseach to explain the fact that he has undershot by 20%. The memo was brought to Cabinet. As of yet, I have not seen how many social or affordable housing units are contained in the figures. The Taoiseach might enlig…

That is not how it happened.

The Government's commission clarified this.

There is no guesswork involved.

It is not agreed. The Dáil passed the occupied territories Bill in 2019. That is more than five years ago and the Government has blocked it ever since. In 2022, the Government supported the renewal of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, giving Israel, a State in continuous violation of international law, the most preferential trading relationship possible with Europe. The Government has not introduced a single meaningful sanction against Israel in response to countless war crimes and an ongoing genocide in Gaza. I…

-----in the face of such ongoing slaughter. We do not agree to the Order of Business on this basis. It is disgraceful that, having conceded the need for this legislation and as people are slaughtered, the Government delays, dithers and prevaricates on this most serious of matters.

Fine Gael has been in government now for nearly 14 years, joined at the hip with Fianna Fáil for the last eight. We are on the eve of a general election and we still have a very serious crisis in our hospitals and across the wider health service. On the Taoiseach's watch, accident and emergency departments are dangerously overcrowded, the trolley crisis has become a year-round problem, more than 1 million people are waiting for treatment and care on waiting lists, while children with scoliosis and spina bifida wait…

Here is the context for you, Taoiseach. When the Government came to office there was a crisis in healthcare, and as it leaves office there is a crisis in healthcare, and everybody knows it. Those are the facts.

According to you, staffing is safe and sufficient. Why then are people waiting for care? How is it then that cardiac rehabilitation equipment lies idle? How is that can cancer patients are left waiting for treatment - 120 per day, it is reckoned by SIPTU - due to a lack of radiation therapists? How is it that you cannot walk the length of yourself anywhere without meeting people who are frantic with worry waiting because of staffing shortages? The Taoiseach quoted his budgetary figures there. It is not only a quest…

Agency.

The doubling of the cost of modular homes for Ukrainians is another example of the Government's incompetence and waste of public money. The Taoiseach will remember that when this news first broke, all of those in government feigned shock. How could this have happened, they asked. However, yesterday, at the Committee of Public Accounts, we got the answer to that as the head of the Office of Public Works stated clearly that it had warned the Government that the sites selected for these modular homes were not suitable…

I would first like to address information which I placed on the Dáil record last week relating to an incident where a Sinn Féin representative sent inappropriate text messages to a young person. It was then my understanding that the young person was 17 years of age because of the information provided on his application form when he applied to join Ógra Shinn Féin. That information was wrong. The young person himself has made clear that he was, in fact, 16 at the time so I want to correct the Dáil record to reflect …

Our student nurses and midwives are incredible. They do invaluable nursing work while on placement on wards and, in fact, they keep our hospitals going. They do a minimum of 28 hours a week and they work far beyond their training duties. The McHugh review of 2022 addressed pay for intern nurses. However, the new subsistence allowance for first-to-third-year student nurses does not go far enough and leaves so many in very difficult circumstances. The review failed to address supports for other students working in cl…

I thank the Taoiseach. He will remember during Covid there was a huge discussion around student midwives and nurses and the work that was being done. It was said at that point that the work was not being adequately recognised and compensated. I just think it is really problematic that we are back in a space where young students of nursing and midwifery feel again that they are not being recognised or valued. The last thing we want is these young professionals feeling they are not valued within the Irish health syst…

Young people and students working within the healthcare system are going to watch very carefully to see what we have to say and whether we are prepared to put our money where our mouths are. On this side of the House we certainly are. I will send on details of the individual case to the Minister. I hope the Taoiseach takes the point, which is made in good faith, that it is in all of our collective interest to get this right for these students and make sure they can live, survive and thrive.