I move: That Dáil Éireann: recalling the motion it adopted unanimously on 10th July, 2008 which: — noted "the interim and final reports of the sub-Committee of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights on the report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan Bombings and the three related Barron Reports, including the Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay's Tavern, Dundalk, and commends the sub-Committee for its work"; — urged "the Government of the United Kingdom of Grea…

We are now four weeks out from the most important local and European Union elections for a generation and housing is the number one talking point at the doors. It is the biggest issue by far for workers and families across the State. After 13 years of Fine Gael in government, the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse. Rip-off rents continue to rise, homelessness has hit record levels and an entire generation is locked out of home ownership due to the sky-high house prices. On the watch of Fine Gael Governments,…

I mentioned a number of counties - Louth, Mayo, Sligo and Tipperary - and could have added Cavan, Leitrim, Offaly and Roscommon. These are the official figures. This is an official record of the Government's abysmal failure - the failure of the State to deliver affordable homes to purchase and rent. By the targets the Government set itself, it has failed. It is a big fail. I have never seen housing need so desperate and I happen to represent communities for whom a housing crisis is not a new crisis. Overcrowding an…

It is not agreed.

Last week, when the Taoiseach was challenged about the tent city that had grown up on Mount Street, he said the law of the land must be applied and that this would not be repeated. Yet, here we are, and it has been repeated, this time along the Grand Canal where there are now some 100 tents. It is an outrage that any human being would be living in a tent on the side of the street or on a canal bank. However, this is certainly a monument to the Government's abject failure to manage this situation. I ask, therefore, …

Is that the Taoiseach's answer to my question? Jesus.

They are not, actually.

No.

We are now five months into 2024 and the health service still has not published its staffing plan for the year. The Secretary General of the Department of Health confirmed this morning that the moratorium or embargo is still in place and that the strategy is at a political level waiting on a decision from Government. I have lost count of the number of bright, talented young health and social care graduates who have contacted me about the Government's dangerous recruitment embargo. These include a pharmacist from Wa…

We mark the 74th anniversary of the signing of the Schuman Declaration, which revolutionised the political, economic and social landscape of Europe. When Ireland joined on 1 January 1973, I was a baby. My colleague here, Deputy Carthy, was not even a twinkle in his mammy's eye. Both of us have grown up in a country that has known nothing other than to be part of what was an economic community and then a political union and so on. There is no doubt that, today, Europe and the wider world again face a period of gener…

More than 11,000 patients waited on hospital trolleys last month. University Hospital Limerick again had the highest figure of any hospital in the State, closely followed by University Hospital Galway. The trolley crisis is now a year-round emergency. Our hospitals are under enormous and sustained pressure. Yesterday the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, announced that a HSE support team is to be deployed to University Hospital Limerick. This hospital is in a state of constant crisis, with an emergency departme…

The Taoiseach may well talk about living within budgets. He is hardly a poster boy for that. I quoted the €650 million a year on agency staff. I could also quote the €140 million a year on management and legal consultancy at peak in 2022. Heaven forbid that I would go near the €2.2 billion on his children's hospital that has yet to be delivered.

Save the homily on living within budgets for someone else. The facts are these; at University Hospital Limerick, as was confirmed to the Oireachtas committee, every single day, there are patients who are deemed sick enough to require admission who cannot be admitted. That is the reality day-on-day.

The hospital does not have enough beds or the required level of staff. The Taoiseach quoted a figure of 2,268 additional posts. He knows full well that in previous years, that has been as high as 7,000. The system is stripped bare. I have set out the facts for him. These are facts from people on the front line with regard to dental services, mental health capacity, and all across the system, yet the Taoiseach insists on this embargo. I have asked him to lift the embargo and I put it to him again that that needs to …

No.

You do not let young women die on trolleys or lying across chairs. That is what you do not do.

That is my policy. You do not allow young women to die in a hospital, lying on chairs. How is that for a policy?

The British Government's legacy Act is a cynical and callous attempt to block victims and families from ever getting justice through the courts and to hide the role of British state forces and their agencies in the conflict. Today, that Act takes effect, to their very great shame. I have raised this issue many times previously. I accept that the Government has lodged an interstate case against the British Government, which is a necessary and welcome action. Has the Government received any timeline as to when that c…

I thank the Taoiseach.

The Government has displayed incredible incompetence in recent days in dealing with migration and returns to Britain. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, claimed at the justice committee that 80% of those applying for asylum in this State are coming from Britain via the North. At the weekend, the Tánaiste then carelessly jumped in two feet first, pointing to Britain's Rwanda deal and claiming it had led to an increase in the numbers of people crossing the Border, despite him not having any evidence to that ef…