Stop the chatter.

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?

Israel continues to act with impunity in its genocidal war on the people of Gaza. More than 30,000 Palestinians have now been killed. In Rafah, millions of Palestinian refugees now face the same nightmare as those massacred in Gaza city and Khan Younis before the eyes of the world. According to the United Nations, more than half a million people face famine. The decline in the population's nutrition status is at a globally unprecedented rate. Children in Gaza are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever…

To be absolutely clear, Sinn Féin takes every opportunity with every individual and state of influence to call for an end to Israeli oppression of the people of Palestine. I asked the Tánaiste a number of questions and he did not answer a single one of them. I have acknowledged the positive moves made by the Government, including the Attorney General's appearance at the ICJ regarding the advisory opinion. If we listen to the words the Attorney General said on behalf of the people of Ireland, the next logical questi…

The problem is that the Tánaiste has been saying this for ten years.

Sometimes I feel that there are parallel realities - one that reflects the Minister of State's remarks where one would think that Government has a handle on mental health services and the other that is reflected to me and other Deputies by our constituents who are at the coalface of Government's failures in this regard. Those people are part of the growing numbers who are on waiting lists that have almost doubled since this Government came to office. There is the Minister of State's reality that talks about the pri…

The arson attacks seen in communities across Ireland are simply inexcusable. There is no justification for them and the perpetrators do not represent the vast majority of people from the communities affected. They are the actions of a small number of nasty actors driven by hate. Their intention is to divide communities. This type of criminal damage and intimidation serves nobody. Lives are put at risk and, in a number of instances, buildings that were not even going to be used for emergency international accommodat…

The last question is in the name of Deputy Kerrane. We will see how far we get.

I thank the Tánaiste for his opening remarks. I will begin my remarks by extending a welcome to the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Ms Larysa Gerasko, and thank her for being here. I also thank her for continuing to keep the Members of this House and, indeed, the wider Irish public aware of the realty of life in Ukraine. Also, on behalf of what are now my Ukrainian constituents, I thank her for the representation she provides to them alongside consular support. Two years ago, Vladimir Putin's Russia launched …

I join with everybody in welcoming the children in the Public Gallery along with their parents and siblings. To state the obvious, they should not have had to come to the Dáil this evening. I especially want to welcome a gorgeous little girl from my own county, Aoibh Rooney, along with her parents Eavan and Philly. Aoibh was born with arthrogryposis. I am pronouncing that completely wrong, but it is a horrible and painful condition. Eve's joints tighten and if they are left untreated, they dislocate and twist so th…

Hear, hear.

Do not let anyone ever again tell us that change is not possible because sometimes it happens right in front of our eyes. Saturday of last week was one of those days when change, once unimaginable, came dropping slow and then, all at once. For a Sinn Féin representative, a Northern republican and nationalist, and a proud Irish woman from rural County Tyrone to become First Minister in a state that was designed to oppress everything she stood for was quite simply considered fantasy by previous generations but it hap…

If the Tánaiste will allow me to finish-----

If the Tánaiste would allow me to finish-----

I did address the Tánaiste, and I was going to finish my comment.

It would be absolutely ludicrous for the Government to suggest it will invest in the A5 – I believe it should – if it does not also invest in the stretches of the N2 south of the Border that allow adequate connectivity from north to south. For far too long the Border regions, both North and South, have both been seen as the end of something as opposed to gateways to an all-Ireland market that benefits everybody across this island. The same is true of the Ulster Canal. I welcome the development that we have seen but…

Sinn Féin would abolish the television licence. The Government has spent a lot of time this evening talking about what that would mean for those who currently do not pay their licence fee. Of course, the people who would benefit most from Sinn Féin's proposal are those who do pay their licence, who often become financially strapped by the burden and increasingly wonder why they bother, considering how RTÉ has often squandered the fees that have been collected. The following are the options: first, either the licenc…

Hear, hear.

To our shame, the Irish State invests in companies that profit from illegal Israeli settlements. A Bill before this House, which has been postponed until later this month, would prevent that investment from taking place. Exactly how much is currently invested by the Irish State, on behalf of the people, in companies that have derived profits from illegal Israeli settlements?

The world, and especially Irish people, are horrified by what they have seen over the past 120 days or so, particularly in Gaza, where Israeli forces have deliberately murdered civilians and targeted civilian infrastructure, including every hospital in Gaza. They have deliberately attacked aid workers, deliberately attacked and killed journalists and forcibly displaced 2 million people. People are horrified, just as they were horrified by the actions of Hamas on 7 October. The root of why this is happening is that …