I wanted to raise the same issue as Deputy Tóibín.

I compliment the Government and support the motion this evening. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The dictatorship has been in power for that length of time. The strongest rebuttal must be sent to this action from those of us in Ireland. Ireland is a neutral country, as we always claim. We must defend the persecuted people of Belarus. I have fond memories of Adi Roche, a Clonmel woman, the children she brought and all the host families after that awful tragedy with the nuclear power station. T…

I thank Deputy Doherty for bringing forward the Bill and compliment him on his relentless challenge to the racket in insurance. I wish the Minister of State well. He is a decent man and will try his best but I am disappointed tonight that he is buying another nine months for the insurance companies to rob us blind. Why would they not when the Government has let them off? This has been going on for decades. We have seen it in this episode with Covid. Publicans who have business interruption insurance ring me every d…

I am delighted to have the opportunity to ask some questions. Why will we not accept antigen testing here, when Europe has acknowledged it and it is acceptable everywhere else? I know of a family - a mother, a father, four children and grandchildren – who, the night before last, travelled home to see their dad, who is dying and is in palliative care. They were turned back at the port because they had the NHS test, not the PCR. Where is the humanity in turning them back? They had to travel back again, whenever they …

The Taoiseach informed this House yesterday that no worker, artist or dancer should be left short-changed when the country reopens. Also yesterday, Fáilte Ireland, our national tourism development board, produced long-awaited recovery and resilience guidelines for the reopening of hospitality. All the guidelines say is that no live music is permitted indoors or outdoors. It is one short sentence. We are supposed to pride ourselves on our culture, traditional song and dance and everything else. Why is that the case?…

This does not show it.

Come off it.

Outside.

Amuigh faoin spéir.

It is interesting that we have now come to depend on leaks from the parliamentary parties to know the real thinking inside them. They are proud of it; boasting about it here in the Chamber. It is gas. We do not get it from officialdom. Fáilte Ireland is making up the guidelines. The guidelines that came out yesterday are that we cannot sing, dance or play taobh amuigh nó istigh d'óstán, nó aon áit eile. We cannot sing or dance. The Taoiseach said today we might be too loud when singing and might transmit the virus.…

On a point of order, this is the about the fifth time the Minister has said that he does not want the Bill. Why is he introducing it? He did not want it in opposition and he does not want it now yet he is introducing it. This is codswallop.

It is codswallop. Why is he introducing it? He should just take it away.

Our group introduced a motion to declare null and void a statutory instrument. The Minister has said this before. He accuses us of misstatement. He said this before and he was corrected. He is in some kind of a cloud cuckoo land. It happened on the floor. We lost the vote but we did table it. The Taoiseach begged us not to table it but we did so.

No, the Minister cannot mislead the House. This is the second time he has done it in respect of this issue. He cannot have it both ways. He is in some kind of euphoric state whereby he does not know what he is doing. He does not want to introduce this but yet he is doing so. He is telling absolute porkies and lies. We had a motion here. The Dáil-----

I ask the Minister to correct the record immediately. He did it before.

Yes, and I ask him to correct the record. We introduced a motion to annul a statutory instrument.

I thank David Mullins, Brian Ó Domhnaill and Deputy Nolan for their hard work on this motion. I am perplexed by the Government. I did not hear anyone move an amendment. The Government seems to have adopted a habit recently of allowing these motions to pass to let its backbenchers off the hook. Government Deputies can stand at the factory gates with the farmers and say they are with them, which makes a mockery of them, as Deputy O'Donoghue said. Farmers are smart, well-educated people who understand a three card tri…

I know it is. The IFFPG knew before that committee meeting that large amounts of contaminated plastic were being returned from Turkey. It telephoned the businessman in question one hour before the committee meeting to discontinue his contract. It has learned from the beef industry and is setting up cabals to exert control, regardless of farmers. We are proud people of the land and so were generations before us. We had the Famine and recovered from it. We had the War of Independence, the occupation of our country an…

On behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I salute and support the brave members of An Garda Síochána and wish them well in their recovery. Ireland has become a country of the establishment. In Ireland, citizens, that is the voters, are consulted every four or five years at the time of a general election. However, institutions that are part of, or close to, the State have regular and daily access to Ministers, power and Government decision-making. In fact, many Departments even pay these organisations to provide th…

I accept that multinationals came here back in the 1980s and 1990s; they were in Clonmel. Merck Sharp and Dohme and other companies are doing great work. I am saying that 40 years on we need to review taxation. Why is the ordinary worker only paying 26% in Germany and 52% here? There are no tax havens for those multinational companies in Germany because they respect its people. We had a different issue regarding Germany last week. The Taoiseach mentioned Seán Lemass. He and his Government colleagues bear no resembl…