I am glad the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, is here. I have just come from the audio-visual room where the McDonald report on housing and vulture funds was launched.

The McDonald report on housing and vulture funds. I hope the Minister will be able to read it. Mr. Edmund Honohan, former Master of the High Court, Mr. Cormac Butler and others spoke. Critical, independent analysis was carried out, and not by NGOs. It is found, and Mr. Edmund Honohan pointed out also, that many areas of legislation are flouted and broken daily in regard to the Land Registry, the vulture funds in the courts and the repossession of homes, farms and property. It is outrageous the Government is allowin…

I know the Minister has not seen it.

On your bikes.

I welcome the Ceann Comhairle’s statement on the bike shed. I understood from discussions at the Business Committee meeting that a party leader here asked for another bike shed to be built in the front yard of Leinster House. Maybe we could get clarity on that. The situation with Irish Water is just untenable. This was an outfit set up by the former Minister, Phil Hogan, and the Taoiseach’s Government. I know of situations all over Tipperary, but especially in Ballynaraha, Kilsheelan, and in Kilnaneave and Emly, wh…

The Taoiseach visited Clonmel recently; I was glad to see that. I hope he walked O’Connell Street. A businessman contacted me this week due to ongoing incidents of violence, open drug dealing and intimidation on the streets. He is threatening to remove his store from O’Connell Street. He has been there for a number of years and has a successful business. The lack of gardaí, in Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Cahir and all of south Tipperary is frightening at the moment. I have met the new superintendent. He knows I am ra…

You did not turn the sod.

It has not even gone out to tender.

Cool the spin, Taoiseach.

It is interesting listening to the Government backbenchers. One would never think that they were aware of the court case. The Government refused to take this money. I have to be honest and say that I support it because we have 5,000 jobs in Clonmel as a result of foreign direct investment. I still support it but we cannot have schemes that are favourable to one big company. We must think of the SMEs. I want to see this money going to the SMEs to give them badly needed supports and lifelines to survive because they …

Hear, hear.

Protect your friends.

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I wish the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and all the staff throughout the House the best for the summer season. The Department of Health released the total number of notifications received last year for abortions carried out in Ireland. It showed there were 10,033 abortions in 2023, the highest number on record since the law changed in 2019. That figure represents a chilling 250% increase on the 2,879 abortions that happened in 2018, the year before the law changed. Senior members of the Government wh…

Not for this.

Last week, we learned from a reply to a parliamentary question put by Deputy Tóibín that 40 children who were taken into State care by Tusla are currently missing. It is understood that 22 of those missing are separated children seeking international protection and unaccompanied minors. On 29 February, Deputy Tóibín raised in this House for the second time with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, the case of a 14-year-old girl who went missing within an hour of being placed by Tusla in State care, only to be found a yea…

-----because of the in camera rule.

With all due respect, the Minister of State's response grossly understates the underperformance of Tusla in meeting its statutory obligation to protect the country's most vulnerable children in State care. Tusla's dysfunction is hiding in plain sight, as was pointed out to those present on 13 June in the Dáil public petitions committee meeting by the Alliance of Birth Mothers Campaigning for Justice. They are petitioning to have legislation introduced to provide HIQA with statutory powers to sanction Tusla where in…

I raised here last week with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, Dundrum House Hotel in Tipperary, a famous hotel, being turned into a services centre for Ukrainians and then an IPAS centre. We now also have Hearns Hotel in Clonmel, steeped in history, including that of Charles Bianconi, and 87 IPAS people going in there. There are rumours about Killusty, which is not even a village but a hamlet. I asked the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, last week to meet a deputation from Dundrum - and I am asking the Taoiseach today abou…

Is the Bill opposed?

I ask Deputy Ó Murchú to move that Second Stage be taken in Private Members' time.