The fact that more than 5,000 children are currently living in emergency accommodation is a national disgrace. It is 5,000 young lives disrupted, 5,000 children in crisis, and 5,000 futures being shaped by instability and hardship. We in the Independent Ireland party believe the Government must go much further and much faster. It must declare a national housing emergency because that is what it is. The Government must use emergency powers to cut through the endless red tape that is choking delivery. We need modular…

Today marked the close of nominations of candidates for the Presidency. Only three people will go forward for the Presidency of this country, which has a population of 5 million. Some very genuine people, one of them being Maria Steen, put their name forward only to be blocked by what can only be called a big party rigged system. This age-old process must be scrapped. Independent Ireland will bring forward a Bill in the weeks ahead to not only allow Oireachtas Members to vote for a candidate but that will also incl…

Let us speak plainly about the Government's new auto-enrolment pensions scheme, which is due to begin next year. On the surface, it is being sold as a measure to help people save for retirement but after a closer look, it has all the hallmarks of another USC in the making, a so-called temporary charge that workers are still paying 14 years later. Under the scheme, employees and employers will each be forced to contribute 3% of gross wages. What will the Government contribute? A mere half of 1%. That is not a partne…

Independent Ireland met the Irish Hairdressers Federation today. The federation is in a crisis or, as it put it, a chronic situation. There is a stark future for many hair salons if they do not get a VAT reduction to 9% in January. Hair salons employ thousands of people and apprentices in this country. Suppliers are now refusing to credit many of these salons. There is a huge crisis. Can we bring the relevant Minister before the Dáil to talk about VAT reliefs and other such reliefs to save these salons?

I pleaded at a meeting of the Business Committee recently, maybe two weeks ago, for this debate to take place. I thank the Chief Whip for accommodating it and the Minister of State for attending today. Deputy Gogarty asked who is going to be fired. There has to be significant movement from the Minister of State's end on resolving the crisis. I plead with him in this regard. He is not long in his position, so he can take only take a very small fraction of the blame here – let us be honest – but unfortunately I have …

Once again, I speak on the behalf of people who are being crushed under the weight of soaring energy costs. Once again, I am forced to say that the Government is asleep at the wheel. There will be no energy credits this year. Why is that the case? It is because there is no election. That is the reality. The Government conned the electorate last year. That was how it bought votes. There is now no election. When votes are needed, credits appear. When they are not, families are left to fend for themselves. That is not…

I join with my colleagues here today in condemning any threats to the Tánaiste and his family that he has had to put up with which, to say the least, were shocking and sickening. I hope the full rigours of the law will be applied. Independent Ireland will do anything it can on this side of the political divide to help to support him in that regard. I presume the Tánaiste was at the very successful ploughing championships in recent days, as I was. We were in our tent with Ciaran Mullooly, MEP. A huge number of tilla…

Communities are concerned. These are not racist people but people who have legitimate concerns in their communities. The European Union cannot dictate how many people can come to this small island. Independent Ireland Councillor Linda de Courcy pleaded for answers from this Government, through me, about Citywest a number of months ago. No matter what I asked, I never got an answer until the deal was signed. The concerns people had were legitimate. These facilities in Citywest have been central to Ireland’s response…

I welcome this debate and thank Deputy Gogarty and his staff for bringing it forward. It is a conversation that is long overdue. Antisocial behaviour is not some abstract issue or statistic on the pages of reports. It is happening in our towns and villages every day of the week. It is happening to shopkeepers who have to watch their shelves while being threatened, elderly people who feel unsafe while walking to the shop and families who see their local parks or playgrounds wrecked. It is even happening to teenagers…

I want to raise the issue of the Minister with responsibility for school transport to come before the Dáil to answer questions on the shambles of school transport all over the country. Regarding other events all over the world and indeed in our own country, we as politicians, must unite against them, no matter where we come from in the political spectrum. Independent Ireland has written to the Ceann Comhairle asking for a minute's silence here today for Charlie Kirk, who was brutally assassinated last week.

We ask for this not alone for Charlie Kirk but for every person or politician who has been attacked or threatened in any way while carrying out their duty. We ask to unite against the threat by standing here together with a minute's silence.

What about the minute's silence?

This summer has been one of huge discontent and serious upset for farmers and landowners on the proposed greenway walk from Cork to Kinsale. I begin by saying that a walkway anywhere in our country has to be welcome, but with peaceful negotiations as was done in the world-renowned Sheep's Head and Beara Way. That is the model to do this, not the TII model with its sword over the head called CPO. CPO has its used for infrastructural projects as a last resort, but to use CPO to grab land from farmers and landowners f…

I beg the indulgence of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to pay tribute to Fianna Fáil Councillor Patrick Gerard Murphy, who represented Bantry, Castletownbere and Skull electoral area and whose untimely death took place last Friday. His funeral is taking place as I speak this evening. Patrick was a councillor decades ahead of time. He had a great ability to bring people from right across the political divide with him. He was hugely intelligent and well spoken in politics but also in community. I am so sorry I cannot be w…

I am glad to be able to speak on this motion. Let me start by saying clearly that I welcome it. I welcome it because every child in this country has the right to an education. That right is not something that should be up for debate. It is in our Constitution. It is in international law, and it is in the heart of every parent who wants the best for their son or daughter. However, what we have seen from Government is delay, excuses and an attitude that parents should be grateful for whatever crumbs are thrown their …

I looked at the briefing paper. We agree, as I think most people here do, that we should reduce the timeframe from seven to two years for the disposal of assets identified as proceeds of crime. The Bill strengthens the Criminal Asset's Bureau's powers to restrain and seize assets before the High Court. A process introduces new restraint orders to prevent transactions linked to suspected proceeds of crime and the automatic appointment of a receiver to deprive individuals of benefits from criminal assets. We certainl…

It is okay, I will mind you.

Independent Ireland is proud to speak in strong support of this Bill today. This Bill speaks to the very core of fairness, common sense and compassion in public policy. It is a simple but powerful measure that will make a real difference in the lives of thousands of our people who have already been through hell and back. The financial discrimination faced by cancer survivors in Ireland is an ongoing quiet injustice. Survivors, who are ordinary men and women, mothers and fathers, workers and neighbours are being pun…

I thank Deputy Stanley and his group for tabling this very important motion, particularly in view of the crisis we have in dental care throughout the country. In the past 12 months alone, Cork has lost 58 dentists who were providing treatment to medical card holders. This is almost one quarter of all dentists who are part of the dental treatment service scheme. These include 22 dentists in the south Lee area, 25 in the north Lee area, eight in west Cork and two in north Cork. These are not just numbers; they are pe…

Excuse me. It is my question now. The Deputy might sit down and give me the decency-----