I did not disrupt you when you were speaking.

Sit down, please. Would you ever learn your place in this building?

I want to raise a critical issue affecting the people of Castletownbere, Eyeries and Ardgroom. These communities are effectively frozen, unable to grow and develop because of a water infrastructure crisis that has gone unresolved for far too long. Planning applications are being refused or withdrawn due to the concerns over water abstraction from Glenbeg Lough, which lies within a special area of conservation. As a result, over 100 residential and commercial units are on hold. Even vital marine infrastructure and h…

Today, we are presented with the Health (Amendment) Bill 2025. On the surface, the Bill promises reform, but let us be clear - this is not reform, but bureaucracy dressed up as progress. The Bill does not fix our broken health system. It merely rearranges the furniture in a house that is already on fire. It tinkers with the governance structures while ignoring the real crisis, which is the daily struggle of patients and front-line workers. The people do not need more layers of reporting or internal reviews but func…

We need a debate this week in the Dáil on the leaked draft of the Common Agricultural Policy, which shows zero ambition to protect food security going forward. It looks like there will be no increase in funding for the LEADER programme and no increase in funding for agriculture. With rural pubs and post offices closing in the country, this is a terrible time for this leaked document to come out. As Independent Ireland has stated, the funding seems to be heading towards arms, tanks and guns but not for food security…

This issue has shaken public confidence and raised serious concerns about transparency and accountability in our institutions. As public representatives, we have a duty to respond not with words alone, but with action. I speak from personal experience. My aunt was severely physically abused by a teacher simply because she was considered at that time as a bit slow. That was the language used at the time. We must do better for her and for every child who still faces barriers today. Even days before her death, she spo…

I thank the Social Democrats and will support this very important motion. Since 2021, grocery costs have surged nearly 40%, adding €3,000 to annual family expenses and pushing more than 100,000 children into consistent poverty. These are some examples. Brennan's white bread, 800 g, increased from €1.87 in 2022 to €1.99 in 2025. Avonmore milk, 2 l, rose from €1.99 to €2.69. Denny sausages, 454 g, went from €2.69 to €3.89. Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, 110 g, increased from €1.49 to €2.50. A bottle of Coca-Cola rose …

The all-island strategic rail review, published in July 2024, outlines a comprehensive vision for enhancing the rail system across Ireland and Northern Ireland up to 2050. Recommended in it are additional capacity, faster services, higher frequency, electrification and new routes. These are great except if you live in rural Ireland, where I happen to live. Light rail is to come to Cork city but, for the whole of 128 km down to Ardgroom or 120 km down to Mizen Head, there is not even a sign, never mind a piece of ra…

Reducing the length of time with regard to a planning permission might be okay with the large developments but I would be very concerned about the one-off housing. A lot of people might apply for planning but may not have the money to get started, especially with the price of materials at the moment. I refer to one-off housing in rural Ireland. I have often met people, as we all do in our constituencies, who ask for another five years and, on that basis, thankfully, they get it across the line. They may not have th…

This is the fifth week in a row I have asked that the Minister for education come to the Dáil to talk about the capitation grant and class sizes. It is hugely important now. We are facing into the summer break, almost immediately after which we will have the budget. It is a huge concern in the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, especially with regard to the capitation grant where some schools are facing closure.

Independent Ireland will not be opposing this Bill going through the Dáil. That might be an example to the Minister as to how we are open to doing business. When we put forward a motion two or three weeks ago we put forward about 20 proposals, the Government put forward 24 or 25 amendments to make sure it did not go through the Dáil. It might have resolved the situation around housing and the situation we keep talking about, year in year out, month in month out. To be honest, the root of the problem, which unfortun…

I have attended most of the debates on college fees in the past week and the one thing I found was that nobody got clarity. This is a terribly unfair situation for parents to find themselves in. They are very concerned. There is no point in saying something here that is not true. Every politician, including the Ministers, must surely realise from emails the concerns of parents. In a message I received one morning last week, a west Cork lady informed me that the question of whether her child will go to college is do…

Heads down the whole time, looking at your phones when you should be listening to the speeches.

No respect for the young people up there.

I speak to the Minister today not just as leader of Independent Ireland or on behalf of my constituents, but on behalf of the tens of thousands of people across this country who feel ultimately betrayed by a Government that has wilfully ceded Irish sovereignty, ignored countless opinion polls and placed the interest of Brussels and bureaucracy above the basic needs of its own citizens. The Government had the option - the legal right under the Lisbon treaty - to opt out of the EU migration pact. Instead, it rolled o…

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this very important motion today. I am sure there is not one person in the Dáil who saw the documentary who was not disgusted by the way our elderly were being treated. If big businesses are treating our elderly in such a terrible way, we must ensure we do all we can so that this does not continue. That said, we cannot tar everybody with the one brush because there are some great nursing homes. We must make sure the bad are weeded out but the good are secured and looked…

As so many speakers have said, the war and the scenes taking place out there are horrific. Nothing hits an Irish person more than to see millions of young people, or any person, facing starvation. It could not hit a deeper note in the mind of any Irish person because we have had this in our own history. It is something that will never be forgotten in the history of this country and what is happening to the Palestinians now should never be forgotten either. I will not be critical of the Government. We have to be ver…

We need to have statements today on higher education, especially on the confusion regarding fees. Since the announcement, a lot of parents have told me that they are having discussions around their tables about whether their child will go to college and whether they can afford to send the child to college or not. That is not a discussion that families should have. Our children and young people want to educate themselves. We need to have statements in this House. I have been asking for statements on education regard…

Island funding is crucial for many of our islands but its distribution needs closer scrutiny. The Bere Island Projects Group, which covers Bere Island, Whiddy Island and Dursey Island, has three full-time staff and must manage office, utilities and running costs from a budget that saw only a 2.1% increase. This is insufficient for standard cost-of-living requirements, in comparison to smaller islands like Inishturk and Inishbofin which received much higher increases of 28.4% and 16.6%, respectively, despite Bere Is…

We in Independent Ireland stand firmly behind the implementation of the EPSEN review report recommendations. The time has come for long overdue justice for our children with additional needs. We have seen two decades of delay since the EPSEN Act was passed in 2004, yet here we are with the core rights promised in law, like individual education plans and proper assessments, still unfulfilled. This is not just a legal technicality. It is a moral failing. It means thousands of families are still waiting for timely dia…