------and a railroading of democracy was going ahead. When summing up today, the Taoiseach will say we had enough time to try to get an agreement from the Opposition but it would not agree. Since the day he was elected, however, we have only had two meetings of the Dáil reform committee to try to resolve this issue in 28 days. I know because I attended these meetings. Is the Taoiseach a man of his word or not? Does he agree with me that this was the sequence of events? Am I right in saying if he really wanted to br…

We have written to the Taoiseach numerous times to try to resolve this issue and to make sure this dark day for democracy would not happen but he has chosen to ignore it. Will the Taoiseach at this late stage, sit down with the Opposition leaders and thrash out an agreement to bring this sorry episode to an end?

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. It looks like, no matter what we say here, the Government is going to railroad these changes through. It is very clear to the good, honest and hard-working people of this country that this is what the Taoiseach was going to do anyway. He has to be straight and honest. What is the deal he has done with Deputy Michael Lowry that has him spellbound? We know the deal has cost more than €5 million already with extra super junior Ministers, extra junior Ministers and extra payments for them a…

We need to know. The taxpayer needs to know. The ordinary man and woman who cannot afford to pay weekly bills need to know here and now. They know it is a sleazy deal that taxpayers must pay heavily for. On top of that, the Taoiseach wants them to ask planted questions in this House to make a mockery of the Irish people in Dáil Éireann. I ask the Taoiseach to come clean on the deal that might yet crumble around him and to pull back from the mockery of the Irish people who are not with him on this one. Will he admit…

Do not let it cost us our democracy also.

My office has been inundated with requests from constituents seeking assistance in expediting their driving tests. These are mostly young people and they are waiting ten months or more for a driving test. Many of these have secured job offers but are unable to accept them due to the lack of transportation in rural Ireland. We do not have a frequent bus service, the Luas or regularly available taxis, as urban areas do. Our young people are effectively stranded without access to a car and their parents' work schedule…

These statements on international security and international trade provide an important opportunity for TDs to have their say. In recent weeks and months, we have had many people speaking here about our neutrality and participation in what is happening across the world. The Tánaiste only recently stated that as far as he is concerned, we need to spend a lot more money on our defence. I agree with him. It is hugely important that money is spent on improvements for people in the Defence Forces and on the equipment ne…

Independent Ireland will also be supporting this motion on young carers. I thank the Labour Party for putting forward this very important motion. It is astonishing to think we have 67,000 young carers in this country. We have given them nothing but lip service over recent years, which is an injustice to those young people. Many of them are in the Gallery and were in the audiovisual room earlier. We need to show them the respect they deserve because looking after someone - actually for nothing - is a very unfair sit…

I agree with the previous two speakers in relation to speaking time, and it needs to be resolved as business needs to be done. Last week, a deal was struck by the Department and the unions on a 9.25% pay increase for many healthcare workers under section 39 contracts. This is to be rolled out over a two-year period. I publicly welcomed this long-awaited move only to realise that the devil is in the detail for section 39 private nursing home staff, who are to be exempted from this pay increase. Private nursing homes…

Almost every day here we talk about housing targets. Today, in one leading newspaper, an article states that this Government will be 13,000 homes behind the 2027 targets it set last November. This is one crisis that must be resolved immediately. Another crisis, though, is rural, one-off planning. It is almost grinding to a halt. I have up to ten people coming to me weekly in west Cork. In some cases, they have spent thousands of euro in this regard. I refer to young people trying to get a start out in life, but eve…

We are years talking in the Dáil about housing. I listened to the Fianna Fáil Deputy who spoke previously and I have to agree with him. Regarding Ukrainians and others, we have been promising that all sorts of construction can be done and all sorts of structures can be built but we cannot do anything for our own selves. That is something we need to do very soon. I hope the Minister will look at housing in a different light to his predecessors because they made no movement on housing. It is worse things have got, an…

I forgot to congratulate the Minister and Minister of State on their appointments to their positions. I wish them well going forward. I hope we can work closely together. One of them is from my own constituency so we should be able to work closely together. I think this is the second or third time I have spoken about housing today in the Dáil. It is a huge crisis and a huge issue. It does not matter if it is a young person looking for planning permission, which seems to be blocked, or if you are trying to grow your…

It is no problem at all.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — overspending and waste within the public sector not only erodes trust in Government but also diverts resources from essential services; and — as members of Dáil Éireann, and therefore custodians of the public purse, we have a duty to the people of Ireland to be committed to ensuring that taxpayers' money is managed responsibly, efficiently, and transparently; acknowledges that there have been numerous ongoing failures by Governments past and present to properly manage cost c…

Independent Ireland.

You went in-----

I have listened to all the speakers. I am disappointed with some of the parties here. I am not pointing the finger at Sinn Féin but at the Labour Party and the Social Democrats. They continue to count out waste in this Dáil. We put forward a working solution and I do not think those parties proposed an amendment but came in and criticised it. That is outrageous. The Social Democrats do not believe in this new body. Will we continue with the waste going on at the moment? That is outrageous. How do they face their el…

The Minister of State is a man I respect-----

-----but I will not respect him for that, if he does not mind me saying that now.

How can the Minister of State defend any Government or previous government that spent €808,000 on a Dáil printer and wasted the money? It spent €1.43 million on a security hut. It spent €2.5 billion, heading to €3 billion, on a children's hospital. It spent €22 million on a Covid ventilator that was never used. It spent €2.5 billion in medical compensation payouts. The Dáil bike shed cost €336,000. The Government wants to call it by some other name, the Dáil bike shelter. Come on to hell, it cost €336,000 of hard-e…