It is disrespectful for the Minister to accuse us of being reckless.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, personally for her recent trip to Kerry. She made a great impression and was highly regarded personally. She was very welcome and will be welcomed again. If she does as she did the last time and comes with her bags full, we will be delighted to see her. I thank Sinn Féin sincerely for its excellent motion. I was glad to meet with the young student nurses and other members of the nursing profession who came here today. It is a big ordeal for people to leave their places …

I thank very sincerely the Regional Independent Group for introducing this important Bill for debate. Its purpose is to provide for the development and implementation of a cross-departmental, multi-agency autism spectrum disorder strategy. This is an awful lot of words but, in plain English, it means we want young people to be assessed quickly. The constituents who are coming to me about autism issues indicate the need for early detection, early intervention and speedy access to the required services. The Bill prov…

Ahead of next week's important summit, it is of grave importance that we deal with the hike in energy prices, migration and, of course, external relations. There is currently no co-ordinated EU policy on strategic gas reserves, with each member state having its own mechanisms for the building of gas stocks. Some, including Italy and France, have some storage regulation, such as on maintaining minimum storage levels while others depend solely on market dynamics. Of the gas infrastructure we have, our sites are fille…

He has no problem speaking for another five minutes.

I am grateful for the opportunity to talk on this important subject. It goes without saying that no matter what one's gender we should all be equal and everybody should respect each other. I admit that I am troubled when people take umbrage to words that are used, not in any way to be derogatory or hurtful to anybody. These words could be complimenting a person but they could be taken out of context. We have seen people getting up on their high horses about something that is nothing. What do I mean by that? I will …

In the absence of Deputy Mattie McGrath and on behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I offer our sincerest sympathies to Sir David Amess's family, his constituents and the whole political system, which has been rocked by this shocking attack on democracy because that is what this is. Whether it is a lorry driver, someone working for a local authority, a taxi driver, a politician or any other person fulfilling his or her function in life, when a person dies doing his or her work it is a terribly sad thing to happen…

I welcome this debate but I too have concerns on the following grounds. When studying another country’s history, even if it has been improving in recent times, it is important to look at how it treats people who are less well off, how it treats people from a health point of view and how it treat different sexes. In some countries, girls in a family are treated in an awful and horrible way in comparison with the boys. In some countries, there was the one-child rule. We know what happened to the girls in those cases.…

I am glad to speak on this important matter. When it comes to an issue such as this, people need to have confidence in our banking system. When it comes to money laundering and all the new types of crimes that are being carried out through the use of bank cards, Internet banking and all of that, the one thing it make us all realise is how important it was to be able to walk through the door of a bank, know the manager and staff and be able to talk to them. People could trust bank staff to deal with their business. …

As always, I want to put on the record that this is an issue that I know a lot about as I have been involved in it for a long time. It is a simple, straightforward problem to tackle. We need to supply more local authority houses. We need to build more houses and provide more accommodation of all types. In the county that I represent, we desperately need more one- and two-bedroom accommodation. That is a fact. I am proud of the work of Kerry County Council's housing department and the work that it does, including Mr…

I neglected to do something yesterday. I sincerely thank the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Government for last week listening to a plea that I started and others joined, asking the Government to approve the funding for the drug Zolgensma, to help two little children who are very ill, one of those children being Theo Whelan from County Kerry. It would be very wrong and very neglectful of me not to publicly thank most sincerely the Government for doing what it did in supporting and ensuring that the HSE …

Any increase in social welfare is to be welcomed but it is like a three-card trick. Look at what the Government has taken from the people. Pensions have been increased by €5, the living alone allowance has been increased by €3 and the fuel allowance has been increased by €5. Look at what has been taken from those very same people through the carbon taxes. They are already hitting people through the massive increase in the cost of electricity, petrol, diesel, gas and the basic things people need to live and move aro…

-----with the hospitality sector. No, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, it is not Galway. Galway would be coming down along the ladder and the people there are also great. Our hospitality sector is reeling tonight at the fact that after having come out of the pandemic when they were shut for so long and went through so much, its representatives are now asking how they are going to manage next year when the VAT rate will go up. That shows a complete lack of understanding of what is happening on the ground. With regard to edu…

My apologies. Finally, the one thing that the Government did not tax was contraception. I welcome that as it is the only activity that the Government has not taxed.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. It is the populist thing to say that nobody should smoke. I agree with that insofar as it would be better if young people never tried it. That would be way better for themselves and for the health of the nation. However, there is such a thing as becoming a nanny state and trying to direct people's lives. There is a great difference between trying to assist people and trying to get up on their back altogether. When the Government says it wants Ireland to be…

I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for bringing this very important motion before the Dáil. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil did a deal with the Green Party to gain power and privileges at any cost and this has meant a lot of financial hardship and pain for Irish families. The public's interest was never at the heart of the deal done to form this Government. It was all about power and self-interest. One example of this financial hardship and pain is the soaring bills for electricity and gas which households have to e…

He will be paddling his own canoe soon.

First, it is wrong to discuss this without remembering all of the people who died and who were very sick; all of those lovely people who are gone. For us to be debating without first of all remembering those very important people would be wrong. I want to remember everybody that is gone from us or who was very sick during the pandemic. Having said that, I would not agree to extend the Minister's powers beyond nine o'clock tonight because I do not think the people of Ireland would agree with it. That is a fact; not …

The Minister is not listening to them-----

Otherwise the consultants would not have written to all of us last week telling us that they were coming together for the first time because-----