Not at all.

That is precisely what the Tánaiste has done with this biased and one-sided speaker list.

The Tánaiste is not going to get away with a speaker list like that.

Has the Ceann Comhairle ever noticed how happy this Minister is when he takes the Leaders questions?

One would almost think that the Minister was at an audition or something. He might not be the happiest man in the House though as earlier on I could have sworn I saw the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science skating down the corridor with a copy of The Irish Times tucked under his arm whistling a tune and polishing a piece of cutlery, and I do not think it was a spoon. The Tánaiste got a little upset this morning when I questioned the line-up of speakers at his consultative for…

It is stacked pretty high. We would welcome genuine independent verification of that speaker list. I believe it will show that the figures we have put forward are pretty damned accurate. Certainly, it will show that this is far from an even debate. As I say, it is arranged in such a way that the debate is about how fast and what exact alliances we should consider rather than whether we maintain what the Government says is the traditional policy, or change it in a significant way. Of course, what the Minister descri…

It certainly does.

That is not a change at all.

I wish to add a few brief words to what has been said about Christy Dignam. I think many people in this country were touched by the news of his passing yesterday. He had a great voice and sang bel canto. He was a fine songwriter. He was a poet, really. He would remind you a lot of another great Dubliner, namely Philip Lynott. Christy overcame much adversity in his life. He was a working-class man with a very authentic voice and an ability to articulate what others might only feel. Many people feel sometimes that ev…

Two thirds of the nation's firefighters are now directly involved in an industrial dispute with the Taoiseach's Government. Our 2,000 retained firefighters risk their lives to protect the public. The Taoiseach's Government has chosen to ignore their justified demand for a better core rate of pay. As a result of this choice, these firefighters have been left with little option but to escalate their action today, with the result that 50% of the nation's fire stations are now closed. They are closed on the Taoiseach's…

Does the Taoiseach intend to summon an immediate meeting of the Low Pay Commission to address the Government's breach of Article 4.1 of the European Social Charter on the issue of the national minimum wage and young workers in this country? The European Committee of Social Rights has stated that the fact that someone who is 18 gets 80% of the minimum wage and someone who is 19 gets 90% of the minimum wage pushes them below the threshold of 50% of average earnings that the charter states is the minimum for a decent …

Shame.

Young people cannot afford to buy and cannot afford to rent. The Government is forcing young people out of the housing market and out of the rental market. They are forced to live at home with parents or forced to emigrate. The Central Statistics Office told us in February that the average price of a house in Cork county was €304,000. The average price of a house in Cork city was €284,000. In fact, prices were up €22,000 a year in the city and €24,000 a year in the county. That is not much less than the wage of man…

I wish to raise the case of 44 workers in Cork city and the race to the bottom in terms of workers' jobs, wages and conditions. The case in question is that of workers at the Irish headquarters of the Canadian corporation Telus in Mahon - a customer experience centre that manages accounts for corporate clients worldwide. These workers have been working on Telus's Airbnb account but it now seems that their jobs have been outsourced to Bucharest, Romania, where according to recruitment website, Glassdoor.ie, Telus pa…

Planet Earth is undergoing its sixth mass extinction event. Biodiversity has dropped 68% globally since 1970, 50% of species that remain are seeing a decline in their population size, while less than 3% are seeing an increase in population size. Dr. Jonas Hein and Dr. Jean Carlo Rodríguez of the German Institute of Development and Sustainability said late last year, "Without fundamentally questioning our economic system, the success of the ... [global biodiversity framework] GBF remains highly unlikely." Like many …

A referendum had to be wrenched from Ireland's political establishment by a loud and boisterous movement of women, youth and LGBTQ and working-class people, in particular over the previous five years, 2013 to 2018. I agree with the words of my Socialist Party colleague, Ruth Coppinger, one of the foremost advocates for repeal and for abortion rights in this State: the political establishment had to be dragged kicking and screaming into granting a referendum it had resisted for many years. Now the Government's conse…

The Taoiseach says he does not want to join NATO; public opinion would not allow him to. However, I think he does want to achieve a de facto associate membership of NATO by drawing ever closer and advancing integration into its structure without formally joining in the short term. I am against that because NATO is an imperialist military alliance led by the United States that does not and never will represent the interests of ordinary working people anywhere. As for the consultative forum on security policy, what w…

The socialist left does not accept the framing of the prebudget debate as an either-or between public spending increases and tax cuts for middle-income workers. We say that both should be done at the expense of higher taxes on high earners and profits. I want to ask about proposed the €1,000 tax that will be put back in workers' pockets at budget time. I suspect that Fine Gael is all talk and no action on this. After all, in 2016, the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform promised that the universal socia…

Why did gardaí allow the organisers of anti-asylum seeker roadblocks in County Clare go onto buses, count the number of asylum seekers leaving the area and count the number of asylum seekers coming back into the area, and film vulnerable people without their permission? Why did gardaí fail to prevent the burning of the tents and possessions of asylum seekers at Sandwith Street, when it was so clearly foreseeable? I observe that there is quite a sharp contrast between the Garda Commissioner's strategy for policing f…

Three-quarters of secondary schools report having teacher vacancies with zero applications. Teacher shortages are at a crisis point. Maths is being hit. Irish is being hit. Foreign languages are being hit. Woodwork, metal work and technical subjects are really being hit. Students are being forced to drop subjects. Students with special needs are disproportionately impacted as teachers are moved around to fill gaps. Last night, teachers and parents held a public meeting in the Taoiseach’s own constituency of Dublin …