I live in Blackpool, on the north side of Cork city. Two miles from my house is the European headquarters of Apple, in Hollyhill. Hollyhill is high above the city, as the name suggests. From it, you can look out over the city and see hospitals that are in the headlines every second week because of overcrowding. You can see schools that only get over the line at the end of the year thanks to the help of fundraising by parents, children and staff. They are crying out for public investment, as are hospitals, schools a…

It is only a matter of time and it will be in a socialist government but that is another matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has responsibility for mental health and yet-----

The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health is here and the Government’s policy is putting these Indian nurses through a mental health ringer. Deputy Joan Collins mentioned that there were 3,000, mainly Indian, nurses working here as healthcare assistants. Some 1,000 came over at the start of the year on two-year work permits. They are working in private nursing homes as healthcare assistants doing vital work for our health service. This is difficult and mentally draining work. The policy of the Gov…

The Indian nurses work here as healthcare assistants in private nursing homes for two years. At the end of the two years, they have to do the QQI level 5 qualification. That takes another eight months. These are nurses. They are qualified way above QQI level 5. They have already done that, and way more, so why force them to jump through that particular hoop? Then, to add insult to injury, the Government is asking them to pay for it out of their own pocket. They are already to the pin of their collar with the rents …

The Minister of State is reading a speech. He should reply to the points that have been put to him.

You are not answering the questions that the Indian nurses are asking.

There was another fire this morning at one of the Stryker plants in Carrigtwohill. The building was evacuated and thankfully no one was injured. This follows another two fires at the site in April. The fire on 18 April, one month ago today, injured two workers, of whom one suffered serious burns. These fires were just the latest in a series of health and safety incidents at the plant. For instance, in 2021, whistleblowing workers reported a dozen incidents from the years immediately previous to the Health and Safet…

More than half of women in Irish society experience sexual violence in the course of their lifetime. That is a shocking statistic which speaks to an epidemic of sexual violence in Irish society. Education is a key tool in combating the misogyny and toxic masculinity which gives rise to so much of this violence. A recent poll in Australia found that 28% of teenage boys there look up to the viral misogynist Andrew Tate. There are no comparative figures for Ireland, but I think it would surprise few if the numbers her…

Following a violent attack on an encampment of asylum seekers, with tents and belongings burnt out, many believe it is only a matter of time before Ireland's far right claims its first killing. The Government made asylum seekers an easy target by forcing them to sleep on the streets. It made 500 other asylum seekers do so as well. It ignored warnings that its sleep on the street policy might lead to something of this kind. We need an urgent debate on the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers and we need it …

More than 70 residents of Beaumont Residential Care in Cork city face an uncertain future after the owners of the centre told relatives last week that they will exit the fair deal scheme at the end of May if the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, does not increase payments to them. Does the Minister agree that no resident should be evicted from any nursing home and that the State has a responsibility to ensure this is the case? Does she also agree that it is not acceptable to give three weeks' notice of such a…

Will the Tánaiste report on plans for the consultative forum on international security policy this summer? Will his Department or the Defence Forces be making submissions on the question of military non-alignment? Which experts have been invited to participate in the event? Will he make a statement on the matter?

No predetermined outcomes - I believe the Tánaiste when thousands would not. I will start with a quote: An examination of these cases reveals that the United States had very good reasons to object to the governments of Chile, Cuba and Nicaragua. Their ideological orientation was inimical to its own, so it supported local groups that used whatever means were available to them to try to bring them down. These are the words of Louise Richardson, dame commander of the most excellent order of the British empire. They ar…

The Tánaiste spoke of a citizens' assembly. He has decided to go ahead with an assembly but I note, as I think many other people will do, that he has taken the citizens out of the equation. A meeting of the chiefs of the European navies will take place in Cork tomorrow and on Thursday. Who will be in attendance? Any European Union or European NATO country that has a navy can send representatives. US navy commanders have the right to attend as observers. I understand that NATO's military command will be represented,…

Yesterday, we discovered that one factory, Dairygold in Mitchelstown, emitted more carbon last year than the entire population of the town in which it is based. We discovered that 100 factories, power plants, airlines, etc. emitted nearly 25 million tonnes of CO2 and greenhouse gases last year, which is more than one third of the total for the entire State. This includes Ryanair, Irish Cement, Aer Lingus, Bord Gáis and Energia - I could go on. If and when, and currently it looks more like when, the State fails to r…

I want to talk to the Taoiseach about mortgage prisoners. There are more than 30,000 households in this State that have not only had their mortgages snapped up by vulture funds but that have been told they cannot go on fixed-rate mortgages. Many of them are paying interest rates of 8% or 9%. That is on the Government because the State imposes maximum rates on moneylenders but not on the loan sharks that are the vulture funds. Yesterday, Tullamore Circuit Court disregarded appeals from a vulture, or its representati…

I want to talk about the skill set of a group of workers who are doing vital work in our health service at the moment. I am referring to the 1,000 Indian nurses who came over here at the start of the year on two-year work permit programmes to work as healthcare assistants. They are not working as nurses, but as healthcare assistants in the private nursing homes in this State. I will leave aside the fact that there is a huge issue with family reunification. This State said to them that we wanted them, but did not wa…

For the past two weeks, Cork city’s firefighters have taken limited industrial action and protested outside the city’s fire brigade headquarters for half an hour each day. They are highlighting the fact that since the city’s boundary extension in 2019, they are required to serve an area five times the size with double the population, with the same number of full-time staff and fewer fire trucks – three instead of four. I believe that this is a health and safety issue for every man, woman and child in Cork city. It …

I note in passing that tomorrow is the final day in the ballot for industrial action by staff at the National Ambulance Service. Like the firefighters, they face a crisis in recruitment and retention. The new grades and pay rates agreed in their review need to be implemented now. On the issue of the Cork city fire services, the mantra from City Hall just is not good enough. Cork City Council has told SIPTU it remains available for talks. What is the point of talks unless there is something to discuss? For more than…

Last Wednesday saw tens of thousands of workers striking in Northern Ireland. It was the biggest strike there in ten years. The strike involved four civil service unions and five teacher unions defending pay in the face of a cost-of-living crisis. More than 2,000 workers attended the strike rally at Belfast City Hall. Meanwhile, Oxfam has advised that workers in the Republic of Ireland have suffered a 3.9% pay cut as wages lagged behind inflation over the past year, that the average worker lost more than €2,000 and…

We do not have rising incomes.