In this country, screening for bowel cancer starts at age 60. That is not nearly good enough. In France and Germany, it starts at 50, while the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that screening at 50 be reduced to 45. Ours is at 60, however, and 2,800 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year while 1,000 people die from it. I support the campaign being waged by my constituent, John Paul Ricken, who lost his wife Susan to bowel cancer. John Paul says this country is way behind the curve a…

-----as a blueprint for privatisation, which is what it is. In the past month we have seen general strikes in Belgium and in Greece. What is needed now is a 24-hour general strike in Britain and Northern Ireland. That would involve co-ordination between workers in the struggling health service, the railways, the post office and elsewhere. It would also mean increased co-ordination of health service workers, all striking together on the one day. That is what is needed. That would be a real step forward and would be …

It froze again last night, and the cold snap is set to go on through the weekend. The cost of heating a home was high in October and November. In December, it looks like it might go through the roof. Many who have not yet faced the choice of heating or eating will face it now. On Tuesday, a reporter from a Cork radio station spent the day with the local charity, Penny Dinners. He counted 900 food parcels being handed out between 9 a.m. and lunchtime at 12.45 p.m. to people from all walks of life, including students…

The State is taking steps, but are the steps sufficient? According to bruegel.org , the German state is spending 7.4% of its GDP on shielding households and businesses from the energy crisis; the Irish State is spending 0.9%. In Greece, most households will have 90% of the energy price increases covered by the state. Cold snaps can make or break governments. Forty years ago, a Fine Gael-led Government was doomed in the court of public opinion when a couple of days of snow got the better of it. On Saturday week, Fia…

What about a forum for the Opposition?

There is not a lack of teachers; it is full-time permanent teaching posts of which there is a lack. Why would a young teacher who is thinking of emigrating after Christmas stick around for a one-year contract? Why would a person who has already emigrated come back for a one-year contract? Teachers coming back to Dublin or Cork will be asked to pay €25,000 a year rent in one city and €20,000 a year in the other. The Government let the market set the price for the pay of chief executive officers of banks. It broke th…

What is the Minister's position on the arming of gardaí? What is her position as regards the idea of more gardaí being armed with firearms or tasers? I am coming from a position of opposing steps in that direction. It has been a matter of some public debate recently with the comments of the Tánaiste so I am interested in hearing the Minister's position.

I am glad to see the Minister opposing, in effect, the position being argued by the Tánaiste. I want to make some points about tasers because this is part of the debate now. The Garda Representative Association, GRA, has supported arming gardaí with tasers. That would be a step in the wrong direction. In the United States, more than 1,000 people have been killed by police, the bulk of them since 2000, through the use of tasers. Some 90% of those victims were unarmed. This applies particularly to vulnerable groups, …

I might come back some other day to discuss the question of body cameras. I want to use my remaining time to ask about the killing of George Nkencho by gardaí two years ago now. George's family were given to understand by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, that every attempt would be made to complete that investigation within a year of the killing, which would have been December of last year. The investigation has dragged on and on. I understand that it has now concluded and that the findings have been …

I express my solidarity and that of International Socialist Alternative with the young protestors in China. In the face of police repression, thousands of young people are protesting against the dictatorship of Xi Jinping by holding up blank A4 sheets of paper, as I am now doing. They are demanding freedom of speech, an end to a rigid and extreme Covid policy and democratic rights. China's capitalist dictatorship is facing its most serious challenge in more than 30 years. One of the groups that is trying to co-ordi…

Families across the country who lost loved ones in nursing homes in the course of the Covid pandemic are calling for a human rights-led public inquiry. Among them are constituents of mine who lost loved ones at the Ballynoe nursing home. These families are calling and campaigning for the introduction of safeguarding legislation that would cover all care settings. They are calling for staffing-patient ratios in nursing homes to be mandatory and set at a mandatory minimum rate. They are also calling for all records t…

I will focus on the proposed funding for the greyhound industry. The proposal before us provides €91 million to the horse and greyhound racing fund with €18.2 million of this to go to the greyhound industry. You cannot have a greyhound racing industry without animal cruelty. There is loads of information to back that up. Speakers have said that a minority is against the industry. It is many more than a minority. It is a very strong opinion within Irish society. Attendances at the stadia are falling very significant…

That is right.

Almost every week the Taoiseach tells the Dáil that the State is not politically neutral but is militarily neutral. I wish to quote from an article in the journal.ie earlier this month: For decades Irish soldiers have trained on the high uplands of Kilworth ranges, located just off the old Cork to Dublin road between the towns of Fermoy and Mitchelstown. ... The laughs and banter of the Irish accents were mixed with foreign voices on the day The Journal visited. There are a host of European uniforms from Germany, C…

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?

The Taoiseach should stop bluffing and answer the question.

The Taoiseach is waffling on and he is not answering the question.

What was NATO doing in Cork?

Answer the question.

The Taoiseach is not-----