The Taoiseach has tried to do it again with his three-card trick again and attempt to con the people. He said it is the pandemic and what is happening in Ukraine. Of course, it is the pandemic and what is happening in Ukraine; we debate those issues and their effect on prices with the Taoiseach every day. I raised the third card; the card the Taoiseach clearly ignored in his reply, which is the question of profiteering. The Taoiseach stayed silent on the fact that the parent company of Bord Gáis made profits of mor…

We never said that.

Is the Taoiseach going to answer?

The Taoiseach represents the Government.

What is the Government going to do?

Why did the European Council not come out strongly in favour of the cancellation of the Ukrainian national debt? Its external debt stood at $129 billion just before the invasion. God knows what it will be when the war ends and the country has to be reconstructed. Repayments of $14 billion are due in 2022 alone. What does repayment of such a debt actually mean? Last year, when the IMF loaned $5 billion to Ukraine, it said it would be repaid "mainly through a reduction in the real value of wages and social benefits".…

Why does this society tolerate an extreme shortage of an essential medicine for women? That is precisely what has been happening with the scarcity of HRT patches. Would the same toleration be shown if, for example, the medicine in extreme short supply was Viagra? The hot flushes, joint pain, anxiety, insomnia, pain and discomfort caused by menopause has, when untreated, caused women to give up their jobs and make other unnecessary sacrifices. Why are only 10% of women in Ireland prescribed HRT? Yes, there was a can…

Yeah, right.

Pull the other one.

I will begin my contribution with a personal reminiscence. I remember a crowd of kids standing out on the sidewalk, as we used to say, on the street corner in Columbus, Ohio. I think the year was probably 1970, which would place me at age six or seven. There was a big conversation and it was all about the so-called crazy kid who lived around the corner. We were convinced this teenager was crazy because he had decided to go for a little walk right off the roof of his mother's garage. Inevitably, he broke his legs, s…

Yes.

I am well educated.

Who is putting their lives on the line? Of course many of the European capitalist states, such as France, Germany, Italy and Belgium, used to be colonial rulers in Africa and, collectively, have the blood of millions of people on their hands. That is an historical fact, Minister.

On the question of peace, stopping war and today, the key to stopping war and ending the rule of autocrats lies with people power and, more specifically, with workers' power. The Vietnam war, which I spoke of at the outset, was defeated by a pincer movement with key resistance by the Vietnamese people and the US anti-war movement. The Stalinist dictatorships of eastern Europe were toppled not by NATO tanks but by people power. The beginning of the end of the First World War was protests and strikes by Russian worke…

All things come to he who waits. Why did the Minister for Education decide to back the biggest change to the leaving certificate in the history of that examination and announce this change without consultation with teachers? Does the Taoiseach understand that teachers feel that the goodwill they extended in producing predicted grades as a pandemic measure is now being abused by his Government? Does he expect teachers to mark 40% of the new leaving certificate examinations without major increases in pay? In Cork cit…

What about grind schools?

I have consistently made the point in this House that the two key factors in defeating the invasion will be, first, the resistance of the Ukrainian people and, second, the Russian anti-war movement. Today, I want to go into a small bit more detail on the question of that resistance. When James Connolly addressed members of the Irish Citizen Army at Liberty Hall in 1916 before marching to the GPO, he told them, in the event of victory, to hold onto their guns. He said that the people we are fighting alongside are ou…

Broadly speaking, there were only ever three options when it came to the future of the leaving certificate examination. The first was to keep the examination as is, the second was to go for a mix of examination and assessment and the third was to abolish the examination and introduce a policy of open access to third-level education, based on increased investment and offering a place to all who wanted one. Following the student protests of recent years, the first option was never a serious runner. The students did f…

I will share time with Deputy Bríd Smith. We will vote for this legislation, which has become known as the sex-for-rent Bill. We will not shed any tears whatsoever if landlords who advertise sex-for-rent arrangements end up either with hefty fines or even behind bars. These people are creeps who exploit their position of power over people who have less or no power and need a roof over their heads. The situation is given an added urgency with the arrival of Ukrainian refugees. The Irish Examiner recently exposed the…

I am speaking to bring a socialist feminist analysis to this debate. Socialist feminism opposes cynical attempts to commercialise and make private profit out of the heartbreaking fertility issues prospective parents face. It opposes all attempts to profit from the systemic sexist and homophobic inequality rife in capitalist society. This includes recognising that infertility is a common and significant health concern that should be addressed via the public health service. Socialist feminism means standing for a tot…