The Cathal Crotty case raises a number of issues and a number of things that need to change urgently. First is training of judges. The O'Malley report, published in the wake of the Belfast rape trial and the "I believe her" protests, recommended that judges, legal professionals and others whose professional work involves interaction with victims of sexual violence receive training. This should be broadened out to include all victims of gender-based violence. The Judicial Council appears to have commenced training b…

Military spending in western and central Europe is now higher than it was in the last year of the Cold War. In 2022, military outlays globally rose for the eighth consecutive year, hitting $2.24 trillion. This was before the Gaza genocide. This arms race is the backdrop to these Government proposals. The network of logistics hubs in Europe and support for operations provides for "predeployment of materiel" at hubs across Europe. That does not mean food and blankets. It means military equipment. This is preparation …

It is possible that corporations made profits in excess of €300 billion in this State last year. Unfortunately, working people did not fare as well. Yes, most workers got pay increases but the majority of those pay increases did not match the rate of inflation and therefore were de facto pay cuts. Maybe this goes some way to explaining why a majority of people who expressed a view when polled by RedC last week supported the pilots. A group of workers seeking a pay increase from a greedy company making massive profi…

It is true.

Let us talk about tomorrow. Tomorrow, representatives of Aer Lingus will walk into the Labour Court. This is a company which made €225 million in profits last year and is part of an international group which made €3.5 billion in profit, and its representatives will sit across the table from pilots who have not had a pay increase in five years. Of course, I do not want to see a strike. The pilots do not want to see a strike but the issue is whether they will have the opportunity to go back to work with a decent pay …

To oppose union busting?

After a revolt by disabled people forced the Government to scrap the hated Green Paper, the Taoiseach pledged to meet disabled persons organisations to discuss an alternative. On 8 May, the Taoiseach told me that he intended to meet directly with disability groups and that he would be issuing invitations to engage more substantially with them. Having waited six weeks from the time of that commitment, 11 disabled persons organisations wrote to the Taoiseach about this on 18 June. Two weeks on, they have yet to recei…

The US medical devices company Stryker employs 1,500 people in Carrigtwohill, County Cork. A significant minority of this workforce has chosen to join the trade union SIPTU. The company refused to recognise the union, in contrast to the position at its other plants in Macroom and Limerick, where it purchased companies with pre-existing union recognition arrangements. Stryker states that it is adhering to Irish law, but union members in Carrigtwohill believe the company is hiding behind it. SIPTU took the issue to t…

"It made me feel sick. This person physically attacked me, raped me, invaded my body, then left me lying in a hedgerow like I was a piece of rubbish - and now he could read [my] personal, private and intimate thoughts". These are the words of Paula Doyle. Paula was referring to her counselling notes, which had been requested by the DPP. They were seen not only by the DPP but also by the defence team and her rapist. This was not an exceptional case. It is common for victims' counselling notes to be used by the defen…

What is the legacy of the outgoing Minister, Michael McGrath? It is an Ireland where banks and financial institutions made profits of €5 billion plus last year while mortgage holders were stretched on the rack of consecutive interest rate rises. It is an Ireland where a privatised airline can make profits of €225 million but is prepared to bring the country to the brink of travel chaos rather than pay a cost-of-living increase to its pilots. It is an Ireland where young people are locked out of the housing market. …

Two weeks ago the Taoiseach gave me two commitments, the first being that he would personally contact the chief executive of Uisce Éireann to request a timeline for the resolution of the dirty water issue in Cork city. The second commitment was that he would discuss the matter with the Tánaiste. They say that a week is a long time in politics but it is a longer time again when one has discoloured water coming out of ones taps. Being a patient and courteous chap, I did not want to ask the Taoiseach for the report ju…

According to Daft.ie, the average price of a house in Cork city is now €364,000. This is an increase of 9% since last year. In other words, the average price of a house in Cork city has increased by €30,000 in the space of one year. There are many thousands of young people with good jobs in Cork who do not take home more than €30,000 a year. How are these young people meant to have any hope of ever owning a home when prices rise by sums greater than their annual income? How can the Taoiseach look those young people…

"It is incredibly disappointing to know that in the university I’ve been attending for years that the research of peers is potentially being used to promote and assist in a genocide". Those are the words of UCC student Ainsley-Kay Rucker after the UCC boycott divestment sanctions group discovered links between UCC's Tyndall Institute and the Israeli war machine. Tyndall is part of the PHORMIC Horizon Europe project. This is a consortium of eight partners working to develop programmable photonic chips. The Israeli p…

"There is no jury at the Special Criminal Court and it accepts secret evidence from gardaí. This is in violation of our right to a fair trial, our right to trial by jury and our right to equality before the law." Those are the words of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, which is far from the only human rights organisation that has criticised the Offences against the State Act. Amnesty International, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, are ju…

The Women's Aid annual report is a chapter of horrors, with 40,000 disclosures of abuse against women and children, which is the highest recorded since the charity's inception 50 years ago. It is noteworthy that 86% of abuse was committed by a current or former male intimate partner. It is also interesting that 48% of women who reported abuse to An Garda found gardaí to be unhelpful. That needs to be discussed. I propose that the Business Committee put this issue onto the Dáil schedule as soon as possible.

Can the Taoiseach tell us when the Government will make an announcement on the issue of funding for the Cork events centre? It is now nearly eight and a half years since a clatter of politicians, led by Enda Kenny and Simon Coveney, were photographed turning the sod in the run-up to a general election, and, still, to this day, not a single brick has been laid. Can the Taoiseach tell us what the cost to the State will be? The original plan was for €20 million. Over the years it has skyrocketed to €57 million. To be …

Will it be before the summer?

An Associated Press investigation has identified at least 60 Palestinian families where 25 family members or more were killed by Israeli bombing between October and December. In some cases, four generations of one family were wiped out. Israeli bombing has destroyed homes, buildings and infrastructure to the point that there is now 37 million tonnes of rubble in Gaza. It is estimated that it would take ten years to clear it. Last year, while the assault was well under way, a European politician compared Israel's ro…

I ask the Taoiseach about the issue of childcare in Ballincollig in Cork or, more precisely, the lack thereof. Cork City Council recently turned down planning permission for a crèche. Does the Taoiseach know how many disappointed parents had their names on the list for a place? The answer is 400. One of those 400 parents was on unpaid leave at the time. She will now have to quit her job to look after her child. Another disappointed couple will have to carry on driving 27 km each way every day for childcare outside …

It is 35 years this November since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Where are we 35 years on? There are 1,800 km of walls and fences built or being built on Europe's borders, the equivalent of 12 Berlin Walls. In Hungary, the European Union helped to build a steel fence, ringed with barbed wire between the border of Hungary, Croatia and Serbia, giving €22 million in funding. In Poland, there are 180 km of barbed wire separating the country from Belarus. The police force established to maintain this frontier, Frontex, h…