I raise once more the closure of Regina Coeli House in Belfast, which is a vital resource for victims of domestic violence, among others. Today marks the completion of six weeks of strike and sit-in by Unite workers at the hostel demanding that the facility be handed over to the state and kept open. Has the Taoiseach raised this with members of the Northern Ireland Executive, as he promised he would? The Tusla proposal that women's refuge places in this State be increased by 50 or 60 in the short term is completely…

The Taoiseach has not raised it.

The same forces that gave the world a climate crisis and put profit before people in a pandemic - big corporations, oligarchs, the arms industry, dictators and right-wing politicians - are now bringing us the NATO-Russia stand-off. A curse on both of their houses, on NATO, which has expanded eastwards towards the Russian border by 800 km since 1990, and on the Putin regime which sent tanks over the Ukrainian border this week. NATO should withdraw from eastern Europe and Russian troops should be returned to barracks…

There is a citizens' assembly for 2022 to elect a mayor for Dublin but no citizens' assembly for the drug issue. It shows how out of touch the Government is. In my constituency, Cork North-Central, we have communities absolutely plagued by drug-dealing. We have people whose lives have been wrecked or even lost due to drug misuse. The war on drugs strategy has clearly failed. There is a clear need for alternative strategies and a real debate about them. If the Government thinks that an elected mayor for Dublin is mo…

To listen to the Government speak about the cost-of-living crisis, we would swear it was an act of God and it did not have any hand, act or part in it itself. The reality is it is adding to the cost-of-living crisis by increasing carbon tax on home heating oil on 1 May and taxes on auto fuel on 12 October. The €200 credit on electricity bills will be severely eaten into and in some cases wiped out by these increases. Where will the money go? The Government states more than 50% is going on retrofitting. However thos…

It is now nearly four years since the previous Government announced a review of out-of-school education provision and appealed for submissions. When is that review going to be completed? I presume there will be a report. When will it be published? The findings are meant to inform future State policy towards education centres, such as the Cork Life Centre. That centre is doing tremendous work and providing a vital service in our community but it is doing so without the support it needs and deserves from the State. W…

The following was sent to me by the Minister for Defence, Deputy Simon Coveney, in a written reply to a parliamentary question on 20 January: In respect of deepening European Union and NATO links, it is my view that as an active partner of NATO through Partnership for Peace, Ireland should continue to welcome EU-NATO co-operation where it benefits international peace and security and is focused on avoiding duplication of structures, systems and interoperability standards. Boris Johnson is Prime Minister of an imper…

What about Ireland's relationship with NATO?

So closer relations.

The National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, meets tomorrow to discuss its advice to Government regarding schools. I want to ask the Taoiseach whether he and his Minister for Education intend to fully consult with workers in the schools, including the teachers, before they make decisions on these issues. Covid is far from a done deal in the schools. In fact, there were 14,390 teachers absent for Covid-related reasons from the schools in the month of January, an increase of 55% on December. Those figures do not…

Why did the State agree to sell 22 acres of Coillte land at Ballymartle Forest in Riverstick, County Cork to private interests? Does the Taoiseach accept that the State needs to rapidly expand its forest lands, rather than selling them off to the private sector? I congratulate the local campaigners whose highlighting of this issue has persuaded Coillte to pause the sale to allow for more public consultation, but is the sale already, effectively, a done deal? After all, Coillte has erected a "sale agreed" sign. Is t…

The report's level of ambition option 3 states, "As part of a national Air Defence Plan, the Air Corps would develop an air combat and intercept capability through the acquisition of a squadron of jet combat aircraft". This is total madness. A squadron is made up of between 12 and 24 aircraft. The average procurement cost of a single fighter aircraft in the NATO area is €99 million. The average cost to maintain and operate such an aircraft for a year is €8.8 million. What could you buy with that kind of money if yo…

The report recommends that we consider it as an option, if the Minister would not mind stopping interrupting. Deputy Coveney is very jumpy in this discussion, if he does not mind me making the observation. It is the Minister's fifth intervention in the space of 15 minutes. I will continue.

The Minister will get a serious debate-----

-----not the kind of soft points that he has got from his backbenchers. The Minister will get a real debate from these benches.

What is the price for our environment? Just three missions from one F-35 fighter jet would result in more carbon emissions than that of the entire fleet of Bus Éireann for a year. I did not hear the Green Party raise any points about this in the debate. That is what I mean when I talked about soft points. This is the price that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, would ask us to consider as he aims to beef up the military in preparation for increased co-operation with NATO. If €3 billion a year on the Defence Forces is a…

The following are the words of Mayo-based Tesco security worker Keith Leonard after 100 of the company's security officers were outsourced to OCS with just a couple of weeks' notice: I have been spat at, threatened and beat up for this company over the last 16 years. Then on Tuesday, on my day off, the company called me to tell me my job is gone. It is upsetting and disrespectful and we all deserve so much better. How do I look my family in the eye when the mortgage company comes to take our home because Tesco took…

I am totally opposed to any attempt by the Putin regime to organise a Russian invasion of Ukraine. I am opposed to war and to conflict here. However, I am also opposed to the continuing expansion of NATO into eastern Europe. The Irish Government should support neither Washington nor Moscow. However, the Taoiseach’s Government is supporting an increasingly pro-NATO position. It is facilitating the build-up of NATO troops in eastern Europe. It is allowing the US war machine to refuel at Shannon Airport on its way to …

There was an astonishing ruling today by the Office of the Planning Regulator, whereby it blocked a city council from introducing some small degree of control on build-to-rent apartment blocks. Dublin City Council had the temerity to insist that a percentage of apartments in build-to-rent developments be made available for sale. Second, it sought to restrict the number of studio and one-bedroom apartments in any development. Third, it sought to stipulate that build-to-rent developments should contain 100 units or m…

Yesterday, the Dáil unanimously passed a motion calling for the following steps to be taken: an emergency review of the national minimum wage; mandating an increase that would at least cover the rise in the cost of living as it impacts on the low paid; a new rate to be in place by 1 May; and for it to be index-linked. The Tánaiste voted for that motion. His party voted for it. I understand that legislation may need to be amended in order to fully implement it. The Dáil having passed that motion unanimously, what st…