I will accept the ruling the Ceann Comhairle makes. I came in after rushing up here and maybe I made my points somewhat forcefully. I would not argue the toss on this if we were not in Covid times. We have to keep an eye on the clock and so on but I was in a place that was safe with regard to the Covid situation and as soon as I got word I got up here as quickly as I could. The point has been better made by other Deputies and, in fairness, the speakers should be allowed to have their say.

I appreciate that. Gap has announced its intention to close 81 stores in the UK and Ireland. In this State, there are stores that face closure in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. I read the press statement Gap released overnight. It was full of obnoxious corporate jargon. The company did not have the decency to tell us how many workers would lose their jobs. As of now, we have no official figure in that regard but probably in the region of 100 jobs will be axed from the end of August to the end of September. Has this com…

To be clear, what we are discussing here is a measure aimed at combatting racism and discrimination. Anti-Traveller racism runs deep in Irish society and it is strongly reflected in the State, the various arms of the State and the education system. The Minister, Deputy Foley, understated the position quite severely in her introductory remarks. I welcome the fact she is supporting the Bill but to say that, "In recent decades, progress has been made in creating an education system that is more inclusive and supportiv…

Just the one, is it?

Before I take up some of the points made by the Minister of State, will a copy of his speech be distributed to the Deputies in the House in order that we can look at it before the close of the debate itself? A key point the Minister of State tried to make was that there are various interest groups involved, namely, employers on the one hand and employees on the other. He then introduced a third category, that of retired workers. We would argue that in reality the interests of workers and the interests of retired wo…

The dogs on the street know these things anyway.

Let us leave names out of it and mention a figure instead. The figure I will mention is the €10 million paid out in political pensions in 2018 alone. It is one rule for Ministers and Deputies and another rule for the pensioners in question. The retired workers in question are the people who have played a key role in and contributed more to the building of this country. I challenge Members to name one group who has contributed more to the building of this country than have retired workers. There is none. There are p…

Budapest Pride began on Friday night. I offer solidarity to the LGBTQ activists and their supporters organising the event in the teeth of the Viktor Orbán hate campaign. It is interesting to note that the organisers report that there is no big corporate sponsor and that there has not been for ten years. The rainbow capitalists are fair-weather friends it seems. I understand that Budapest Pride runs for a month and is due to culminate in a major demonstration through the streets on 24 July. Socialists, human rights …

A story in today's edition of The Irish Times tells us that more than 3,000 999 calls reporting domestic violence were cancelled by the Garda in 2019 and 2020. There is talk of disciplinary action. Would the Tánaiste agree that the number of cancelled calls speaks to something more than sloppy policing by particular members of the Garda? At best, it speaks to me of a failure on the part of the leadership of the Garda to instil and foster a culture of making protection of women and children a high priority. At worst…

It is time to take off the gloves with the Sisters of Charity. Let us remind ourselves of who we are dealing with. The Sisters of Charity were heavily involved in the illegal adoptions racket. The St. Patrick's Guild that they ran handed over files to Tusla in 2016, leading to the discovery that the guild was involved with 126 illegal adoptions. However, this is unlikely to have been the entire story and experts reckon there may have been as many as 10,000 illegal adoptions in the State. How many of these involved …

Bank profits and the interests of bankers should not be allowed to dictate access to housing in this country, yet that is the direction in which the Government is going. The announcement this morning that the Government plans to sell off the State's remaining shares in Bank of Ireland means that the bottom line will become an even greater focus within that bank and that profit will be the driver to an even greater extent. This is bad news for banking jobs, young people trying to get a loan or a mortgage and those w…

The Taoiseach needs to ban LNG projects. All such projects are meant to be frozen pending an energy supply review. That decision came about under pressure from environmental campaigners and as a result of the growing awareness of the link between LNG and fracked gas and the extreme danger posed to our environment by fracking. However, the wheels have not stopped turning. We learned last night that New Fortress Energy is on the verge of applying for planning permission for a €650 million LNG terminal for Shannon at …

I first want to congratulate all of the students across the country who challenged the refusal of landlords, in the main corporate landlords, to refund the large rents paid by them last year before Covid hit and they had to up sticks and go home. This includes students from University College Cork who highlighted the particularly scandalous situation at Amnis House on the Western Road where a corporate landlord was refusing to return four-figure sums that students had paid for their year's accommodation. If it were…

We will call a division on this motion and vote against it. It has been renewed every year since 1998. Recently, there is a new part of the equation because with the onset of the Covid crisis, we had the introduction of the most draconian powers seen in the history of the State. Those powers are still in place and the Minister is proposing to introduce this legislation alongside them. Not only is she doing that, but she is also proposing to bring it in at the same time as the new draconian police powers contained i…

At a meeting this morning of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, the Aer Lingus CEO, Ms Lynne Embleton, was asked whether she would keep 200 Cork workers on the books for the ten weeks that Cork Airport is to be closed for runway repairs in September, October and November. She replied that at the time of the decision to announce the layoffs, there was uncertainty regarding the EWSS, its continuance and what form that continuance would take. Given that there is no longer uncertainty about…

We have not had any answers.

Why can we not have more time?

Yes. Let us hear the replies.

What about Cork Airport?

June is Pride month throughout the world. It is 52 years this month since the Stonewall uprising, when LGBTQ+ people in New York city rose up against police harassment and violence. Since that time, the movement for gay liberation has spread to every country in the world. Every June, the community celebrates and takes stock of the journey travelled and the journey yet to come. Stonewall's tradition of resistance and struggle lives on, despite attempts by the corporate world to co-opt and monetise the issues. Here i…