-----even where court proceedings have been initiated.

The Standing Order is clear, and I wish to make my point.

I want to make my point.

I will not resume my seat.

Can I have a minute of my time back-----

-----if I steer clear from any comment on the DPP?

After rowing with the Ceann Comhairle, I want to agree with him that George Nkencho should not have been killed. I repeat, he was shot five times, twice in the back. His grieving family deserve answers on how their son was killed. Will the Minister agree the GSOC report is a matter of great public importance about how Garda killings are investigated, about how people can get answers on what happened, and is a matter of real public importance about how mental health crises, which George Nkencho was going through, ar…

I repeat my question to the Minister. There was a GSOC investigation. The investigation went on for two and a half years. There were hundreds of witness statements. There was video evidence. There is a lot of stuff in that report. Today, that report is not available to the family. It is not available to George's grieving mother, brothers and sisters. I believe that report should be published and made available to the family. I ask where the Minister stands on that. I will make the observation, and it is merely an o…

That is something that must be debated and must be discussed.

Access to safe, clean water and sanitation is a human right. It is a right that has been compromised for thousands of Cork city households. For the best part of two years now, brown and orange, dirty, discoloured water has poured from those taps. Eight days ago, the Tánaiste asked Uisce Éireann for a clear timeline for solving this problem. The public has heard from Uisce Éireann on a number of occasions in the past week, but there is still no timeline. It is increasingly clear that the ancient water pipes that lie…

The Taoiseach mentioned Uisce Éireann's new task force, which came about under pressure from below. It is there now, however. It seems to operate in quite a closed and secretive way. I have asked, as have campaigners, that a representative from one of the affected communities be appointed to the task force. We asked that an experienced water worker representative also be appointed to that task force. There has been no joy from Uisce Éireann in that regard. Perhaps the Taoiseach will voice his support for those basi…

Harvey Sherrat has been on the urgent list for a scoliosis procedure more than two years now. The Taoiseach's broken promise, that no child would have to wait for more than four months for such a procedure, amounts to a betrayal of Harvey and his family. In recent days, Harvey's mother was shocked to see an image of her son online, accompanied by a racist post saying that resources are being allocated to immigrants while children like Harvey languish on waiting lists. To her credit, Harvey's mother replied to the p…

After 43 years, there is at last some measure of justice. What a massive vindication for the families who refused to take no for an answer and refused to be ground down by the system. Everybody knows that the verdict is down to their steadfast campaigning on behalf of their loved ones. Everybody knows that the political and judicial establishments put every obstacle possible in the way of justice down through the decades. Nearly 20 successive Governments came, went and did nothing, while this injustice festered. Ne…

Last week, the Taoiseach promised a new era for special education and appointed a Minister of State to deliver progress. This week, in Glanmire in Cork city, we see the National Council for Special Education break a promise to give a second special education class to the Brooklodge National School for this September. In Ballincollig, parents are being forced to take children with autism out of their schools and send them by taxi to schools half an hour or more away for lack of special classes in their community. At…

What of Ballincollig?

What of Ballincollig?

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that the Department of Social Protection's Green Paper on Disability Reform: — proposes to introduce three "tiers" of payments depending on a person's supposed ability to work; — was published with no consultation with disabled people, and is opposed by a wide range of disabled people and their organisations; — will do nothing to lift disabled people out of poverty; — if implemented, would pressure many disabled people into work that is unsuitable; — proposes a cruel and discriminat…

I wish to make some summing up remarks on the debate we have just had. Many of the contributions from the various Deputies centred on the issue of the Green Paper. It is clear that a wide variety of Deputies in this House are pleased about the fact that the Green Paper has been scrapped, thanks to the pressure the Government was put under by the disability campaigners first and foremost. However, I think some of the contributions from the Opposition to the debate on this issue were a bit on what I would describe as…

There is huge concern about the increased number of deaths on our roads with many of those who have died being young. Is it an issue of individual responsibility or of society not doing what could and should be done? Important issues of personal responsibility are involved. No one is denying that, but if I read the comments made by some Ministers in recent days carefully, I see an attempt to downplay the responsibility of society, the Government and State intervention in this. For example, there is currently a €5 b…

We are told that we are living in the bright, shiny Ireland of the 2020s. Turn on many a tap in Cork city today and you might think that you had been transported back to the 1920s. Why? It is because of what is coming out of those taps. It is brown water, orange water, dirty and discoloured with sediment from the inside of water pipes that are more than 100 years old in some cases. I would reckon myself that a majority of people in Cork city now do not trust their water supply. This problem is not new. It has been …