Daniel Tatlow-Devally is an Irish citizen who is currently on trial in Stuttgart. Part of the "The Ulm Five", he is being charged with allegedly damaging property in the offices of Elbit Systems in September 2025. The company, the group asserts, is complicit in genocide in Gaza. Daniel has been in pretrial detention for the past eight months, a particularly prolonged pretrial detention, which is highly unusual, and it violates Daniel's human rights. While in detention, Daniel's direct access to his legal team and d…

Some desperately needed medications are currently not available under the drugs repayment scheme. I have been contacted about two drugs in particular - Ryeqo, a medication used in the post-operative treatment of women with severe endometriosis, and Skyclarys, a drug to slow the debilitating effects of the progressive life-shortening disease Friedreich's ataxia. I have contacted the Minister for Health about funding for both these drugs and all I get is a vague response saying that it under advisement and that the G…

Ireland has an urgent need to develop clean, resilient domestic energy infrastructure to protect communities and businesses from the ongoing global shocks we have seen recently. The shocks from recent times will continue on. This is not a once-off situation. Energy security is not just an economic concern. It is not a way to prevent future disruptions. Governments have a social obligation to ensure that everyone has access to clean, affordable and reliable energy. Relying on the importation of fossil fuels is no lo…

We are living in a moment when protecting wildlife and biodiversity is not something we have to worry about in the distant future; we need to think about it now. We are living in an environmental, biodiversity and ecology emergency. A new report from the independent advisory committee on nature restoration shows that 90% of our habitats are now in unfavourable conditions for wildlife. It is an appalling figure. It will take a monumental effort from Government, NGOs, across civil society and a cross-party approach t…

I also welcome the students from Castlecomer. I also warmly welcome the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to the Chamber today. Last October, I introduced the Domestic Violence (Free Travel Scheme) Bill 2025, which was to provide for three months of free travel to people fleeing domestic violence to support them to rebuild their lives. This Bill was intended as a small measure to support survivors who have no means of escaping a violent home. Of course, it was designed as only one intervention to strengthen the overall pr…

Can I finish my last minute?

That is fine.

I thank the Minister for coming back. I also extend my thanks to Senators O'Loughlin and Rabbitte, in particular Senator Rabbitte, who spoke passionately about this last October. I want to put that on the record. When we talk about free travel and the financial burden, it is so much more than that because it is actually giving women and people who experience domestic violence back their agency after years of living in an abusive situation where their power has been taken away from them, their decision-making has be…

I lend my support to what Senator Boyhan has said. It was very rousing. As a new Senator, it is always helpful to hear from Senators who have been around a little longer about the role of the House because sometimes what we do here feels a bit like a tick-box exercise and the legislative purpose that we hold can be lost in it all. Both the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have talked about the importance of putting those conventions inside leg…

I support the amendment. I will build on some of what Senator Cosgrove said about the idea of having a safeguard. Amendment No. 34 has been ruled out of order because it would fully prohibit admitting children into adult psychiatric units, which would create a cost for the State. When we talked about this at different sessions, the Minister of State spoke quite at length about how this is affecting very few children in terms of the overall numbers because of the work that has been done. She also spoke about the des…

I second the amendment.

The Government speaks about the progress it is making on housing, and I appreciate that is something it feels it has to do, but it is meaningless for a lot of us in the face of the growing number of evictions we see and the people entering homelessness. It is a very different reality from the updates we hear from both of the Ministers who have been in the room. The reality we hear is fear of an eviction notice, not being able to afford rent in a cost-of-living crisis, of overcrowding, and of the hidden homeless who…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward and I really appreciate the cross-party support around it. Comhairle youth work is very much the cornerstone of equality for young people. It is about social justice and meaningful participation. When so many children are excluded from accessing spaces, youth work is an entryway to civic engagement, being "real adults" and that level of growth they can undergo. The sector is supporting thousands of young people every year. Where I am based, in Carlow and Kilkenny, …

I thank the Minister of State for attending to discuss the growing concern about public transport in Carlow and Kilkenny. I recently met with representatives of the National Transport Authority, NTA, who outlined their ambitious plans for Carlow and Kilkenny after I raised a long list of concerns that had been brought to me by residents. The NTA representatives outlined plans for improved connectivity, enhanced rural links and climate-aligned transport policy. It is absolutely fantastic in theory, but the issue is …

The Minister of State talked about the market needing to respond. My concern in this regard is that there will be period for which we will have to wait, meaning there will be a gap in service. Effectively, the Minister of State is telling me there will be a gap in service for the affected communities. We have outsourced and privatised everything in Ireland to the point that nothing is functioning, including this service. We are seeing insufficient-----

We are talking about private routes here. You are saying that the 717 cannot operate-----

The Minister of State has mentioned that the 717 is a private service that is going to be cut. We have talked about the Expressway service being a private service that has a public service obligation, but that we have to wait for the market to respond. I understand the market to mean the private sector. The Minister of State might clarify whether the market means something else within this context. My concern is that there will be a massive gap for people. I appreciate that this does not pertain to the Minister of …

We have all heard the names of athletes such as Troy Parrott and Kelly Harrington who have represented Ireland on the international stage, but I wonder if anyone here has heard of Indie Cummins or Aidan Sweeney from Kilkenny Storm, who play with the Irish Saints team under the Irish Ice Hockey Association. They are just two of many young athletes from Kilkenny, Cork, Dublin and all over Ireland who returned from Canada two weeks ago with gold and silver medals from an international ice hockey tournament. This extra…

Many households, particularly in rural Ireland, are being crippled by rising fuel costs. This has been going on for a long time, not just in the past few weeks. Approximately 315,000 households are in arrears on their energy bills, and that figure is up 20% in the past year. Rather than acknowledging this reality, the Government chose to respond disdainfully and dismissively to protesters’ very real concerns, and the response was totally out of touch. What we saw from the Government was a failure of leadership and …

A question I ask myself day in and day out, a question the Palestinians ask themselves day in and day out, and a question Irish people ask themselves constantly is why the Irish Government is not doing anything in the face of the ongoing human rights violations and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank. Perhaps it is because we hear there is a ceasefire. Perhaps this is why the Government is not doing anything. We all know that, in reality, there is no actual ceasefire. Since the so-called ceasefire, Israeli a…