Previously the Department of Social Welfare provided a diet supplement for people on special medical diets. This was an extra allowance to help to cover the increased cost of such special diets. Numerous coeliac constituents have been on to me to say the coeliac diet and the specialist food they require because of their medical condition cost significantly more. They are asking for a return of the diet supplement. Currently, there are people getting it, so there is complete inequality and a disparity. Some people a…

I need to raise again the issue of the lack of public health nurses in Old County Road health centre. I have raised several times before the fact that no developmental checks are being offered to small children and their families. These developmental checks are incredibly important for young children, for babies, for picking up future needs and for supporting young parents. No developmental checks are happening there. I have raised this numerous times. My questions to the HSE are going unanswered. We need public he…

The Department of Education has not sufficiently invested in school buildings in Dublin South Central. Our Lady of Good Hope special school still does not have a PE hall. Parents in Bunscoil Synge Street contacted me recently about the Catholic Guides who are selling their community hall on Synge Street facing the school. Bunscoil Synge Street and the secondary school are growing schools. Here is an opportunity to invest in much-needed school buildings in the area. Will the Department of Education buy this hall for…

I raise the issue of the lack of gardaí in parts of my constituency. Inchicore has been without a community garda for many months. There seem to be internal delays in the Garda in appointing new people who are expressing interest in this. All of this extra funding for gardaí is being made available but my constituents want to know when we will see these gardaí on the streets. The length of time it is taking to appoint a new community garda highlights that there are many things we need to do, apart from the funding.…

Progress is finally being made by the Office of Public Works, OPW, on a bridge over the River Liffey connecting to the Irish National War Memorial Gardens in the Dublin South-Central constituency. This bridge was originally planned in the 1930s. It has, however, been reported that the bridge will be closed in the early evenings. This seems to be ridiculous. The war memorial gardens are open and accessible 24 hours per day so access to the bridge should be too. I ask the Minister, through the Minister of State with …

The budget provides a real opportunity for meaningful action on child poverty. I attended a meeting last week of the Children's Rights Alliance which is campaigning fiercely on the issue of child poverty. Social protection supports are a key part of that. It is imperative we use the budget to provide targeted payments to end child poverty. Will the Minister commit to serious action on child poverty in the upcoming budget?

I raise the issue of school provision in Dublin South-Central. While the small increase in variety with Synge Street becoming a Gaelcholáiste has been welcome, there is still no Gaelcholáiste for Dublin 10 or Dublin 12 and no non-denominational, non-religious school for Dublin 8. These issues need to be fixed and the Department of Education has quite frankly been opaque and contradictory in its response to this. Something needs to change in the process of planning schools. Dublin South-Central is suffering severely…

This legislation has received a broad welcome from Deputies and the farming organisations. However, there is a broader issue here in the context of how we approach rights and obligations and the enforcement of same. To be blunt, we have created a Byzantine mess of quasi-judicial bodies. There is ultimately a risk of constitutional weakness, vulnerability and challenge to many of these and we need to respond to that. We need efficiency of decisions, but we also need to ensure fair procedures, which are often about t…

Last week, Deputy Ó Snodaigh and I attended a protest with the community outside the community centre on Donore Avenue, which was burnt down in a fire three years ago and has been sitting empty since. Now, that is a problem for Dublin City Council and not one for here, but it is a major one and is emblematic of much of what is happening in the south-west inner city. Even when services are provided, they are left to decay and fall apart. When they fall away, they are not replaced. All of what Deputy Ó Snodaigh said …

The Minister of State said community safety is everybody's responsibility, and it is, but when something is everybody's responsibility, it can quickly become nobody's responsibility, particularly with Departments passing the buck from one to the other. That is why we need a multiagency task force to pull everyone together, as has worked effectively in other areas facing similar problems. Much of the Minister of State's response focuses on the policing response, arrests, equipment and sentencing, but we need a commu…

There is a significant problem with how we are building and providing schools. This is not just an issue in Dublin South-Central, but the major problems in that constituency are emblematic. Our Lady of Hope School has no PE hall. Setanta Special School was due to be completed in 2020, but the latest date given is now quarter 3 of 2025. It shares rooms with Riverview Educate Together National School, which has no PE hall and is itself pressed for space. There is a refusal by the Department of Education to provide a …

My question relates to the ongoing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There has been ethnic cleansing, provocation and aggression from Azerbaijan, and many false allegations. One of the few things maintaining peace in the region is the EU observer force. Can we increase this? Now is the time, of course, when there is much change in the European Union. Can we push this to ensure peace in the region?

I thank the Tánaiste. I will just underline that what we are dealing with here is a dictatorship in Azerbaijan that has not only trampled over the rights of its own people but continues to do so with the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, including those who have been arrested without trial. Azerbaijan also continues to threaten Armenia. As the Minister says, there have been attempts at normalisation and a peace treaty. There have been exchanges but what we are seeing is Azerbaijan making wild and false claims against …

I rise to discuss the Government's failure regarding the regeneration of social housing communities. This is a major, ongoing issue. It does not just concern the current Government because it is a wider issue. It is highlighted by several key issues and problems that have manifested themselves in my constituency. In recent days, residents in Dolphin House have begun a process of complaint with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, stating their human rights are being denied. Dolphin House was built in the…

While I thank the Minister of State for his reply, I believe some of the facts he has offered highlight the very problem I am talking about. With respect to Dolphin House, 100 social units have been completed and a further 28 are in preparation, but that amounts to 128 out of 750, as the Minister of State mentioned. Community amenities, including a community centre and community park, are also to be provided. It is five years since phase 1 was developed. Phases 2 and 3 seem to be in the distant future, without any …

I want to raise the issue of public health nurse, PHN, shortages. There is a general problem with a lack of public health nurses in many areas, but in my constituency, the public health centre on Old County Road has issued a letter that it is suspending developmental checks. Developmental checks conducted by PHNs are an incredibly important part of early intervention and of identifying problems for young people, children and families. The loss of developmental checks is an incredible worry and is simply storing up …

I want to raise the important issue of the primary care centre for Drimnagh, which has been repeatedly delayed. There has been significant development of housing in Drimnagh, which is very welcome, but it is massively increasing the population and the pressure on the limited spaces that exist. Currently, we have senior citizens travelling from Drimnagh to Naas for ophthalmology services. There is a site earmarked for the development of a Drimnagh primary care centre but the development just seems to be moving at a …

I also raise the issue of dual-use exports to Palestine. As has been said, since 7 October, €32 million worth of dual-use export licences have been granted. In granting a dual-use export licence, the Department of trade is supposed to consider the human rights record and respect for international law of the destination country. Surely, since 7 October, everything we have seen would suggest that there is no respect for human rights or international law. Equally, everything we have seen in the brutal occupation of Pa…

Like others I think this is a hopeful day, and a day to celebrate. I was working in Palestine in 2014 when Sweden recognised the Palestinian state. I witnessed first-hand the hope and joy of the Palestinians around me, with Swedish flags appearing on taxis and everywhere. It was a celebration. It was a moment when they felt their struggle was recognised and seen, and that people were standing beside them. I know our recognition can give that same hope. The fact that it has been done with Spain and Norway adds to it…

Robert Emmet Community Development Project in Dublin 8 is facing a rent increase of 300%. The CDP provides supports to the Oliver Bond Street community and the wider Liberties in ways that no other service simply does. Will the State step in and increase the funding on offer in order to help it to meet this rent or even provide the State-owned building that has been promised for some time? It is a service that is providing excellent community development work on the ground which no one else is providing. The Govern…