I thank the Minister of State. It is good to hear the Government opposed the watering-down that happened at the latest European Council meeting. Reuters reported that at an earlier stage in the negotiations the Government indicated it wanted to exclude asset managers and institutional investors from the scope and that it said in a submission it could not signal its agreement to including financial undertakings. Was that accurate? Oxfam's lead on this has commented about the effective exclusion of the financial sect…

I hope the Parliament will adopt a strong position and that in trilogue this will be strengthened again and the financial sector brought back in. If not, that creates a danger, as the Minister of State pointed out, of a patchwork of different regulations in different countries. That is against the whole purpose of the EU and also creates pressure for a race to the bottom because investors may locate in countries where they are not going to be held responsible for what is happening lower down the value chain. Let us…

United Against Racism is holding a rally today at 5.30 p.m. at the Spire to state clearly that we have a housing crisis, not a refugee crisis, and that refugees are welcome here. It is an expression of unity and solidarity in response to the division and hate being spread by the far right. People who arrive here are fleeing wars, climate change and brutal oppression. They are not responsible for the housing crisis, which existed well before they arrived. Blaming asylum seekers plays into the hands of those profitin…

Last week, we heard about a crisis in our banking sector and that we cannot attract the bankers we need to lead our banks like they did before the crisis. The answer from the Government for that crisis was to get rid of the pay cap of €500,000 so we can pay them millions of euro like they were paid before the banking crisis that we all experienced. This week, we hear about a much more important, severe and impactful crisis in terms of teacher shortages, which is having a significant impact on children across the co…

Will the Minister engage with PhD researchers' unions to ensure that all PhD students receive a living wage income and that they are treated as workers? The truth is that they are well below the minimum wage. The highest available PhD stipends are €18,500 over a 40-hour week. Most of them do significantly more than that, which works out at less than €9 per hour.

The issue of treating PhD students as workers is the central issue because what flows from it is that, if we recognise them as employees, then they have to be paid at least the minimum wage. They are workers in terms of the research work they do but also, in very many cases, in the context of the unpaid work they do in delivering tutorials, demonstrations, correcting assignments and exams, and even lecturing. In very many cases, a condition for getting PhD scholarships to cover their fees is that they have to do th…

Ireland compares badly with its EU peers in terms of how PhD workers are treated. I listed the kind of stipends at the high end and, obviously, there are many on less than that, but the EU average for a PhD pay is €32,100, and pay in Nordic countries starts at about €50,000 and progresses to €55,000 on a fixed-term four-year contract. Separate from the issue of treatment as workers and the issue of pay that relate to it are a series of other issues that the PhD workers unions are raising, such as ending discriminat…

Today, we heard news about fire defects at one of the largest housing developments in the State, the Phoenix Park Racecourse apartment complex. Up to 550 apartments are affected by major deficiencies that could result in a fire racing through the common areas and spreading to other apartments. These are just some of the 100,000 apartments and duplexes around the State that are affected by latent defects. The vast majority of apartments built over the past three decades are affected. People are facing bills of up to…

These developers have and will cost people between €20,000 and €70,000, off-loading responsibility from themselves onto ordinary people who simply cannot afford it. More than that, they have put people's lives at risk by their actions, yet they are still operating and, in some cases, on the same site. How can that be allowed? How are they allowed to wash their hands of it? How can Harcourt Development be receiving massive State contracts, public money, after putting people's lives in danger and facing them with mas…

If the Government gives 100% redress, it will be enough for me.

The Minister has my word.

The Minister has my word.

If the Government provides 100% redress, we will accept it.

I have a point of order.

Yesterday during Taoiseach's Questions, the Taoiseach said that People Before Profit-Solidarity Deputies were "puppets" for Putin's regime. I believe this to be an abuse of privilege and disorderly. It is a very serious allegation for a Taoiseach to make about Opposition Members of Parliament that they are agents of a foreign state, particularly a state like Russia.

I am asking for the remark to be withdrawn in light of People Before Profit's very consistent record of opposition to Putin, the fact it is our co-thinkers who are in prison in Russia for opposing Putin's invasion of Ukraine and, while Bertie Ahern was shaking hands with Putin-----

-----we were opposing the invasion of Chechnya.

Yes.

So the Taoiseach is not withdrawing that Opposition Members of Parliament are agents of a foreign power? That is incredibly authoritarian.

It is genuinely quite chilling that the Taoiseach feels able to discount what we say and attempt to smear us by saying we are agents for Putin with no evidence whatsoever.