Will the Taoiseach at least commit to the scheme being retrospective?

I will raise with the Taoiseach a particular case that illustrates the problems in our health service and the fact that children with complex needs are being failed by the State. Brody Martin is eight years old and has multiple complex needs that mean he cannot be left by himself. He has to be minded at all times. He needs to have spinal surgery every six months. He was due to be in Crumlin hospital this Tuesday but his operation was cancelled on Friday. His mother was told this was because the hospital could not o…

Something needs to be done. Here is something: let us do that.

It appears that we are on the verge of the second Stormont election within six months. The DUP has used a boycott of Stormont to attempt to whip up sectarianism to stop its slide in the polls. The truth is that more and more people are seeing through its sectarian and Tory policies. This is the party that backed the disastrous policies of May, Johnson and Truss and failed to do anything about the cost-of-living crisis affecting working-class people in the North across the sectarian divide. Now, more than ever, we n…

Thirty-three Ukrainian refugees had to spend a night in Dublin Airport. It is being reported the Government is to use social media to tell Ukrainians there is no accommodation in Ireland. So much for the Ireland of a thousand welcomes. Sometimes people say to me the Government should put its own first, but the problem is precisely that the Government does put its own people first, namely, the corporate landlords, the big developers and those who are sitting on empty properties. There are enough resources in this co…

Giving money to developers is relying on the market.

The Government has been dragged kicking and screaming to implement some form of eviction ban. It has been dragged by pressure from the Opposition, by the growing housing movement, which will be seen on the streets again from 26 November with the Raise the Roof protest, and by the rising homeless numbers and the political pressure that puts on the Government. In that context, the Government says the thing it said was definitely not constitutional before is, all of a sudden, constitutional but, even when dragged and …

I met with aid agencies recently, who are warning that a devastating famine on a scale not seen since Somalia in 1992 when up to 300,000 people died is now imminent in the Horn of Africa. Already, hundreds of thousands of women and children have been forced from their homes and are gathering in large camps where supplies, including water, are expensive and increasingly scarce. These are climate refugee camps. The coming famine is almost entirely caused by climate change, with rains failing for the fifth season in a…

Or Yemen maybe.

We do all the time. The Taoiseach can put that on the record. We condemn Russia.

On Sunday, I joined workers protesting outside Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. They have been protesting over the last few weeks about the implementation of parking charges for them. The cost will amount to at least €600 annually for many of the workers, which they will have to pay just to come to their place of work. If they cannot find a space in the limited staff car park and have to use the customer car park, this could rise to more than €2,000. Effectively, this a pay cut for these workers. They are 100% right …

The Government has very cynically used Putin's imperialist and brutal invasion of Ukraine to drive a coach and horses through what is left of the idea of neutrality. Last week the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said that Ireland will participate in the EU's training mission for the Ukrainian army expected to get under way in mid-November. It is very clear that this is the next step in the Government's determined effort to involve Ireland in European and eventually NATO military undertakings. It comes alongside the fact …

It is what the Government is doing. It is more shocking to do it.

I said it three times in a row.

The Taoiseach is lying and the record will show it.

Why are people being sent to NATO headquarters?

The Taoiseach is trying to drag us into a military conflict with no vote in the Dáil.

Is that all the EU military training is doing? No, it is not.

I welcome many aspects of this motion, in particular the call for privatised routes to be renationalised. This should start immediately with the pathetic excuse for a service being inflicted on ordinary people by Go-Ahead Ireland. I have been inundated with complaints from people who have been stranded as a result of the No. 175 bus not turning up. Go-Ahead Ireland was recently fined €500,000 by the NTA for failing to put on bus services at all - not because its services were late but because they did not turn up. …

In June, the University of Limerick published the results of a groundbreaking new study that examined the relationship between Travellers and the Irish criminal justice system. The report details that Travellers' trust in the system is extremely low and that fears of wrongful arrest, excessive use of force, wrongful conviction, disproportionately high sentences and wrongful imprisonment affect how Travellers engage with and experience the criminal justice system. Will the Minister of State undertake to respond to t…