There are 16,000 security officers in this country. They were recognised during Covid as being essential workers. However, they remain very low-paid workers involved in stressful work, in many cases working up to 60 hours a week. They were due to get a very small pay increase to €12.50 an hour under an employment regulation order, ERO. However, three security companies, namely, Top Security, Las and Morbury, took a case to seek and were granted, scandalously, an ex parte injunction to stop the ERO coming into effec…

The ERO was stopped by an injunction, but the Government so far has not challenged the injunction.

But-----

Instead of waiting for the substantial case, which appears to be the Government approach, the Government can go and challenge it. It was an ex parte injunction, so it can turn up and say that it is a party-----

The Tánaiste told a meeting of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment this morning that the introduction of statutory sick pay has been delayed by 12 weeks to January 2023. The Covid-19 enhanced illness benefit of €350 was, however, abolished last Friday and is, therefore, back to a payment of €208 a week. Does the Taoiseach agree that the abolition of the Covid-19 enhanced illness benefit should have been delayed until statutory sick pay was ready to be introduced, especially as we are now facing …

There is already an effective hard border on this island that stops people from moving freely for work, accessing healthcare and visiting friends on the island. That is because the common travel area excludes those without UK or Irish citizenship, including refugees, asylum seekers, partners of citizens and more, who are not permitted to move freely within the island of Ireland for leisure, tourism, work, connecting flights or any other reason. They cannot access jobs or education on the other side of the Border or…

We know eviction bans work. They worked here during Covid. The number of homeless people came down consistently when the eviction ban was in place. We also know that an eviction ban is being introduced in Scotland this winter. When the Taoiseach was asked about this yesterday, he implied it could not be done because of the Constitution. I do not agree with that interpretation, but the response to that would be to have a referendum on having a right to housing and to insert such a provision in the Constitution. The …

Last year, a study published by Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta demonstrated that only 23% of parents in the Gaeltacht are raising their children through Irish. Thankfully, the use of Irish outside the Gaeltacht seems to be increasing, but there can be no real revival of the Irish language without its native speakers. A crucial part of that is the education system and treating Irish as a living language instead of a subject in which one just needs to pass an exam. Will the Taoiseach commit the Government to supporting …

Last week, in the Minister, Deputy Donohoe’s budget speech, he said we would have an inflation rate of 8.5% this year and 7% next year, and he announced a series of increases in various payments, all inadequate and the vast majority below the rate of inflation. One group of people got absolutely no increase at all for the 13th year in a row, and that is foster carers. These are people who are providing vital care for children at about one twentieth of the cost of doing it in residential care and with generally much…

Foster carers.

Liz Truss has been forced to perform a humiliating U-turn concerning her plans to reduce the top rate of income tax from 45% to 40% for those earning more than £150,000. The move was widely condemned as a tax cut for the wealthiest. It was met by mass protests right across Britain from the Enough is Enough cost-of-living coalition. The top rate of income tax in this country, however, is 40%. This is the same rate that the Tories were attempting to bring it down to and were forced to retreat. The latest development …

But, in Britain, it is 60%. It is not like they are. I checked it.

They earn the most income.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people are living in homes affected by defects, whether these have been caused by mica, pyrite, fire safety deficiencies or other blatant defects. Hundreds of thousands of people have been impacted. Given the campaigning and the pressure from below, it is clear that the Government has been forced to concede redress schemes, such as the one for people affected by mica defects. It is still an inadequate redress scheme. The top line refers to 100%, but, in reality, in the s…

I ask the Tánaiste to condemn the blatantly racist anti-Traveller comments by Fianna Fáil Councillor Michael Crowe. The Galway councillor was on Galway Bay FM on Monday where he was opposing a house in Renmore being allocated to a Traveller family because of what he described as their vastly different cultures. He even went on to effectively justify the burning down of a different council house because it was going to be allocated to a Traveller family. It was absolutely blatant and disgusting anti-Traveller racism…

Many people will be scratching their heads today and over the next number of months asking how come we have a supposedly giveaway bonanza budget and yet the vast majority of ordinary people will be worse off next year. More people will be cold and hungry. More people will be energy poverty. Do not take it from me; take it from Mr. Cliff Taylor, who wrote in The Irish Times that "living standards will fall on average by about 3 per cent this year and 2 per cent next year". The answer is because the crises we face ar…

There is no mechanism whatsoever to stop the electricity companies pocketing the credits by increasing their prices. There are no windfall taxes. The Government will wait for the European Commission to do that. There is no new energy infrastructure, no investment or no guarantee in controlling our supplies and prices into the future. It is the exact same thing with the renter's credit, which is a seven-day credit for those who get it. It excludes huge numbers of renters, for instance, everybody who is in receipt of…

The Government appears to be making a habit of attending NATO meetings and meetings of NATO allies. I do not believe it is an accident at all, but part of a conscious drive to integrate this country with a process of militarisation led by US imperialism. I asked last week whether the State was represented at the fifth so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, which happened in Germany a couple of weeks ago. When I asked about it last week, the Taoiseach told me that he was "not aware of the specific meeting …

How much is the Government increasing the military budget by?

The Government is trying to do it now. It is playing catch-up now.