Look at the figures-----

-----90% of people from Dublin 6, 10% from DEIS.

It compounds and crystallises it.

I do not buy it and the important point is the students will not buy it. They will not buy the idea that the Minister listened and that she and the Government did everything that was possible. A full 67% of students in a very widely shared and participated in survey by the students union said they did not want a traditional leaving certificate exam but the Government is pushing ahead with a traditional exam, with a couple of tinkering changes around the edges. That is all it is and that is cold comfort to the stude…

That the Minister would say this is very different and there are significant changes speaks to a profound lack of vision by the Government because the basis of the system is exactly the same. For students, their perception of how they are going to do in their leaving certificate all rests on one or two exams in subjects including maths, English and Irish, in the oral and the aural exams. The Department is tinkering around the edges in terms of exactly what is on the exam papers but that is it. All the pressure buil…

I have nothing against accredited grades.

The alternative is open access.

Listening to the Taoiseach yesterday, his remarks were striking. He warned workers of a potential wage price spiral. After the horse has bolted and workers are experiencing a reduction in income in real terms, he was saying not to put in for wage rises because they might make inflation even worse. In reality, he attempted to blame workers for the inflation that we are seeing. The truth is that inflation is profit-led, not cost-pushed. Let us look at the real examples, such as energy bills. Everybody acknowledges th…

I want to ask about the exclusion of huge numbers of people from the Covid recognition payment. The answer the Taoiseach gave earlier is that it is restricted to those on the front line. For many groups of people, this is frankly insulting. The Taoiseach is saying to carers they are not on the front line. Despite the €20 billion of free labour done by these people, the Taoiseach is saying to them they do not count as being on the front line. During Covid they were keeping friends and family safe in very difficult c…

I feel I am the one to point out that the emperor has no clothes here. The Taoiseach was quoted extensively in the article which carried the details of the leaked report. He was quoted as saying that he found the report shocking and difficult to read and he confirmed he would be making an apology to the survivors on behalf of the State and wider society. At the very least he had a conversation with the journalist, Jody Corcoran, on the Saturday. What did the Taoiseach do upon finding out that the Sunday Independent…

It is a pretty poor answer now.

For the third year in a row, the Government has left its homework to the very last minute. We are only weeks away from the leaving certificate mocks, yet students still do not know what they are going to face this year. They might be less than six months away from what will be one of the most stressful exams of their lives but they do not know what the Government is planning for them. Even in a normal year, more than half of students experience mental or physical health issues as a result of the leaving certificate…

If there are any students watching, they will have got that the Taoiseach accepts the need for the clarity, but they will not have got any further clarity from him about what decision will be made or when it will be made. I stress that they need such clarity, and they need it as soon as possible. I do not accept that the idea there should be open access to third level education is illusory. It is not. We currently have open access to second level education. Is that illusory? No, it is not. Everyone is able to go fr…

Exactly.

It is very positive that the Omicron wave was less destructive than had been feared. The question for now is how not to waste the breathing space we have been afforded. We should use that space to make our society more Covid-resilient and pandemic-resilient rather than just forgetting about it all. The question for the Government is whether it is going to ensure that workers have the right to clean air in their workplaces. Will it proceed as quickly as possible to implement our Workplace Ventilation (Covid-19) Bill…

I also want to ask about the ongoing protests against the planned closure of the Regina Coeli hostel for women in Belfast. This hostel is the only one of its sort in the North, providing for women who have suffered from homelessness, drug addiction or domestic violence. Now they have been told by the Legion of Mary that it is to close. The workers have refused to accept it. They have occupied the building. A petition by Unite the Union has gathered in excess of 11,000 signatures. People are demanding the relevant M…

He has been liking tweets to say he is sorry.

At the start of January, there was a mass movement in Kazakhstan, an uprising triggered by an increase in fuel prices. The move started with a strike of oil workers in Zhanaozen and became widespread general strikes and protests across much of the country. It was put down with incredible brutality by an incredibly brutal dictatorship. The military and police were given orders to shoot without warning. They did so, killing well over 160 protestors. More than 8,000 people were arrested and many remain in prison. It w…

What about Kazakhstan?

I want to raise the issue of the Debenhams workers. Many times in this Chamber and in the convention centre, the Taoiseach correctly described them as having been treated shoddily and shabbily by their former employer. Debenhams took advantage of the pandemic to walk off and leave its workers high and dry. They waged an heroic struggle which ended after more than 400 days with an agreement that they would be able to access a training fund of €3 million. Incredibly, to this day not a single cent has been paid out of…