Blah, blah, blah is what we have heard for 30 years from politicians. Greta Thunberg got it correct about the Taoiseach and the UN Security Council, as in regard to much of the debate that has happened today. The gulf between the promises, the rhetoric and the talk and the reality of the action or lack of action grows wider and wider. The Taoiseach was correct when he said at the UN Security Council that climate change is the defining challenge of our generation and that the council must do more on the issue of cli…

Indeed, I suspect many climate scientists who are looking with open eyes at what is happening are drawing the conclusion that a system that treats nature as free, one that bases itself on the exploitation of labour and of nature and treats damage to nature, in terms of both the biodiversity and climate crises, as an externality and something it does not have to care about is incompatible with the kind of change we need and the timeframe within which we need to have it to avoid absolute disaster. I conclude with ref…

What the public could expect from the Green Party is that it takes the side of the environment rather than of major multinational corporations, but that is not what they are getting. Deputy Leddin was arguably more enthusiastic in his cheerleading for more and more data centres in this country than even the Minister of State. He fits very well the role of outrider for a right-wing, anti-environment Government with the language that anything that goes against the interests of the big corporations can just be dismiss…

I would like to quote Moody's Investor Service from two years ago where they commented on the prospect of energy prices rising in Ireland: The key driver behind this rising demand is the huge electricity appetite of the country’s data centres, estimated to rise to 29% of total demand by 2028, coupled with the ongoing closure of coal, peat and gas plants, which are pressuring reserve margins and could push prices higher. Here we are with energy prices going through the roof. The international context is also driving…

They are not employed in data centres.

You do not.

On 14 July, I raised with the Taoiseach the gross abuse of power by a retired Kerry judge, James O'Connor. I explained how he had abused his position, persistently and completely inappropriately, to pursue a vulnerable woman, who was before his court on a family law matter, for a sexual relationship. During the summer, I was contacted by another woman, who told me a very similar story relating to the same judge. She too was before him on a family law matter. He approached her repeatedly, he got her number and then …

There is clearly a repeated pattern of abusive behaviour by James O'Connor. What is the Government going to do to stop this type of thing happening again?

When I first raised the issue of the abuse of power by retired judge James O'Connor, the Taoiseach replied to me saying, "It is clear to me that there are avenues for people to deal with the abuse[s] of power". What is precisely demonstrated by this case, however, is that those avenues did not work. The first woman went to the Garda and was told there was nothing to investigate and it was a normal situation of boy meets girl. It was anything but a normal situation. It was a judge in court who met a vulnerable woman…

I will come back to the case of James O'Connor again. The Taoiseach says that the first port of call, the agencies and so on, should work. I agree. They should work but the point is that it is very clear that they did not work and that there is a problem and, therefore, a need for reform. The central issue is that the massive imbalance of power between a family law judge and a person coming before that judge was simply not taken into account. The woman I quoted earlier said this puts you in a position where you fee…

It is me.

I am on this one.

Gremlins at work. I thank the Ceann Comhairle. A few weeks ago, I participated in a protest of local employment service workers at the Department of Finance and around to the front of the Dáil. They were protesting against the proposal, which the Government is pushing ahead with, for the outsourcing or tendering of their work. They were able to tell stories of how they help the long-term unemployed. They work alongside them to try to get jobs that would be suitable for them. They rightly pointed out that the drive …

Housing for All is a good name for a policy document; I will give the Government that. I believe the name is borrowed from the housing movement. It obviously bears no relationship to the actual content of the policy and the actual strategy of the Government. It would more accurately be named something like "Profit for a Minority", "Profits for the Few" or "Profits for Developers". The core of the so-called Housing for All plan is simply a continuation of the same failed reliance on incentivising the private sector …

Why is the Government taking risks with children's health in our schools? Why is there no decision to have a CO2 monitor in every classroom? Why is there no decision to have high efficiency particulate air, HEPA, filters in classrooms? Why has the Government made the decision, which makes no sense to me whatsoever, to say something magical happens in a classroom which means the regular rules of contacts for Covid do not apply? If a child goes to a birthday party for half an hour with another child who has Covid, th…

The Government has said the strategic housing development, SHD, regime will be closed from February. The question is what the Government will do for those living with the consequences of that regime, a regime which effectively allowed the profits of the developers to be expedited and allowed the developers to bypass the regular planning process and the communities that have to live with the consequences of that. I will give the Taoiseach the example of Citywest, which has seen huge-scale development of largely buil…

More than four years ago, Sláintecare promised "a universal single tier service where patients are treated on the basis of health need rather than on ability to pay". Where are we today? We have a further embedded and deeply unequal two-tier system, the weaknesses of which were badly exposed by the pandemic. There are almost 1 million people on hospital waiting lists. Hospital staff are overworked and underpaid and significant amounts of public money are ending up in the private healthcare system through, for examp…

We are a year and a half into a pandemic. We know very well the virus is airborne and that ventilation is crucial, and yet we still do not have CO2 monitors in every classroom across the State. According to what the Minister has just said, we are almost finalised and, therefore, there is not even a plan to have CO2 monitors for every classroom across the State. Why are we scrimping and saving on children's health? Why are we not ensuring there are CO2 monitors in every classroom, HEPA filtration systems where neces…

The Government has taken a policy decision not to provide a CO2 monitor for every classroom in this State. That is a scandalous policy decision. The Government has also taken a policy decision not to provide high efficiency particulate air, HEPA, filtration systems where necessary. To make our schools reasonably safe from a ventilation perspective would cost €10 per child but the Government is choosing not to do so. I was speaking to a principal yesterday who had to go down the precise route the Minister advocates.…

The change in policy with regard to close contact tracing does not make sense. If a child goes to a birthday party for half an hour, that child is counted as a close contact and has to be tested. However, if they are in school and in the same pod as another child all day, every day, for a week, all of a sudden they no longer count as a close contact. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is an approach of hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. If we do not test children, we will not see just how widely Co…