Ten days of terror have been raining down on the people of Gaza. We are now on day 11. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 60 children. Lynch mobs are roaming the streets of cities within Israel, shouting slogans like "Death to Arabs", backed up by state forces targeting Palestinians. Ethnic cleansing is continuing in East Jerusalem. What was the response of the international community, from US President Biden to European Commission President von der Leyen? It was support for the Israel…

There is a grave injustice being done to the 149 pupils who attend Knockmore Junior School in Killinarden and a similar injustice being done to 91 other schools and the children who go there. These are schools that applied for the hot school meal programme because they need it and they lost out on the basis of a lottery. It is completely unfair. There is plenty of academic evidence, not that we really need it, to show the importance of good nutrition and the difference that it makes in the education children get, h…

To start with the point about the lottery system, it is good that the Minister of State recognises that it is inadequate. Frankly, it is sick that in 2021 pupils are relying on a lottery to determine whether they get a hot meal in school. Either the programme is necessary, which the evidence suggests is clearly the case, or it is not but it is not acceptable in this day and age that students would be relying on winning a lottery. A lot of the Minister of State's answer is the same as the answer that has been given …

There have been decades of underinvestment in our water infrastructure. That underinvestment continues, and the danger is that it will be used as another excuse to try to introduce water charges, which still will not resolve the underinvestment. Last week, the OECD called for the reintroduction of water charges in Ireland. In case the Government gets the wrong idea, it must be put on notice that any attempt to reintroduce water charges will be met with a massive campaign of boycott and people power that will bring …

It is noteworthy how the Taoiseach is the only man in the building without an ideology. It really is quite striking. It is the best kind of ideology when you do not admit that it is an ideology. Parents and staff at Firhouse Educate Together Secondary School have been forced to struggle again and again to ensure they have buildings for the kids and students on the school site. Last year, they fought successfully to ensure they were not forced to move to Citywest but they are back facing a crisis yet again where, be…

The statement of the EU Commission President that she condemns indiscriminate attacks by Hamas on Israel was scandalous. There was no mention of the ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem. Neither was there any mention of the pogroms being carried out by far-right Israeli activists in Israel, with the backing of state forces, against Palestinians. Likewise, there was no mention of the bombs raining down on Gaza, not even the kind of mealy-mouthed false equivalence that the Taoiseach himself likes to engage in. It shows…

It is reported that yesterday the Cabinet agreed to seek to extend the sweeping Garda emergency powers to November with a possible extension all the way to February 2022. Shamefully, while political parties have been exempted from the ban on gatherings, workers' pickets and socially distanced protests have been effectively banned for over a year. Recently, taxi drivers were threatened with criminal action if they went ahead with their planned car cavalcade even though every protester would have been inside their ow…

The Taoiseach never answers the question.

The Taoiseach should answer the question.

I do not think it is an accident that the housing policy of this Government and many previous Governments has not solved the housing crisis and has not addressed the needs of ordinary people, but instead has lined the pockets of developers, speculators and investment funds. I put it to the Taoiseach that that is because housing policy has been captured by those interests. We have seen lots of revelations about how they win on both sides of the equation. The State, through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF…

The terror, murder and collective punishment being inflicted by the Israeli state on the Palestinian people is horrific. Bombs are raining down in Gaza. I have been there and I have seen with my own two eyes just how densely populated it is. The consequences are that over 60 children have been murdered, over 200 Palestinian people have been killed and over 1,000 people have been injured. Ethnic cleansing is taking place in East Jerusalem. Within the borders of Israel, pogroms organised by far-right activists are ta…

There is no more glaring example or indictment of capitalism than the situation with Covid vaccines. The truth, pure and simple, is that major pharmaceutical companies and their search for profit maximisation are standing in the way of vaccines getting into the arms of, literally, billions of people around the world. That is devastating for those people but, as has been said, it is devastating for the entire world. The Government's position on this is not clear. When the Biden Administration, under pressure, announ…

Will intellectual property, IP, be waived?

Will the IP be waived?

Will the intellectual property be waived?

Will the IP be waived?

The Taoiseach should try to answer.

In answers to me, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has said the operating licence to run the national maternity hospital would be issued to St. Vincent's Healthcare Group, a company whose statutes pledge it to uphold Catholic values and vision. In this day and age, we should not hand any more hospitals over to the church, especially our national maternity hospital. Nowhere in the world do Catholic-controlled hospitals provide contraception or perform IVF, surgical sterilisations or abortions. On to…

Thirteen months of heroic struggle from the Debenhams workers met with 13 months of excuses, excuses and more excuses from the Government. I congratulate the Minister of State. He managed to sum up the Government's response over more than a year in his ten minute speech which started "Of course I sympathise with the workers" - you cannot have anything but sympathy with the workers - but then went on to say that the workers' rights and entitlements are already protected in law, implicitly asking what on earth we are…

The Taoiseach's behaviour in relation to An Taisce is reminiscent of Donald Trump. The emergency powers handed to the Garda and the State last year are due to expire on 9 June but it is rumoured that the Government is thinking of extending them yet again. We have seen how the so called Covid powers have been used to harass Debenhams workers and to ban a car-based protest by taxi drivers. We have also seen 40 gardaí with six police vans physically breaking up a Debenhams picket in Waterford on Monday night. Socially…