Can the Taoiseach answer the question?

Will the Taoiseach please answer the question?

The Taoiseach said he was answering the question and he did not answer it at all. The question was if the Government will renew the powers. It is a serious civil liberties issue and the Taoiseach entirely diverted from it by pretending I was saying something I was not saying. Will you please answer the question? Are you going to renew the powers?

Certainly. Can we get an answer?

I will be brief. The NESC has referred to the "considerable public governance challenges" in the transition to a low-carbon economy and society. One of those challenges was displayed by the Taoiseach's own intervention yesterday in relation to An Taisce. Does he not see how entirely inappropriate it is for him, as Taoiseach, to attempt to put pressure on a publicly-funded, independent body, like An Taisce, not to perform its legal role? When one combines his own statement as Taoiseach of the country with the statem…

There is a considerable amount of international evidence about the importance of hot nutritious meals for pupils in school. Pupils who receive such meals are healthier, less likely to be tired in class and more likely to be attentive. The younger they get access to those meals, the better. That is why I welcome the hot school meal programme. However, the programme is drastically underfunded given that almost 100 schools that applied have been unable to access it. One particularly unjust example of a school that has…

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. Fianna Fáil's response to this crisis would be laughable if it was not so serious. It was summed up in a tweet by Fianna Fáil MEP, Billy Kelleher, who effectively pointed to what was happening in Maynooth and said "something" must be done but this is Fianna Fáil's policy. It is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy to incentivise the vulture and cuckoo funds to come in here. Now that the chickens are coming home to roost, the approach of Fianna Fáil is to wring its hands and sa…

That was quite a slippery answer from the Tánaiste. I will attempt to get an answer again. People Before Profit has been campaigning for months for a people's vaccine to stop the big pharmaceutical companies and their profit interest standing in the way of people getting access to vaccines and to seek to avoid the horror scenes we are seeing in India. The Government had a position, which was to oppose a people's vaccine. They dismissed the people's vaccine in the Dáil and they went along with the EU in using its vo…

Again, and again and again this Government takes the side of the corporate landlords and the property developers. Today, it is opposing this motion to freeze rents and tackle those landlords who are breaking the rules when it comes to minimum standards. Why would the Government oppose a rent freeze? Why would it oppose inspecting rental properties to ensure they are meeting minimum standards? The only people who benefit from the Government's approach are rack-renting, slum landlords. They are being given the green …

More than 500 ESB Networks technicians are today on their fourth day of strike action. They are striking against the outsourcing of their work without consultation or consent and against the creeping privatisation and running down of ESB Networks at a time when we should be investing in these green jobs which are vital to electrify the economy further as part of a rapid just transition to a zero-carbon economy. However, ESB Networks refuses to even consult the Independent Workers Union, IWU, the union of these work…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide a legal mechanism for trade union recognition for workers who comprise at least 20 per cent of the employees in an employment (or any category within that employment). I thank my fellow People Before Profit Deputies and the staff who worked on this Bill, particularly Owen McCormack. I thank the union activists and organisers who were involved in union recognition struggles and have supported the Bill so far, including the Irish Air Line Pi…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

According to the EU emissions trading system, data-related emissions from large companies that fall under the scheme have increased 50-fold in the past seven years. This is at a time when the Government's climate Bill is supposed to reduce our emissions by 51% by 2030. Despite this, it was reported at the weekend that two State agencies, the ESB and Coillte, are proposing to partner with tech companies to build even more new data centres, alongside wind farms, on Coillte land. It is intended to finance the billion …

The programme for Government makes a commitment to developing inclusive and age-appropriate relationships and sexuality education, RSE, and social, personal and health education, SPHE, curricula at primary and post-primary levels, including an inclusive programme on LGBTI+ relationships and making appropriate legislative changes, if necessary. That is not happening, however. Instead, the Catholic Primary School Management Association, effectively the Catholic bishops, has published a new programme, Flourish, outlin…

I also congratulate the USI for pushing on this issue and forcing the Government to accept that there will have to be change as part of its broader Education for All campaign, which is a vital campaign to remove barriers to access education. We are talking about students who are renting accommodation, many of whom have been forced every year to pay up to an entire term's worth of rent in advance. Some students have been hit with a bill of €9,000, in UCD for example, before they even buy a book. Then, with lockdown …

Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. That right is now being undermined by the actions of the Garda in this State. Last Thursday night, gardaí brutally broke up a peaceful picket of Debenhams workers at Henry Street, arresting a number of supporters and throwing workers, who were mothers and grandmothers, on the ground. The shop steward, Jane, was left naked from the waist up. Similar scenes were repeated in Tralee the following ev…

Once again, the Citizens' Assembly has delivered a set of progressive recommendations that put the conservative parties is in Government to shame, demonstrating the gap that exists between ordinary people and the political establishment. One of recommendations resoundingly approved by the Citizens’ Assembly is that the legal right to collective bargaining be guaranteed for all workers in order to improve wages, working conditions and rights in all sectors. Yet, many big companies in this country still refuse to rec…

I would like to ask the Taoiseach whether, in his conversations with President Biden, he has discussed the economic response to Covid. In the US, they have launched a $2 trillion post-Covid stimulus plan but here, the Government is reported to be set on repeating the mistakes of 2008 with a troika-style programme of €8 billion or more in austerity.

How can the Taoiseach justify this contrast? The Government's proposals for Covid austerity will do nothing to rebuild the economy and society. The proposal to cut the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, from June would see millions of euro taken out of the economy, hurting those who have already paid the most in terms of Covid when what we need is public investment. I would also ask have they discussed the Biden proposals for a minimum global corporation tax rate, which, according to UCD academics, would result in…

The International Transport Federation, ITF, and Kitty Holland, writing in The Irish Time s, have shone a light on the super exploitation taking place on fishing boats in Irish waters. Companies are routinely ignoring the laws around the atypical work permit scheme, instead preferring, in many cases, to have unregistered people working below the minimum wage in unsafe conditions. One indication of just how widespread this practice is is that there are only 189 live permits in the system for the 160 vessels register…