Covid is brutally exposing existing vulnerabilities in individuals but also in our society as a whole. This is very true in terms of our disability services and the effect the coronavirus is particularly having on people with disabilities. The pre-existing conditions are there for all to see with regard to the brutal facts of the treatment of people with disabilities in the State. There are close to 650,000 people with disabilities in Ireland and their poverty rates are 10% higher than the average in the EU, with I…

It is his last time to speak this evening.

Last week it was announced that Tallaght hospital has had to cancel elective surgeries and close operating theatres due to the second wave of Covid and the major threat it poses to our entire health service. This comes on top of the closure of Tallaght hospital's children's accident and emergency department and its rushed downgrade last month. Decades of Government neglect mean our hospitals have a serious underlying condition, namely underfunding. Thousands of hospital beds have been closed. Pleas for more staff h…

I am sharing time with Deputy Boyd Barrett. It is clear from the figures, and from any visible comparison of Ireland with other European countries, that we have a problem with afforestation here. There is a total of 11% in Ireland, versus an EU average of 30%, and very low levels of afforestation at the moment, combined with higher harvesting rates. It is a problem that needs to be addressed but it needs to be done so in the correct way, not with the expansion of Sitka spruce monoculture, which is environmentally d…

In the North, the opening of schools has been acknowledged as a key driver of a second wave of coronavirus cases. There is growing evidence in the South that the same is the case, as can be seen in the weekly case increases of people of schoolgoing age as a percentage of new cases. It has increased from a low of about 4% a week at the end of June to approximately 13% in recent weeks since schools have returned. Last Saturday, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, ASTI, decided to ballot teachers for ind…

The point is that teachers are saying that enough has not been done, and that the conditions are not safe enough for teachers, students and the wider community. They do not want to be saying this; everybody wants schools to remain open, but if this issue is not dealt with, it is only a matter of time before there are school outbreaks, with classes and whole schools being sent home, causing chaos. Teachers are blowing the whistle on unsafe conditions that will mean chaos if they are not addressed. When meat plant wo…

Deputy Bríd Smith said it as well as one can when she said she does not believe a word of the Government's amendment. It is attempting to kick this issue down the road and is hoping that Covid, and the struggle for workers' rights which is connected to the struggle against Covid, disappears in some way. We simply cannot tolerate an ongoing situation where meat plant workers, nursing home workers and care workers of all sorts with Covid symptoms have to show up to work despite being sick because they cannot afford t…

The programme for Government refers to the migrant crisis in the Middle East and taking an approach with human rights at its core. I want to raise a specific case with the Taoiseach the details of which I am happy to send to him. It is a man who is an Irish citizen. He was born in Iraq. He fled Mosul in Iraq, after ISIS had taken over and after they murdered his father and other close family members for refusing to co-operate. He is an Irish citizen in Ireland at this stage but his mother is effectively in legal li…

This is Bike Week and yesterday was World Car Free Day. Every day, cycling in the Dublin area takes up to 60,000 cars off the road and saves 28,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. That is according to the NTA. It could be much more. Research from the NTA states that 69% of people think that cycle tracks along roads, physically separated from traffic and pedestrians, would be useful to help them cycle more. Accordingly, we need massive investment in cycling infrastructure. This was a headline point and wa…

I will use the short time remaining to give the Taoiseach an example of what is happening. This morning, I was present at a threatened eviction to assist the tenant. This woman is a taxi driver who has lost her income as a consequence of the Covid restrictions. This loss of income is the underlying reason that the landlord wants her gone. However, the reason the latter gave in the eviction notice - which was inadequate, and that is why the landlord is now saying, after people protested, that it was a misunderstandi…

The cut to the pandemic unemployment payment is happening concurrently with the increase in and stepping up of restrictions. This is a time when people need support from the State to deal with the coronavirus rather than punishment. How on earth can the Taoiseach justify slashing the supports to workers who have lost their jobs due to Covid when we have a second wave of the coronavirus and a second wave of restrictions which means more workers are going to lose their jobs? When this was done before the Government a…

Catastrophic climate change is coming closer. No longer is it just killing people and destroying people's lives in the very poorest countries in the world but we can see, not for the first time, that it is striking home, like the Australian fires, in terms of what is happening in the west coast of the US, in California, in particular. In a way, it encapsulates the nature of the problem we face whereby the impact of climate change is creating ideal conditions for those fires to get out of control. Capitalism and pri…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to prohibit the coursing of hares with dogs and for that purpose to amend the Wildlife Act 1976 and the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, to make consequential and other amendments to the Greyhound Industry Act 1958 and other Acts relating to such coursing and to provide for related matters. I am very proud to introduce the Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Hare Coursing) Bill 2020. This is a Bill to ban hare coursing. Hare coursing means capturing…

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

I apologise as I did not realise this matter was down as coming first in the order. The last time I looked, it was third in the order. I first express my sympathy and solidarity with Izzy, the activist who was beaten on the head outside Leinster House on Saturday. People have seen the horrific pictures of blood streaming down her face. She was hospitalised and had to receive stitches. Izzy is not only an outstanding anti-oppression activist and one of the founders and a former chief steward of Pride but she also pe…

I thank Deputy Kenny. I wish to make two quick points. First, any idea that the answer to this is to ban or clamp down on protests is completely wrong. Ms Kamikaze has publicly stated that she will be opposed to any ban on protests. I am also opposed to such a ban because I know that it will be used against progressive protestors in the future. We have to defend civil liberties. This measure would be totally counterproductive. Progressive organisations and political parties, trade unions, NGOs, immigrants' rights g…

I listened to the Tánaiste talking about Debenhams workers on RTÉ Radio the other day. During the interview he basically acted as an attorney or lobbyist for Debenhams and made excuses for it. In particular, he said that the situation is not like that of Clerys because there are no assets, which outraged the workers and ignores the €25 million in stock in its Irish shops. He also spoke about it in the context of Britain and Ireland and ignored the close to €100 million in bank accounts in the UK. I thought to mysel…

Naomi Klein wrote a book entitled The Shock Doctrine which was published in 2007. It outlines how political and economic elites, the capitalist class and their political representatives in this case use national or international crises to try to reshape social relations, laws and norms in their favour. The truth, which is very far from the "we're all in this together" rhetoric, is that substantial sections of the boss class in this country are taking advantage of the coronavirus to reshape things in their own inter…

The general perception of people is that there is a lot of confusion around the public heath advice. There is a reason for this, namely, the public health advice is not followed consistently, but instead the interests of private profit are allowed to interfere and interact with it. I am concerned the plan for living with Covid-19 is being institutionalised with the establishment of the Covid-19 oversight group, which effectively functions as a buffer as I understand it between NPHET and the Government. This group r…

What about the Covid-19 oversight group?