I want the people to decide.

I am saying the people should have a right to decide.

Why will the Taoiseach not give the people a referendum?

It really says something when the US boycotts the G20 in South Africa on the grounds of the racist conspiracy theory of white genocide. It is a conspiracy theory propagated by those who want South Africa to go back to apartheid. It is illustrative of a regime that is ruled by a monstrous bully who has torn up any semblance of pretending to care about international law, if US imperialism ever did. Since the start of this year the Americans have kidnapped a president and killed over 100 people in that country of Vene…

The EU-African Union summit discussed the European Union's international digital strategy, which includes AI and online platforms. As the host country for so many big tech corporations, does the Taoiseach accept that Ireland has a unique responsibility to hold them to account? It is clear that is not happening. It is clear from the appearance of the Minister of State with responsibility for AI at our committee today that the main approach of the Government appears to be to hide behind the European Union and suggest…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 to regulate the use of recommender algorithms by video-sharing platform services. I am delighted to introduce what, I think, is a very important Bill, the Online Safety (Recommender Algorithms) Bill 2026. The Bill is very simple; it bans big tech companies from targeting children with toxic algorithms and turns them off by default for those over 18. This implements the unanimous all-party recom…

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

The Government is barely a year in office and is already on track to be one of the worst Governments on record when it comes to public transport. It depends on right-wing rural TDs who could not care less about commuters in Dublin or elsewhere. All they want is more money for roads in their constituencies. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers are perfectly happy with that, relaxing in their chauffeur-driven Mercs and claiming thousands of euro in travel expenses while ordinary workers are stuck behind the wheels of …

Why does the Government have it in for disabled people and carers? It had a budget where disabled people were singled out for a particularly cruel set of cuts, amounting to more than €1,400. Now we have carers being faced with substantial tax bills. One man in his 80s is facing a bill of more than €6,000. These people are not tax dodgers. They are saving the State billions of euro because of the work they are doing in caring for a loved one at a tiny fraction of the cost it would take for the State to pay for it pr…

Donald Trump is a monster. The one good thing about him is that he exposes the monstrous reality of the imperialist and capitalist world system we live in. It is a system that is ugly, bloody and brutal and in which might is right, profits matter for all and people matter for nothing. He has done away with the fig leaf of international law and exposed the US's naked and violent imperialism for everyone to see. One of the things exposed by Trump is the subordinate position of the European Union. In Davos yesterday, …

Check the record.

The Oxfam wealth report published yesterday exposed the stark class divide that exists in society between billionaires, the wealthy and everyone else. Ireland's 11 billionaires have the same wealth as 3.5 million Irish adults combined. It takes them just seven hours to rack up the annual income of an average worker. Oxfam shows how a tax on the top 1% of the wealthiest people in the country could yield €1 billion a year. It is a no-brainer. Why not take from the super-rich, who can well afford it, to address the co…

This morning, a powerful piece on "Morning Ireland" about drug-related intimidation described how families are confronted by drug dealers who say that their child owes them a certain amount of money and the family now owes this money and they will terrorise the family until it gives them the money. One woman said that 50% of the time, she feels a knot in her stomach as a result of stress. Another woman said that every time a car comes down into her cul-de-sac at night-time, she thinks: "Are they coming for me?". In…

The Taoiseach's Government and governments around the world have an important choice to make. The choice is whether the profits of big tech corporations are going to come before the health and safety of our children. For now, these interests are counterposed. We saw it in a stark way in the mass production of child sexual abuse imagery and sexual abuse imagery of women on Grok. There was a protest outside the offices of X at the weekend. I know the Taoiseach previously heralded AI as akin to the industrial revoluti…

Human capital.

The programme for Government promises an annual cost-of-disability support payment, suggesting that it will be incrementally increased. Instead of introducing that in the last budget, the Government introduced an incredible series of cruel cuts, totalling over €1,400 for disabled people. When is the Minister going to right this wrong? What level of payment is he going to introduce? When is he going to introduce this annual cost-of-disability payment?

It says a lot about the priorities of the Government that it can have fast-tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants and developers whereas, although it has this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost-of-disability payment, the payment does not come in. Instead, the Government cuts disabled people's income substantially. We know and the Government acknowledges - it has commissioned the report itself - that it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. Adjusted for inflation, the Indecon report states i…

If the Minister wants to quote payments, we can quote payments. The Irish Wheelchair Association, Access for All Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland have done very good work in making people aware of the cruel cuts that the Government has introduced in the last budget. The disability support grant was €400 previously. It has been removed, meaning a loss of €400. The living alone allowance saw a loss of €200. The fuel allowance saw a loss of €160. The October double payment saw a loss of €254. The loss …

This follows on from a number of previous questions. I would say disabled people watching this at home are screaming at their television screens because they are being told by the Minister not to worry as a permanent payment is coming. What they are saying, and I quote Joan Carthy, is that people are suffering today and they cannot wait another day, never mind another four years. They desperately need an emergency €400 winter cost-of-disability payment now to make up just a fraction of the cuts the Minister has imp…

I find it bizarre that the Minister is saying he has responded. He has not responded. There is an ask that has come as a consequence of his budget decisions, which cut a bit over €114 from disabled people. While it is true that the Minister has given a little bit of this back through the small increases, he has left people worse off to the tune of more than €1,000 per annum. Their ask is that they need, at the very least, an emergency winter payment now. The Minister is claiming he has responded to that with the or…