Last week, the Taoiseach made a fine speech in Belém. He spoke about the need to listen to the science, tell the truth to citizens and for urgent action to meet climate targets. He said that leaders must lead. This was at COP30. The problem is that he does not take his own advice when he is back at home. He leads a Government which is on track to miss our legally binding targets by a country mile. As it currently stands, we are not even on track to hit half of our 51% target. The Government is allowing the big poll…

They wrote the budget.

Buy them.

Buy them.

No, I asked the question about the-----

Is the Taoiseach going to launch additional measures?

Is he serious about the 51% target?

It has been almost two years since I spoke here about a campaign of far-right terror in this State. We have seen this move step by step from threats to intimidation to misinformation and on to the burning down of empty buildings and attacks on buildings with people inside, including women, children, young babies. We have also witnessed attacks on migrants. Last week, we had the prevention by An Garda Síochána of what was allegedly a planned terror attack. People were allegedly in possession of explosives and were p…

The Taoiseach did praise him. I was here.

The budget reneged on a key commitment in the programme for Government to introduce a permanent annual cost of disability support payment and then to incrementally increase it. We know that it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. A few years ago, the Department of Finance estimated it at around €10,000. It has obviously gone up substantially since then. Last year's €400 lump sum disability payment was a drop in the ocean but far from increasing it, as promised, the Government abolished it completely…

The Government made them poorer, and took over €1,000 from them. Will it recognise this as a major mistake? Will it bring back an emergency lump sum cost-of-living payment for disabled people before Christmas?

The Government wants to get rid of the triple lock in order that it can send Irish troops abroad on EU or NATO-led missions. The Government will not tell us where it wants to send these troops. I oppose that. I defend our neutrality. I believe the majority of people do. However, I want to focus, at least initially, less on the substance of that but on the democratic question. The Government has refused, despite calls from many in the Opposition, to hold a plebiscite to allow the people to decide, so the closest thi…

Not to get rid of the triple lock.

The Tánaiste speaks about his electoral mandate, and there is no question about that. The basis of his party's mandate is its election manifesto, which referred to "preserving our long-standing policy of active military neutrality" and maintaining military neutrality. There was no mention of redefining that or getting rid of the triple lock. Therefore, the Tánaiste does not have a mandate for what he is trying to do. There was the vaguest hint and glance to making such a change in the Fianna Fáil manifesto, but it …

The triple lock.

The last time I raised the case of the industrial and reformatory school survivors, who are outside the Dáil on hunger strike, was three weeks ago and at that stage they had been on hunger strike for 22 days. It has now been 47 days and they are still on hunger strike. They are in very grave territory in terms of their health. Their ask is very simple: access to a full Health (Amendment) Act medical card and a full State contributory pension. I understand there was a meeting with a mediator recently but they are sa…

Can they get commitments in writing around some of these things? Can the Tánaiste or other senior Ministers meet with them to reassure them that their case is being dealt with seriously at the highest level, and to try to bring this to a successful end?

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to require the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to produce a report on the appointment of an emergency independent inspector for Dublin Zoo. I am introducing this Bill in an effort to highlight a range of very serious issues at the zoo. None of them has been properly investigated, despite repeated attempts by concerned workers at the zoo to bring them to the attention, first, of management and HR and then of the Charities Regulator…

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

I appreciate the fact the Minister of State is here so I hope we can get some information for the local drug and alcohol task forces. These are the people who are doing the work on the front line in communities affected by drug abuse. I hope to hear differently from the Minister of State but it seems as though this Government is continuing the policy we have seen over the past ten years or so of what is the effective slow strangulation of our drug and alcohol task forces. We know that between 2015 and 2025, the ove…