I support for the call for statements on Pride. I also call for a debate and a motion to be brought forward by the Government, if it wants us to sign up to this European armament programme called SAFE. It is part of ReArm Europe, and entails €150 billion worth of loans, effectively to be paid for by the public into the pockets of the armaments industry in Europe. It was announced on Friday that the Irish Government and State intends to participate, but it does not intend to bring it before the Dáil for a vote or a …

I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh and the campaigners on this issue. It is outrageous that there are still people today walking around with historical convictions for the so-called crime of being gay. The Government, of course, will say no one should be criminalised for consensual sexual activity, but a working group was set up to examine disregarding those convictions back in 2021 and still nothing has been done. The Minister has promised there will be heads of a Bill in due course, but due course in this case is decades …

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 to improve the welfare of pigs by prohibiting teeth-clipping, tail-docking and castration, limiting the use of tusk reduction and regulating sow stalls and farrowing crates. I start by thanking the National Animal Rights Association, NARA, especially Laura Broxson and Dr. Alice Brough. This important legislation could not have been drafted without their help. I also thank the many other campaigners and …

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

I welcome the long overdue publication of this report. AsIAm has pointed out that it is worrying to see references to amending the Education Act, which could delay the action we need to see. All parents know, and the Government acknowledges in all its statements, how crucial timely intervention is, but for many it is not delivered. I will take the opportunity to raise an important related issue. It was referenced already, so I will be interested to hear whether there is a response from the Minister of State. It is …

The TV licence is a regressive, unjust tax.

The richest household in the country has to pay the same €160 as the poorest eligible household in the country.

Increasing numbers of people are voting with their feet and boycotting the TV licence. Will the Minister read the writing on the wall, scrap this regressive tax and replace it with a levy on big tech corporations?

I thank the Minister. I presume he accepts that the tax is deeply unpopular. Licence sales have plummeted since the Tubridy scandal and everything else that came out in terms of the behaviour of those at the top of RTÉ. In 2022, €950,000 was paid. This dropped to €825,000 in 2023 and €790,000 in 2024. This represents a drop of more than 155,000 households that are refusing to pay, either in protest or because they cannot afford to pay this regressive flat tax that takes no account of ability to pay. I suspect that …

The Minister might tell us if considers all the countries across Europe that have abolished TV licences not to be constitutional democracies. Is the test of being a constitutional democracy having a TV licence? He might clarify that. I presume he is aware that just over one third of funding for RTÉ and public service broadcasting comes from the TV licence. It is not even where a majority of funding comes from. The Minister may not be aware of our proposals in RTÉ for the People: A Radical Plan to Transform RTÉ and …

It sounds like the Minister is interfering now.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, schools organised shows of solidarity with Ukraine but when it comes to Israel's genocide in Gaza, some teachers are being silenced and their clothing choices are being policed. I contacted the Minister recently about Harcourt Terrace Educate Together National School where members of staff have been told not to wear their Keffiyeh scarves. Keffiyehs are simple patterned fabric from the Middle East, which many wear in solidarity with Palestine. Zionist pressure groups are pushing schools…

This Bill is a very serious attack on freedom of speech and the right of people to protest. Mo Chara from Kneecap is being prosecuted in Britain for opposing the genocide and expressing solidarity with Palestine, and now the Government here is trying to pass legislation that would allow him to be prosecuted here too. Section 3 of the Bill expands the legal definition of provocation of terrorist activity to include glorifying "(including by praise or celebration) a terrorist activity". The phrase "terrorist activity…

Another year, another cursory debate and then another voting-through of draconian legislation tonight. I will speak against and vote against the legislation but the Government and the vast majority of the Opposition will vote in favour of curtailing basic civil liberties. The Special Criminal Court was established 53 years ago, supposedly on an emergency basis. The original emergency for which it was established was officially declared over in 1995 and yet these Diplock courts have persisted even after they were ab…

Over the weekend, the world’s biggest military power, under Trump, launched an unprovoked and illegal air assault on Iran. The Taoiseach has repeatedly refused to condemn this assault. I invite him again to condemn it now. We need to have a debate in this House on the US assault on Iran, the situation in the Middle East, and the imperative of defending our neutrality and ending the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.

Last year, the International Court of Justice held that all states are under an obligation to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings and to prevent trade or investment relations with the occupied territories. There was no mention of an obligation just relating to goods. Instead, it was all trade and investment relations. The Government has in the past few months discovered some legal, or what it says is a legal, distinction between goods and services but has never laid that out. The Tánaiste this mor…

Will the Government lay the advice before the committee?

The Taoiseach will not condemn the US.

It is happening in our airspace.

The number one issue facing many workers is housing, and the Government has repeatedly claimed both that it will deliver new social homes and that the planning system is to blame for the lack of delivery so far. This month, however, funding for the delivery of almost 500 social homes has gone up in smoke. Almost 3,500 planned social homes, many with full planning permission, are in jeopardy now, facing cost reviews. That is almost a third of the annual social housing delivery target. These public-private partnershi…