Does the Minister of State accept there is an unfairness here? There are students this year who, with a given set of results, will not achieve a college place they would have achieved last year or the year before or whatever. There is a fundamental unfairness here. I accept that within this artificial scarcity - an effectively fake market being created for the points system - it is difficult to have solutions that do not unfairly disadvantage someone but that entirely gets to the point that the problem is a lack of…

The Taoiseach was very exercised on Tuesday by the suggestion that the Irish State was complicit in genocide. One of the ways we are complicit in genocide is by the authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland of Israeli war bonds for sale in the EU. Despite all the evidence that these are used to fund the genocide, the Governor of the Central Bank has refused to act. If this continues, will the Government instead act to make it so that the Central Bank will not sell bonds for countries that are facing the charge o…

Shameful. The Minister says he is not complicit and yet he is saying he will do nothing about it. The Central Bank of Ireland allows Israeli war bonds that are used to commit this genocide to be sold in the EU. The Minister repeats the excuses of the Governor of the Central Bank that its only framework is to check whether the prospectus meets the standards of completeness, comprehensibility and consistency but it does not do that. The bond prospectus withholds ethical and risk-related information. It does not menti…

It is not a question of language. The Minister might find it offensive for it to be said that he is complicit in genocide but it is the truth. He says he condemns what is happening in Israel. That is good but then the Central Bank is allowing this to happen. It is helping it to be financed. That is a fact. We can see the way these bonds are advertised online as facilitating its "war" in Gaza but then the Minister is saying it is fine. Even if what he is saying is correct in terms of the legal framework of the Centr…

I am not about tolerance of genocide or civility towards genocide.

Answer the question, Minister.

Answer with facts then.

Then why will the Minister not change the law? If he does not want to be complicit in genocide, then why does he not change the law?

The Minister never answered the question.

It has been almost two years since the publication of Dr. Shannon's report on sex abuse of children at St. John Ambulance. The report makes for harrowing reading. The report found that a culture had facilitated the potential grooming of children and that the organisation had failed to intervene, despite knowing that the boys were at risk of abuse. It concluded that the organisation had failed to act against the perpetrator for years, despite "a significant degree of organisational awareness of the risk that he pose…

People Before Profit strongly support this motion. We thank Deputy Healy, not only for bringing forward this motion today but for years of pushing the necessity of legally recognising the housing emergency as an emergency and the necessity for radical action. The motion contains the kind of emergency measures that the Government should have been implementing ten years ago. I was first elected in 2014. That year, there was a similar motion which called for recognition of a housing emergency. It was rejected by the F…

Workers' rights. Environmental legislation.

Two weeks ago, I raised the crisis facing Sacred Heart Junior National School in Killinarden with the Taoiseach. It was forced to write to the Department of Education saying it would close its doors because it could not pay the bills. It first flagged a shortfall of €26,000 last October. The crisis worsened. The school was in touch with the Department repeatedly but no extra funding was forthcoming. Two weeks ago the Taoiseach said that he believed the issue was resolved. This issue is not resolved. The can has sim…

It is quite incredible that the Taoiseach is blaming a school, which was put in a position by his Government and by the Department of Education, for being in a situation such that the management felt there was no alternative but to say the school will close its doors. It is incredible. The Taoiseach is victim-blaming and gaslighting these principals across the country who likely do not want to be in this position. The Taoiseach says the Department was in touch with the school I mentioned in December and there was n…

No, this is not our remedy.

One of the things that Storm Éowyn exposed was the lack of resilience in our monocultural forestry model. Unfortunately, this is set to get worse due to Coillte's recent decision to silently scrap Coillte Nature, its not-for-profit wing that is supposed to be dedicated to the restoration, regeneration and rehabilitation of nature across Ireland. In Orwellian fashion, Coillte claims that scrapping Coillte Nature will allow it to reach its climate and biodiversity targets. Is this to be done through the Nature Trust,…

These mothers were protesting from Mother's Day. They were protesting in support of the Occupied Territories Bill, which the Taoiseach promised would be passed during the election. They were protesting to stop weapons going through Irish airspace, which continues and is increasing and which the Taoiseach has refused to do anything about. I hope he will support the arms embargo Bill coming up in the Seanad tomorrow. They were protesting against complicity on the genocide and slaughter that is taking place in Gaza, a…

If the Taoiseach had kept his election promises, he would not be asked these questions.

Get on with it.

Is that how democracy works?