The Government has been happy for months to facilitate it-----

We were trying for months before we were-----

We are raising it-----

I want to raise the infamous bike shelter which the public has paid almost €350,000 for. This is obviously a massive waste of public money but I do not believe it is just that. It is also an example of a private company profiteering off the backs of the public, and the consequences of the outsourcing of basic public infrastructural projects to private companies. I understand the company that got the extraordinary contract is Sensori Facilities Management. It is a company that was originally founded by Michael Stone…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 to prohibit animal testing for botox. I am introducing the Bill for a very simple reason, which I am happy to explain to the Ceann Comhairle and others. This is a Bill to prevent unnecessary cruelty to animals. There is a ban on animal testing for cosmetic purposes across the European Union but despite that, hundreds of animals in this country are still being tested on for cosmetic purposes every single…

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

In 2015, I proposed a Private Members' motion calling on the Government to accept the Apple tax billions and to spend them on building social and affordable housing to solve the housing crisis. At the time, I told the House the resources existed and it was a question of political prioritisation to end the homelessness and housing crisis over Apple not paying any tax. Back then, there were 1,571 homeless children growing up in emergency accommodation. Today, there are approximately 4,500 children in that situation. …

Will the Taoiseach commit to introducing free HRT in the budget? Will he also agree not to limit access according to unjust criteria? All women who need HRT deserve equal access to it regardless of age or income or whether they are in menopause, perimenopause, premature menopause or post-menopause. At the moment, women in this country are forced to pay the full cost of HRT, which ranges between €30 and €80 per month, themselves. It is a lot of money and it amounts to a discriminatory, so-called pink tax on women. I…

It is reported that more bombs are going off in Lebanon now, with an additional three people killed today, and we know 12 were killed yesterday, including two children. This is state terrorism. It is a very clear war crime and I would like the Taoiseach to clearly condemn it in those terms. This is not some once-off out of nowhere. Over the last year, there have been more than 6,000 attacks by Israel on Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of well over 600 people at this stage. It is a very clear strategy to push for a…

I will start with a quote from a parent who put it extremely well: Early years childcare in Ireland seems broken. The staff themselves are poorly paid and move frequently. Parents have to pay exorbitant fees, which become even more challenging to fund if there is more than one child. The Government needs to look at a more wholescale change to the system. There are environmental and social impacts to families being forced to travel long distances to find crèche places. There are also gender-based inequalities, as wo…

An Post is pursing a privatisation agenda. Tallaght post office, along with five others, is on the chopping block. This will mean that one of the busiest post offices in the State will be closed down. The workers will be forcibly redeployed elsewhere and the community will be left with a much-reduced service in a smaller post office in a different location. I have raised this again and again in here but every time I get the same answer, which is that An Post has indicated that the change in business model will in n…

I also refer to the British elections. Ordinary people across Britain are delighted to see the back of the Tories after 14 years which saw corporate profits soar while their waters were polluted by privatised corporations, the number of food banks exploded to an extraordinary level and child poverty increased. As has been said, Keir Starmer seems determined to say little will change either on the domestic or international front. I will focus on the international front because part of what made Jeremy Corbyn so offe…

The far right is on the March across Europe. They topped the poll in six countries in the European Union elections. They came second in another two. They got about 20% right across the EU. A key question is this: how were they defeated? We have debated before whether the so-called "centre" is best placed to defeat them or whether the left is best placed to defeat them. We have seen a kind of laboratory test in France over these two strategies. Macron put forward an immigration law, supposedly to take account of the…

The way that children with additional needs are failed by this State is nothing short of scandalous. I have no end of parents contacting me who have been on waiting lists for long times and with no end in sight. What it comes down to is the understaffing and underfunding of our health service and an absence of therapists. I will give one particular example, namely, the massive shortage of speech and language therapists in the Tallaght and Dublin south west area. Multiple parents have shared their stories with me. I…

It does not seem to me to that the HSE is recruiting because the vacancies still exist.

The programme for Government makes a commitment to hold a referendum on housing. The time of this Government is coming to an end one way or another. It is simply a matter of months before the next election. The Housing Commission went off and proposed wording which states: 1°: The State recognises that having a home is of fundamental importance to quality of life and that access to adequate housing, by facilitating the development of family, social and community relationships, promotes the common good. 2°: The Stat…

What action has the Taoiseach taken to implement the all-island rail review? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, transport emissions increased again last year. To reach the legally binding target for transport, they must fall 12% this year and by 12% next year. It is very likely that this simply will not happen and then the cut from 2026 to 2030 will have to be even bigger. Radical transformative measures are needed to get people out of cars and onto public transport. A lot of measures were recom…

First, I express my horror and outrage at the attack on civilian infrastructure and specifically the attack on the children's hospital in Kyiv by the Russian military. It is absolutely horrendous to see the pictures from that hospital. It certainly seems to be a clear war crime by the Putin regime. In relation to the summit, this was heralded as a peace summit. Obviously, though, it is not a summit that ended in peace and it was never going to be a summit that was going to end in peace. I will quote from Wolfgang M…

This is a regressive tax no matter how it is looked at. The poorest eligible household in the country pays €160 and the richest household in the country pays €160. It is a regressive, unjust tax that hundreds of thousands of people are refusing to pay, a number that has increased in the context of the outrage at what was happening at the very top of RTÉ, with massive pay for those at the very top and the behaviour with the spending of public money on flip-flops, exclusive clubs and all the rest. The Minister says h…

The Minister gave the figures for payment levels, suggesting they indicated that the vast majority pay. I think he said 800,000 paid last year and 358,000 had paid halfway through this year. In total, there are 1.8 million households in the State, approximately 500,000 of which are exempt. That leaves 1.3 million households. The Minister said that over a half-year period, 400,000 people paid. That indicates that more than a third refuse to pay the TV licence. People are voting with their feet. He should take the ad…