An answer would be great.

Then do something about it.

No, you are not. You are doing nothing.

I support our amendments and the others that go in the same direction. I am disappointed, if not surprised, by the extremely limp wording proposed by the Government to replace this section. Having such poor wording, which is correctly open to strong criticism, as we will make, not only misses an opportunity to make a meaningful difference for carers in this country, but also endangers this referendum and the prospect of removing the odious women in the home clause from the Constitution. I appeal, even at this late …

The River Dodder is one of the most biodiverse waterways in Dublin. Dodder Valley Park is beautiful and the council invested €5 million in it recently. However, every time there is heavy rainfall the manholes close to the weir overflow with sewerage. Obviously, that has a damaging impact in terms of people who live in the area, has an impact on the enjoyment of people in the park and threatens wildlife. Every time it happens, the council cleans it up but the underlying issue has not been addressed. It is a question…

Over 20 years have passed since bin charges and the privatisation of refuse collection were introduced. All of our warnings about what that would mean have come to pass. We were defeated in the campaign against privatisation but everything we said has happened. The waivers went, the charges went up to a point where people are now faced with paying over €300 a year, we had full-scale privatisation and a collapse in workers' conditions, recycling levels have plateaued at the level of 2010 and have not increased, one …

How long do we have?

Right. Regarding the point made by Deputy McAuliffe about exiting the market, these markets were artificially created by the imposition of charges and then tendering out to private services. This is what happened. In terms of the answer from the Minister of State, it is kind of unclear. On the one hand, he kind of points towards the councils and suggests that they maybe could do this, when there is a very clear report from the IPA, commissioned by Dublin City Council, that states legislation is needed. On the other…

I thank Deputies Pringle, Connolly and Collins for this excellent and timely motion. It aims to end the current situation whereby public money is invested indirectly through ISIF in damaging fossil fuel investments and agribusiness in the global south. It highlights Ireland’s role as a conduit for billions of euro of investment in damaging fossil fuels. In particular, I highlight the call for Ireland to take a lead in a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. That demand is extremely timely given the final text agree…

I agree with the amendment. With regard to Deputy Leddin's point, you are kind of hoping that the people of Limerick will elect someone who will agree with the director general now and forever. The people of Limerick, and of other areas if this is expanded, have the right to elect whoever they want. They may elect someone who has a fundamental clash with a future hypothetical director general. The idea that the democratic will of the people could effectively be overridden by a director general who completely ties t…

No. I will comment on amendment No. 73.

Just to motivate my amendment, the same wording comes from Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. It was 10% that a plebiscite could be triggered by-----

No problem. It was that a petition of more than 10% of people in a local authority would trigger a plebiscite on having a directly elected mayor. In fairness, the Minister of State is moving from 10% to 15%. That is a step in the right direction. I would still argue for 10%. It is a serious undertaking to get 10% of electors to sign a petition in a proper manner that can be checked. A serious operation would be required to get that many people. In Dublin, it would take the guts of 100,000 people to get 10%. It is n…

I move amendment No. 73: In page 64, line 11, to delete “20 per cent” and substitute “10 per cent”.

We had a tornado in Leitrim at the weekend. Extreme weather events will become a more and more common occurrence as we head towards climate catastrophe. Meanwhile in Dubai, negotiations are continuing around an entirely inadequate draft text for COP 28. The Taoiseach's speech at the opening of COP 28 was widely condemned by environmental activists as a cop-out. He chose to call only for an extremely vague planned reduction of fossil fuels rather than phasing out fossil fuels completely. Now, any mention of the phas…

I want to raise the inadequacy of local sports facilities in many of our communities. St. Kevin's Kilian's GAA club serves Kilnamanagh and Kingswood, where I live. It has close to 500 players and 1,000 members across 26 teams and an academy. It caters for boys and girls aged two up to adults but it does not have basic facilities such as toilets and changing rooms. The club produced a ten-year strategic plan a couple of years ago with the modest ambition of having changing rooms and toilets and building to a positio…

The Tories are trying to bribe Stormont back into existence with promises of funding that they claimed previously did not exist. Striking public sector workers and fighting communities know that they are the ones who forced this climbdown. Without their struggles, this would not be happening. The penny-pinching Tories are trying to ensure that even this money comes with strings of austerity attached. They want the price of opening the purse strings to be the introduction of water charges. The DUP, Sinn Féin and the…

The science is absolutely clear. Coal, gas and oil must be left in the underground. Yet, at COP, it is clear that the interests of profit and of oil-producing countries are coming first, while the needs of humanity are being forgotten. The COP process is failing. That is why I asked the Taoiseach earlier about whether Ireland would support a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. He seemed to ask why Ireland had not been presented with a treaty or been involved in negotiating that treaty, but this is precisely at an…

I presume the Minister of State will have to accept that the Green Paper on disability reform has been met with almost universal criticism and opposition from people with disabilities and campaigning organisations. A protest will take place at 12 noon today outside Leinster House. There are activists in the Gallery right now. It is time to withdraw the proposal in the Green Paper to introduce a tiered benefit system similar to the Tories' work capability assessment.

If the Government is serious about consultation and listening to people, it would, in fact, have listened to people and it would be withdrawing this Green Paper. "Nothing about us without us" is the slogan of the disability rights movement. Let us listen to what people with disabilities are saying. They are saying the proposed work capacity assessments are dehumanising and degrading, will objectify disabled people and will place blame on them for seeking welfare benefits. They say the Green Paper constitutes degrad…