I saw that.

We have the worst hospital waiting lists in Europe, with more than 1.1 million people on some form of waiting list for healthcare. Incredibly, this is more than one in five of the population. Today, 563 people are on trolleys in hospitals throughout the country, with a record being shamefully broken at University Hospital Limerick when 130 people were waiting for admission there on Monday morning. We have 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people in this country, which is a little more than half the EU average of 5.3 beds…

The Minister says the proposal in the Green Paper for a three-tier system of disability payments has nothing to do with the UK system. Is it not, however, founded on essentially the same idea as the work capability assessment in Britain, which is a test of capacity to work and then the establishment of tiers? Why should we believe a Government led by a Taoiseach who, when he was in the Minister's position, ran a campaign on a completely false basis claiming that "welfare cheats cheat us all"?

The UK system is based on a work capability assessment. That is essentially what the system in the Minister's Green Paper is based on. Three tiers flow from that. The Minister said that nobody will have their payments cut but is it not the case that if she implements the proposal outlined in the Green Paper, people could have their payments cut? Those found to be capable of working could be dropped a tier if they do not then work. Is that not the case? Clearly, someone could be moved from tier to tier based upon wh…

-----because it is precisely about the horrendous impact of what I believe is a similar system operating in Britain?

If the Minister establishes a tiered system based on capacity to work, that will be fine. When it is introduced, she can have the bottom tier, which comprises the most supposedly capable of working, equivalent to the current rates of payment. There is nothing to stop a Minister in a future Government, or another Government, from dropping that because the current Minister has established the principle that we do not just accept that people are not able to work, they are disabled, have an entitlement to a payment and…

I think Deputy Kenny is not here.

In the future, we look back at this moment and at how the governments of the world are treating Covid-19 and we will say it was a social crime. It is a decision to allow Covid to basically let rip, condemning millions of people to death but also tens of millions to a marginalised existence due to long Covid and how states are treating it. Hundreds of thousands of people in this country are affected by long Covid. This is an ongoing mass disabling event. We are not just talking about people being a little bit fatigu…

I thank the Minister of State. What people with long Covid say is that the current model of care is simply not working and action is needed to change it. The first thing to be done to try to stop more people having long Covid is to stop people getting Covid infections or reducing the number. We need to have education campaigns, an emphasis on ventilation and clean air, vaccination and masking in healthcare settings. Those suffering are also calling for an awareness campaign to let people know there is a danger of g…

I thank the Deputies who brought forward this motion. It is a scandal, and an avoidable one, that tens of thousands of people are waiting for months to get driver tests to acquire driver's licences. Ideally, and this is what we need to work towards, we would not have such a demand for private car licences because we would have free, frequent and accessible public transport for the vast majority of people in the country and public transport would be an accessible and more attractive option for most of them, rather t…

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the case of Templeogue College, which I have raised with him before, where a majority of staff have said that there is a toxic culture and atmosphere. There was a collective grievance filed by 24 members of staff against the conduct of the principal, citing a culture of homophobia and non-inclusivity propagated at the school.

I have raised this case before.

This is all documented. There was a whole-school evaluation report.

Okay, I will not mention anyone again. One example of this was the fact that the Pride flag was removed due to apparent "misalignment with 'Spiritan Ethos' and not 'supporting certain lifestyles'". That is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the range of issues that have been exposed here and are documented by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, ASTI. There was a whole-school evaluation report during the first half of this year but nothing fundamental has changed. The board of management was dissolve…

Last month was the 24th month in a row that saw inflation of more than 5%. Basic human requirements such as food and energy continue to rise even higher, while wages, benefits and pensions have seen only meagre increases, which means that people are suffering real cuts in income, week by week and month by month. For those with mortgages, this is an extra burden. There have been over ten interest rate increases over the last year. Average mortgage interest payments have increased by over 50% in the year to August 20…

The HSE chief executive officer, Bernard Gloster, said the simple reality is that the funding allocated to the health system in the budget is not adequate, that the service plan for 2024 that the HSE will put forward to the Minister will include a built-in deficit and that this will be the first time in his memory that that would be the case. I do not understand how the Government can propose a budget at a time of significant surplus - almost €10 billion is projected for next year - that will entail a worsening of …

EirGrid admitted this week that there is a reasonable probability that energy supply will not meet demand this winter. The main reason for that is the proliferation of data centres, consuming 18% of our electricity and projected to consume 30% of our electricity by 2030. This uncontrolled growth is incompatible with the need to reduce carbon emissions to zero to halt climate catastrophe. Rather than tackling the root of the problem by banning the construction of more data centres, EirGrid's solution is to construct…

After the horrendous bombing of the Baptist hospital in Gaza, Joe Biden has arrived in Israel. He embraced the war criminal Netanyahu and said, "It appears as though it was done by the other team, not you." It was a disgusting comment in line with the disgusting policy of US support for Israeli ethnic cleansing. Those who have given a green light to genocide by Israel, including Joe Biden and including von der Leyen, have blood on their hands. The denial of Israel is just part and parcel of the regular propaganda m…

There are two issues here that need to be separated. One is the question of whether there is excess mortality and whether there are excess deaths. The second question is, if there are, what is the cause? The two are often intertwined and the subtext of much of the discussion on excess deaths, unfortunately, involves the implication, which is without foundation, that these deaths or a significant proportion of them are being caused by vaccines. We need more data but, based on the data we have available so far, parti…

In the past ten days, we have heard a lot about Israel's right to defend itself. We heard it from Joe Biden, Ursula von der Leyen and the Taoiseach. What "defence" of an apartheid state looks like is now very clear. It means attempted starvation of more than 2 million people in Gaza. It means bombing hospitals, schools and apartment blocks. It means more than 3,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,000 children, being killed by Israeli airstrikes. However, I want to ask a question: when does Palestine get the rig…