Will the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach remind me how long I have? Is it one minute and 30 seconds?

That is short enough, but it is sufficient to say that I support the motion. I have been around as an elected representative for a long time and was involved with the education committee when the original Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act was enacted. As others have said, it is shocking that so many aspects of that legislation still have not been enacted. I was checking my notes as I was starting to speak and the only sections that have been enacted are those regarding the promotion of an inc…

I am grateful for a few minutes to speak on this very technical but necessary rubber-stamping of amendments to Regulation (EU) 2015/848 to modify its Annexes A and B, following the changes in seven EU member states, as the Minister outlined. It will ensure that the regulation continues to facilitate effective civil and judicial co-operation at EU level. The Minister mentioned that we must do this within three months and this was issued in February. It is important and technical. In July 2022, Slovakia notified the …

It looks fantastic. It is a great plan with great graphics. If one reads it line by line and bit by bit, it has so much to offer but we all know it is aspirational without the investment. I give the example of water infrastructure. We need massive investment in water infrastructure to facilitate housing. The plan references offshore energy potential. We need massive investment in our ports. To work towards it or to progress towards it is not enough. We need tangible achievable objectives. The housing targets have n…

I am generally supportive of this Bill and, unlike some of my colleagues, I see the rationale in not having juries for certain types of defamation cases. However, I have a query about the corporate entity issue, which is a follow up on what other Deputies said. Let us say there is a chain of hardware stores - let us call them Fianna Fáil hardware - and it is owned by Joe Bloggs. Let us also say Fianna Fáil hardware had a couple of defective pots of paints or whatever, but because it is the only hardware store in th…

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. Yet, this is what we keep doing in relation to the scourge of nitrous oxide usage. The latter has led to serious injury and death in this country and is now a major source of litter in our communities. So far, it has been left to the Revenue Commissioners to deal with the issue. In that context, they seized 55,000 large canisters last year. The HSE focuses on giving advice to parents on a harm-reduction fact sheet. Otherwise, we rely on section…

Children's Health Ireland is a publicly-funded hospital group in disarray. We have had the ongoing issues with spinal surgeries, the shocking use of non-medical grade springs for scoliosis, which my colleagues mentioned so I will not go into it even though it is such an important issue, and the massive waiting lists. Later, we will discuss the large number of unnecessary hip surgeries, which again raises questions about clinical judgment and governance. Added to this, we have had alarmingly high infection rates in …

I thank colleagues for tabling the motion. This is an important issue. It was good to have a wider contextual debate on what went on in CHI earlier. To recap, I take on board what the Minister said during her contribution. I did not get a chance to come back to it during that debate but I will do so now. We need accountable and deliverable movement in the next couple of months due to the fact that this has been going on for so long. I take in good faith what the Minister set out to do, but I hope that will end up h…

We had some discussion yesterday on other aspects of Irish Water. I mentioned the ageing infrastructure and the fact that we have high levels of leakage - 40% overall, although 16% in newer, fast-growing areas like my part of south Dublin. However, some pipes, particularly in the city areas, are more than 100 years old. We need that general investment. That is clear. As others have said - we had this conversation with regard to the money coming from Apple, for example - we need to invest billions of euro in our wat…

Go raibh maith agat. I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion. It is also good to know we will have a further chance to talk about the current Trump slump later today. It is widely known that in the 1940s and 1950s, the cliché was that Ireland's biggest exports were live cattle and people. Many of these people went on to create lives and send money back to Ireland from the UK and the US. These early immigrants who contributed to the United States in so many ways are part of the great diaspora that Trumps l…

To continue from what I said earlier, if MAGA USA has a plan aside from Trump's ego and desire to exercise power, it could be that the tariff strategy is aimed at devaluing the dollar while also managing to retain it as the global reserve currency. I am not sure about that but it is a radical and risky strategy, if there is a strategy. It could equally be totally unintentional and be purely about reducing trade deficits and bringing jobs back, which is likely to happen quickly enough. However, if it is intentional …

On one level, this is a very straightforward Bill. I will try to stick to the topic, although the Ceann Comhairle might give me some leeway. I have read that this is an updated version of the earlier touted Employment (Restriction of Certain Mandatory Retirement Ages) Bill 2024, which was here before I was elected in November. The Bill delivers a statutory provision that sets out that an employer may not enforce a contractual retirement age that is below the State pension age if the employee does not consent to ret…

Water is a fundamental right, which means that irrespective of income or means the water infrastructure should be funded through general taxation. In this context, I fully support and reiterate the calls of colleagues for a referendum on water infrastructure and ownership vested in the people of Ireland. It is a matter on which I have previously tabled motions when I was a councillor. However, there is another angle to look at. Today, Uisce Éireann sent out a warning about low water levels and asked people to conse…

It is good to have the opportunity to speak on this issue. To be quite honest, I would love an hour, no more than anyone else would. To put it in the optimistic point of view, Central Statistics Office, CSO, information from 2022 suggests that only 2.3% of young people aged 12 to 17 were referred to the Garda youth diversion programme. Obviously, there were activities that did not get to that level and that were undetected and so on, but it shows that the vast majority of our young people are model citizens, and th…

I have been raising this issue, including through parliamentary questions, for quite some time. It is the matter of Wombles Pre-school at Scoil Mhuire, Airlie Heights. While the Department correctly acknowledges that it has no direct role in the provision of childcare services based in the school, everyone acknowledges that the service is essential. There were 46 early childhood care and education, ECCE, and 54 after-school places but a total of 66 places are at risk of being removed, because a classroom was due to…

I thank the Minister of State. Scoil Mhuire is well equipped to provide autism support. For example, two staff members recently completed a master's of education in autism. It is a capable school, which does its best for students of all backgrounds. I am still looking for further clarity, if it pleases the Minister of State, on whether we can say that ten years down the line Wombles Pre-school will still be able to operate from Scoil Mhuire. I am looking for some kind of guarantee in that respect. If the autism cla…

I will use less than my 90 seconds because we are pressed for time. I welcome Deputy Healy's motion, which gives us another opportunity to talk about the important issue of housing, in particular the fundamental point that is the five-year emergency plan, which I absolutely support. We need to take a multifaceted approach. I have made a few suggestions before. A couple of months ago, I mentioned using gardens as a starter home for a couple or for a retirement home. It is only a small aspect but we need to look at t…

A worrying increase in incidents involving the spiking of drinks has been reported. I met a constituent this week whose daughter's drink was drugged, but luckily she had people close by. This sinister offence and others like it are currently covered under legislation on poisoning or drugging - namely, the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Intoxicating Liquor Act. We need more specific laws and real consequences to deal with this proble…

This confidence motion arises because several Opposition parties want to take down the Ceann Comhairle. She is not the issue. The problem is the Government riding roughshod over speaking time and designating the Lowry Independent group as somehow non-Government and reducing Opposition speaking time. As an Opposition TD, I have called this out on several occasions, but some want to use the Ceann Comhairle as a trophy scapegoat. The manner in which the business of the Dáil has been loudly disrupted on several occasio…

Additional Government policy is needed to encourage the use of electric vehicles. One of the principles in the Government's own EV charging infrastructure strategy is that for the majority of EV users, home charging will be the main solution. However, in new, more densely populated housing areas in my constituency such as the Adamstown strategic development zone, the SDZ in Clonburris, parts of Newcastle, City West, Saggart, Rathcoole and Palmerstown and in fact, in any modern urban or suburban housing development,…