Any citizen can report-----

The deputy leader of Fine Gael should report it.

Hands up is not a-----

I thank the Taoiseach for meeting with the victims and survivors of the Glennane gang. I want to give credit where it is due. When I asked the Taoiseach to do that, he gave his time and effort and he listened respectfully and engaged very well with those victims. I appreciate that greatly. On the ombudsman's report on the RUC handling of paramilitary attacks by the UDA and UVF, it is important that the Government focuses on that issue. When a state kills a citizen or is involved in collusive behaviour, as is report…

Ba mhaith liom mo fíor-chomhbhrón a dhéanamh le clann agus le cairde Ashling Murphy. Is tragóid uafásach í seo amach agus amach. Ba bhean bhríomhar í le buanna iontacha sa chultúr, i gceol agus in oideachas agus is caill ollmhór í seo dá clann, dá pobal, dá scoil agus don tír. Ní dhéanfaimid dearmad uirthi go deo sa tír seo. Ashling's death is a catastrophe, a disaster for her family. My heart goes out to her family and friends over the coming days as they try to come to terms with what has happened. I also want to…

Guím beannachtaí na Nollag ar gach uile dhuine anseo. The British Supreme Court ruled this week that the PSNI was wrong not to investigate allegations of torture against the hooded men 50 years ago. These men were selected for torture during internment in the North in 1971. Separately, the survivors of the Miami Showband murders are to receive at least £1.5 million in damages due to a decision in the Belfast High Court. Separately again, the Glenanne Gang member, Garfield Beattie, was returned to prison for threats…

In the first two years of abortion in Ireland, 13,243 babies had their lives ended by the State abortion services. By the end of this month, 20,000 individual living, human beings will have their lives ended by the State. That is an incredible situation on the basis of legislation passed by the Minister of State’s party, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and People before Profit. That is 127 babies a week that are losing their lives in this State because of this particular law. It is equivalent to the total …

I also want to raise the case of the Women of Honour. They have been battling for justice after their experience in the armed forces for a number of years and not just in recent times. Their particular case has become centre stage due to the work of the Katie Hannon documentary a number of months ago. Their allegations are with regard to sexual abuse, bullying and discrimination and that the State has stood idly by in relation to these actions but it is not only about this. The key issue is that there has been a sy…

The women have said it.

This day last week, the Taoiseach stated that only 93,000 of 180,000 people showed up for their booster appointments. He suggested there was not the same urgency for boosters as there was for the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Does he stand by that statement? Is it still correct? Was it even correct last week? My office and those of other Deputies are getting calls from people who want the booster shot and are eligible but have not received a text message, people who have received a text message but already g…

Was anything I said incorrect?

Was anything I said incorrect?

What about the idea of this being centralised?

The Sunday Independent reported that 300,000 jobs are being supported and approximately 25,000 businesses are under pressure as a result of Covid and the restrictions that have been implemented. IBEC has stated that in hospitality, there will be 40,000 fewer jobs in 2022 than in 2019, an incredible figure. The majority of these jobs will be lost by women and the second greatest proportion of these jobs will be lost by young people aged between 16 and 25. We have recently seen the emergence of zombie businesses, tha…

Many of us on this side of the Chamber expected the Green Party to play, to some extent, a sort of a watchdog role within the Government. We believed that, given its election manifesto and its long-held objectives in regard to housing and many other issues, the party would ensure it put pressure on both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to make them do right by key issues such as housing. I spoke to a Deputy last week about how the Green Party seems to have completely retreated from these types of objectives in the areas o…

This question is about investigations in the Department. I am concerned with one investigation in particular. The farm nutrient management scheme in the North of Ireland provided funding for the improvement of animal waste storage. The scheme cost more than £200 million and nearly 4,000 farmers participated in the scheme. It is alleged that the tanks constructed under the scheme are now leaking raw emissions into the environment. Have any incidences of leakages of these raw emissions been investigated in the waterw…

This is unusual because, in 2003, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in the North of Ireland introduced a farm management nutrients scheme in accordance with the European Parliament legislation to prevent farm pollution. Some 4,000 farmers participated in the scheme and the specifications set out for the scheme involved the construction of new, impermeable slurry tanks and dirty water storage tanks in compliance with the EU nitrates directive. That code required that all concrete structure…

I will not mention them. I appreciate that this matter may not have come across the Minister's desk so far. This is why I am raising it with him today. This crisis in the North could be as big as the cash for ash scandal. Some 4,000 farmers were told that they built correctly and £121 million of grant funding was given. A total of £212 million was spent on these tanks. If they are leaking they will have to be fixed, which will cost hundreds of millions of euro. There were be pollution damage which will cost million…

There are only 52 weeks in a year.

The Minister talks about public health advice as if it is a uniform issue. He acts as if it is singular and there are no differences of opinion in public health advice, or that it is given down from on high. The truth of the matter is there are many different public health advices. Every single country in the EU has a chief medical officer who delivers public health advice and much of that advice differs vastly. It is even contradictory in some cases. This idea that there is infallibility among public health advice…