-----or it is an attempt to hide the fact.

The reason I think the Tánaiste is misleading the people is that he has previous on this. Right up to the jaws of the last general election, the Government was determined to give the impression to the people of Ireland that 40,000 homes would be built that year. As soon as that election was finished, the information became very clear and that statement from the Government, a number of senior Ministers and the Taoiseach himself was wrong. It is important the Tánaiste comes clean with people on this. This housing cri…

That is why everybody is laughing over there.

They are inaccurate. Here are the FOIs. I am giving them to the Tánaiste.

These are public servants.

These are public servants.

The council FOIs are not conspiracy theories.

If I might just have the Minister's attention for this, I believe he wants to do his best in his role on this issue.

I genuinely do. Now, I will say that there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country living in a commuter hell. These are people with little or no access to public transport who are forced to use cars every day and who spend maybe two or three hours getting to work back and forth. Meath is a prime example. Meath is the biggest commuter county in the country. The majority of people in Meath leave the county to go to work every day. That happens in no other county in the country. Some 80,000 people in Meath…

The past ten days have been a time of deep frustration and nearly depression among people. The omnishambles of the Government's approach to the RPZs in the past ten days has really frustrated people at home. Fianna Fáil obviously has a history in terms of the housing crisis. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, was a Minister in the Government that created the first bubble, a Minister in the Government that crashed housing prices around the country and now he is the Taoiseach who has led to the big spike in house …

Tom McHugh was the assistant chief officer of the A-Block in Portlaoise Prison. The block houses the most dangerous criminals in the State. He was asked to investigate drug trafficking in the prison. He carried out his job and reported the information to the management. One morning, a prisoner, who was an enforcer for a well known criminal gang and was well known for knife crime, told the governor that three staff approached him and asked him to cut Tom McHugh up. The Naughton report vindicated that particular situ…

I have raised it with two Ministers for justice and two Taoisigh.

You are the third Taoiseach with whom I have raised the matter.

Tairgim: Go gceadófar go dtabharfar isteach Bille dá ngairtear Acht chun an Bunreacht a leasú. I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Constitution. I am delighted to introduce this Bill. The purpose of this Aontú Bill is to ensure that all adult citizens living in Ireland, North and South, will be entitled to vote in presidential elections. This is a really important Bill. It is a great opportunity for the House to be able to make this change. I encourage all the political pa…

Tairgim: “Go dtógfar an Bille in am Comhaltaí Príobháideacha.” I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

The local property tax was introduced by Fine Gael and Labour to fill a massive hole in the budget that was created by Fianna Fáil crashing the economy during the banking crisis. The local property tax is in many ways a child of the economic catastrophe which was caused by the Fianna Fáil-led Government at that time. It was a Fine Gael and Labour austerity tool, which was introduced to find other ways of taking money out of people's pockets at a time when the country was absolutely broke. It was designed to fill a …

This week, the UN special rapporteur on environmental issues has written to the Government and to the Chief State Solicitor's Office seeking urgent action in relation to court proceedings which order An Garda Síochána to hand over confidential complaints for use in a defamation case. He stated that the Chief State Solicitor must oppose that action. He has stated that it would imperil the right of citizens to confidentially engage with gardaí in the future. A citizen in Meath has challenged alleged environmental dam…

Irish fishermen have seen their sector gutted in recent years. Irish fishing rights have been handed, lock, stock and barrel, to other countries. Many countries are doing far better out of Irish waters than Irish fishermen. According to departmental projections, the Irish coastal share of fish will shrink by approximately 15% in the coming six years. The average reduction throughout the rest of Europe is 9.83%. Ireland's reduction significantly surpasses the loss of other countries. Indeed, Ireland has the highest …

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún tábhachtach seo agus gabhaim buíochas leis na Social Democrats as an rún a chur os comhair na Dála inniu. I want to focus on one particular issue. It has been reported in the media in the Middle East that the United States and Israel have agreed the United Nations interim force in Lebanon will cease its operations in southern Lebanon. It has also been reported that the US Government has decided not to renew UNIFIL's mandate and Israel reportedly did not disagree with it. A vote on the man…

Under Standing Order 35(3) Aontú proposes we amend the Order of Business to remove the lines referring to the motion regarding the proposed negotiations between the European Union and Kazakhstan and replace them with "Statements on nursing homes, to conclude after 1 hour and 50 minutes". It is absolutely scandalous what has happened in this country in terms of older people-----