-----and the Minister knows that.

The Minister is being incredibly cynical.

The Tánaiste says there should not be a consequence-free zone. This Government is a consequence-free zone. This Government is an accountability-free zone when it comes to waste. You speak about the Arts Council IT waste as some kind of shock, as if you are a passenger on the ship of State. You are at the helm of the ship of State in the context of these issues. I could spend the full day here giving a litany of Government projects in respect of which there has been waste, week after week, in the past four or five y…

There is a policy sometimes on the part of senior Ministers to hear no evil and see no evil and to say "Oh, we didn't know what was happening." The Tánaiste mentioned that before. It is the responsibility of a Minister to know what is happening in his or her Department. You cannot insulate yourself from crises such as this by pleading ignorance over and over again. That is not an excuse when it comes to waste. We do not even have the opportunity to bring the former Minister, Catherine Martin, before a committee of …

It will move on. Nobody will lose their job.

One of the most important characteristics of the previous Government was its complete waste of taxpayers' money over and over again. We heard Deputy Varadkar, when talking about the national children's hospital, say that, save an asteroid hitting the planet, the children's hospital would be built by 2020 with €700 million. The cost is €2.25 billion at the moment and we do not have an opening date. The Government spent €300 million on metro north and no shovel has been put in the ground yet. The Government spent €22…

Yes, and I used the word "suspect".

They say to start as you mean to continue. By God, this Government has done that. The first thing the Government did after the election was to spend weeks and weeks talking to itself about the creation of a government. When it came back, it then decided to vote to give itself two weeks' holidays. When it came back from that, it decided to create an enormous number of extremely high-paid jobs for a record number of Ministers across the country. To underpin the direction of travel for this Government, it has now deci…

The response of this Government to the storm is absolutely shocking. It took a full 12 days for this Dáil to meet after the storm. That shows how far removed the Government is from the needs of the people. The fact that not even a senior Minister has turned up for this debate is also shocking. In a parliamentary question I submitted to the Minister for energy a couple of days ago, I asked how many staff at the ESB are employed to reconnect homes, in response to which he stated he has no responsibility for that ques…

Go raibh maith agat. I have another example of the Tánaiste's Gucci Government wasting money. The Hill of Tara is one of the most important national monuments in the country. It is poorly served by the OPW in terms of an interpretive centre that is closed more than it is open and muddy paths for visitors. There is, however, a new addition. The OPW has been building the great wall of Tara and it has been building it for the past 14 years. It is an incredible length of time. Even in the context of the Government's gl…

Fourteen years, though, is incredible.

Míle buíochas le Sinn Féin as an rún seo. The State of Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UN special committee to investigate Israeli practices has said that Israel's war on Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide. Some 70% of all people who have been killed in Gaza were women and children, and the figure is even higher for non-combatants. Aontú urges the Government to recognise that the ethnic cleansing of parts of Gaza, the banning of food, water and medical aid, the …

It looks like this is an east-coast Government. It looks like there is only one Minister from Connacht or Ulster in the Cabinet. Some 60% of the Ministers in this Government are from the greater Dublin area. That is not spatial development. The west is certainly not awake in this Government. It is incredible that the Cabinet is being named on the day the news broke that 30,000 homes were built in the State last year. Housing is the biggest issue affecting this country and the Government has been in reverse. When th…

Today, there are-----

-----thousands of children who are homeless-----

-----and there are many children suffering pain from scoliosis waiting for operations. Today, many children will seek help with regard to their mental health but will be refused CAMHS treatment. Eighty-nine days will elapse between the last time we had consecutive Dáil business to the next time we have consecutive Dáil business. The excuse of the Government is that it has to bed down. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government for ten years at this stage. Actually, Fine Gael is heading towards 19 years in go…

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an gCeann Comhairle mar gheall ar a post nua agus gabhaim buíochas le Seán Ó Fearghaíl as an bpost iontach a rinne sé thar na blianta freisin. I thank the good people of County Meath for the opportunity to represent them in this Dáil. It is an honour and a privilege to be a TD, especially for a great county such as Meath. The year 2024 has been a good one for Aontú. We successfully fought two referendums. We won council seats. We surpassed the Labour Party, the Social Democrats and People…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Farming in this country is in crisis at the moment. I do not make that statement lightly. The recent report by Teagasc confirms that farm income levels have fallen across the State in the Past year. Dairy incomes averaged €49,000 last year, which was a decrease of an incredible 69% compared with 2022. Tillage farm income fell by 71% last year, a phenomenal fall, and now it is coming in at just €21,000. Dry stock incomes fell also in 2023. The average income for a c…

The Government is missing two massive points. First, it is missing the point that the market is already distorted. I have a degree in economics. Anybody who analyses the food market in this country will tell you that it is, by definition, a distorted market. It is not unusual for the Government to preside over distorted markets. Much of the economy, such as the insurance industry, house-building and the banks, for example, comprises distorted markets. The two-pillar bank system we have is another oligopoly, an olig…

The Kyran Durnin case has shocked the country to the core. This is a tragic and dark case that asks serious questions of the State. How can a vulnerable child go missing for two years? How can a vulnerable child just disappear for two years? How broken is the State care system that we are not talking about an intervention here but we are talking about the potential murder of a child. The political establishment has expressed shock and disbelief over what has happened to Kyran but the truth is he is only one of 227 …