I was in Fianna Fáil, as was the Taoiseach, once upon a time.

That is not the case. That is not true.

I have a question.

It suits Fine Gael and Sinn Féin to make this about those two political parties. There are other political parties here. This is one of the few times I get a chance to ask a question and it is an important question.

It is enforcement.

Road deaths are rising because the Government is failing to employ gardaí. That is a stark fact and it must be addressed. The reply to an Aontú parliamentary question indicated there were 1,046 road traffic gardaí in 2009, compared with just over 600 today. That is a collapse of 40%. Drink driving is no longer a source of stigma in many parts of the country because people know they will not be stopped. Without enforcement, all the laws in the world will not make a difference. The 30-minute proposal is an embarrassm…

Information released to Aontú following a parliamentary question shows that only three people have been convicted of human trafficking out of 1,000 cases that have come before the courts in the past decade. I have never seen a conviction rate as low as that in any other sector of crime in this country. It is incredibly poor and means we are not on top of this issue in this country. We need to be clear about our definitions on this issue. Human trafficking is different from people smuggling. Human trafficking is the…

Simon Harris will break a few records today. A man who took his seat on the 15th count, and a member of a political party that came third in the last general election, will become Taoiseach today. The Taoiseach carousel continues in this political bubble where the people of this Republic are continuously locked out of the decision-making process. There is no doubt that Simon Harris is very good at spin. I have never seen anybody able to distance themselves from themselves so well as he has done in the past number o…

-----where establishment TDs talk to themselves and the NGOs and ignore the people. I do not believe he is a man of convictions. I believe his motto is, "There go my people, I must find out which way they are going and then I will lead them." Simon Harris has a record which I believe has cost this country dearly. He threatened striking nurses with financial penalties. He announced free smear tests for women to save himself, placing pressure on the system and leading to dangerous delays for women. In the early days …

This is no way to run a country. The position of Taoiseach is being passed around by the Government like snuff at a wake. Highly paid Ministers do not know what is happening from one day to the next. The Administration of this country is clearly in a state of instability and chaos. We have seen ten Fine Gael TDs vote with their feet a lack of confidence in the future of this Government. The Taoiseach is now doing the same. The referendums have shown the absolute divide that exists between the people of this country…

Except this election.

The scale of the rejection of the Government's referendum proposals was colossal. It was absolutely incredible to see the most significant referendum losses happen to this Government. There is no doubt in my mind that trust in this Government is on the floor now. There is a political bubble in Ireland between the political establishment, many of the NGOs and some of the media. At the heart of the Government's carers proposal was a promise that it would do everything to help carers, but most people who are either ca…

Throughout the referendum campaign, Aontú said that the care amendment was designed by the Department of Finance. We said the wording proposed in the referendum was designed to protect budgets. A leak of the Attorney General's advice and responses to freedom of information, FOI, requests that have subsequently been published by the Department of Finance basically give credibility and weight to our challenge during the referendum. The note to the Department of Finance said that the language was intended to avoid con…

What about leak investigations?

Some more than others.

The Minister’s Department has admitted to me through replies to parliamentary questions that it is placing children in special emergency accommodation that is unregulated, staffed by third party providers and rented. How much is the Department paying these companies?

I understand that €90 million has been spent by the Department so far on special emergency arrangements. Last month alone, 22 children went missing from State care. Previously, a 14-year-old girl who had been abducted by a criminal gang within minutes of being placed with Tusla was found one year later locked in a brothel. I try to raise these matters with the Minister, but he does not listen. A retired judge, Dermot Simms, tried to raise these matters with the Minister, but the Minister deleted his files, citing G…

I have in my hand a document showing that the owner of the company being investigated for the alleged falsifying of vetting documents, which received millions of euro from the State for the unregulated care of vulnerable children, was on the same committee as the Minister back when the Minister was a councillor in his constituency. The Minister and Mr. Paul Reid, who went on to become the CEO of the HSE, sat on a joint policing committee with this individual quarter after quarter. Has the Minister ever spoken to hi…

The regulated sector says the Minister is not meeting them.

The importance of trade unions in this country cannot be overstated. They provide an enormous bulwark against the specific objectives of some businesses to push down workers' terms and conditions and a balance within the labour system. One example of that is Tara Mines in Navan. As we know, it is the largest lead and zinc mine in Europe. A company called Boliden had been making massive profits out of an Irish natural resource for many years and all of a sudden, last June it started to turn the screw and squeeze the…