If I may I will add some practical solutions on this. One of the big situations we see on a regular basis is that an ambulance arrives at the accident and emergency department with the patient but due to the jam in the accident and emergency department because of overcrowding, or simply because there are not enough trolleys there, the ambulance has to stay at the entrance to the accident and emergency department for one, two or three hours. We then have incredible situations such as in Drogheda hospital one year ag…

On that previous issue, in the context of HSE-funded home care, there is a refusal to bring older people for walks. Where people have dementia, they are being allowed to leave the house unaccompanied because of this refusal to bring people for walks. This is an extremely dangerous decision by the HSE. Turning to the issue of hospitals now, the crisis there really bubbled up over Christmas. There have been really worrying trends regarding how many people are suffering on hospital waiting lists, in accident and emerg…

I 100% acknowledge the work that the staff and medical professionals within hospitals are involved in. My critique is of the lack of Government investment and the lack of reform in the HSE. The newspapers are full of this. Today's Irish Examiner states, "A woman has told how she watched as her husband tried to resuscitate their 21-year-old daughter after she collapsed at home just hours after being discharged from University Hospital Limerick." RTÉ's website reports today that the HSE has "apologised to the mother …

Tógfaidh mé cúpla soicind. There are serious problems and they are not arising independently of Government. Government is making decisions on funding and recruitment freezes. I know of a nurse who returned to Ireland two months ago but who was unable to get back into her old job because of the recruitment freeze here. Lives depend on the ability of doctors and nurses to have the necessary capacity and resources to deliver the health service properly. Those resources are not there and people are suffering as a resul…

There are 9,409 adults and 4,105 children accessing emergency accommodation in Ireland right now. On average ten people a month are dying on the streets of Dublin and 60,000 people are currently on housing waiting lists. Eurostat has shown that rents have increased by 100% since Fine Gael came into power in 2011. Houses are literally out of reach and are only for the wealthiest at the moment. The average price of a three-bedroom house in the Minister of State's city, Dublin, is now more than €500,000. That is an in…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2015 to make provision for single-sex accommodation in prisons; and to provide for related matters. I thank The Countess, especially Laoise de Brún and those in the Gallery, for their help on the Bill and the other women’s rights campaigners who have been working on this Bill over the past while. I thank the nine other TDs who have signed this Bill: Deputies Seán Canney, Noel Grealish, Willie O'Dea, Carol Nolan, Ma…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

More than 700 people were murdered by the British Army and their loyalist death squads in Ireland during the Troubles. I am thinking about people such as Denise Mullen, a former Aontú councillor in east Tyrone. At four years of age, she witnessed the murder of her father Denis by the Glenanne gang. The killer was a member of the British territorial army. He pumped 17 bullets into her father at their family home. He then sent a burst of machine gun fire in the direction of her mother Olive, narrowly missing her. All…

Every victim in the North of Ireland is absolutely entitled to justice. Let us not forget the purpose of the Act in question. The Tories have admitted in Westminster that the purpose of the Act is to stop cases being taken against the British military. That is the objective behind the Act. It is important that we understand that context. The Taoiseach referred to timelines. Before the Act was passed, the Taoiseach said he would use diplomacy to try to stop the British on their course. Three months have passed since…

It did not work.

One of the most frustrating elements of this Government is its inability to deliver capital projects. We are in the middle of a housing crisis at the moment, with hundreds of thousands of people in housing distress. We also have 130,000 empty homes in this State. The Government created a refurbishment grant scheme in July 2022 and since then just 70 people have drawn down a grant under that scheme. An average of about four homes are being refurbished every month, which means it will take 3,500 years at the current …

Applied-----

There were 22 this year.

There were 22.

Applications are different from grants.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Ceann Comhairle. Words matter; they matter a lot. Words can cast light, they can educate, they can build up, they can get to the truth, they can hold people to account and they can inspire. Words can obviously do the opposite in many ways. They can be the vehicles of hate and they can be used for good and bad. There is no doubt about it. Aontú is a republican political party. We believe in a republic where every citizen is equal, where the colour of a person's skin is of no more significanc…

Last month the Minister for housing, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister for integration, Deputy O'Gorman, were exchanging blows at Cabinet on the issue of migrant accommodation. This month the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, are taking lumps out of each other on the issue of public health spending. According to the Irish Daily Mail , the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Donohoe, thinks that the actions of the Minister for Health, Deputy Ste…

I agree with Deputy O'Callaghan's point that the Minister for housing is never here for this Stage of housing debates. If the Minister listened more to the knowledge and experience that exists on the Opposition benches, he might be able to deliver his role in a better fashion. There are approximately 160,000 empty homes in the State. In a housing crisis, to have 160,000 empty homes is an absolutely horrendous situation. It does not make sense at all that the two issues would sit side by side; 160,000 empty homes an…

British state forces have murdered hundreds of people in Ireland, North and South. In the majority of cases, those murders were covered up by the British state. Hundreds of families have spent decades trying to get to truth and justice in that regard. The British legacy Act has now stated that cannot happen. It looks to cover up even more of those murders. We have only one chance to stop the monstrosity of the legacy Act, and that is for the Irish Government to bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights. Th…

Time is running out.