At no point, as of yet, have we seen any definitive material action points on how this material is going to be blocked so that children cannot consume it.

I have read the Bill. I have read large chunks of the Bill.

I know of codes and I know of guidelines that are going to be produced. The Minister made the point that this Bill will not tackle the whole problem of pornography being pushed to children. If we cannot fix all of it, we will fix none of it. That seems to be the instinct here but that is rubbish. To be honest, Deputies and governments can only make marginal changes to society but those marginal changes can protect the welfare of lots of people and are worth doing in their own right. I am not saying my Bill is perfe…

The gross injustices that are unfolding at the moment in Gaza are an indictment against Israel but also against the international community. The international community is standing idly by in respect of what is happening in Gaza at the moment. It is an incredible issue on which many people have spoken very well here today. The fact is that more than 11,000 citizens, non-combatants, and at this stage more than 4,000 children have been murdered by the Israeli state in Gaza. This is a murder rate of one child nearly e…

This week, a large number of Deputies in the Chamber decried efforts made by some British politicians to stop protests in Britain against the horrific war in Gaza. Many of those speakers rightly said that in no circumstance should the democratic right to protest be prevented and that protest was the foundation stone of a democracy. I, as an Irish republican, will always point to the North of Ireland when protests were banned and the outcomes that created in the political situation there. While I do not agree with o…

Outside of the political and media bubble, where many people live in towns and villages without the safety of Garda resources, they will ask themselves what is happening. That we are looking to take further Garda resources and reduce the level of peaceful and respectful protest in the country is wrong.

We are.

Last week saw the conviction of Jozef Puska for the murder of Ashling Murphy. This horrific murder shocked the nation and our deepest sympathies and solidarity are with the Murphy family. It is quite clear that we have reached a dangerous tipping point in terms of crime and antisocial behaviour in towns and villages across the country. In recent years under the Government, Ireland has become a more violent and dangerous place. The rates of rape and sexual assault have doubled in the past ten years and the murder ra…

According to the Minister's response in the past week, Garda recruitment is at one third of what was pre Covid. The Minister opposite should not use the figures from the pandemic as his baseline to show so-called improvements. He just admitted that Covid distorted the figures significantly. The other point is that for every year the Minister for Justice has been in office, the number of gardaí has fallen. That is an incredible record. The Minister referred to issues relating to garda bodycams. Cameras do not and ca…

The number of resignations and retirements is greater than that of recruitments.

Without enforcement.

It has been reported that the main hospital in Gaza is burying patients in a mass grave. A doctor in the hospital said that bodies are littered around the hospital complex and there is no longer any electricity for the morgues. He stated that 7 babies and 29 patients who were in intensive care are among the dead. This is an indictment of the war Israel is waging. It is also an indictment of the international community. The Tánaiste stated that one of the reasons we should not expel the Israeli ambassador is that Ir…

No effort.

There is no plan by the Government.

More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October. Some 1,400 people were killed in Israel on 7 October and 200 Israelis remain as hostages. Approximately 4,000 children have been killed in Gaza, now at a rate of one child being killed every 15 minutes. We have seen 90 UN workers and 40 journalists killed so far. Aid has been reduced to a trickle on purpose. Gaza was surviving on 500 trucks a day and now only 1,000 trucks have been allowed in since the start of this particular war. Food, water and fu…

A national hospital that is six years late and €1.4 billion over budget; an opaque HSE coming down with management that can swallow up billions of euro but cannot make a decision; €300 million spent on Dublin metro projects without any construction; dozens of flood defences stuck in a banjaxed planning and court system; not one approval for a wind farm in 12 months and just seven offshore wind turbines built in 20 years; more than 100 electric buses sitting for 18 months due to a lack of charging points; 500 modula…

Wastefulness is the question.

A long list I suppose.

Billions of euro of waste.

Last year, the HSE confirmed to me in response to a parliamentary question that 600 people were in hospitals across the State who had been clinically discharged. On any given day, 600 people who the doctors can do no more for are languishing in hospital, and the only reason that they are in hospital is because step-down care is not available to them. In many cases, that is due to a lack of home care for those people. It is horrendous for the patients themselves. Being stuck in hospital even when they cannot get tre…