Aontú has found through parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests that almost 400 people have died in homelessness on the streets of Dublin in the last five years. That is an incredible figure. The shocking thing is that the national figure is far higher but the Government refused to collect the data in any other county outside of Dublin. The figures I give today do not even count those who are rough sleeping in this country. Those statistics are far higher. Some 11,754 people throughout the State…

Hear, hear.

Cúpla bliain ó shin, bhí fear ó na Stáit Aontaithe ar an raidió ar chlár Marian Finucane. Fear a bhí ann a bhí ina chónaí i Nua-Eabhrac nach raibh in Éirinn riamh. B’as na hOileáin Fhilipíneacha dá mháthair ach b’as Rann na Feirste i dTír Chonaill dá athair. Sula ndéarna sé an t-agallamh, ní raibh sé riamh in Éirinn. Fuair a athair bás agus bhí sé ag iarraidh cuimhne a athair a choimeád beo. Ar son a athair, shocraigh sé an Ghaeilge a fhoghlaim. D’fhoghlaim sé an Ghaeilge agus bhí sé dochreidte. Bhí sé in ann í a l…

I return to the issue of nursing homes and last night's edition of "Prime Time", which showed half of residents, 24 of them, dying in a very short period, the nursing home failing to put in protections in the context of disease control and the staff and residents contacting State agencies but not getting responses. Emails were going back and forth but actions were not being taken. These were mothers, fathers and grandparents and the State agencies did not work in a timely manner to save their lives. Many feel that …

Seventy thousand people signed up to Be on Call for Ireland.

This is a question about investigation.

Four hundred people have died in homelessness in Dublin alone in the past five years. That is an incredible figure and the national one is far higher, but the Government does not seem to want to record these figures. We have a situation where, heartbreakingly, that figure does not include the number of people who died sleeping rough in the city. We have 11,754 people in homelessness, 3,000 or more of whom are children. Many of these children will be spending their third St. Patrick's Day in a hotel room as a result…

The lack of wrap-around services.

The Taoiseach's announcement yesterday that primary school children as young as nine or ten years old should be taught about transgenderism shocked many people. The RED C poll and the Ireland Thinks poll suggest that the majority of people believe children in primary school are too young to be taught about transgenderism. Their research indicates that most people in this country believe children are too young to grapple with these very strong and important issues. Everybody wants to have compassion at the heart of …

Gerry Clarke, a 77-year-old pensioner from Navan, got a bill for two months of €1,600. Kitty, a woman over 100 years old, from Trim, gets a bill of nearly €1,000. These people are simply the collateral damage of this Government's inaction on the cost of energy at the moment. They are not alone. Right now, a full third of the population is in fuel poverty. That means these individuals are suffering significantly due to their inability to heat their homes. They are going without food in many cases to do that. People …

The Government received €1 billion from the EU under the Brexit adjustment fund. This was set up to help people impacted by Britain leaving the EU. Apparently, despite the crisis affecting many people in agriculture and the damage that is being done in the Irish fishing industry, the Government only managed to draw down €400 million of this €1 billion fund and the remaining €600 million has not been allocated. It goes without saying that the farming sector is suffering. One third of farmers are currently making a l…

Is the Government going to leave the €600 million behind?

Is the €600 million going to be left behind?

Cuirim fáilte ollmhór roimh an rún Comhalta Phríobháidigh seo ón nGrúpa Réigiúnach. An cuspóir atá ag an rún seo ná cabhair a thabhairt d'othair agus do dhaoine atá i gcruachás san áit ina bhfuil siad chun cabhrú leo leigheas a fháil agus a gcuid saolta a shábháil gan brú a chur ar chóras na n-ionad éigeandála timpeall na tíre. I pay credit to the Regional Group for this solution-based Private Members' motion and I urge the Government to take on board the solutions in it. It is clear that the really important indiv…

What about all the Airbnbs?

That figure is 600.

Information given to Aontú by the HSE shows that well over 40% of Covid-19 deaths in Ireland are linked to hospital or nursing home outbreaks. That is 3,500 people who died because they contracted Covid-19 in a nursing home or hospital. For example, these are people who went into hospital with a broken leg and came out in a coffin. It is a human disaster of enormous proportions and, incredibly, the people who were most vulnerable during the Covid crisis were actually the people who were most exposed. Throughout Cov…

It is important to repeat that the information we received is characterised that these 3,500 people who died contracted Covid in a nursing home or in a hospital. Out of respect to those people who have lost loved ones, they should be entitled to the truth and entitled to justice in relation to what happened them. They want information here. They do not want a nebulous review or inquiry. They want a commission of investigation that happens in a public fashion. If we do not do this for them, then they will not get to…

In December 2022, Ireland had the highest excess mortality rate since the start of Covid. Ireland had the fourth-highest level of excess mortality in the whole of the European Union for that month. During Covid, at a time when there were fewer excess deaths than in December 2022, the Government’s response was to stop people travelling more than 2 km from their homes, close schools and stop people attending the funerals of loved ones. In that time the Government stopped people from going to work and making a living …

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo ó Shinn Féin. In fairness to the Minister for Health, I have to hand it to him for managing to deliver an upbeat speech on the current situation in the health service. It takes a phenomenal level of optimism, or maybe disconnection, to give an upbeat speech in that manner. In his response, there was an element of Comical Ali defending the Iraqi war effort while bombs were landing behind him all over Baghdad. What is happening throughout the health service is heartbreaking. This a reco…