In October 2019, Deputy Varadkar, as Taoiseach, apologised to the women wronged by the CervicalCheck scandal and promised that no woman would ever have to go through courts again to get justice. Despite that promise, three years later more than 170 women have done just that and have gone through the court system to get justice. Deputy Varadkar was Minister for Health at the time the CervicalCheck scandal happened. However, he said he has no recollection of being informed of it. As Minister for Health, Deputy Varadk…

My parliamentary assistant, Mr. Luke Silke, was in contact with the Department of Justice regarding the flaws within the Garda vetting system. I understand, however, it is not investigating the disclosures made by Aontú because of that Department's interpretation of the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act. In recent months, I was contacted by an individual who alleged that she and her siblings were severely abused while in foster care in this country in the 1980s and 1990s. Tusla has ascribed the pseudonym "Alice…

This is an extraordinary answer. All of us in the Dáil are responsible to the citizens we serve in the State. The case I have raised is anonymous so the Minister of State actually can refer to it. Ministers refer to many specific cases regularly in this Chamber. The Minister of State is responsible for ensuring the Garda does its job properly. It is not the case that he can just sit on his hands and say it is somebody else's business. It is the responsibility of this Government to ensure citizens are protected. Ali…

We did. All of this information is in the Department's hands.

All of it has been in the Department's hands for weeks.

There is no more information there than a Google search would have provided.

We have.

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Before I start, I extend my deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Seán Rooney from County Donegal who was killed overnight. The country woke up to shock and horror over that. There is no doubt Seán is a hero who put his life on the line for the protection of peace in a very troubled part of the world. Donegal has gone through great suffering in recent times and it is shockingly sad to see the county again struck by such sadness. I give our solidarity a…

I again thank Deputy Verona Murphy and Deputy Canney for co-signing the Bill and for submitting it to the lottery. It would not have made it to this Stage if not for that important help. This is a very important issue to many people around the country. Legislation on animal welfare needs to be strengthened. We need to strengthen regulations to protect animals in this country, especially around puppy farms. You can have all the laws you like if you do not have the enforcement to implement them and make sure that law…

In the Taoiseach's term of office, there have been a number of internal investigations in his Department into leaking to the media. One related to the report on mother and baby homes. It was alleged by some that it might have been the Taoiseach himself who leaked that document. It is nearly two years since the start of that investigation and there is still no result. Will there ever be a result in that? There is another investigation; we do not know exactly what it is about. Is it the investigation into the leaking…

There is a major problem with the market structure in farming at the moment in this State. There are three main elements to that market structure. There are the farmers, then, typically, factories, and then supermarkets. What is happening across a number of product ranges is that the factories and the supermarkets are an oligopoly, which means that they have massive buyer power and can force the prices and the terms and conditions out of the farmers. We saw it in the beef sector, in which they pushed the price of b…

The Taoiseach did it before.

He banned it.

It would help farmers significantly.

I support the request by Deputies Bacik and McDonald in respect of abuse in the past, but I also ask the Taoiseach, in the interest of balance, if the State has ever made any effort to quantify the positive contribution by the churches in this State. I think of the Covid crisis, for example, and, when many people were dying on their own and isolated from their families, the support they got from many religious in this State. Many religious buried people during the Covid crisis at great threat to themselves. They we…

I have raised this very serious issue with the Taoiseach before. Small-scale childcare and early childhood care and education services throughout the country are in serious trouble as a result of the core funding plan by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman. They are going out of business. They are getting loans to pay for staff over Christmas. They are letting their children go. No other businesses will be able to open in their place. I understand that more money …

There is nothing new on the table.

The review was announced last August.

I listened to the Taoiseach's speech and he excelled himself in his last week. Before he died the theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, wrote about the possibility of there being a parallel universe. The Taoiseach's speech represented a parallel universe to the experience of most people living in this country. It is clear that the measure of success or failure for a Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the provision of an adequate number of houses for their people. It is as simple as that. This …

In recent days, I spoke to the family of an elderly man who went to a GP with a respiratory illness. He went to the GP centre to look for an appointment with the doctor and was told to come back in January. Yesterday, I spoke to a 79-year-old woman who has an infection. She rang the GP and was told to come back in January. Last night she rang the doctor on call but there was no answer from the doctor on call for the hour and a half she waited on the line. Today, she has spent all day in bed because there is nothing…