It will leave a big hole. Parents will not have an opportunity to get childcare.

Aontú found out that 400 gardaí have resigned in recent years, and the number of gardaí resigning from the Garda force is increasing year on year. There was meant to be an intake of 200 recruits into Templemore this month but not even 50 applications were received, and the class was scrapped. Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of police per capita in the European Union and the situation has not improved at all since the austerity cuts ten years ago. The lowest number of gardaí is in the Minister for Justice's co…

It is not getting the allocation.

There are seven stages. By the time they have been whittled down to the final stage, there are fewer than that.

The banking crisis devastated Ireland. It affected the lives of millions of people in this State and forced hundreds of thousands of people to emigrate, many of whom have never returned. People who left due to the collateral damage of the banking crisis are living in Canada, Australia and all over the world. It loaded tens of billions of euro of debt onto this country and significantly reduced the level of investment in Irish society for a decade afterwards. We have less money to invest in housing, infrastructure, …

Today, there was a school bus protest in Ballivor, County Meath. I joined students and parents who walked 15 km on winding, foggy country roads to the schools in Trim. They were forced to do so by the broken promise of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. Three months ago, she promised with much fanfare that, due to the cost-of-living crisis and the climate crisis, free school bus places would be available to students across the country who needed them. Yet three months later, this has not been resolved. A pat…

We are on the precipice of collapse in childcare and the early childhood care and education, ECCE, sector. I cannot overstate the severity and seriousness of this problem. It is not happening by accident. There were 77 net closures in 2019, 70 net closures in 2020, 62 net closures in 2021 and in this year so far there have been 80 net closures. It is estimated there will be 226 net closures next year. The Government is closing these businesses down, especially with the new core funding model. I have said this over …

It is not viable for the small businesses.

It has been announced today that elections will take place on 15 December in the North of Ireland if the October deadline is not met. Ten days before Christmas, the people of the North will be going to the polls again.

It was announced today by the electoral commission in the North of Ireland I understand. If the deadline is not met in October, this will be the election day. This is what I understand has been announced.

This is the information that has come through from the electoral commission. I am open to correction if it is not the case. The election will be a sham if we do not have reform of the processes by which the elections and the assembly function. If the DUP comes back and blocks the Executive from running again, we will be in the same stalemate we are in today, which is an expensive and costly stalemate. Right now, people in the North of Ireland are suffering significantly from the biggest cost-of-living crisis they h…

We have been articulating this for the past two years.

Aontú was the first party to articulate it.

But what if the next election is on 15 December?

The electoral commission has written to political parties.

I want to raise a couple of points with the Minister in regard to tourism in Ireland and this Bill. First, there is a lot of development that has to happen to increase the benefits to communities and counties with regard to the heritage and tourism sites that they have. To give an example, in Meath most tourism is currently on the basis of a coach out of a Dublin hotel that hits Newgrange and Trim Castle and then returns to the Dublin hotel for dinner. What I have been trying to do for the last 12 years is to have …

This energy crisis is devastating families and communities throughout the country at present. We are months into the crisis and what we have seen from the Government so far is inertia and glacial steps. The Government's response has been incredibly slow. At the beginning of this month we saw energy prices increase again. Electric Ireland increased prices for the third time this year and the fourth time in 12 months. It increased bills by 26.7% and residential gas prices by 37.5%. These are incredibly difficult incr…

Children or teenagers in State care are sometimes very vulnerable people with complex and sometimes very difficult experiences. It is vital the Government seeks to assist them as they progress through what is referred to as aftercare, which is a period immediately after they leave foster care placements or residential care. What is the Department doing to assist people with aftercare?

I welcome that this group will be considered a priority group and that there will be proposed analysis of their pathway through third level, etc. Subject to assessment, care leavers are entitled to aftercare from the age of 18, when their foster or residential placements end, until the age of 21. Aftercare supports can be extended to the age of 23 if the young person goes to further or higher education. The Minister will agree that is discriminatory and unfair. All young people, regardless of the path they take in …

I, too, recognise the great work done by EPIC. According to EUROSTAT figures, 80% of people aged between 16 and 29 in this country are still living at home with their parents. In every town and village in the country, young adults are living with their parents due to the cost-of-living crisis and other spiralling pressures such as rents. The age of 18 is very young for a person to leave home. Many of those who do so often feel anxious and return to the family home at weekends or, at least, can phone their parents t…