I wish to address an aspect of the Bill that has caused great controversy in recent months, that being, the deletion of the word "woman" from it. Across the country, people were angered that the Government would consider doing this. It shows that there is an increasing detachment of the Dáil bubble from the ordinary people of Ireland. Most people I spoke to were horrified to think that, after decades of women struggling, campaigning and fighting for equality, the political elites would, with the stroke of a pen, se…

Sure. I am nearly finished.

To be honest, this Bill came to prominence and into most people's awareness because the word "woman" was initially to be deleted from the Bill. Therefore, this legislation comes with that provenance now in most people's minds, if the truth is told. Regarding that debate, I spoke to several Deputies from Fine Gael concerning this aspect. They said they agreed with Graham Linehan and other views on this subject but that they were too afraid to talk about these issues openly. I spoke to other Members of the Oireachtas…

Who is going to be held to account for what happened in the sale of Siteserv? Most people feel at this stage that this report is going to end up on a dusty shelf somewhere and that nothing is going to happen when it comes to the actions that were not taken in regard to the sale of Siteserv. There is a major frustration out there that this particular crisis was politically shelved by a long-term commission of inquiry so that the heat was taken out of it at a time where it was causing a major challenge to the Governm…

The key question is who will be held to account.

Dawn Meats was given permission by Meath County Council to install a 7.2 km pipeline that would pump treated effluent in the Boyne river, a special area of conservation. The pipeline would dispose of 400,000 l of wastewater into that historic river daily. The Save the Boyne campaign was founded to protect against this. Its spokesperson, Peter Whelan, has stated that the river is the source of drinking water for 70,000 households, and it is also home to wildlife including otters, salmon and lampreys. It is also the …

Was the River Boyne in that response?

The next number of months will be some of the harshest many people will ever have experienced. For many families, utility bills are already out of reach before the winter starts. A large number of families are living from overdraft to overdraft, if they are lucky enough to have an overdraft, and many others will be reliant on moneylenders because that is the only way they have right now to pay for the necessities of life. There is a hierarchy of needs comprising food, shelter, heat and clothes. Incredibly, in Irela…

Use biomass.

Yesterday Thomas Dooley was stabbed to death in a cemetery in Tralee just minutes after a young mother was buried. This was an horrendous murder in a location that should be a sanctuary for people who are grieving for their families. It comes when crime levels in areas such as sexual assaults and domestic violence are increasing significantly. In 2016 after years of austerity we had one of the lowest numbers of police in the EU with just 278 gardaí for every 100,000 people and we have hardly moved a bit. We now hav…

However, this year's gardaí were not recruited.

The sham review into the future of Navan hospital emergency department is now complete. I say it is a sham review for a number of reasons. First, the people carrying out the review were the people who made the original decision. That is never a good way to do a review in Irish democracy. Second, the Minister for Health promised there would be engagement with the local community but there was absolutely none. Third, the Minister of State, Deputy English, promised that a future for Navan emergency department would be…

The Ireland's Future event on Saturday was wonderful. With 5,000 people and ten political parties gathered there, it was probably the most broadly based conference in this country so far on the united Ireland that is about to happen. It is obvious to me that we are at the precipice of great change because there is no unionist majority in politics any more. There is no majority in the Assembly or at Westminster for the Union. Political polls show that there is no majority for the Union. I would say that the conditio…

I had a debate with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, on a radio station over the weekend, during which he stated that the housing crisis could not be fixed overnight. It is an incredible statement for a Minister to make at this stage. Since Phil Hogan and Deputy Alan Kelly were Ministers, through to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, Eoghan Murphy and the current Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, Ministers all said that the housing crisis could not be fixed overnight. It is a long n…

In the middle of the most damaging housing crisis in the history of the State, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens propose to introduce a levy to make it worse, which is an incredible situation. We have a record-breaking Government that has pushed house prices to their highest level in the history of the State, and in the budget the Government introduced a levy to ratchet them up even further. The people are aghast at the complete detachment and incompetence of the Government when it comes to housing. If a leavin…

This budget contains many significant financial measures and many initiatives that at first sight seem welcome. However, in reality, they lack the necessary substance to help people. The key measure of the budget has to be how it is going to impact materially on people's lives. For the following reasons, I believe that this budget is going to come up short. Take, for example, the electricity credits. Some 80% of the €1.2 billion from the electricity credits comes out of the pockets of people in the shape of extra V…

I was one of 40,000 people who left County Meath today to go to work. No other county in the country sees a majority of its workers leave that county to go to work. It took two hours to travel from Navan to the centre of Dublin today and that is not unusual. Many people from other parts of the county are travelling two and a half hours for one journey. That comes to a five-hour commute for one day of work in a county with the second-fastest growing population in the country, with a town in the centre of it that is …

I urge the Minister to make sure this project is given a concrete timeline and concrete investment. We have a system in Meath where if you stand still somebody will build a house on top of you, such is the level of development that is happening in the county. It is incredible that at a time when fuel prices are rising so much, and while the Government is increasing carbon taxes, so many people in Meath do not have a public transport that is feasible for their lives. It is having a massive cost financially, environm…

Former Minister Noel Dempsey promised it would be built by 2004.

It was in formal infrastructure plans of previous Governments.