The bombardment and total siege of Gaza in recent weeks has seen the death toll exceed 6,500 people. More than 17,000 are injured and the Palestinian ministry of health has officially declared the collapse of the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip. The people of Gaza face a humanitarian catastrophe. The call of the Taoiseach at today’s European Council meeting must be for an immediate and full ceasefire, for the universal application of, and adherence to, international law with the explicit condemnation of those w…

Hear, hear.

The Bill gives effect to a number of tax changes announced in budget 2024, in addition to a number of other important provisions and changes to our tax code. We cannot consider this legislation before setting out the context in which it has been introduced. Our economy has faced a number of interrelated shocks in recent years. We have seen an energy price shock; a spike in inflation, which has impacted prices across so many goods and services; and a tightening of monetary policy, which has increased borrowing costs…

Hear, hear. I could not agree more with the sentiments of my colleague Deputy Cullinane. He has spoken to those on the front line right across the State, to understand the consequences of the Government's decision to deliberately underfund health. Those consequences are real. It will be heard in the stories that will unfold over the course of the next number of months. These are real patients, real people, including children, who will languish on trolleys and who will go without treatment in a timely manner because…

I can only add to what Deputy Mac Lochlainn said. It smacks of arrogance that the Minister, for two weeks in a row, has decided not to come before the Dáil and listen to what Deputy Mac Lochlainn and I have to say. It is not arrogance towards me or the Deputy. It is to the people of Donegal. It is to the people who tomorrow morning will still be in chairs or on trolleys in the accident and emergency department in Letterkenny. It is the people who have received notification over the past while that their treatment i…

Speaking on local radio, Highland Radio, last week, one of the consultants at Letterkenny University Hospital stated the hospital has five intensive care beds, which is probably the number we needed about 20 years ago. A report done nearly a decade ago stated we needed over double that, yet that is still the position. The consultant explained what that means. When somebody is in a ward, their health is deteriorating and they need intensive care, they cannot get it in Letterkenny University Hospital. It is not just …

God almighty, they want to meet the Minister.

I dtús báire, is mian liom mo dhlúthpháirtíocht a chur in iúl do mhuintir Chorcaí agus pobal iarthar Phort Láirge sna ceantair sin inar tharla tubaiste tromchúiseach inné nuair a bhí tuillte ansin. Bhí tionchar mór ag na tuillte ar go leor tithí agus gnóthaí ar fud an cheantair sin agus bhí go leor damáiste déanta. I take the opportunity to extend my solidarity, and that of my party, to the people of Cork and west Waterford who experienced serious flooding yesterday. I commend all of those who were on the front lin…

I made the point that the Glanmire flood relief scheme was announced in 2016. The floods happened in 2012 and it took three years for ministerial consent. Nobody in the community is opposing it or objecting to it. They desperately need it and they were hit again yesterday with devastating floods. The Tánaiste spoke about humanitarian assistance funding. It is means-tested. Will the Tánaiste outline that people in the community who have means above the €30,000 threshold will not be getting 100% support for the damag…

I will finish on this point. Many community facilities took years to be replaced. Sarsfields summed it up in one quote, "'We won a county, lost a pitch but hopefully saved a part of the Glanmire community."

Now it is time for the Government to step up and support not only Sarsfields GAA but also other facilities, including our hospitals, crèches, businesses and households-----

-----very quickly without delay. Crucially we need to speed forward the types of schemes that will protect communities in the medium to long term.

You are hilarious.

In last week's budget the Government made a conscious decision to under-fund the health system. That is well established. The impact is going to be felt by those unable to get a hospital bed, those who will remain on long waiting lists and thousands of seriously ill patients who may not be able to access potentially life-saving medicines. The Government is now playing the blame game, blaming the HSE chief executive, Bernard Gloster, for being too transparent; blaming the Sinn Féin health spokesperson, Deputy Cullin…

The Tánaiste should talk to his Ministers, three of them together.

The question is whether the Tánaiste accepts the under-funding of the health system.

With respect, we allocated €2.5 billion. The Government allocated €800 million.

I am not going to allow----

I am not going to allow the Tánaiste to mislead the Dáil on this issue.

On a point of order, the Tánaiste is misleading the Dáil deliberately on this issue.