There are a couple of things that need to be said. We heard a defence from our Fianna Fáil colleague, asking what is wrong with his "mother and father each putting €50 into a Fianna Fáil raffle". He suggested that this is about raffles, draws and all the rest. That is fine and there is nothing wrong with that. If someone's mum wants to give them €50, first, she does not need to buy a ticket - she can give it as a donation in the first instance. The second thing is that all political parties operate under lottery pe…

The Ceann Comhairle dealt with it, in fairness.

Is the Minister of State serious that he will not comment?

The Minister of State is a disgrace, a thundering disgrace, if he has no comment on that.

Can I make a point?

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and forgive me. I cannot believe what I have just witnessed. The Minister of State has said he has no comment. Deputy Carthy hit the nail on the head. This has deviated from the pre-prepared script. Can the Minister of State not be his own person from his own party and deal with this issue? Specific questions were put to the Minister of State. Where did this come from? Are we supposed to treat this Parliament in this way, whereby we are facilitating an amendment to legislation wh…

All legal.

Last year, Fianna Fáil was raising money illegally, half a million.

No, it has not. Fianna Fáil is changing the law to facilitate it.

They are changing the law to make it legal. They raised half a million last year illegally.

Maybe he could also explain why the permit, the lottery licence, which is supposed to be available in the court, is not available in the court.

An deireadh seachtaine seo caite, chonaic muid radhairc dhochreidte ag Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath nuair a bhí paisinéirí ag fanacht taobh amuigh den fhoirgneamh aerfoirt ar feadh uaireanta fada. Chaill níos mó ná 1,400 duine a n-eitiltí dá bharr. Ní raibh 1,400 ábalta a n-eitiltí a fháil. Ba náire náisiúnta é gur tharla a leithéid ag an deireadh seachtaine, ag déanamh dochair dár gclú agus ag cur isteach ar phleananna daoine a d'íoc as a gcuid eitiltí. Mar Aire Iompair, tá an Teachta Ryan freagrach as sin agus níor…

From what the Minister said, one would swear this happened out of the blue over the past couple of days. The Minister talked about further measures. He talked about how the DAA has committed today to another 100 staff being employed. Back in March, we had a problem. The travelling public would have expected that the Minister, who is responsible for transport and aviation and part of the Government that signed off on a redundancy package for 1,000 staff which has left that airport at a point at which we cannot guara…

It tried to cut too deep, and the Irish public and the tourism sector were left exposed as a result.

How many meetings did the Minister have with the DAA at that time?

Since March?

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is the Green Party Minister responsible for transport. We have another Green Party Minister responsible for tourism. Bruce Springsteen is coming to town next year to play three nights at the RDS. So out of control have hotel prices become that a caller, Stephen, from the west called in to Ocean FM today to explain that the cost to see Bruce Springsteen and to stay in Dublin for a night was so high that he looked at alternatives. He found it is €200 cheaper for the concert ticket, th…

Níl dabht ar bith ach go bhfuil an ghéarchéim sa chostas maireachtála ag tiomáint níos mó agus níos mó teaghlach go dtí pointe na bochtaineachta, agus nár oibrigh an méid atá déanta ag an Rialtas go dtí seo. Tá rudaí ag dul ó olc go holc agus tá daoine ag streachailt chun íoc as earraí riachtanacha. Tá sé in am do cháinaisnéis éigeandála, a chuirfidh airgead ar ais i bpócaí gnáthdhaoine na tíre seo. The soaring cost of living now has many workers and families at breaking point. On radio this morning we heard testim…

The Taoiseach is not a commentator. We all know the external factors that are pushing up prices. They have been referenced many times before, but that does not absolve him as Taoiseach or the Government from acting and doing everything in their power to protect households and families here. Households are struggling to make it to the end of the week and the Taoiseach is telling them that they have to tighten their belt and that as the leader of this Government, he is not going to intervene with any single further m…

-----and at least to look at the proposals that we brought forward, and it needs to support workers and families in these extraordinary times.