The Israeli regime and the United States have rained down death and destruction on thousands of people in a criminal war they instigated in Iran and Lebanon. The Israeli regime has done that following nearly three years of a genocidal slaughter against the Palestinian people. It continues to allow illegal settlers to run amok, terrorising Palestinians on the West Bank. It is now going to introduce a law to execute Palestinians who are resisting an illegal occupation of their land. There are reports in the past week…

The failure of the European Union to suspend the EU association agreement with Israel is an absolute disgrace. Does the Minister of State agree it is a disgrace, given that Israel is in the dock for genocide and has instigated murderous and illegal wars against Lebanon and Iran? Does the Minister of State agree? If his excuse is that Europe will not doing anything but we tried, does he feel Ireland has any responsibility to do anything in the face of the crimes Israel is committing? Specifically, does he think we h…

So, there is no answer on the Genocide Convention.

I move: That the Ceann Comhairle direct the Clerk of the Dáil to issue her Writ for the election of a Member to fill the vacancy which has occurred in the membership of the present Dáil consequent on the election as President of Deputy Catherine Connolly, a Member for the constituency of Galway West. Get the posters up.

We need urgent explanations and statements from the Ministers on the use of Shannon Airport and Irish airspace by the United States military while it is conducting with Israel its brutal and illegal wars against Iran and Lebanon and the ongoing genocide of the people of Gaza. This is particularly needed given that the number of US overflights has increased by 56% since the Iran war started and that, incredibly, the Department of foreign affairs undercounted US military flights through Irish airspace by 250 flights.

I ask the Taoiseach to make a public statement directed at the German Government in support of Daniel Tatlow-Devally who is an Irish citizen who has been incarcerated along with four other fellow activists in a German high security prison for 11 months. He is going on trial next Monday because he was involved in a direct action against Elbit Systems that produces weapons in Germany for the Israeli regime and its genocide against the Palestinian people. He is being tried under legislation which is normally reserved …

The Irish Government should speak up in support of these activists, including our Irish citizens.

They are not.

At a meeting of the budget scrutiny committee today, we were informed by the Department of public expenditure that there will be an extra €640 million for the education sector. Officials explained that was largely to do with special needs. To me, what that says is that were it not for the protests of school communities, including parents, teachers, principals and SNAs, the Government would, at a minimum, have given €640 million too little to special needs. It would have short-changed children in terms of their righ…

People do not protest because they like protesting. They protest because they feel they have no choice and because their backs are against the wall. That is clearly why the hauliers, contractors and small farmers came out and protested. Their backs are against the wall because they have faced absolutely gigantic hikes in the cost of being able to earn and maintain an income. Because they protested, and only because they protested, the Government has been forced to make some concessions to them, although these are s…

The Chinese regime has condemned Trump and Israel's bloody war against Iran as irresponsible, reckless and dangerous. That is something coming from that regime. Deputy Geoghegan was talking about zero tolerance against blockades. China has that. For example, in 1989, when students blockaded and demanded democracy, it sent the tanks in. It sent the army in and mowed students down with tanks. It persecutes people in Hong Kong fighting for democracy, people in Tibet, the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong. You name it, they get …

I welcome the Northside Home Care Services workers in the Gallery. Deputy Murphy will be raising issues on their behalf, and I absolutely hope the Taoiseach will listen to them. I want to raise another issue. The Taoiseach probably will not know about it but I ask him to raise it with the Minister for justice. Four years ago, Ned Connors died in prison. He died of alcohol poisoning. How the alcohol got into the prison and so on is a question. There was a report done by the prison inspector into the circumstances of…

Something has stalled the report.

Yes.

First, I wish to say that I am personally very grateful to grassroots football and youth football in my area and to all the people - the managers, coaches and officials - who put in their time, as is the case in area after area in town, city and county across the country. These amazing people put their time and energy into me and my teammates on a voluntary basis. I played for nearly every club. Cabinteely Football Club was my first club. They were a tiny club then. Now, they are up in the League of Ireland. Then, …

If it was not for football, it could have been a lot worse, let us put it that way. It is true that the team ethic, the discipline and all that kind of stuff people are taught by football really stands to them for the rest of their lives. It creates friendships and networks and does things for the community. We cannot measure the value of these things. They are so important. However, we need to put the resources into ensuring that clubs I mentioned like St. Joseph's, Dalkey United, Granada, Pearse and all these tea…

In 1913, Ireland's greatest revolutionary, James Connolly, whose statue is behind us in this building, led the Dublin working class out for a year of disruptive strike action that shut the city down. That is how the trade union movement in this country was formed. It was done in a fight against deprivation, poverty and economic inequality and because of the refusal of the rich and powerful to understand the pain, hardship and suffering that working people were enduring at the time. That is a great tradition. The pe…

They were right to protest. Protest works, and we need more protests.

The protesters who were on the streets were there, by their own explanation, because their backs were up to the wall to the extent that they simply could not sustain the fuel price hikes they were enduring. That is on top of a cost-of-living crisis that is absolutely crushing people in terms of the cost of accommodation, energy price hikes, the cost of childcare and so on. It should be obvious to the Tánaiste that the Government has utterly failed to address that crisis. The demands that were made by those who were…

There are 320,000 people in this country who are in arrears with their energy bills because they just cannot pay them. We have about 700,000 people who are living in poverty, and we have hundreds of thousands of people - and this is what was expressed in the streets - who are absolutely crucified by a cost-of-living crisis that started before Trump's and Israel's disastrous war commenced. It was already crushing people and producing arrears, hardship and suffering. We can add to that the exorbitant rents and accomm…