Hear, hear.

In principle, the idea of getting State bodies to co-ordinate to accelerate the delivery of critical infrastructure and removing unnecessary obstacles to its development is a good one. I have concerns about the legislation but I would love to know whether it might be helpful in dealing with an issue in my constituency. This gets to the heart of my anxieties and concerns about what the Government's real motives and objectives are. I have raised a number of times the town centre in Cherrywood, which is the biggest re…

I pay tribute to Carmel Cantwell, Noelle Brown who I see in the Gallery, and other survivors and those affected by the crimes committed at Bessborough Mother and Baby Institution. I called it a "home" at the protest last week and I was rightly rounded upon and told it should be called an institution because these were institutions of brutality and oppression that traumatised, stigmatised and brutalised women, and of course led to the deaths of 923 children. It is a horrific stain. Over the next few weeks we will be…

Hundreds of thousands of people in this country are being impoverished and having hardship imposed on them because of the deranged lunatic in the White House, Donald Trump, and the psychopaths who run the Israeli regime and their bloodlust and warmongering. People in this country cannot pay their bills, cannot turn on their heating and, in some cases, cannot travel when they have disabilities because of the mad dog, Trump, and because of Netanyahu and the Israeli regime. Despite this, our Government still cannot co…

It is clear that Donald Trump and the Israeli regime are criminal warmongers that could do anything. If they start to bomb more energy infrastructure in Iran, and there are reports suggesting that they are already doing this having said that they would not, the miserable concessions the Government has made to address the spikes in the cost of living could be wiped away overnight. We need serious time to discuss how the Government is going to actually protect people in this country from the cost of energy spikes res…

Over the past week I had parents of children with intellectual disabilities from the Before We Die campaign in with me. They pointed out that about 2,000 adults with intellectual disabilities are living with parents who are over 70, and about 500 of those people are living with parents over 80. Their parents are extremely worried about what will happen to their children when they pass away and are asking, "Where is the plan?" They are saying there should be a plan, a framework. The number of houses being delivered,…

We used to have one too.

We still have not got it back.

The Taoiseach has rightly and repeatedly condemned Putin for a criminal, barbaric and imperialist attack on Ukraine. Will he do the same when it comes to what Trump and the Israeli regime are now doing to Iran and Lebanon? They are bombing the hell out of civilians and infrastructure in Iran. Israel is now ethnically cleansing south Lebanon. Will the Taoiseach condemn Trump's suggestion that he might "take over" Cuba, attacking another country in exactly the same criminal, entirely unjustified and illegal way that …

Is it more repressive than Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates?

I do not know why the Taoiseach is saying this.

UAE, Cuba.

It was always different from Iran.

The Taoiseach mentioned that there is a focus in the strategy on housing and on the delivery of affordable housing. In my area, the average house price is now €680,000. The limit for the first home scheme for affordable housing is €500,000. In other words, if it is a new build, it cannot be more than €500,000. The Government's affordable housing schemes simply do not apply in Dún Laoghaire. Ordinary workers in Dún Laoghaire do not earn more because they earn in Dún Laoghaire. If you are a nurse, a teacher, a bank w…

Even before the Israeli and US illegal and bloody aggression against Iran and Lebanon, there was a cost-of-living crisis in this country that the Government was not acting in any serious way to address. We already had electricity prices that were approximately 25% higher than the rest of Europe. Gas prices had doubled over the previous five years. We have seen the price of groceries, etc., increase very significantly. In all of those areas, of course, massive profits have been recorded by the energy companies and t…

Can this be done? It is being done elsewhere in Europe, in the Czech Republic-----

I have five seconds left-----

-----but now I do not, thanks to your interruption.

I thank Deputy Cullinane and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very important motion on cancer services, which I am very happy to support. It is more or less a year since I started my cancer treatment for throat cancer. The most important thing I wish to say is how grateful I am to all of those who work in cancer services, from the doctors and nurses to the radiotherapists and nutritionists, from the orderlies and porters to the receptionists and the people who research in the area of cancer and help to develop t…

Children with special needs, just like every child, have a right to an appropriate education. I heard the Tánaiste say earlier on that there have been lots of announcements about special classes and places, and even that once the Government gives the green light, these things are delivered. I have been asked by the Equality in Education Dublin North West campaign and my colleague, Councillor Conor Reddy, to raise the issue of Finglas Parochial National School where children were enrolled in two special classes last…