On the question of people who are paying multiple tariffs on gas and energy and are on district heating systems compared with those who are being massively ripped off on conventional contracts with energy companies, what will the Government do? For example, I met tenants from the new and much-trumpeted cost-rental development on Enniskerry Road. They were delighted to get cost-rental apartments, only to be shocked to discover that they are paying a tariff that is about four times what everybody else is paying and, …

I have just come from UCD, where the first person I met was a lecturer who said how worried she is about the college's ability to retain and recruit PhD students because of the financial pressures they are under. I was at Trinity College for the student walkout organised by the Union of Students in Ireland the other day. I met undergraduates who were furious that effectively nothing has been done for them in the budget. I met postgraduates. This week, I met psychology students. Some are funded, some are not, and al…

What the Government did was a drop in the ocean. It is telling that we had some of the biggest student protests for a long time after the budget. They were not happy. I am relaying what those students expressed to me. Some PhD students get no stipends. Some get miserable stipends of a few grand. Even those who get €18,000 have to work all the hours that God sends. They find it difficult to study or they have to have a second job, which makes it almost impossible for them to complete their studies. A lecturer who us…

I still think the Minister is missing the reason they are protesting and why they are so angry. People who are on poverty stipends, who have no stipends, educational psychologists who have no funding and clinical psychologists who have a little funding are on such low incomes that they have been doubly hammered in real terms by the cost of living and the housing crisis. It is becoming unbearable for them. What they got in the budget was a drop in the ocean. It does not compensate for how much worse things have got …

I have just come from Trinity College where there were thousands of students, postgraduates and staff members in one of the biggest protests I have seen there for many years. The protest is part of the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, national walkout. There are similar turnouts across the country. To be honest, students do not accept that the Government did anything significant for them in the budget. They are absolutely furious at the extent of fees, student poverty and the student accommodation crisis. They ar…

I thank the Labour Party for putting forward this important motion and most of all I commend workers in the community and voluntary sector, both for this campaign and for the absolutely vital work they do for our entire society and, most often, for vulnerable people, for communities and disadvantaged communities, for young people and for people with disabilities. They are in many cases, the glue that keeps whole parts of our society together and yet the Government treats them as second class citizens. It is treatin…

In the past week, I highlighted the case of a family with two autistic children who are living in a tent because they are entitled to absolutely no housing support at all, whether that is the housing assistance payment, HAP, emergency accommodation or social housing, because they are over the social housing income thresholds. For about two years now, I have highlighted the case of a mother who works for a State agency, is living with her child in the same bedroom in emergency accommodation, is not entitled to HAP o…

That was my minute. I was watching.

On behalf of People Before Profit-Solidarity, I extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to all those who lost family members and friends and to the wider Creeslough community. What that community has suffered with the events on Friday is utterly unspeakable. No words we can say can possibly compensate for the shocking loss and tragedy they have experienced, but they deserve tribute for the incredible dignity and heroism they have demonstrated in the face of this horrendous, unspeakable tragedy. As others have…

The Taoiseach will be aware that there are many thousands of people with defects in their homes arising from the behaviour of the cowboy builders of the Celtic tiger era. The latter did not even deem it necessary to build proper houses. People are facing huge bills in the context of fire safety issues, water ingress and so on. There is one particular case that I would like the Taoiseach to look into, namely, that relating to Carrickmines Green. The National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, is in control of that estat…

As the Taoiseach knows, we are in not only a climate emergency but also a biodiversity emergency, and often the latter is forgotten and neglected. That is particularly important when we think about our marine area and the protection of it. Not only is that sea an unparalleled store of biodiversity but it is also the most important carbon sink. If we destroy marine biodiversity or if we do not have a proper system for ensuring it is developed in a sustainable way, we will do double the damage to both biodiversity an…

It means that developers cannot select their own sites at the expense of the marine.

Developers should not select their own sites.

The developers are going to choose their own sites.

Here we go again with Fianna Fáil.

They are; they have.

The Government has designated the relevant project.

That is exactly what I am talking about.

The Government is going to destroy biodiversity.

Here we go.