Today, the Taoiseach once again rightly, as we all do, condemned the crimes against humanity of Vladimir Putin in the invasion of Ukraine. The Taoiseach has cited his support for sanctions and so on against Russia, with the possible replacement of Russian gas and energy. The Taoiseach may be interested to know that as one response to this, President Joseph Biden’s advisers are considering that he should go to Saudi Arabia to replace Russian oil with Saudi Arabian oil. I wonder what the Taoiseach thinks about the ir…

Not so much Saudi Arabia.

Jesus, they just chop up people with swords.

I am just against all dictators.

It is the same in Yemen.

It is selling arms to the Saudi dictatorship. The Taoiseach does not want to mention that. It is embarrassing.

The Taoiseach certainly does.

As the Taoiseach knows, this is International Women's Day. In this country, church organisations have played a pretty terrible role, historically, in their treatment of women and their denial of rights to women. This is something we have begun to overcome with the successful campaigns to repeal the eighth amendment, for marriage equality and so forth. Yet, it is still the intention of this Government to pay for the new maternity hospital we need, but to leave it in the ownership of the Sisters of Charity. This is a…

There is land right beside the hospital. Use a compulsory purchase order.

Why should a religious body own it?

They then wait 20 years for a building.

Eleanor is 70 years old, is blind and lives in St. Mary's Centre - Telford - Merrion Road houses and apartments. It is the same site she lived in as a child in the St. Mary's asylum for blind girls and women, an institution named in the Ryan report and in the Residential Institutions Redress Act. As a result of a tactical liquidation by the Sisters of Charity, the institution to which we plan to turn over the national maternity hospital, she is being evicted from the housing, which was essentially leased and funded…

In the programme for Government, the Taoiseach committed to a shared future for all, in the aftermath of Covid. He and the Tánaiste repeatedly said that workers who have played a key role in keeping our society going during Covid should get a reward. Will the Taoiseach comment on the shocking efforts by Aer Lingus, the national flag carrier, to try to impose a pay freeze on 1,000 ground staff until 2024 and a 10% reduction in its rostered allowances, against which the workers have now voted twice? In the most recen…

-----from this Government during the Covid pandemic?

The same company gave a 10% pay increase to British Airways workers. I forgot to say that.

The Taoiseach has rightly referred to crimes against humanity and against international law committed by Vladimir Putin. Tonight in the Dáil, we will discuss the Amnesty International report entitled, Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime Against Humanity. The report asks European governments, including the Taoiseach's Government, to condemn Israel for ongoing, systematic crimes against humanity. Is the Taoiseach going to endorse that report and its recommendations regard…

Apartheid.

Sanctions?

Arms embargo?

There go the double standards.