-----intervene to get this site refurbished in the interests of the people and our heritage.

While that is the formal position, given that she is responsible for the protection of our heritage, the Minister should see this as a priority. What the community is saying is that the mediation with this developer, Mr. Keane, should end. This person has no interest. From looking at the record and the neglect of this beautiful site, and the resulting dereliction and vacancy, it is evident that he has no useful role to play. What we want is for all the arms of government with any stake in this matter to end this ri…

The programme for Government committed to providing greater security for our tenants in the private rented sector. Those commitments are proving hollow for a group of tenants whose position I have raised on multiple occasions and who are now reaching the crunch point in a multi-unit apartment complex, St. Helen's Court, Dún Laoghaire, where a vulture fund, for no other reason than to increase the value of that property, are evicting the remaining tenants. The fund is taking them to court in the first week of Februa…

I am glad that finally we have a Bill before us on birth information and tracing, the stated objective of which is to end the shameful situation where, for decades and decades, people were adopted and their mothers were, in effect, forced to give up their children even if sometimes it was technically consensual. In reality, the stigma that was imposed by church and State on women who had children outside marriage created the general culture that was anti-women. A culture of shame was perpetuated by church and State…

If we were not discussing the utterly tragic and terrible death of Ashling Murphy this week and the implications it has for how our society treats women, we would be discussing another tragic death of a 17-year-old man who took his own life after leaving the care of a hospital and who was on the radar of Tusla. That speaks to the terrible and consistent failure to provide adequate mental health services and supports for young people. I have asked at the Business Committee that the Government would facilitate as a m…

On two occasions I have raised the plight of the accessible community transport service in south Dublin with the Taoiseach. It provided door-to-door transport for people in wheelchairs and with severe mobility issues. He did respond to me in a letter but to be honest the letter did not offer any comfort in terms of the need for the service to replace its buses. It does not have the buses it now needs and the €50,000 it needs due to its inability to raise funds during Covid. The service will be gone at the end of Fe…

Last year, People Before Profit brought a Bill to the Dáil that proposed a constitutional referendum to enshrine the right to housing. There was a commitment in the programme for Government to have a referendum on housing but nothing is happening on these things. There are consequences for real human beings as a result of the Government's failure to do something on this. On dozens of occasions, I have raised the plight of tenants in St. Helen's Court, Dún Laoghaire, a multi-unit apartment complex bought by two succ…

On the specific case, I ask if anything can be done, please.

Last night, I was privileged to speak at a meeting marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. It was attended by hundreds and hundreds of people from this country, including many young people wanting to learn about the history of Bloody Sunday. The meeting was addressed by Kate Nash of the Bloody Sunday families, people from the Black Lives Matter movement and people from the Hillsborough disaster campaign. The message at that meeting was resounding. After a long struggle at least to deconstruct the disgusting …

For many years, People Before Profit has called for a wealth tax to try to redistribute wealth in what is one of the richest countries in the world where wealth has increased exponentially year after year, including during the pandemic. We now have the ironic situation that today, 100 of the richest people in the world have sent a begging letter to the political leaders of the world asking if the leaders will please tax them more because they are not being taxed enough, and to introduce wealth taxes. Even the billi…

That is not a wealth tax. It is seriously not a wealth tax.

That is not a wealth tax. Give me a break.

It is a few hundred quid that billionaires are paying.

They should be taxed for property.

The billionaires are claiming-----

The public health measures that have been introduced out of concerns about Omicron, social gathering at Christmas and so on have once again impacted on particular groups of workers and sectors in our society in their ability to work at all or their ability to earn a sustainable living. While the Government has been quite laissez-faire , as has rightly just been referred to in many ways, in giving out EWSS support and other Covid support schemes, certain groups who have been hit time and again, longest, hardest and …

I notice the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media coming into the Chamber. As she is present, jobbing musicians, entertainers and performers on the ground have been appealing for a meeting with her to explain the particular difficulties they are facing, including the anomalies, inconsistencies and refusals.

Okay. I talked to them this morning and they still felt there was no movement. Many of them are being denied. Whatever the Department is telling the Tánaiste, I tell him they are being refused on spurious grounds around PRSI contributions that they could not possibly show. If their gigs have collapsed for December, they are being asked in for an interview and being told they must prove they had those gigs. That means going around to every single venue and getting letters saying there was to be a gig and it has been…

They are telling me there has been no movement.

There are none on the EWSS.