It is not that we want to personalise things in any way or comment on the Minister of State's background or anyone else's but there is absolutely no doubt that the policies that have been pursued are the problem. I first entered the Dáil in 2011, the year Fine Gael and the Labour Party went into government. I have been in the Dáil for ten years now. That Government, under Enda Kenny, in its programme for Government promised to end homelessness in its lifetime, but what followed was not the ending of homelessness bu…

The property tax, so-called, is a fundamentally unjust tax because it takes no account whatsoever of the homeowner's income or ability to pay. It becomes even more unfair in the context of the disastrous failure of this Government to control a fundamentally dysfunctional housing market. Property prices have gone off the Richter scale. In areas like my own, as well as much of Dublin and many other urban centres, the value of property has gone through the roof and that will impact the rate of property tax people have…

The property tax is not only an unfair tax; it is an utterly pointless tax. When the Fine Gael-led Government introduced it, the justification for it was that it would dampen the property market and fund local services. Now we see the reality - not a single extra cent for local government. With the removal of the equalisation fund, we will deepen the gap in the ability of local authorities to fund services depending on where they happen to be. Of course, it has done nothing to dampen the market, which has gone comp…

As we speak, advertisements on the radio are inviting people to check out the Government's website on the national recovery programme and all the announcements being made. However, a couple of announcements are absent, about which I have repeatedly asked the Taoiseach. More importantly, the groups affected by the pandemic and public health measures and whose incomes and livelihoods have been decimated as a result have repeatedly been asking about them. It appears there is nothing in all the announcements for these …

I am on the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, which deals with a lot of these and with reports and commentaries on the Irish economic situation. It is an interesting fact that groups like the IMF, which we do not associate with left-wing ideology, have said a number of things. One is that income supports should not be pulled too early. Despite that, the Government has given an arbitrary date to pull income supports from people whose income and livelihood have been devastated by Covid and the pandemic measures the G…

I do not.

And the psychologists as well.

Last week, the Government unfortunately voted against my amendment seeking to impose sanctions on Israel of the same sort we imposed on apartheid South Africa. I think that is a mistake and I think history will ultimately vindicate the view that this is an apartheid state and that it should be treated in the same way as apartheid South Africa. Beyond that general proposition, I want to give the Taoiseach a specific instance he should investigate of the apartheid policies of Israel, which is that of Irish passport h…

I will share time with Deputies Murphy and Barry. Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance got quite annoyed with People Before Profit this morning saying that we never recognise the good things the Government does, and that we are just looking for reasons to give out. I refute that absolutely. Of course, we acknowledge the income and wage supports, grants to SMEs and so on to sustain people during this unprecedented pandemic and they are to be welcomed. Indeed, we have supported many of them, but it is also…

If we want to promote the merits of sharing the island, it is not just about initiatives from the top. It is about breaking down division and showing the value of unity and alignment from the bottom. I gave the Taoiseach a concrete example of this a few weeks ago. Taxi drivers affected by the Covid pandemic in the North have been given a financial package of up to £3,000 to deal with overhead costs, insurance costs and all the costs and debts they have built up because of the loss of income incurred by Covid-19. I …

Income and employment insecurity and, very often, downright poverty are the reality for many people who work in the arts sector in this country, a fact highlighted even more during Covid. My first question is whether the Government is going to do the pilot on basic income for people working in the arts. Second, we have recently had a good news story with the reports about the Disney production, "Enchanted". However, other reports suggest the film might more accurately be called "Disenchanted" when it comes to some …

-----but who have not been employed on the subsequent film because, in essence, they raised questions about their lack of security of employment.

It is not happening.

I intend to move the People Before Profit amendment No. 1 to this motion. I am sharing time with Deputies Gino Kenny, Bríd Smith and Barry. I thank Sinn Féin for introducing its motion. It makes many very important points about the annexation of territory in the West Bank and Jerusalem seized by Israel after 1967. However, our amendment, and I will mainly speak to that, seeks to go further because we believe the crimes of Israel go beyond that. They need to be called out as they are. Most importantly, we need actio…

I move amendment No. 1: To insert the following after "settlement activity and to regularly update Dáil Éireann": - publicly declare that the State of Israel is guilty of war crimes for its killing of innocent men, women and, most horrifically, 63 children in the Gaza Strip over recent weeks; - acknowledge that: - the recent escalation of violence was provoked by the attempt to ethnically cleanse 28 Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jerah area of Jerusalem and replace them with illegal Israeli settlers; - these …

The Government's announced proposals to deal with the activities of the vulture and cuckoo funds are hopelessly inadequate, completely pathetic and not a serious attempt to deal with these cuckoo funds at all. In reality, the Government is beholden to these funds and deeply implicated in having brought them into the housing market. The 10% stamp duty will not act as a disincentive. These firms have the funds at their disposal to outbid ordinary working people. The provisions will not apply to apartments, which is w…

I think the private sector should look after itself. The Taoiseach is absolutely right: the State is the main mover in the housing market. While it is spending €3 billion, the problem is it is spending it on lining the pockets of the vulture funds, the cuckoos and the speculators. The vast majority of the money the State is putting in, which the Taoiseach just described, is going on the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, housing assistance payment, HAP, and leasing payments. It is not going into building our own sto…

On a point of order, will all the amendments and the groupings be circulated?

On a point of order, is there a list of which amendments are ruled in and out of order?

I have a list of amendments but it does not state which are in and which are out of order.