Cherrywood in south Dublin is one of the biggest residential developments in Europe and the biggest in Ireland. It is a new town. There is going to be 25,000 to 30,000 people living there. The whole thing was conditional on the development of a town centre with community facilities, supermarkets and all the rest of it. The private developers who built the houses and made big profits are refusing to build the town centre on which the whole thing was predicated and are trying to put the State over a barrel on the tow…

One of the disastrous consequences of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act is that it will fuel even further homelessness and people being forced into emergency accommodation because they cannot find an affordable rental property. For weeks now I have been asking at the Business Committee for an emergency debate on the record levels of homelessness and people in emergency accommodation. There was the Simon Community report and I am getting loads of cases.

I am getting elderly people as well as families.

We need an emergency debate on homelessness.

Donald Trump and the US Government chose to boycott the G20 in South Africa on the spurious and ridiculous grounds that there was a genocide going on against white people in South Africa. Of course, the real reason he boycotted it is because South Africa has led the charge against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, rightly indicting the criminals who have committed the genocide against Palestinians and because actually it is a place where masses of people rose up internationally against an apartheid racist regime. Of co…

The European Court of Justice nullified a trade agreement between the EU and Western Sahara. The African Union recognises Western Sahara as a place that is sovereign and should have self-determination but it is occupied by Morocco. The European Commission essentially refuses to accept international law and respect the right of self-determination of the Western Saharan people because it is engaged, with Morocco, in plundering the rare earth minerals, such as cobalt, and the fish resources of the occupied people of W…

The imperialist aggression of Russia in Ukraine is clear to see and must be absolutely condemned. It involves the killing of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, the destruction of infrastructure, the kidnapping of children, the commission of war crimes and the imperialist arrogance of the Russian empire - Putin's empire - in believing it should control spheres of influence around Russia. There is a long history of Russia being the prison house of nations, as it was called in the days of the tsars, subjugating those in…

I commend Sinn Féin on tabling this motion on the need for emergency mental health services and stating they should be 24-7 and involve dedicated mental health emergency rooms in level 3 and 4 hospitals, investment in model 2 hospitals and proper staffing for mental health services. The second last point is particularly important, from my experience. It refers to "mental health crisis assessment and intervention services [and] community-based alternatives... late-night outreach spaces, crisis resolution teams, and …

Is there a split in the ranks of the Government?

Will the Tánaiste join me in welcoming performers and participants from Jenin refugee camp and the Freedom Theatre who are coming here? They will be performing Return to Palestine starting next Wednesday in the Project Arts Centre as part of the Seachtain Saoirse don Phalaistín, the week of freedom for Palestine, organised by Cairde Amharclann na Saoirse in Éirinn, friends of the Freedom Theatre in Palestine. To understand the context, this theatre in Jenin was destroyed by the Israelis in one of successive attacks…

I do not understand.

If they are not here, we should move on.

The double standards, the hypocrisy, the soft pedalling and the bending of the knee to Trump's bullying and imperialism have now come back to bite European governments, including our own. It does not matter how much you bend the knee. What is worse is that governments have gone along with his horrific policies. Most notable among these are European governments, who are now horrified at the threats to Greenland or, more accurately, Nunarput, which is what the people of Greenland call it. Last night, I spoke alongsid…

We stand with the people of Nunarput and the Inuit people's right to self-determination. They certainly do not want to be invaded or taken over by Donald Trump but neither do they want their future controlled by the Kingdom of Denmark. This is the problem. Yesterday, along with Deputy Duncan Smith of the Labour Party, I met with the German ambassador to discuss Daniel Tatlow-Devally. He is an Irish citizen who is languishing in a German prison since August because he protested against Elbit Systems, which has armed…

I did not, just to be clear.

Nunarput.

We urgently need to invest in our decrepit water infrastructure. It is totally inadequate to deal with the housing needs we have, with almost half of the water leaking out of the pipes because of Victorian and decrepit infrastructure. We need a water system that is responsive to the needs of people rather than one that refuses to get back to or talk to the public or its representatives. Instead of doing what is necessary to address this, the Government is essentially engaged in a stealth privatisation of the water …

Will the Taoiseach and his European colleagues stop soft-pedalling or, worse, bending the knee before Donald Trump, and finally admit what everybody can see and what some of us have been saying for some time, which is that Trump is a bully, an imperialist, and a threat to the world and to humanity? Will they admit that it is time to stand up to this bully and call him out for what he is? His list of crimes, threats and bullying is too long to enumerate but let us give some of the highlights. He armed a genocide. He…

Not Trump.

I have condemned, I do condemn and I will again condemn the Iranian regime for the violent repression of protesters, for shutting off the Internet and for the censorship of what is going on, as I condemn and have condemned Putin for the illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Taoiseach would not be presenting them with shamrock, would he? He is going to go over and present shamrock to Trump, even now. It has taken a threat to Greenland, because it impinges on the interests of the EU. Is it not the truth that this is the c…