There are a good few.

As many other speakers have said, Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a bloody, unjustified and criminal endeavour, which has led to absolute carnage. That carnage continues. The scale of human devastation is unknown because both sides do not want to admit to how many people have been killed. Some estimates suggest that more than 1 million people have either lost their lives or have been injured and maimed. Ukraine admits to about 50,000 of its military personnel being killed, although some suggest that the numbers kill…

There is great alarm, anger and concern among taxi drivers across the country because of the moves by Uber to introduce a fixed fare system. As outlined in the question by Deputy Pa Daly earlier, he alluded to the very serious question on whether this fixed fare being brought in by Uber actually circumvents, undermines or subverts the taxi regulation legislation in this country, which is designed to protect the regulation of the taxi industry, the livelihoods of taxi drivers and the existing fare structure based on…

The point is, and the Minister of State is absolutely right, that taxi drivers can do that and many now are signed up with Uber, but they have recognised the threat that Uber represents for the industry and Uber's desire ultimately to try and deregulate the entire industry and do away with it as an industry, and undermine the livelihoods in this country of about 20,000 taxi drivers. Many would have signed up probably not knowing what the implications were of signing up with Uber. This is why they are now calling fo…

It is undermining the meter.

It is good that we have this debate every year about the importance of science. The Government, to my mind, largely pays lip service to the importance of science but does not actually translate it in reality into backing science and encouraging those who are working in the area of science, research and development. What is my evidence for saying that? First of all, there is the plight of about 10,000 to 12,000 PhD researchers who, in recent years, have felt compelled to organise themselves into a union through the …

We will join with the Taoiseach's fight.

A Cheann Comhairle?

May I propose an amendment?

Tomorrow the National Bus and Rail Union will be balloting all its members over industrial action on our buses. SIPTU has also indicated it plans to support the action of bus drivers. I have not got time to go into the detail other than to say it is about the harassment of drivers by Dublin Bus over profiles, key performance indicators, KPIs, and a "Press it" box system. The only thing people might recognise is where buses are forced to stop for periods of time, putting drivers under a lot of pressure and then they…

I want to draw the Taoiseach's attention to the human consequences of the Government bending to the far-right groups that are screaming for mass deportations. Bilal Butt has been here for 19 years. For the past 15 years - as long as he was allowed - he has been working and paying tax. I know him personally, and he is a lovely man. He is married with two kids. One daughter is ten and his other child is three months old. The children have lived here all their lives. Recently, Mr. Butt was incarcerated for 50 days and…

Will I send them to you?

While I was getting my treatment in St. Luke's, I met a very nice woman called Shirley who brought up her daughter Lauren's case with me. Lauren subsequently wrote to me. Lauren lives with her and has a life-long disability condition that means she is unfit for work. She had previously been on domiciliary care allowance, then on disability allowance, but she then got married. She lives at home with her mum still, being cared for by her mum, but because she got married and went over the threshold, her disability pay…

It is, yes, the means test.

The least well-off and most vulnerable in our society have been absolutely hammered by the cost-of-living crisis that has been inflicted on them over the last number of years. It is very important to say that the cost-of-living crisis is not like the weather. It does not just happen. The other side of the cost-of-living crisis is profiteering by the people who increase the prices; it is as simple as that. The energy companies ratchet up the prices and have done so consistently over the last number of years. In fact…

It is good to be back. It is particularly good to be back in the aftermath of the successful campaign of Catherine Connolly. I congratulate her in her position as our new President. It is also good to be back on the day that a socialist gets elected in New York. Signs of hope and portents of the future.

Certainly not. We might learn a few lessons from it though. I also thank colleagues across the House for their kind words today and messages during, before and after my treatment. I also thank the thousands of members of the public who sent very kind messages. They were very heartening and very helpful. My biggest debt of gratitude is to the fantastic people who work in our health services, particularly the cancer services, in my case in St. Luke's Hospital, and the eye and ear hospital. There are similar people pr…

The professionals in this area stated in the context of the budget that radiotherapy services are operating significantly below capacity due to under-resourcing. They went on to state that our healthcare staff do everything they can to minimise the impacts on care for patients but it is simply not possible to provide optimal care in these conditions. Sixteen of 24 working days last month were affected by unscheduled downtime. Machines are breaking down because they are too old, putting stress on patients and staff.…

We have been saying that for some time.

Many, if not most of the people who broadcast the proceedings in this Dáil who work for Oireachtas TV are on precarious, or "if and when" contracts, where they basically do not get paid if the Dáil or the committees are not sitting during Christmas, during the summer and other breaks. Most of these part-time workers earn approximately €12,000 per year. I could not believe it when they told me. A big contract is given to the company that provides these services but these workers are asking they get some kind of reta…