-----taking up its speaking time, committee places and resources. This is clearly an effort to minimise the ability of the Opposition to scrutinise the Government. Another example of that is that this week for the third time, every single week, instead of two appearances by the Taoiseach at Taoiseach's Questions, he will appear only once this week. The fact that it is not a coincidence is confirmed by the Government's submission on Dáil reform where it is looking to reduce Taoiseach's Questions to one day a week.

That would further reduce the Government's exposure to interrogation, not just by the Opposition but by its own backbenchers whom it claims to care so much about.

It is an alliance of the left.

What about Taoiseach's Questions?

A more honest answer.

Due to the Victorian decrepit water infrastructure in much of my area - this is probably true of much of the city, but it is certainly true of Dún Laoghaire - when it rains, the run-off water mixes with foul water and the foul water all goes into the pumping station in Dún Laoghaire, which cannot cope and therefore foul water goes into the sea, destroying water quality and making the sea in Dublin bay unsafe for swimming. This happens all the time when it rains too heavily because of the failure of successive Gover…

A lot of Members are not here so we could double up on the questions.

The Taoiseach was caught out misleading the public, to put it kindly, on the housing completion numbers to try to win an election. Will he now admit that the crisis in our health service is also another area where he has been misleading the public about what is actually going on with regard to the lack of staffing across the health services? This has prompted all of the health workers unions to ballot overwhelmingly for industrial action. This includes nurses, midwives, porters and other grades, together with medic…

Why do we have a staffing crisis then?

There is no staff.

There is on staff.

It seems to me that there is a crisis in terms of the EU's commitment to even its own human rights legislation and to international law. The newly elected Chancellor of Germany has invited Benjamin Netanyahu to Germany. This is somebody who has an arrest warrant out for him by the ICC for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the new German Chancellor is inviting him to Germany. Now, that is very serious because Germany is one of the most important countries in the EU and basically what it is saying is…

I do not. I talk about one state and a land for all.

That is the ICC gone.

I understand the context.

A group of 54 parents of children with special needs will be outside the Department of Education at 1 p.m. this Friday to fight for their children's right, which the Government is failing to vindicate, to have a school place with the special education resources and supports they need. It is bad enough to have to fight for the right of one's children to have a school place which the Government is failing to vindicate, but parents have all the additional stresses that relate to fighting for children with special need…

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Daly for bringing this motion forward, which we are happy to support. I heard somebody say Tallaght was the worst in terms of the waiting list. I was reported in the middle of last year that Dún Laoghaire was the worst, so we are competing for that accolade. Certainly, waiting times for tests and resits in Dún Laoghaire are shockingly bad. They have not improved, as I took the trouble to look through emails I received in recent years, and what is evident from them is that nothing has im…

Last week in the Dáil I raised the plight of teachers in the British and Irish Modern Music Institute, which provides degree courses for TUD in commercial modern music. At that point, 53 of them had been threatened with redundancy and were told they would have to reapply for their own jobs and would be facing big cuts in their pay and conditions. Their union and their strike action have now established some sort of deal which will be balloted on. However, it raises serious questions about how workers in higher educ…

That is very interesting. I was not aware the Minister of State was notified. Due to the three days of strike action and the representations of IFUT, the workers' union, it looks as if BIMM has made concessions which it is hoped are satisfactory to the workers. The context here is that 53 workers were told they were going to be made redundant but not because their jobs were gone. They were going to have to reapply for their own jobs but on lesser pay and conditions, with the creation of a new freelance grade to rep…

Let us be clear, their strike action, the actions of their union and the fact the matter was raised in this House all put pressure on BIMM to come to the table. It had previously refused to go to the WRC. There is a serious issue here, especially as the workers were working under the auspices of TUD. Essentially, TUD had outsourced this degree to a private company. That contract will be up for renewal in a couple of years. I would ask the Department to talk to colleagues in other Departments, particularly the Depar…