-----and I am sorry that I did not get a chance to challenge his countermotion directly with him. I must first thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion on energy costs. We are happy to support the measures in it, such as beefing up the CRU to try to address the high cost of energy in this country. However, we would go further, and we think we need caps. We tabled a Bill at the beginning of this year to bring in energy price caps. Indeed, we would go further than that and say that we have to nationalise the…

As the Minister knows, we have just passed the 50th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, where 34 people were murdered and 258 injured in an atrocious bombing carried out by loyalists, almost certainly with the collusion of the British state or elements of it. Families and victims are still fighting for justice. The question is about the Government and the State's responsibility to assist and co-operate with them to get the truth and justice they have been campaigning for these past 50 years. What has t…

There is no doubt the British Government has a lot of questions to answer, and I think most people believe it does not want to answer them because of the extent of British state collusion with the people who carried out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and, indeed, other massacres carried out by the Glenanne gang. The Irish Government, however, has very serious questions to answer as well. The investigations into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the greatest single atrocity in the Troubles, were closed down after …

That sounds like the families will never be given the files, will never be given an explanation and will never get the truth and justice they deserve. It is shocking beyond belief that the families and survivors of this atrocity were put under Garda surveillance. They are entitled to know who ordered that, what files were generated on foot of that and why it was done. The original investigation was closed down after ten weeks. There have to be files relating to these things, but everything is lost, cannot be found …

On behalf of Sophie Cole, I ask the Tánaiste to have the assault leave scheme amended urgently. I do not know if the Tánaiste knows Sophie. She is a former SNA who was assaulted and injured in the course of her work in November 2022. She has been left with lifelong injuries and in excruciating pain. The financial implications of this situation have seen Sophie and her husband having to take out loans to be able to pay their mortgage. They are in an absolutely dire state. Sophie was injured in the course of her work…

It is shocking that someone can be left with lifelong injuries-----

-----while working for the State and suffer dire financial consequences, as well as the medical impact suffered.

Will the Tánaiste look at this issue urgently?

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." We initiated this Bill last year, 2023, in response to ten interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank, ECB, which impacted tens of thousands of mortgage holders in this country. These are working people who are trying to put a roof over their heads and they were hammered again and again by interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank. In the period between July 2022 and April of this year, we saw interest rates climb from 0.5% to as high as 4.5%. That led…

I thank those who contributed to the discussion. While the new deputy leader of Fianna Fáil was terribly polite in his response, the net interpretation of what he said is really that the Government is not going to do anything and will let the free market decide. Lola, who I mentioned earlier on, is paying €900 a month, or €10,000 or €11,000 a year, more than she was two years ago. She most certainly is not getting €10,000 or €11,000 more in her wage packet. In fact, the real value of her wage packet will probably h…

I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this motion on the hospitality and tourism sector. We are all aware of the employment contribution this sector generates and its importance to our wider economy and to many local areas. In Dún Laoghaire, we have many small businesses such as coffee shops, restaurants, independent food retail outlets and so on, many of which periodically find themselves struggling to stay afloat. It is welcome that we will have a discussion on this issue and look at how we can…

I note that at the summit there was a lot of talk about adherence to international law, which is right. There is no doubt the atrocities that Putin has carried out are horrendous and that it was a bloody and indefensible invasion, occupation and war. However, it is difficult to credit the claims of adherence to international law or the desire for peace when, at the same time that all of this is going on, many of the countries in attendance at the conference continue to support and arm the state of Israel while it i…

She is blocking sanctions.

And those complicit.

It is all very well setting up a committee to deal with child poverty and welfare but it has to do something. The Taoiseach said he wants to give children the best start in life - absolutely. One of things that guarantees they do not have a good start in life is if they are homeless or they are facing the prospect of being homeless. A total of 4,170 children are in emergency accommodation, and the situation is getting worse every month. The Taoiseach needs to address that and to recognise that his Government has so…

The programme for Government was written when we were coming out of the Covid pandemic. Much of it dealt with economic recovery and the impact of Covid on particular groups of workers. One group that I campaigned and advocated for very strongly was taxi drivers. They lost two years of work at the time. Following pleas from the taxi drivers, the Government conceded that those with cars reaching the ten-year replacement deadline during the pandemic would get an extension. Some of those who were reaching that deadline…

People Before Profit will be opposing the Government motion on the migration and asylum pact and the pact itself, not for the reasons that some in this House may put forward but because we believe the European Union and, sadly, our Government are beginning to make concessions to anti-immigrant hysteria and to the scapegoating of immigrants by the far right in a dangerous way that is not prompted by a desire for a more humane system but, in fact, is going to result in a less humane and less fair system of internatio…

This morning, I was talking to People Before Profit MLA, Mr. Gerry Carroll, about his involvement in supporting and standing with junior doctors who have been on the picket lines in a series of walkouts in the North over the failure to get decent pay and decent conditions. It is a very familiar story of the junior doctors saying they are not valued, they are working ridiculous hours and their pay has not kept pace with inflation. Many of them are just choosing to leave and go and work elsewhere, where pay and condi…

What of the junior doctors?

This evening, Mothers Against Genocide will hold a protest outside Government Buildings. I am sure they would be glad if the Taoiseach went out to talk to them. The particular focus of their protest this evening is these enormous dumb bombs that are being used by Israel in Gaza to blow the place to bits and have been provided by the United States. The protest will highlight the outrageous complicity of western Governments with the Israeli military machine that is committing genocide and using weapons utterly indisc…