I will have seven minutes and he will have three minutes. I just got off the phone from a call with a friend of mine who is a wheelchair user and disability rights campaigner. I asked him what I should say in this debate. He asked me to express his absolute outrage at the way the Government has handled the referendum. At this point, he is going to vote no on the referendum on care. He is doing that as somebody who voted for repeal and marriage equality. He is passionately supportive of women's rights and women's eq…

In 2021, 102 people were drowned in this country, giving Ireland one of the highest rates of drowning in western Europe. It is almost double the rate in Denmark, it is double that of Germany, double that of Italy and double that of the Netherlands. It is significantly higher than Portugal and the UK and is double that of the North of Ireland. What will the Minister do to ensure we reduce our drowning rates?

I am afraid the Minister did not answer the question, which is about how we will deal with the situation that Ireland has a significantly worse rate of drownings than many of our western European counterparts including, significantly, a drowning rate that is double that of the North of Ireland, which is on this island. It is significantly higher than the UK. I will give the Minister a few clues. They have lifeguards in the North of Ireland from April to October, but we have them for June, July and August. This is a…

I did not say we had the worst in Europe, I said we have among the worst in western Europe. Countries that do have busier beaches have a much better record on drownings than we do. Italy is better than us. Portugal is better than us. The North, as I said, is better than us. The UK is better than us. Belgium is better than us, and significantly so. This is because their lifeguards have proper equipment and they are employed for a much larger part of the year. The lifeguard who explained all this to me said that part…

All I can say is that the parents who come to me who are having issues accessing CAMHS for their children are, in many cases, going through a nightmare. Even now, after all of the stories I have been told, I cannot get my head around the shambles and the mess the system seems to be in. I do not claim to be an expert, because I think the people who truly are experts are the parents who are struggling to access diagnoses and services for their children and who are getting pushed from pillar to post in a system that s…

On the legislative programme, I understand the priority for the spring term is the childcare (amendment) Bill, which is to revise the Child Care Act 1991 to reflect best practice developments in the sphere of child welfare and protection services that have evolved in the 30 years since enactment and in light of the constitutional recognition of children as individual rights holders. It will also amend elements of Tusla's early years inspectorate. Can the Minister of State tell me any more about that Bill? I raise i…

The situation in RTÉ at this point is an absolute shambles. It has been going on for nine months since the revelations about the extraordinary, large, secret payments to Ryan Tubridy on top of the obscene salary he received and, indeed, the salaries many other top presenters received, and many executives were receiving obscene salaries. There was outrage, there were hearings, there was questioning, there was going to be reform and a grip was going to be got on this. Here we are, nine months later, and the issue whi…

People Before Profit also wrote to the Business Committee to ask that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, be willing to take questions and have a back-and-forth debate so that we can get to the bottom of the shambolic mess in RTÉ. The Government should agree to that. I want to raise another issue about the forthcoming referendum. People with disabilities are absolutely furious about the failure of the Government to insert rights for people with disabilities …

Could I get a response?

Can I get a response?

Can I get a response please?

We do not know if the Government is going to give us the disability discussion we asked for.

I extend my sympathies to the family and friends of Ann Delaney who tragically died on the streets over the weekend. Her tragic passing further underlines the failure of the Government to address the question of rough sleeping, the wider and worsening homelessness crisis and the number of people in emergency accommodation, the figures for which went up yet again at the weekend. Just bandying around money is not enough. The Government needs to commit to providing own-door accommodation to all those who are homeless …

For a considerable time People Before Profit has argued we need a State construction company in order to address the absolutely dire housing and homelessness crisis and to deliver the housing we need, and especially the social and affordable housing we need. The evidence for that is manifold. The Government has not met its own social housing targets, nor its affordable housing targets. The national residential property price index today again confirms private developers and the private sector are still delivering h…

You have some brass neck, but I will come back to that.

You have some brass neck. I have been campaigning for Shanganagh-----

-----and for the development of public and affordable housing there for 17 years. It was Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the council that insisted that there would be some private development. It was People Before Profit that argued relentlessly that the entire development-----

I was not talking to you.

People Before Profit argued that the entire development should be social and affordable. We eventually won out against the resistance of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, but it has taken 17 years to finally deliver - they have still not been delivered - the social and affordable housing on that site. What we are saying is that we should supplement the lack of capacity in the private sector, so do not play at this either-or business. We are saying, and Goodbody is arguing, that private builders and developers do not have …

This is not affordable. We need a State construction company to build up capacity, to build houses and to make those houses public and affordable.