I will raise two issues. First, and as the Taoiseach will be aware, I have raised the issue of taxi drivers many times. There is deep concern among taxi drivers about a campaign that seems to involve some of the ride-hailing apps, including Uber and others, suggesting that we are chronically short of taxis and implying we need to deregulate the taxi industry and develop the Uber model that exists elsewhere. Taxi drivers are concerned about that. They would like to be assured that we will not go down that road. If y…

-----and they are not taking on enough full-time staff. The union has raised the matter. I ask the Taoiseach to look at that as well.

The need for radical reform in RTÉ is obvious from the €450,000 paid to the former financial officer. It is shocking on top of all the revelations about obscene salaries. We need to get to the root of why this stuff happened. Part of the reason was that RTÉ moved away from a public service remit and became too embroiled in advertising and commercial considerations. Then all the executives thought they had to be paid the same as those who work in the corporate sector, abandoning their public service remit. To resolv…

I was asked by east coast fishers to relay concerns to the Minister about the threat they see to their industry. It is currently a sustainable shellfish industry which they estimate directly and indirectly results in the employment of approximately 800 people affecting towns and coastal communities and fishers all the way up and down the east coast. The threat they see is from plans to build industrial wind farms on sensitive sand banks. Sand banks particularly close to me are the Kish Bank and the Codling Bank. Fi…

I will add that the fishers would very much appreciate, given the complaints they are making about the failure of these companies to engage properly with their representatives, particularly in terms of the Codling Bank, that the Minister might look into that and try to ensure that engagement actually takes place and that we do not end up cutting off our nose to spite our face. There is no reason, with floating offshore wind, we cannot put these in different locations now. We have the technology. There does not have…

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward the motion to discuss SMEs and the supports they need. The first thing I want to do is to advocate on behalf of the 26,000 small enterprises who are the taxi drivers of this country. They are very concerned, at the moment, about moves to deregulate the taxi industry that are being spearheaded by some other SMEs that - do not get me wrong - have a legitimate concern, specifically those in the pub trade, restaurants, night entertainment and so on, who have teamed up wit…

I have a fundamental problem with the World Economic Forum as a gathering where the world's most profitable and richest companies and billionaires rub shoulders with politicians from around the world, primarily to pursue their own interests rather than the wider interests of society. One thing of interest I notice was that Hines, the wealth and asset management company and owner of a very significant amount of property in this country, was present in Davos this year. That is very telling. The biggest residential de…

The Chinese regime is a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has engaged in across-the-board suppression of any dissent and wholesale persecution of certain groups. The Uyghurs were mentioned. In fact, it has been suggested that the Uyghurs are victims of a possible genocide and certainly victims of a really brutal suppression of an entire national and ethnic group. Did the Taoiseach raise that issue with the Chinese Premier? I do not know much about the philosophy of Falun Gong adherents, and I doubt I would share much…

The countries the Taoiseach visited are very much on the front line of what I will call the escalating new Cold War tensions between the expanded NATO and Putin and his bloc, as it were. It is worth noting that the Balkans is the crossroads of competing empires. Because of that, it was the place where the First World War began, and historically it has been so. These empires are banging up against each other with competing priorities, objectives and interests, and it has resulted in some pretty horrific conflicts. I…

I am saying it is not a good thing.

It did not force them.

It is incomprehensible that a regime which has for four months inflicted a slaughter on the people of Gaza that has claimed the lives of close to 30,000 people, displaced almost 2 million people and brought an entire population to the brink of famine, and which is in the dock, indicted for genocide, the worst crime a state or human being can commit, is contemplating yet another massacre of people in Gaza, specifically those in Rafah, where more than 1 million people are cowering under tents and amid rubble and the …

None of the horror that has happened over the past four months would have happened if western governments, including the European Union and the United States, had not given impunity to Israel for years. Long before the current horrific escalation of violence, Israel was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity for its occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, which has been going on for decades. The world did not sanction Israel. This Government refused to even use the word "apartheid" when it is blata…

The West is arming Israel.

I am saying we should end apartheid.

The Planning and Development Bill is the second biggest piece of legislation that has ever gone through this House. It deals with critical issues to do with the delivery of housing, the right of communities to participate in the planning and development of their area, the right of communities and individuals to have access to justice on community planning and development issues, and much more. The Bill is being dealt with in the committee. All of the Opposition spokespeople, and possibly others, are deeply unhappy …

Held hostage. They are being held hostage in Gaza.

People Before Profit published a plan for the funding of RTÉ and public broadcasting in August last year. It was obvious at that stage that there was a funding crisis. The TV licence has always been a regressive charge. After the Government's issues and the Tubridy scandal, it was obvious this could not work but the Government has not made a decision. The consequence is that 13,000 people get dragged through the courts for a regressive charge that is not viable and that has to go. It is also clear that workers and …

The Government needs to scrap the TV licence and bring in a digital tax to directly fund RTÉ and public service broadcasting.

Child poverty and child homelessness are completely unacceptable. We have 190,000 children at risk of poverty in this country. One of the most damning facts is that child homelessness has gone through the roof and we now have 4,105 children and 2,000 families living in emergency accommodation. Child homelessness has gone up from October 2021, when there were 2,300 children in emergency accommodation, to over 4,100 now. It is shameful. The trauma, stigma and mental health impact on children are utterly unacceptable.…