This is very much in the public domain. Members of the ruling party, Likud, made public statements calling for - I am now reading from Sadaka's document on the genocidal intent - a Nakba against the Palestinian people and talked about "erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth". The Prime Minister, Netanyahu, referred to the Palestinians as "Amalek". This is a well known biblical reference which refers to the Hebrew Bible. The reference is to a certain part of the latter, which states: Now go attack the Ama…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I start by welcoming the many people who have come into the Gallery this evening to observe this debate. They are people who have been marching and protesting in some cases for decades or many years. Members of the Palestinian community are here to observe this and see how the Government is going to respond to it. I commend the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups like Sadaka, which are here and have been campaigning for many years on the issue of…

Iran.

I thank the people in the Gallery for sitting through all of that, particularly the comments of those in government. One thing I think they should know is that the senior Minister does not normally come in to take these Thursday debates. The reason she did is because the people in the Gallery are here and because there will, I hope, be tens of thousands of people on the streets again on Saturday, as there have been month in, month out for the past three years as a result of the slaughter being visited on the Palest…

People Before Profit believes that it is a woman's right to choose and that we should trust women to make choices about their bodies, lives and futures. That is it; anything less is not good enough as far as we are concerned. However, we understand the logic behind the Social Democrat's Bill. It takes us at least a step forward from where we are in that it is essentially trying to make provision in line with the review that was promised when the referendum was passed, which the Government has and which it has refus…

The need for these designations to come before the Houses of the Oireachtas is absolutely critical because I do not trust this Government not to bully its way through on things it wants, over the legitimate concerns of stakeholders, in these decisions. I want to highlight again an instance of this, which is very relevant and happened in the last few weeks. Fishers in Dublin Bay, who have been fishing for a very long time and earning their living, have been bullied in the most disgraceful way by EirGrid. EirGrid wan…

It is not agreed.

We need to hear from the employers of workers in the National Ambulance Service, because that is what the Government is. We need to hear from the Minister for Health to explain why ambulance workers feel they have not choice but to go on strike because of the failure of the Government to recognise they are vital healthcare professionals.

They are not agreed.

Vótáil.

Vótáil.

We said "Vótáil".

To follow on from Deputy Murphy's point, one of the biggest obstacles to solving the housing crisis and the chronic deficits in infrastructure in this country is the lack of skilled tradespeople. We are making it difficult for young people to qualify in these areas by allowing these abysmally low rates for apprentices, particularly in the first and second years of their apprenticeships. These rates are just over €7 and just over €11 respectively, both of which are below the minimum wage. This means that apprentices…

It is an absolute disgrace that Jack Chambers and this Government are threatening essentially a return to austerity and cutbacks across Departments and trying to imply that because extra money had to be found for special needs, this has to be done. That is a cynical divide-and-conquer tactic when there are alternatives. The Government had underfunded special needs and was forced to acknowledge that. It could find extra money rather than cutting other Departments by taxing wealth and profits in this country. That is…

On Thursday, People Before Profit will bring the Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill before the Dáil. It asks the Government to act on its obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent the commission of genocide by the State of Israel. It is an obligation we have. It calls for comprehensive economic, financial and trade sanctions against a state that is guilty of genocidal actions. Is the Government intending to support that Bill given it is a signatory of the Genocide Convention? The Bill also refers …

What about our Bill on Thursday?

What about our Bill on Thursday?

It is obviously good that we are at least getting this opportunity to talk about the issues affecting nurses but it is pretty rich given the issues highlighted by the INMO at its conference, including stress, burn-out, unsafe staffing levels and student nurses. I do not know how many years ago it was that we had motions about student nurses and the number of them who were contemplating leaving the country because they felt it was not doable for them because of the way they were being treated and what they were faci…

I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill on electricity regulation. People Before Profit is happy to support this, which is a serious attempt to address the issue of the energy price hikes and the energy poverty that has resulted from those as well as the price gouging and profiteering of energy companies. The idea that there would be a body in legislation that would monitor price gouging and price levels is an admirable one and we are happy support it and see it go to the next Stage. I have to be honest, though…

I suspect quite a few people voted for Fine Gael in the most recent election because it promised that it would reduce childcare costs for everybody to €200 per month. It has spectacularly failed to deliver on that promise, which is a very serious cost-of-living issue for many. To give the Minister one instance, this week, in my area, I have been inundated by emails from parents whose crèche provider has pulled out of core funding. To cite one case, their monthly fees have gone from €1,500 up to €2,400. They are alr…