It is about the overwhelming dominance of Sitka spruce. It is an accident waiting to happen from of biodiversity point of view when we consider the pine weevil and the bark beetle that is moving across Europe and so on. It would damage the economic interests of farmers. We can see how things such as ash dieback can happen very quickly. We need to diversify the forest model in terms of biodiversity and the economic sustainability of it. Where is the research into developing markets for alternative forest products fo…

That is not what I am saying.

We are already there.

People Before Profit. Does the Tánaiste think it is a bit rich that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Ministers are tearing lumps out of one another at the moment saying how much they will help the squeezed middle and ordinary people in the forthcoming budget when it was collectively Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that squeezed them in the first place? I ask the question particularly when one considers Unite's report that, for example, the average worker has lost about €4,000 in real income over the past two years and that we h…

My view is that we should end the poverty.

I am sharing time with Deputies Paul Murphy and Barry.

What is the biodiversity crisis? It is the fact that the existence of life, human life and everything else, is dependent on millions and millions of plant and animal species in a very delicate balance, such that if we wipe out millions of those species we may not exist very soon or may not be able to exist. This is what is at stake. We need to protect it. I believe the Government speaks with a forked tongue on these things because it is primarily corporate greed that is destroying biodiversity. Yet, time and again …

Cowardice, conservatism, misogyny and a patronising attitude towards women has characterised the treatment of women in this country for virtually the entire history of the State. These attitudes led to the obscenities of the mother and baby homes, the Magdalen laundries, the Bethany homes and to tens and tens of thousands of women having to flee abroad under a shadow of stigma and shame for abortions in another country. All this history of conservatism, misogyny and patronising attitudes towards women was rejected …

Three days.

Owen is a pensioner with severe diabetes who has had half his leg amputated and he has associated heart and kidney issues. His wife, Myrna, works full time as a home carer, but because her income takes them over the social housing income threshold, they are living effectively in a cupboard. She sleeps in the bed and Owen has to sleep on a couch with his condition, but cannot sleep until the other tenants, who also live in the accommodation, go to sleep at night, because they are using the shared accommodation. What…

It should be a sliding scale. It should not be a cliff.

Last week, I was contacted by a very nice man I met many years ago. He informed me that he was previously in the Army and that he had been a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of an officer over many years. Approximately 20 years ago, he took a High Court case where, although the sexual abuse was acknowledged, finding the Army culpable was not accepted at that time by the court. Since then, there has been the Women of Honour inquiry, which has highlighted the widespread, systemic nature of sexual and other abuse i…

There is an EU army.

Well, there are battle groups, if not an EU army.

John Barry is a Limerick man in his 60s who had to retire following a heart attack and who subsequently suffered a debilitating brain injury. Mr. Barry has been given notice to quit by his landlord who had a long-term leasing arrangement with Limerick City and County Council. The landlord is evicting Mr. Barry on the grounds that he needs to move a family member into the property, while at the same time advertising another property he owns as being available to rent. This is clearly a disgraceful ruse. The landlord…

There was much trumpeting of the recent auction for the contracts for offshore renewable wind energy. I do not really know why there is any celebration whatsoever of the fact. What it is, in fact, is an auction to privatise our wind resources which is shameful and is a hostage to fortune. We know in many instances that the private consortiums and companies that are involved can just decide to pull out. They have us over a barrel when we give them these resources because our ability to deliver on our renewable energ…

In relation to children, I refer to a couple who have three children aged 16, 14 and ten years old. They have been homeless for two years. They do not want to bring their young children into homeless accommodation because they are terrified for them, particularly for their daughter, who they think would be very vulnerable. The children, as a result, are now staying with their 72-year-old grandmother on camp beds and in the grandmother's bed. The parents are couch surfing separately and the family has been separated…

How much money has the Government spent on the lawyers who are representing the Government in supporting Apple to stop the people of this country getting €13 billion in additional tax revenue? It beggars belief that the Government is backing the richest company in the world, a company that was paying less than 1% tax, in a case where it claims it was paying its fair share of tax, as against the view of the European Commission, which clearly and correctly identified the fact that Apple was getting favourable tax tre…

Let us have two minutes.

It was an absolute disgrace to leave hundreds of asylum seekers vulnerable under tents on the streets. I welcome the proposal to look at the issue of empty buildings, something for which we have called for a long time, including office buildings that are not being used. I draw the Taoiseach's attention to the fact there is an empty office block on Setanta Place, just off Kildare Street, which has been sitting empty - I think it is a Government building - around the corner from Leinster House. It is several storeys …