I thank the Minister for the response. Independent radio is a trusted voice for 2.5 million people across Ireland. For less than 1.4% of total media funding, we can protect and strengthen that service, with just €4.5 million coming from the budget. It is good to hear €3 million will be kept ring-fenced in order to continue delivering independent, high-quality news and public service content. A total of €1.5 million is needed to safeguard our transmission system, which is a lifeline for communities when broadband or…

I thank the Minister.

Sport has always been more than just a game. It has the power to unite people, create memories, give us moments of pride that last a lifetime and improve health outcomes. I was a soccer referee for 15 years, which was good for physical and mental health to some degree. Over the past year, Ireland has enjoyed some truly great sporting highs. Last weekend Shane Lowry played a key role as Europe clinched an historic win over the US in the Ryder Cup. We watched Kate O’Connor make history with silver at the World Athlet…

This debate comes at a rather important time. Yesterday, in the audiovisual room, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions had its Respect at Work campaign. One point that it raised that struck me is that we are still in this position, in 2025, where we have a constitutional right to join a trade union but we have no legislative right to collective bargaining or to halt union busting, which undermines the rights of workers. The joint labour committee process was created to address this problem by setting out minimum pay …

I am proud the Labour Party has brought forward this motion. This Government has many things to be considering and reasons to be under pressure. There are 5,000 children are homeless and that one in five children is growing up in constant poverty. That will be the legacy of this Government. Food prices are up, energy prices are up, childcare fees are up and college fees are up. Rents, when you can find the property, are out of control. That is the truth. Families have nothing left to give. The food presses are bare…

Ireland has been scarred by decades of institutional abuse. Due to the clergy, industrial schools, mother and baby homes and Magdalen laundries, nearly every family in Ireland has felt some trace of pain. It is not lost on me that we are discussing this topic when excavation work is starting on the mother and baby home in Tuam. Survivors have been denied justice for far too long. I welcome the announcement by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, that the Government is to establish a statutory commission of investigation i…

The need to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence has never been more urgent. It is not merely a matter of rising numbers; it is an epidemic. Women and children across the country are facing violence in their homes, which should be their safest space. Recent research shows us one in four women in Ireland, as well as one in seven men, will experience violence over the course of their lives. Every ten minutes there is a call to the Garda relating to domestic abuse. These are not isolated incidents but dee…

I thank my colleagues, Deputies Wall and Sherlock, for tabling this important motion. The care system is increasingly in crisis. From cradle to grave, we have seen care farmed out to private investors who think of profits and not people. The current crisis is driven by two factors in particular. These are the natural ageing of the population and the State's hands-off approach to providing care. We have seen a shift towards privatisation in the commodification of care and the outsourcing of our own social responsibi…

The GPO is more than just a building. It is the beating heart of Dublin city and of our history. It is the centre of civic memory with a 200-year history and, crucially, it is a site with enormous potential. The GPO stood witness to the events of 1916 but the walls have seen far more than that. It bore witness to the 1913 Lock-out, which was a defining moment for workers' rights. It has stood through both world wars when thousands of Irish men were away at war and their families waited anxiously for letters from th…

Will the Minister outline when he expects to get the findings of the independent review into the night-time economy? Does he anticipate the findings will recommend that a night-time adviser is appointed to each of the county councils?

It is good to hear support for the plan, especially in respect of public transport, which is a particular difficulty outside Dublin when people try to get in and out to venues in cities. I attended the launch of the report from the Give Us The Night campaign yesterday. Its members have been campaigning for reform of the Irish nightclub industry for more than 20 years. Parts of that industry are still regulated by the 1935 Public Dance Halls Act. We need renewal in the nightlife sector. It is in a bad way. There are…

I thank the Minister. We can work on this issue on a cross-party basis. I thank him for his contribution and look forward to the publication of the report.

I wish to highlight a matter of real and growing concern in the southern part of my constituency. There has been a recent surge in antisocial behaviour in the Northwood area of Santry, particularly around Gulliver's Retail Park. Families, residents and business owners feel increasingly unsafe due to targeted and aggressive incidents, including reports of cans and stones being thrown at passersby, including children, in public spaces but, more worryingly, racially motivated incidents and incidents of harassment. Thi…

I thank the Minister of State. This issue can be looked at on a cross-party basis. There is no division here between the Opposition and the Government. I welcome the information to the effect that the LCSPs are to be set up shortly. When I was a councillor, I served on a joint policing committee. I found that very useful because you get to know all the stakeholders on the pitch, for want of a better way of putting it. If the Minister of State could expand on the Northwood issue, I would really appreciate it.

I thank Deputy O'Gorman for bringing forward this motion, which is supported by the Labour Party. I will take the opportunity to talk about my constituency of Dublin Fingal West where public transport is at best disconnected. I acknowledge that the DART+ Coastal North project will, hopefully, come at the end of 2026. In the meantime, our issue is with the bus service. There are variations in the 33 bus, which was mentioned by one of my colleagues. The 33 bus is to be done away with under BusConnects. My constituent…

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on this issue that is vital not only for our coastal communities but to our national identity. I refer to the future of fishing in Ireland. Once the backbone of coastal communities, the fishing industry is now facing shrinking incomes, rising costs and dwindling fish stocks. At the same time, our oceans are coming under increasing pressure from overfishing, pollution and climate change. Marine life is disappearing faster than we can protect it and the health of the entire …

Roads, schools, hospitals, and homes: none of these exists in Gaza anymore. What was once a densely populated strip, already suffering from decades of siege and blockade, has now become a graveyard of rubble, broken lives and broken dreams. Entire families have been erased and communities have been turned to dust, yet the world continues to watch on. We have entered an era where genocide is not just happening in real time, but it is being livestreamed across social media platforms. The normalisation of mass murder …

I have been going back and forth on this with Uisce Éireann since I was a councillor. I appreciate that it checked the system for an update prior to this coming to the floor, but there is still no update available for the residents, and the residents have now moved it on to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. For background, there are six homes in Ellen’s Court in Rush. Arthur Brett was the first to move in on 19 September 2022, and the other residents moved in over the following months. As with all de…

We can all agree it is more than a bit of a mess. I appreciate the Minister of State’s intervention and him speaking to Uisce Éireann to try to get this sorted out. I welcome that Uisce Éireann will engage with the residents, and I am quite happy to follow up with them. I thank the Minister of State for his response.

Will the Minister outline Ireland's stance on the European Commission's new proposals to allow the payment for farmers who meet GAEC 2 requirements under the CAP simplification package? Will he push for strong support measures for Irish farmers who are managing peatlands and wetlands, given the challenges that they face?