It is my daughter's sixth birthday today. I think about the world and the Europe we are creating for her and all the children, living and those to come. It is incredible that the project of the European Union, which was supposed to be about peace and improving quality of life for the people living there, now appears to be about to become a project of war. This will not make Europe safer or improve the quality of life of its people. It is incredible when we think back to the austerity cuts that devastated Europe but…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this timely and vital motion. It is deeply disappointing to see that the Government is not supporting it and has put forward an amendment that will take away from the point of the motion. I am deeply annoyed and frustrated by this Government's failure to act on homelessness and to treat it like an emergency. A home is one of the most fundamental needs that people have, yet clearly the Government does not understand the true value of a home. If it did, it would not be bringing …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an group for bringing forward this motion. It is very important we focus on this issue. Similarly to my colleague, I also have differences with some of this motion. We need to understand why there is such frustration among the public regarding the issue of waste in public expenditure. It is because people are lacking basic access to services, especially access to appropriate school places for those with special needs and access to disability services. People are really struggling. They do not …

Tá grúpaí Gaeilge agus Gaeltachta fud fad na tíre buartha faoi staid reatha na teanga. Is cinnte go bhfuil rudaí maithe ar nós Kneecap, "An Cailín Ciúin" agus eile ann ach níl ag éirí go maith leis an nGaeilge sa chóras oideachais. Tá crúachas ann i maoiniú na Gaeilge sa phobal agus tá fadhbanna an-mhór le tithíocht sa Ghaeltacht. There is a welcome flourishing of the Irish language in communities and the arts among people young and old. Feicim é i mo pháistí féin. The language is being returned to as an expression…

Thousands of children with disabilities up and down this country are waiting for vital services, therapies and school places. We have been raising their cases in the Dáil. I raised the case of Noah who is autistic and non-verbal, and of Jack who is six. Is it acceptable to the Tánaiste that children are left without services and school places? We know early intervention is key. Will the Tánaiste meet the parents protesting tomorrow outside the Department of Education for school places? Does he agree it is an utter …

Can you guarantee every child will have a place?

I wish the Minister and Minister of State the best of luck. It is going to be a tough job. All of us here know it is the most serious issue facing the country. I have described it as a social disaster and a social catastrophe. The Minister and Minister of State know it is too. I often speak very passionately and very emotionally and bring forward the cases and human reality of the crisis and I will continue to because we should not get away from that. Every day hundreds of thousands of people in this country are li…

This issue relates to access to services for children with disabilities. The Government is utterly failing a generation of children with disabilities and their families. We can see this clearly in Dublin North-West, the area I represent. The children’s disability network teams, CDNTs, are under-resourced and there are unacceptable delays in assessments, with multi-year waiting lists for therapies. The teams fail to provide the vital and urgent care children and their families need. The failure to provide assessment…

The response, while welcome, is inadequate. If we look at the situation facing these families, particularly the children, they cannot wait. They cannot be left waiting for months and years for access to basic services and assessments of need. Early intervention is absolutely key in this regard. These families are struggling. I have spoken to them and they have contacted me. I have met them during the election on the doors. The level of stress and anxiety that parents of children with additional needs, disabilities,…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: - the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and former Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien TD, repeatedly promised to deliver 40,000 homes last year but spectacularly failed, with just 30,330 homes delivered; - housing delivery is not just slowing down, it is reducing, with a drop in housing delivery of nearly 7 per cent between 2024 and 2023; - members of the Government have briefed the media that without a dramatic reset of housing policy, there is virtually n…

Where were you this morning?

No, you were not here for the debate.

You came in at the very end.

I appreciate the Minister coming in for the last ten minutes of the debate. I look forward to hearing from him the reason he was not here earlier. I believe, in all fairness, that it is disrespectful for the Minister to claim he was present for a debate when he arrived in at the very end. It is indicative of a Government that is unwilling to listen to new ideas. When this country was dirt poor, the State built houses. It built the estates of Marino, Crumlin and Ballymun. In towns and cities across the country, coun…

Ballymun has a strong proud community that I am honoured to represent but it faces major challenges resulting from decades of State underinvestment and persistent inequalities. Despite national economic growth, between 2016 and 2022, the number of areas in extreme disadvantage in Ballymun actually increased. The Taoiseach visited the area. The State promised to support the Ballymun Implementation Board.

Yes. Where is the €2 million that was promised? Will the Minister for Justice meet the board? Will recommendations for a multidisciplinary team in Ballymun and for additional gardaí be rolled out?

I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion. The empty Government benches are indicative of the Government's lack of seriousness in dealing with the housing issue and its lack of willingness to listen to new ideas. This Friday is St. Valentine's Day, and we all know who will be getting the flowers and chocolates from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Valentine's card has gone to the investor funds, with a note inside that reads: "We're getting rid of the rent caps for you. Let it rip with the rents." Of course, t…

I thank the ESB, councils, communities and individuals for the work they have done and the support they have shown to each other. Again, as we saw during Covid, ordinary people and communities in this country showed the way forward while the Government followed behind, very delayed and inadequately. The Government failed to take a serious emergency response to this storm, just like it failed to take an emergency response to the housing crisis. It is important to highlight that it was not just in rural areas that pe…

I wish the Minister the best of luck. She has a hard job ahead of her, as the entire Government does. Unfortunately, I have to raise again the issue of the 40,000 homes that were not built last year. The truth is that this Government was elected on a false claim, that it had turned the corner on housing and that it was fixing the housing crisis. The question is why it ignored the truth that was presented by independent experts, the State agencies that the entire administration of our State relies on to make decisio…

I commend the tireless work of people across this country in the Palestine solidarity movement and the many groups that have held vigils, protests and fund-raisers for Palestine. Their genuine and active solidarity stands in contrast to Governments that dithered, delayed and now are abandoning the implementation of the occupied territories Bill. This Bill is an important act of solidarity and meaningful action that the people of Gaza and the West Bank really need right now. It has been the action of the Irish publi…