I thank Deputy Ward for sharing time. I want to talk about the offences under the Domestic Violence Act in this Bill. This is my first chance to talk about a profoundly courageous woman I have the privilege of knowing. Margaret Loftus is a former member of an Garda Síochána who was married to another garda, Trevor Bolger. Trevor Bolger was violent, abusive and isolated Margaret from her family in Mayo. Events came to a head when Trevor Bolger viscously attacked Margaret and threatened to kill her after a family eve…

The fact that vital evidence that was given in the family law courts but was not allowed to be transferred over to be used in the criminal court is, I believe, a miscarriage of justice in its own right. A proper investigation was at last conducted and a file was sent to the DPP. The criminal Circuit Court granted Trevor Bolger full State legal aid throughout the whole court process. There was no means test or evaluation of assets carried out. He was suspended from an Garda Síochána with full pay. The criminal Circu…

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue on behalf of the staff, pupils and the community of St. Brendan's College in Belmullet. I am asking today for urgent interim funding for a nurture room at the school for students with additional and special needs. This funding would allow the school to act now and provide a much-needed facility for the school community rather than having to wait indefinitely for long-promised extension works. I will outline the recent history of the funding allocated to St. Bren…

I appreciate that. I know the Minister of State is genuine when he says he will do that with St. Brendan's College because doing so would send a clear message that while we plan for the future, we do not abandon the students in the present. I look forward to some movement on that issue. This is a very small investment in terms of the interim measure which would have a profound impact on the students who need that space. This is about fairness, urgency and care and about ensuring children who need support are not le…

I thank the Labour Party for bringing this motion forward. We share almost all of what is in this motion. I passionately believe in flexible working hours and the opportunities they can present. This motion goes to the heart of the daily reality for workers of the stress of long commutes, gridlocked roads and unreliable public transport. Workers in Ireland have no right to remote working. They have a right to ask and a right to be refused. I am a pragmatic person and I completely understand that many jobs do not le…

That is really good because it is unusual for Mayo to be first. I wish to talk about the situation with water in County Mayo and, in particular, with group water schemes. Let me be very clear: the people in Mayo are just as important as the people living anywhere else in this State. I know the Minister and the Minister of State will agree with that. They have a right to water, a right to clear running water, and a right to access water 24-7. I want to talk first about homes in areas like Glensaul in Toormakeady, in…

-----and please let me not be standing here again on this issue.

I want to talk about the section of the report on building consensus on a shared island. The Taoiseach will be aware that, last week, there was the launch in Belfast of the public media Ireland report. This is the first time I have seen a report in preparation for the media around this subject. Academics from DCU and Ulster University considered what would happen to the public service media in a reunified Ireland. The report rightly highlights the important role the public sector and broadcasting will have in the r…

It is unfortunate we are here discussing AI at this particular time because it forces us into a space that nobody wants to be in. At the outset, I want to talk about the benefits. If everything in the plan presented by the Minister of State is to be implemented to its fullest in a timely manner, then we will be making progress. As a party, and personally as the spokesperson on enterprise, tourism and employment, we will work with the Minister of State to progress that. It is true it can bring many benefits to busin…

Recent public statements by US President Donald Trump have raised the extraordinary prospect of the United States seeking to forcibly take control of Greenland, a territory of Denmark, an EU member state. Such an action, if pursued, would present a fundamental challenge to international law, the sovereignty of small states and European security. It would also have serious implications for the strategic balance in the north Atlantic region of direct relevance to Ireland’s security, particularly in relation to unders…

I never mentioned Venezuela.

I want to raise the issue of the lack of ambulance services, particularly in north Mayo and the west of Ireland more widely. It is a dire situation that I have never seen as bad in all of my time, where people cannot get an ambulance on time. There are incidents where people have had to travel 50 miles on very bad roads to get to the nearest hospital. When people call an ambulance, they cannot even be told when it is going to come. My question is this. Does the Taoiseach know how many people are dying prematurely b…

Destabilising rural livelihoods is not fair trade. It is a race to the bottom. What has happened with Mercosur is not right. We all understand trade and the necessities of it but I come from a rural community in Mayo and see the promises that have been made. We were told me must stand back and look at it in the wider context but I see what was done over the years going back to the EU directive in 1997, where farmers were promised and promised. They were promised they would be compensated in relation to designations…

SMEs and self-employed individuals are being crippled by the cost of doing business in Ireland in 2026. The Government is ignoring their pleas for help and rejecting every Sinn Féin proposal to alleviate their situation from our motion to tackle insurance costs to our motion to bring energy costs. I ask the Minister to outline the concrete steps his Department is taking to support these businesses struggling with the cost of doing business.

How come the business owners I speak to every day of the week are struggling so much if the Minister is saying that so much is being done for them, as measured through the CSO's wholesale price index? That is not the reality on the ground. It is certainly not the reality in the businesses that I see every day. The SMEs are the backbone of employment in towns and villages right across this State. They keep main streets alive. They sponsor local teams, provide apprenticeships and take chances on new staff. Too many o…

Then how come there are 848 insolvencies? That does not add up in terms of the supports for small business. I recognise that there are increased costs in wages but we cannot have a situation where workers are subsidising businesses. That is why the proposal for a PRSI rebate was put forward in our pre-budget submission to mitigate those costs, but the Minister did not take that up. Behind every insolvency is a livelihood and a community hit. On energy, Ireland is simply not competitive. Eurostat data shows that Ire…

What does the Minister plan to introduce to correct the imbalance in unemployment rates between the regional areas, particularly the north and western regional area, and the urban centres? Despite the song and dance the Department and the Taoiseach made today over the strong overall employment statistics for the State as a whole last year, recent figures have revealed a growing imbalance between the unemployment levels in the urban centres and unemployment in regional areas. Will he outline the measures his Departm…

Let us look at the figures. They are not mine, obviously; they those of the CSO, backed up by reports produced by the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, whose work in this regard I acknowledge. It is very important for us to know the picture. On regional unemployment, the CSO states that the State's overall figure for unemployment at the end of quarter 3 of 2025 was 5.3%. The northern and western region, which incorporates the five counties of Connacht, including that in which the Minister of State and I live,…

In that case, why are so many people moving to Canada, Australia and Great Britain? It just does not add up. If they had jobs and a place to live, they would be staying at home. The Government’s enterprise support structure and investment and skills programmes remain disproportionately concentrated in already prosperous areas, while towns and rural regions struggle to attract sustainable employment. We need concrete action from the Government to attract and retain employers in regions with persistently high unemplo…

We are all aware that the Good Friday Agreement established tourism on the island of Ireland as a key North-South co-operation area, and it markets the island as a single destination for visitors. Will the Minister outline initiatives in the Government’s new tourism strategy that aim to grow sustainable, all-island tourism on a North-South basis? My concern is that the plan will leave parts of our island behind, particularly the Six Counties, and that we are not maximising the potential there.