Once again, we are dealing with a British Government with Liz Truss and Boris Johnson and unilateral threats to undermine the Irish protocol. Our only hope is that the British Government is engaging in a farce it is not really too hopeful of seeing through, just to keep some of the Conservative Party happy. That is obviously not good enough, however. It gives succour to the DUP, which is in the middle of cul-de-sac politics. We really need to deal with that. What has the Taoiseach's engagement been with the British…

We welcome this legislation. Obviously, it is an absolute necessity that we have a streamlined process to ensure compensation for gardaí suffering injury or death rather than the antiquated one we have had and that the scheme makes sense and is swift and just to those who are out there working on our behalf and trying to introduce an element of justice. It is a very difficult job. None of us have a job wherein we could end up in incredibly dangerous circumstances on any given day. Therefore, everything that needs t…

I know. I was watching the clock. I am talking about supervision in Dundalk. That related to the appointment of sergeants. The solutions to those issues are in train but they have an impact on An Garda Síochána's ability to do business. While I have the Minister in front of me - as everybody says - I will mention that we need to deal with the issue of duty of care. Deputy Daly raised the issue of PIAB. We still have not seen a solution with regard to insurance premiums. We all have multiple people coming to us to s…

Following Liz Truss's threat to Maroš Šefčovič of British Government unilateral action to undermine the Irish protocol, what level of Irish Government engagement has there been with the British Government? Has the Tánaiste spoken to Boris Johnson? Obviously, we cannot have a return of the spectre of a hard border in Ireland. The British may be looking for a game of chicken with the European Union. Hopefully, they are only grandstanding to keep certain sections of the British Conservative Party happy. This does not …

Many of us have spoken about the criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine and also its impact on food security. We must all reassess the matter and make sure we are prepared and protected into the future. It is true that during Covid we had adequate food supplies. We all accept that we have had a fabulous farming industry in this State that has been able to deliver for us for generations and that is something we have to maintain into the future. On the wider issue of food security, we are well aware of these specific i…

Unfortunately, in the context of all of these issues, there is always an element of Groundhog Day. That is something we need to address. We cannot continue having these same conversations. I want to start with the response to parliamentary question I received in the past while. It stated that there were no occupational therapists in paediatric services at the HSE primary care centre in Barrack Street, Dundalk, with four vacant posts to be recruited and one maternity leave vacancy. There had been a failure to fill v…

I will quickly revisit the issue of the autistic four-year-old. There was a family intervention meeting and the mother was told that no therapies would be possible for a couple of months. This child is not toilet trained and that is creating specific difficulties. The problem is that the child cannot get a place in a special school or in a regular school until that is resolved. The only thing the mother is being offered is parenting programmes. Obviously, this is not fit-for-purpose. We must get serious about workf…

We are here to discuss the living wage. Specifically, we are talking about ensuring that people have sufficient money to meet their absolute needs. We are not talking about their wants, but about their needs and about the basic level of income required to live normally in our society. It should be a given that we provide this as a society. Otherwise, we will be providing people with insufficient money to live their lives. We all know about the situation we are in with the cost-of-living crisis. We know that some of…

Many in this House believe we should already have a citizens' assembly on drug use. We need to make sure that happens as early as possible in 2023. Anybody who has engaged with any community in Ireland knows the dangers and harm drug addiction is causing. Looking outside my constituency office on court days, I can see people who have been impacted by drug addiction. This impacts utterly negatively on wider society. People will often say it is like looking at a squad of zombies. It is incredibly frightening. There h…

Once again, it comes down to the difficulty of trying to strike a balance. Obviously, people have a right to their good name and to be able to defend themselves. Anybody who has had to have recourse to the courts at this point in time in respect of any matter, from planning right through to criminal investigations or anything else, knows the courts are absolutely backlogged and all the rest of it. As such, anything that can be introduced to facilitate streamlining needs to be considered. I urge caution in respect o…

I will reiterate some of what Deputy Gould has said in the sense that it is very difficult to talk about consumer protections while not talking about the necessary mitigations and protections and, possibly, if we are talking about energy suppliers, windfall taxes. I will put it as simply as that. While we accept that Government has done some things and cannot do everything, we will all accept there is more that needs to be done, given the condition in which people find themselves at present. They are under severe p…

We are all in agreement that the European Union is one of the greatest peace projects of all time. We only need to take a very quick run through European history to see the benefits it has brought. Like a number of others, I was very lucky to be part of the Conference on the Future of Europe. While it was a privilege, I will be only too delighted not to see the hemicycle in Strasbourg for quite a while. I agree with the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, that the citizens, especially Irish citizens, have played a hug…

We are all dealing with the same issues here, the main one being the waiting times. The Minister spoke previously about streamlining the process, particularly for first-time applications for children, although I accept the necessary due diligence must be done. We all accept that there is a need for additional resources, including staff and technology, to ensure we can deal with the large numbers of applications going through the system. There is a particular issue with consent forms. Sometimes they are signed by a …

If I may be so bold as to request a supplementary reply from the Minister of State, it is about the fact that people are being refused payment plans for going onto HAP, which is creating huge difficulty. I dealt with a woman to whom this happened the other day. She broke the agreement on the basis of being in hospital. She is dealing with eviction and the money has been sought upfront. There were legacy arrears of €1,600. It is a huge issue and something that absolutely needs to be addressed.

I will. It is HAP central that is saying that that is the case from February, that no one who breaks an agreement will get a new one and that no new tenant can enter into a brand new agreement. It will lead to homelessness. I appreciate the Minister of State's response. I will be on to the Department directly.

I reiterate that action must be taken on the issue that one cannot get payment plans while in a HAP tenancy. That is a definite difficulty that will lead to homelessness. Beyond that, there is an issue I brought up with the Minister previously. We have to look at the means assessment being carried out now for over a year in respect of getting onto the housing list. It is leading to people not getting on the list, having severe difficulties and even some people not getting houses. We must look at the means by which …

Since February housing assistance payment, HAP, headquarters has stopped new payment plans for tenants. Those who are already in a plan and there is a break do not get another one. We are dealing with a number of situations. Councillor Kevin Meenan raised at Dundalk municipal level the case of a healthcare assistant who was on a payment plan, got ill and was in hospital for an number of weeks. She returned home to find the letters from HAP waiting for her. She was told there would be no more payment plans and that …

I have a brief follow-up question on that. We all want the Executive up and running. We all probably thought that some of what happened in the context of undermining the Irish protocol was possibly a sop to unionism. We believed that there were bigger fish to fry for the British Government and the European Union. The fear is that the British Government is willing to enter into a game of chicken. We need to know what interactions the Taoiseach has had with Boris Johnson in dealing with this, and with the Nationality…

To follow up on what I raised on Questions on Policy or Legislation, the issue of the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme not allowing for payment plans needs to be brought to the Minister and his Department and rectified. Otherwise, people are going to be put in incredibly difficult circumstances, having to make an instant repayment of arrears. Between that and the fact they will be facing homelessness, we are making a bad situation worse. Along with that, will the Taoiseach update us on the issue of dealing w…

It has not in any way, shape or form. It should not take five minutes to point out the fact that everybody accepts what needs to happen in opposition to climate change. We can all see the failures involved. If carbon tax is intended as a means of changing behaviour, it has not succeeded. That narrative has stopped. We are being told about how much is being ring-fenced from the carbon tax. I heard that for every €100 raised through the carbon tax, approximately €14 is ring-fenced. We have all seen, on some level, a …