Enclosed hare coursing, like we have in Ireland, was banned in Britain in 1914. It was deemed unsporting. It is so contrived and unnatural. Those were the words that were used by the coursing clubs that agreed with it being banned. Ireland is becoming a complete and utter outlier on animal rights. I am embarrassed at some of the things that I am about to talk about here. If anybody is listening from any other country, it is the idea that some of these practices are continuing in 2026. We have seen other countries b…

One of the biggest health issues that arose in this country related to Children's Health Ireland, CHI, scoliosis and child surgery. Now we find that four out of the eight groups have withdrawn from the scoping exercise that was to draw up the terms of reference for the inquiry. It includes the spina bifida and hydrocephalus paediatric advocacy group and many others. Another group has also reportedly left but not yet publicly. The reason for this is 12 unpublished reports to do with CHI since 2017, including the Dix…

We already debated the issue of the Taoiseach's St. Patrick's Day meeting with Donald Trump, a misogynist, homophobe, transphobe, genocider, funder of genocide in Palestine and convicted rapist but-----

That is an actual fact.

I am going to go on because I am not having my time cut short. The Taoiseach now seems to find and be able to separate out reasons why he should do these things. The latest is that he says sport and politics should not mix, and he has said that in relation to the Irish team playing Israel. Yet four of his MEPs obviously do think sport and politics mix because they have signed a complaint about Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, and the farce of a World Cup that is being held right now, where a Somali referee was…

It could have been one of the Taoiseach's Ministers.

The Minister is moving this with undue haste before the summer. It is absolutely wrong that a Bill of this importance is being guillotined after two hours and many of the amendments probably will not get a fair hearing. I will comment on this grouping of amendments, which talk about connectivity. We made these points on Second Stage. Balanced regional development has gone out the window. We also have a duty to connect the west of Ireland and other airports, such as those in Cork, Shannon, Mayo and so on. The airlin…

How could the Minister not accept such an amendment? It is as plain as anything that there should be some obligation on the DAA to review how it works. We only have a minute or so left. I have two very quick things. One concerns a resident who sent this communication last week. I was making the point about the DAA and insulation. This person said that as they typed the message in their back garden, planes were flying directly overhead, every window in the house was open and their four kids under seven were in bed. …

I just checked, and residents in the St. Margaret's The Ward Residents Group have asked to meet the Minister in relation to their Planning for Real proposal.

They said the Minister has not met them since before last summer, so we have two conflicting statements then. I have to believe the residents. They have now gone to court because they have not been able to meet the Minister. I also want to say something else because the Minister has used the issue of jobs to justify this. Nobody is saying that any jobs should be lost. This is actually about expanding the airport. We actually cannot have unlimited growth all the time. We have to take into account the impact on the e…

This is not the first time I have raised the issue of commercial drone fast-food deliveries in residential areas. Last week, we had the announcement from Manna Air Delivery, which was the company operating in Dublin 15 and Cork, that it is suspending and pulling out of Ireland. Residents who were suffering as a result of the noise and lack of privacy, and who had wildlife concerns, etc., but who particularly suffered as a result of the noise, peace and quiet in their back gardens and neighbours having been lost, ar…

I urge that the framework specifically rules out these drones operating in residential areas. They cause considerable physical and mental health damage to residents who are suffering under them. The Minister of State said in his reply that the drone companies must comply. They are "subject to national laws, including environmental, planning and data protection laws". How come Manna Air Delivery was not so subject for two years? How come it was operating in bases that had no planning permission? Its representatives …

I have huge sympathy for the people affected by this in Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Limerick and other areas because I live in an area where we had the blight of pyrite. So many housing estates in our area were affected because the quarry was situated there. It did not regulate itself and there was a lack of Government regulation. Thousands of people were impacted by this and I campaigned on it and held public meetings on it over the years. This is slightly different but the principle is the same, namely, developers have…

The Taoiseach talked about Keir Starmer being decent and resetting relationships. If ever there was a Prime Minister who did moral bankruptcy, it is Keir Starmer. Here is somebody who got in with a huge Labour majority and proceeded to lean in to racism, anti-migrant sentiment, transphobia and every single thing you can think of. He inflicted austerity on pensioners and the disabled. Let us talk about Palestine. Deputies here are meant to be supporting Palestine and yet they are congratulating Starmer and wishing h…

These annual statements are important. It had to be called out when they were not tabled in June last year. However, they also have to be real. We saw remarkable progress in 2015 with the same-sex marriage referendum passing after a grassroots movement. This was followed by repeal, the Gender Recognition Act and huge social progress. However, this is a completely different decade. Hostility, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny and racism are being unleashed. Within Ireland, while the Government is not doing that or a…

If there is anything we do not need during a climate emergency when we are literally having a heatwave right now - we had one two weeks ago and we will probably have many more over the rest of the summer - and when the world is literally burning, it is the Minister is coming in today to lift the passenger cap on flights at Dublin Airport. People are saying that we need this for growth. We need to do something about the climate emergency and we should actually be reducing flights rather than aiming to increase them …

There are issues for residents. An earlier speaker said that everyone living in a house near the airport knew this would happen. In fact, people did not know. There are lots of much older communities in the area that predate the airport. People certainly did not know there would be relentless growth of the airport. The impact of airport noise on people's sleep is being studied worldwide, including by Dr. John Garvey, director of the sleep laboratory at St. Vincent's hospital. His evidence shows that airport noise l…

Consistently, socialists who have been elected here have come in and expressed our opposition to these powers being extended. We are in agreement with the ICCL, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the UN human rights committee, Amnesty International, and a myriad of legal experts and civil liberties campaigners. The Irish Government likes to portray our country as a liberal democracy, yet it has this parallel legal system where there are no juries. The ICCL highlighted six defects in its submission on t…

In 2024, parties were falling over themselves, as we know, including the Minister’s, promising parents €200 a month childcare. The latest Fianna Fáil meeting was talking about €786 per month, possibly, later on this year, so it will be like €200 a week will be nearer the mark. However, the real problem we have is childcare provision. The private childcare model is simply not working for parents. With so many more providers falling out of the sector, we need a public model.

The problem is that the private childcare model is being heavily subsidised by the State, but even with these subsidies it is simply not working. Discovery Montessori in Castleknock has written to TDs, for example, in my area. It is the latest childcare provider saying that the core funding model cannot work for it. The fee freezes mean that it would not be able to meet its costs in wages, utilities, insurance, etc. I do not have a way of checking out all of those claims, but what I will say is that there is no way…