I have just come from the picket line on Davitt Road, where National Ambulance Service workers are on strike for 24 hours because the HSE has failed for six years to implement a 5% pay rise that they are due under benchmarking. It is not just the HSE, though. The Government is their employer. They are public sector workers and they are calling for the Taoiseach's intervention. The HSE has accepted upskilling and increased responsibilities for ambulance workers, so why is it a conscious policy to not reward essentia…

-----refused a pay rise it was because it was a deterioration in the service.

I do not know how the Taoiseach can look the leaders of some EU member states in the eye given their complete and utter disregard for what Israel is doing to the people of Palestine. I also want to mention Lebanon and the brutal methods being used there. One in five of the population has been displaced and a total of 2,846 people have been killed, 552 of whom were killed after the ceasefire. Villages are being razed with the methods learned in Gaza, such as the use of bulldozers. There is an illegal occupation of s…

Shush. People are going take the law into their own hands and organise a campaign. Stop the Game was launched last week. Many high-profile sports people, personalities and politicians are now gearing up to organise to stop that game, and I think it will be stopped. Would Deputy Ó Cearúil ever whisht, for goodness sake?

It was a ridiculous comment.

So?

You said it should go ahead.

And vice versa.

I meet them every day.

They do not.

During this whole discussion, there have been elements of déjà vu as regards Covid. I was not here but, like many others, I looked at the screen and saw the applause for nurses in the Dáil. It was the height of hypocrisy. There was applause but no pay rises. Long Covid supports have just been ended. Nurses were urged to go onto the front line. It was mainly nurses who suffered from that condition. I seriously wonder how nurses around the country, particularly those at University Hospital Limerick, and nurses abroad…

I want to raise the Government's total inaction on the issue of Palestine. We have just heard the Minister talking about aid, recognising the Palestinian state and of trying to get a motion passed in the EU. These are the three things the Minister mentioned. The Minister did not mention a single sanction. I will raise a number of things the Government could be doing. In her role, it must be exhausting for the Minister trying to come up with new excuses about the occupied territories Bill with some new reason each t…

An advocate and a voice but no action. That is all the Minister said, basically. Slovenia and Spain passed occupied territories Bills but Ireland will not because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have developed an economic model of Irish capitalism that is so interlinked with American multinationals and, therefore, they do not want to pass it. I want to mention two issues, the first of which is the trial of an Irishman, Daniel Tatlow-Devally, in Germany. Mr. Tatlow-Devally's family has contacted the Minister and TDs to as…

Will the Government back a plan to introduce nuclear power? Who and what are behind this latest kite the Government is flying? Is this pandering to vested interests, tech companies which want to expand data centres even further in this country? Those data centres are currently consuming about 25% of all our energy. We should not be introducing nuclear power to power data centres. I just want to nail a few lies. Nuclear is a dangerous option; it is not safe. It takes 200,000 years for the waste to become safe. Minin…

The 70 bus that connects Dunboyne and Littlepace to the city centre is going to be cut under the BusConnects plan even though it is the most direct route many people in Dublin 15 have. This is also going to hit people who are not very mobile. It is incredibly ablist to force people to get off a bus and to route everything through Ireland's busiest shopping centre in Blanchardstown. Nobody wanted this and the BusConnects planners have not listened.

Yes, but most buses only have a place for one wheelchair and one pram, so I do not accept the idea everybody is going to be able to transfer like that. Let us start with the reality. Who wants to have to get off a bus? Nobody. Once you are on a bus you want to stay on it. However, for some reason BusConnects planners and the NTA are fixated on the idea of routing everything through the Blanchardstown centre, which by the way, coincides with the potential introduction of car parking charges there. That fits in nicel…

Tell me about it.

Just answer the question.

It is about the 70 bus.

The reason I was rolling my eyes is I campaigned and marched to get that town centre built. I know how important it is and family members have worked there. My point is that does not mean everyone wants to sit in traffic in it.