Yes, but nobody wants to sit on a bus and be dragged through Blanchardstown centre. The Minister of State does not seem to know the area, with all due respect. People are often delayed there for 20 minutes. With the original BusConnects plan there were roughly 28,000 complaints. Some 914 of them originated from Blanchardstown and most of them were about the 70 bus route. One third of respondents said there would be a loss or reduction in the existing service. Roughly one third said they did not want to have to get …

As the Tánaiste knows, 7,000 students marched in UCD at the beginning of March in support and solidarity with a student who had been drugged, raped, had image-based sexual abuse used against her and, unfortunately, became pregnant and lost her place on her course. I know the Tánaiste is well aware of the issues. It was very positive, in an era of an epidemic of gender-based violence and where the manosphere is being promoted, to see all genders and students there. They wanted justice for this student and they wante…

I wonder should the Minister ask for himself or one of his team, if you like, to be engaged in those discussions with the college and the student because it does not help when the dean of medicine walks into lecture halls, spends half an hour undermining a student and is then the person taking part in the discussion around the academic issues. This medical student told me that a significant number of students now perceive the supports available as performative and not something they would engage in because if you s…

I am asking the Tánaiste to get the Minister to intervene as much as he can.

I welcome the Sinn Féin motion and call on as many workers as possible to come out this Friday, on May Day, at 6.30 p.m. in Dublin. We need a movement of workers in this country and workers need to learn from what happened during the recent protests. I do not have much time, so I will focus on the mistreatment of workers by the Government, their employer. They are the ASTI members. The Government has taken a decision to restrict access to promotional posts for the senior cycle leaving certificate reform. It will no…

I will take three and a half minutes. We are in a situation now where the Government is set to miss its 2030 emissions reduction targets by half and there is no plan to reverse that trajectory. The Environmental Protection Agency's, EPA's, latest reports found the Government has not included any new policies or measures in the climate action plan to 2050 and we will pay for this because €8 billion to €26 billion in compliance costs for missing targets can be imposed. The Government is also encouraging carbon-intens…

On 8 April, four gardaí with a search warrant barged into the home of a therapist. They shouted at her and her daughter to put down their phones, not to move and to tell them where her files were. They would not let her take a photograph of the warrant or talk to her solicitor. They said they would seize her phone and laptop. They did all this in front of her daughter, who has health conditions, and said her mother knows what she has done. The therapist had to ask them to stop shouting, such was the level of aggres…

Will the Taoiseach tell his Minister to outlaw this practice in trials entirely?

He is not ruling it out, though. They can still be-----

If the Ceann Comhairle had let me finish the sentence, the Taoiseach would have heard that.

The Taoiseach needs to answer the question.

The Minister is not ruling it out.

What about the therapist? Is the Taoiseach okay with that?

Why do we bother?

The EU has decided to do absolutely nothing about the genocide being heaped on the Palestinian people. Yesterday, an attempt was made by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland to raise the issue of not just trade but the special trading status that the EU has. The EU is the largest trading partner with Israel, bar none. It is some indictment on the EU that it is now lining up four-square behind an imperialist power that is heaping such misery on the population, such as the death penalty being introduced, gendered violence and…

The Taoiseach mentioned child poverty. There are a quarter of a million children in forced deprivation, 8% in consistent poverty, and one in five workers is low-paid in an economy that has vast wealth and a budget surplus. The Taoiseach mentioned DEIS plus. In Dublin 15 and much of the constituency I represent, there is huge anger among principals that so many schools have been left off the DEIS plus list. Earlier I raised the two primary schools in Corduff left off DEIS plus even though it is an area where princip…

Two years ago the parents of Dublin 15 took to the streets, or took to autism-friendly protests in parks, to highlight the dire situation whereby they could not get proper education for disabled, neurodivergent or autistic children. Two years on, we had a special task force in the area, which, as the Taoiseach well knows because it has been raised several times, did a huge review, but that review has not been published. We have 19 secondary school students who do not have school places in the area as well as many p…

Hansfield, in Ongar. It will have to consider putting students on shortened school days, which is reprehensible. The school knows it will get flak for it but feels it has no alternative. It asked for an ANA and SNA review for an increased allocation and it was refused. It has seven new students who need SNAs. Only one student left. It also has 13 emerging students who need support and it has two autism classes in which at least two students have been told by the professional care team that they need one-to-one SNA …

I want to start with the Dublin 15 special education task force that was clearly set up to box the issue off the agenda during the general election. The report has not been released. It is becoming like the third secret of Fatima. Will the Government release it? Many parents had to take to the streets and we want to see the recommendations and what the Minister will do about them. Who dreamed up the inclusive special schools the Minister announced? Why would the Minister announce a new model of special classes with…

I am raising the issue of DEIS plus, which is a new scheme announced to give enhanced supports to the most disadvantaged schools in the country. Obviously, I am all in favour of enhanced supports for schools, but there are a number of problems. I bring to the attention of the Minister of State the Corduff area of Dublin 15. I have been contacted by the principals of St. Patrick's Senior National School and St. Patrick’s Junior National School in the area. They will be in the DEIS band 1 scheme but have been exclude…