We are all anxious that the tribunal does its work and it goes well for the Women of Honour and, indeed, the people we met this morning in the audiovisual room. There are, though, three things we must keep to the front of our minds here because if we do not, then we will be lost before we start. One is that there is a great power imbalance between the Defence Forces as an organisation and the individual personnel within it. It is also a hierarchical and patriarchal culture, in which the outlined sexual and other ab…

How does it go when questions are grouped?

Okay.

Right. I was just not sure about the procedure when the questions are grouped like this.

Does that depend on the judge's opinion?

This was not what was explained to us.

That was not their interpretation of it.

Earlier, it was said there was a lack of communication or, certainly, that the communication was poor between the Minister's Department and the stakeholders.

I know. We will be discussing it anyway, so I suppose we will get a bit more clarity in that context.

We saw the recent arrival of the cuckoos and vultures in Belcamp Manor, Dublin, but in north Kildare we met them already. This was when they descended on Mullen Park, Maynooth, my hometown, and swooped off with homes for ambitious and talented local workers who had their hearts set on buying their first family home. The Government’s 10% stamp duty did not work then and has not fixed the problem since. There is something really galling and perverse about a hard-working couple in north Kildare having to compete with …

My constituency of Kildare North is one of the youngest and fastest growing in the State. However, parents have contacted me already regarding uncertainty about school places in secondary schools next year. I have been inundated with calls from parents in Prosperous and Clane. It is only a matter of time before I hear the same from Maynooth and Kilcock. I have already submitted parliamentary questions to ask about an emergency plan for the area. I wish the replies would stop referencing the geographical information…

I am glad to speak on the Bill. It and the Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023, Second Stage of which is also being taken today, are very much interconnected and reflect the changed and changing State and society in which we live. We have come a long way in the past 40 years in particular, and these referendums will be important markers on the next stage of our journey. They will be a chance for the people to have their say on the family, what and who constitute the family, the institution of ma…

I am glad to speak on Second Stage of the Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023, which relates to women in the home and the operation of care. I thank the citizens' assembly for its great work and commitment. I thank again all the NGOs that came to the committee to discuss this. It was an interesting committee. I enjoyed contributing to it. I also thank the chair of the committee, an Teachta Bacik. When I first spoke about this Bill in the Dáil after the report from Catherine Day I said we all kno…

For most of us, this is a time of year when we are always thinking about children. It is unconscionable that 4,000 children who are facing into Christmas and waiting for Santy to arrive are in homeless emergency accommodation. The real political and social emergency in this Chamber is the fact that we need emergency accommodation for our children. These children are wondering if Santy will be able to find them. Their parents are giving them reasons - anything from GPS, to magic, and to star maps - to reassure them …

I ask the Minister for Justice for the current number of gardaí in north Kildare over the past five years in tabular form, and if she could include in that the new recruits who will be passing out before Christmas and coming to Kildare.

The reason I asked is that in Kildare, my constituents really want to know this. Kildare used to be the county with the lowest number of gardaí per head of population. We have now been passed out by Meath. Kildare is now the second worst. Communities need gardaí, and they need to see gardaí out and about. Does the Minister of State have figures for how many gardaí in Kildare were deployed to Dublin on that awful Thursday night, 23 November? There is a real concern that new gardaí that do come to Kildare might be se…

I was in my constituency office in Naas that Thursday evening, and I could hear the sirens going off on the main street as gardaí headed towards Dublin. It is for this reason that I really want to talk to the Minister of State about what it is like for families of gardaí who were left unprotected that night at the riot. I know what it is like to be a member of a Garda family, and I have spoken previously about what it is like. My particular childhood memory was the night of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and bei…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this motion on a rights-based care economy with my colleagues in the women's caucus and the gender equality committee set up after the citizens' assembly report. We all know that if carers downed tools for even a day, our economy and society would grind to a halt, except, carers, of course, would not do that, which governments know. In so many cases, they are motivated by the one thing that leaves them exhausted yet tireless and entirely unprotected in their work of car…

As the Minister of State and the Taoiseach go to the European Council next week, I want them to make it very clear to those who profess to defend European values that they cannot be selective in their condemnation of war crimes. I want them to take a clear message to the European Council that the attitude of official Europe to the Palestinian people bears no resemblance or relation to the attitude of Europeans on the street who the Council claims to represent. Depriving the Ukrainian people of food, water and energ…

Nobody is saying that.