I would like to ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence if he will prioritise, as a matter of urgency, the retention of the fire station at the Curragh Camp, its services being critical not only to our Defence Forces on-site, but also to the wider community, where frequently they are the sole fire service available, with such services being staffed and provided by highly skilled, committed, valuable personnel who need to be retained within the Defence Forces.

I thank the Tánaiste for his answer although I am a little bit perturbed that this would - I know he was working overseas at the time but it is a bit perturbing----

It is a bit perturbing to hear that the first the Tánaiste heard about this was in the media. That is upsetting. I have met with a few of the families of the people who are working in the fire station there in the Curragh. Since I joined the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, I am really struck by the great sense of duty of the people who come in to talk to us, members of the Defence Forces. We had the Secretary General in last week and she was talking about the importance of retaining personnel with s…

I agree.

I accept that. The workers who work in the Curragh fire station are extremely experienced individuals. Munitions are also kept in the Curragh Camp in Kildare and it is important that we have a fire service there. I went to have a look at the facility. When you lose something like that, it is gone and it is hard to get it back. Apart from the monitoring of munitions, every six months these personnel also work overseas. They provide fire cover in locations where we are peacekeeping overseas. The service is very impor…

I would be delighted if that is the case.

I am happy to speak on this Bill and my party will be supporting its passage to Committee Stage. I wish to mention Teach Tearmainn in County Kildare, which is a refuge that offers free, confidential and invaluable support to women and children across County Kildare and parts of County Wicklow. It also offers refuge when women and their children are ready for it and they have the confidence and support to take this step. Women bear the brunt of gender-based violence. There is no doubt about this at all, but men also…

I will speak about amendments Nos. 35 and 36. I commend my colleague on the wording because it echoes back to the words of the Proclamation in the hall outside about the right of the people to the ownership of Ireland. I will speak about two issues in my constituency, Kildare North, involving two key heritage sites, one of which is Connolly's Folly. I am raising this issue as I was once a councillor on Kildare County Council. Built at the time of the famine of 1740, it is a beautiful obelisk called "bliain an áir",…

Here we go again - another term and another scandal. When it comes to Ireland and systems, power and secrecy, it never really stops. It is long after the promise from the previous Minister that children with scoliosis would be treated within four months. We know how that went. I have spoken to some of the parents involved. I welcome them and their advocates to the Dáil. They are extremely concerned about how the current situation has been handled. They are worried about institutional secrecy, bargepoles and cover-u…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this Stage of the Bill. I do not want to sound rude or anything like that, because I know the Minister of State is a very mild-mannered Minister, but it really is about time that we had this Bill. I also want to say that there is something perverse about the term "windfall" being associated with the provision of energy, which is an essential service, when the users of those services are paying penal prices for it, just to keep the light and heat on in their homes and bus…

Gabhaim buíochas freisin leis na Social Democrats as an Private Members' motion seo. Housing and affordability are not mutually exclusive. It is not a sign of an advanced society or economy if people cannot afford a home. It is not a sign of success or progress if hard work and a good job are no longer enough for a person to be able to afford to rent or buy a home of their own. Rather, it is a social failure. It is an epic social failure and it is exactly what this Government has engineered and inflicted on our soc…

I am glad to be able to speak on this Private Members' Bill this evening because there is so much pain behind the closed doors of north Kildare. It was good to have the opportunity to focus completely on the constituency over the past couple of months. People are living on ordinary wages and paying extraordinary mortgages for a standard home. I was talking to a woman in her 50s this morning who used to work full-time and is now working part-time because she cannot afford the after-school childcare. It cost more tha…

I want to recognise how the Irish people, through us, stand by Palestine. I will return to the actions that I want us to take but, first, I want to talk specifically about the children of Palestine. They are children like our own, who love to play out the back or out the front, or to kick a ball on the beach. Those same children, who, when not dying of fright by air attacks are killed outright or when they are not being mutilated by a rocket or a gun, are watching these same things happen to their parents, their gr…

This is my second time speaking on this Bill and the third time the Bill has been before the Dáil. It has been shunted around the schedule. I acknowledge that the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, is here. I appreciate that. I also take this opportunity to thank Together for Safety and my comrade in the Seanad, Senator Paul Gavan, who has been working on a similar safe access zones Bill that he drafted with Together for Safety in order to ensure that this matter stays in the public consciousness. We repealed th…

Yes. I had not expected to speak on this Bill until Thursday.

No, I will speak for a minute. I was ready to speak on it last week and have been ready in case the opportunity arose today. It is worth mentioning that this Bill has been shunted around the Dáil schedule in the same way the issue of addressing safe spaces for women accessing healthcare has been shunted around by the Government. For too many generations, Irish women were confined to the valley of the squinting windows and the republic of the twitching curtains, where they were constantly managing the miracle of mak…

We did not make ourselves pregnant. We were not that good at all. When it came to fertility, there seems to have been nothing that mná na hÉireann could not do without men. However, women in Ireland have found our voice and we certainly made sure that it was heard at the referendum on the eighth amendment so that future generations would not have to put up with this nonsense. Sinn Féin supports this Bill, but we would like it to go further. Women must be able to avail of abortion services if that is their personal …

The rental sector is now in a state of emergency. Rents are very high in my constituency of Kildare North and I want to talk a bit about the people who cannot afford to rent. Imagine what it must be like for people who cannot afford to rent. They become part of the hidden homelessness Deputy Ó Broin has mentioned. They try to sleep on somebody's sofa. They try get up and out to work early in the morning so they are not in the way and they try to stay out late at work for the same reason. They try not to impose on t…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic. We have just completed a Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, and the general consensus was that while the Government has declared a biodiversity crisis, there is little evidence it is being taken seriously. I welcome the Minister of State's remarks on wildlife crime and An Garda Síochána becoming involved when crimes are committed. I would like to direct my remarks in a particular direction, towards Emo Court House, County Laois, and to the brown long…

It feels like Groundhog Day when I have to raise again here the case of my constituent, Graeme Meehan, as I did a few weeks ago. Raising his case on the floor of the Dáil - with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, actually taking the trouble to act on it - still has not been enough to get the HSE to do its job by contacting Mr. Meehan's mother, Maura, to get the ball rolling to give him the rights he deserves as a citizen. I am grateful to the Minister of State. I received an email from her this morning identic…