As peacekeepers, members of the Defence Forces represent us at our very best across the world. They are currently in action helping to extract our citizens caught up in the conflict in Sudan. I have every confidence in the courage and expertise of the Defence Forces and the Army Ranger Wing to get our people home. They are all in our thoughts. I take this opportunity to thank our European neighbours for their assistance thus far. I commend the Department on its quick response, given what transpired in the past week…

On all the evidence, the Government is indifferent to the suffering of people in this housing disaster. It is indifferent to the suffering and panic of people who are facing eviction and have nowhere to go. It is indifferent to the suffering caused by a series of increases in their mortgage repayments leaving them completely broke and broken, many for the first time in the lifetime of their home loan. The Government's supporters, the usual free marketeers, do not have to worry from the security of their plush homes…

The Government's housing policy is wreaking havoc on renters in north Kildare. The dad of one family who now works in the private sector was a member of our Defence Forces. He tells me he feels totally undefended by this Government. Following a notice to quit, he feels that he is in no-man's land, abandoned by the State of the uniform he wore. His wife works in homeless services. After they both took on every scrap of overtime they could to make rent after an illegal 50% rent hike, their income is over the limit fo…

It would give the Government time to create or build those houses.

It could not make it worse.

He has several houses.

Mo bhuíochas le Páirtí an Lucht Oibre as ucht an rún seo a rith. Beimid ag tacú leis anocht. I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate, particularly as parents in north County Kildare are tearing their hair out regarding the lack of school places for their children. We have been trying to compile a list of the 58 schools affected by the decision in the Department of Education to stop funding for new builds and school extensions, but the Department refuses to provide the relevant information. How…

Does the Minister not do politics?

Naas general hospital is in my constituency in Kildare North. In a reply to a recent parliamentary question on waiting times across the State tabled by an Teachta Cullinane, I was horrified to find that waiting times in the emergency department in Naas were among the top three worst times for people over 75 years and the top five worst for patients generally. Last December, general patients were waiting 21.5 hours for admission to Naas general hospital. For those over 75 years, they went from waiting 21 hours in 20…

I raise again the lack of school places across north Kildare and the fact that parents are fed up with the copy-and-paste replies to parliamentary questions they are getting as to why they cannot send their children to the schools they can see from their front doors. The replies state the schools are oversubscribed. The problem is not overexuberance on the part of parents and their children as regards applications but under-provision by the State. I specifically mention Nicole from Kill. Nicole is autistic and she …

People in north Kildare are contacting my office and they are terrified. They cannot sleep. They are sick to their stomach that once the eviction ban is lifted they will have nowhere to go. In Kildare there are 209 evictions pending yet there are only 44 places available to rent on daft.ie . Across the State there are almost 5,000 evictions pending, and 1,183 places available to rent. Primary school level maths tells us that 209 will not go into 44, and that 5,000 will not go into just over 1,000. The people who co…

I will share with Deputy Ward. I am incredibly happy to speak here on International Women's Day as a woman and a Deputy. I wish everybody, all the women and all the people who love women, a very happy International Women's Day. As a Sinn Féin Deputy, I am very much committed to the egalitarian and republican values of equality, liberty and, for the day that is in it, sorority. I wish the international sisterhood, especially those in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, Türkiye and Afghanistan, a very happy International Wome…

As my colleague, Teachta O'Rourke, said, Sinn Féin will support the Bill, but with reservations, as we have articulated at the climate committee. I hope the Minister will note those reservations. That this Bill is necessary at all is due to the negligence of this Government and its failure to plan. Sufficient unto the day might work for the headlines that this Administration governs by but it is in no way sufficient unto the people who are depending on adequate electricity supply for their day-to-day lives. We were…

Most of us have a story about how brilliant our ambulance paramedics and personnel are. They are the men and women we hope to never meet but when we need them we want to see them as quickly as possible. I know my local ambulance base in Maynooth very well. I campaigned about it having its hours cut during the austerity Government of Fine Gael and the Labour Party in 2012. Ever since then Maynooth and the surrounding towns of north Kildare have no ambulance operating from the Maynooth base every Thursday from 7 a.m.…

I am glad to speak on the Bill, which my party will broadly support insofar as it seeks to establish more and greater accountability in policing. We will propose amendments in the future. The Bill sets out to achieve clear and effective oversight and accountability of An Garda Síochána. Sinn Féin welcomes this. It is clear that policing reform in this jurisdiction is needed and long overdue. I would like to see developments in transparency and accountability taking place here similar to those that took place in the…

Eviction is simply a word to this Government. It is something that, hopefully, no Members of Government will ever have to face. For too many of my north Kildare constituents, looming eviction is an absolute terror. It is the terror of joining the almost 12,000 people in emergency accommodation across the State. That number does not include those who are sofa surfing or living on the floors of family members. Eviction is the terror of being reported to Tusla by the county council and losing your children if emergenc…

I want to raise the issue of the lack of school places for children starting in our excellent primary schools in Kilcock. These are young children with rights to attend their local schools and I am receiving an increasing number of emails from their parents. Too many families are looking for too few places in north Kildare. They are just after getting out of childcare and now they find that when they are depending on their national schools, there are no places for them. I had a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Fol…

I am happy to speak on the spring bonus proposal from An Teachta Doherty, which is a care package for people depending on social protection. “Social protection” are not dirty words. Our care package focuses on people in real need: families, lone parents, carers, people with disabilities. It is the opposite of the bonus arrangements and pamper packages the Government devises and delivers for bankers. The bankers Government Members should care about are the increased number of people visiting food banks. In north Kil…

Sinn Féin supports the proposal on body cams provided there is strict supervision, monitoring and protocols. As has been already outlined by some of my comrades, we have concerns about facial recognition provisions being introduced to a Bill that has already gone through prelegislative scrutiny. It is really not good enough. It goes without saying that technology must be always used in a way that ensures a careful balance between privacy and the protection of the citizen through the most serious and rigorous regula…

I am both glad and sad to contribute on this Stage. Here we are on St. Brigid's Day, the patron saint of pregnant women and their children, at a time when new life is returning to the earth, and the lack of respect to the new lives of those who were born in mother and baby institutions is still being debated in this Dáil. Here we are again, with the Government's same old refusal to listen to the survivors, their advocates and families. We received thousands of emails on this and again, yesterday and today, I receiv…