The Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, was wondering would Sinn Féin give an honest appraisal of the budget. I am certainly willing to do that. This budget, like somebody who has been in a job too long, has managed to look very busy while not getting very much done at all. Post budget, millions are still waking up to crippling rents, which are the highest in the EU. The cost of living is still spiralling, with every weekly shop and bill that comes in the door costing more. People have no chance of a hospital a…

As we start to emerge from the height of the Covid crisis, there is a certain relief in the tourism and aviation sectors, both hard hit by the public health measures necessary to stop the spread of the virus. Both sectors were very badly hit by those restrictions and it will take a long time for them to recover and to regain ground lost. In my constituency in north Kildare, I saw at first hand the financial and psychological crisis people found themselves in as diaries, rooms and venues were closed, amenities were …

In addressing the national youth justice strategy, we must do two things as legislators. First, we must recognise how it involves young people who have barely started to live their lives but who are already suffering deep and multiple disadvantages in society - financial, social, educational, emotional and, sadly, sometimes parental disadvantages. Too often, these young people are battling backgrounds of neglect, trauma, violence, addiction, coercive control or having relatives in prison. They desperately need supp…

As member of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action, I have a particular interest in this session. I would like to thank the many experts who came in to talk to us over the last year. On the crises in climate and biodiversity, we certainly have a wealth of experience and wisdom on which to draw. I have always had an interest in climate change and doing my bit. Essentially, I was doing what I was told by legislators and it was an education for me. As a legislator now, the responsibility is ours and ours alone be…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Social Democrats' Private Members' motion. The issue of data centres has to be dealt with urgently. Yesterday, as has been said, Dr. Patrick Bresnihan of the geography department in NUI Maynooth, in my home town, was one of the experts who came to talk to us at the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. He made a good impression. It was a serious and sobering exposé of where we are with regard to balancing the energy needs of an increasing number of data centres…

These are dangerous days for the people of Afghanistan, especially its women and girls. In the space of a few weeks, they have been set back centuries. They have lost their presence and vibrancy in everyday life, which have been replaced by invisibility and monotony. They have also lost the whole array of reclaimed colours that feature in their stunning traditional dress. In exile from their homeland, Afghan women have started a campaign with the slogan "Do not touch my clothes", as part of which they have lined up…

With Housing for All, we are being taken for a spin on a magic carpet, only there is a massive hole in it and many of my constituents in north Kildare are falling through. Let me tell the House about the housing situation in north Kildare because I noticed that the Minister was quite amused by the whole thing. My office is out the door with men and women in every age group desperate for a home. There is a mother of three who is expecting her fourth child. She is just out of a refuge for women experiencing domestic …

I welcome this initiative from the Ombudsman for Children. I take this opportunity to thank Dr. Niall Muldoon and his office for the professionalism and kindness they showed when I went to them for help recently for some young constituents in north Kildare. Their families, too, were delighted. They are so used to knocking on doors that do not budge that when one finally opens it is a great relief to them, especially when it opens with a welcome. We need a better normal for children post Covid and I am anxious that …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I have a natural interest in it because my father was a proud member of An Garda Síochána. Minding the community, young and old, and building up that community was everything to him. While Sinn Féin is supporting this Bill, the potential dilution of community policing worries me. It worries me particularly because community must be central to how we live, especially as we deal with the impacts and effects of climate change, known and unknown. If the 20th century was …

I wish to raise the matter of section 47 assessments in the context of the proposed reform of family law referred to in the programme for Government. In the case of one court-appointed assessor, several women in north Kildare have come to me extremely distressed at the removal of their children in questionable circumstances. They have also outlined how this court-appointed assessor inserted himself into their family lives for a period far beyond the production of a report. These women feel doubly distressed because…

The people's interest must trump the interest of lobbyists. It is perfectly clear that the Part V developer exemption must go. If it remains, we will lose thousands of affordable homes. We see rocketing house prices rocketing even further. They have gone through the roof in north Kildare. Crazy house prices is not just an information support group for distracted and disgusted potential buyers. It is the hard reality for people trying to get a home today. We have been here before, in the grip of a property fever tha…

Robust freedom of information legislation acknowledges power. That power does not belong to a Minister, a political party or the Government; it belongs to the people. I commend my comrade, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, on tabling this pertinent Private Members' motion. Fine Gael's proposed ham-fisted, naked crony appointment of an envoy to the UN saw a Minister delete information on Government business, removing it from scrutiny. According to the Taoiseach, he deleted it in good faith. However, on Government information,…

Will the Minister for Health liaise with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in the best interests of the child to urgently examine the lack of electronic records at St. Louise's clinic in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin for those children who have reported sexual abuse and are waiting months for specialist interview regarding same, and the delay in providing the number on the lists of Members of Dáil Éireann.

I thank the Minister for his reply. He will appreciate that getting clarity on this is very important. I have been raising this matter since last autumn. I first raised it on Questions on Promised Legislation with the Tánaiste and I have sent several letters to the Minister and his Department as well as tabling parliamentary questions. I have been trying to help a family in my constituency. It is not a waiting list of six to eight weeks as the Minister mentioned. This particular family, and the child was under seve…

Perhaps the Minister could examine the lack of electronic records. With paper records, it is very difficult to find out exactly where one is on the list. It is hard to cross-check between different Departments and it is hard to know the number of cases. It is hard to believe that we are still relying on paper records at this stage. I wish to thank the Minister and his staff, in the last week of this session, for the help they have given me on this and other questions. I know the Department has been extremely busy. …

I commend this motion and welcome the opportunity to support families' calls for a full public inquiry into nursing home deaths during this awful pandemic. From the outset, I have been anxious and worried about how the Covid pandemic was handled in our nursing homes. That is why almost a year ago, during one of my first speeches, I called on the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, to establish a quick, Scally-type inquiry into what happened. My constituency of Kildare North took a disproportionate, awful…

The words "domestic" and "violence" simply do not belong together. Home not being a place of safety for a woman or her children should be anathema to us as a State and as a society. We see eyes the colour and size of ripe plums, but we do not see the invisible violence when it is at home - the sly kicks to the stomach, the spine or the labia; the bank accounts checked; the shopping money doled out; and the taunts about weight, looks, family or figure. That invisible violence is echoed by the State in how it abandon…

Time is up on this renting crisis. The same old political faces doing the same old thing just does not work. Even when people manage to find a place to rent, the rent they are expected to pay is out of control. The Minister has heard my colleagues say that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have had their chance. They had it, they took it and they blew it. They prefer to tinker around the edges of a housing crisis that is, in fact, a humanitarian crisis. Being able to afford a decent place to live is one of the most fundame…

I want to raise the issue of Erasmus students who have contacted me worried about the fact that under the current roll-out programme they will not be vaccinated prior to leaving to attend universities across the EU. I submitted a parliamentary question on this matter to the Minister's office, but the reply takes no account of the vaccine needs and concerns of these young people who will be leaving this State for up to ten months, and their parents. It is a record year with over 7,000 students heading across the EU …

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this Private Members' motion. I thank the Minister for his speech. "Affordable" and "housing" are two words that do not often seem to go together in the State. Nor will they while we have a government ideology that leaves housing, which is one of our most basic human needs, at the mercy of the markets. What a mercy the market is. According to The Irish Times yesterday, house prices in Dublin have been surging by €1,500 per week since March. The bank …