St. Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous has been oversubscribed-----

St. Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous. It has been oversubscribed for three years, putting serious pressure on the delivery of secondary school education in Prosperous and the surrounding area. Temporary accommodation, including a science lab, woodwork room, two classrooms, toilets and an office were coming up from a school in Monasterevin but that is only going to meet the needs of this coming year. This project has been in preplanning with the devolved section since last October and the delay is extremel…

There was delays on the Department's end.

I welcome the establishment of a commission of investigation into historical sexual abuse in schools. I am thinking first and foremost of the survivors, some of whom are here in the Public Gallery today, and those who were abused as children in the very places they should have been safe, namely, our schools and our State institutions. This has been a long time coming. The findings of the commission must acknowledge the harm done to thousands of children across the State. Their voices and their healing must be to th…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important debate. Cases of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence are at a crisis point. Women's Aid was founded in 1974 and it has been instrumental in responding to the needs of women over the past 50 years. Having begun as a small service, it has grown into a national organisation that directly supports thousands of women throughout the country. I have directed women to it and it gives great advice around planning how to leave an abusive relationship because that is…

I too welcome the students to the Dáil. I listened to the Minister's speech and, like students up and down the country, I am none the wiser. Students have been left under serious pressure over the course of the past few weeks and their college term has not even begun yet. They are meant to be enjoying their summer holidays and getting a summer job. While many students and their families are stressing over the summer to try to secure whatever is left of the extortionately priced student accommodation, they now face …

When Pádraig Pearse stood outside the GPO on Easter 1916 to read the Proclamation, he read it not in the hopes that he might one day live to see it, but in the knowledge that the generations of republicans to follow would. The Proclamation of the Republic is not just a script to put in a picture frame. It is the inspiration of a republic that found a voice in our Proclamation. It was a document so ahead of its time that it still remains an aspiration to all of us who love our country today, the sacred promise of a …

For years, we have known about the state of the housing crisis and calling it an emergency. The President, Uachtarán na hÉireann, called it disastrous when he came to my constituency in north Kildare. Record level house prices, rising rents and missing its own building targets year after year is the Government's record on housing as well as misleading people in the last general election with made up figures. In my constituency of north Kildare, a second-hand three-bedroom house is currently €500,000. How is any nur…

Comhghairdeas leis an Aire Stáit as a ról nua agus go n-éirí leis sa phost. It is imperative, as ever, that we should consider the future of our seas, our environment, our oceans and our rivers and the biodiversity that lives in them. Last week, the Taoiseach attended the UN Ocean Conference in Nice in France. Its theme was accelerating action and mobilising all actions to conserve and sustainably use the ocean. After the event, the Taoiseach said he wants Ireland to be a leading nation in global maritime policy. W…

Ar dtús, ba mhaith liom an Bille seo a mholadh don Teach. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Coppinger as ucht é a chur faoi bhráid na Dála. I would also like to welcome all of those in the Gallery who made the journey to Leinster House today to hear the debate on this very important legislation. I met a couple of people I know outside, including a constituent who is a therapist and a proud advocate and member of Therapists Against Harm. I also met a survivor of sexual assault who is here with her mam. All three of t…

The Taoiseach has some nerve to say that.

This week, the local community in Celbridge gathered again outside the gates of Castletown House to protest the brazen attempts by the OPW to open Lime Avenue without local consultation. The community has been clear and consistent in its demands - the domain has to be reunited, and safe and secure access must be granted to vulnerable pedestrians on Lime Avenue. To their disgust, protocols were broken this week and a vehicle went flying down Lime Avenue yesterday with no escort. I believe they are trying it again to…

The Taoiseach is well aware.

What is the delay?

The Minister is pretending that the KIC is causing the delay but it is not-----

I am not.

It is not right that they were asked to leave. I am disgusted but not a bit surprised that the Government has once again decided not to support our Private Members’ Bill. The Irish people have been lied to by the Government, which pretends to be supportive of Palestine when all it has done to date is recognise Palestine as a state - the best boys in the class but it is a very bad class. Sinn Féin is offering a real and credible action that can stop Irish complicity in this genocide but the Government has refused. I…

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta O’Sullivan, sa phost nua. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil a lán suime aige sa ról. I know this because I was on the climate committee with him for a couple of years in the previous term. Anyone who heard his speech will know it as well. This week we mark National Biodiversity Week with events happening up and down the country, including my own County Kildare. It was great to meet the biodiversity officer in Kildare County Council. I am looking forward to taking part in…

Is í seo an chéad uair dom labhairt leis an Aire Stáit. Déanaim comhghairdeas leis agus guím ádh mór air sa phost nua. The wait time for a driving test in north Kildare is far too long. It has been this way for a long period. As of last month, people in my constituency are waiting an average of 28 weeks for a test in Naas. It was 24 weeks last April and a staggering 31 weeks in April the year before. In a reply to a parliamentary question on waiting times last September, I was informed by the Department of Transpor…

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this motion. Gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as ucht an rún seo a chur faoi bhráid na Dála inniu. Multidenominational and nondenominational schools reflect our increasingly diverse population. Their purpose is to ensure every child feels they belong when they walk through the gates of their local school. Year on year I hear from parents in north Kildare who want to send their children to multidenominational and nondenominational schools. Others want to h…