I do not think we should confine this to artists; that is my entire point. I also push back on the suggestion of renaming of it. The concept of a "basic income" is something that has been championed for many decades now as a way to provide certainty and a safety net for many people who live with precarious labour. I mentioned farmers. There are seasonal farmers who have to spend months of the year signing on when we could look at a much more concrete way of assisting people in moving between the different contribut…

It spoke about retaining a reference to the concept of a "basic income".

The relationship that many of us have with our pharmacists is often a very important one. To demonstrate that, there is only a handful of people on my Christmas baking list beyond my family, but my pharmacist is right up there at the top. I really welcome that in recent years we have seen the expansion of the role that pharmacies play in communities. They can be such a hub for support for many people and communities. In preparation for today's statements, I spoke with a local pharmacist, Ms Rebecca Goodwin from Roe…

I thank my party colleague Deputy Quaide for bringing forward this motion. As a member of the Social Democrats, I am very proud to put it forward. I realise that the issue has been debated many times in the House, but we have a clear commitment from the Government to abolish the means test and we have a clear rationale for how to do that, yet the Government chooses to continue to hedge and dodge what it has to do. We have heard a lot of detail today, but I want to zoom out for a moment and talk about care more broa…

I will pick up where I finished my speech on the Sumud flotilla yesterday. I was emphasising a point I have made again and again on this floor. This Government has a unique mandate, given to it by a population that is unwavering and unequivocal in our support for Gaza. Sadly, the Minister of State's Government has squandered this by not acting. We have heard the right words from it, but it has not acted on the occupied territories Bill, which remains unenacted a year after the election campaign in which the Governm…

The power of sport for inclusion, integration and community in Ireland is undeniable. Our towns, villages, cities and suburbs are all home to sports clubs that have become vital social hubs for people of all ages. In my constituency of Dublin Rathdown, sports capital funding, in conjunction with the time and dedication of volunteers, has meant that grassroots sport in our area has been able to swell membership across a number of codes and to welcome more people from our communities to share in the joy that sport br…

It is reported in the Irish Independent today that at a recent launch of teen accounts Meta's head of safety essentially said parents are now responsible for what their children and teens view online, including the harmful things their teens view online. Our Government and the tech regulators in this jurisdiction are asleep at the wheel. The social media platforms are running rings around them. When will the Government take seriously its obligations to regulate this area? We need time to discuss this urgently this …

I too welcome this joint motion and express my solidarity with everybody aboard the flotilla. I welcome the families of those Irish people on board those 40 boats. I will use my time to recall why these people are on the flotilla in the first place. Across those 40 boats, there are people from all over the world including politicians, artists, activists and ordinary people. They are united by a love for humanity and for the international rules-based order that we have failed to protect and that is ignored by the US…

In the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity the Minister outlines progressing the interests of Irish SMEs in the dual-use area, specifically citing defence research and development and the European Defence Fund. Is the Department equipped to deal with an increase in licence applications and the due diligence required to facilitate the dual-use licence system?

I thank the Minister of State for the detail. My key concern in this area is that while the Department continues to emphasise dual use as including perfectly legitimate ICT products, it also emphasises military applications and plans to extend this industry in Ireland. I welcome that applications are risk assessed but with this emphasis on military and defence applications of these goods there is a natural increase in risk and in the number of applications that need additional scrutiny to ensure the end use present…

I hope that is the case because, even in the previous answer to Deputy Conway-Walsh, we hear this emphasis on streamlining and making more efficient the administrative burden on businesses. However, this is a really serious area and one that needs to go in the other direction. In data released to me in answer to a parliamentary question, figures showed significant increases in the value and number of export licences granted since 2021. The Government's competitiveness plan indicates that the Government wants more d…

Last weekend, I was delighted to attend a ceremony celebrating a centenary of light, 100 years of LauraLynn providing palliative care for children, celebrating beyond the establishment of LauraLynn to the legacy bodies that it worked with, the Children’s Sunshine Home and, indeed, Ella Webb who started treating children with rickets in 1925. Tá mé comh bhródúil. I am very proud that all this work has been done in Leopardstown in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown. LauraLynn provides crucial work. It is the only org…

I am delighted to have this opportunity and a little surprised that there is not more interest from speakers across the House on this really important issue. I will cover some of the things we talk about when we think about what a social enterprise is, the contributions they make to society and to our economy and then some of the gaps that I believe still exist in this strategy. I really welcome that the Minister of State has invited from us those suggestions and I trust that he will give them adequate deliberation…

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. If we were to look for another way to express the concept of storing up problems, I do not think there are better words than "child poverty" and "child homelessness" to capture it. The lasting inequality and lifelong implications the Government is storing up because of its failure to deal with these crises will live with us for generations. Experiencing poverty as a child lowers life expectancy, increases risk of health issues and impacts across a range of …

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this topic this evening, but like others I am frustrated, because it is another instance where we discuss something yet the regulatory vacuum still exists. This is our generation's version of big tobacco and it is preying on our children. Big tobacco is marketing to children on purpose and it is no secret the sale of e-cigarettes or vapes has boomed in recent years. Far from the original branding, which positioned these products as a way to quit smoking, they are now branded wit…

The housing disaster is spiralling out of control. This year has seen the lowest commencement figures in a decade. The Central Bank has just revised its forecasts for this year downwards. To paraphrase, it is saying that this Government has no hope of reaching its housing targets. Meanwhile, not-for-profit housing organisations are telling us that they have never seen such chaos and they are blaming this Government. The truth is that the Government has totally lost control of housing. The Minister is barely there. …

The general scheme of the defence (amendment) Bill 2025 represents a fundamental change to how we deploy troops overseas. For the many decades that Ireland has been participating in peacekeeping it has been under the exclusive banner of the UN. When people sign up for the Defence Forces, it is with a reasonable expectation that overseas service will be in a blue beret. Has the Minister consulted with rank and file members of the Defence Forces on this fundamental change to their terms and conditions?

I notice that the Tánaiste did not use the words "General Assembly" when he was describing how broken the triple lock is, so I do think we are still ignoring the fact that there is a facility within the triple lock to actually consult with the General Assembly. I would also point out that all previous Acts refer to this international United Nations force, not an international force. It is defined as, "an international force or body established, mandated, authorised, endorsed, supported, approved or otherwise sancti…

No one is denying the difficulties of the Security Council but the Tánaiste has given no effort to actually describe how the General Assembly could be engaged to fall back. It is in the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006. It is part of the triple lock and the Tánaiste is completely ignoring it. Constantly referencing other countries denies our history. It denies the Nice and Lisbon treaties and how we arrived at the point of the triple lock. Besides that, our association with UN mandates was way before then anyway. One c…

As we have heard today and as will be on "Prime Time" this evening, it has been reported that the location data of tens of thousands of Irish people is being sold online. This data tells the buyer where people live and their place of work even if it is some sensitive location like a military base or a women's refuge. It tells them when people went to the doctor, where the park is that they take their kids to play in and whom they met there. That buyer is anyone who can reasonably pose as a company that wants this d…