I thank the Minister of State.

Deputy Daly has engaged extensively on the Bill. I ask the Minister to consider his amendments. We are acting in good faith to work with the Government on this because we believe that providing for a single statute for hate crime is appropriate. We have some concerns with the Bill and these need to be heard, but what we want to see is an action plan for implementation. For too long, vulnerable cohorts in our society have felt as though they have no protection. We need to send a clear message that targeting people b…

I want to discuss issues in my constituency of Cork North-Central, where there are significant issues with the water quality and brown drinking water in people's houses. I have received calls from people in areas such as Ballyvolane, Gurranabraher, Farranree, Sunday's Well and right across the city saying discoloured or brown water has been coming from their taps in recent months. Irish Water has admitted that this is due to adding too many chemicals to clean water by mistake. I have been communicating back and for…

I ask the Minister to reverse the decision to close St. Vincent's Secondary School, which is a publicly funded school for girls. The buck stops with her. This proposal is having a very negative and upsetting effect on many students. For the students in the wonderful Lir ASD unit, it is an extremely difficult time and they are being hugely affected. It is having a fierce effect on the pupils who will sit their leaving certificate examination next year and, in particular, the following year. The announcement came out…

Did the Minister sign off on this? This process was flawed. She is the Minister for Education. The Department of Education gave her this to sign off and I believe that was completely wrong. At the end of the day she has a responsibility as Minister to ensure that this was done properly. It was not done properly. I spoke to the parents, teachers and particularly the students. Have the patrons excluded all of them from the process? If the patrons want out of the school let us get new patrons. This campaign is only be…

Does that mean it will be paused? Will it be stopped? I am asking a straight question.

Will parents be invited? They are closing the school and the students and parents have no input.

Recently at the housing committee we have had local authorities in to give us an update on the Government's housing plan. Each week we hear the news from the Government that local authorities are meeting their targets, so you might think building enough social and affordable housing to meet the need is happening, but it is not. Not one local authority that has been in says that if they meet all targets on social, affordable and cost rentals, that list will not rise. Not alone should we be stopping the lists from ri…

Both Deputy McDonald and I have raised the north inner-city drug and alcohol task force on multiple occasions with the Taoiseach over the past year and a half. Progress has been glacial, even by the Department of Health's standards. As a result, the task force in effect remains shut down. This represents a wider shift away from evidence-based community addiction responses. Fine Gael decimated task forces in the austerity years and they have never seen their funding returned. Inadequate co-funding has removed autono…

I commend the work of the All-Island Women's Forum and its commitment to fully inclusive engagement. One of the outcomes of its work is its highlighting of the urgent need to adopt a joint approach to tackling gender-based violence in all its forms. While the Departments of Justice in the North and the South share best practice in tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, there remains a shared challenge associated with a lack of disaggregated data both north and south. Much of this shared island focus i…

The Government party leaders met with senior Ministers early this week on the escalating crisis in emergency housing provision, which has been deepened by the war in Ukraine, but the truth is that it has been years in the making and a result of successive governments turning their face or not supporting public housing provided directly by the State. In the past 12 months, child homelessness in Cork and Kerry has risen by an unbelievable 40%. The blame for this solely lies with the Government’s failed housing polici…

Confidence and supply.

But you supported their strategy.

They are hitting all their targets.

Not the war; the housing crisis was coming.

I am disappointed with the legislation that has been brought forward. While we support it and recognise there is a need for an emergency ban on evictions, and there are parts of the legislation we welcome, the Minister has missed an opportunity to go further, which he should have taken. Child homelessness in Cork has increased by 40% in the past 12 months. Our homeless figures are now at record levels not only in Cork but nationally. The hidden homeless have not been covered in this debate. Those include people who…

The weekend before last, there were blackouts right across Cork city. We still do not know the reason. It was a real wake-up call for people in Cork to realise the Government has failed to secure energy despite warnings. People are concerned. Rushing this Bill through the Dáil is fooling no one. Once again, the Government, having ignored the warnings, is now trying to react at the last minute. This should have been planned over the summer. My colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, has been raising concerns about the rushed na…

Many of my constituents and those of the Taoiseach were devastated to hear the news that the new elective hospital in Cork will not be operational until 2028. Last September, promises were made that that hospital would be open in 2024. Hospitals in Cork are in crisis right now. Tens of thousands are on waiting lists. People wait days on trolleys. To wait another six years is not feasible. We need a hospital and we need it open now. I will give the Taoiseach one fact: last month, in September, one person waited 88 h…

But there will be operations carried out.

So people will be going in their beds.