Mary Lou McDonald

The Taoiseach is completely out of touch.

The Taoiseach is completely out of touch. Does he actually pay bills?

Does he go to the supermarket?

Do you?

Do you?

No, you do not.

When?

This morning, we hear of another scandal involving the care of vulnerable children in this State. Forged references were provided for staff at special emergency accommodation for children, putting vulnerable children in harm's way. These settings, as the Taoiseach knows, are unregulated, poorly resourced and unregistered facilities not inspected by the authorities, yet more than 1,000 children wer…

Can we extend a very warm welcome to Margaret Loftus, who is in the Public Gallery and is appearing before the justice committee today? The Taoiseach has published his spring economic forecast and it tells a very clear story. The Government expects the State's surplus to grow from €5 billion to over €9 billion, meaning billions more flowing into the Exchequer. The Government is taking in billions…

That is guff, plain and simple. The Taoiseach has given us a catalogue of his own failures. On housing, the metro and infrastructure, it is fail, fail, fail on his part. Now, as we learn that the projected surplus will grow from €5.1 billion to more than €9 billion, the Taoiseach has the poor mouth for struggling families. That is all he is offering. I do not know if the Taoiseach thinks that peop…

They do not have lower bills.

You do not live in the real world.

You do not live in the real world.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael attempted a shameful plan to cut SNAs, with some schools facing a loss of as many as six or seven SNAs with absolutely devastating consequences for children and young people. Of course, they were forced into a U-turn by the anger from parents, children, young people and, of course, SNAs. This cannot happen again. Our motion this evening calls on the Government to immediat…

Will the Government engage with the campaign?

It is what?

It is a very real campaign. I am asking the Taoiseach to engage with it.

The Government will not engage with it.

Go raibh maith agat. The Government may have survived the confidence motion yesterday but the Taoiseach should be under no illusion. The Government has lost the confidence of the people because of its arrogance, because it does not understand their lives and because it refuses to listen. Yesterday, even as one of its Ministers of State walked away, the Government still would not listen and indeed …

There is damp, mould, broken windows and doors and crumbling walls. Entire blocks of flats in this city are riddled with dampness. If the Taoiseach went to places like Sheriff Street, Seville Place, Ballybough or East Wall, or the flat complexes of Clarion Quay, Chancery House, Island Quay and Longboat Quay, he would find that out for himself. Families are crying out for very basic and long overd…

To add insult to injury, along come the Government's councillors to hit people with rent hikes. Now that takes a brass neck, arrogance and disrespect. I want the Government to know that people are not taking this lying down. It is not just the hauliers and the farmers who are standing up. These families and communities are standing up too and they are demanding these rent hikes be scrapped. They a…

Why does the Government treat decent people in this way?

I condemn all forms of intimidation. Anybody who has known me in any part of my life knows that while I may lack many things, I do not lack courage. I do not lack courage.

Let me tell the Taoiseach this. He has shown us again exactly who he is. I have asked him to address the lived reality of people from Cabra, Sheriff Street, Seville Place and East Wall. I have named all of the neighbourhoods and told the Taoiseach about the conditions people are living in. They are like something from Strumpet City . I could not describe to the Taoiseach how bad the living conditi…

That is what the Taoiseach has presided over.