Mary Lou McDonald

Do not preach the Constitution having done what you did. Spare us the homily, Micheál.

It is a reflection on you, Taoiseach.

Yes, it was.

He is allowed to make a point of order.

Is there a copy of the Taoiseach's statement?

With all due respect, it is hardly convincing for the Taoiseach to warn us about the impending difficulties for the multi-annual framework for the budget when out of the other side of his mouth, he has lauded what amounts to a weapons race and a hyper-militarisation of Europe. It is also ironic to note that the origins of the European project going back to the European Coal and Steel Community wer…

The Taoiseach is hell-bent on upending the democratic functioning of the Dáil to protect his grubby deal with Deputy Michael Lowry. Today the Taoiseach will try to ram through unprecedented changes to Dáil rules to allow Deputy Lowry and his group of TDs to sit in Government and Opposition at the same time. These are TDs who have pledged to support his Government in good days and in bad, to use th…

What exactly does Deputy Lowry have over the Taoiseach? What debt does he owe him? The former Fine Gael Minister, a rogue politician as the Taoiseach described him, is now kingmaker for the Government. This is a man the Taoiseach wants to sit in both government and opposition at the same time. The combined Opposition has repeatedly sought to meet with the Taoiseach to resolve this matter. Our off…

A Cheann Comhairle, with the greatest of respect, we are on the same ground. Micheál Martin can spare us and the nation his sanctimonious homilies on democracy. He has been here since 1989, which is a political lifetime. Never has such a brazen stroke been attempted. In all of the peculiar shenanigans of this place, there has never been something like this. The Taoiseach was quick enough to throw …

We are asking why. We should have an answer to this. It is as simple as this: the Taoiseach should not take people for fools. People know that for their interests to be protected and for politics and democracy to work, the Government has its prerogatives to discharge. We respect that. The Taoiseach needs to respect the duty and the prerogatives of the Opposition but he does not want that. He wants…

Yes.

4. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Coordination Group in the days before, during and after Storm Éowyn. [10820/25]

During the general election campaign, the Taoiseach, along with the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, and his Ministers, repeatedly claimed that 40,000 homes would be delivered in 2024. This was a ploy to fool people into believing that the Government had made real progress on housing. Of course, we all knew it was bull. We now know that, in fact, 30,330 homes were delivered in 2024. That is less than the p…

The Taoiseach is spoofing. The Department of Finance analysed all the available data which the Taoiseach cited and more. The Department told the Taoiseach's colleague, the Minister, Jack Chambers, that 40,000 homes in 2024 was not happening. We have the documentation to reflect that fact. The Minister knew and the Government knew - I assume the Taoiseach knew - yet the Government spun the fiction …

I ask the Taoiseach to reflect on that and on the fact that his sniggering-----

-----caused real hurt. The Taoiseach should genuinely reflect on that fact. Perhaps he has not. I now ask him to do so and accept also that he misled people in the general election campaign.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

You are.

Yes, if he will.

No.

No, you are spoofing.

We are now four months on from the general election and we have only ten more sitting days until the Easter recess. The legislative priority of the Government so far was to get more money for junior Ministers. We have no committees established. The Government has sat on that matter. It has proven itself to be truly a do-nothing Government. The Dáil is effectively in cold storage. The Government pr…

I ask that the Government desists from this course of action, respects the role we have, as the Opposition, allows us to get on with our work and, dare I suggest it, you get on with yours.

I am happy to clarify that in fact I called the Deputies underlings and not lackies, just for the record.