Mary Lou McDonald

Yes.

What about the Attorney General's advice?

I am struck by the Taoiseach's boastful approach regarding the so-called metrics on housing. Those metrics are record and skyrocketing rents, record evictions and record homelessness. Last year, the State spent almost €500 million on emergency accommodation. Over the past decade, almost €5 billion has been spent on managing homelessness. All the while, homelessness continues to rise. Families are …

The Taoiseach is so glib about people who have no homes.

The Taoiseach is so glib.

The latest daft.ie rent report was published this morning. The consequences of the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill are now laid bare. Rents have hit their highest level in 25 years and are increasing at the fastest rate since records began and evictions are at their highest level since the Famine. This is devastating for renters. The rent rule changes announced by the Government last summer a…

The Taoiseach has nowhere to hide today because the consequences of his actions are very clear. The Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil rent hike Bill has meant the highest rent hikes on record and evictions at the highest levels since the Famine. The Government has chosen deliberately to side with corporate landlords and vulture funds. Those are the Taoiseach's choices. It takes a very particular type of slíbh…

-----in this House and suggest that it is okay for families to face a rent bill of €30,000 a year in Dublin and €27,000 in Galway.

It is a very special kind of slíbhín politics from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Shame on you.

A slíbhín is a slíbhín.

A rose by any other name and a slíbhín by any other name. Shame on you, Taoiseach.

That is your record, Taoiseach. Do not dare lecture the rest of us on the Opposition benches.

Fáilte, Austin. Deputy Carthy is telling me that Austin is a Monaghan man. The Ceann Comhairle missed the most important element of the story. Comhghairdeas agus fáilte. Three years on from the financial scandals that rocked RTÉ, the State broadcaster is once again embroiled in controversy. The latest debacle centres on RTÉ revising the list of its top ten highest earning presenters to include Mr…

Unfortunately, the Taoiseach is very touchy about the idea that he might be expected to do his job and do it competently. A key function of the Government is to ensure that State agencies, including RTÉ, are accountable and that an agency such as RTÉ, which has been bailed out to the tune of almost three quarters of a billion euro, behaves in a manner that is transparent and appropriate, so we do …

-----that is on the Taoiseach and the "I don't know what's going on" Minister, Deputy Patrick Donovan-----

-----who apparently shrugged his shoulders and did a Manuel on it. He knows nothing apparently. He needs to start finding out.

It sounds like you want to run RTÉ, not Matt Carthy.

7. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Northern Ireland will meet next. [32082/26]

Our ambulance workers should not have to strike to be heard by the Taoiseach. They should not have to stand on a picket line to fight for fair pay, recognition and basic respect, but that is what they were forced to do yesterday. They were left with no other option because the Government has failed to deliver improved pay for the incredible work, vital skills and life-saving expertise they bring t…

Exactly.

Yes, it is.

The Taoiseach's response reflects his lack of urgency on this question. He is quite happy to simply take a laissez-faire approach and hope that others will sort this out. He knows that for the past six years, throughout this process of modernisation, ambulance workers have been left understaffed to the point that they have very deep safety concerns. Those concerns are well-grounded. He has left th…

I urge the Taoiseach again to stop being a spectator-----

----- to intervene and assist in a resolution on this matter.

Jesus, do not. They are completely understaffed.