Paul Murphy

This resolution is very revealing about the Government's approach. Earlier, we had a resolution that introduced inadequate measures, small cuts in excise on petrol and diesel but no price caps, no guarantee, no security for people into the future and nothing to ensure there is not profiteering. Those measures are time limited until the end of May and could be wiped away by the end of the week. Pri…

If the Minister of State wants, I will get to him before we finish. The ESRI said that for the bottom 10% the budget would see a cut of about 2.5% in income-----

The ESRI did not say that. I will get the Minister of State the exact figures by the time I finish. The Government's budget - people can check it online - hit disabled people and the lowest income groups the hardest. Let me say what the Government should have done and what we are in favour of doing. We should cap prices. We should give people certainty: €1.75, as was contained in our Bill, for pe…

You do not search the planes. You refuse to search the planes.

Over the past week, a lot of people have been watching Louis Theroux’s exposé of the online manosphere, where manfluencers peddle misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia, which is then force-fed to young men via toxic social media algorithms. Like the big tech companies and the depraved billionaires who profit from these toxic algorithms, the only value system the manfluencers have is money, …

It feels in many ways like Groundhog Day talking again about a cost-of-living crisis. Of course, this cost-of-living crisis comes on top of a cost-of-living crisis that had not gone away, despite what the Government pretended at the time of the budget. The result is people again choosing between heating or eating, with fuel prices spiralling and people in crisis situations. What lies behind it is …

150. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if plans by local councils to increase rents for council and HAP tenants reflect the commitment in the Delivering Homes, Building Communities plan to review the rents paid by social housing tenants, or if even more rent increases are planned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18049/26]

Across Dublin City Council letters are dropping for council tenants and HAP tenants telling them the people least able to afford to pay are going to see massive rent increases of 30% on average. Dublin city renters are getting organised. I saw there was a big meeting last night, a big meeting the week before and a big meeting the week before that. Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin is involved in organising tho…

Can the Minister of State tell me whether, in the national framework the Government is going to work towards, rents are going to come down for any council tenants or are they just going to rise? That is the simple question. The Delivering Homes, Building Communities document is extremely worrying because it suggests moving away from a differential rent-based system in which people's rent is based …

I am not against a streamlined system in principle but I do not think any council tenants are going to believe the Minister of State that the Government is going to streamline this downwards to the lowest levels. Instead, everyone will hear that it is going to streamline this to the highest possible levels. That will mean even more rent increases for people who simply cannot afford to pay. I am te…

Will you promise me you will go lower?

No, I am interrupting you though.

You tell me if you are going to go lower.

I am just asking the question.

I would ask the Minister of State whether the Government is going to reduce them.

"Death and destruction from the sky, all day long" was what Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, said with glee from a podium. The man is a psychopath. He comes across as a psychopath. It is like he has styled himself on a film villain. He represents a psychopathic regime in a psychopathic system. Who is this death and destruction being rained down on? Well over 1,000 Iranians have now been killed. Alt…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." The choice we have in this debate and in the vote tonight is whether the profits of social media companies or the health and safety of children are going to come first. That is the choice. The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, himself said that the damage caused to young people by social media is the public health challenge of our time. The Minister, De…

There is a gulf between words and actions here. The Minister of State said, and I would welcome it if it was true, that the Government is relentlessly committed to online safety, but that was part of a speech that was justifying why the Government is going to vote down this Bill. I repeat that the Bill is very simple and clear. It is an answer to the torrent of toxic material that is being fed to …

I mostly want to focus on some specifics and some particular questions. I will start with some general points that shape the particulars. The most obvious general point made by many is that this is a heartbreaking scandal. It is awful that so many children have been failed in this way, Harvey, along with his family, among them. It is a horrendous failure by the State. Now we have a process of vari…

Will it include general practice? Will it include the method for this? Will it include the waiting lists, which then were used to pressurise, or were part of the pressure on surgeons to do operations, and so on?

Will it also consider the points made by Deputy Coppinger about all of the information being made available to the families? Otherwise it is a very unfair playing field.

It was quite incredible to hear the Taoiseach at Leaders' Questions again and again refuse to condemn the criminal US and Israeli bombing of Iran. His refusal to tell the very simple truth that this attack is in violation of international law is a shocking illustration of his Government's subordinate position to US imperialism and his moral cowardice in seeking not to irritate Donald Trump in adva…

That is a lie. Check the record. You are lying, Taoiseach.

I have not been silent.

I did not lie about you.