Paul Murphy

26. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [56995/25]

The budget reneged on a key commitment in the programme for Government to introduce a permanent annual cost of disability support payment and then to incrementally increase it. We know that it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. A few years ago, the Department of Finance estimated it at around €10,000. It has obviously gone up substantially since then. Last year's €400 lump sum di…

The Government made them poorer, and took over €1,000 from them. Will it recognise this as a major mistake? Will it bring back an emergency lump sum cost-of-living payment for disabled people before Christmas?

4. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence if the triple lock will be retained in view of the support for it demonstrated by the outcome of the presidential election; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60858/25]

The Government wants to get rid of the triple lock in order that it can send Irish troops abroad on EU or NATO-led missions. The Government will not tell us where it wants to send these troops. I oppose that. I defend our neutrality. I believe the majority of people do. However, I want to focus, at least initially, less on the substance of that but on the democratic question. The Government has re…

Not to get rid of the triple lock.

The Tánaiste speaks about his electoral mandate, and there is no question about that. The basis of his party's mandate is its election manifesto, which referred to "preserving our long-standing policy of active military neutrality" and maintaining military neutrality. There was no mention of redefining that or getting rid of the triple lock. Therefore, the Tánaiste does not have a mandate for what…

The triple lock.

The last time I raised the case of the industrial and reformatory school survivors, who are outside the Dáil on hunger strike, was three weeks ago and at that stage they had been on hunger strike for 22 days. It has now been 47 days and they are still on hunger strike. They are in very grave territory in terms of their health. Their ask is very simple: access to a full Health (Amendment) Act medic…

Can they get commitments in writing around some of these things? Can the Tánaiste or other senior Ministers meet with them to reassure them that their case is being dealt with seriously at the highest level, and to try to bring this to a successful end?

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to require the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to produce a report on the appointment of an emergency independent inspector for Dublin Zoo. I am introducing this Bill in an effort to highlight a range of very serious issues at the zoo. None of them has been properly investigated, despite repeated attempts by co…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time".

I appreciate the fact the Minister of State is here so I hope we can get some information for the local drug and alcohol task forces. These are the people who are doing the work on the front line in communities affected by drug abuse. I hope to hear differently from the Minister of State but it seems as though this Government is continuing the policy we have seen over the past ten years or so of w…

I appreciate the answer but the Minister of State knows as well as I do that it does not actually answer any of the points that I raised. I am hoping that in her two-minute supplementary response the Minister of State will address these issues. I appreciate that she gave the answer she was provided with but this is causing real concern for task forces across the country. I will repeat the basic po…

Will they be included in the reference group?

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. Decriminalisation of all drugs has been the policy of People Before Profit for very many years. We were delighted to see that this was finally adopted as a consensus cross-party position in the interim report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use, which was then chaired by Gino Kenny. The report was published last October. The int…

Smaller apartments.

It was very strange yesterday on Leaders' Questions. I counted no fewer than seven times when Jack Chambers, stepping in for the Taoiseach, called for a debate on our migration policy. This is kind of the last refuge of the scoundrel. Rather than actually coming out and arguing for a position, they just say we need to have a debate about it, suggesting that somehow they are not able to have a deba…

I wrote to the Business Committee seeking a debate on safety for asylum seekers after we saw the horrific attack and what seems to be attempted murder with the attempted burning alive of a baby and children in Drogheda. This was not an isolated incident but one of over 30 arson attacks on asylum centres in what we are seeing as a campaign of far-right terror in this State. We need to be debating i…

Could we add "safety" to the title rather than it being about "enforcement"?

They are not agreed.

Over 1,000 workers have been left in a desperate situation by Fastway Couriers going into receivership. These are direct workers and workers from franchisees. They have all been left being owed back pay or a back month of pay. They are owed wages. They should be owed redundancy. They are now struggling to pay bills and mortgages. However, they have been told they are effectively locked out for a …

I move amendment No. 1: To insert the following after "or an incumbent to nominate a presidential candidate": "; and — amend the law to allow a petition signed by a minimum of 35,000 people who are eligible to vote in a presidential election to nominate a presidential candidate.". Before I start on the topic, I seek a little leeway, given the events that have happened in Saggart over the last …

Okay. The people who are driving this Spoil the Vote process are part of the elite. They are not anti-establishment at all. They are a different, more socially conservative part of the elite than Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They are the Opus Dei wing of the establishment - wealthy fundamentalist Catholics who want to drag us back to the Ireland of the Magdalen laundries, the mother and baby homes a…

I did not mention anyone. It is for people to assume which of the candidates is which. One of the candidates is someone who defends freedom of speech and ordinary people's right to criticise the European Union, wants to protect neutrality, condemns the genocide in Gaza and all who have supported it, stands with carers and disabled people and voted again and again to ban evictions. People have a ch…