Paul Murphy

These are the Tánaiste's words: Children are starving. Basic painkilling medicine cannot be accessed. Hospitals are being bombed and the scale of death and destruction in Gaza is almost unimaginable. It is certainly unconscionable. Famine is a real risk for many Gazans and children are even dying as we speak ... We cannot and will not stand idly by and let this happen. These are the Tánaiste's w…

How could the Tánaiste say these things? The Ditch has informed him, and I am very happy to pass over a folder of waybills from the airlines themselves. We do not need to investigate it; the airlines themselves are declaring that they are carrying weapons. These have been sent to the Tánaiste repeatedly, not just after the fact, but in advance of the fact. One of the receipts I have here from FedE…

They are on the waybills. I can give them to the Tánaiste-----

They are admitting it.

We do not need aircraft to find out about it.

They are telling the Tánaiste that they are carrying weapons-----

-----and he is not doing anything about it.

We can see the Tánaiste's studied, deliberate and false ignorance, pretending that he does not know what is going on and suggesting we need to have aircraft to inspect commercial airlines in the sky over Ireland. What is he suggesting? Again, it is very simple. I am really happy to give these waybills from the aircraft to the Tánaiste that repeatedly show that thousands of tonnes of weaponry have …

-----fly through our airspace if they violate these basic laws. Does the Tánaiste agree with that? Is he going to act to stop-----

-----Silk Way, Challenge, Delta and Lufthansa continuing to fly? We actually need action-----

Would the Tánaiste like me to drop these over to him, the emails and so on, in order that he has them? Does he need them? Would he like me to drop them over to him?

I will drop them over to him.

They fought so hard for those questions.

Proposals were reportedly brought to Cabinet this week to criminalise people who wear face coverings on protests. Anyone wearing any type of face covering, be it a disabled person wearing a medical face mask or a religious person wearing a face covering, can be ordered to remove it by the Garda.

Okay. I am interested to hear the answer. What was reported is that if people refuse to remove a face covering they could then be arrested. It certainly seemed like an attack on the right of people to protest, particularly disabled people, who subjected the last Government to one of its biggest defeats in terms of a row-back on the Green Paper on disability reform. Many of them - people who are im…

Last week I asked for a debate on the Government's housing policy or lack of it. Since then, the Government's credibility has collapsed even further with the debacle over the housing tsar. We need an emergency debate this week on housing. Does the Government agree that it is untenable for Brendan McDonagh to remain as head of NAMA when he has been using different aliases in legal documents submitt…

Last week, Israel attacked an aid flotilla bound for Gaza with drones in international waters against people who were bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. That is shocking, but for Israel it is not unprecedented. Fifteen years ago, ten people were killed aboard the MV Mavi Marmara as part of the freedom flotilla. Fourteen years ago, when I was an MEP, I participated in the freedom flotilla. Our firs…

8. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the interactions he or his Department have had with the owner of a business (details supplied) since taking office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21247/25]

The last couple of weeks have seen the Minister abandon a series of promises to workers. He abandoned the promises to extend sick leave and introduce a living wage. Incredibly, he is refusing to scrap sub-minimum wages. People watching this performance might ask if the Minister is following the lead of the most anti-trade union boss in Ireland, Michael O'Leary, who launched the Minister's election…

At the Minister's campaign launch, Michael O'Leary stated: We need a government that delivers for enterprise ... it’s vital that we elect a government that gets shit done ... I can think of nobody here, certainly in the current government, who demonstrates more action, more energy ... than Peter Burke. That is more action and more energy for enterprise. Is that why the Minister is doing what he …

Delayed.

Saying that is a fact does not make it a fact. The Government has been in power for three or four months. It has not progressed workers' rights at all. It has taken a series of negative steps and reneged on the commitments to extend sick leave and establish a living wage and on the vote of the previous Dáil to abolish sub-minimum wages. I will focus on the latter. The Dáil voted two years ago to a…

That is a delay.

No, it is not.

It is not-----