Cian O'Callaghan

I agree with the points that have been made. I want to ask the Government about tariffs. I looked for time to be on the Dáil schedule this week to discuss tariffs. It is a huge issue that is going to impact on this country. Will the Chief Whip reconsider and actually put time on the schedule this week so that we can get an update from the Government on tariffs and have questions and answers with …

The delay in setting up committees is completely on the Government side. We have been waiting months for the Government to bring forward proposals to establish committees. It must bring forward those proposals to the Dáil reform committee for committees to be established. It should have been done months ago. We have been asking for this be done for this to be done. There is no excuse for delays. T…

-----should answer the following questions. What influence will Michael Lowry have in the allocation of public money in the national development plan and the HSE capital plan? How will this influence be exercised? Will there be special treatment for requests from Michael Lowry? This is public money. We need transparency. The public has a right to know. The independence of the office of the Ceann …

Donald Trump has called 2 April "Liberation Day" because it is the day he plans to launch a global economic war. Ireland will inevitably be impacted but the extent had been unclear. However, last night we learned that Donald Trump has pharmaceuticals in his cross hairs. He said, "... we love Ireland, but we're going to have that," referring to our pharma sector. Trump’s toxic love affair with the …

The Minister was crystal clear in the election that he was going to deliver tax cuts. He is now being crystal clear that they are off the table. We called him out on that during the election campaign that it was irresponsible and reckless.

I asked the Minister serious questions about the response on tariffs, which he has not answered. How the EU decides to retaliate to Trump’s tariffs will be critically important to Ireland. We are particularly exposed because we are a small open economy with huge levels of trade with the US. The Minister knows this. We are much more exposed than other countries. If the EU retaliation brings into th…

The Minister has not answered what I asked.

I have to take the Minister of State up on what he has just said, trying to imply somehow that the Social Democrats are not strong supporters of the European Union. We always have been, since our foundation.

That comment really is beneath the Minister of State. He knows well we have always been strongly supportive of the European Union. There is no question on that. It is really just a distraction tactic. The heart of this is in the Minister of State's speech, where he keeps talking about reform of the triple lock. This Government is not reforming the triple lock. That is what it said it would do in i…

Yesterday, I asked the Taoiseach to name a single parliament in the world where there is a time slot on the schedule where 100% of the time is given to the Government members of that parliament and he did not answer. Today, the Taoiseach came in with a list of parliaments where government MPs can ask oral questions. That has always been the case in Ireland where Government TDs can ask oral questio…

I thank the Taoiseach. I would ask him to get this into his head. I have asked him the question: “What is your deal with Michael Lowry?” Is the Taoiseach saying he made no deal with Michael Lowry to support the Government? Is that what he is saying? Is he saying there was no deal?

Was there no deal at all? Is that what the Taoiseach is saying? Is he saying he made no deal with Michael Lowry about these speaking rights at any stage, that there were no agreements, that he has done this off his own bat and that this is entirely his own initiative even though from day one Michael Lowry was saying that he was going to get these special speaking rights that Opposition leaders get…

Will I not get three minutes, a Cheann Comhairle? No. Okay.

The Taoiseach's efforts to defend the indefensible are not working. Dáil rules are being reverse-engineered to guarantee one outcome, that is, that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will deliver on the deal they have made with Michael Lowry. That is what it all boils down to. The Taoiseach's backbenchers are well aware he would not be going to these extremes for them. The truth is the Government has cause…

Given this track record of duplicity, why should anyone in the Opposition or the public trust what he says?

The Taoiseach is right. This is quite extraordinary-----

Yes, but in more than 100 years of this Dáil, never ever in the weekly schedule has there a time slot created where 100% of the time is allocated to the Government. Does the Taoiseach not see something fundamentally wrong-----

-----with a time slot being created where Government TDs ask the Taoiseach questions without any input from the Opposition? Can the Taoiseach tell me of any parliament in the world where there is a time slot where 100% of it-----

-----is for government backbenchers to ask government leaders questions with no time allocated to the opposition? That does not exist. Therefore, this is quite extraordinary and it should not be done. Will he tell me one place in the world where this happens?

No, it does not.

Tens of thousands of children with additional needs are being failed by this Government. Some 14,221 children are overdue an assessment of need. New figures released to me show the scale of the crisis for children trying to access essential therapies. At the end of December, there were more than 41,000 children waiting for an initial assessment for speech, language and occupational therapy. The f…

What are parents and families to do now? They are at their wits' end. They are increasingly being told that the only way to get the assessments of need that are needed for their children is to take legal action. The State is not contesting these cases, so the State is effectively putting its hands up and saying it is failing to meet the legal needs of children with additional needs. What is the Tá…

So parents should take legal cases to access that. Is that what the Tánaiste is saying?

The Taoiseach was asked a simple question, which he did not answer. Did the Minister for Finance share with him the analysis from the Department of Finance that the 40,000 homes claim was not going to materialise last year? Did he share that analysis with the Taoiseach before the election date? The Taoiseach might answer this question because he has been asked twice and he has not answered it. The…

There is now a mountain of evidence that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael deliberately misrepresented housing delivery figures during the election. The Taoiseach cannot continue to deny it. This is a Comical Ali routine he is playing in pretending it was somehow an honest mistake. Not content with massaging last year's figures, the targets for this year are now being clearly reverse engineered. When the …