Ken O'Flynn

Deputy, you are out of time.

You are now 20 seconds over time.

You are now 20 seconds over time.

Do not tell me to calm down. Please, Deputy.

Have a small bit of respect. I appreciate you do not have any respect for me but have respect for the Chair.

Have respect for the Chair. Everybody prepares and makes their speech in the time they are allotted.

You have been a Member of this House long enough to know those rules.

I welcome Cara and her dad, Mark, to the Public Gallery, as many of my colleagues on these benches have. When Cara walked in to Leinster House today, I noticed that she passed a painting of Countess Markievicz and busts of Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, women who have left indelible marks on this State. Cara’s name is up there with those great women who have left an indelible mark on this State.…

I raise an issue with the Minister that has gone unaddressed in this House for far too long. It is a blatant discrimination built on the taxation regime targeted squarely at citizens with no children in this country. I ask her plainly if it is acceptable for the Government to oversee, implement and defend a taxation system that discriminates against people purely based on the fact they do not have…

This is not a hypothetical or abstract policy debate. This affects hundreds of thousands of people in this country. On 19 March in the Upper House, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe said he would address the fundamental points of discrimination. He also made the statement that it seemed to be constitutional, yet he has not provided any proof or legal argument and no documentation has ever b…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss wages of early childhood educators and staff shortages. Deputy Eoghan Kenny - To discuss multi-annual funding for residential placements for adults with disabilities. Deputy Brian Brennan - To discuss di…

Discussion on this Topical Issue matter has concluded. The Minister might respond to the Deputy privately on that.

Thank you, Deputy.

I am impressed to hear the amount of credentials and the trade union members elected here, but unlike many of my colleagues I have never been a member of a trade union. I was employed while in college in the United Kingdom doing basic work behind bars and the rest of it. I never had an opportunity to join a trade union. I was self-employed. I ran bars and restaurants in Spain. I did not have an op…

It is related in the Irish Examiner that, at a meeting of Cork City Council last Monday evening, a number of councillors stated that Cork city is a no-go area and that there are parts of the city that you cannot go into. Another councillor, Seán Martin, stated that we have to take back our city. Does the Taoiseach agree with his Fianna Fáil colleagues on Cork City Council that the city is now unsa…

I almost feel sorry for the Ceann Comhairle because she is hearing the same story over and over again from every Deputy who has spoken. The Minister of State, Deputy Jerry Buttimer, and I share a constituency in Cork. He will be aware that 39 weeks is the average waiting time. We seem to be a country of waiting lists. We are very good at creating waiting lists and long waits for everybody. Famili…

The Taoiseach is not heckled from all sides of the House.

I am sure the Taoiseach will join me in welcoming the Meany family from the Lower Glanmire Road and Ballyvolane to the Public Gallery. As reported by RTÉ and the Irish Examiner, a HSE inquest issued an apology on Tuesday, 29 April for the death almost six years ago of Mr. Anthony Hennessy of Mallow, County Cork, in a room in St. Stephen's Hospital in Glanmire near Cork city. On 25 November 2019, …

I offer my congratulations to the Minister and Minister of State. I have not had the opportunity to do so in the Chamber previously. I note a statement here to the effect that many of the skills of today did not exist yesterday and that many of the skills of tomorrow do not exist today. That is very true. It is the reality of life. When it comes to research and development, perhaps we are not as …

I have to agree with my colleagues. The story Michael Collins tells about west Cork is exactly the same as the story we see in Cork North-Central. We cannot build a single home in Carrignavar because there is no water treatment plant. The infrastructure in Glanmire - which is in my constituency, which is the location of the parish I was born in and which is where I got my biggest vote in the last …

Last week, my city of Cork was struck by a deep tragedy with the loss of a young man, Luke Hyde, who got into difficulty swimming in the River Lee. What makes the loss more horrifying to his friends and family is the fact that many people stood by filming and then shared footage on social media. While Coco’s Law rightly criminalises the sharing of intimate images without consent there is currently…

On Europe Day, we mark a bold vision, born from the ashes of war, of peace, co-operation and prosperity between nations that once stood divided. I am a proud pro-European. I believe in nations working together, not tearing each other down. Let that not be confused with blind obedience to Brussels. This Europe is not the dream we signed up to back in the seventies. We see consequences of remote pol…

I wish to share time with Deputies Michael Collins and Paul Lawless.

The final report is not just a catalogue of failure, it is a national disgrace. Let us be clear: this did not happen in the shadows. This happened in the full view of the State, with the knowledge of senior officials and successive governments, which chose to turn a blind eye. What this report exposes is not just incompetence; it is complicity. Children and vulnerable adults were failed again and …

The Deputy is eating into his colleagues' time.