Duncan Smith

119. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Defence to provide an update on recruitment numbers for the Defence Forces as of July 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54380/26]

I thank Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, for taking this debate late on a Thursday evening, on the last sitting day of this term. I would like to talk about the town of Swords in north County Dublin. It is the third largest town by population in Ireland, but it is still treated culturally like a small village with a few airport workers in it. I am not sure how familiar the Minister of State is w…

I thank the Minister of State for her response, which speaks to the issue I am raising. Again, she will sense the tone in which I am raising it. There is an awful lot happening and being built, but it is the co-ordination of these works that is the problem. If I could take just three examples from the Minister of State's response, we have the Sword's cultural quarter which is closed at the Seatow…

I welcome to the Gallery former councillor Peter Coyle, a great servant to the Labour Party and Fingal local government for 20 years. I thank Deputy Kenny for bringing forward this motion on behalf of the Labour Party and the majority of Deputies for their contributions to this debate today. I have to qualify that thanks as a couple of the Sinn Féin contributors chose to take a narrow, decontextu…

You have had your moment. We have put this motion down in July 2026, at a time of relative plenty. While over the past number of years things have been brought in to attempt to relieve the burden on parents and families in relation to school costs, this Government has continued, almost by stealth, to squeeze families in relation to the cost of education. State examination fees continue to go up. …

I raise the lack of ASD classes in my constituency in Fingal, the youngest and fastest growing area of the country. Towns like Swords, Donabate and Portmarnock have ASD classes at primary school level, albeit they are vastly oversubscribed and there are huge waiting lists, but in Malahide there are no ASD classes in any of the primary schools. When Sam’s dad emails my office asking where his son i…

The summer programme, previously known as July provision, remains in absolute chaos. We have parents and children still wondering whether they are going to get a service this summer. We have an email address and a phone number but we do not have answers. We would like a debate in this House at the earliest possible opportunity.

We had a good discussion about this on Committee Stage. It is important to note on the floor of the Dáil that we would be an outlier in terms of this legislation compared with other countries that have progressed similar or related legislation. When Senator Frances Black started this process eight years ago, Ireland was a pioneer in introducing legislation in this area. We have since been caught u…

To continue on from where we were left off at committee, by taking services out of the original Bill, we are essentially gutting it and watering it down. It is not just politicians on this side of the House saying that. Oxfam Ireland and a slew of very respected worldwide international organisations will say that this Bill has been watered down. Services make up 70% of the overall trade with the o…

This is a welcome Bill and our thanks go to Sinn Féin for bringing it forward for discussion. It is not just a timely opportunity for the House to discuss the fundamental issue of Irish unity, but a chance for us and the Government to finally get serious on the important work of preparing for constitutional change. It has been clear for some years that not moving forward with urgency just will not…

4. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to confirm if there is currently any policy review under way in his Department regarding the enforcement of speeding laws through the use of static cameras on the national road network; if divergences between the number of fixed charge notices issued for speed detections at individual locations are compared and revie…

We are debating Committee Stage amendments to the occupied territories Bill this evening. There could also be another committee meeting on Thursday morning to continue discussion on the Bill. However, the deadline for Report Stage amendments is tomorrow, Wednesday. I ask that the deadline for Report Stage amendments be moved to late Thursday or Friday if Committee Stage goes to Thursday, so that e…

Last week the Minister accused the Labour Party and, by implication, myself of being anti-Dublin Airport and anti-growth. He knows me and the Labour Party better than that. This is a far more complex issue than he purports or presents it to be. I know where I stand on the airport, and my record stands up in terms of representing airport workers at all grades and all levels through the Covid pandem…

I welcome this opportunity to speak on rare diseases. I spoke on the issue in the previous Dáil. I do not think I have spoken about it in the current Dáil. It has been said many times that, although rare diseases are classified as rare, we all probably know somebody who has one because one in 17 people in the country, a total of 300,000 people, have a rare disease. It is a very difficult issue to …

This Government is going backwards with climate change. I commend Deputy Ahern on this motion and his commitment to bringing home to all the people of Ireland the impact that data centres are having not only on our climate but also on their household bills and the cost-of-living crisis. The UN has referenced us as a cautionary tale. Yet, does Ireland listen? No. When the tech bros call, this Irish…

I just want to say that the Member did not speak to our motion.

10. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the most recent EU Council meeting. [42082/26]

20. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the most recent EU Council meeting. [45468/26]

I want to raise school places in my constituency, specifically in Portmarnock. It is two months to the day since I stood in this Chamber and requested an urgent meeting with the Minister for Education and Youth on the severe deficit of school places in Portmarnock. I have had no official response to that meeting request and I have followed up with the Department a number of times. It is not good e…

It is long overdue for the Government to enact some changes to ensure that the implementation and enforcement of relevant Department circulars is put on a statutory footing. In doing so, the Bill takes some steps that are tentatively welcome but significant concerns remain that the legislation may make it increasingly difficult for those who should be entitled to access social housing to do so by …

I acknowledge the presence and work of Senator Frances Black. It requires some degree of fortitude to deliver a Bill from the Opposition or as Independents in the Seanad and to see it through to this point, eight years later, in the Dáil. I offer my heartfelt commendation to the Senator on getting the Bill this far, although it is clear that this is not the Bill she wrote. She is, however, the imp…

We are reeling from the report of the Kenneally commission, which was released this morning. There are a number of serious outcomes from that. Will the Taoiseach give serious consideration to a debate on one particular aspect, the absence of an offence of misconduct in public offence, an issue outlined in the commission's report? It is not the only thing to come out of the report but is an issue o…

I thank and commend Sinn Féin and Deputy Byrne, in particular, on bringing this motion forward. There is another motion being brought forward tomorrow by the Social Democrats and I am thankful it is being brought forward as well. Football is like no other sport. It is the world's game. It is the global game. It cuts through class, identity and borders like no other. It unites people. It has a lon…

The Labour Party will be supporting this motion, as it has supported similar motions at six-month intervals going back to 2021, to allow continued outdoor seating and socialising in our towns and cities. It was born out of a necessity during the Covid period but it has ushered in and accelerated a positive culture of dining and drinking in this country. I have seen at first hand the impacts of goo…

The Taoiseach is making a charge of some kind of economic illiteracy in opposition in terms of the implications of the occupied territories Bill when he knows that during pre-legislative scrutiny last summer we had a number of chapters interrogating the economic impact of the occupied territories Bill. Still, there was cross-party Government and Opposition consensus on that committee to bring forw…