Richard Boyd Barrett

There was no need for the Acting Chair to try to -----

Okay, grand. No problem. I am quite happy to give way to Deputy Lahart for a second question but I will take my second question. I asked the Minister of State a question about Jeffrey Goldberg and The Atlantic and the reference, to use the words in the chat, to adding to the “horribles on why the Europeans must invest in their defense" in the context of attacks on Yemen. I just want the Minister …

Okay. I just want to elaborate in order that people understand. They are saying that they are prompting the European Union to spend more on defence, which Ursula von der Leyen and this Council are promising to do, with the current EU expenditure on weapons, at €356 billion, more than doubling to €800 billion, in their interests. The same regime is threatening tariffs against Europe and this countr…

Does the Minister of State accept that any country in Europe that is providing weapons to Israel is guilty of complicity with genocide?

Do not worry, I will take your time.

Not if the impartial Chair gets his way.

Minus 45 minutes.

They have Taoiseach's Questions.

They are subverting this Chamber.

Does your word mean anything?

We are losing time at the Order of Business and Taoiseach's Questions.

It is stroke politics.

Is the Taoiseach familiar with democracy?

Donald Trump is setting fire to the international rules based order. He is putting two fingers up to any notion of international law, morality and human decency. The most egregious example of this is that he has given a green light to Israel to restart and accelerate its campaign of genocide against the people of Gaza, directly emboldened by Trump's plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. The idea …

I thank Deputy Wall and the Labour Party for bringing forward this important motion. I also commend Family Carers Ireland and all the young carers who have brought this issue to our attention. We fully support the motion. I know the Government is not opposing it but I hope it will do more than just not oppose it and that it will take seriously this motion, which I assume was drawn up in consultati…

3. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on climate action, environment and energy will next meet. [9489/25]

The Central Bank in its latest quarterly report issued another damning indictment of the catastrophic failure of Government housing policy. One aspect of it that relates to this subcommittee is the fact that deficits in water infrastructure are now a major impediment to delivering the volume of housing necessary to address the housing crisis. I wonder if there is any joined-up thinking going on in…

Gas is worse than coal.

No, it is not.

18. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the informal EU leaders' retreat on 3 February 2025. [9490/25]

The Taoiseach goes first.

The death toll in Gaza in the past two days is estimated to be 1,000. Hundreds have been slaughtered in their beds by Israel. Will the Taoiseach admit and condemn the fact that the horrific slaughter of 50,000 or so people over the past 15 months could not have been done without the weapons provided by the United States under Biden previously and now Trump, whose ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza has…

It is because of the complicity of European and western countries with the slaughter in Gaza.

Russia is a brutal imperialist power. Is that what the Taoiseach is looking for?

And sell weapons to Israel.