Matt Carthy

I move amendment No. 1: To insert the following after "ending on 29th June, 2026": "; and — calls on the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to bring forward legislation to give effect to the recommendations of the Independent Review Group without further delay.". The continued use of emergency powers and essentially outdated legislation has long been criticised. It is disappointi…

Can I move the amendment now?

Is there any chance?

I had to take a call.

With the Minister of State's indulgence can I move the amendment?

It is not only disappointing but, I would suggest, disgraceful that, once again, we are going to have a presidential election and, once again, a significant portion of our nation will be denied the opportunity to participate. Almost 30 years after our first President from the North was elected, we still have the ridiculous situation where people from the Six Counties can run in the presidential el…

Hear, hear.

We will freeze rents-----

-----and reduce rents.

The Government voted against freezing rents last night.

Hear, hear.

Absolutely.

Hear, hear.

We should just rename this debate the "black is white" debate. The Government is essentially trying to convince us that black is white. To have the audacity, as Ministers have done this evening, to come into this House and claim that their housing plan is working is akin to trying to convince people that the Earth is flat. The thousands of people who were outside this House this evening, demanding…

Older people, indeed, all of our vulnerable citizens, deserve to be treated with dignity and afforded the highest quality of care and the services that they need. What we saw, though, in the revelations in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme was appalling, showing shocking abuse and serious failures and neglect. I can only imagine how upsetting it was for the families of the people who were revealed …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. I commend Deputy Coppinger on again highlighting this issue by bringing it here to the floor of the Dáil and, more importantly, by bringing forward this legislation because legislative change is required in this area. I acknowledge that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has recognised this to the point that he has said he plans to deal with this is…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. At the outset I say that Sinn Féin recognises that return and readmission agreements are a crucial part of having a managed migration system. We have been clear that where any person is not entitled to be in Ireland, they should be returned safely, and deportation orders should be both enforced and tracked. Such return and readmission agreements can be done on a …

Where possible.

Not all of it. Not all of Ireland. That is the problem.

106. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment his proposals to increase the amount of polyethylene terephthalate, PET plastic recycled in Ireland. [30328/25]

The deposit return scheme is well known to people, sometimes for the hassle of it and sometimes for the economic benefit of it. A huge proportion of the plastic that is collected under the scheme is shipped as waste plastic out of Ireland even though there is at least one company in this State that could manage quite a large part of the process. Is the Minister of State making efforts to ensure a …

It is regrettable that the figures the Minister of State gave a date from before the introduction of the deposit return scheme. The information I have is that by the end of this month, 17,000 tonnes of plastic will have been collected under the scheme but only 3,400 tonnes of that will have been brought to a factory in the State. I mentioned previously to the Tánaiste in the House that Shabra Plas…

I do not know how the Minister of State can say Ireland leads the way on plastics recycling when, in fact, we are leading the way in shipping those materials all over the world. We need to build capacity. As I mentioned, Shabra Plastics and Recycling can do a large part of the work and could do it all if it puts in a pellet production line. That would involve a huge investment, however, and the co…

I reaffirm everything Deputy O'Rourke said. The statement read by the Minister could have been read by every single Minister for the environment since 2006 when this project was mooted. Since 2006, Minister after Minister has devolved this issue entirely to EirGrid and said it was an operational matter and since 2006, EirGrid has made a mess of this. The Minister said he will not apportion blame. …

How many?