Ruth Coppinger

I will share time with Deputy Healy. I agree that AI is opening up a new frontier for misogyny and abuse. I also raise tonight that the image-based sexual abuse laws we have are not being implemented. I am very concerned about the institutions that we have and how they deal with non-consensual imagery being shared, particularly institutions that deal with young people. I will highlight this by st…

It would be utter hypocrisy to begin a debate on road safety without mentioning that it does not just apply to 16 and 18-year-olds and that it also applies to TDs and that we have a TD in this House who was driving at 190 km/h. They could have killed anybody on that road that day only the gardaí arrived. It was the second time this person had an offence. They paid compensation to a family in 1990 …

Could the Government be any less caring on this issue? It has not put forward a solitary meaningful measure. Let us start with the Minister of State's claim that the best way out of poverty is through employment. That absolutely is no longer the case. There are tens of thousands of workers living in poverty because of the cost of living, including the cost of childcare, housing, electricity and in…

We are living in an extreme weather event right now in that there has been flooding all over the country. These events are becoming much more normal and routine. What is not normalised are what protections there are for workers. It was very moving to be at a press event organised by Unite last week to hear the parents of Matthew Campbell, an electrician who died in a storm in the North of Ireland.…

The Minister of State summed it up. It is a matter for agreement between employers and employees so it is up to individual employers. He also mentioned guidelines. Guidelines are not legislative protection. We also have a large number of migrant workers. We have unorganised workers or non-unionised workers who do not have the power to say "No" to their employers. I will finish by highlighting wha…

12. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach for an update on the programme for Government. [5973/26]

Are gardaí accountable or are they a law unto themselves? Who should police the Garda? I refer to a constituent of mine, George Nkencho, who was shot six times on his doorstep. We are meant to believe that that is okay and there is "nothing to see here". His family have never been allowed a public inquiry or a trial. The minimal thing they got was an inquest, which ended on Friday. That is a very …

I am not saying that.

I am saying the office should not have the power it does.

I have heard some contributions in here in my time but the contribution from the Fianna Fáil TD, the lament for landlords we just heard, was quite incredible. Her whole contribution was about the difficulties of the landlords in this era, in 2026. This is at a time when teachers, therapists and building workers cannot find anywhere to rent, when the average rent, as we know, is now €2,500 in Dubli…

It is a bad reflection if they need to do that in Ireland.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 to abolish the 3 day waiting period for abortion on request. This Bill relates to the three-day waiting clause in the abortion legislation. I was approached by young women last year who raised the need for reform on this specific aspect of the legislation. I gav…

The most oppressed people, including the poorest and young people, will suffer the most as a result of this clause.

This is First Stage.

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

We have been the experimental lab in Dublin 15 for this technology. I thank the TDs from outside Dublin West and I will be absolutely frank. It was only when it was spoken about that this technology would be going into other areas that immediately people kicked up about it. We have been suffering this for a year and a half. It was introduced with no opposition. It was welcomed in by the Minister, …

Does the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach mean companies like Manna Drones? That is the company that is operating this system.

In fairness, the company has testified at Oireachtas committees. It is perfectly out there. A representative of that company is quoted in today's paper so it is a bit silly to say we cannot talk about the company. In any case, it is important to show people how the company has operated without permission. I am assuming the Minister of State does not think it is okay to just breach planning permis…

They appeared in committee as well.

That is what most of it is.

Just so the Minister of State knows, most of it is coffee.

It is because of the quickness.

There is a very famous poem, which I am sure the Taoiseach knows, by Pastor Martin Niemöller, "First They came". It begins: First they came for the communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a communist Then it says: I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then it is a trade unionist, then a Jew. Of course, eventually there was nobody left to speak out. It is easily tran…

That is good.

Aw, here we go.