Ruth Coppinger

No answer.

God forbid you would break a law to end the genocide. It would be terrible.

Would you get real?

I am sure it will go down well on Gript anyway.

To clarify, St. Mochta’s school in Clonsilla has 900 to 1,000 students. The management agreed to take on a huge cohort under pressure of school places in Dublin West. Six pupils enrolled in that school have approval from the NCSE for special or autism class provision, but they were not on the list that was sent to the school last Friday. We have a bizarre situation where these parents would not ha…

I am glad a meeting is taking place today and, hopefully, things can be resolved. However, I would be extremely concerned if other parents were offered these places and would then have to be told they do not have alternatives. It is a real problem situation. The issue is that, according to the school, it did not have sanction for these two classes by the February deadline and, therefore, it only g…

There are many rail issues in Dublin West. I will briefly mention them and then make some general points. In Ashtown, there is just development after development and high-rise apartments flying up regularly. It is happening at such a rate that the rail service the area does have is jam-packed and dangerous, according to many residents. Either a stop will have to be put on planning permissions gran…

"War is a relic of barbarism only possible because we are governed by a ruling class with barbaric ideas." That was said by James Connolly as he looked at the conflagration that was the First World War. How apt it is now. We have been here previously. People are saying this is something new but, unfortunately, it is a feature of history, including the world wars, the Holocaust, Srebrenica, the 30t…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “(3) Before this Act comes into operation the Minister shall publish a report which outlines the following: (a) the degree of financial dependence that families with divorced or separated parents have on those parents; (b) an overview of the legal issues with not providing the same level of access to social pr…

I am sorry; what are they?

Amendment No. 1 is different from the others in that it is asking for due diligence to be done before a Bill is brought in. It should be the norm. The Minister is acting as if it is unusual to ask for a report on the impact of a Bill. He should have done that previously. TDs from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and other TDs will troop into the House tonight without having a clue what they are voting on…

This shows part of the problem with the changes the Minister is making to the Bill. When he says that the Department is not going to carry out investigations or be intrusive, I do not mean any offence but the Department does carry out investigations into other aspects of social welfare. We debated a lot of the issues in the groupings of amendments. I am a bit perplexed as to why the parties of ma…

I move amendment No. 21: In page 23, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “Review of provisions of Act 20. The Minister shall, not later than 12 months after the commencement of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act, and in particular the impact of the definitions of “civil partner”, “widow” and “widower” in this Act.”.

I move amendment No. 22: In page 23, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “Review of provisions of Act 20. The Minister shall, not later than 12 months after the commencement of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act.”.

Does the Minister remember the promise of €200-per-month childcare that vanished into thin air, which he and Fine Gael promised before the election? The problem is that there is no childcare available to parents in any case. In the Blakestown area of Dublin West, we hear that Ready, Steady, Learn, a not-for-profit early learning childcare service catering for 43 children, could close. A parent fro…

I did not dismiss them.

This is a terrible deflection. I did not mention that. I said there were not enough.

Would the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, not respond?

The foxes and the pigs are taking over.

There are some positive points in the review, in that children who were appropriately placed felt included and that their needs were being met. It shows that if the resources were put in, many other children and teenagers could feel that. Unfortunately, I have to emphasise the problems. In the review, 60% of parents had experienced difficulty finding a place in an appropriate setting despite the f…

Every day people in Gaza play what is called "the hunger games". After two months without a shred of food, milk, medicine or flour coming into the territory, they brave Israeli army bullets at feeding stations that have been set up, for the chance of a bag of flour, a tin of food or whatever for their starving families. We had indelible images from the Holocaust. These will be the indelible images…

It has become a significant transit point for the US military since 9/11. The RTÉ news data, for example, reported 2,000 applications for exemptions, of which only 0.1% were refused. Literally millions of US troops have passed through Shannon Airport in the past 20 years.

Shannon Airport is a de facto military base and the US is financing the genocide on Gaza. Will the Tánaiste pull that lever and stop the US army from using Shannon Airport?

I did not say that.

You are, but I did not say it.