Ruth Coppinger

Community development is also important in large suburbs and urban areas. As the Taoiseach knows, there has been massive development in Dublin West, in many cases without the necessary transport and schools. We have large populations but now we have no transport links between many of the suburbs. Could the Taoiseach look into a situation? There are 11 families in Tyrrelstown who cannot get into t…

Yes.

Yes.

I too pay tribute to Cara and her father and all the campaigners and the people who have already slept outside the Dáil this year, Families Unite for Services and Support, FUSS, Equality in Education, ASD15 and the myriad local groups that have been banging on about this issue for a long time. One thing I have learned about neurodivergent, autistic and disabled people is that they hate social pret…

Ireland's agricultural industry is an environmental laggard. Agriculture here and in the EU is based on a capitalist economic model of industrial-scale farming that is hugely unsustainable, produces environmental destruction and fails to provide sustainable and secure incomes for small and medium farmers in Ireland and globally into the future. CAP is part of that unsustainable global system of ag…

Once again, this is a Bill that has had to be brought before the Dáil because the Irish Government persists with this illusion that people have the right to union representation. It is Orwellian that you have the right to join a union but your employer does not have to recognise it, so you really do not have a right. If the Government is serious about workers' rights, this is a key one. In the ear…

We cannot wait.

Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence have been for many years seeking a ban on counselling notes being used in trials because it is so traumatising and damaging. This weekend, Jacqueline Connolly, the sister of Clodagh Hawe, who was murdered along with her children by her husband, spoke about a priest who pleaded confessional privilege who had vital information relating to those crimes bu…

We need an end to this practice, not to leave it in the hands of a judge.

The mere fact-----

-----one's counselling notes can be seized is what is traumatic and damaging.

I am just finishing the sentence.

I was interrupted because they were all talking during it.

I was not sure if the Taoiseach could hear me, so I stopped.

And it is not good enough. It is not ending the practice. It is just-----

But they clearly are.

8. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Council, a statutory agency operating under the aegis of his Department. [22105/25]

Care of older people is very important and is generally privatised in terms of nursing homes. The workers who provide this service in nursing homes are essential workers. Many of them were brought over on a special work permit in which the Government was involved. I ask the Taoiseach on a humanitarian basis to listen to the issues raised by these workers. Their wages are too low to allow them to b…

21. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Northern Ireland will meet next. [19931/25]

The UK Supreme Court judgment on the definition of a woman impacts trans and intersex people in Northern Ireland. Many of them are living in fear and being driven out of public life, which is the intent of the judgment. The DUP has said that it will look at guidelines for schools, which means there could be further attacks on the rights of trans people. Many of these are eligible to be citizens of…

Would the Minister agree that his Government's record on housing over the first 100 days has been an unmitigated disaster? A total of 15,376 people are in emergency accommodation, housing completions are down by 6.7% and social and affordable targets are down by 18%. These are figures that the Government knew about before the election but has not yet explained why it stayed quiet about them. To to…

With regard to the issues raised about the favoured candidate for the post, the question was whether the Government will investigate these issues, even if the Minister does not want to answer them right now. We do not need a housing tsar to contact Fingal County Council, have a meeting, discuss its needs and then organise the payment for whatever needs to be done. We do not need a housing tsar. I…

Have those meetings taken place? If they have not, will the Minister organise that they will take place?

Has the Minister met the councils?

You do not do anything about it.