Ruth Coppinger

Yes, but nobody wants to sit on a bus and be dragged through Blanchardstown centre. The Minister of State does not seem to know the area, with all due respect. People are often delayed there for 20 minutes. With the original BusConnects plan there were roughly 28,000 complaints. Some 914 of them originated from Blanchardstown and most of them were about the 70 bus route. One third of respondents s…

As the Tánaiste knows, 7,000 students marched in UCD at the beginning of March in support and solidarity with a student who had been drugged, raped, had image-based sexual abuse used against her and, unfortunately, became pregnant and lost her place on her course. I know the Tánaiste is well aware of the issues. It was very positive, in an era of an epidemic of gender-based violence and where the …

I wonder should the Minister ask for himself or one of his team, if you like, to be engaged in those discussions with the college and the student because it does not help when the dean of medicine walks into lecture halls, spends half an hour undermining a student and is then the person taking part in the discussion around the academic issues. This medical student told me that a significant number…

I am asking the Tánaiste to get the Minister to intervene as much as he can.

7. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. [28286/26]

I welcome the Sinn Féin motion and call on as many workers as possible to come out this Friday, on May Day, at 6.30 p.m. in Dublin. We need a movement of workers in this country and workers need to learn from what happened during the recent protests. I do not have much time, so I will focus on the mistreatment of workers by the Government, their employer. They are the ASTI members. The Government…

I will take three and a half minutes. We are in a situation now where the Government is set to miss its 2030 emissions reduction targets by half and there is no plan to reverse that trajectory. The Environmental Protection Agency's, EPA's, latest reports found the Government has not included any new policies or measures in the climate action plan to 2050 and we will pay for this because €8 billio…

On 8 April, four gardaí with a search warrant barged into the home of a therapist. They shouted at her and her daughter to put down their phones, not to move and to tell them where her files were. They would not let her take a photograph of the warrant or talk to her solicitor. They said they would seize her phone and laptop. They did all this in front of her daughter, who has health conditions, a…

Will the Taoiseach tell his Minister to outlaw this practice in trials entirely?

He is not ruling it out, though. They can still be-----

If the Ceann Comhairle had let me finish the sentence, the Taoiseach would have heard that.

The Taoiseach needs to answer the question.

The Minister is not ruling it out.

What about the therapist? Is the Taoiseach okay with that?

Why do we bother?

The EU has decided to do absolutely nothing about the genocide being heaped on the Palestinian people. Yesterday, an attempt was made by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland to raise the issue of not just trade but the special trading status that the EU has. The EU is the largest trading partner with Israel, bar none. It is some indictment on the EU that it is now lining up four-square behind an imperialis…

5. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress his Department is making in tackling child poverty. [23835/26]

13. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress his Department is making in tackling child poverty. [28284/26]

The Taoiseach mentioned child poverty. There are a quarter of a million children in forced deprivation, 8% in consistent poverty, and one in five workers is low-paid in an economy that has vast wealth and a budget surplus. The Taoiseach mentioned DEIS plus. In Dublin 15 and much of the constituency I represent, there is huge anger among principals that so many schools have been left off the DEIS p…

21. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach for an overview of the Budget 2026: Spotlight on Disability report recently published by his Department. [28285/26]

Two years ago the parents of Dublin 15 took to the streets, or took to autism-friendly protests in parks, to highlight the dire situation whereby they could not get proper education for disabled, neurodivergent or autistic children. Two years on, we had a special task force in the area, which, as the Taoiseach well knows because it has been raised several times, did a huge review, but that review …

Hansfield, in Ongar. It will have to consider putting students on shortened school days, which is reprehensible. The school knows it will get flak for it but feels it has no alternative. It asked for an ANA and SNA review for an increased allocation and it was refused. It has seven new students who need SNAs. Only one student left. It also has 13 emerging students who need support and it has two a…

I want to start with the Dublin 15 special education task force that was clearly set up to box the issue off the agenda during the general election. The report has not been released. It is becoming like the third secret of Fatima. Will the Government release it? Many parents had to take to the streets and we want to see the recommendations and what the Minister will do about them. Who dreamed up …

I am raising the issue of DEIS plus, which is a new scheme announced to give enhanced supports to the most disadvantaged schools in the country. Obviously, I am all in favour of enhanced supports for schools, but there are a number of problems. I bring to the attention of the Minister of State the Corduff area of Dublin 15. I have been contacted by the principals of St. Patrick's Senior National …

Obviously, the schools should appeal the decision. Hopefully, they will be brought up to the level of supports needed. There has been a huge problem in this regard. There has been a 500% increase in the number of schools contacting the financial support services unit of the Department because of the rising cost of living. It affects every school. In areas of severe disadvantage, parents do not hav…