Seán Crowe

I am delighted to be one of the Bill's cosponsors with my colleagues, Deputies O'Rourke and Cullinane. I am disappointed that the Government is putting this on hold for 12 months. I thank Dr. James Larkin, who is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RSCI, for his research and assistance in the preparation of the Bill. When this issue first arose, most people l…

House prices, rents, council waiting lists and homelessness are all rising. Any options for ordinary workers and their families are vanishing. Figures from the start of this month show there were almost 16,000 people in emergency accommodation. This Government cannot even be said to be making a dent in the figures. At the start of this year, there were fewer than 14,000 relying on emergency accomm…

7. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence if he intends to establish a special review body to examine means of retention of skilled technicians in the Defence Forces; and if the timeframe for the process. [30785/25]

While the Minister has addressed this issue earlier, the greatest challenge for our Defence Forces is the constant drain of skilled technicians. It is seriously hindering our operational capability, especially in the Naval Service where ships are tied up at dock. Will he commit to establishing a specific review body tasked with examining how we can stem the flow of knowledge and training out of ou…

Whether it is pay, conditions, pensions or, dare I say, accommodation, there must be something we can do to compete with the private sector. When the review body is established and given terms of reference, it should do a deep dive into the levers that can be used to make the Defence Forces an attractive career, rather than just the fact they are trained up by some of the best instructors. I welc…

I welcome the fact the Tánaiste will look at it. We have seen the strains in different elements of the different services, such as ships not being able to be deployed. It is not just happening in Ireland. Services are facing these challenges across the world. I welcome the Tánaiste's indication that he will look at this over the summer and come back to us in the autumn. If there is common agreemen…

Most people would link the triple lock with our foreign policy and neutrality. A lot of people would be surprised at the proposal, given that during the Nice referendum campaign the Government parties were very silent on this issue and there was no real view that there would be a move to change it. The current position comes as a bit of a surprise. To follow on from what an Teachta Connolly said, …

Irish peacekeeping troops were fired on. It is not the first time; it has happened through the years with Israeli forces and their proxies in that area. The fact is this is not the first time. Is it true to say that the co-ordinates of the Irish troops are given to the so-called Israel Defense Forces, that the bunkers are not moved, and that they know where the peacekeepers have been for a long ti…

42. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the measures that will be put in place to resume full-time flight operations at Casement Aerodrome as a matter of urgency. [30786/25]

It is of little good spending €2.5 billion on jet flight capability if we are operating on a nine-to-five, weekday basis. Can we have some assurance that full-time flight operations at Casement will be brought back online at the earliest possible opportunity? Can we also have assurance that the air ambulance service is not affected?

One of the other TDs raised earlier the Garda helicopter. Again, for those of us who need the Garda helicopter - certainly, it is regularly used right across my constituency - I would be concerned about that. I do not know if the Minister has any influence in that regard, but if it is not going to operate at weekends, is there another site we could use for that? It is critical for supports in all …

My question is to do with placements but also displacements. Challenges in the school system include cases of schools having lost a teacher because the Ukrainian children were moved out of the school. This happened in two schools in my constituency. It is outside the control of the school. We are told there will be extra resources and supports for these children, but here is a school in my constit…

The Irish Government must move to stop the flow of blood money from Ireland to Israel. The Minister tells us why it cannot be done but he directly contradicts the legal advice the Opposition received from the Oireachtas's own legal advisers. When Sinn Féin brought forward a Bill to end Ireland's complicity with genocide, it was backed by sound legal advice which clearly stated that the Bill was co…

There is general agreement that it is taking far too long for vacant houses to come back into service. Properties may lie idle for months or years. There are some in South Dublin County Council that are idle more than a year and others that have been vacant for years. I know of one building suitable for housing in Rossfield that has been lying idle for more than 20 years. In Mac Uilliam, two apart…

Israel's Government is starving the people of Gaza. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war. It is a crime against humanity. It is genocide. The stated goal of the Israeli Government and military is the total displacement of the Palestinians of Gaza. Whether by military force or an artificial famine, they want to ethnically cleanse and resettle Gaza just as they have done in parts of the West …

We are pushing it.

You facilitate it.

You facilitate it.

It is a fact the Irish Central Bank has been facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds. It is also a fact the CEO of the Israeli bonds company has directly linked the money funnelled through Ireland with the ongoing war. There is no doubt what this money is paying for. Money is flowing through Ireland and is being used to buy bombs and bullets, the paraphernalia of war. We know these weapons are …

Looking at what happened to an ambulance and all its crew travelling through Gaza, I wonder what the response of the IDF would be to an humanitarian corridor, but everything needs to be tried. Listening to the contributions of both the Government and the Opposition this afternoon, it is worth pointing out that many of the statements from both sides of the House could be construed as antisemitic ac…

Children are entitled to an assessment of their health and educational needs within six months under the Disability Act. There are more than 15,000 children waiting right now. That number is expected to rise by more than 9,000 by the end of the year. To put those numbers in context, just 4,000 assessments were completed last year. In CHO 7, which incorporates Dublin South-West, some of the CDNTs a…

There were 18,000 people on the lists at the Tallaght driving test centre at the start of this year. This was the highest figure in the State. The Minister of State and I had one or two conversations about it. It was taking seven months on average to get a test. It was reported at the start of April that the Road Safety Authority was planning on opening an additional driving test centre in south D…

I do not think anyone can deny that the current state of the electricity grid, our drinking water supply and the wastewater network is a constraint on housing delivery. These issues are also inflicting misery on many areas afflicted by frequent water mains failures or boil water notices. One area in my constituency - Knocklyon - has been hit with almost 30 outages in the past three years. There is…

203. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence if he will report on his recent visit to Lebanon; on the engagement he had with his counterparts in the Lebanese Government, particularly regarding the case of a person (details supplied); and on his views on how conditions could be improved for Irish Defence Forces personnel serving on peacekeeping duties there; and if he will mak…

In his reply to another question, the Minister spoke of a mobility strategy. At the moment in Tallaght there are 15,000 people waiting for a driver's test. Waiting times can sometimes be over a year. I do not think that is acceptable to anyone. Media reports have indicated that at long last the Road Safety Authority intends to open a new driving test centre in south Dublin. That is something I hav…