Dessie Ellis

I said-----

The tragic death of Grace Lynch, a young 16-year-old Finglas girl, has caused consternation and anger in our community. The illegal use of scramblers is a major issue in communities throughout the country. Recent legislation to deal with this, as we warned, did not go far enough. While there have been seizures of scramblers in Finglas and Ballymun, no charges have been brought in regard to their i…

There are no penalties-----

We are seizing the vehicles but there are no penalties.

Please.

And those wearing masks. We need to deal with them.

There is a crisis in how mental healthcare services are delivered across the State. The lack of proper services means people experiencing a mental health crisis must present at hospital emergency departments. A person so presenting may, at the time of presentation, be in a state of psychosis and, having had to wait a number of hours for treatment, may come out of the psychosis. Some of them have t…

Three and a half years ago, I raised during Questions on Policy or Legislation the use of nitrous oxide, also known as hippie crack, as recreational drug, and asked that the Government put in place legislation to regulate its sale. To date, this has not been done, and this Sinn Féin Bill, sponsored by my colleagues, Mark Ward and Seán Crowe, is a timely response to the Government's failure to put …

I would like to raise an important issue with regard to St. Malachy's Mixed National School, St. Helena's Road, Finglas south. St. Malachy's is a mixed senior DEIS band 1 school and has been central to the community of Finglas south for almost 50 years. When it opened first, it catered for over 200 children. St. Malachy's was the third primary school in Finglas south along with St. Finian's Nation…

I thank the Minister of State. We are constantly being told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. To any child in homelessness or in a vulnerable circumstance, it is essential that the morning start with a proper breakfast. It is a credit to St. Malachy's that it has managed to provide a proper breakfast for some of its pupils. Funding for a snack club is simply not good enough. It…

The announcement by the Government to delay until later in 2026 its proposal to withdraw funding from January for medication blister packs issued by pharmacies clearly shows that the Government has bowed to the immense political and public backlash to this very unpopular proposal. However, kicking it down the road is not a solution to a problem of its own creation. It is outrageous that the Govern…

The Tánaiste's colleague, the Minister for housing, James Browne, has pulled the plans to build nearly 500 units within the Dublin City Council area under public-private partnerships. A total of 1,000 new homes have already been delivered under public-private partnerships and a further 3,500 were in the process of being delivered across the country. However, the Minister pulled the plug on the del…

It is being pulled. It does not make sense.

I welcome the fact that the Luas Finglas extension railway order was granted by An Coimisiún Pleanála in October 2025. This marks a major milestone in the progress of a project long in the making and long overdue. The project involves extending the existing Broombridge Luas green line to Charlestown, which will add four new stops at St. Helena's, Finglas south, Finglas village, St. Margaret's Road…

I thank the Minister of State. There is an urgency in moving ahead. There are major plans to develop the area. Finglas village will be redeveloped. Charlestown will be affected. A large number of apartments are being built across the area and the population is growing. I have dealt with metro north, in terms of the number of meetings I went to and the commitments that were made and broken, one aft…

In most primary and post-primary schools, school uniforms are mandatory. School uniform policy is generally decided by each individual school's board of management. Increasingly, the cost of uniforms has become a significant concern for many families. This proposed legislation addresses these concerns and outlines a number of ways for schools to offer more cost-effective options for parents. Whil…

As the Taoiseach is aware, a family's weekly grocery shopping has substantially increased in cost. Along with this hit to the pockets of hard-pressed families, it has become increasingly clear that many of the products being bought by families have decreased either in volume, weight or size in a trend known as shrinkflation, while prices for these products have risen substantially. What is the Gov…

There are fewer slices in a loaf of bread.

It was in the budget.

With the slaughter that is now taking place in Gaza, it is easy to forget about the five successive wars that took place in Gaza between 2009 and 2022. The Israeli political and military establishment has long held a disdain and contempt for the Gaza Strip and always had an eye to taking it over and ethnically cleansing the area of its Palestinian population. These previous wars resulted in the de…

It is a legal requirement in Ireland to have at least third party car insurance to drive on public roads. Of course, it is important that people have car insurance. It acts as a safety net, protecting those insured against significant financial and personal costs, including medical bills and expensive repairs as a result of an accident. The main contributor to the increasing cost of premiums are …

I urge the Government to ban what I can only describe as a barbaric and invasive procedure used on greyhounds whereby they are subjected to surgical artificial insemination. This highly controversial procedure, which is already banned in the UK, involves making a cut in the abdomen of a greyhound and inserting semen directly into its uterus. This is not an isolated, occasional surgical procedure.…

The vast majority of people are not aware of this practice. I was not even aware of it for a long time myself. When you explain this to people, they cannot understand how such a practice could take place or how any dog, greyhound or otherwise, could have their uterus taken out, injected and then put back in again. It just does not add up. It is totally and utterly barbaric. The Minister of State …

A large number of landlords with private rental accommodation are willing to engage with local authorities on the purchase of these properties with a view to allowing the existing tenants to remain in situ. Moneys that were allocated for the purchase of such properties within the Dublin region this year have been spent on last year's backlog with no new properties being acquired by the local autho…

Over the years, we have lost too much of our national heritage through disastrous developments such as the council offices on Wood Quay, built over a Viking village, or the destruction of the Georgian facades around St. Stephen's Green and Merrion Square because of dubious planning decisions. It was heartbreaking to see the conscious and deliberate destruction of the home of The O'Rahilly. We are …