Sinéad Gibney

This Government has been talking about short-term lets since 2022 and the regulations that were required. I may not share the same position as Deputy Collins on it but I do share his concerns about fresh delays arising today out of Cabinet disagreement over it. This is in the context where, in some counties, there are 25 times as many short-term lets as there are properties available on the privat…

I wish everybody in this House a happy May Day this Friday. I particularly extend that to the staff in Leinster House who work so hard to allow us as representatives to do our jobs and work so hard. Of course, many of the staff here are union members. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion, which succinctly captures the four key issues we need to address and strengthen workers' rights…

123. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment if his Department intends to review legislation on remote working arrangements in the context of the current fuel crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30948/26]

My question is in light of the current fuel crisis, which there is no sign will end any time soon.

I thank the Minister of State. I apologise. I forgot to thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for facilitating my going first. I heard similar words from the Minister of State's colleague a short while ago when we were discussing the strengthening of workers' rights under the Sinn Féin motion and it rings hollow, I am afraid. What we know about and what we have seen is just headline after headline about peop…

Essentially, what I am hearing is that the Government responded, it built a solution that is working and that there is nothing to see here. I am saying it is not working. I looked at the report by the Department. Although its conclusion states everything is working, which is what we heard again today numerous times, a few pages earlier it talks about the toothless tiger critique and states: "The q…

I welcome and commend the fact that Ireland was one of the voices in recent days to put forward the suspension of the EU-Israel Association agreement. It is insane that that has not happened to date. Europe is operating with hypocrisy in sanctioning Russia but not Israel. I remind the House that the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement does not involve sanctions. Rather, it is the rev…

Earlier, I referenced three topics: the digital omnibus, the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the ECHR. I welcome Ireland’s moves on the EU-Israel Association Agreement but I want to know what more is going to be done. How are we going to keep the pressure on to suspend the agreement and bring Europe's response to the Israeli genocide into line with our actions against Russia? Second, I wish t…

I am asking what we are doing.

Reports of double- and now triple-tap strikes are coming through from southern Lebanon. This is when the site of an initial air strike is hit again while medical personnel are in attendance. Four medical personnel were killed yesterday in Mayfadoun. These included two paramedic volunteers: a young man of 22 and a boy of just 16 years old. These are war crimes being committed by Israel and they are…

I thank the Minister for being here this morning. I am very proud to support this motion. It embodies what the Social Democrats stand for - targeted supports which support the people in society who most need them at this point of crisis right now, and a long-term vision for how we can work our way out of these crises and inoculate ourselves as a State against the next one to come along. While I a…

Picking up on the last speaker's comments, I too express my solidarity with Deputy Byrne and acknowledge the very difficult period she has been through and how well she has held herself throughout. I congratulate the Republic of Ireland women’s team on their win yesterday against Poland in the World Cup qualifiers. I will speak about sportswashing, grassroots facilities, the League of Ireland and…

Sadly, I too would like to start by expressing my absolute disgust that this debate will be guillotined after just an hour. It railroads any meaningful analysis of the Bill. I am under no impression that most of our amendments are going to go undebated tonight and undiscussed. That a mere hour has been dedicated to discuss what will ultimately be a transformative agreement for this economy and for…

For me, that is exactly what is happening here, so I support this amendment and look forward to debating further.

In response to the Minister of State's comments on Deputy Ó Laoghaire's remarks, a single vote under Article 29.5.2° is sufficient to ratify and the Government planned to do that on CETA after less than two hours of debate in a situation where such a ratification would have had multiple breaches of our Constitution. The Supreme Court, in response, identified a potential but unvalidated path to rat…

I will pick up on a couple of the comments from the previous debate which apply to this amendment as well. I am still dumbstruck that we had no pre-legislative scrutiny. There is virtually no debate tonight, or not enough. I agree with Deputy Gogarty in that as much as I value the debate on football, it could have been pushed back for a week and we could have had more opportunity to properly analy…

Does the Minister of State understand the ability of the CETA joint committee to amend the text of CETA, which is effectively what Mr. Justice Hogan described as "quasi-legislative" capacity bypassing the Oireachtas? If the Minister of State is wrong, we will be exposed for 20 years even after we signal withdrawal and possibly more given that the whole EU may need to withdraw. The CETA joint commi…

The nub of the issue, in terms of the outrage currently being experienced within the survivor community, is the treatment by this Government and successive Governments of victims of State wrongdoing. The Government needs to display compassion, humility and understanding, but that is not coming through and has not come through in the context of the survivors of industrial schools, Magdalene laundri…

I welcome the opportunity to raise the issue of the maintenance of social housing in Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown. I am a TD for the Rathdown constituency and there is often an assumption it is an affluent area only. I have to say I have made it my business to make sure those living in deprivation in my constituency know I will represent them in Dáil Éireann as the only Opposition TD and a new TD in…

I thank the Minister of State for those details. I appreciate that funding is important but I assure him that the €31 million is not reaching some of the families that I am speaking to. I want to emphasise, as I did in my initial contribution, that this is not just about funding. The way in which some of these families are being treated is also an issue. There are complex ways in which people arri…

Over the weekend, violent Israeli settlers rampaged through the West Bank. They blazed a trail of devastation, burning down homes and public buildings and injuring dozens of Palestinians. In a separate attack last week, masked settlers sexually assaulted a Palestinian man in front of his family. They beat him with clubs, tied him up, stripped him naked and zip-tied his genitals. That attack was so…

I just want an answer. I do not claim to have a monopoly.

When the war in Ukraine broke out four years ago, one of the few pieces of hope and light in that time was the warmth, the generosity and the solidarity many people showed to those fleeing. They opened up their homes and provided those who had lost everything with somewhere they could feel safe. We talk about integration in this country and this scheme is a brilliant example of it. It formed the b…

I will use my time today celebrating International Women's Day, to celebrate a specific group. That is single mums. We are actually closer to Single Parents Day, which falls on Saturday, 21 March, than we are to women's day, which was a couple of weeks ago. I realise there are also single dads. I put that on the record straight away but 85% of one-parent families are headed by women. The experienc…

I too extend a welcome to the McCracken family. I do not think there is a musician in Wexford who will not have visited the Dáil by the end of this term. It is lovely to have them here for International Women's Day. I wish to start by addressing the consular response. My colleague our spokesperson for foreign affairs, Senator Stephenson, spoke about her disappointment that for many people in thes…