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meetings, including the Foreign Affairs Council for trade ministers; bilateral engagements in EU member state capitals; numerous phone calls at ministerial level; working party meetings; and ongoing direct dialogue with the European Commission. Along with my Government colleagues, I have consistently emphasised Ireland’s requirements for credible, legally … would not be needed until at least one Mercosur country had completed its ratification procedures. In late February, Argentina and Uruguay both secured parliamentary approval in their respective parliaments. Brazil and Paraguay have now followed suit with their own internal ratification procedures. While the Council

this process might be escalated given that it is now almost two months since the storm. Last month, I submitted a number of parliamentary questions to the Minister on behalf of a number of people who had received a payment under stages 1 and 2 of the humanitarian … often unreasonable nature of the party proposing them. Speaking more generally, the political impact of the recent storm has been to blow the roof off the carefully constructed narrative that Ireland's major infrastructural deficits are a thing of the past. Even allowing for the storm being

deliberate attempt to do something like that, it is an abomination. If it is an oversight, it needs to be fixed through the parliamentary process. If we are stepping into the defence security and resilience space - whether we say it explicitly or not - we have to have structures … with regular updates by the Minister in the Dáil or Seanad, or something similar with the same level of agreed scrutiny that Opposition parties and Independents would be happy with. It means having a clear definition of what the phrase "primarily military relevance" means in the current

homelessness because of that scheme. This scheme is working very well. The parliamentary questions that the Minister signed off on today with respect to the scheme, which came from Deputies of all parties, Government and Opposition, show this. Unfortunately, the scheme has always had its opponents, both … last year, specifically for the tenant in situ scheme, local authorities will run out of funding before the year-end. If the Minister allows the specific restrictions that we have listed in our motion to make their way into the circular that he will sign, fewer homes will

February, 2026. Today I am seeking the approval of Dáil Eireann to opt in to a Commission proposal for a Council decision to allow member states of the European Union to resume the automated searching and matching of vehicle registration data, VRD, to the United Kingdom. This proposal … vehicle registration data to the United Kingdom. The date will be determined once the Council decision is adopted and the desire from all parties is to see this resumed as soon as possible. Vehicle registration data includes the personal data of drivers, owners and operators of vehicles

those people at the centre of it, is appropriate and whether we move forward with that model. A quasi-judicial or legal approach allows us to produce a report that is publishable and defendable from a legal perspective but from a social care perspective, what many people want … Perhaps that is because it is an incredibly complex case. I have listened to Deputy McGuinness speak on this matter at Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meetings over the years I have been a member. He has spoken very passionately about this case and whatever I know about

opportunity for us in the Thirty-fourth Dáil to make provisions for the most significant piece of electoral reform in recent history and allow the people of Ireland to have their say as to whether 16- and 17-year-olds can vote in future elections. I believe … those aged 16 in recent years. The Bill before the House is a little different, however. The advice from the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, tells us we cannot differentiate between local and general elections. Research tells us we should avoid partial enfranchisement. It is therefore

namely, developers have been allowed to do whatever they want. Any time there are building defects they are not made to pay and it is often the State that pays. That is a political decision by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the other parties that have been … left paying for this because of a lack of government regulation of developers. We know the history of the Minister of State’s party in particular, including the Galway tent and all that. The lack of regulation stems from that. Since the last motion was put on this

faced in its existence. It was not a sudden collapse, it was the final shove in a long process of decline that Government parties managed, excused and normalised. What was already fragile has now been pushed dangerously close to a point of no return. That is the responsibility … They vote down safeguards for Ireland and consolidate their advantages in the interests of those few corporations. Deputy Mac Lochlainn has already used parliamentary privilege to name those Dutch corporations and the extraordinary control they exercise over Irish fishing opportunities, over the entire EU process

called Independents feared the return of mass protests this week. It was hard to see, indeed, how the Government could have allowed the first phase of these cuts to end in the same week that schools return and commuter traffic ramps up. We understand why the decision … evidence for it in the decisions taken in the budget. The Labour Party is clear that continuing excise cuts indefinitely would be an inefficient, expensive and untargeted way to support struggling families. We know the Parliamentary Budget Office, the ESRI and others have shown that the benefits

claim there are 10,000 children alive because of the second visit. It is put out by people who seem to submit AI parliamentary questions or whatever. I have never seen anything to back that up. The IFPA has said 98% of women go ahead. I also want … like the GPO in 1916 and all that. Not everyone was there and some parties did not support this in the committee. In some parties no TDs supported it. It is very easy to jump on when everybody agrees. It is not easy when you are pioneering repeal

money and it is holding up the delivery of 250 homes. When I raised this with the Minister by way of parliamentary question, I was told Limerick City and County Council has advised the Minister that a funding requirement has arisen in relation to enabling infrastructure at Mungret … Council and is part of the wider Mungret framework area. The framework aims to unlock substantial lands in public and private ownership and allow construction of residential development supported by community and employment use. The LDA has also acquired a significant land bank throughout the city, particularly

others when he is guilty of the very same thing. I chuckle every time hear somebody in Fianna Fáil say it is the party of home ownership. Home ownership has collapsed under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the last decade and a half. In fact … originally intended to do. Let us look at the facts. One of the big changes the Government has made is the application of allowing landlords with existing rental properties to reset the rent to market rent when a tenant moves out voluntarily or through a fault eviction

circumstances where it can allow an elderly parent to right-size and live independently. Similarly, and my party colleague Deputy Lahart correctly identified this as a common concern, it may allow the elderly parents of an adult child with special needs to live independently but still close … construction methods, I was heartened to see the development of the 3D-printed homes in County Louth. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister's Department and was heartened by the openness on the part of the Department, but as a new way of home construction

grant of over €94 million. We must not forget the €5 million used to administer refunding the water charges. That Fine Gael-Labour Party Government literally flushed hundreds of millions of euro in taxpayers' money down the drain. This was badly needed investment that should have gone into … part of that campaign we have been putting in questions to the OPW. A recent reply we received from the OPW to parliamentary question we tabled stated that there was a nice heated swimming pool in Farmleigh. We asked how many times this swimming pool had been used

this crisis. This is an issue and it has happened before. This price gouging is not new. It must be investigated. We cannot allow opportunism in this situation. I welcome the fact the Taoiseach recently outlined that he is concerned about price gouging and has recommended that … gouging? What about the fact the cost of fuel is rising year on year? It is excessive and wrong. We were the only party in this Chamber to vote against the climate action Bill and we did so because it locked Ireland into increasing carbon tax. Irrespective

hide whose side it is on. Abandoning workers by doing nothing on income tax directly breaks the promises the Minister and his party made during the election campaign. I can read to the Minister from his own manifesto the promises he made during the campaign or indeed … already viable. Between budget day and the end of the month - get this, just 22 days - the Minister told me in a parliamentary question that this VAT cut was going to cost €16 million. That is nearly €1 million a day the Minister is giving to developers

lack of new Garda stations and the Government's continued lack of meeting Garda recruitment figures. According to a reply to a parliamentary question I submitted earlier this year, since 2017, only two new Garda stations have been delivered in the country, despite the population increasing by nearly … lose 30% to 50% of our force due to upcoming retirements. Fine Gael has always identified itself as the party of law and order, yet the Tánaiste's party has stood over this lack of delivery for nearly a decade. The Tánaiste was one of the Ministers responsible

look at the Fine Gael website, which is not something I normally do. The party has an ad running with the title "Fine Gael supported carers and people with disabilities in Budget 2026". Sometimes you need to check in case it is AI or whatever, but how exactly … week upwards. It should be noted that the reason for the drop-off is the disability support grant, the living alone allowance and the one-off payments for electricity and so on. One in five people who are disabled is already living in consistent poverty and the Government

Bill progresses unchanged, we will have seen an expansion from 15 junior Ministers in early 2015 to 23 today. We in the Labour Party are convinced the creation of these new posts will not prove to be value for money for the State or the taxpayer. The Minister … overnight allowance for eligible Ministers is over €1.5 million per year or €7.5 million over the lifetime of the Government, not including pension, office or establishment costs. In addition to the annual TD salary of €113,679, the new Ministers will receive a Minister of State allowance

before. That is not harm reduction; that is harm creation. Fianna Fáil has always led the way on public health. It was our party leader, the Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, who introduced the world's first workplace smoking ban. In government, we have banned the sale of nicotine-inhaling … with strong enforcement, especially in the black market that continues to increase supply to our children and adults. A reply to a parliamentary question I received from the HSE confirmed that by June of this year, 310 test purchases had been carried out and there had been

manner that is respectful. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, said that we must ensure this can be passed. Members of different parties said to look at the last referendum and said that we did not sell it right. I think what happened with the last two referendums … allow for that. Suddenly, it did not matter anymore. It is gone. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle might be able to help us find out where the importance attached to the Unified Patent Court referendum has gone. We were told we had to change the Constitution to allow

unveiled aggressive tariffs on its trading partners across the world, including here in the European Union. Those tariffs were latterly partially suspended to allow space for negotiations. We all know that it is through negotiations and cool heads that this issue will be resolved. This major change … working people are on their own. If that was not enough for working people to worry about, they heard from the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party that the prospect of countertariffs from the EU means that the Government may need to take difficult decisions. The Tánaiste talks about difficult

young person. This includes everything from what school they attend, what religion they are raised in, major medical decisions, whether they are allowed leave the country for a holiday or for other reasons and all that set of significant decisions in a child or young person's life … that child and it is for that incredibly severe reason that this significant restriction is being proposed. On behalf of the Green Party, I will support this Bill. I will make points. First, has the Minister considered the possibility of providing for an interim order? A former colleague

four years the vast majority of people in all polling companies' polls were saying they wanted a stricter immigration system, and one political party, the smallest in Leinster House, Aontú, was the only one actually articulating that view. That is quite an incredible situation to happen. There … happened over that period of time. I put in a parliamentary question to the previous Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, approximately four years ago, asking where most people were registering for asylum in this country. That parliamentary question showed 85% registered at the International Protection Office in Mount