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environment for the courts staff, the legal profession, victims, witnesses and members of the public. I am asking the Minister of State to take the presence of the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise into account when the Department and the Courts Service are prioritising their capital projects

cannot access the services, community and activities that she currently enjoys as an adult with an intellectual disability. We are also talking about lone parents who, like the case Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned, are already existing in a Byzantine reality of supports from the State. They are pushed … inadequate housing in terms of overcrowding and actual availability of services and standards. These are the groups that are going to be helped most by the recognition of housing as a right. The Minister of State's party supported it - that is the most heartbreaking part

together business representative groups, Government Departments, State agencies and regulators to discuss a series of agreed thematic areas, such as energy, insurance, infrastructure and planning and legal costs. It is advancing further work on regulatory costs and payment, banking and financial services. Its objective is to identify practical

employer and employee. The HSE authorisation scheme for the provision of home support services is the formal tendering mechanism the HSE uses to approve and contract providers that are eligible to deliver State-funded home support. Only providers admitted to this scheme can receive HSE funding for hours … clarity, the Minister for Health does not have an operational role in individual staffing matters. These responsibilities rest with employers, which are legally established separate entities. The Minister’s functions concern national policy, legislation, budgetary allocations and oversight of the health system as a whole. The matter

mature national conversation based on facts, not one where genuine concerns are dismissed as racism. We have to be honest when the State does not manage its borders effectively and when processes are slower and sow doubt. It does not produce compassion; it produces false narratives and resentment … protection are doing so for economic reasons. While I fully understand their desire, we cannot conflate legal and illegal immigration. It does legal migrants, genuine asylum seekers and refugees no service. If a claim is fairly assessed and rejected, then deportation must follow. This is not institutional harshness

people either to safely return or to move into other legal statuses within a relatively short period. Instead, the Government has agreed to one extension after another, creating unnecessary uncertainty for Ukrainians and pressures on our services and resources. Confidence in the migration system depends on key principles … clear pathway to Irish citizenship for people who are legally resident in the North where they meet the same conditions applied elsewhere on this island, recognising that this nation goes beyond the Twenty-six Counties of this State. People who have lawfully built their lives in Ireland

legal consequences of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, Ireland cosponsored the State of Palestine's first resolution before the United Nations General Assembly on its practical implications. That resolution did not distinguish between goods and services because the world court and international law do not, but that

landlord or his or her agent? Those things are fundamentally important to the legal integrity of a statutory declaration. This is a section we will be strongly opposing. I urge the Minister of State to change the notice period for RTB hearings back to 28 days from … what we can live with. The Government needs to listen carefully to what we are saying, and to what the organisations, homeless services, legal services, NGOs and statutory bodies are saying. It needs to work with us on Committee and Report Stages to ensure that nobody who today

taking decisions in defending claims made against the State. There are two other aspects of the reforms proposed in this Bill, again focused on the Office of the Attorney General. The Bill would further ensure that claims of legal professional privilege are not made in relation to advice … been advised on. There is no legal reason, however, for refusal to publish this advice and it can be problematic to treat this advice as secret. The privilege is for the client to weigh and not the legal adviser. The Government - any Government but this Government as much

remain unacceptably high and legal timelines continue to be breached. The State's first duty must be to ensure that children receive assessments and supports when they need them and not years later. The experience of families across Offaly demonstrates that disability services remain under immense pressure. While

service was enacted in 2022 and is now being operationalised by the guardian ad litem executive office, under the auspices of the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2022 preserves children’s rights, strengthens their voice in proceedings and provides for legal advice … consider, namely, whether the legal representation has been appointed for the child. The independence of guardians ad litem in the performance of their functions is a legislative requirement and a core value of the role. The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2022 clearly states that guardians ad litem must

success rate but it is consistently outspent in the context of prison beds that fail every day. Why is the Probation Service still being starved will overcrowded prisons get funding? Probation very clearly works; prison overcrowding does not. The recidivism rates give testimony to that fact. This Government … charged millions in fees for registration, visas and citizenship. Families are paying thousands of euro to just stay in the country legally. How much will the State collect in migrant fees this year and how much of that will be reinvested in housing, early legal aid or integration

languages can work as an interpreter in the courts, healthcare settings and other public institutions. Without reliable interpreting services, language barriers can hinder everything from healthcare and education to legal processes and community integration. We need a strong legislative framework that underpins and regulates this crucial provision … parents. This issue has been raised for decades. In 2008, the then Minister of State with responsibility for integration, Conor Lenihan, published a report, Developing Quality, Cost Effective Interpreting and Translation Services in Ireland. The report addressed the lack of regulation in Ireland's translation and interpreting sectors

Newry. Obviously, I am dealing with a disability service that operates in Dundalk. When a person wanted to go to Newry, the service would have had to go through their DMR. This seemed to create a huge level of difficulty. There was a fear that there may have … reason the Minister of State looked for pre-legislative scrutiny to be waived, is that a number of people will not be discharged in time for the change that was due to come into effect on 26 April and would therefore fall into legal limbo. None

barriers are all advantages and allow State bodies to plan for infrastructure, higher education and skills delivery on an all-Ireland basis. However, the non-financial obstacles are equally severe. There are two parallel administrative systems. There are the healthcare services that others have referenced. Obviously, people … Service. Merging that with our health service in terms of Sláintecare will require a huge amount of money. The other angles would be the democratic implications of a vote. As I have mentioned in the House before, if a border poll passes by 52% to 48%, the legal

service plan has to be drawn up and the liaison officer is then supposed to arrange the delivery of services. This is where it really gets difficult because next you have to do battle to try to get these sessions. I can tell the Minister of State that … action, make the funding available and set specific target dates by which the Government can comply with its legal obligation and deliver long-term solutions. As the Minister of State knows as well as I do, that needs workforce planning. We need to start training and recruiting people

through State investment and legal safeguards, not simply reduced. However, I acknowledge that it has been significantly reduced. I understand the Minister of State's concerns about tying the hands of clinicians, as she said before, but their hands are tied if their services have not been resourced

Britain signed and agreed informal non-legally binding operational arrangements, but very little has been done to advance these. It is now time to do so. I contend that doing so should be a priority. As a sovereign state, Ireland can and should put in place an international … concerns that neither Tusla nor the civil legal aid system will be able to cope with the demands they will face under this legislation. The Legal Aid Board has indicated that it may struggle to meet the demand for its services within the tighter timeframes provided for under

created by the State of Israel in the occupied territories. This includes both goods and services. In 2025, the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee unanimously recommended that services be included in a ban on trade with the illegal occupied territories in Palestine. There is no legal basis

professionals in the services but also those who speak on behalf of patients. We do not want to have somebody fall through the cracks because we are saying 28 days is the transition period. I ask the Minister of State to ensure the legal rights of individuals, whether

moving towards a model where the State becomes a minority partner in strategic property development? If so, what are the implications for control, risk and long-term planning? What risks does this create? Joint ventures can expose the State to financial, legal and reputational risks. DACs in particular … term vision for industrial property development here? Ireland faces significant challenges in providing serviced sites, advanced manufacturing facilities and green energy infrastructure. Are joint ventures a temporary measure or a permanent restructuring of the State’s role? The Bill does not say. The Bill will also amend

four-month Civil Service discussion on where we need to look first, I will identify three places right now. The first is housing. We must cut the cost of delay and delivery and look at the consultancy speed. The seller’s legal pack, which I brought … committee last week, would reduce the timeframe a house is on the market because all the legal documents would be ready. We should audit unused or under-used State lands and buildings and ask why projects are taking years. I welcome that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, brought

Convention, dare I explain again, makes it crystal clear that where genocide is suspected or claimed, there is a moral and legal obligation for a state to make good on its utterances, to bring that to its logical and practical conclusion and to take that claim further … Government, the leadership of the Central Bank, the citizens of Ireland and all of us in this House to comprehend that our financial services regulator, the Central Bank, is, whatever way we interpret it, a critical cog in the wheel funding the Israeli state, which is carrying

advise the CBI that by acting as the enabling cog in Israel's fund-raising machine in the EU it is putting the State at risk of a charge of complicity in genocide; — insist that the CBI immediately end its facilitation of the sale of Israel Bonds … motion asks it to do. There are no excuses not to act. Legal advice from the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Advisor concludes that we can provide restricted access to financial services based on public policy grounds, rooted in Ireland's pursuit of its international obligations

Defence Act 1954 deals with the dispatch of a contingent or member of the Defence Forces for service outside the State for purposes other than service as part of a relevant international force. The following new purposes are included: "undertaking civilian evacuation operations in response to an actual … case basis. We also have a new section 338, which is a very interesting one as well. This provides that "A State ship or service aircraft may, with the prior approval of the Government, be deployed outside the State for the purpose of participating in international activities