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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Taoiseach as an uasdatú sin. Tá dhá cheist agam. I dtosach báire, will the Taoiseach update the House on the intention to reform the Good Friday Agreement institutions? This has been flagged a number of times by the Government and the Taoiseach … would be grateful for an update on the thinking of ourselves, the British Government and the Northern Irish parties on this. The Taoiseach rightly pointed to the success of the shared island initiative, which has been transformative in bringing people together. Will he elaborate on whether

time I ever spoke in the Dáil was before I was a TD when as an MEP I was invited to address the House on Europe Day. Of all the set piece annual debates we have, this is the most sickening. Every time we get the same platitudes … about Europe being a peace project and the European Union being a defender of democracy and being founded on the basis of fundamental rights. This bears no resemblance to the actually existing European Union. In particular, in terms of the biggest crime that is happening

some of the great work that the Minister has highlighted in his response this morning, we should start from a common place, that, right now, budget 2026 targeted people with disabilities by leaving them with considerably less than before. The Minister mentioned the idea of the cost … payment being a top priority for him. There is another trend here where disability payments are a priority. Child poverty is a priority. Housing is a priority. Health is a priority. Everything is a priority for this Government but the outcomes are not improving. If anything, what

goes ahead because we have a demagogue, dangerously unleashed at this point. I was never a fan of the shamrock at the White House. There are other ways of meeting important people without giving that photo opportunity to somebody like Donald Trump. What is the Taoiseach … racist who has unleashed ICE to kill people, to strike fear into people of colour, who cannot go into the US right now. He is a tyrant who has invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its leader. That leader will be on trial on 17 March, if the Taoiseach

House, let us be honest, who are seeking to gain electoral and popular traction in respect of their views. The responsibility of this House and all parties in it is to make sure those views do not hold sway or get a disproportionate influence. That is actually … facing us. To conflate a Government seeking to create a fair and robust asylum-seeking process or programme with elements on the far right who are peddling hate is not fair and I think it is wrong. I would not conflate the two at all. People have

human could sustain this without urgent change. The Education Act 1998, guarantees every child the right to an appropriate education, and that right is very clearly being denied by neglect, by inaction and by refusing to treat schools such as Casa Caterina as the specialised settings they … children and staff of Casa Caterina will be visiting the Dáil in two weeks' time. They will walk through the gates of Leinster House and see the very place that has the power to change their futures. Will the Minister of State meet with Casa Caterina leaders

almost €1,300 a year. That is not spare cash anyone has lying around; it is what kept the lights on and the house warm. These measures should have been made permanent in a cost-of-disability payment, which the Labour Party proposed, starting at €25 a week … Government decided to introduce subsidised burgers. It is remarkable that only a few weeks ago, the Government published its first ever human rights strategy for disabled people. This has not been matched with the ambition or required funding in budget 2026. It has left disabled people and their

until they sign on the dotted line and sign away everything their country aspires to. On the Sumud flotilla, like others in the House, I have constituents and people I know on those boats. They are to be admired. It is an act of heroism. They are putting … risk. The international community needs to come together. I have some words of criticism before I finish. Far too many European countries have rightful hang-ups about their history, which they should have, but these hang-ups should not determine how they govern in the year 2025. They

Éireann is not delivering that. It is not delivering water of the quality it should. It is not delivering it as a human right, especially in respect of that issue of quality. The question then comes: if Uisce Éireann is not doing that, what needs to change? Clearly … Uisce Éireann is functioning and how it is delivering and responding to services. This is part of the emergency response to housing that we need to see. In particular, is the area of wastewater, which, as others mentioned, is flowing into our rivers and seas and polluting

ensure that tourism develops in a manner that recognises and complements the broader economic and social needs of local communities. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently finalising the national planning statement on the Planning and Development Act for short-term lets. That will establish … necessary then to use regulatory measures to provide appropriate oversight and to ensure a balance between the needs the Deputy is rightfully describing and the needs of the long-term rental market. The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment recognises that short-term lets play an important role

taxpayers' money. It is not in the interests of this House or the people who elected us to this House to delay things unnecessarily. It is important we look after the taxpayers' money wisely in all of these areas. This issue of judicial reviews has been mentioned … familiar with that. Wind farms and renewable energy have been mentioned. We have been all been at meetings where objectors, who have the right to object, say that their approach will be to object at local authority level and to An Bord Pleanála, and then, regardless of what

State with a surplus of €8.5 billion but we have a 14-year-old girl who is protesting outside the gates of Leinster House for 50 hours because she is standing up for her brothers and for every other child across the State who the Government is breaking … have told the Government the solutions over and over again, but it will not listen. It will not resource the system. As Cara rightly pointed out, it is about ideology. I am so impressed by the amazing campaign Cara Darmody has fought - every single person on the Opposition

power is in this Chamber and in the ballot boxes throughout the Twenty-six Counties. The Government, in its inaction, is withholding the rights of 700,000 citizens in the North. One of the things I have noticed in this Chamber is that historically one of the best … united Ireland. A vote in Stormont indicated a majority of MLAs support this particular project. Practically every political party in Leinster House has stated in their manifestos that they are in support of this. Why is this not happening? I will tell you why it is not happening

According to Eurostat, Ireland is now the most expensive country in the whole of the EU for a range of different issues, including housing, electricity, health services and fuel. Ireland is the most expensive and that is not by accident. The Government is an engine of inflation … which has been seeking to get a railroad into County Meath for the last 15 years. Most people in Meath would give their right arm not to have to drive petrol or diesel cars to Dublin on a daily basis but instead get into a train

with 300 or 400 rooms. I understand it is still housing refugees but it is separate from the Citywest facility. The Citywest hotel houses more than 1,000 Ukrainians and then the leisure centre, or the gym as it would be known locally … significant portion of this facility is sit down and review how it is governed and managed from security right down to welfare. Concerns have arisen regarding security and access control. One of the suggestions made to me is that we need tighter control of access points and consideration

little in the way of purpose-built student accommodation. We are heavily dependent on the private rental market in Limerick in order to house students. Students leave their accommodation every May and June and then scramble to find accommodation in late summer. Up to 100 students in Limerick … registered with the RTB. There is a power imbalance between renters and landlords in this country. We have some of the weakest tenant rights in Europe. There is a clear need to beef up the RTB because it can barely cope with the volume of work and disputes

years since the first applications were received, four years since deeply problematic, controversial legislation for a renewed scheme was rushed through this House and three years since that scheme opened for applications. How many homes have been fully remediated in that time? According to the Department, the most … able to apply for that scheme by the end of 2026. The legislation has not even been written yet. Deputy Coppinger is right; the two schemes for interim fire safety works and retrospective repayments are not working. Not a single retrospective payment has been paid to date

connection to build houses, if someone else can easily build a solar farm and have a direct line link to those houses, it will speed up everything. Germany, the UK and Denmark are doing it. I understand the Government is bringing forward a policy and I welcome … understand the FDI that comes from it but we need to mitigate the damage it is causing. That is something we can do right now. Solar farms across the country are waiting 18 to 24 months, on record, for a connection. It is ridiculous that they are built

have the money to get started, especially with the price of materials at the moment. I refer to one-off housing in rural Ireland. I have often met people, as we all do in our constituencies, who ask for another five years and, on that basis, thankfully, they … Daniel Sexton told me there was no water there last weekend, and people are in an awful state. Businesses are losing money left, right and centre. People had to hand back money in respect of their bed and breakfast accommodation businesses. These are areas where people are losing

talk about it coming shortly; it cannot come quickly enough - will go far enough to ensure that people can get permission to build houses near or in their own localities and that they will be allowed to build entrances adjacent to national primary and secondary roads where … girls who are leaving in their droves in the first instance. Both things will be achieved if the Government gets the planning right. I and many others have been asking for the planning process to be made easier for many years. The other problem relates to mortgages

associated with severe health problems for dogs and pups. There is significant change going on here. I am determined to get this right. The Deputy talked about establishments. What is an establishment? A garage is an establishment. A warehouse is an establishment. There are caps in there through … numbers and the other elements, but this is something that I look forward to engaging with the Deputy and other Members of the House on as we change this important area and strengthen the legislation in this space

continue to experience discrimination and isolation, and barriers to services continue to exist. We see this in areas such as mental health and housing in particular. Those challenges can be especially acute outside major urban centres. We know that visibility and representation matter. Knowing that you belong … Every person, regardless of where they live, deserves to feel safe and accepted for who they are. We should also remember that the rights enjoyed today were secured through the determination and courage of many activists. There is nothing inevitable about the progress that we enjoy today

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 … thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion, which succinctly captures the four key issues we need to address and strengthen workers' rights in this country: recognising collective bargaining, giving unions access to the workplace so they can recruit and organise, matching the minimum wage with the living

there is a need for greater scrutiny and greater transparency when these opt-ins are proposed, debated and scrutinised in this House and in the Oireachtas as a whole. This relates to serious criminality but there is another issue I want to use this opportunity to highlight … about road safety. As Deputy Carthy said, the nature of partition complicates policing on this island. We have a porous Border, and rightly so. The only thing that would improve it would be if we were to take it away altogether, and that is another day's work

backbone of the rental sector, and people must keep that in mind. I am not a landlord. I just have one house, thank God, and that is enough for me. I have been accused online of being on Airbnb. I do not know where people get this cracked … information, but it keeps them happy, tapping away with their fingers. I have only my own home, and I live there. Property rights do not disappear because someone rents out a home. If a landlord needs a home for a close family member, that should be respected. Grandchildren