Search the record

control over to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. There has undoubtedly been much progressive legislation coming from Europe, such as the area of workers' rights and other dimensions. However, there is no reason that any national parliament should not be capable of enacting the same legislation. I attended … Ireland and elsewhere. Have we considered the practical implications of all this in terms of Ireland's infrastructure and people's access to housing, healthcare and education? We need to. Unfortunately, I do not hear much emphasis on EU enlargement into counties Fermanagh, Armagh, Tyrone, Derry, Antrim

used for energy credits, with the remainder put towards social welfare supports, such as a bonus double payment. On many occasions in this House, I have called for a crackdown on profiteering by energy companies in the midst of this cost-of-living crisis. Time and again … increase its prices. I repeat that call today. To its credit, Electric Ireland has held off recently on price rises, as is only right and proper for a State-owned company. That must continue. Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war in the Middle East shows very little sign

threat is overemphasised because making such amendments would not in itself be in breach of the agreement. States still have the right to amend policy on environmental matters, consumer protection, public health and labour laws. Threats will happen and there is always the risk of a chilling effect … confidence motion on Tuesday where the anger of ordinary people was expressed in a robust way by Deputies on this side of the House. The Government was accused of being out of touch and not listening to the people. A day later, after having a good Second Stage

ongoing for several years. I spoke with the Minister of State with responsibility for planning, Deputy Cummins, today and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage previously and was informed that significant progress has been made towards concluding the review. The review is looking at all aspects … substantially complete so there is a real effort by the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and his officials to get this right and I thank him for his work on this. In addition to the noise aspect of the guidelines that added to the length, the evolving policy

case in point. This is my tenth year as a Member of the Oireachtas and my tenth year as a spokesperson on housing and planning. The vast majority of the legislation we have dealt with during that period is planning legislation. Paul Hogan and I were much younger … Dáil term without adequate opportunity for Oireachtas Members to hear from planning professionals and the representative bodies to ensure we got the legislation right. I have often been of the view that the Government puts far too much pressure on hard-working officials to work late into

carrying out a major expansion plan that will meet its future needs. In the context of what is taking place in the world right now, never has investment been so important to ensure we have access to ports for trade. The planning application that is before An Bord … would meet the future needs of public transport in that area. As the Minister of State will be aware, one of the largest housing projects in Dublin city is under construction in Poolbeg, on the famous glass bottle site, with already 500 homes built there

would disagree although regulation could potentially enable this area to be addressed. An overarching amendment to future legislation might be able to house such a regulation, for want of a better description, and enable that to happen. Will the Minister of State commit to engaging with the Financial … State engage with the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman to see if there is an innovative and imaginative solution that balances everyone's rights while addressing this problem? If we can get such a commitment here this evening, it would be a good evening's work

society and the fight against this scourge cannot be led by women and women's rights movements alone. This is a global human rights issue. As the author Margaret Atwood once said: "Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them … these were also contained in a motion we brought forward last year, so we are very happy to support the motion before the House. Those measures include ending the practice of victim's counselling notes being accessed and read by accused persons during trials and ending character references

this technology will be used only for what is lawfully permitted under a code of practice. I suspect most of us in this House use this type of facial recognition technology when we accessing our phones or various services. The fact that we are prepared to rely upon … involvement whatsoever and is completely innocent, but that does not undermine what the gardaí are doing. Deputy O'Reilly also raised human rights concerns. I have concerns about these also but we also have to consider the human rights of victims of crime and the individuals

this State are in crisis at the moment for funding because of cuts to the block grant. How can they be getting it right in European countries and the Government is making a bags of it here? In Dublin, we have seen increases in rents, rates and local … have a situation today where a man will be coming home from hospital after major heart surgery. When his family checked his house last week to get it ready for him to come home, a broken pipe had flooded the house. Cork City Council officials told the family

frequently contacted by constituents who are social housing tenants experiencing serious and repeated antisocial and criminal behaviour in the developments in which they live. These are fine people who contribute very strongly to their local communities but who face daily disruption because they live alongside those who engage … deeply distressing for those who have to put up with it and must see it occur time and again. It is only right that we protect many responsible tenants from the destruction of the few who make their lives intolerable and miserable. Will the Government introduce more stringent

challenge. The extremes in politics, which neither the Deputy nor I is a part of, on the far left and the far right are the ones that fester when politicians of whatever stripe in the centre do not stand up and show willingness to engage, discuss and debate … produce a national migration strategy in 2026 to have an evidence-based, data-driven, informed discussion. I would invite people across the House to engage with that in a calm and responsible manner

first raised the issue of inward migration with Meath County Council in September 2023. At that time, I was accused of being far-right and was called all sorts of other names. However, in raising the issue, I was trying to establish the truth of the matter … social cohesion, Ireland's ability to cope with inward migration must be assessed across all of the pressurised sectors. I refer to housing, healthcare, elder care, education, special education, transport and community infrastructure. To be blunt, we need to solve Ireland's key areas of inflammation

independence of all of the expert panel has led to a real fear among parents that this will be largely dealt with in-house by CHI. There is no excuse for the delay. The Government has been aware of this scandal for an entire year. Its failure … ghá. Is é sin an toradh ar chur chuige mall an Rialtais. The Government needs to get its act together and do right by these families. Can the Taoiseach guarantee that every child who has had these hip surgeries since 2010 will have their case reviewed to determine

children were identified as having a disability. Huge money has been allocated on both sides but people are not interested and rightly so because people are interested in a service for their child and they are not getting access to therapists in particular. Recruitment is under way. There … services. Our Government will bring forward legislation on that. It will be challenging - I have no doubt it will be debated in this House – but that nettle has to be grasped because it has to be dealt with in order to have a more efficient and effective assessment

this chaos, we now have new residential tenancy rules and the mass exodus of many small landlords from the housing system. I have met many of these small property owners. They were all people who worked hard, contributed to our economy, paid their taxes and decided … parties are shifting further to the left. In fact, they are becoming more left than the left themselves. The Government has absolutely no right to dictate to citizens of this country what they should do with their own private assets that they worked hard for, bought and paid

doing, particularly in terms of the announcements regarding housing activation and so on this week. The biggest domestic challenge is the construction of housing. Water and wastewater infrastructure is critical to that but I am not convinced that Uisce Éireann sees that as part of its core mission … wastewater capacity. One of the challenges in Camolin we know is that we have problems around pollution of the River Bann running right through Camolin village. Complaints have been made to the EPA about the need to address the problem of pollution of that river. We need

least ten people who will go in there and, again, these are vulnerable people. Will the Minister of State find out when Heather House will open? We will support his legislation but we flag that we have some concerns. The way the State treated wards of the State … that we do not make mistakes? Everyone is in agreement that this a really important Bill and we need to get it right. We need to get it right for that boy that I referred to and for his mother, Liz, given what she and her family have

were both there in Oriel Park. The first thing she was worried about was getting to that child, which was the right thing to do, because she had been contacted by the parents. The next thing she queried was: what do you think is going to happen when … complete agreement with the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. The Minister went over the top in saying, "plague on all your houses". I hope what he is doing is a shot across the bow. There is a responsibility on the FAI, League of Ireland and clubs to find

clearly got wrong. The people of Ireland said they wanted to keep a second Chamber and they wanted a bicameral system. They were right, as the people of Ireland always are. They are sovereign in these decisions. What everyone did say during the referendum, though, was that … take it forward. The Manning report did do some interesting work but I will speak to the Minister for housing and local government in the first instance

forthcoming anniversary of Senator Lawless, a man I had the honour and privilege of knowing and serving with in these Houses. He was a man that my predecessor, Enda Kenny, was honoured to appoint to Seanad Éireann. He served with distinction in the Seanad but he also served … think of him and his family and the Deputy's member of staff at this time. The point the Deputy makes is right and I will ask my defence advisers to give further consideration to that. I ran out of time the last time but I did want

geographically based. The school will serve kids in Malahide, Kinsealy and Portmarnock. The new estates being built in the south end of Portmarnock right beside the train station are high density, as I outlined. There is a very young population. A greenway is being built from Baldoyle through … further on to St. Helen's. This is why it is about the provision of capacity in the village, which is where these houses are. When applying for planning permission for these houses, the developer mentioned up to eight schools in the area that could cope with

conscious others may have referred to cases in which people may be asset-rich but income-poor or may have inherited a big house, which does cause a difficulty. It is interesting that many of those who opposed the 15% increase in LPT were among the first … Europe. We have the unusual situation that the populist Opposition shares the views about the abolition of our property tax with the extreme right wing of the Conservative Party and members of Reform. It would not have been the first time Nigel Farage and leaders of Sinn Féin

conviction of Brian's murderer. However, today's statements are essential in affirming that the Stack family were failed and that they were right to raise the questions that they have asked. I acknowledge the words of Austin Stack, who has spoken of the comfort this apology will … failings and defects. In 2019, the former Garda Commissioner apologised for his organisation's failures on that front. It is important for this House to apologise today too. Labour is a party in opposition today but my party has served in government. We recognise and acknowledge the State

have all been subjected to abuse, as Sinéad was last night. I have been subjected to it myself, as has everybody in the House and particularly women. I do not think the gentlemen in the Chamber would disagree wthat women do face an increased amount of abuse online … conversation. This is incredibly important, but as the adults in the room, sometimes we may need to help them make the right decision by not having them exposed to this at a really young age. In the lead-up to the Presidency, we will see a youth forum