Before I get into the substance of the issue, I add our support to the matter that was just under discussion. My colleague, Deputy David Cullinane, and I both co-signed that Topical Issue to lend our support to it because it is an issue that affects the whole south east. I know Deputies from Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny are supportive of that and working in unison to get the Government to do the right thing by the N24. To the substance of the issue that Deputy Cullinane and I are raising, the working time arra…

Hear, hear.

With respect, the Minister of State provided a lot of information that we already knew about the service provided. We know it because we have met air crews, because we have been following this case and because we do our jobs and keep abreast of these issues. The question we are putting to the Minister of State and his colleagues in government is whether the Government will act to resolve this issue to ensure compliance with the working time directive and aviation regulations so that the working time that search and…

I will begin by addressing the whistleblowers in the Gallery who have come to watch this debate. They are watching, listening and taking stock of everything that has been said by the Minister of State's colleagues. I thank them for the service they have done the State and I thank the many people behind them who did not make it here and cannot be here, the families, and those who lost opportunities because of issues of corruption, illegality, theft and crime within elements of the public service, going back decades,…

Second time lucky Taoiseach.

Tá Coimisinéir Teanga nua ceaptha sna Sé Chontae, Pól Deeds. Is coiscéim chun tosaigh é seo i ndiaidh tréimhse an-fhada ag feitheamh dá leithéid. Tá Gaeilge agus pobal na Gaeilge faoi ionsaí sna Sé Chontae faoi láthair. Conas a dhéanfaidh an Taoiseach cosaint ar an bpobal seo, ar lucht labhartha na Gaeilge ó Thuaidh? While I am on my feet, I want to raise the situation of Jordan Devlin, an Irish citizen from County Antrim who is on remand in Britain awaiting charges relating to pro-Palestinian activism there. I see…

You lead the Government.

It is Leaders' Questions, not aspiring leaders' questions.

Go raibh maith agat. I want to raise with the Taoiseach the situation of two households living in Lyre, Mahon Bridge, County Waterford. They live in two adjoining council-built cottages constructed in 1949. At the time, the local authority installed a water supply from an open stream flowing off the Comeragh Mountains, and that is still their only source of water 75 years later. It is untreated and coming from a roadside stream. The water runs black and is full of silt, filth and worse. Each of the men has pulled d…

Tá ár n-iascairí ag dul thar imeall na haille agus beidh na cainteanna cuóta iascaireachta ina nóiméad cinniúnach. Tá na cainteanna nua maidir le cuótaí ag tosú an mhí seo chugainn agus tá ár bpobail chósta ag éileamh toradh atá cóir agus buan. Leis an drochscéal is déanaí faoi pelagic quotas agus titim tubaisteach i stoc cloicheán i Muir Éireann, tá géarghá anois go seasfaidh an Rialtas go daingean ar son na hÉireann agus go n-éileoidh sé go gcuirfear na Hague preferences i bhfeidhm. In recent weeks, our coastal c…

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael sold out the Irish fishing industry and are set now to sell out Irish agriculture. The Government faces a simple but serious choice. Will it stand with Irish farmers, rural communities and our domestic food sector or will it allow the Mercosur trade deal to sell them out? Much was said by the Government in the past year and in the run-up to the general election about opposing the Mercosur deal, but the real test is upon it. Let us call the Mercosur deal what it is. It is a bad deal for our…

Science Week is an important opportunity to highlight the value of research, innovation and STEM education throughout the State. It is also an opportunity to look very honestly at the structural failures in how Government supports science, third level education and regional development. For those of us in Waterford and the south east, these failures are not abstract. They are stark and lived realities. The potential of the South East Technological University, SETU, is extraordinary, yet Government decisions have pl…

This evening, Sinn Féin will move a motion on the cost of motoring and transport. It is a particular issue for rural communities and the communities I represent. We will ask the Government to take action to address the spiralling increase in the cost of insurance and fuel. We also need targeted and sustained investment in our roads infrastructure, in particular in my constituency of Waterford where the N25 has been overlooked for funding. There is no funding for the N25 in the national development plan as it passes…

We already know that there is an overreliance on overtime to deliver routine policing. There has been so little progress in tackling the recruitment and retention crisis in An Garda Síochána that problems are manifest across the State. Sinn Féin has put forward a range of proposals to deal with this, including a significant increase in the Garda training allowance to make it a more attractive prospect for new entrants, service payments for those with 30 or more years of service and increasing the compulsory retirem…

The Government is failing children in Waterford with additional needs over the stagnation in early intervention classes. Five years ago, there were two early intervention classes across Waterford city and county. This year, there are still two. That is despite an increasing need and a demand that is there but unmet. These early interventions are critical for children’s educational and social outcomes. It is something that the Taoiseach’s Government needs to grapple with. Over the last nine or ten months, we have se…

This Government has had every warning and every opportunity to act yet it continues to ignore the depth of poverty and social exclusion growing across communities and the State. The measures in this Bill fall far short of what is needed. After years of record surpluses and headline promises, families are still being left behind and are struggling with food, energy, housing and transport costs while the Government congratulates itself on token increases that barely touch the size of this crisis. Core welfare payment…

20 more years.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and thank the Labour Party for proposing it. I restate Sinn Féin’s support for the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use. That report was crystal clear. It said Ireland must adopt a comprehensive health-led response to drug use, one that treats addiction and substance misuse not as a criminal issue or set of criminal issues but as a public health issue. We in Sinn Féin support recommendation 17 of the report, which calls for the introduction of a he…

Do you not remember the troika? For God's sake, you crashed the economy.

What a short memory.