Has the Minister dealt with anyone who has tried to apply for hardship funds for a utility company? It is an absolute nightmare. None of these measures, unfortunately, are working enough. Why are people stopping me in JC's Supermarket asking why I cannot reduce the price of groceries? Why are people turning up to my clinic, Deputy Wall's clinics and my colleagues' clinics with utility bills that they cannot pay? It is just not enough. That is the reality of it. The people who cannot pay their bills this month will …

In the week when special school classes were announced for 2026, I need to raise with the Minister the case of River Valley Community National School in Swords. It is not looking for a class in 2026; it is looking for a class now. This is in agreement with the NCSE. The school is a developing school in good but interim accommodation. It is being refused by the Department of education the provision of an autism class right now only because it is in temporary accommodation, even though it has the space. I ask, please…

I thank Deputy Collins for initiating this debate. He has pushed hard for it over the past number of weeks in the Business Committee. A number of things about Uisce Éireann need to change and change utterly. One is the culture of the organisation, which has shifted hugely in the past four years, and I will outline two examples to illustrate that. One relates to my constituency and the Swords wastewater treatment plant. There have been a number of major issues which have affected many residents. In late 2024, I requ…

One of the areas we are quite concerned about is our reputation for being coherent and trusted within the European Union. To be clear, the Labour Party has been consistently opposed to the Mercosur deal on the basis of its impact on climate and the potential impact on workers' rights. The European Trade Union Confederation has been very strong on this for a number of years. Unfortunately, our Government has been anything but coherent in terms of its own approach. The Taoiseach himself stated that progress was being…

I have been ringing alarm bells for several years in relation to coastal erosion in Portrane. Last week during Storm Bram, some families lost 5 m of garden in just a four-hour period. They simply cannot wait around any longer for the planning process, working groups or task forces. They are at risk of losing their homes and they need help. We are looking at potentially hundreds of families being homeless without a swift response from Government. This Dáil term, I contacted the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, who knows th…

We have deep concerns about the response to the flu outbreak. Accidents and emergency departments are under pressure. We have run out of nasal flu vaccines for infants. We would like to get a response from the Government before we go into the Christmas break, which we expect to be peak flu season.

A lot of this has been well aired over the past couple of weeks but I have a number of questions. Will the Minister clarify if this is being treated as an act of hybrid warfare? Was air traffic control in Dublin Airport made aware in real time, or as close to real time, of the incident, and if not, why not? When was it made aware and what protocols underpin engagement with air traffic control in Dublin? Are there plans to release some form of footage relating to this to counter false narratives out there up to and …

If the Minister does not have the answer now, I would like her to come back on the question relating to when air traffic control in Dublin Airport was informed about this. According to my sources, I understand it was not informed about this and has led to some disquiet about different organisations talking to each other. We have fixed rules regarding drone activity and no-fly zones and for the major airspace to not have been made aware of that is quite concerning. That is not to overstate this because it was a succ…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak. It beggars belief that we did not have pre-legislative scrutiny on this Bill, considering that it arose out of a Supreme Court judgment, which essentially struck down the investor court element of the CETA agreement. I do not think we need pre-legislative scrutiny of every Bill that comes before the House, although we should have it for most, but we certainly should have had it for this Bill, of that there is no doubt. It begs the question of why we did not. It seems the …

I am not but I am very close to finishing.

Every vote in support of this Bill will bring ultimately bring potential harm on the State and it does not have to be that way. We do not need an independent investment court or arbitration system. I ask the Minister to look again and withdraw this, to go about it a different way and to trust our court system. We can have good and growing trade with Canada. We can be good partners and improve things. We do not need to hand over to the big multinationals or big mining companies any more influence than they already h…

We had that regular Thursday pantomime at the end of the first part of Leaders' Questions. I want to focus on an issue that is important to the Labour Party, which is Garda resources and Garda recruitment. Specifically, I want to raise with the Tánaiste the 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, despi…

The capital plan that has been drafted does not seem to be rooted in the reality of how towns are growing. My colleague Deputy Conor Sheehan talked about the Garda station and Garda needs in Castletroy. Every Member in this House will say the same. There needs to be a commitment to the reality. I did not mention investment, because we have had no shortage of money; it is a shortage of delivery. There has been some creativity in how the figures for recruits into Templemore have been published over the last couple of…

I am delighted that we are able to bring this motion to the House today. As the Labour Party health spokesperson in the last Dáil, I was privileged to receive a number of briefings and to speak to members of the trans community, a community that is so often talked about but never listened to and a community that is attacked by presidents, authors, writers and other privileged people in this world. Trans people are used as a wedge in a culture war that they want no part of. When we listen to the trans community, as …

Hear, hear.

Give us a break. You-----

Will the Deputy be voting for the fox-hunting Bill?

Sit down and shut your mouth. Gobshite.

Speak to the motion.

What is the Deputy's opinion? He is not speaking to the motion.