The Russians are not using alumina from Aughinish to make Ladas. It is as simple as that. If it is 1%, that is 1% too much. We can argue whether the data says 80% or 50% but, if any scintilla of material from Aughinish is going to the Russian war effort in its illegal war on Ukraine, Ireland needs to stand up. We cannot be selective in the kind of solidarity we show to Ukraine and its civilian population. We need to back Ukraine 100%. The Minister recently said on "Morning Ireland" that he had no information showin…

The Minister of State sits across from us practically every week to deal with motions from various Opposition groups so he will know only too well the challenges that families and small businesses across this country are encountering as a result of Ireland being simply unaffordable for far too many people in 2026. This is the umpteenth motion to be tabled in this House since the general election. We like to call this challenge a cost-of-living crisis but it is not a crisis because the word "crisis" suggests somethi…

The hospitality VAT rate cut will be introduced from 1 July, next Wednesday. Of course, we all know that for every tax cut there is a consequent cost for the taxpayer. Can the Tánaiste put on the record of the House his assessment of the full-year of this particular VAT cut?

The Tánaiste knows well and acknowledged that we have a difference of opinion on the best way in which we can support those jobs. I firmly believe, and I stand over the position, that this is not the best way to do that and is not the best way to allocate finite public resources in terms of supporting the subsectors of that sector that we are all concerned, that is, the small microenterprises that keep our towns and villages across the country going. In the Labour Party's view, the best way to do that is to target …

Of course it will, and who would not want free money? However, that does not address the structural problems we have in the hospitality sector. We had a VAT rate cut of one form or another in place for the vast majority of the past 15 or 16 years. In fact, the Labour Party helped to introduce that back in 2011 to ensure we could generate some jobs in a sector that could quickly add them, and it absolutely did, as the evidence suggests. However, notwithstanding that there are subsets of the hospitality sector that a…

"Isolated often at home, [my] child sees me constantly stressed and budgeting/worrying about bills and arrears and going without [the] basics." Those are the words of one parent from the Barnardos cost of living survey published this week. One in five families is cutting back on food due to the cost of living. Nearly half have skipped meals or reduced portions so their children would have enough to eat - in a rich country. Thirty per cent felt that at some point, they did not have enough food to feed their children…

I did not.

I thank the Tánaiste for going through some of his greatest hits in recent years, but the question is what will be done for working people this year? The Tánaiste has acknowledged that as a result of the untargeted VAT cut for the hospitality sector, PAYE workers had to go without indexation last year, which means more of the money they earn this year - the small increase they get from their pay increase - will by and large go to the taxman. The Tánaiste said earlier in the House that this was wrong and the Governm…

That report came out in 1973, so neither of us were born then.

It is good report though.

Some 14 step-down beds are to be removed from the Cottage Hospital in Drogheda. This will leave Ireland's largest town with no transitional care beds whatsoever. On Tuesday, up to 30 staff at the Cottage Hospital were told that their jobs were being unilaterally moved to the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. This move is being justified by the HSE on the basis that there will be a net gain of step-down beds in Louth and Meath by the end of 2026 but I know for a fact that there are no plans at this point to staff those …

As my colleague Deputy Smith said, the Government's countermotion is embarrassing and shameful. Really, it is a Comical Ali-type approach to politics. It does good government, and the idea of good government, a disservice. Frankly, we need to put the breaks on the development of data centres, at least until our grid capacity increases and household bills come down. If this Government put more energy, pun intended, into developing our offshore wind capacity rather than developing more data centres, we might build th…

I speak in support of this amendment. We in Labour have been long-standing supporters of the proposition that we would use the taxation system to assist people who are finding it very difficult to meet their energy bills. The evidence before us about people's problems meeting electricity bills and utility bills more generally is very clear and apparent to all of us in our everyday work as TDs in our constituencies and our engagement with people on a day-to-day basis. This is a real problem for working people who I …

I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “(7) For the purposes of this section, a person is not precluded from being in complete remission by reason only of the fact that the person is receiving— (a) anti-hormonal medications, or (b) any form of preventative therapy or medicine intended to reduce the risk of recurrence of cancer following the end of active cancer treatment.” I thank the Minister of State for the way in which he has engaged with me on this matter in recent…

I know.

I appreciate that the Minister of State is here to take this Topical Issue. I have a simple question to put to him. When are people, individuals or corporate bodies, whose actions destroy our rivers and habitats going to see a law change that would see those responsible for the destruction of those habitats possibly face jail? The Minister of State was on the banks of the River Glyde in County Louth last week where he saw some of the remains of the 20,000 dead fish. He spoke to members of the Ardee and Glyde Fishin…

I thank the Minister of State for his response and I eagerly await the evolution of the process he has outlined. This is not a new issue. My colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, did a lot of work to raise awareness of the mass fish kill in the Blackwater last year and of the lacuna in the law at the moment in terms of the requirement for the sorts of sanctions that would be commensurate with a violation of the nature of what happened in the Blackwater. Similarly, the same perspective can be applied to this particular ma…

I am pleased to see our colleague, Senator Frances Black, here this evening. It is only right and correct that she is here. I was proud to have been one of the co-signatories of the originally intended occupied territories Bill back in 2018 - the Bill, the Minister will not need reminding, that included services. The addition of services is legally complex but it is also permissible. It is politically difficult for this Government. That is the reality and that is why it is being excluded. My colleague, Deputy Dunca…

I very much appreciate the Minister's acknowledgement earlier in his opening contribution that the legislation I produced nine years ago was, in essence, the catalyst for the disregard propositions before us. For the bulk of the history of this State we made criminals of gay men because of who they were and who they loved. Many of those we did not criminalise received public order records, cautions and so on. They were imposed on them by an uncaring State at a very different time in our history. The Bill I presente…

Tell me about it.