Can the Taoiseach imagine what it must feel like to not know if your baby, your sibling or your niece or nephew is buried at the site in Bessborough or, potentially, was sold abroad? Like Carmel Cantwell said at the weekend, the truth lies in the grounds. We are talking about some of the worst human rights violations and some of the worst crimes imaginable. We are talking about forced family separation. We are talking about disappeared infants. We are talking about human trafficking. We are then talking about the p…

Is there a site that is too big to warrant-----

-----the investigation of the disappearance of over 800 babies?

I said the Government should purchase land compulsorily.

No, I do not find it a wonderful thing to say.

Someone dies from a drug overdose in Ireland almost every day. Drug deaths in this country are almost three times the EU average. The Taoiseach has a big decision to make. The Government can keep on doing what we all know is not working - criminalising people who struggle with addiction, failing to fund the services that could help them and cramming people into overcrowded prisons where drug use is endemic - or it can be radical and brave. It can opt to change its policy approach so that it is evidence-based and he…

The Taoiseach said the Government is taking a health-led approach to this issue. Respectfully, the Government is not taking a health-led approach. A citizens' assembly was established and issued its findings. A cross-party Oireachtas committee did the same. Both of them found that we need to change to a health-led approach. That includes decriminalisation among a range of other health-led approach methods. From the Taoiseach's reply, I take it that he plans to continue with more of the same and he thinks we have a …

I want to read into the record the testimonies of two women who were sexually abused by Leo Hickey, their principal in Dunderrow National School in Kinsale. One said: Sometimes while abusing me with his right hand, I would see him put his left hand inside the clothes on the lower part of the body of the girl beside me. Again, this could last for the duration of the class. Another said: I remember feeling something hard pressed against the small of my back and I remember wondering what this hard object was. I though…

What the Taoiseach has highlighted is the well-established practice of the State. At the hands of the State, people are seriously and systematically abused. They try to seek justice. There is delay after delay, an interdepartmental group, a commission of investigation, and a redress scheme that is blatantly cruel and excludes the people who need it, then the State does it all again with another redress scheme that also does not work. It is delay, delay and consult. The Taoiseach said today he should positively enga…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide price transparency for consumers by preventing hidden price increases by way of quantity reduction, allowing consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. When people go to the supermarket they deserve to know what they are paying for. They deserve to know if the product they bought last week has become smaller this week and if the quantity has been reduced while the price has stayed the same, or worse, gone up. Everyone deserves to be …

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Today, we have another damning report from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, on Ireland's declining water quality. Nearly half of our rivers are ecologically unhealthy. They are dying, as is all the wildlife and biodiversity in them. Our high status water bodies are deteriorating. These rivers are hugely important ecologically. They are refuges for some of our protected species, such as kingfisher and salmon. Almost 10% of these rivers have declined in quality in the past year alone. More worrying, we have …

In the 1980s, we had over 500 pristine rivers. Now, we have just 20 - actually, it is probably less than that because that is a 2018 figure - so for the Taoiseach to say this is a priority for the Government simply is not credible. Agricultural run-off was responsible for pollution in approximately 1,000 water bodies and the Government consistently fights for a derogation for Ireland to be able to apply more chemical applications to the soil, which inevitably run off into the rivers. Not that we needed further evid…

I did not say it was.

I have many times.

I thank Deputy Gibney for all her hard work on this motion. Moving the match to a neutral venue is not a solution; it is cowardice. The issue has never been where the game would be played. The issue is whether it should be played at all against an opponent actively committing genocide. A neutral venue will not make the game neutral. Across Ireland, there has been overwhelming public support for strong action in response to Israel’s barbarity but the Government has failed time and again to meet this moment and respo…

I condemn the horrific attack in Belfast on Monday. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family. I also condemn the racist attacks last night and join others in calling for an end to the violence. I will talk to the Taoiseach today about the extreme pressure family carers are under. Some 71% are now struggling to make ends meet, according to the recent Family Carers Ireland report. Nearly half are experiencing extreme loneliness, are desperate for support that never comes and are feeling like their world is shr…

The Taoiseach says he acknowledges the role of carers and acknowledges the need to abolish the means test ultimately over the lifetime of this Government. I assume he acknowledges, then, that the changes in the threshold do not abolish it but, rather, slowly work towards that. I appreciate that the Government is doing that but if I am right, I can take it from the Taoiseach's reply that the Government does not plan to abolish it entirely in this budget, and that it is something it plans to do over the lifetime of t…

There have been a lot of questions raised about our-----

A lot of questions have been raised about our maternity services in recent weeks and there appears to be confusion about a hugely important issue. Which category of patient deserves continuity of care in our maternity services? Can I be absolutely clear about what I thought was obvious? Every woman accessing maternity services should be entitled to the highest quality care. It should not be an optional extra reserved for those who can pay for it. Public maternity services should not feel less safe than going privat…