I raise the issue of Go-Ahead Ireland services in Wicklow. We have seen consistent problems with the service being provided by Go-Ahead. I raised this issue in the Dáil most recently a month ago. There were instances when Go-Ahead buses were not travelling the entire route and were skipping a number of stops. In one instance a young woman who has intellectual and physical disabilities was on the bus and it did not bring her down her road, which it was meant to do. She ended up being brought to the next village and …

That is what I was told as well.

The Minister is correct that I am being told a different story by people on the ground. I will come back to him directly on this. I am worried about how no-shows are being recorded. I am being told there are no-shows, yet the NTA is not recording them or they are not being recorded in the systems as no-shows. I will speak to the Minister about this because it may require a more in-depth conversation. The Minister knows I am a big fan of public transport but it also needs to be reliable. If it is not reliable, there…

The war in the Middle East is spiralling out of control and the impacts are already being felt. Prices for home heating oil have already shot up by 40% which means people having to find an extra €250 or €300 for a 500-litre fill. Who has that kind of money? Gas prices are also skyrocketing within the UK, with the UK recording a 100% increase in wholesale prices in just two days. That is the biggest ever 48-hour increase since records began. We are particularly exposed to these extortionate price rises in this count…

We want targeted.

I echo my party colleague's sentiments on the importance of post offices to our local communities. Everyone in Ireland appreciates the work of our postal workers and, indeed, those who man the post offices. I want to raise with the Minister of State a specific issue about Daly's postal agency in Hollywood in west Wicklow. They are a small shop but they perform certain postal services. Their mini-Riposte system is incompatible with fibre broadband, and when we moved from copper to fibre, it stopped working properly.…

Eight years ago, the Irish people voted to repeal the eighth amendment. Many people voted because of the tragic stories they heard about women who were forced to the UK to have their terminations. Unfortunately, eight years later, far too many women still have to go to the UK for those terminations. My niece is one of those women. She bravely told the story of what happened to her on this morning's episode of "Today with David McCullagh". She was pregnant and her baby had a severe brain malformation. She was told b…

-----like my niece who are still facing that awful challenge-----

-----of trying to get their babies home to bury them with respect.

They could not say whether she would live beyond the 28 days.

We have seen an incredible loss of life on our roads over the past few days, never mind over the past year. Can the Minister of State let me know if he intends to set a road death reduction target for phase 2 of Vision Zero and will he make a statement on the matter?

It seems that every day, or every second day, when we wake up there is the most tragic news that another person has lost their life on our roads. Each of those lives lost is avoidable. I would imagine the worst thing possible for any family is to get that call or that knock on the door to let them know their loved one has lost their life. It feels that it is getting worse and worse. It seems that we are hearing of more people, and more young people. We had, unfortunately, another two young lives lost in Donegal, an…

There is no panacea to this. There are many issues involved, and the Minister is right that driver behaviour is one of them. However, the reality is that, as we have seen, some driver behaviour is very poor and unless there is enforcement and a fear of being caught for this behaviour on the road, it will continue. While there a lot of actions are needed, the absolute priority here is enforcement and the Minister of State barely mentioned enforcement in his response. We need to ensure we have sufficient Garda number…

We heard from Deputy Rice about the extortionate cost of GP care for families all across the country, which ranges between €50 and €100. Not only is that incredibly expensive, but woman will probably pay double that to get basic healthcare once they are premenopausal or menopausal. GPs will charge between €120 and €200 or, perhaps, €250 for a consultation when it comes to menopausal clinics. That is an incredible amount of money. We are in a lucky situation where we know a lot more about menopause. We know the symp…

Last week, I sat in and listened to much of the debate on this particular amendment. I agreed with a lot of it. I agree that Government made an absolute mess of this entire issue. There was a lack of preparedness. The Government did not take on board repeated warnings and repeated recommendations as to what it and the country needed to do to house and process asylum seekers. I absolutely agree that what the Government has done is to funnel huge profits to developers rather than build the public services and public …

People were working with those within the IPAS system and getting them involved in Tidy Towns. They were out painting railings. There were groups like Bray Welcomes, Wicklow Welcomes, Blessington Welcomes and Newtown Together - so many groups and people within communities who recognised that this situation was a difficult one and that there was no perfect answer, and that actually the best thing to do was to just try their best despite the Government making such a mess of it and making it the worst possible start f…

I am really disappointed with the message that was sent by Sinn Féin.

The reason Sinn Féin can get away with sending that message is because the Government has failed. It failed to prepare. It failed to respect people's dignity, and it continues to do so. The Government created this situation where there is a vacuum of information and supports and that is feeding what we are seeing now. When we talk about social cohesion, the Minister is absolutely right, there is a real risk to social cohesion here but we can get this right now. We really can, but the debate we are having on this Bi…

The Irish State was a real leader when it came to the smoking ban - I know the Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, played a big part - but there are equally concerning issues in relation to other nicotine products. While work is being done on vaping, I want to raise with the Taoiseach the issue of nicotine pouches. I am not sure if the Taoiseach is familiar with them, but teenagers use these little pouches, which they put on their gums. They can pass ten times the amount of nicotine versus a single cigarette - they are reall…

Yes, the schools want to deal with this themselves. They are looking for guidance from the Department of Health about nicotine pouches specifically, but the legislation also needs to incorporate this.