This concerns the reckless decision of the Government to remove a teacher, the 11th mainstream teaching post, from St. Patrick's Junior National School in Skerries. I will refer to what a parent wrote to me. I have spoken to parents and teachers. They are absolutely frantic. She said the school currently has 267 pupils, which is above the standard retention threshold of 258. This raises an important question. Why is a school that remains above the normal teacher retention threshold losing a teaching post and doing …

The school is due to lose the teacher on 23 October. In his closing remarks the Minister of State might advise us how this is going to work, given that the deadline is looming. He might also advise us whether he believes that 33 children in a classroom is acceptable. I will tell him on my behalf that 33 children in a classroom is very much not acceptable. That is not a good learning environment for children to have. That is not a good environment for teachers, SNAs and the wider school community to have to deal wit…

Of all the short-sighted, tone-deaf announcements that have been made by this Government, and there are many, this one is right up there. I genuinely did a double take when I read it. I thought that in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, surely not even a government as bad as this one is going to jack up the cost of public transport, yet that is apparently what it is proposing. The Minister well knows that the people in my constituency who get the train in either Balbriggan or Skerries were left out of the Dubli…

Mine is a fairly straightforward question. I need to understand what the Minister is doing to improve the quality and consistency of first-instance decisions. The reason I ask is partly due to the fact that I am tracking the figures but also due to what I see coming into my constituency office. I ask the Minister to refer, if he could, to the domiciliary care allowance application process. That is the one that, anecdotally and according to the figures, seems to be the most problematic.

The domiciliary care allowance and disability allowance are particular concerns for me. I have spoken previously about the issues. It is rough on the families. They have to write about their children on their worst days and about all the bad things that they do to the family. That is not where people want to be. Considerable work could be done by the Minister's Department in advance of that. Notwithstanding that, for 60% of domiciliary care allowance applications, the original decision is overturned on appeal. The …

An overturn rate of 60% points to a problem. I also thank the people in the appeals office. We deal with them on a regular basis and I know they are doing their best. Having said that, there is an issue. I cannot think of any other instance where there would be a 60% overturn rate. That kind of rate is a structural failure. I am not necessarily calling it an "error rate", but the original decisions are not good and that is why they are overturned. In the intervening time, families are left without money. I welcome …

The ESRI findings on child poverty are a pretty damning indictment of the statements the Minister and the Government make. I think we will find it very hard to disagree with that. I am interested to know whether the Minister accepts the ESRI findings and its statement that "the Government is very far from meeting its target with regard to reducing child poverty". Rhetoric is one thing, and to be fair to the Minister's boss he is very big on that, but actual delivery is another. The statistics do not bear out what t…

I do not think the measure the Government uses for poverty will in any way interfere with the people who are living with material deprivation. I genuinely think they do not care what metric the Government chooses to measure it by because they are in poverty. The ESRI tells us very clearly that there is a rise. Some 17.4% of children are living below the poverty line. After housing costs, that goes to 22.7%. In fact, we are going in the wrong direction when it comes to child poverty. That is not a failure of the sys…

I do not think the Minister is in any danger of leaving people worse off just because he thinks the measurement might be off. With the greatest of respect, I think that is a bit of a nonsense argument. The Minister can see the trend and what way it is going. I do not want to get into an argument because there are people at home who, God love them, might be watching this wondering what we are talking about. This is about child poverty, yet they would see the Minister and me arguing about the figures. The measurement…

It is not funny. The Tánaiste should not laugh about it.

If they made no difference, why did the Government introduce them?

I could not agree more with an Teachta Quinlivan. Families are sick of waiting, and they have waited long enough. I will say to the Minister what I always say when we have a debate like this, that being, persons with disabilities are not disabled or restricted by their own bodies or intellectual capacity. Rather, they are disabled, or restricted, if you will, by an ableist world full of hostile architecture. They are restricted by systems designed to exclude them and they are gravely and seriously disabled by a Gov…

The Minister will know my views on this because we have had a discussion about it. For the purpose of putting them on the record, however, I cannot emphasise how foolish I believe it will be to allow this Bill to pass in its current form, owing to the provisions specifically in section 8, which seek to expand further the functions of the public services card, PSC. This is being done at a time when that very card and the legal underpinning are being called into question in court. The Minister will know that his coll…

This Topical Issue is about the fare hikes - or the unfair hikes, as we might call them. The people who live in my constituency already had their fares jacked up. Those who get the train from Balbriggan or Skerries were taken out of the Dublin commuter zone and had their fares increased by almost €100. That was only last year. We now have a situation whereby they will be asked to pay more. They are not getting any extra services; not an additional carriage will be added. The Government was very clear about that. Th…

It is very brave of the Minister of State to compare us to Europe. If he wants to go down that road, it will be a shame on him and his Government - let us be honest. He said he is maintaining affordable fares. Of course he is not; he is increasing the fares. He also tells us there will be significant expansion and enhancement of services but it has been confirmed that these unfair fare hikes will just tread water. It will be the status quo . They are not for new services, so my constituents will pay more again this…

I gave a commitment to my constituents that I would raise this issue at the first opportunity I got when the Dáil resumed, and that is today. Last year, constituents of mine who live in Skerries and get the train from Skerries and Balbriggan were taken out of the Dublin commuter zone. That added hundreds of euro to the average daily commute. Now, we learn that the Government is proposing to hike the fares even further, by 15%. For some people that will cost an extra €150 to €250 a year, and that is just for the joy…

No, prices went up. That is not true.

I thank my party colleague Deputy Ó Laoghaire for bringing forward this important motion this evening. Let us be honest about what the Minister is trying to do and wants to do on what some might call the down low and in secrecy when people are not looking, but we will always shine a light on her actions. We in Sinn Féin will oppose any attempts to undermine our neutrality. The Minister underestimates the support for this position at her peril. We are proud of our peacekeepers and the role they play in international…

The outpouring of support for these artists right across the world tells us that we want to be on the right side of history. We want a government that values that peace. Our neutrality is important. We will stand up for it at every single turn. If the Minister is so convinced of her position, put it to the people and let us have our say.

I welcome this debate this afternoon and am happy to be able to make a small contribution to it. I grew up in a Border town. I ended up in that town because my father was a trade union organiser who represented workers on both sides of the Border for a long number of years and, in fact, went on to be based in the North for a long time. At that time, we knew, and it is very apparent now, that the Border was a barrier to workers becoming organised. Partition has always served, and will always serve, the interests of …