I welcome the opportunity to discuss social enterprise policy. I appreciate the updates the Minister of State provided. I will have a good look at his statement. Sometimes, it can be difficult to ingest what a Minister of State is saying across a 25-minute contribution. Social enterprises are an important part of our communities. They need support to help them to flourish and grow. I hope the policy will develop into a framework of the practical, namely how to set up and how to run social enterprise. I am intereste…

I appreciate that. When will details of the seed funding be announced? It was in the programme for Government. Also, Rethink was awarded a five-year €4 million contract for delivering social innovation supports without any public tendering. Maybe we could find out, because no other sectoral bodies could apply for it, why the contract was not the subject of a public tender.

I also welcome the tightening of the legislation but we do need to see it. We need to see it implemented. Everybody has a concern about vaping, particularly among young people. Adults have a choice and free will, and if their vaping is part of smoking cessation I absolutely welcome it and believe it to be important; however, as we have already heard, the manner in which vapes are marketed and sold is an issue. I have noted flavours other than those mentioned, including cherry cola and Skittles. If these are not dir…

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue of antisocial and criminal behaviour in our communities. The reality is that every community experiences antisocial behaviour and criminal activity, some far more than others. Some of it is quite low level with noise and boisterous behaviour but in other cases, it is really serious criminal behaviour. Not a single TD on either side of this Chamber would disagree that we need more gardaí. We hear it constantly in this Chamber. We need them on the streets and working in …

Fine Gael has been 14 years in power and Fianna Fáil has been ten years in power and yet they are still talking about forward planning. It is absolutely ridiculous. Every single child has a right to an education. It is not provided to all children because some are denied that right. Parents are forced to campaign, to protest and to demand and to share their stories. They were again promised this year that no child would be left behind. Well, it is untrue because we know children are being left. We just do not know …

What has that to do with the price of butter?

The fact of the matter is that normal working families are being affected by a cost-of-living crisis. This Government has lost control of it. Week on week, families see their shopping bills rise and rise, and the Government is burying its head in the sand, ignoring people's hardships and refusing to bring forward a cost-of-living package. Even the conscious shopper using the so-called low-cost supermarkets and purchasing own brand is finding that these brands are rising faster than the traditional brands. I know fa…

I know the Minister of State is aware of the issue in St. Mochta’s National School and the two special classes. First and foremost, we should express our concern for the parents and children involved in this situation. St. Mochta’s agreed to open up two classes after long discussions and much dialogue with the NCSE - one in temporary accommodation in the library and the other in December when two modular classes were to be delivered. The principal then informed the parents they needed to make the NCSE aware of thei…

The last paragraph is slightly worrying because in the presentation that was given to us on Monday evening by the principal and the patron of the school, it was stated that the SENO gave a verbal commitment to the school that the deadline of 19 February would be waived for pupils in St. Mochta’s as classes were not sanctioned on this date. The principal met with all parents on 5 March 2025 to advise the parents of the next steps and share commitments from the SENO to waive the deadline of 19 February. All parents c…

Last Sunday in Dublin West, I attended the anniversary of the genocide of 8,372 men and boys, some as young as 12 years of age, who were murdered by Serb forces. This year is the 30th anniversary. I will give a brief synopsis. Between April 1992 and 1993, Srebrenica and villages in the area held by Bosnian Muslims were constantly subjected to Serb military assaults, including artillery attacks, sniper fire and occasional bombing from the air. Each onslaught followed a similar pattern. Serb soldiers and paramilitari…

I have read the document and, to be honest, most of it reads as a list of the failures of the systems of this Government and previous Governments and their failure to ensure that children with additional needs get the help and support, and, therefore, the education, they deserve. I have experienced a number of key ongoing issues. I started working as a family support worker in 2001. I worked with families, many of whom had children with additional needs. To be honest, the situation got worse and worse between 2001 …

The people of this State should not be surprised that the Government proposes to develop the historic GPO into a commercial centre for office and retail units. It should not be surprising because the Government, especially Fianna Fáil, talks out of both sides of its mouth. It talks about protecting our heritage and revolutionary past, yet despite promise after promise the Taoiseach has backed the big developers who intend to destroy Dublin's historic Moore Street. Sinn Féin, along with others, including relatives o…

It is run by volunteers.

Volunteers did that for decades.

Look at Moore Street.

Has the Minister of State been down Moore Street recently?

Has the Minister of State been down Moore Street recently?

Has Deputy McAuliffe? Has he seen Moore Street recently?

There will be a new apartment block on Moore Street

I will read out two examples of emails that come into my constituency office: It is with a heavy heart I am asking you to find yourself another house to rent. Unfortunately, you cannot wait any longer as this application has been going on since last autumn with a tenant in situ and the eviction notice on the property was up in April and the house prices are increasing every day. We are going to have to act on the eviction notice as we are still none the wiser as to when this is going to happen. This is from another…