This is very simple. The school building, as it is, is simply not fit for continued use. There are serious health and safety concerns. When we visited there was very clearly water still coming through and sitting on top of tiles. You could see water coming in beside an interactive electric panel, which clearly represented a danger. A couple of years ago there was a partial ceiling collapse while children were in a class. There is mould. It is simply not suitable as it is. What is frustrating is this was recognised …

There is lots in the roof report carried out by Morris Roofing and Cladding. The key point is the roof has gone beyond economic repair due to its nearly 50 years of age. The fundamental problem is the school is over 50 years old and needs a new replacement building. That is not just the opinion of some teachers, students or parents but of the architect originally appointed by the Department 12 years ago. There is an additional issue in that when the new school building opens, there will be 36 extra places in specia…

I thank Deputy O'Gorman and the Green Party for tabling the motion, which we support. We have also tabled two amendments, which I will mention later. The main point is that history will not treat this Government kindly, if history gets to be written. Maybe that is what it is counting on. One after another, the Government is ripping up its climate commitments relating to LNG, data centres, public transport, nitrates, marine protected areas, MPAs, forestry, you name it. The Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Lowry lackey Governme…

It has been a bad week for the Government; it is been a good week for people power. The fuel protests caused the resignation of a Minister of State and the sudden appearance of the young Turks of Fianna Fáil. Those protests led to the majority of the Government being reduced and the Government being destabilised. That is before we get to the by-elections in just over a month's time. It is often said that power comes from the barrel of a gun, but in this country it often seems to come from the cab of a tractor. The …

I do not think the Government gets it. If it got it, we would not have seen the scenes we saw over the past ten days. That is a result of the Government not listening and not acting. One in five people is at risk of poverty. Two in five parents have skipped meals or cut back on what they are eating in order that their kids can have enough to eat. Hundreds of thousands of people are in arrears in on their electricity or gas bills. That is what drove the protests. The common cause I and People Before Profit make is w…

I want to remind the Government that the group which led the way on the cost-of-living struggle until the past week or so was disabled people. Outside the Dáil they again led the Affordable Ireland campaign protest a few weeks ago. Why were they to the fore? It was because they were the ones who were hit hardest in the budget with €1,400 worth of cruel and targeted cuts. For months, despite all of the pleading, protest, argument and stories about people having to choose between heating and eating, the Government ig…

The backdrop to the wars, the genocides and the interventions we have seen over the past number of years is the rivalry between the declining power of the US and the emerging power of China. That is the context in which the Government has tried very vigorously to draw Ireland more and more openly into the US-led NATO camp. We can see now in terms of the war crimes being committed in Iran what that means. It is why the vast majority of people defend our neutrality, want to protect our triple lock and do not want to …

Just home, is it?

Sure they are using Shannon Airport for a war right now.

We are involved right now.

Of course we are. They are using our airport and our airspace.

How do you know that?

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I have raised with the Taoiseach before the Northside Home Care Services workers who have been taking industrial action since January. Some of them are in the Gallery. He knows what the issue is here; it is about pay equality. Some of these workers have worked for 25 years and are getting just over €15 an hour. Others are on minimum wage and getting 30% less than others for doing the same job of providing vital care to approximately 500 people on a daily basis. What I raise today is the…

It looks like this Government will hang on to power for now with the votes of the Lowry lackey Independents. There is an important lesson for everyone in that. Do not trust these fake Independents. They are sheep in wolves' clothing. They are people who pretend to stand for the ordinary person, but in reality just seek to get into bed and into government with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. That is why we want a general election and a left-wing Government. There is another lesson here-----

-----and it is a lesson for those in government. The people on the streets are more powerful than the people who are supposedly in power. We have seen the power of ordinary people in the past week, and this must now be the start of a new phase of militant, effective protest involving trade unions and communities-----

-----mobilising for action on behalf of everyone in the context of the cost-of-living crisis.

The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, was on the radio this morning and he was explaining why the Government has introduced this new package. He claimed, of course, that it has nothing to do with the protests or blockades; nobody believes that. Instead, he said it is because the measures that we introduced a number of weeks ago were wiped out by the international price of oil going up. How could he have known that this would happen? How could the Government have known? We warned the Government. We warned it in that…

Deputy Quaide sends apologies. He was able to make it on Tuesday but not when it was rescheduled. He has been raising this issue consistently so I thank him. We all clapped in this Chamber, or perhaps it was in the convention centre, for our healthcare workers. I recall going outside my house, like people all across the country, to clap for our healthcare workers and thank them for standing on the front line during the Covid-19 pandemic, for putting their own health at risk for the rest of us and telling them we ha…

The Minister responded by saying that this does not mean the Government will not support workers. He said that staff may receive full pay for three months, which is correct but we are coming to the end of that, followed by half pay for a further three months. People have their childcare bills, their mortgages and the costs of just existing in this cost-of-living crisis. They have a lifestyle based on their pay and will not be able to survive based on half pay. The Minister went on to say that they have the option t…

This is a mean Government. We knew it was a mean Government already because we saw the last budget, which was a giveaway budget for the developers, a giveaway budget for Google and a giveaway budget for the fast food giants but it took money out of the pockets of ordinary people and targeted disabled people, in particular, with swingeing, mean cuts of over €1,400 per person per year. We therefore knew this was a mean Government already and we had that in our mind when we were thinking, "What will the Government do …