Recent studies have shown that Dublin is again a dirty city and Cork as well, for that matter. They have not improved. If anything, they have become worse. We have had less visible plastic. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a guy throw a bottle out of the car. He would only have got 15 cent for it, but could not do anything about it, so it ended up in the ditch. We have a situation where half of all visible litter is cigarette butts. People stamp it on the ground thinking that it is plastic or will biodegrade. I even sa…

Should we not increase fines to have real consequences for people dropping litter?

According to Irish Business Against Litter, IBAL, it is.

Like others, I welcome the establishment of the commission of investigation into historical sexual abuse in all-day and boarding schools. I do in all sincerity regret that it has taken so long to move into this area and ensure that all survivors who are still alive receive acknowledgement and, hopefully, some justice. I express my personal sympathies to the survivors and all the families involved. The scoping inquiry was told, as others have mentioned, of 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse in day and boar…

As others have said, people are suffering from massive price inflation across a range of areas, including in supermarkets, the subject of this debate. The causes are varied, including wars, energy price hikes, supply shortages, Brexit and so on, but the suspicion remains that the supermarket chains are making excessive profits. As Ireland is the second most expensive country in Europe, scrutiny is required. Even when margins are found to be tight, families need to be given the tools to find the best value in a give…

I want to ask a question that others have raised on the issue of Garda vetting. As we know, a teacher doing a summer project, such as mentoring in a GAA club, needs separate vetting. This is quite farcical and the process could be streamlined to be a lot quicker, but every time we raised it we were told the Garda vetting review group was the group that was going to report on this. The former Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, said in April 2021 that it would take approximately six months. In March, the current M…

It is good to have the opportunity to speak about the European Council meeting that took place at the end of June. Even in the past couple of weeks, things have moved on and changed. The next meeting is not until October. I acknowledge that it is a difficult job for the Government, as a member of a very large bloc and a small country, to try to get our views across. There were 12 key headings, including any other business, and more than 50 individual topics for discussion, not all of which related to us because the…

We will now move on to questions and answers. The Taoiseach or another Minister or Minister of State will take questions and answers for a period not exceeding 20 minutes and the following arrangements will apply. There is no set time for a question or an answer but it is normal for the Chair to ask Members to be concise given the short time period available. Opposition parties and groups will be called in the following order to put a question: Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, Independent and Part…

We have an amendment of a Bill to legislation that has not been enacted. Looking at it, at face value one has to welcome it. Regarding the retrospective suspension of planning permission duration during judicial review, insofar as there are delays caused by judicial reviews, I take this point. However, as others have said, judicial reviews are not the main issue, which I will go into in a minute. The Bill also provides for the extension of the duration of uncommenced housing developments, which the legislation says…

Ba mhaith liom seans cúpla focal a rá anocht. I was in the Green Party back in 2009 when everything was cut to shreds. Back then I fought a little bit of a rearguard battle with some of my colleagues to get education cuts reversed and to stop registration fees being increased. That was when stuff was quite expensive. The cost of living rose post Covid and the registration fees were reduced by approximately €1,000. The question we have to discuss tonight is if we are going to leave it until the budget as per this Go…

Part of Citywest Hotel is now a holding or detention centre for those awaiting deportation. Is there a coherent policy? Are those awaiting deportation at IPAS centres allowed to roam free or are they locked into hotel rooms 24 hours a day? If detainees are held pre-deportation or pending prison transfer, that means the role of the centre is not purely accommodation; it is quasi-detention. Is using an hotel as a detention centre legal? It likely falls outside of the hotel emergency reception exemption and will be co…

I support the motion on housing tabled by my colleagues in the Independent Technical Group. This is probably the 20th or 25th discussion on housing that we have had since the start of the year. I worry that as we are almost 10% through the lifetime of this Dáil, we will end up not getting anything done. We need to focus very quickly on putting in some measures that will actually deliver housing. I mentioned last week the call by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, chairman, Sean O'Driscoll, to get rea…

With the news reports of increasing levels of domestic abuse, the family courts are under more pressure than ever. I and others have raised before the need to get rid of the in camera rule. I am aware the Minister is doing something at the end of the year, but this possibly needs to happen more quickly because we still have cases going on where so-called experts are giving section 32 and section 47 reports. Sometimes their word is taken as gospel even though they are being paid. Judges take it as gospel. There is n…

As others have mentioned, the "RTÉ Investigates" programme highlighted the scandalous lack of proper care standards in two nursing homes. However, if people think such incidents in the modern age are confined to The Residence Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin, they have another thing coming. We have all heard stories and, obviously, if they are not in the public domain, we cannot recount them. However, in this context I believe that HIQA, all related agencies and the system in general have failed families …

It is good that the Minister is in the Chamber. I have raised transport issues a couple of times when he was not here. I presume some were passed on to him, but I will reiterate a couple. A while back, I raised the need to have an intercity stop at either Adamstown or Kishoge train station. I know that would cause a five-minute delay but there is a lot of demand in this rapidly growing area to get a train directly from Adamstown. A lot of people will not get a train that involves making a 40-minute trip to get to H…

We saw recently the implementation of the new legislation on e-scooters. It needs to bed in, but I want to lay down a marker for the end of the year. At the moment, if a scooter weighs a maximum of 25 kg, travels at speeds of less than 20 km/h and has a certain wheel diameter, it is considered a personal transporter and not a vehicle that requires licensing. Anecdotally, however, I have seen situations where these 20 km/h scooters are going at speed on footpaths with impunity, as per our discussion on anti-social b…

The other issue would be the reviewing of insurance if someone crashes into someone else.

This proposal is basically to kick to touch until next March. There is no cohesive Government strategy that I can see. The Government was put in place in January. Almost six months later, we should have a proper, far-reaching plan, but we do not. We have this proposal, which no one can disagree with in the first instance, to extend the rent pressure zones across the country. I commend the Ministers for doing that much but we are not looking at the bigger picture. What type of landlords want to get out of the market…

We are talking about housing and targets. As Opposition Members have stated, the targets are not being reached. Let us not get into the semantics of whether they will be reached, because what will stop them being reached is infrastructure. We have a situation in Clonshaugh where planned housing is going to be delayed due to a lack of water services. In this context, it was interesting to listen to the ESRI chairman, Mr. Sean O'Driscoll, who is a member of the new infrastructure task force. Credit to the Government …

To follow up on transport infrastructure, Mr. O'Driscoll mentioned, for example, the impact in terms of future jobs at Apple because of the road interlink and public transport links. It is a similar thing with Galway in terms of the ring road. As someone with a green background, I acknowledge the need for the ring road but obviously there is a need to put more investment into public transport alternatives in the first instance. This action plan is coming by 1 July, which means the Cabinet will be deciding, I hope b…