This debate is about more than a football match. It is about who we are as a people. Ireland is a small nation but in our history we have sought to play a role in the world that is larger than our size. That role has not been built on military power or economic might but on our instinctive understanding of injustice, our own experience of colonisation, dispossession and partition and our belief that small nations have rights, people have the right to self-determination and international law matters. That tradition …

The Minister of State has two minutes on the clock to address the genocide. He has yet to mention it at all or anything that is happening.

Hear, hear.

Cuireann an scéim fhoráil Iúil tacaíocht ríthábhachtach samhraidh ar fáil do pháistí a bhfuil riachtanais bhreise acu. Níl na tacaíochtaí seo roghnach le haghaidh roinnt páistí; tá siad riachtanach. Go fóill ar fud an Stáit, tá an Rialtas ag insint le teaghlaigh go bhfuil na tacaíochta seo á gcailliúint acu. I mbliana, níor osclaíodh an tréimhse iarratais don scéim fhoráil Iúil ach ar feadh seachtain amháin. Sna blianta roimhe seo, bhí míonna ag na scoileanna leis an bpróiseas a chur i gcrích. Beidh páistí a bhfuil…

I welcome the decision to reopen the portal, and I ask that clarity be given to schools and parents immediately. The Tánaiste talked about a short extension but it needs to be long enough to deal with the process. As a result of the botched situation this year, there is now huge pressure to allocate tutors, so this cannot happen again. I want to raise an additional issue relating to this year. My understanding is the scheme has also changed, in that there is now only one option, where all the pupils take either the…

I congratulate Jordan and Cian Adams, who are going to complete their incredible superhuman challenge of running a marathon every day for the past 32 days across 32 counties to raise awareness of frontotemporal dementia. Fair play to the two lads. The Irish football team should not be playing Israel as it continues its genocide in Gaza and its brutalisation of the Palestinian people. Yesterday, the Minister of Culture, Communications and Sport, Deputy O'Donovan, and the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, confir…

I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward this motion on a fiscal planning framework. The motion calls for a framework that would set out an economic policy response to external shocks in terms of financial supports and taxation. There is undoubtedly a need to provide certainty and confidence and to re-establish trust by clearly setting out the measures that would be considered during future crises. The energy shock we are still living through was met with a Government response that was and still is complete…

The Minister and his Government are failing children with disabilities. It is not just children but adults, too. That is clear. We saw it earlier this year, when people gathered outside the gates of Leinster House to protest the decisions that the Government has taken. It is not just the lack of services and supports. The fact that the Government sat around the Cabinet table and decided to leave people with disabilities €1,400 worse off is shocking. It is an indictment. This motion relates to the cost of disability…

I ask the Tánaiste again to review the decision not to have an emergency budget. It is absolutely crucial. What was announced last October in the budget left people worse off. It is not just Sinn Féin saying this - we saw in the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, analysis of the budget that families were left worse off and those on lower incomes were worse off. Added to that, inflation is running at nearly double what was projected on budget day. People cannot wait until next year until the Government br…

Many people would love to be in the Minister's shoes and have the luxury to wait this out until next year until budget 2027 but they are not in that position. We have 320,000 families across this State who cannot pay their electricity bills. One in four households cannot pay their gas bills. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of other families are paying those bills but are really struggling, finding it difficult to make ends meet at the end of the week, working every hour God sends them and doing everything right…

There the Minister goes again saying the winter could be very challenging. People are telling me that it is very challenging right now. How more challenging does it need to be when you cannot pay to keep the lights on in your home? That is the pressure that people are under. The Minister is saying that we need to keep the power dry until the winter and budget 2027 and I am telling him that there are large numbers of people who are really under pressure. They are under pressure because of the budget that the Governm…

The Minister finally published his motor insurance transparency code, which was promised in the so-called insurance action plan. The action is completely powerless with no powers to sanction companies. Worse still, I understand it is voluntary. That was never mentioned in the original action plan. Why is the Government afraid to stand up to the insurance companies and hold them to account?

The cost of car insurance is going up and up. This is the fourth consecutive year of price rises and every motorist knows it. Irish people already pay almost double what the European motorist pays for car insurance. When one adds soaring fuel costs, too many people are being pushed to the brink in trying to keep a car on the road. We know from the Central Bank that the cost of car insurance is going up while costs for insurance companies are going down. The simple fact is that companies are pocketing the difference…

Does the Minister of State not accept the average cost for motor insurance in this State is now €655? Does he accept that insurance companies are paying out less than half of that in claims? Does he accept that insurance companies are taking more in profits and inflated costs that they are paying out? They are all facts. Insurance companies are squeezing people dry to appease their shareholders. The Government wants to blame drivers. This Government is going along with that. The transparency code refers to risk mit…

Not according to the Central Bank.

Will the Minister reconsider his position and introduce a windfall tax on energy companies in order to fund support for workers and families in the cost-of-living crisis? The Minister has stated he will not introduce a windfall energy tax on energy companies unless his hand is effectively forced by action at the European level. His performance during the last energy shock was abysmal. He allowed companies to enrich themselves. I urge him not to repeat the same mistakes, reconsider his position and prepare windfall …

It is the same old playbook. We see the same playbook being used by the Government on the occupied territories Bill. When it does not want to do something, it reaches for the EU and uses it as an excuse. The EU has given member states the green light to act on this. The ball is in the Government's court, yet it is still finding excuses as to why it will not or cannot act. It is trying not to rewrite history. The Government opposed action at EU level during the last energy shock. Electricity companies were never hit…

Who said that? Why are you making that up? Did I say that?

With respect, did I say that? Is the Minister just going to make up lies? Is he just going to do that?

I did not say it.