That sounds good and I hope it is the case but if we look at the additional funding in the last budget, it was an extra €40 million. That amounts to about 80 to 100 new homes but there are more than 2,000 adults with intellectual disabilities living with parents over the age of 70. Around 500 of those are with parents who are over the age of 80. They characterise the situation as one where basically, unless somebody dies or gets severely ill, there is no help available. It is a crisis management situation and the a…

What is the current status of the draft legislation to amend the Technological Universities Act in terms of the facilitation of the partnership that was announced between Dundalk Institute of Technology and Queen's University Belfast? I ask that question in particular because of the potential implications for what will be then the last remaining institute of technology, IT, which is the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, IADT, and whether there is scope within the legislation for its status to be dealt with.

I can see the attraction of university status for Dundalk as an all-island university, etc., but that leaves Dún Laoghaire IADT out on its own with no clear pathway forward. In particular, I am concerned for the staff and the workers, their terms and conditions and the sustainability of the IADT. If everybody who used to be in an IT is now in a university, who wants to go to IADT, but if IADT is to get university status, is it to be done under the Technological Universities Act 2018 so that the staff retain their e…

First, it is not great to make an announcement like that without consulting the workers. Their clearly declared position is that it should be done through an amendment to the Technological Universities Act 2018. Will the Minister clarify that is what the draft legislation is, when we are going to see it, when it will be published and whether there will be scope for amendment to accommodate a pathway to university status for IADT, which will be the last remaining IT? IADT will not be sustainable unless it has a path…

We talked earlier on about big announcements without people knowing they were coming. I met earlier with representatives of the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation and Aontas na Mac Léinn Éireann, AMLÉ, the national students' union, about the surprise announcement from Research Ireland that it is pulling out of graduate and postgraduate schemes for PhD and postdoctorate funding. People will now be applying directly to colleges and universities. They are extremely worried that this has come out of nowhere and about w…

They are very concerned because the background is that the Postgraduate Workers' Organisation and students' unions fought for stipend increases. They got them up to €25,000. It is still not enough and is much less than their European counterparts. They are also looking for status as workers. They fear that their conditions may be impacted by moving over to universities because if a block grant is going from Research Ireland to universities, potentially the university could say it will have more postgraduate student…

I understand from talking to AMLÉ and the postgraduate workers that IFUT is also concerned about this. I have not talked directly to it since this information came out but clarifications and reassurances need to be given that there will be no question that, for example, the stipends of €25,000 that have been achieved when researchers applied to Research Ireland will be undermined when they go to the colleges and the universities. Another concern that was expressed is that because there is more money available from …

I am glad to hear it.

I thank Deputy O'Gorman for bringing forward this important motion. He is absolutely right to highlight the need for the Government to recommit in a serious way because it seems to have abandoned any serious effort to address the climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens our planet, threatens the ability of the planet to sustain human life in the long run and will certainly impose a huge cost on ordinary people unless it is addressed and addressed as a matter of urgency. It seems that this is one of the many a…

The Israeli regime and the United States have rained down death and destruction on thousands of people in a criminal war they instigated in Iran and Lebanon. The Israeli regime has done that following nearly three years of a genocidal slaughter against the Palestinian people. It continues to allow illegal settlers to run amok, terrorising Palestinians on the West Bank. It is now going to introduce a law to execute Palestinians who are resisting an illegal occupation of their land. There are reports in the past week…

The failure of the European Union to suspend the EU association agreement with Israel is an absolute disgrace. Does the Minister of State agree it is a disgrace, given that Israel is in the dock for genocide and has instigated murderous and illegal wars against Lebanon and Iran? Does the Minister of State agree? If his excuse is that Europe will not doing anything but we tried, does he feel Ireland has any responsibility to do anything in the face of the crimes Israel is committing? Specifically, does he think we h…

So, there is no answer on the Genocide Convention.

I move: That the Ceann Comhairle direct the Clerk of the Dáil to issue her Writ for the election of a Member to fill the vacancy which has occurred in the membership of the present Dáil consequent on the election as President of Deputy Catherine Connolly, a Member for the constituency of Galway West. Get the posters up.

We need urgent explanations and statements from the Ministers on the use of Shannon Airport and Irish airspace by the United States military while it is conducting with Israel its brutal and illegal wars against Iran and Lebanon and the ongoing genocide of the people of Gaza. This is particularly needed given that the number of US overflights has increased by 56% since the Iran war started and that, incredibly, the Department of foreign affairs undercounted US military flights through Irish airspace by 250 flights.

I ask the Taoiseach to make a public statement directed at the German Government in support of Daniel Tatlow-Devally who is an Irish citizen who has been incarcerated along with four other fellow activists in a German high security prison for 11 months. He is going on trial next Monday because he was involved in a direct action against Elbit Systems that produces weapons in Germany for the Israeli regime and its genocide against the Palestinian people. He is being tried under legislation which is normally reserved …

The Irish Government should speak up in support of these activists, including our Irish citizens.

They are not.

At a meeting of the budget scrutiny committee today, we were informed by the Department of public expenditure that there will be an extra €640 million for the education sector. Officials explained that was largely to do with special needs. To me, what that says is that were it not for the protests of school communities, including parents, teachers, principals and SNAs, the Government would, at a minimum, have given €640 million too little to special needs. It would have short-changed children in terms of their righ…

People do not protest because they like protesting. They protest because they feel they have no choice and because their backs are against the wall. That is clearly why the hauliers, contractors and small farmers came out and protested. Their backs are against the wall because they have faced absolutely gigantic hikes in the cost of being able to earn and maintain an income. Because they protested, and only because they protested, the Government has been forced to make some concessions to them, although these are s…

The Chinese regime has condemned Trump and Israel's bloody war against Iran as irresponsible, reckless and dangerous. That is something coming from that regime. Deputy Geoghegan was talking about zero tolerance against blockades. China has that. For example, in 1989, when students blockaded and demanded democracy, it sent the tanks in. It sent the army in and mowed students down with tanks. It persecutes people in Hong Kong fighting for democracy, people in Tibet, the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong. You name it, they get …