Not agreed.

This day last week I asked for an urgent debate before the situation on the Garvaghy Road escalated on behalf of the residents, who I had met the previous day on the Garvaghy Road about the situation that was looming in Drumcree. That request for an urgent debate was completely ignored. The residents particularly asked me to ask the Government about its responsibility under the Good Friday Agreement, and the British Government's responsibility, to make sure communities are free from sectarian intimidation. That was…

There is loads of time.

Not agreed.

Teachers, nurses, council workers, workers who work in this building and public and civil servants have voted overwhelmingly - more than 90% in most cases - for industrial action. Some of the work to rules will begin this week because the Government has not offered them a pay increase that will actually make up for the loss of earnings as a result of the inflation and cost-of-living crisis or been willing to discuss pay upfront in negotiations as their union representatives have asked it to do. Is the Government go…

The Government will not talk pay upfront.

I just received a letter from a woman called Síle Carson. She is the sister of Daniel Carson who was killed by loyalist paramilitaries in 1973 in Belfast. He was killed just for being a Catholic. She was writing to thank me and us for standing with the residents of Drumcree against the threat of an Orange sectarian march going through the Garvaghy Road, given the history of loyalist killings and violence that led to the death of 21 people. She was scathing about the Taoiseach's Government - she said I should say th…

The Orange Order wants to put them back there.

The Taoiseach said today that Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, does not care if Ireland plays a football game against Israel. That is not true. If people support BDS, they are not allowed into Israel. People can be jailed in Israel if they support BDS. Why? It is because Israel is terrified of boycott, divestment and sanctions and is terrified of people who tell the truth, that the Israeli state itself is based on apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people. That is why Israeli…

It is shocking and shameful that in one of the richest countries in the world, one in seven households cannot afford to heat their homes or pay their energy bills. Some 400,000 households went without heating during the past 12 months. Many of those who are struggling with that - it is 64%, according to the ESRI - do not get any assistance at all because they are over the threshold for the fuel allowance. Will the Minister do anything about that to help people who are getting no assistance and who cannot pay their …

Any of the improvements made since 2024 have been wiped out by Trump's warmongering and the profiteering of energy companies. The situation is set to get worse. The proof of that is that more than 500,000 households are currently in arrears on either their gas or electricity bills and that a massive chunk of people, in the region of 60%, who are suffering and will struggle even more this winter than last are not eligible for the fuel allowance. Last night, the Government made the shameful decision to vote down our …

Yes, but 60% of people suffering energy poverty do not get it and that situation is going to be worse this winter because of Trump’s warmongering - the man for whom the Government rolled out the red carpet in the past week or so. While it seems the Government is not willing to extend the fuel allowance to those who need it, it wants to continue to give €1 billion a year to data centres so that they can get energy at half the price of the people who cannot turn on the heating this winter. It is unbelievable. It show…

I welcome the fact that the Deputies have given us an opportunity to discuss the cost of living crisis and the energy price hikes, but I will repeat what I said last night: shame on Deputies, some of whom have put forward this motion, for expressing support for Donald Trump and his rotten agenda, which is directly responsible for the energy and fuel price hikes inflicting misery on hundreds of thousands of people, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in arrears and unable to pay their gas and electricity bills o…

Bringing this Bill before us is an admission by the Government that it has failed, and is failing, tens of thousands of the most vulnerable children in our society. Introducing the Bill, the Minister indicated she was mindful of that failure by referring to the unacceptable waiting lists for assessment of need. She talked about the frustration felt by parents and families and the impact on children. However, the Bill she has put forward does absolutely nothing to address that. She did not even bother to explain wha…

Not agreed.

We need an urgent debate this week on the threat of an armed march going through the Garvaghy Road to Drumcree Church at the weekend. I met with the Garvaghy Road residents yesterday. That mostly Catholic area is gripped with fear and anxiety that after 28 years of not having to face these triumphalist sectarian marches that have incited loyalist killings and led to sectarian violence, what is due to happen at the weekend will drag their area and the North back into sectarian conflict. This matter needs to be debat…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill. People Before Profit is happy to support it. We would go further. We think price caps - and we have said this for some time - need to be imposed on home heating oil, petrol, diesel, electricity and gas. Our proposal is to bring the price of kerosene back to €1 per litre by imposing price controls that would eliminate the nearly 70% increase that 700,000 households in this country have had to endure as a result of Donald Trump's actions. Shame on people in this House…

There has been no change. We have always been against carbon tax.

With huge numbers of households struggling with the hikes in electricity and energy costs, how does the Government think it is okay for ordinary working people and householders to pay twice as much per unit of electricity as the billionaires who own the data centres in this country? Now that it is clear it is not going to do so, how can the Government honestly justify not supporting imposing a levy on those billionaire owners of the data centres so that we can give a serious break, €500, to every household to help …

Not for the data centres, it is not.