I thank Deputy Stanley for bringing forward this important motion on protecting our neutrality. As the Deputy's motion alludes to, the origin of Irish neutrality lies with Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of Ireland’s greatest revolutionaries. He developed the concept of Irish neutrality in 1790 in the context of a debate in the Irish Parliament about whether Ireland should, essentially, back Britain. It was obliged to back Britain in an impending war with Spain. Wolfe Tone argued that it was, essentially, a betrayal of ou…

Where Deputy John McGuinness ended is a good place for me to start. You could not make it up and that is the truth about NAMA.

Absolutely. If only you had taken the left turn at the right point.

You would be in a different place. We might all be. When the history books are written, NAMA will go down as one of the greatest scandals ever. I find it pretty amazing, shocking really but maybe not totally surprising, that the Government tries to present it as some sort of success story. The State paid out €31 billion initially to take over the assets of the developers, who had bankrupted the country, leading to a decade of austerity and huge hardship for the country. We paid €31 billion and the Government's argu…

I wanted it for the students.

We wanted it for students.

We wanted it in public ownership for the students.

He is just a profiteer.

He is the one who started it.

As we speak, flotilla organisers are reporting that the Israeli military is shooting rubber bullets at one of the last boats that has not yet been kidnapped by Israel, which has an Irish citizen on it. The Government has indicated that it will vote tomorrow against the Bill we have put forward calling for sanctions against the state that is doing this.

What crime do the Israelis have to commit-----

-----against Irish citizens or Palestinians before the Government will support sanctions?

Not agreed.

As I said to the Taoiseach earlier on, I am getting reports from the flotilla organisers that Israel is shooting rubber bullets at boats that have Irish citizens on them, who have not yet been kidnapped by this rogue regime. There would be uproar if Russia kidnapped people on the open seas, for example. There were sanctions immediately when it invaded Ukraine. There would be outrage. The Government has not imposed a single sanction on the State of Israel despite, genocide, apartheid and now the seizure, again, of I…

Has the Government put sanctions on it?

I did.

The Spanish imposed sanctions; the Government has not.

Not false.

On Sunday in Ardboe, thousands of people marched to save Lough Neagh from environmental disaster due to the extreme eutrophication of the waters of Lough Neagh. The protest saw fishermen, swimmers, trade union activists, environmentalists and many more squarely put the blame on all of the major parties in Stormont for failing to prevent the greenlighting of factory farms that are polluting Lough Neagh. They also point to the private ownership of Lough Neagh by Lord Shaftesbury and the failure to protect the preciou…

The liberalisation of the energy markets across Europe was supposed to benefit consumers. The removal of the ESB’s not-for-profit mandate and the introduction of competition into the market actually resulted across Europe in a 40% increase in energy costs. In Ireland, however, the increase was 267%. What we actually got was competition that led to rampant profiteering by private energy companies. Prices for the consumer did not go down, but up. Is there a recognition that actually having the energy sector driven by…