We have heard a lot about this Bill but we have not seen it. We have heard what has been planned. We need to say that it is unnecessary, divisive and damaging. There has never been any demand in this Dáil or anywhere else for a discussion about citizenship. In fact, all I have heard about is IPAS centres and "illegals". Suddenly, we have a problem with citizenship. The Government is failing on housing and the cost of living and suddenly, this is brought into the equation as the Dáil starts its term. It is taking th…

I wish Miriam Lord all the best in her retirement. She reaffirms that women are the wittiest and the best satirists. Fair play. I want to raise with the Taoiseach the role of the Government and the FAI in the debacle that happened in relation to the Ireland versus Israel game, which continues on. The players are still not certain but it has been reported that they will play in the second part of that fixture. The players had to hold an emergency team meeting and vote the day before a match that had been discussed h…

I hope I get a little bit of extra time. We all agree the players should not have been in that position. That is a unanimous view. The Government and the FAI put them in that position. I want to think of another player today, Natalie Abudayyeh, a Palestinian footballer who is in an Israeli jail. She played here in Ireland in 2024. Any Palestinians I have spoken to really would have appreciated Ireland pulling out of the game. One of them spoke about rats eating the bodies of people in Gaza right now. The people in …

Yes.

There is a warrant for his arrest.

I send solidarity to the residents of the Garvaghy Road. We met a delegation here last week and I salute their organisation and their determination. This is a working-class community standing up against a threat to drag Portadown and the North back to the past. The Orange Order seeking to push this march through is sectarian bullying. The march was always offensive to the community. It is not wanted. It is a catalyst for sectarian division. Children and adults have died in the past over this. Twenty-eight years wit…

I will finish on this. What is the Taoiseach going to do? I do not believe the establishment can sit back and just allow this to happen. The Taoiseach, the British Prime Minister and the Secretary of State can intervene to stop these marches being enforced.

Will the Cabinet agree to send an observer to the Ulm 5 trial in Germany? That trial is taking place without a transcript and without any observer, despite the Minister standing up over there and telling us that there would be oversight of the trial. How can we have oversight if there is no observer on behalf of the Irish Government? I remind the Taoiseach about his speech at the UN when he spoke about an affront to decency in relation to what is happening in Gaza and said that we must act. These young people did n…

I have just spoken to Daniel's mother about it.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide for the recognition of a non-binary gender and for those born intersex; to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2015 to recognise a non-binary gender; to amend the Interpretation Act 2005 to include a non-binary gender; to amend the Civil Registration Act 2004 to allow qualified informants to record an X on Registers for Births, Stillbirths, Adoptions, and Death; to amend the Equal Status Act 2000 and Employment Equality Act 1998 to outlaw dis…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Before I speaking on this Bill today, I got the views of a solicitor who takes many cases on behalf of parents. This is their initial perception. This Bill amounts to a significant watering down of the rights of children with a disability. The assessment report under the 2005 Act has been described by the courts as the gold standard. It is supposed to be comprehensive and evidence based and set out the child's needs and the services required to meet these needs if costs were not an issue at all. Under the 2005 Act,…

There was a report in the Irish Independent at the weekend that a young woman who suspected she had been raped in Dublin city while intoxicated is now facing criminal charges, potentially, for false reporting. Not only that but it has been decided that all the resources of the Irish State should go into dragging this woman back from France where she lives, via extradition. As we know, it is not unusual for intoxicated people to be attacked violently and not to recall all the details. The implications of this decisi…

I hasten to add that nobody has been falsely accused or charged, so I do not see why this is happening. There will be a protest at the DPP's office at 1 p.m. on Friday against this.

Lots of TDs do it as well.

Solidarity fully supports this motion. Just before I came down to the Chamber, I heard very positive news that a data centre has been refused planning permission in Mayo. I have not heard the full details but there were concerns about where it would access electricity and concerns about climate. I hope we are now seeing the tide start to turn against the carte blanche given to data centres. I recall raising this during questions to the Minister previously. He and another Minister sort of laughed in my face when I s…

-----the purpose of these data centres was mainly for AI, which is not useful to the world or to humanity; in fact, it is very detrimental in many cases. I hope the Minister is starting to reconsider. A lot of young people and a growing body of people are extremely critical of AI. I also want to mention how intersectional an issue this is. It intersects with the environment, military technology, the cost of living, which this motion focuses on, and many other issues. An estimated cumulative average of about €360 in…

They could be building houses.

It is absolutely farcical to reconvene the Dáil for one hour over one aspect of one issue which the Government mistakenly thought would be okay, on which it has been proven wrong. It has not reconvened the Dáil to discuss back-to-school costs facing families this very week. They cannot wait for the budget in a month's time. One in four parents is already borrowing to put their kids into school this week. The Government has not reconvened the Dáil to discuss college fees pending next week, the highest in the EU, or …

When is the victims of crime Act 2017 going to apply the Army? The Women of Honour have pushed for change so that if there is abuse within the Army there will, we hope, be mechanisms to deal with that, but what about women who are abused by Army personnel who are not in the Army? The Minister knows of this case and I am not going to go into any names or details but it shines a light on how we have a situation where a woman who was abused by an Army officer - and potentially another woman as well - has not been able…