It is frustrating.

The decision made by the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to scrap the men's shed grant for 2025-26 has shocked the 500 men's sheds across the country and their local communities. The grant, small as it is, helps toward basic things like rent, insurance, ESB, heating and water. The withdrawal of the grant will have serious consequences for the sheds. Many will have to cut opening hours or reduce activities and some will face closure. As the Minister knows, men's sheds are at the heart of local communities. Of course, the…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. It has been long in the making, going back to recommendations originally made as far back as 2018. Of course, the implementation of Garda powers requires a modern, properly staffed, properly resourced and properly funded Garda organisation with a fit-for-purpose structure. Unfortunately, that is not the situation in Clonmel and south Tipperary. Clonmel is entitled to, and demands, its fair share of gardaí. The Government has reduced Garda numbers in Clonmel by 11. To…

I welcome and support this motion brought forward by Sinn Féin in support of the triple lock and neutrality. There are no Fianna Fáil TDs here, but the fact of the matter is that Fianna Fáil TDs have the power to stop the abolition of the triple lock. The triple lock is Fianna Fáil. The triple lock is Fianna Fáil history. Éamon de Valera, a founder member of Fianna Fáil, a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach and a Fianna Fáil President put "the [peaceful] settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judic…

Across Ireland, 624,000 people provide regular unpaid care to children and adults with additional needs. A recent 2026 report on care shows that 75% of carers never received respite, 49% cut back on essentials such as food and heating, and 48% experienced severe loneliness. Of course, these carers saved the State millions of euro annually. I have a specific question arising from a family in my constituency. This family's severely disabled teenaged son passed away last year after a long and traumatic illness. The da…

Respite and residential services for persons with intellectual disabilities are in crisis. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides the right to live independently in the community with choices equal to others. They must have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community services, including personal assistance. In Ireland these rights are honoured more in the breach than in the observance. The true level of need for residential and respite services is unknown…

Down the centuries, generations of Irish men and women espoused the desire for a 32-county independent sovereign republic. As far back as the 1790s, Theobald Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish republicanism, focused on a vision of complete separation from Britain, the elimination of sectarian divisions and the unity of Catholic, Protestant and dissenter under the common name of "Irishmen". He wanted to see a restructuring of society whereby power would be wielded by the people rather than by the landed gentry. The pol…

The provision of childcare services is an area in which I have had a particular interest and involvement for over 30 years. The Elm Park area childcare committee brought together community activists and parents from this area of Clonmel with the aim of providing a not-for-profit childcare service for the area. Clever Clogs, as we know it, is a community-based facility which provides a not-for-profit, quality childcare service in a purpose-built unit, supported by the local community. It has a local board of managem…

Last week, we had a presentation on stroke awareness and recovery. The session was led by Martin Quinn, a constituent of mine from Bansha in County Tipperary. He is a stroke survivor himself, a national stroke advocate and a lifelong community and voluntary activist at local and national levels. He is a former national president of Muintir na Tire, chair of the Citizens Information Service Network of Companies and an organiser of the Tipperary Peace Convention. At that stroke presentation, he acknowledged the impro…

Tipperary town, in my constituency, with a population of over 5,000 people and serving a further 10,000 in mid-Tipperary and east Limerick in its hinterland, has no dentist accepting public patients, medical card holders. That is absolutely and totally unacceptable. It is proof positive that the dental and oral health service in this country is totally in disarray and is failing patients very badly. In 2024, the number of dentists operating the dental treatment services scheme was 810. That was down from 1,452 in 2…

I come back to a very important issue that I have raised previously, namely, the abolition of the means test for the carer's allowance. I am asking the Minister to do that on 1 July, in view of the promises made in the general election in 2024 by all political parties and particularly in view of the recent report by Family Carers Ireland that showed very significant issues in care provision.

The findings of the report from Family Carers Ireland, entitled "The State of Caring 2026", should shock us all. Some of the key findings include that 75% of carers have never received respite, 76% are cutting back on non-essentials, 71% find it difficult to make ends meet, 69% do not receive sufficient formal support, and 49% are cutting back on essentials like food and heating. A stark 48% experience severe loneliness, 32% report very bad mental health and 19% report bad or very bad physical health. Carers do sig…

That leaves 32%.

Every political party, including Fianna Fáil, made a commitment in general election 2024 to abolish the carer's means test, full stop, no ifs or buts. There were no terms and conditions. There was no small print and no devil in the detail. The Government was going to abolish the means test for carer's allowance, but it has not honoured that commitment. That raises the whole question of trust in politics and politicians. The public are becoming quite cynical now about all things political. The Minister has another o…

I welcome and support this motion and fully support the points made previously by my Independent and Parties Technical Group colleagues. I want to take the opportunity to highlight a number of retrofit and insulation issues affecting middle and low income families across the country. The warmer homes scheme available to families in receipt of fuel allowance is an excellent scheme in itself but it is underfunded and under-resourced. This results in a huge backlog of applications, with it to increase due to more fami…

As Fianna Fáil leader, the Taoiseach led the party into a confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael in 2016, ten years ago. That was in the wake of large-scale water protests, which resulted eventually in the abolition of domestic water charges and the setting up of a special Oireachtas committee on water services. I and former Deputy Thomas Pringle represented the Independent TDs on that committee. That Government, which the Taoiseach supported, promised and committed to bring forward a referendum to put pu…

No, it has not.

It has been ten years.

The Government has certainly not honoured its ten years of commitments, as I outlined. All those commitments have been broken. The Taoiseach has not answered the questions. We can only presume that he and the Government wish to keep the door open to the future privatisation of water services in this country. The Taoiseach must know that if that happened, it would be an absolute disaster. We only need to look across the water to the UK to see this. The UK water sector struggles with a combination of massive debt, fa…

What about the referendum?