I welcome and support this Bill. I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing it forward. The supporters of fox hunting like to present this issue as a rural versus urban one. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. This issue actually unites urban and rural communities. Every poll and survey shows a significant majority of the public, both urban and rural, are opposed to fox hunting and want a ban to be introduced. I live in the countryside in a small townland called Scrothea West in the foothills of the Com…

That is nonsense.

Would the Minister stop?

It is.

The N24 national primary road is a vital economic and social corridor across south Tipperary. It is also of strategic regional importance, running as it does from Limerick to south Tipperary and on to Kilkenny, Waterford and the port of Rosslare. An upgrade to motorway status is essential and urgent. Tipperary town, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir are choked with traffic and are crying out for bypasses along this route. This road project is in two sections, consisting of a western section from Cahir to Limerick Junctio…

In fairness, the Minister has indicated that he hopes to be in a position to continue the funding for the Cahir to Limerick Junction-Oola section in 2026 but he was not able to give the same indication about the Cahir to Waterford section. Funding for the Cahir to Waterford section is crucial for economic, social and road safety reasons. This section is costing about three lives per year. The project has been suspended twice, costing the Exchequer about €10 million. There is significant public frustration with seri…

Children's disability network teams of health and social care professionals provide services to children and young people aged 18 with complex needs. These interdisciplinary teams include professionals like occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dieticians and social workers. The objectives of the teams are to support a child's development, well-being and participation in family and community life on the basis of an individual family support plan. All of these are …

The custom and practice is the reality and the fact that there is no charge for blister packs. Whatever the ins and outs of this issue, the Minister and her Government are now placing the individual patients as pawns between the Department, the Government and the pharmacies. The buck stops with the Minister. I am asking that the Minister does the right thing, the compassionate thing and stops any question of charging for blister packs either now or into the future. This issue reminds me of the blood test charge deb…

I welcome and support this Dog Welfare (Amendment) Bill 2025. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this forward. We need to stop cruelty to dogs and there is no doubt that the area of dog welfare needs to be more formally regulated, especially in the area of dog breeding establishments like puppy farms. In August 2023, the then Department of Rural and Community Development released statistics that showed that 7,352 dogs entered Irish pounds. That was a massive 77% increase over 2021. Twice as many dogs were eu…

I commend and congratulate the teenage disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody, from Ardfinnan in my constituency, for the outstanding work she continues to do in the area of disabilities. Is it not a scandal and disgrace that the Government is breaking the law every single day, knowingly and deliberately? When the Ministers accepted their seals of office, they promised to uphold the Constitution and laws of this State; however, they are not doing that. Every child with a disability is entitled to an assessment o…

In the short time available to me, I want to call for the payments of an emergency winter energy credit of at least €500. Households, especially those with children, are under huge pressure from the cost-of-living crisis, which is pushing more and more families into poverty. There are already 630,000 people living below the poverty line and 190,000 of those are children. We have almost 17,000 homeless, with almost 5,500 of these being children. Yesterday, figures showed that the inflation rate here is now at 3.2% a…

In the limited time available to me, I want to call again for the declaration in law of a housing emergency. Housing is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A housing emergency exists in this State. The Government's own Housing Commission asserts that "Only a radical ... reset of housing policy will work". It further asserts that "It is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action." Successive Governments have failed to solve …

School secretaries and caretakers are at the heart of all school communities up and down the country. In September, 2,600 secretaries and caretakers were forced to take industrial action to deal with long-standing inequities, whereby they are excluded from pension parity with other school-based public service staff, including teachers and special needs assistants. They have shown extraordinary patience. They agreed to suspend their strike action and enter talks at the Workplace Relations Commission on the basis of …

I welcome and support this Bill and I do so as a long-standing director of the south Tipperary domestic violence service. This is a quality support and refuge service operated by the amazing staff at Cuan Saor in Clonmel for over 30 years. It operates across the country. The area of gender-based violence is an appalling vista - really worrying and deeply depressing. It is of epidemic proportions. We need urgent and immediate action by Government. The legal and court system is of particular difficulty. It re-traumat…

Under international law, Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal. That is the basis of this. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice confirmed that and delivered an advisory opinion, which confirmed that under international law member states are under an obligation to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied Palestinian territories and to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the…

I welcome this Private Members' motion brought forward by Sinn Féin and confirm my support for it. The Mercosur deal threatens the future of Irish agriculture and family farms and harms rural communities. The European Commission concluded negotiations with the four Mercosur countries, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, in December 2024. The deal was to be subject to approval by national parliaments and unanimity at EU level but in a political stroke, the deal was split into two separate parts, meaning that na…

On Monday last, Clonmel lost one of its most distinguished daughters, Monica del Bigio, née Cullen, from Albert Street in Clonmel. She was an exceptional talent, a soprano of the highest rank who passed away in Italy. On behalf of the people of Clonmel and on my own behalf, I extend sympathies to Monica's family, her daughter Paola, son Patrick, extended family, relations and friends both here in Ireland and in Italy. Monica made her operatic debut with St. Mary's Choral Society in 1953, taking the leading role of …

I want to raise with the Taoiseach again the re-establishment of borough and town councils. As he knows, local government is the heartbeat of democracy. The heart was torn out of democracy with the abolition of town and borough councils in 2014 by the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition. These councils were replaced by committees with no powers, functions or funding. Effectively, they are talking shops. This has done serious damage to towns right across the country. It is widely accepted and acknowledged, even by the …

I appreciate the response. I acknowledge and fully accept the Taoiseach’s personal support for the re-establishment of town and borough councils. He has outlined that to me previously in response to a parliamentary question. He also expanded on that in a feature in the Irish Examiner shortly afterwards. However, there are very serious concerns that the whole task force process is being controlled by insiders in the Department and in local government and that we will end up with a proposal that will tinker around th…

This Bill proves again that the Government is completely out of touch with ordinary people. The Government obviously lives in a bubble in this House. Is it that it does not know or does not care that there is a cost-of-living crisis? Families are struggling to make ends meet, grocery prices are through the roof and we have some of the highest energy prices in Europe, yet there is not a single cost-of-living support in this Bill or in the budget. Families are falling behind with rent, mortgages and energy bills. We …