The Minister has taken a disappointing approach. Back in 2011, I recall discussing the affordability of school uniforms in this House with Ruairi Quinn, the then Minister for Education and Skills. Unfortunately, at that time, we failed to convince him and probably more importantly, the officials at that time this was the way forward. If we cast our minds back to that period, we were in the middle of an economic crash. Families were finding it extremely difficult to try to pay for school uniforms. Despite the positi…

I am probably not going to say anything that is much different from what many other Members said. As others stated, there is a lot of really good work being done around men's health. This month, we have seen it most publicly in sport, with Movember and the OddBalls Foundation becoming familiar to a lot of fans. As we all agree, men are still reluctant to go to the doctor and share personal information about their health. This could be the difference quite literally between life and death. We still have not cracked …

The reality of unity, an end to division and the possibility of a united Ireland is very much part of the political conversation on this island now more than ever. It has been a focus point of discussion during the ongoing presidential election, even more so than when Martin McGuinness was running in 2011. It has moved beyond the hypothetical and people are now discussing what kind of Ireland it could and should be. Unfortunately, we do not have that level of discussion at a political level. That is one of the main…

It is my opinion, but it is shared by a lot of people out there, that budget 2026 failed to deliver any real hope or pathway for the families and individuals left behind by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. Every week, new families or individuals who are homeless or facing homelessness turns up at my constituency office. That is fact. There is nothing in the budget that will bring any hope, comfort or change for those who are facing this awful future. Sinn Féin has consistently called for a radical …

Any plan that could end the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza is to be welcomed. The world has watched a genocide as children starve and aid rots just miles away. I welcome that a core part of the 20-point plan is to end the weaponisation of aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and place it in the hands of the UN and the Red Crescent. However, for any peace deal to work, it must be constructed and agreed by all parties to the conflict. A unilateral deal is not the platform for a sta…

Is that not a healthy thing? We do not have to go outside the party.

There are 300,000 people in energy debt. The Minister for Finance will stand in this Chamber on this day two weeks and talk about how well we are doing in managing the economy when people in my constituency will be going to bed early because they cannot afford to turn the heating on. If the Minister of State goes to any of the shopping centres out my way, he will meet a lot of people who are sitting around. Many of them are elderly. When they are asked why they are there, they say they are there to meet friends but…

I agree with other speakers in that successive Governments have left dental services for public patients to collapse in the State. The dental services scheme for medical card holders has been in a state of chaos for years. In the term of the previous Dáil, the then Minister, Stephen Donnelly, assured us at a meeting of the health committee that a breakthrough on dentists was imminent and that services would be restored for all medical card holders. That was clearly not the case. Hundreds of thousands are left witho…

There is a little boy called Rowan in my constituency. He is eight years of age and has still not been able to have his first day at school. He has been diagnosed with ASD and global development delay and, like many others, he has been let down. His mother is struggling to home-school him, with no support from anyone. Parents of autistic children in some cases apply to 20 or 30 schools for a place for them and get nowhere. How many additional places will be made available for special children like Rowan come Septem…

Europe is becoming obsessed with spending on greater security and militarisation. We are so wrapped up in creating a fortress Europe that we are neglecting the fundamental concerns of conflict prevention and resolution. Surely it would be better to prevent a conflict in the first place than build walls and manufacture weapons of war. I spoke at the OSCE annual parliamentary assembly last week where I made the point that fewer and fewer countries are participating in conflict resolution and peacekeeping in an increa…

Whether it is student fees or protection for student renters, the Government continues to sow uncertainty and punish young people. We should be breaking down barriers to higher education and apprenticeships, not erecting them. Worse still, while this Government is obsessed with leaks to the media and innuendo, as we heard earlier, young people and their families have no idea where they stand in relation to fees. This chaotic approach does nothing except sow fear and doubt as families struggle to cope with the spira…

It is 11.45 p.m. now and it is right and proper that we are discussing the situation in Gaza. With our long-standing commitment to human rights and neutrality in global conflicts, Ireland is well positioned to play a constructive role in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We must now use whatever leverage we have in a diplomatic capacity on the international stage. We have a moral obligation to act on the genocide that is unfolding. We know all too well in Ireland the devastating impact an artificial famin…

My message is that we must use every lever at our disposal. I know Ireland is an outlier in relation to the occupied territories Bill, for example, but I respectfully believe that we must include services. Otherwise, it is tokenistic and only goes to soothe our own conscience. We need to turn off the tap of trade from the occupied territories and finally sanction Israel and its ministers for their actions. Then let us utilise our history and expertise in developmental aid and crisis aid that we in Ireland have buil…

The ability of Irish citizens, regardless of where they reside, to vote in presidential elections is an issue I have been working towards for quite some time. Gerry Adams and I cosponsored a Bill to that effect more than ten years ago. Tá bród orm go bhfuil mé fós ag leanúint leis an bhfeachtas. That Bill, the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Presidential Voting) Bill 2014, passed Second Stage and has been waiting for more than a decade to be given committee time for a debate and progression through the…

I wish to ask about Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We recently had young people in the AV room who talked about the challenges they face. It is a wasting disease. There is a drug but it is not available here yet. It is available in the North. Would the Government look at early access as a shared island? The problem in the North is that it does not have the money to administer the scheme. The problem here is we do not have access to the drug. It seems logical to move ahead on that. I am aware of the Tánaiste's work as…

I am delighted to be one of the Bill's cosponsors with my colleagues, Deputies O'Rourke and Cullinane. I am disappointed that the Government is putting this on hold for 12 months. I thank Dr. James Larkin, who is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RSCI, for his research and assistance in the preparation of the Bill. When this issue first arose, most people listening in on this debate would have thought there was already sufficient legislation in place. Unfortunately, when we d…

House prices, rents, council waiting lists and homelessness are all rising. Any options for ordinary workers and their families are vanishing. Figures from the start of this month show there were almost 16,000 people in emergency accommodation. This Government cannot even be said to be making a dent in the figures. At the start of this year, there were fewer than 14,000 relying on emergency accommodation. At the start of last year, it was fewer than 12,000 and the year before that it was 9,000. None of these figure…

While the Minister has addressed this issue earlier, the greatest challenge for our Defence Forces is the constant drain of skilled technicians. It is seriously hindering our operational capability, especially in the Naval Service where ships are tied up at dock. Will he commit to establishing a specific review body tasked with examining how we can stem the flow of knowledge and training out of our military?

Whether it is pay, conditions, pensions or, dare I say, accommodation, there must be something we can do to compete with the private sector. When the review body is established and given terms of reference, it should do a deep dive into the levers that can be used to make the Defence Forces an attractive career, rather than just the fact they are trained up by some of the best instructors. I welcome the initiative on air traffic controllers but it should not be a one-off. We need to look right across the services. …

I welcome the fact the Tánaiste will look at it. We have seen the strains in different elements of the different services, such as ships not being able to be deployed. It is not just happening in Ireland. Services are facing these challenges across the world. I welcome the Tánaiste's indication that he will look at this over the summer and come back to us in the autumn. If there is common agreement across the Government, this review needs to be established sooner rather than later. I look forward to the Tánaiste’s …