Speeches: 25 March 2026

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country now who are being impoverished and having hardship imposed on them because of the deranged lunatic Donald Trump in the White House and the psychopaths that run the Israeli regime and their bloodlust and warmongering.

This always has to be about the dignity of person, the dignity of people, it has to be about human rights.

If there's one thing we learned from this crisis, that we must expand our move to renewable energies.

The ARP provides a non-means-tested housing support to Ukrainians that's not available to anyone else in need of housing and that's unfair because those who receive this support could be in well-paid employment, they could be working alongside others who receive no housing supports but might need them.

If families revoke their anonymity and come forward to tell their stories of crisis, it is precisely so that their cases can be discussed and we can learn from them.

This government will be remembered as the government of fuel poverty, of energy poverty, pushing people into energy poverty.

So will you commit to funding local authorities properly to carry out this work, to launching a nationwide pier maintenance programme, and to introducing public awareness campaign on the risk of slipways and piers?

No woman should have to put up with this in their workplace Taoiseach, but also this is a danger to the general public.

We need a tax system that reflects modern Ireland, its housing market, its cost of living and its values.

If we want a parliament that's fit for the next 50 years, not just the next census, we must be willing to modernize the rules that govern it.

This is bad legislation, it is not the way to do business.

It has been a disaster from start to finish because we're dealing with massive cost overruns, billions of euro of taxpayers' money, 18 completion dates which have come and gone, design changes, and all of the problems that we've had with the project.

It is unconscionable that the state has invested so much money in this, and the infrastructure hasn't been delivered, not just on time, but 40 months over without a definite date of delivery.

A lasting peace settlement in Ukraine's speedy accession to the EU is essential.

It is an incentive that despite the concerns that we have raised time and time again the government have come in here and extended the scheme and you're doing the same today.

The book stops with you, Minister.

The difficulty with subsidies is they have to be paid from somewhere else and it's effectively a challenge to try to burden some other sector of society.

The suckler farmer is vital and needs to be supported at all levels and a way to encourage the suckler farmer back into the business I would suggest is some sort of a model, some sort of a scheme where they can be supported so that they can have confidence to come into the market.

There is no law to state that you cannot reduce the carbon tax.

It will decimate Irish livestock exports by road.

If you make a commitment Minister, you have to continue to follow through on it.

Tackling the causes and consequences of crime is not just about law and order and it can't only be left to the Gardaí.

It's vital, because we would be at the mercy of the processors or the factories or whatever if we didn't have the livestock market operating as it is.

If it continues to go the way it's going, it will cause an end to things.

If that trunk is so weakened and so eroded, yes the other things I think will fall and it would be a shame.

Three cents was an insult.

This fact is not helping the elimination of drugs, because we know that they're coming to the small harbours and piers and there's no proper monitoring of what's going on along the bay and there's drugs coming in every day, they're visible, we know they're visible in every town and village and community.

I would not be supporting the motion, but not because I don't think there are real issues, but because I do believe that this needs to be looked at by the Gardaí themselves, and I do believe there has been a lot of good things that have happened in the Gardaí since the beginning of the foundation of this government.

The crisis is that some of those impacted have reached our shores in Europe, and that that gets framed as a crisis.

This will haunt this government and will haunt the previous government.

This House needs a full debate on the state's preparedness.

I made the point then and I repeat it now that no system can operate on abstractions.

I want to ask you that when this business case is submitted that the dedicated CAMHS team for Ballinasloe is reinstated as soon as possible.

This motion seeks not only to diagnose the problem but to set out a credible path towards rebuilding a modern, community-centred police service worthy of the trust placed in it.

You shortchanged them on diesel, you shortchanged them on petrol, and you completely abandoned the 750,000 households who rely on home heating oil.

What we saw last night is meanness laid bare.

It signals that there is a clear dysfunction at the heart of administration in this country and we don't plan for the future.

We can't set up judges as dictators who can turn previous understandings on their heads without any future change being possible.

If you proceed with the cuts, the result will be some people exiting the scheme.

This is a mean government.

When a parent dies, an adulthood in intellectual disability is left stranded.

I have stated numerous times that supporting the Gardaí is my number one priority.

I want to start by thanking colleagues for their contributions to this debate and I want to acknowledge and welcome that the majority of the House will be supporting the order to extend the accommodation recognition payment until 2027.

An Garda Síochána play an absolutely crucial role in ensuring the security of the state, protecting and serving communities across Ireland through the maintenance of law and order and upholding the principles of justice.

We cannot have a situation where it takes 15 years to get guidelines in place.

I think it's an atrocious insult in actual fact to hard-working families in this country.