Speeches: 21 April 2026

So many cancer survivors are waiting for this legislation to give them certainty, especially when they're looking to buy a home.

Where are the cool heads? Where is the decisive action?

Quoting from the Fiscal Advisory Council, it's hard for the Council to discern what the likely overrun in 2025 will be, despite requesting the monthly departmental spending profiles.

So give the parents, give the children the commitments they need, they will have their places, they will have their resources, you will engage with the circular and vindicate the rights of children to education.

It's difficult to see how there being a levy and less money available, say in housing next year, is going to do anything other than curtail investment in addressing the housing crisis.

Taoiseach, we need urgent explanations and statements from the Ministers.

They are on trial and it starts next Monday and the Irish government should speak up in support of these active Irish citizens.

We're all we're asking for and I reiterate it here, we want to see a draft copy of the rural housing guidelines published.

At the end of the day, at the very heart of all of this is rural communities, sustainable rural communities, viable rural communities and urban communities for that matter.

That is not care, Taoiseach. That is not dignity. And it's totally, totally unacceptable.

Charging 2,000 to 3,000 euro a month for a shed in someone's garden with no tenancy rights because they will be rented out using licensing agreements.

It is reckless not to be doing this work, regardless of what your constitutional preference is, or how people will decide to vote at the end of the day.

Placing a child in an unsuitable setting can lead, as you will know, to severe anxiety, regression in learning and school refusal.

So we have a situation where employers are financially supported to hire disabled people but disabled people are not supported to employ themselves.

True accountability is when someone can walk into a Garda station and know that the person that they're meeting is not a perpetrator of domestic violence.

I think they actually drive revenue by destroying people.

One of the reports that came out of Youth from Galway, Roscommon and Mayo in 2024 identified the fact that things such as unsupervised time for young people on the street gave them nine times the risk of smoking cannabis.

We cannot have primary care centres that are closing at 5pm, they have to be open until 8 and 10pm and serving the community and this is what they're for.

If you cut excise directly at the pump, yes, it benefits hauliers, it benefits transport operators, it benefits the bus companies who need that and need that in terms of cash flow, but it also benefits everybody else.

I would encourage you to spend as much money as possible in this domain because this is something that as a country we are not going to regret spending this money.

It's a sin on these poor children to be left at home without a school place.

I'm asking you to consider seeing after those people that are involved in the services and in the building and construction industry because the rollers, diggers, cranes, every kind of machine is driven by green diesel, and that's gone up by over 80 cents, and it's only gone down, as I can understand, by 5 cents.

My understanding was that I was an appointed and independent member. Not a member of Government or Fianna Fáil

Parents all over the country are worn out from fighting for a school place for their children.

I believe that Ireland's position on the lethal autonomous weapons system is clear, that these have no place in any civilised military, so I don't think there's any dispute there.

If the law cannot reach those who openly organise, advertise or profit from the breach of our laws, then we must ask ourselves who exactly is the law for?

The MGLD status is not just a label, it is a lifeline.

With billions more available to you, why do you choose not to act?

This government is sleepwalking children, families and schools into a crisis in September.

Youth work is one of the most effective tools we have to intervene early, to build trust, to empower young people and to equip them with the skills and confidence to navigate the world that they're growing up in.

I have a number of questions as well that I would really like to pose and I would like to get your input on.

AI systems should never take decisions about the life of individuals.

Supporting young people with special educational needs is a priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth and for my colleagues across government, and our track record is testament to that.

It is shameful that MGLD schools are being redesignated by stealth.

Our SNAs are vital in our mainstream primary schools and they deserve to be respected and indeed recognised for the great work they do.

On that trajectory those additional 1,000 Gardaí will be provided sometime in mid 2063.

I think the first thing is that the way in which systems are classified should be revised and should be reconsidered because we can be exposed to a massive attack surface in Ireland and in Europe.

All of us, all of us have a responsibility to ensure that they get the best possible education.

We need to reform domiciliary care allowance so the lived experience is properly weighed.