Speeches: 22 April 2026

Having decided that a child's situation is so dire as to require the state to act as their parent, TUSLA, it seems, cannot recruit or retain enough staff to provide that state care, a starker failure you could scarcely conceive of Taoiseach.

You cannot, in fact you're discrediting the climate agenda by saying that ordinary people should pay carbon taxes when they are not profiting from the destruction of the environment, they have no choice about the energy they use.

The failure of the European Union to suspend the EU Association Agreement with Israel is an absolute disgrace.

The Israeli regime and the United States have rained down death and destruction on thousands of people in a criminal war that they instigated in Iran, in Lebanon, and the Israeli regime has done that following nearly three years of a genocidal slaughter against the Palestinian people.

We must have a basic level of human rights and I think you would agree Minister, I know you've set out the difficulties, I understand some of those difficulties as well.

Can I ask you just to touch on the soil deemed eligible for afforestation?

It is a shocking indictment of a system that we have allowed go on and on in this state.

This bill seeks to directly confront that reality and through measures that restrict the colours and imagery used on nicotine and healing products, devices and packaging and by limiting flavours in these products to tobacco with the flexibility to adjust through regulation we are taking decisive steps to remove the appeal that has drawn so many young people in and these are not cosmetic changes, they are targeted public health interventions designed to disrupt the pipeline into nicotine addiction.

I just think it's very important that there's transparency particularly for what you're doing in terms of trying to influence government policy and that goes across the board that's the way I think we should always operate.

This is the early stage of a new addiction epidemic.

Orbán basically wrecked the economy and it shows the link between adherence to the rule of law and democratic values and a free media as essential for economic growth.

When you look at the factors that influence dementia, any acute illness, recurrent delirium, but certainly the prevention of influenza and hospitalised influenza is the single most important indirect factor for me.

The decision not to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement is an act of profound moral cowardice.

What you've done basically in the stroke of a barrel is that you've opened the gate to guys that will come in and buy land beside farmers right around this country to blow them out in the interest of forestry.

I really think that Europe is operating in a hypocrisy in sanctioning Russia but not sanctioning Israel.

What legal aid, or who's representing us at that court?

I don't agree that we on this earth can change the weather in any way in the world.

It is far more efficient to leave money in working people's pockets than to take it from them, funnel it through an inefficient state apparatus and return a fraction of it through complex schemes and supports.

The European Union needs to treat it as an emergency.

Your 9.4 billion euro budget did absolutely nothing for ordinary working people, in fact it left them worse off.

All because of a severe shortage of foster carers and regulated care home placements, a shortage by the way that your government allowed to develop.

Britain is, since Brexit, now a third country, and it's very important that there is strong measures when it comes to data protection, that the regime that will underpin the sharing of data here is as strong, if not stronger, than the general data protection regulation that is in force within the European Union.

The purpose of this bill is to reduce the appeal and accessibility of e-cigarettes or vapes or other nicotine products such as pouches to our young people.

One after another the government is ripping up its climate commitments LNG, data centres, public transport, nitrates, marine protected areas, forestry, you name it

The school building as it is is simply not fit for continued use, there's serious health and safety concerns.

Ireland voted against this deal in the Council, precisely because it will expose our family farms to a flood of lower standard beef, sugar and agricultural imports from South America.

I therefore commend this proposal to the House and seek the approval of the motion to participate in this Council decision.

Take your taxes up to 170, but after that, no more tax.

I would see that failure to act as an act of national self-sabotage.

Anything that acts as an entry for children into that world of smoking and nicotine and tobacco consumption needs to be closed off, that avenue needs to be closed off.

The solution of course, and what people are calling for, is the just transition outlined by my colleagues and others.

I am not calling for a nuclear power plant, what I'm saying is we need to research, and allow the research into the pros and cons, and we might come to the conclusion that it's not for us, but at least let's do it in an informed manner.

We are basically warehousing 77% of people in big buildings across the country and then we're saying we have a rehabilitative system, when they are literally just warehoused, like in a massive factory that's doing something that nobody knows what it's meant to be doing.

It is essential that the details of the scheme are announced at an early date.

We're dancing to the tune of the American Chamber of Commerce.

We've heard enough over the years about the golden hour and if an ambulance doesn't get to a person for two or three hours, time gets lost.

The energy crisis is the climate crisis but it is also a social justice crisis.