Speeches: 21 May 2026

To keep somebody in solitary confinement before the trial, to be tried as people in a high security courthouse, where they're behind a glass cage, brought in in handcuffs and where the judge is referring to them as if they're terrorists, when actually what they are is peace activists opposing German complicity with the genocide in Israel via Elbit systems who provide Israel with weapons.

You're gaslighting the Irish public.

We have ratified this convention and it is important therefore that we now proceed to take steps to seek that it is fully incorporated into Irish law and I would ask that that would be progressed if possible.

Parental rights are not absolute. They exist alongside and must sometimes give way to the rights and well-being of the child.

Why, and under God, do you not use the fund for what was intended for, to help these families pay these bills?

You treat public money as if it were monopoly money.

There was a very good lesson out of this which is the perfect is the enemy of the good.

So it's a social protection system that's not fit for purpose, it's a bit of a patchwork that sees people who are contributing to the tax take hit hard at the very moment they're most vulnerable.

We have student nurses working full backbreaking shifts and we are having them pay to do that.

The interconnector will be completed in 2028, that's the first energy connection between France and Ireland.

We see this as a wider pattern, Israel's genocide in Gaza, its destruction of hospitals, murder of medics, attacks on ambulances, I mean it is part and parcel of the genocide, this attack on medical and humanitarian facilities.

Rural isolation is already one of the great hidden social crises in this state.

We have to keep the language alive, but it is not right to leave it alive and leave it alone.

A farmer doesn't just retire, it's a lifelong love and draw for the land and for farming and for agriculture.

Conor D McGuinness addresses urgent housing and planning challenges facing the Gaeltacht, outlining ongoing work with regional agencies and the need for a coordinated strategy. He sets out concerns about services, infrastructure and the pressure on young people and communities if housing needs are not met.

The reason we're not meeting our targets is no political will from the government to do it in my opinion.

Let's be clear, the actions of Ben Gavir are the actions of a fascist. No more, no less.

We cannot pass legislation that expands TUSLA's role without simultaneously demanding radical reform, accountability and transparency and a proper inquiry.

If they don't know the level of need, how can they measure the level of need or how can they put services in place?

This Bill upholds a fundamental principle that those convicted of the most serious crimes should not retain automatic legal authority over the children left behind.

I think we all know as local representatives, because first and foremost we're local representatives, how important it is when we build new homes that we're building new communities as well.

Too often we speak about domestic violence as if leaving is a simple choice, when for many it's not.

So what I'm asking you today, Minister, is to directly intervene in cases like this across the nation.

Understandably you all had a very very strong emphasis on accessibility and easy and proper access is essential for all learners to remove barriers, that's given for all of us and of course that should be the norm not the exception.

The level of funding this year in the case of Laois it actually dropped slightly, it dropped by 1,000 euros, I was hoping it would be a bit more and I would ask that the funding for this year be reviewed again.