Speeches: 23 June 2026

This government is making it clear to us that climate, environment or biodiversity considerations have absolutely no place when it comes to our aviation policy.

At the heart of this debate, it is about protecting the public, supporting the rule of law and ensuring that those who seek to undermine our democracy and our communities are met with a firm and effective response from the state.

A common theme runs through these appalling cases of child abuse. Power and silence, abuse of power by monstrous predators, and silence from the institutions of both state and indeed church that should have been protecting children.

We should be seeking not only to remove the hurdles, but to recognise both Ireland itself is a single destination, one that has a diverse range of offerings in every corner of the country, and in the space between.

Dublin Airport is not only an employer of approximately 130,000 people, it's also a gateway through which Ireland does business, attracts foreign direct investment, and connects to Europe and beyond.

That's just not acceptable that people who are victims of this abuse, whose lives were damaged permanently, that they don't know the answer to those questions and we need to have an urgent discussion to answer questions for many, many people who are victims of this kind of abuse in our schools and indeed about the state's responsibility on it.

This new service seeks to ensure that every child's voice is heard and their best interests are independently presented to the court in a case in relation to the proceedings.

I have asked and simply sought in this amendment that the Minister shall within 12 months of the commencement of this Act report to the Houses of the Oireachtas on creating a framework for child and adult safeguarding in the health and social care sector.

They were failed by every system that was supposed to protect them and they are still being failed today.

We need a dental treatment service that actually works for the people it's supposed to serve.

If we get rid of the Triple Lock, we're not going to have peacekeeping anymore, because by definition, without a UN mandate, it's not a Blue Helmet mission.

The solutions are here, Minister. You need to find them.

These women have now broken their silence in their quest for justice and compensation over the state's failure to protect them.

If we're going to have a serious conversation about the future capacity of our national airport, it should not be based solely on the capacity of nearby roads to cope with passenger numbers.

I'm asking that Shannon and the regional airports not be forgotten and starting with Kerry Airport it's very important to us.

I'm asking for God's sake to do something about it, because that's how I need it.

We need roads, we need houses.

It's simply not acceptable, Minister, that if a person is a medical cardholder in this country, they can't get access to basic services like dentistry.

The government should be absolutely ashamed of how those affected by this appalling tragedy have been handled.

The system shouldn't depend on whether a citizen happens to understand a technical distinction between reported and non-reported payments.

I rise broadly in support of the Criminal Justice, Terrorist Offences Amendment Bill.

Thousands of students continue and will continue to leave the school system without ever seeing a dentist and that is absolutely wrong.

Dentists simply cannot continue like this.

So instead of continuing to overload Dublin, we should be investing in and promoting regional airports as available alternatives.

And as you said, the industry in Dublin is facing an existential crisis if what happened the last two years happens again the first week in August, or indeed any week this summer.

The point of civil liberties is not so much to defend the rights of people you agree with but to defend the rights of those you don't.

We cannot ignore the strategic importance of Dublin Airport to our economy and the serious harm that would be caused to the economy and to our people and to international connectivity or to international reputation of the state by failing to be in a position not to facilitate future growth.

It's absolutely disgusting and a disgrace that a person cannot get to see a dentist.

You're stopping people coming home by overdeveloping Dublin and not looking after the rest of the country.

In the middle of a worldwide energy crisis with electricity bills shooting up for Irish households renewable energy is being wasted at scale.

I hope that next year, that we're not here around this date again, renewing this outdated, draconian piece of legislation.

And we've had four Governments, and it's a major failing, a major failing of a relatively wealthy state that we don't have a good public dental system.

The publication and implementation of this plan is a priority and can't come quick enough, and I think we can all agree on this.

I do have reservations about the setting aside de facto of the climate action legislation in the context of this removal of the cap and also later this week in the context of the Gas Reserve Bill.