Speeches: 20 May 2026

Freedom from violence should not be a luxury and nobody should have to remain in danger because they can't afford to leave.

No, because they've already shredded it in doing exactly what Connolly didn't want us to do, what Markievicz and Pearse didn't want us to do, and what Tone didn't want us to do is become a staging ground for empires engaged in wars.

We sell it to them at a song, they make a massive profit, and we buy it back from them, and we pay for the infrastructure for them.

So we need to inform, we need to consult, we need to involve, we need to collaborate, and at the heart of any meaningful public engagement, there has to be genuine respect for all stakeholders.

I say that the land deserves the child that has the greatest interest in the farming of the land.

Fighting poverty requires the same urgency that this Commission applies to its militarisation agenda.

Do you think you are the right man to lead RTE forward?

Was that a misclassification or a miscategorisation in the first place or was it a deliberate attempt at hiding the culture in the top brass executives in RTE thinking that the rules don't apply and commitments given to the members here and to the Irish public around improved governance and oversight don't apply and you're continuing to play hard and fast or fast and loose with the public purse and not reporting accurately on the big salaries of your high flyers and I think you have to accept here today that that is the perception that's out there amongst the Irish public.

Right now this feels like a country with no vision for young people, no place for them and no future that they can afford.

This is an ongoing shambles, a never-ending circus of secrecy and spin.

Protect the Triple Lock, protect neutrality, and above all else, trust the people enough to let them have their own say.

If we allow our neutrality to be hollowed out piece by piece, the Triple Lock is central to protecting that neutrality.

And I have to say, I was extremely proud to be in Westminster yesterday, not just as a member of the Houses of the Oireachtas, but as a former member of the Royal Irish Rangers and as a former member of the Irish Defence Forces.

Neutrality is not weakness, neutrality is a positive expression of Irish independence.

Taoiseach, I believe the time has come for a second training college, one that should be based in Dublin and which leverages the potential for greater linkages with the state's recently expanded network of technological universities and I believe there is a compelling case for that second training college to be located in Blanchardstown.

An advocate is on your side and believes you are going through this stress and difficulty and is going to be relentlessly there at your side, and to us that is just an incredibly important I suppose signal from the state that this is broken, but we're here, there is something being put in place to support you and to recognise that.

Only five of our 47 hospitals, public hospitals, hold a functioning electronic record system.

Europe can afford to end child poverty, the failure is choosing not to.

Carers are the backbone of our community, the unsung heroes looking after some of the most vulnerable in our society and yet are consistently left behind.

I believe the public service mandate is under threat.

I have a special hatred for vulture funds, and I think that there should be no place for them.

Danny Healy-Rae raises repeated flooding in town square and urges an interim engineering fix to protect local businesses. He asks that the sewer pipe be removed and a small pumping station be installed, and requests Minister Boxer Moran to expedite action.

We should have zero tolerance of the deer on the road and he should get behind and be front and forward with getting rid of them completely out of the countryside for the safety of people's lives.

And I think it's most important that we retain our neutrality and retain the triple lock.

There's going to have to be some process put in place to deal with the whole issue of parity and fairness when it comes to pay and pension.

These are reasonable and practical requests, and I would urge MCD and the owners of Slade Castle and all relevant parties to engage constructively with the community to deliver them.

Let me be absolutely clear, Ireland's longstanding policy in regard to our neutrality remains unchanged.

No state-sponsored and state-staffed behaviour should be able to perform fraudulent activities without being held to account or punished.

Ireland's policy on neutrality is equally sacrosanct and remains a vital cornerstone of our approach to defence and international engagement.

This government continues to bend over backwards to protect the NAMA CEO's salary of €430,000 per year.

If you don't do that, then the whole process is just meaningless and lacks any form of democracy, any form of compassion as far as I am concerned.

But in principle, I have no problem whatsoever with taxing the gambling industry and taxing them heavily for the damage that they're causing in society.

it sounds to me like we're still down an animal farm and that some animals are still more equal than others and the public is still in the dark.

I am happy to put it on the record again today that we have no plans to alter this policy.

I think this is very, very dangerous that people could be defined as terrorists in this way.

You want to get rid of the triple lock because you want to send troops abroad outside of the framework of international law.

There's an awful lot of people within the NAMA group have to account for things that they've done and done wrong.

Neutrality is not a weakness. It's independence.

Why, if you're doing agricultural work, you should qualify for the scheme?

What we need to see is foreign, we need independent foreign policy, and there is an absolute fear from this government of the Irish people.

The Commission buzzwords of simplification, competitiveness and security are meaningless if your children are cold, homeless or hungry.

It's one of the ways of paying someone more when they've reached the cap, but it would have to be agreed by HR and so on.

We should halt plans to progress this bill which is about abandoning neutrality, the Defence Amendment Bill 2025, and respect the will of the people.

Any move by the government to abolish or undermine those commitments is a denial of democracy and, I believe, that is open to a legal challenge.

The primary responsibility should rest with the local councillors to have a responsibility to do that, but also a responsibility for that to be respected by us here at Dail level and the government level.

You cannot leave it totally to the market.

This Bill represents a significant step in the State's post-crisis normalisation.

Abandoning our neutrality only serves to facilitate wars and it does nothing to support victims.