Speeches: 16 June 2026

So the question is, can we honestly deal with the question of settlement goods without first dealing with the question of the association agreement?

You're not a commentator. You've been in government effectively for a decade. So when will you and your ministers stop blaming everyone else for the vacancy and dereliction crisis?

I'm involved with a coalition of Palestine advocacy groups, anti-war groups and others who are planning protests around the forthcoming EU presidency, particularly around really the shameful, inexcusable complicity of the European Union as an institution and as individual states with Israel's ongoing genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people.

Every single day people are being murdered by the Israelis in Gaza and we have very likely facilitated some of that either by the US military using our airports or our airspace being used to transport weapons.

Housing is infrastructure. It has to be infrastructure.

Family carers across Ireland are being pushed deeper into financial hardship, social isolation and poor health, as they shoulder ever-increasing caring responsibilities with insufficient state support.

I give you an absolute commitment on behalf of the Independent Group that there will be nothing standing in the way or frustrating in any way to delay in any way this legislation so that the passage of this legislation will have significant support right across the House.

A heinous genocide against Jewish people, perpetrated by an earlier generation, cannot be used to justify an Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

This Bill will help close gaps that criminals have been able to exploit, improve co-operation with our European partners, support to gather new evidence and most importantly assist in holding those involved in serious and organised crime to account.

I am simply asking, how is this a reasonable payment for this level of work?

I understand that people providing less than three or less than four are exempt from the regulations, but can you guarantee that they will actually, notwithstanding that, be allowed to receive state funding to provide the very valuable services that they do?

This Bill is about respecting and trusting women in exercising that choice to access the care they need when they need it.

The imposition of a three-day waiting period goes against all of that.

It's not acceptable that so many homes, so many potential homes are derelict.

We've got to give our children back their childhood.

Ten years later, Taoiseach, and after all those commitments, we're no nearer that referendum.

The birth of a child is a wonder and it's something that's better than all the rest.

The question I have for Taoiseach is could the process be streamlined because many people find themselves have to be Garda vetted three or four times if they're driving a school bus, if they're walking with school, even as a volunteer with school children.

It shouldn't be down to good will that they give the evidence or not; it should be mandatory that they give it.

I believe what is happening here is blatantly wrong and I completely disagree with it.

The reality is your new derelict sites tax, just like your vacant homes tax, is a tax that's actually designed to fail.

I think the main issue for me is do we trust women? And that is still the question, and the answer for me is still yes.

The key challenge now in coming to a decision on the Bill is to find the appropriate balance between protective measures and compassionate and timely access to healthcare.

It is a different Iran, but not necessarily a better one.

We need to be players, not customers.

So could you please do whatever you need to do to join the dots here between yourselves and the Department of Health to get that formally diagnosed?

You cannot make good policy without good data.

Will TUSLA commit here and now, today, to carry out an independent national study into the mental health and mortality outcomes of parents whose children are separated from their children to the care system?

We can either watch and moan the emergence of AI, or we can seek to be ahead of the paucity.

We cannot have a situation where legislation potentially allows for the free usage of material that might later be ruled privileged by the High Court.

Connectivity is lifeblood to the country.

You hoard property, you pay the price. You don't simply get to walk away.

Changing the law, removing the three-day wait would ensure that women can access health care when they need it.

To force a woman to wait for three days is just wrong and tomorrow night every TD has an opportunity to right that wrong, to vote to change the law, to remove this barrier to healthcare for women and to uphold the promise of repeal and take a significant step towards compassion.

I know I'm straying from the immediate context, but what I'm trying to say here is that legislation alone, this is important, but we really have a mountain to climb here in terms of helping to make our society more safe again, particularly for women, but not just for women, of course, for men, women, and children.

Clean up social media at source by turning off the toxic algorithms, that big tech profit.

The Chief Executive is not required to increase rents.

My question to you, Commissioner, is, a year and a half into your role, how do you measure your KPIs?

We can build a rapid response digital evidence system for Europe, but we cannot build a rapid response identity verification system for Ireland, which is a small island.

You cannot speak about building a shared future while simultaneously dismantling the last remaining safeguard that has already saved up to 10,000 lives, and Sinn Féin knows this.

People can be assured though that this will be done in a sustainable way, respectful of local communities as well and indeed of their views and we need the airport to grow but to operate under a good neighbour policy and I've been very clear with DAA on that.

Now, given women are given birth in the Rotunda and are treated by consultants employed by the Rotunda, this is clearly nonsense.

Knowledge is power and the register will provide people with this vital information so that they can make informed decisions about their relationships.

It is to address these deficiencies that I am introducing today the Criminal Justice, International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters Bill.

we need to continue to listen to women and to respect their right to choose on all aspects relating to their own health care

The question is not how many people are affected, the question is whether people whose health depends entirely on lifelong hormone replacement therapy are receiving appropriate support from the state.

The three-day wait is nothing more than a political construct.

It is my fundamental belief that what we voted on in 2018 and I campaigned on one side and you campaigned on the other side and that's politics, was ultimately the decision to move to repeal the Eighth Amendment from our constitution.

We know that there is absolutely zero clinical indication for the three-day wait period, and it has to go.

There are 10,000 children alive today in this country as a result of that three-day wait.