Results 1-20 of 151 for going forward speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 Apr 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: The programme for Government committed the Government to upholding Ireland's triple lock neutrality protection. However, as was confirmed this morning, the Tánaiste sought and received the approval of the Cabinet to bring forward legislation to scrap the triple lock by removing the requirement for the UN mandate. In giving the Tánaiste this green light, the Government has started...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Feb 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is time to scrap the television licence. The Government needs to face up to this reality. People's trust and support for RTÉ and the licence have crumbled. People see the fiasco of excess and waste at RTÉ and they feel taken for fools. They also see the lack of accountability and, frankly, they have had enough. This collapse in public confidence is not helped by the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: Go raibh maith agat. Three years ago, the Taoiseach's Government promised it would stop vulture funds bulk-buying family homes from under the noses of ordinary homebuyers. This followed considerable public anger on the back of a fund attempting to buy up the majority of homes at Mullen Park in Maynooth. On the floor of the Dáil the Taoiseach said: What happened in Maynooth and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Nov 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...with damp and mould and, in the long term, their homes will crumble apart. Other homes have issues with car parks, cladding, communal doors and lifts. These homeowners bought their homes in good faith. They paid their hard cash for their homes. Tenants in both social and private rental accommodation pay their rent on time and yet find themselves living in unsafe and insecure...

Pre-European Council Meeting: Statements (25 Oct 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: .... How can deliberately destroying hospitals be considered defence? Hospitals in Gaza are running out of the power they need to function. They are struggling to keep intensive care units going. In Gaza, incubators are being shared by three and four babies at a time. Without electricity, the heat and oxygen needed for these incubators will soon run out. This is unconscionable. It...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Jun 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to raise the governance review into allegations of sexual assault at a HSE-run nursing home, which was published today. It outlines harrowing failures to protect vulnerable people and is a very distressing story for us all. It reflects, again, that there is much work to be done to protect and safeguard vulnerable people. In 2020, a healthcare assistant who worked at the home was...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...-out strike action next week outside of emergency calls. The strike is unprecedented and certainly has not been undertaken lightly. Retained firefighters have been pushed to the very brink by the Government and feel they have been left with no choice. They are the very best of our communities. They do their jobs under incredibly difficult circumstances, acting as first responders at...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...sharp increases in grocery costs and households are being fleeced, day in and day out. Food price hikes have hit people's pockets hard and still show no sign of coming down. Last week, the Government met food retailers and the Taoiseach said the Government would have a very stark message to deliver. In advance of the meeting, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, said he was...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 May 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...how to cut food costs. That advice must be published without delay. It must form the basis of a plan with teeth that will make a real difference. As the Taoiseach knows, last night Sinn Féin brought forward our plan to cut food costs that has three parts. The first is to ensure that savings made by supermarkets are passed on to consumers. The second is to instruct the Competition...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...to struggling homeowners. He refused our plans to cut rent and ban rent increases. Yet, households remain under huge pressure and the Government sits on its hands. Tonight, Sinn Féin will bring forward a plan for real action on food and grocery bills. The Government should back this plan. As the Taoiseach knows, inflation in Irish supermarkets is at the highest level ever...

Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: Statements (26 Apr 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: In fact, it was the Taoiseach's speech I was about to read; it was not actually the Tánaiste's speech. Some 25 years ago, the signing of the Good Friday Agreement transcended the past and changed the future for us all. After more than three decades of a terrible conflict, the agreement delivered a peace that had looked impossible. It ushered in a new era of hope, opportunity and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Apr 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...or the obvious inertia in which he wallows at this point. Where I come from, Housing for All is more popularly known as housing for no one. That is the experience of people on the ground. The Government has set targets that are too low and it does not even meet them. There are sky-high house costs and sky-high rents, Today, the Government has come forward and, with a whole fanfare,...

Pre-European Council Meeting: Statements (22 Mar 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...people, for our peace, for our political stability and for economic success. In the immediate aftermath of agreement on the protocol, our message was that we needed to keep the positive momentum going. The upcoming meeting of the European Council presents an opportunity to do just that and to press home Ireland's interests with our European partners. Yesterday, EU member states endorsed...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Government plans to lift the eviction ban in ten days. If it does this, where are the working families, single people and pensioners at risk of losing their homes meant to go? This question has been put to the Taoiseach repeatedly and those people still wait for an answer. Without putting any measures in place, the Government intends to remove this protection for renters during an...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Feb 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: Today, the Government wants to pass through the Dáil legislation establishing the mother and baby homes redress scheme, this despite the fact the scheme shamefully excludes children who spent less than six months in a mother and baby institution or a county home. As a consequence, 24,000 survivors will be left behind by the Government’s proposed scheme. It is scandalous that...

Address by H.E. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament (2 Feb 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...must be to the fore in forming a global movement against Israeli apartheid in Palestine with the same international determination and momentum that defeated apartheid in South Africa three decades ago. Tá a fhios againn nuair a oibríonn muid le náisiúin an Aontais Eorpaigh go bhfuilimid chomh láidir agus is féidir. Bainfimid an rath is mó amach nuair a...

Seanad: Address by H.E. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament (2 Feb 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...must be to the fore in forming a global movement against Israeli apartheid in Palestine with the same international determination and momentum that defeated apartheid in South Africa three decades ago. Tá a fhios againn nuair a oibríonn muid le náisiúin an Aontais Eorpaigh go bhfuilimid chomh láidir agus is féidir. Bainfimid an rath is mó amach nuair a...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens' Assembly (31 Jan 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: The case for a citizens' assembly on drugs has been made for a long time and there is an urgency around it. I support it. I wish it could be brought forward more quickly than the Taoiseach has indicated but I appeal to him to stick to the commitment and to the date as set out. Would the Taoiseach believe me if I told him that for the past year and a half there has been no functioning...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (25 Jan 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...year. The post-Christmas period is always a time of financial pressure but the soaring cost of living sees households really up against it. People are due to be hit with massive energy bills as Government supports are swallowed up. Parents are finding it difficult to put food on the table as the price of groceries has skyrocketed and households continue to cut back on the basics just to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...have told stories of being sent from pillar to post when seeking information following the cancellation of their flights and there has been serious frustration, confusion and a sense of "Here we go again". I appreciate that a spell of extreme cold weather presents challenges, and I also accept there have been some knock-on effects from disruption at other airports. However, we cannot shy...