Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The obvious question to ask is whether or not this current Dáil will still be here come May 2019. Whereas the toing and froing - it seems to me like a sham battle between Fine Gael and its partners in government, Fianna Fáil - might be depicted as a matter for themselves, it has implications for the entirety of the Dáil and, more importantly, for policy delivery and for the people who elect us. I have no doubt that the Government's progress report, should it arrive in May of next year, will reflect that the housing and health chaos and crises continue. Of course, if the Taoiseach were thoughtful about these matters, he might take a few steps back and figure out that this is because the policies the Government is pursuing are simply the wrong ones.

I hope the progress report in May 2019 will not reflect the current state of play, which is that one of the measures in the programme for Government that I actually support, namely, the commitment to recognise the state of Palestine, still has not been met. This is despite the fact that, as the Taoiseach knows, in 2014, a Sinn Féin motion was passed in the House in which we resolved that such recognition would be delivered. The Seanad, I should add, likewise passed such a motion. Here we are, however, in a state of splendid inertia on the part of the Taoiseach's Government and nothing has happened. I did hear the Tánaiste a number of weeks ago float the notion of Middle East peace talks here in Ireland, possibly in January. As the Taoiseach knows, Israel has boycotted previous attempts such as these, but he might enlighten us as to the current state of play in this regard. Whether the Government is ever serious at all about recognition of the state of Palestine or whether it will remain in its state of splendid inertia remains to be seen. In this regard the Taoiseach might let us know if the confidence and supply agreement between Deputies Martin and Varadkar will remain in place.

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