Results 121-140 of 20,471 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: For clarity, I was referring to rental income. Not a red cent is paid on that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: The level at which these rents stand should be borne in mind. Our motion this evening calls for a rate of at least 17%. We are simply reiterating what we told the Government at the time, that anything less than 17% would fail to be an adequate disincentive to clip the wings of the vulture funds. We are repeating that. I see no reason for the Taoiseach not to support the motion if he is,...

Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Motion (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: We know the steps that must be followed to initiate a case in the Hague to establish jurisdiction and the grounds for dispute. The Tánaiste has seen the endless footage of Israel's atrocities in Gaza. He has heard reams of heart-wrenching testimony from doctors and international aid workers on the ground. In the midst of undeniable genocidal actions, these steps should be urgently...

Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Motion (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 4: (a) To insert the following after "condemns the ongoing bombardment of Gaza": “by Israel and reiterates the call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire”; (b) To insert the following after "and the hearings last week involving the parties to this case”: “; and commends South Africa for its action in this regard: determining that it is...

Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Motion (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: For more than 100 days, the people of Gaza have endured a humanitarian horror of unimaginable scale, a genocide broadcast to the world in real time and inflicted upon an impoverished refugee population by the apartheid Israeli regime that is hell-bent on erasing the Palestinian nation from the face of the earth. This is not conjecture. The Israeli Government has not attempted to hide its...

Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Motion (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: An immediate and full ceasefire is what is needed. That is the call the Government should make, and that call should be contained in the motion.

Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Motion (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: Israel must stop its massacre in Gaza. There can be absolutely no equivocation on this matter. What is described in the motion is mass slaughter, the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, the displacement of millions of people, starvation and the destruction of hospitals and schools. It describes the very markers of genocidal actions – a blatant attempt to wipe out...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Covid-19 Pandemic (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: 9. To ask the Taoiseach when the terms of reference for the inquiry into Covid-19 in Ireland will be produced. [56544/23]

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: Oliver Bond flats in the inner city of Dublin are 90 years old. If you live in Oliver Bond you are likely to be living with damp and mould, in conditions that are unacceptable and unbelievable in 2024. A report published today reflects that people living in Oliver Bond flats have a higher likelihood of respiratory illnesses such as asthma. The report speculates strongly that this is a...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (23 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----Gardiner Street flats, and Dunne Street flats, all of which suffer from damp and mildew but there is no plan and no Government ambition to change these living conditions. What does the Taoiseach propose to do about this?

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

Mary Lou McDonald: I have set out the facts for the Taoiseach. I have acknowledged and put it to him that he did respond in 2021 on the back of the Maynooth situation. I also reminded him that, at the time, he was advised that he had not gone far enough. I also told him that, in July of last year, Department officials told the Minister that the regulations were failing. They said very clearly that funds...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: It does not say that.

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 (17 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: We know, and the Minister has reiterated the fact, that Fine Gael and the Government benches do not want housing to be affordable. There is no great surprise in that. Certainly, our farming friend in Monaghan and people beyond that know full well that if they ever had an expectation of homes being affordable on the Government's watch, that expectation is truly dashed at this stage. There...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: In a bid to be helpful to the Government, Sinn Féin will this evening bring forward a motion with a solution to that problem, one that will stop the vultures. Is the Government prepared to back that solution to stop vulture funds snapping up these homes and-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----to allow hard-pressed people, families and especially young people, a chance to actually buy their own homes?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about the vulture funds?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Jan 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will refrain from comment on that, a Cheann Comhairle. I welcome everybody back and wish them a happy new year. That is good news to start the year off. In April 2021, a vulture fund was on course to buy up the majority of homes in Mullen Park, Maynooth. Does the Minister remember that? She should, as it provoked widespread public anger. At the time, the Government said it was...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a joke. An absolute joke.

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

Mary Lou McDonald: Rents are too high. I hope the Taoiseach is not disputing that. I hope he is also not disputing the fact that in the third quarter of this year, 4,518 people received notices to quit - eviction notices. More than 80% of those were no-fault evictions. In other words, the people concerned had done nothing wrong. They had paid the rent, looked after the property and so on. The Taoiseach is...