5. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the recent European Council. [26851/25]
Sentiment score: 0.00
One of the most brutal things I have seen is the picking up by ICE of children and people off the streets of the US yet how far away from it are we given what happened here last week where 35 people, including five children, were deported to Nigeria? The report from the children's school principal and those who knew them said that they had been fully integrated in the school for three years and that so many of the schoolchildren were upset. They came to the Red Cow IPAS centre and it told them they were going to deported and other children were listening to this. It is a high price to pay for a bit of virtue signalling to the far right - €325,000 or thereabouts to deport 35 people so that the Minister for justice can look like the strong man and this Government looks like it is doing something against racists because that it is exactly what it is.
Sentiment score: -0.04
It is a shame. The Minister was asked what the alternative to deporting children was. Maybe listen to what Simon Harris said when children were deported a few years back and he rallied behind them but the Taoiseach has just decided that this is popular.
Sentiment score: 0.03
It is like what Trump is doing, is it?
Sentiment score: 0.36
10. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Disability will next meet. [26852/25]
Sentiment score: 0.00
There was a march on Saturday through the streets of Dublin in horrendous weather. It was organised by parents, especially mothers, in a group called FUSS and Equality in Education Ireland. They are ordinary women who have had to spend their whole lives organising to get rights for their children. Many of them still do not have school places and many parents have contacted me who are in the same position. Danu Community Special School is a school I have raised before.
Sentiment score: -0.04
The Taoiseach's Government promised 12 families that they would have places in the school last September. All those children are sitting at home or doing another year in preschool because Government failed to deliver. All that is needed are modular buildings but we have to be honest here: this is linked to chronic underinvestment in the public sector and to the housing crisis. We cannot get therapists. It is great that the Government has increased the places but most of these people are leaving the public sector or emigrating. We cannot get teachers either - I know teachers failed to live up to the Government's expectations by rejecting the latest plan for the leaving certificate - and especially not in special education, where people are not trained or resourced. Will the Taoiseach guarantee that there will be a school place for every child who needs one in September?
Sentiment score: -0.08
29. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach to provide an update on the shared island initiative. [29590/25]
Sentiment score: 0.11
There were worrying and horrific scenes in Ballymena last night of hundreds, potentially thousands, of people gathering. It would appear some racist attacks were committed on homes. It follows an alleged serious sexual assault on a teenage girl, and I extend my solidarity to that girl and her family. Two teens have been accused, and as soon as it became potentially the case that they were non-nationals or were from another country, these crowds gathered in what is becoming a familiar pattern in the North, the South, in the UK, etc. First, I condemn the attacks that appear to have taken place on the homes of non-nationals, including a Filipino family. We have to come out and make this clear. Gender-based violence is gendered violence. It has nothing to do with nationality. Northern Ireland has an horrific history of violence against women - a native history. According to a recent Ulster University survey, 98% of women there have experienced at least one form of violence in their lives. It has the second highest femicide rate in the EU. The PSNI says there is a domestic violence report every 16 minutes. Unless those facts are brought out north and south of the Border, racists will continue to use this issue to stir up the racism they want. We need real action on gendered violence.
Sentiment score: -0.48