Brian Stanley
Laois · Independent · Ireland
“We are going through an epidemic of domestic abuse and violence. In 2025, the Garda had over 67,000 calls in relation to domestic abuse. Seven women were murdered last year, and in many of those cases, it was by a family member, a partner or somebody known closely to the victim.”
“Those fundamentals cannot be ignored. Are supporters of partition really saying that we can continue on this small island with 14 different departments in each jurisdiction working back to back, often in competition with each other? Are they saying that having Twenty-six Counties in the EU and Six Counties out of it makes economic sense?”
“Those who still argue for partition ignore the fact that in a reunified 32-county state, the pension liabilities of those workers in the Six Counties who accrued pension entitlements by paying into the British national insurance system and the British exchequer or employment pensions would receive that portion of their pension liability.”
“Unfortunately, I do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister of State that we are going to have laws introduced in September or October, and that is the crucial issue. Yes, we have rules now, and she listed them out in relation to the signs. However, they are being ignored.”
“The cost is €2.6 billion for the diplomatic mission alone. There is also MI6 and the massive military machine and capacity, including the army, the navy and the Royal Air Force. I saw a figure of €60.2 billion for 2025 and 2026. That amount is due to rise sharply to meet its increased military capabilities.”
“The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is the increase in the number of injuries, including those involving young children, relating to e-scooters and e-bikes. Ten have been killed.”
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“The programme for Government contains a commitment for the creation of more jobs in the regions outside Dublin. However, IDA Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment seem to have a blind spot when it comes to County Laois. Despite Portlaoise and Laois being located on the crossroads of Ireland at the N7, N8, N77, N80, the performance of IDA Ireland and the Department in Laois is dismal. There are just 156 IDA Ireland-backed jobs in the county. More than 12,000 workers commute out of the county every morning. Some have to drive long distances and can find themselves sitting in traffic for two hours. The Leprino cheese factory, which has only been there for three years, is due to close very shortly, with the loss of 132 jobs. I raise this because we do not seem to have got anywhere with it over the years.”
“That it has to wait until 2029 must be rescinded. We need to deal with the exploitation of young workers aged under 20 who are doing the same work but who are on this so-called sub-minimum wage. That is not acceptable. That is discrimination against young workers.”
“Young workers aged under 20 are being exploited. Some of them are just getting 70% of the minimum wage, what is called a sub-minimum wage, but they are doing the same job. It is age-based discrimination. The Minister recently decided to defer any reform of the living wage until 2029 and that is disgraceful. Big business was very well looked after in the last budget, in legislation and in everything in this Dáil. Workers, however, are being left behind and it is now time to give basic rights to workers - those who get up early and keep this country running. A legal right to representation by a trade union and membership of one is a must. While you can join one, you cannot be represented by it. Access to the workplace for unions representatives is essential as is bringing forward reform of the minimum wage.”
“There are reports of the victimisation of those who try to join, or recruit for, a trade union. The Government talks about collective bargaining and social partnership but 78% of the workforce in this State are locked out of that because only 22% of the workforce are in unions in 2024, the second lowest rate of union membership in the European Union, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The Government needs to legislate to give trade unions legal access to workplaces, to organise and to provide legal rights for trade union representation and collective bargaining on pay and conditions, etc. It was disappointing that the can was kicked down the road in regard to the living wage. This should have been brought forward and done a lot sooner. While the minimum wage has increased by a small amount, it does not cut it.”
“I welcome the proposals in this motion. It is long past the time that collective bargaining and trade union representation were made mandatory. It is 113 years after James Connolly and James Larkin led the lockout in this city to seek basic rights for workers. This State is completely at odds with the rest of Europe in not recognising the right to trade union representation and collective bargaining. All that is in the programme for Government are vague commitments. Yes, we have a high level of employment but we also have a high level of poor quality jobs and that continues to be a problem. A large percentage of those jobs are poor quality and low paid. There is widespread casualisation, short-term contracts, precarious hours, bogus self-employment, and I could go on. Unions have been resisted by many employers.”
“It needs a sewerage connection network to the existing houses and to allow for new developments in the village, which is in the commuter belt. One of the interesting things about Ballybrittas is that it is included in Uisce Éireann's small towns and villages programme. It is in the programme, but it will not do it. The Department needs to push this. It is located beside the N7 and is five minutes from a railway station. The Department needs to be told to get on with this. We need to have these services to provide sustainable rural housing in County Laois.”
“In Laois, villages such as Ballybrittas, Ballyroan, Ballinakill, Ballylinan, Borris-in-Ossory, Ballycolla and Timahoe could all be developed further if water and wastewater infrastructure were upgraded. Ballybrittas, Timahoe and Ballycolla do not even have a sewerage treatment plant but they are ideal locations for serviced sites. Ballybrittas is right beside the N7 motorway and the local railway station in Monasterevin is within a five-minute drive. The pumping station there has sewerage capacity for another 150 homes but Uisce Éireann is refusing to allow this to go ahead. It refuses to connect the existing houses in the village. It is trying to pass it back to the council, saying it is up to the council, but the council cannot do it because it is not its responsibility any longer.”
“These should not be half a mile up the road; they should be where they can be serviced. They should be provided by the local council. Laois County Council is already working on a small number of these but I ask that the Government and the Department get behind them. Serviced sites on the edge of villages could be one quarter of an acre where people build their own houses. These would be in walking distance of the local shops, school, church and sports field, with connected water, sewerage, Internet and electricity. There are some good examples of where this is happening. This requires upgrading sewerage treatment plants and water supply networks.”
“I welcome this discussion on rural policy. The biggest issues relate to housing and services in rural areas. Often, people in rural areas do not have anything. Sustainable housing is the key in this regard. For that type of housing, we need infrastructure. Those engaged in agriculture, forestry and other rural employment must continue to be allowed to build one-off houses on family land or in appropriate locations. There also needs to be housing for a whole lot of people and their families who live in rural areas and who are engaged in other activities. We have to come up with a practical solution to this. Given the stricter regulations on one-off housing and environmental concerns, and the fact that not everybody owns land, one part of this has to be serviced sites in villages and on the edge of villages.”
“I am asking the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health to ensure County Laois is provided with a rapid response vehicle because we are at the crossroads of Ireland with the N7, N8, N80 and N78 all going through the centre of the county. I am asking the Taoiseach to ensure there is positive engagement with the National Ambulance Service to sort out rapid deployment and to ensure two or three ambulances are on at all times in County Laois.”
“When we compare what we have to what Scotland, which has similar population and geography, has, it has 5,000 staff while we have just over 2,500. Scotland has 1,500 vehicles while we have 620, so I think the Taoiseach accepts there is ground to be made up. The spring economic statement that came out yesterday shows there are substantial resources there. I am not asking the Taoiseach to throw that money around like confetti. I do not want him to do that but I want the Government to make the ambulance service a key priority in the forthcoming budget. It is essential. We have heard enough over the years about the golden hour. If an ambulance does not get to a person for two or three hours, time is lost.”
“Will the Government provide a rapid response vehicle in County Laois? Will it ensure that at least two ambulances and crews are on at all times? Can it engage with the National Ambulance Service? The Government and the Minister for Health need to do this and get a more logical deployment model.”
“Between the time a call comes in, it could be two hours before an ambulance is actually deployed due to shortages. In a recent case involving an elderly woman in Clara, the call came in at 6.27 p.m. but the ambulance did not get there until 9.51 p.m - almost three and a half hours later. Meanwhile, there was a person in Portlaoise with a serious injury but the three ambulances were gone and there was nobody to pick up that person. There is no rapid response vehicle in the county, despite the fact there are 56 in the State. Civil defence and the fire service are picking up the slack. Rathdowney fire service in one corner of the county dealt with four cardiac patients within a three-month period. Crews are going without regular breaks, meals, etc. The service is understaffed and under-resourced.”
“Often when they are almost at the patient's location, they are stood down and told to turn around and come back because another ambulance has just reached it. Recently, a crew from Portlaoise was two or three minutes from a scene in Wicklow but it was turned back. Dynamic deployment is not working. Crews are chasing around the country, travelling long distances without picking up patients. One crew came on to a shift recently in Portlaoise and was despatched on six occasions. On four of those occasions, the crew was stood down, including when it was almost where the patient was. It was told to turn around and come back to Portlaoise empty. On one of those occasions, it was away for almost four hours while emergencies were waiting in Laois. Calls are being stacked.”
“The ongoing problems with the National Ambulance Service are not being addressed. I raised the serious gaps in the ambulance service, particularly in County Laois, with the Taoiseach last year, and it is through no fault of the staff. The number of staff in the county has not increased in the past two decades, despite the explosion in its population. Five vehicles are based in the county, with just two available most of the time. That is five nights of the week. On Monday and Tuesday nights, just one vehicle is available. This vehicle is often a long distance away, so if a serious incident arises, no ambulance is available to attend patients. This is happening on a regular basis in the county. I can list off several cases recently where that has happened. Crews in Laois can be sent to Dublin, Wexford, Wicklow, Westmeath and Waterford.”
“Instead, the Government should speed up the delivery of offshore wind energy, wave energy, anaerobic digestion which it has completely ignored, hydro which it has completely ignored, and solar which is only moving at a snail's pace. It should ease the tax burden on HVO fuels for heavy transport and buses. It needs to expand the home retrofit scheme to reduce the amount of fuel used and speed up the warmer home scheme.”
“It is clearly designed to override any environmental concerns the county councils, local communities or anybody else has. The Minister can simply disregard the scientific evidence of extensive climate damage and overrule it. Guess what? It will facilitate private investors along with public projects. It is clear what we are doing. We are dancing to the tune of the American Chamber of Commerce. We are being told our economic model is broken so we will just keep going with it; we will just keep jumping in. That is what the Government is doing here. Projects will be given the green light and planners at local authority level and scientists will just have to look on in horror. Data centres, fracked gas terminals and all sorts of dodgy mining will be made easy.”
“They are currently using almost one quarter of our electricity supply, but sure it is okay; we will supply them with electricity for roughly half the cost of what Joe and Mary Public pay in their household. The next big, bright idea is that we will import fracked gas from America. During Trump's recent pronouncements, he said we need to do this. When the Taoiseach was over there, I heard him talking about it. We will have it in a floating terminal in the Shannon Estuary, even though the exploration and extraction of fracked gas is banned here. The latest one is the Critical Infrastructure Bill. This is the next thing coming down the line. One section alone - section 7 - is there for no other purpose than to facilitate huge environmental destruction at the stroke of a Minister's pen and this needs to be stopped.”
“I welcome the very comprehensive motion that has been set out by Deputy O'Gorman. It is now accepted that we will miss our 2030 binding target of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. At last, Ministers are accepting that. The Government has failed to develop offshore wind energy, anaerobic digestion and hydrogeneration, and it is only starting with solar. This means just not climate and environmental damage but also economic damage. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council estimate that we face fines of between €8 billion and €26 billion due to our failure to meet our international obligations, which are also moral obligations. Meanwhile data centres continue to be built at pace.”
“The Government must now work with SNAs to ensure that the policy encompasses the full range of duties and responsibilities SNAs take on. It is important that the role of the SNA is properly fulfilled. I urge the Minister to ensure this consultation is done properly and to give SNAs their proper place in our schools.”
“Our Lady's Meadow in Durrow is getting two new ASD units, which is excellent, but it needs three. I urge that one of the prefabs that are in a good condition is left in place. I have raised with the Minister and departmental officials the issue of Mountrath boys' national school, which is badly in need of an extension to incorporate ASD classrooms, sensory rooms, etc. The numbers waiting at primary and second level in all counties are not published every year so that we can see them, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. This information could be used to ascertain the level of need and the classroom space available, but this never happens. Why not? On SNAs, the Government's definition was too narrow, which it has accepted. That is good. It is okay to accept that.”
“I am glad the Minister and Minister of State are here. The latest figures in County Laois for the number of children with special needs and disabilities under the age of 14 is 2,302. All of us have a responsibility to ensure they get the best possible education. New classes have been announced for Laois, which is well and good and I welcome that. However, we also need physical space in schools. In St. Francis School in Portlaoise, demand continues to far outstrip the availability of classrooms. The Department has washed its hands of Saplings, as has the Department of justice. It is regarded as a private matter even though it is a public school. It has a roll number and teachers paid for by the Minister's Department, but apparently the Department has no role in the school. I will come back to that on another day.”
“What we have in Laois and Offaly in relation to services for children with special needs and autism is a black spot. There are roughly 900 children at any one time on a waiting list for assessment of needs. There is no occupational therapy, OT, in primary care for children and young adults in Laois, and the latest information I have is that there is no approval to recruit such an occupational therapist. Four OT posts are vacant in children and young people's services. I asked the HSE on 17 February to confirm if approval had been given, but I still have not received an answer. The Minister for Health is sitting beside the Tánaiste. Is there approval from the Department of Health and the HSE management to recruit occupational therapists for young persons and children in Laois and Offaly? What progress is being made on that?”
“I heard the Minister say two weeks ago that such tests will take place twice yearly. The Government has built that in, and it deals with the concerns around health and ability. Extra drivers will be needed in September. Laois has lost several drivers over the past two years because when they hit 70 years of age, they are gone.”
“Four short months from now, the scramble for school bus places will start again. There is going to be a shortage of drivers, as has been the case over the past two years. I welcome the announcement by the Government over the Easter period that it will allow those aged up to 72 to drive eight-seater vehicles. I take that to mean that there will be eight seats plus the driver's. Some companies use such buses, particularly for children with special needs. I acknowledge that this is a small step in the right direction. It is a very small step, however. The Government needs to go two steps further. It needs to be practical. It needs to allow such drivers to drive buses with up to 16 seats. It should also bring the age limit up to 74 or 75, provided there is a strict medical test, which has been announced.”
“Anaerobic digestion is minuscule. Hydro is non-existent. Solar is only starting up. I support the call to improve the grants for solar panels on homes. Progress needs to be made in all of these areas. Last week, one Minister after another made things worse. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, said he would bring in the Army. People envisaged troops on the streets with guns but what he actually needed was a tow truck. He did not need a big tow truck to move a few pallets on the bridge in Galway. As I said yesterday, a Massey Ferguson 35 with a front loader would have moved the bundle of pallets on the bridge. The comments of the Minister put fuel on the fire. The Government needs to be more careful in future and listen to people.”
“They also say it would send a clear message to those companies making a profit from the consequences of war. Ireland is not one of the names on that list. I urge the Minister to put Ireland's name to that call and push for this. Greece went one step further and has put a limit on the amount of profit that can be made at retail and wholesale level. At retail level, the limit is 12 cent per litre. Greece has done that legally; it is a member of the European Union. It has put a five cent per litre limit on wholesale profits. I understand the argument about price gaps and the taxpayer ending up with a big bill. This is a way around this. This can be done. It is a practical measure at no cost to the Exchequer. The Government needs to sort that out. The move to renewable energy is painfully slow. We have zero offshore wind.”
“This is the most serious fuel crisis since the 1970s. I contacted the Minister's office last week and spoke to his good secretary about this, and she passed my concerns on to the Minister. The level of preparedness has been shown to be awfully poor. The response and reaction has not been what was required. There is no mechanism to deal with price gouging. The CCPC needs to be abolished or given some powers because its report this week stated that controlling prices in a competitive market is outside the scope of competition and consumer protection law. The steps that can be taken have been outlined during this debate. Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria have made a call for a joint EU windfall tax, the funds from which could be used to ease pressure on consumers in the face of high energy prices.”
“A funding package was announced for the national development plan a few months ago and Laois was ignored in it, despite all the promises before the election. That is where we are.”
“The Portlaoise northern orbital route is the number one priority, along with the Mountmellick link road, which will shorten the route for commuters so that people and particularly trucks will not have to travel as far. They are needed. We cannot have houses without that infrastructure. Where will the houses be built in Laois? Are they going to be built in fields with boreens going up to them or something? That number of houses cannot be put in without infrastructure. I have outlined some of what is needed. It is grand for the boys and girls in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the Custom House to draw up these figures and send them down to the county manager and tell him to get the councillors and officials to provide this. It cannot be done if we do not have the infrastructure. This is where we are falling down.”
“Critical infrastructure legislation was brought in in the 2000s and I recall arguing on local radio with Deputy Seán Fleming about it at the time. I was a local councillor and I recall pointing out what was going to happen and what it would do to destroy local democracy and ride roughshod over good planning rules. The Bill is being presented without pre-legislative scrutiny. I have huge concerns about this. I would like the Minister to bring one issue to the attention to the Minister for local government. If he is going to demand all these houses are built in Laois, we will need infrastructure. There is no orbital route in Portlaoise.”
“On wastewater facilities, I outlined in the House a few months ago that a number of towns and villages need wastewater and water treatment facilities and for water supply to be accelerated if we are going to have houses in them. Towns and villages such as Ballinakill, Borris-in-Ossory, Durrow, Ballylynan, Rathdowney, Mountmellick, Graiguecullen and so on are all short of infrastructure. The courthouse in Portlaoise has not been delivered. We are still one of the nine counties without a domestic abuse refuge in 2026, and families and particularly women and children are being sent all over the place because we simply do not have the facility for them in the county. This is not good enough. The Bill does not address any of that. I have real concerns about this.”
“Portlaoise, which has been targeted for a lot of that growth, needs a new primary school, which Ministers have told me in the House we do not need, despite the fact that hundreds of children are being bussed all over the county to school because there are no school places for them in Portlaoise, including the children on the estate where I live. Laois is a relatively small county but 12,000 people are commuting out of it every morning to work, according to a local authority survey. Childcare cannot be accessed. Childcare places simply are not available in most of the county. We need one of the centres the Government has planned to deliver directly urgently in Laois. We could do with all eight in Laois and we would have just about enough.”
“When we had previous infrastructure legislation back in the 2000s, it was declared that it was only for public projects, but it turned out to be for private projects so it looks like data centres and everything else are included. That is no way to put public infrastructure in place. We need to do everything efficiently, but not at the cost of everything else and of rubbing out local democracy and riding roughshod over good environmental laws. It does nothing to improve any of that. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I will turn to County Laois for a moment. The Minister for local government notified the local authority in Laois that he wants 5,000 more homes in the county. That is grand, but what he did not say was what infrastructure would be put in.”
“The supposed purpose of the Bill is to speed up the delivery of infrastructure and get various different bodies to work together. I would welcome any genuine attempt to simplify planning and speed up infrastructure delivery, which takes forever and a day to get moving, to deliver it on time and at the target cost while environmental laws and regulations are not ridden roughshod over. However, the Bill has all the hallmarks of being about that. It is important that infrastructure delivery be accelerated and that it be brought in on time and on budget but sections 2, 3, 5 and 6 provide that the Minister can give directions to relevant bodies. Section 7 is the eye-opener where it disapplies section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act to designated projects.”
“In the budget before that, which was just before the general election, helicopter money was dropped out of the sky on top of people, including on top of us and those who did not need it. Developers, landlords, hoteliers, McDonald's, Supermac's and Starbucks were all looked after. What happened with ordinary workers? The tax bands were frozen. What happened as a consequence? Joe and Mary Soap who are paying tax and are registered workers are paying more tax than they did last year. Not alone did they not get zero, they are in reverse. That is not good enough. What the Government did in 2024 was cynical. Last year, following the election, the Government totally turned its back on ordinary working people. That cannot continue.”
“These are low- and middle-income families who are been crucified. They do not get the fuel allowance. They are not entitled to it. They are left out. This is on top of a cost-of-living crisis. There are 320,000 households that are in arrears with their electricity bills and 180,000 households that are in arrears on their gas bills. If we look rents in Laois, there are cases of more than €2,000 month being sought in rent. One family has childcare costs of €1,400 a month. School transport fees are up and leaving certificate fees are back and being levied. This is a very tough situation, and further measures are needed for people. A budget was introduced last October.”
“The warnings from us on the Opposition benches were ignored. In the context of the protests in Laois that I attended, there were decent hard-working people who work 60 or 70 hours a week present. Truckers told me that they are losing €6,000 per month. They can only do that for a couple of months. The fact is that they could not get a week's wages and were sinking below the waterline. While the measures proposed may bring some relief, a lot of people, including commuters, have been left out. There are 12,000 people in Laois who commute out of the county to work. Many of them do so by car out of necessity. There are taxi drivers, home helps and public health nurses. There are 700,000 people who rely on home heating oil. Many rural households in Laois rely on home heating oil; the majority outside of Portlaoise.”
“The backers of it say that it would make it possible to finance temporary reliefs for consumers and curb inflation and send a clear message to the profit-making companies that is what needs to happen. Ireland should back that. Greece brought in its own measure. It brought in a three-month limit on the profit margins, not on the cap. I understand the argument around the cap. It put a limit in terms of the profit margin people can have. It is 12 cent for retailers and 12 cent for wholesalers. The Government here should do the same thing.”
“While the measures that were introduced will bring some relief, they do not go far enough. There are too many left out, including families, commuters, taxi drivers, home help staff, public health nurses and people who depend on home heating oil. The majority of rural houses in County Laois depend on home heating oil. They are facing double whammies and triple whammies. Workers and families on a medium income who do not get fuel allowance have been left out. The price of diesel has gone up by 70 cent. Five EU states are calling for a windfall tax to be put on the wholesale price and for that tax to be used, namely, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria. Where is Ireland? Ireland needs to join that. Five large EU countries are calling for it. The Irish Government should join that and use that money to bring in reliefs for people.”
“For one Army truck to move pallets that could have been moved with a Massey Ferguson 35 with a front loader on it. There was a big hoo-ha about the Army. We thought we were going to see the Army on the streets.”
“The Government's handling of the fuel price issue has been appalling. It refused to listen to the Opposition. Week after week we told it what was happening. It refused to listen to the representatives of the various sectors and various bodies. I wrote to the Tánaiste in March and told him that people I had met were running at a loss and could not continue to operate as things stood. Instead, the Government threatens ordinary working people who are trying to make a living. In Laois, it was not the far right. There was no far right involvement. It was ordinary, hard-working people who work 60 or 70 hours per week. The Government only moved to put supports in place when the protests escalated. Then it was threatened that the army would be brought in. For what?”
“Let us try to make it easy for the motorists, the people in rural areas, who will continue to have to use their cars. Rural transport is shown to be a success. We need to make this a success as well. It will not happen if we leave out rural Ireland.”
“In all of those towns, the population has gone up in recent years. It is important there is that service. I listened to the Minister of State's response and Departments will talk about strategies, phases and all of that. Some things need to be kept simple or they do not happen. In short, what I am saying here is that this does not take a genius to work out. When you have large geographical rural areas, like the east and western sides of Laois and parts of the south of the county, left out, we need to fix that. I think the Minister of State will agree, given the debates we had in the House this week around fuel costs and the challenges we are facing there, we are going to be moving more to electric and the easier we make it the better.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his answer. The strategy being developed needs to look at the reality on the ground and at the geographic locations. You cannot have a situation where there are chargers down the middle of the county but nothing either side of it. If you travel the 28 miles to Carlow from Portlaoise, there are none. On the other side of the county, if you travel down the Slieve Bloom side of it and into Roscrea, there are none. I am highlighting the fact this needs to be included. I agree with the Minister of State that up to 80% will be done at home and I understand that. In a lot of the locations where there are chargers, such as in towns like Abbeyleix, Mountrath and Rathdowney, there is just one charging point. Mountmellick with its population only has one. That needs to be looked at. They are all expanding towns.”
“If people in the far corners of the county have to travel to work or beyond that, we need to ensure there are those charging points. What is the plan to increase the number in the State? What is the plan to increase the number in County Laois?”
“That is a huge variation and the Minister of State might just address that. Is there a target and timeframe for that? They need to be better distributed. We cannot have a situation where the price of petrol and diesel will go up and up in the coming years. We know that with Donald Trump and Israel's crazy war in the Gulf fuel prices will not go back down to what they were at before that. We know that. It was the same in Covid. Prices went up but they never went back to pre-Covid levels. It will be the same with this. We need to provide the option and make it easier for people to move to electric vehicles, including people in rural areas. The Minister of State is from a rural constituency and so am I. He understands what I am saying to him.”
“There are a few Local Links but for work and at other times, people need to use a car. This week has shown that we need to try to move away from fossil fuels. They will become more expensive so people will go electric. We have to make it easier for people to get children to school and to get work, get to hospital appointments and do their business in local towns and villages. There is not a bus going up every road, even though rural transport has improved. You cannot have one on every boreen and I think we accept that. As I understand it, the number in the State is in the region of 2,500 but we have only 21 public charging points in Laois. According to information given in answer to previous parliamentary questions, I see the aim is for between 3,200 and 6,210 public chargers.”
“There is nothing the whole way from Portlaoise to Carlow town. There is nothing in Stradbally, Ballylynan, The Swan, Newtown or Graiguecullen. In the south and west of the county, Durrow has none along with Borris-in-Ossory, Castletown, Camross, Errill and Clonaslee. In Rosenallis, there are none. Mountmellick has a population in the region of 5,000 and has just one charging point. While 75% to 80% of charging will be done at home, I think the Minister of State will agree that we need public charging points. I welcome the chargers that have been put down through the middle of the county and there is a need for more. However, the east and west of the county is completely blank, according to the map and the documents I have. As the Minister of State and I know, people in rural areas are car-dependent.”
“I raise the issue of charging points in Laois - or the absence of the charging points in most of the county. We have a situation where there are 21 publicly available charging points in the county. That is the latest information I can get. I have a map of Laois which shows the charging points run down the centre of the county. That is fine because there is the N7 and N8 but there is the N80, the R44 and many other roads. The whole east and west of the county have been left out of it. The biggest barrier to getting people to move to electric cars is range anxiety and access to charging points. If drivers have to travel to charge or they have to queue, that deters them. Laois has them in the middle of the county. It is a county with a population of almost 100,000. There are none in the east of the county.”