Ciarán Ahern
Dublin South-West · Labour Party · Ireland
“What we are asking for today is simply that the Government lives up to the commitment made in the programme for Government to carry out a new, independent feasibility study for an extension of the MetroLink from where it is currently due to end in Charlemont, out to Dublin south west.”
“It examined quite a nonsensical route that finished abruptly in Knocklyon, and therefore it significantly underestimated the cost benefit of the project.”
“This all comes back to funding our schools. All too often, despite the much publicised overspend in the education budget, schools still have to fight tooth and nail to get the resources they need. I never predicted that so much of my time as a TD would be spent working with local schools on funding and resourcing issues.”
“As the capitation grant is not covering basic operating costs, many school boards feel that to avoid running deficits, which they will get into trouble for from their governing bodies, they have to find funds elsewhere.”
“As the Minister knows, parents are paying hand over fist for ancillary school costs, be it for school uniforms, laptops, school transport or the so-called voluntary contributions. We cannot say we have free education in this country if the whole architecture that enables proper participation is hugely expensive for parents.”
“Some parents are now having to pay hundreds of euro for devices if their children are to just fully participate in school. As this motion states, we are at risk of creating a digital divide and new inequalities in our education system unless we put further supports in place for low-income families. Kevin Shortall, principal of St.”
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“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta O'Gorman agus an Comhaontas Glas as an rún den scoth seo a chur chun cinn. Tá sé tráthúil agus Lá Domhanda na Cruinne á cheiliúradh againn inniu. Tacóidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis an rún. This motion provides a stark picture of just how far we have slipped and continue to slip in terms of our climate goals. I have been really struck by how little emphasis the Government has placed on our response to what is the greatest existential crisis we face not just as a country but as a planet, and it is a climate and biodiversity crisis. I was listening to the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan's, comments earlier about the lack of focus on biodiversity in the Opposition. That could be not be further from the truth and I am disappointed the Minister of State is not here for this.”
“The principal and staff of the school are doing a brilliant job and it is a fabulous school. It is a big school in Old Bawn. There are about 700 or 800 students in it. It is lucky the school has a big site where it will be possible to build the new school at the same time as keeping the existing building going and doing it in phases without the need for additional funding for modular or temporary accommodation for the students. The school can do this project with relative ease on its existing site. We call again for a meeting with the Minister and Department officials to get this thing moving. We all know it has been delayed for too long and there is a real, urgent need here.”
“In the short term the roof needs to be done. As for the longer term, the Department approached the school in 2011 about adding 20 new classrooms. After three years, the Department's architect suggested a whole new rebuild. As Deputy Murphy said, that was in 2014. We are 12 years on from that and the school just wants to push the project along and that is what it is looking for now.”
“As my colleagues have said, there are three of us here from the constituency but it is fair to say the five TDs in our constituency support the school in this regard. There is a short-term and long-term need in the school. The short-term need is to get an emergency grant to fix this roof, which is badly leaking. Almost daily water is dripping into classrooms and leaving pools. When we were there one of the classrooms was referred to as the Amazon rainforest by the students because of the rain coming down. There are buckets in classrooms and it is destroying the children's work, at times. Teachers cannot have any desks in that area. The panels on the roof collapsed on parents during a parent-teacher meeting. It is happening during school hours and the management cannot really predict where these collapses are going to happen.”
“However, if we are serious - as we should be - about reaching the goals set out by the EU, we need to see more ambition than just what is in this Bill, but as I said, the Labour Party welcomes it.”
“The new private wires legislation going through pre-legislative scrutiny at the moment is only going to serve to expand the number of data centres around the country, which are likely to be fuelled by gas because of the lack of renewable energy sources at present. The cost of all of this will appear on to the energy bills of ordinary households and PAYE workers who are ultimately the people who are going to be paying for all of this. This Bill is a small step towards a goal that will be difficult to reach without more ambition. We welcome the measures in the Bill and we recognise the importance of tackling air pollution. It will have real effects on the health of many of our citizens.”
“As An Taisce has pointed out, the rapid expansion in the number of data centres in Ireland is having direct and indirect effects, increasing both the cost of electricity supply and total resultant air pollution. The latter would not have happened in an alternative scenario in which no new data centres would have been allowed. If we are serious about air quality and clean energy in general, we need a moratorium on the building new data centres until we can be sure they will not strain the grid, inflate household bills or derail climate targets. The Labour Party has long called for this.”
“Investing properly in clean energy infrastructure both on the macro level and through individual household supports will not just help us reach our climate targets, it will help to tackle fuel poverty, safeguard our energy security and, pertinently for this debate, improve our air quality and save lives in doing so. We also need to recognise the other activities that can affect our air quality. Maybe it is the long shadow of the smog of the 1970s and 1980s, but we tend to think of air pollution in terms of billowing clouds of smoke from small houses or businesses. Of course, any additional activity that puts pressure on our energy grid consumption inevitably contributes to air pollution. As capacity is put under pressure on the grid, clean energy sources are displaced by fossil fuel sources.”
“That is why I was disappointed at the backsliding in respect of it this week. There are plenty of other measures this Government could have brought in to protect hauliers, farmers and everyone else who has to use oil and gas to get around the place. It could have used direct subsidies, direct payments and excise duty cuts. The Labour Party has supported all of those. Backsliding on the carbon tax sets a dangerous precedent, and the Government has made a rod for its own back when it comes to the budget in October. We all know that the carbon tax increase was set for May because that is when people are least likely to be filling up their home heating tanks and things like that.”
“That means taking the energy revolution seriously and turbocharging retrofitting and the roll-out of renewable heating systems. It also means protecting people from fuel poverty by targeting households on the lowest incomes for retrofitting grants and programmes and, as others have said, providing a just transition. It further means - in this week of all weeks - finally recognising that we need to invest as a matter of urgency in making this country the renewable energy superpower it can be. Ireland has a target of installing 400,000 heat pumps by 2030. The previous target was to install 45,000 by the end of 2025. The numbers being installed are nowhere near that. We need to reform the SEAI's grant scheme and aim for a rural energy revolution. The carbon tax plays an important part in financing just transition.”
“I understand that pre-legislative scrutiny was waived and that there was no open public consultation prior to the Bill being published. It seems that there was plenty of time to do those kind of things and to look closely at the Bill. It does not seem to have needed to be rushed in order to get to this point. The legislation is important. It is important that we get it right and have full and informed debate on all of these things. As with any debate on enforcement legislation, it is important that we pause and make clear that enforcement can only be part of the picture. Eliminating smuggled, non-compliant fuels from our supply chains is an important step. If we want to have any hope of reaching our targets on air pollution, however, we need to have carrots to go along with the sticks.”
“A 2023 report by the EPA on the enforcement performance of local authorities stated that air and noise enforcement had the lowest level of dedicated resources, with only 10% of staff assigned to this area in 2022. In the context of the five national enforcement priorities for air and noise, only 61% of local authorities achieved the required standard for enforcement of the solid fuel regulations in 2022. These powers need to go along with the resourcing needed to make them effective. I would question the time it has taken to get this Bill here in view of the fact the general scheme was published in August 2024 and the Bill was published in July of 2025. It is disappointing that it only reached the Seanad in November and is only coming to this House now, almost two years after the general scheme was published.”
“This legislation, if backed by real enforcement, can change that. This Bill will not revolutionise our air quality on its own but it is a welcome step in the right direction. It needs to be accompanied with resourcing for local authorities and the EPA to carry out these new enforcement and regulatory powers. Unfortunately, this is an area that has been neglected before, and if we are to have any hope that the measures we are discussing today will have a tangible impact, local authorities need to be backed to succeed on them. This is certainly something we learned from our discussion at the climate committee on this matter a number of months ago.”
“While I note that this Bill does not apply to illegal extraction, I hope the new enforcement powers under this Bill relating to the sale and supply of non-conforming solid fuels will have a material effect on the enforcement against this illegal trade in peat. We should note the Bill is backed by the industry's representative body, Solid Fuel Merchants Ireland. It recognises how unfair it is if some sellers try to get around the laws that are there for everyone's good and undercut their law-abiding competitors by importing substandard fuels from Northern Ireland or elsewhere. In its words: Honest, tax-compliant fuel merchants across the country have made major investments in cleaner fuels .... But they continue to be undercut by smuggled, high-sulphur products that evade carbon tax and harm our health.”
“Some 300,000 tonnes of peat is being illegally extracted on a commercial basis annually, nearly all of which is being exported, and it is worth about €40 million per year. This is - the Minister referred to this earlier - completely separate from anyone's personal turbary rights, which, of course, we support, but the illegal extraction and commercial sale of thousands of tonnes of turf is decimating vital ecosystems and biodiversity. It is destroying the country's natural carbon sinks, precious boglands that absorb greenhouse gases and are important in the fight against climate change.”
“This Bill is, of course, far from a silver bullet but ahead of the new EU regulations in 2030, local authorities and the EPA have identified gaps in the existing legislation, and the Government has moved to plug them, and that is certainly to be welcomed. By strengthening enforcement with reintroduced on-the-spot fines and the introduction of compliance notice, seizure and forfeiture powers, and clarifying regulatory processes through the registers being introduced, we will give meaningful powers, we hope, to local authorities. These powers will be used to tackle what is a real driver of air pollution in this country, which is the sale and supply of non-compliant solid fuels. The EPA has warned us of the catastrophic environmental damage that large-scale illegal peat extraction is doing across this country.”
“The national air pollution control programme report in 2024 shows fine particulate matter, PM2.5, dropping 33% from the 2005 baseline to 2021. Regulation has worked in this area but, again, we can and we must go further. The clean air strategy committed to reaching the WHO's various targets. The Irish Heart Foundation estimates that there would be almost a thousand fewer premature deaths annually from air pollution if we could reach the WHO targets. That is definitely something worth pushing for. It is, therefore, welcome to see a Government taking this issue on and giving it the attention it deserves.”
“I can remember back to the Dublin smog of the 1980s, when I was a kid, and how that seemingly intractable problem was fixed by Government action. After campaigning by communities across the city, smoky coal was banned in the capital and we saw an immediate, dramatic improvement in air quality. That resulted in roughly 350 fewer needless deaths every year. I did not grow up in a PD household - far from it - but Mary Harney was always respected in our house because of the stand she took on smoky coal in Dublin back in 1990. Thousands of lives have been saved. It was our Labour Minister, Alan Kelly, who extended the ban on smoky coal nationwide in 2015, a ban which came into effect in 2018. The health benefits of these things are overwhelming. That progress has, thankfully, continued.”
“We know how important it is to meet our EU and international obligations, whether it is in this area of air pollution or on broader questions of climate and emissions. The consequences of failing to meet them are something we have discussed in this House many times. Just as we need to reduce our carbon emissions to meet those binding EU targets, it is vital that we tackle air pollution to meet our newly agreed EU targets by 2030. That will be a challenge. Our air quality in Ireland is generally good, and we meet all the current EU requirements, but we fall well short of the WHO guidelines. The EPA itself has raised its concern that we will really struggle to meet the new 2030 EU limits. If there is cause for hope, however, it is that we know that this is an area where good regulation by central government can make a real difference.”
“That means there can be no excuse for burying our head in the sand and denying the clear link between solid fuels and air pollution and, in turn, no excuse for failing to recognise the link between air pollution and its effect on the health of our citizens. What is more, this is an area that international actors have moved on in recent times. In October 2024 the EU introduced its new ambient air quality directive, with much stricter pollution limits due to come into force in 2030. In doing so, Europe was aiming to gradually align its regulations with the WHO's more stringent air quality guidelines, which were published in 2021. The limit for fine particulate matter, PM2.5, would be cut by more than half between 2026 and 2030. The aim is to reduce premature deaths linked to pollution in Europe by 55% by 2030.”
“The ESRI estimated in 2023 that between 2016 and 2019, a four-year period, acute healthcare costs for treating five conditions associated with air pollution, including asthma, cardiovascular conditions and things like that, amounted to €56 million. The costs of air pollution, therefore, in terms of both money and lives, are known. What is also well documented are the drivers of air pollution, in particular the role that the burning of solid fuels plays in driving down air quality in our towns and rural areas. The EPA has identified nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter as the two pollutants most responsible for poor air quality in Ireland. The burning of solid fuels in homes is the primary source of one of these, PM2.5.”
“We in the Labour Party welcome this Bill. It can be a small step towards an important aim, which is tackling air pollution and improving the quality of the air we all breathe in every city, village or rural area across our country. We all have a right to clean air. I pay tribute to groups like Irish Doctors for the Environment, which play an important role in fighting for this right across our country and educating us all on both the physical and the mental health effects of air pollution, and we can reduce them. The effects of air pollution are well documented. The EPA in its Air Quality in Ireland 2024 report found that around 1,700 premature deaths occur in Ireland each year because of poor air quality.”
“It is not as if our rivers and waterways are in pristine condition or that our biodiversity is in a strong position. We need the climate Act. The whole point of section 15 of that Act is that public bodies can be held to account in the context of performing their duties in conjunction with our climate obligations. That should not get in the way of the construction of critical infrastructure. I ask the Government to look at this again and to reverse the decision in relation to the Critical Infrastructure Bill and section 15 of the Climate Act.”
“I thank the Tánaiste. We welcome the LEEF meeting next week and the Labour Party will be supporting our trade unions here when they are looking for pay rises, when they are looking for remote and flexible working rights. We are calling for free and cheap public transport and an expansion of those types of schemes. The Tánaiste did not indicate that the Government will continue to abide by the climate Act when it comes to our critical infrastructure. There are reasons other than those relating to environmental laws for projects in this country being delayed. A lack of resourcing of planning authorities, regulatory bodies and the courts over the past ten years has resulted in projects being delayed. It is not fair to dump on environmental laws.”
“We all want to see critical infrastructure delivered and delivered quickly, but will the Government reverse this decision to disapply the climate Act from the Critical Infrastructure Bill and can he tell me when PAYE workers are going to get a break from the Government?”
“Once again, it will be ordinary PAYE workers who will pay the price for all of this in their energy bills. Most worryingly, we see the Government deciding that it just does not want to bother with the climate Act at all when it comes to large critical infrastructure projects. This Government has consistently scapegoated environmental concerns arising via the planning process or judicial reviews as the root cause of its inability to deliver anything meaningful, but none of the delays relating to the new children’s hospital, for example, were due to environmental objections. There are any number of reasons it takes time to deliver large projects but dumping on environmentalists and environmental law is just dishonest.”
“If the rest of the world consumed at the rate that Ireland has since 1 January, we would have run out of resources globally on 14 April. That is a month earlier than it would have been last year. Would the Tánaiste tolerate this lack of budgetary indiscipline when it comes to our public finances? He has just said that we cannot keep spending more. Of course, he would not tolerate this but the manner in which this Government approaches everything to do with climate, environment and biodiversity gives the impression that we have loads of carbon budget to spare for all these highly polluting new projects that it wants to pursue. New private wires laws are going to turbocharge data centre expansion and imported fracked gas through the new liquefied natural gas reserve will power them.”
“If successive Governments had taken our climate commitments seriously, we would not be in the cost-of-living crisis that we are now, with some of the highest energy prices in Europe. We have a budget for our emissions in this country. We have legally binding targets to reduce our emissions, or at least I thought we did. Our carbon budget is very much in the red and the Minister has admitted that we are going to miss our 2030 emissions targets by as much as 50%. The climate change and fiscal advisory councils have warned us that fines are going to come in, ranging from €8 billion to €26 billion by 2030. Who is the Government going to ask to pay for it? It will be PAYE workers again who will have to shoulder that burden. Yesterday was overshoot day.”
“For the last 10 years, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments have been lucky enough to preside over very healthy public finances. How they have spent – or misspent - our great wealth is another matter, though clearly the anger and frustration that we saw on our streets last week means that, even with the vast resources at the Government’s disposal, it clearly is not getting it right. It has been in its gift to splash the cash whenever its wants. There were tax breaks for big developers and burger barons in the last budget and more sectoral handouts this week, but where is the bailout package for PAYE workers to protect their incomes, to reduce their bills with targeted energy credits and measures to adopt solar and retrofitting at scale? Too many people simply cannot afford to even consider getting SEAI grants.”
“It is a central plank of addressing climate change in this country. It is a crucial funding source if we are ever going to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels. I take the point that it is for the Department of Social Protection but the Minister was not able to give me any figures for how much this deferral will cost. I would appreciate if the Minister's Department or the Department of Social Protection could get back to me on exactly how much it will cost. On an ongoing basis, will this be made up from general taxation? Are we giving up on the polluter-pays principle or is the Minister determined to ensure the carbon tax increases that have been legislated for will happen?”
“Is it realistic to think that the Government is going to implement it in October as people are filling up their tanks again?”
“There were any number of interventions that we felt that the Government could have made to alleviate and reduce the cost of fuel for hauliers, farmers and everyone else. It is very disappointing that the one climate-friendly measure here has been undermined, and that the Government has chosen to jettison this over other subsidies, direct payments and excise cuts. These are all measures that we want to support. Our fear here is that the Government has deferred this amount and it was scheduled to come on in May because, as it was put in the budget, the increase on home heating fuels will take place in May, after the winter heating season. It has now been deferred to the winter. The fear is over whether it will be deferred again.”
“Look at what the UK is doing with plug-in solar panels? Where is the necessary level of commitment when it comes to decarbonising our transport sector, electrifying our haulage fleet and making electric cars more affordable for low-income households? This most recent crisis is further proof of the case for moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels. If this Government will not do it for the good of the climate and our environment, it should do it for the good of our constituents - our people who are feeling the consequences of the dependence to which I refer in their pockets.”
“Fundamentally, the only way we are ever going to end this cycle of energy crisis after energy crisis is by ending our dependence on fossil fuels. We cannot perpetually tax cut our way out of them. I spoke last night of my deep disappointment and disgust that of the many different policy options open to the Government to alleviate the cost of energy, it has decided to jettison and dump carbon taxes and the polluter pays principle. I do not know how the Government has not gotten this yet. The only urgency we have seen from the Government from an energy perspective is the attempt to run roughshod over our planning laws in order to speed up the development of the proposed LNG terminal. Where is that level of commitment when it comes to renewables, developing offshore wind infrastructure and solar energy?”
“We have been told that developing an LNG facility would cost about €1 billion over the course of a decade, and we need an updated figure on that now from the Minister because, presumably, the Department had not accounted for price fluctuation of as much as 60% when it was doing the maths. We also need transparency from the Government regarding who is going to pay for that. It will not be large energy users like data centres. It will not be our biggest polluters. It will be ordinary households funding it through higher network tariffs and higher bills. They will be paying for it, as always. Opposition Members on the climate committee have called on the Government to halt this proposal and carry out a new energy security review. In light of the recent events, I reiterate that call in the strongest possible terms.”
“The Government and, in particular, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, talked a lot about energy security, but it is interesting that the approach they have landed on to achieve energy security is to import more LNG - a highly polluting fossil fuel - and drive a stake through our climate and planning Acts in the process. We will not reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by importing more fossil fuels. We will not ensure our security of supply by continuing to rely on volatile and increasingly intermittent fuels. Moreover, the European benchmark price for LNG soared by 60% in the days following the launch of Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran.”
“To put that in context, the Government package yesterday for the haulage and farming sectors was worth almost three times the amount it would cost to write off that debt. There was virtually nothing in that package for regular PAYE workers. As usual, they have been left high and dry by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents who remain in government. The events of recent weeks must serve as a reminder to the Government of the urgency with which we need to transition our economy away from its reliance on imported, intermittent and expensive fossil fuels and towards clean, indigenous renewable energy. Where is the urgency when it comes to developing our offshore wind capacity? We are being left vulnerable to an increasingly unstable geopolitical arena and it is ordinary households that are paying the price.”
“Time and again, workers here have been expected to absorb the consequences of global geopolitical upheaval through higher petrol prices, higher home heating costs and more expensive commutes. The eruption in frustration and anger that we saw on our streets last week was the result of years of what feels like a perpetual cost-of-living crisis. Unfortunately, the Government has offered next to nothing to households that are struggling to keep up with their energy bills. We know that there are 320,000 households in long-term arrears on their electricity bills. That is 320,000 people unable to cope with the mounting costs of keeping their home running. Figures released to me by the CRU recently have shown that the total value of debt held in arrears by these households is about €185 million.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as an tairiscint seo a chur chun cinn. Tacóidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis. One of the greatest risks we face as a country is our overdependence on fossil fuels. The climate crisis is existential. Even if we leave the fact of our dying planet to the side, the surge in prices over the past number of weeks due to Trump and Netanyahu's illegal wars has illustrated in no uncertain terms the financial costs associated with our continued dependence on oil and gas. Maybe we finally have an argument for a switch to renewables that even the climate sceptics will listen to now that their pockets are being impacted.”
“If the Government decides it is going to use general taxation to make up the shortfall to fund these climate measures, funding that has already been allocated by the now abandoned carbon tax increase, then it Government needs to be honest with every taxpayer in this country that it has given up on the polluter pays principle and everyone is now subsidising the continued use of polluting fossil fuels which have brought us to this point.”
“We need clarity from the Government now on whether this delay will amount to a cut in the budget for climate measures or whether the funding gap will be made up by general Exchequer funding. I am pleading with the Government to ensure this move on carbon tax does not adversely impact on our already meagre just transition funding. Anything less would be a final nail in the coffin of this Government's commitment to meaningful climate action.”
“I refer to measures like retrofitting grants that are helping people to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and reduce their bills, measures like ACRES and other agri-environmental schemes that are helping farmers to decarbonise and therefore protect them against exposure to fossil fuel crises like the one they are experiencing at present and measures like the just transition fund and poverty supports. The carbon tax is a crucial funding source for the very measures that will help to move us away from our dependence on fossil fuels and protect us against future energy crises. Funding from the carbon tax has already been allocated to all of the measures in budget 2026-----”
“I find it ironic that, on the week the Government has finally agreed to the long-held Healy-Rae and Sinn Féin policy of undermining the carbon tax, Sinn Féin chose to bring a motion of no confidence and Michael Healy-Rae chose to resign from Government. We need clarity from the Government on the impact this delay - if it is just a delay - is going to have on the funding of our vital climate measures the carbon tax pays for and is ring-fenced for.”
“These are people who have been crying out for help for years. The message that has been sent by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents is they will only listen to your concerns if you close the country down, and that is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set. I also raise the carbon tax delay. There are any number of interventions the Government could have made to reduce the cost of fuel for hauliers, farmers and everyone else. It is deeply disappointing and depressing that it is this climate-positive measure the Government has chosen to jettison over any other option to alleviate the energy price crisis we are facing. The Government could have done subsidies, direct payments or additional excise cuts.”
“Let us put this into context. Figures released to me by the CRU have shown the level of debt held in arrears on energy bills is about €185 million. The package of supports for the farming and haulage sectors announced on Sunday is worth almost three times the cost of giving an amnesty to those who cannot afford to keep up with their energy bills and are choosing heating and eating. Again, there is no doubt supports were required for these struggling sectors that rely on fuels like diesel and petrol, and we supported the Government’s Financial Resolutions because something is better than nothing and we understand the pressures facing those industries and ordinary people. However, the Government has decided once again to sideline ordinary workers and households who are barely able to keep their heads above water.”
“As my colleague, Deputy Nash, has said, the package of measures announced on Sunday has been designed to placate narrow sectoral interests and has abandoned PAYE workers in the process even though they are the ones who will end up footing the bill for it. There is little or nothing in this package for the low- and middle-income workers under increasing pressure from rising energy bills, skyrocketing grocery prices and escalating housing costs. The Labour Party has advocated for time-limited supports to keep exposed sectors running, such as the small farmers and hauliers who play a vital part in our economy and are feeling the pinch. This Government has some real explaining to do to the 320,000 households in long-term arrears on their electricity bills who were looking to this package in the hope some respite would be forthcoming.”
“I have received countless emails from constituents in Dublin South-West expressing their solidarity with those protesting and I found it telling that very few people contacted me who were annoyed at the protests despite the disruption. Despite some very questionable people leading the protests, fair-minded people can see there is a serious issue at the heart of these protests and blockades. Again, such is the desperation of so many people and such is the perpetual struggle with the cost of living that many workers and families joined the protests and there was a hope among many that the protests, as imperfect as they were, would lead to better outcomes for everyone. However, those regular PAYE workers have been left high and dry once again by this Government.”
“We value protest and we must protect it, and protests by their very nature must be disruptive, but it was the Government that allowed the blockades at critical infrastructure sites to develop and to fester through its inaction, its inflammatory rhetoric and its failure to get around the negotiating table with the representative bodies. Working people, small businesses, small farmers and so on are at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis and very much have just cause to protest. I think we all - or certainly those on this side of the House - felt a considerable degree of support for the protests among the general population.”
“It had a leadership in the Taoiseach and Tánaiste that only spoke down to protesters without hearing or understanding the genuine grievances at the heart of the protests. It had a justice Minister playing the big man and threatening to deploy the Defence Forces, which served only to inflame tensions even further. This is not how to listen to genuinely held pleas for help. This is not how to manage a crisis. Last week we saw critical infrastructure blocked and serious disruption caused to working people and families in Dublin and across the country.”
“While the Labour Party might disagree with others in the Opposition on the details, we have consistently and as a united bloc said the Government is not doing enough to support working people and vulnerable people who feel they are on the brink. Time and again, this Government has shown whose side it is on. It has consistently put corporate interests and big businesses above the urgent needs of ordinary hard-working people. Workers and households up and down the country feel abandoned by this Government. It should have responded far sooner to the protests and blockades last week. What we saw was a Government flailing. It was a Government with no principles or values guiding its actions. It was a Government without a clue what to do.”