Edward Timmins
Wicklow · Fine Gael · Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his response. We have interacted quite a bit at committee level on the same topic and will continue to do so. The starting point is a detailed, accurate and complete budget.”
“I will list some specific items, but the list is not exhaustive. Regarding funding given to quangos, can we review whether there is overlap between these organisations and if the Government is funding them to do the same things?”
“We should use data and KPIs to monitor the cost and outcomes of services, encourage the use of shared buildings and dispose of underused properties to reduce overheads and waste.”
“The 132 bus service is the only bus to Dublin for most of west Wicklow. A year ago, I was told by the National Transport Authority, NTA, that the frequency of the service would be doubling. Nothing has happened since then. How do different Departments and Government bodies talk to one other?”
“Never has it been so important to highlight the close relationship we have with the United States. This trail would promote our close ties. It is a perfect example of the use of soft power.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I am glad that progress is being made. The actions announced are the start of what will, hopefully, be a fully-fledged tourist route. I strongly believe that this proposal could be a positive North-South project.”
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“The delay in this being issued has resulted in 325 houses being refused planning permission in Blessington, County Wicklow, because the town population targets were too low as the new population targets were not issued by the framework. This is purely a red tape issue that has stopped this badly needed house building and there is a really simple fix. On a related matter, the Office of the Planning Regulator removed a headroom option in zoning. This means the amount of land zoned exactly matches the population targets. This does not take account of the fact that some zoned land will not be developed or will be refused planning permission. In the 2022 Wicklow development plan, we had the ludicrous situation whereby in many towns, land was dezoned to comply with this directive.”
“Another proposal states: “Revoke amendments to the Building Control Regulation 2014 that allow opt-outs from the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations (BCAR) for single dwellings”. If this were implemented, it would add about €15,000 to the cost of building a one-off rural house. This is an unnecessary cost. There is also a proposal to increase development levies on rural dwellings, which proposal I oppose. Both of these proposals would potentially reduce housebuilding, not increase it, which we are all trying to do. I commend the proposal to develop villages and nodes, but most villages have no wastewater treatment plants to allow for their expansion. The second point I raise relates to the national planning framework.”
“I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his new role. I congratulate the two Ministers and wish them the best of luck in what is clearly a very challenging role. After spending over 20 years on Wicklow County Council and having dealt with four county development plans, I would like to make a number of points on the Housing Commission report. Many aspects are good but some show a disconnect with realities on the ground. In this regard, I will deal with rural planning first. Page 186 of the report states, “Strengthen the environmental and planning thresholds for single housing in rural areas”. I totally disagree with this. The restrictions on planning are already very stringent, as I know too well.”
“My contribution will be short. I thank the Minister and I wish her all the very best in her new role. I have no doubt she will perform very well. I raise the specific issue of pharmacies and the receipts they give to customers. This is an issue I raised many years ago and brought a successful motion to Wicklow County Council on the matter. I request that all pharmacy receipts give a detailed breakdown of the medicines and any other costs. This should be the norm, as it is in any other retail purchase. It is in the interest of fair competition and in the interest of consumers who should see the detail of what they are paying. It is a simple request for transparency.”
“We must retain our values, remain responsible and not be sidetracked by populism. We absolutely need to take seriously the task of defending our country and our territorial waters, and not have such complete dependence on others. This will cost us, but we have no choice.”
“Europe now realises that it can no longer rely on the US and must plan to defend itself. This is a reality that cannot be denied. Europe did very little to stop the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, again relying on the US. The UN could do nothing. Russia saw this weakness. As Mr. Anders Rasmussen, former Secretary General of NATO, said this week, "Europe must come to terms with the fact that we are not only existentially vulnerable but also seemingly alone." Russia longs for a return to the days when it controlled eastern and central Europe, and that was not so long ago. It could happen again. At this stage, what Ireland can do is limited - we are a small country - but we need to re-establish our reputation as an honest broker in international matters. We need to be steadfast in our defence of democracy and the rule of law.”
“I want to raise a specific issue with regard to the war in Ukraine, that is, the issue of Ukrainian children being held prisoner in Russia. A report by researchers at Yale University gives a detailed account of Russia's child deportation campaign. There is a network of 43 Russian facilities to which Ukrainian children have been moved since February 2022. Many of the camps are in Crimea and southern Russia, close to Ukraine. The researchers say that at least 6,000 children have been transferred to the camps, but the figure is probably far higher. I want to highlight this issue. On a broader level, we must be in no doubt what we are dealing with regarding Russia. It invaded Crimea in 2014 and we accepted it. It invaded eastern Ukraine in 2022 and it was only limited because the US and Europe united. This arrangement is now in question.”
“I raise a specific issue here today on the oversight of the various boards that are responsible for managing the spending of public money. We all know about the waste of public money that is making the headlines. Many are expressing outrage, but we are not hearing many solutions. We need to come up with changes and I offer one here today. I have reviewed many State boards and I am struck by the lack of people on these boards who have accountancy, cost control or audit qualifications and experience. Is it any wonder then that we have poor oversight in terms of expenditure? I propose to the Taoiseach that all State-funded boards include at least one member with these qualifications and experience. This would be one small step in reducing the amount of uncontrolled spending we read about every other week.”
“I have a totally new proposal here today. It is to develop an American Presidents' trail, linking all the ancestral homes of US Presidents. There have been a huge number of US Presidents whose ancestors came from this island, North and South. It would also be a way of linking Northern Ireland with southern Ireland in a cohesive way through tourism. As I say, many US Presidents have their ancestral homes here. This is an opportunity and it could be something along the lines of the Wild Atlantic Way that would develop tourism, clearly aimed primarily at American tourists but other tourists as well. It would be a huge attraction for US visitors, especially those with Irish links.”
“There is a restriction on that which I am sure the Ceann Comhairle is aware of herself. On rural planning, the national planning framework needs to be updated because it has been used to prevent rural planning, especially where the phrase "areas under urban pressure" has been used. The 25 recommendations of the Seanad review committee on local government, published earlier this year, need to be implemented. We have among the weakest local government in the whole of Europe. Digitalisation needs to be developed. I will finish with tourism, it will only take 20 seconds. I have a new proposal here-----”
“We need increased investment in rail and light rail, in particular extra tracks country wide, with DART extensions to Wicklow and a Luas to Blessington - which I successfully inserted in the Wicklow development plan. Extra train carriages are a priority. On agriculture, we need to devise a new strategy to eradicate TB. On housing supply, the national planning framework needs to be finalised and is preventing much-needed house building. It is based on outdated population targets. Recently, in Blessington, only 20 miles from where we are standing here, a planning application for 335 houses was refused because the national planning framework was not up to date. We need to allow headroom in our zoning - that headroom was removed by the planning regulator - because not all land that is zoned will actually ever be practically developed.”
“I have an example of a person, an elderly man, who is on a non-contributory old age pension. He owns approximately ten acres of land and his pension was cut from €280 down to €140 and he is struggling to live on it. This needs to be updated. We need increased investment in national roads following the reductions in recent years that have not kept pace with inflation. Effectively, there have been real reductions in investment in national roads. In particular in my own county of Wicklow, we need the upgrade of the N81 - the only national road out of Dublin that has never been upgraded - and the N11, which has horrendous traffic jams which I hear about every single day.”
“On taxes, I welcome that we plan to index tax bands, thresholds and credits annually because if we do not do that, we effectively have stealth taxes every year. We also need to index the calculation of capital gains tax. As things stand, this is actually a stealth tax every year that people are probably not fully aware of. The fair deal scheme has flaws in it and I would like to see those addressed. We need to review the operation where land assets transferred within five years have no time limit and are 100% lost after 14 years. Means testing of State benefits has not been updated. We need to review the calculation of means testing social welfare benefits. The current means test calculation, based on assets, has not been updated for many years and this is proving very penal.”
“We should also separately develop a long-term plan for Ireland that looks at infrastructure development over several decades and not just for five years, particularly in areas of health and education. Other points I will make in relation to the programme for Government are on cost control. We need to implement new approaches to controlling costs in all aspects of public services expenditure, both capital and revenue. Support for small businesses needs to be a critical element of this and we should implement, as far as possible, the proposal contained in the Supporting SMEs position paper, published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in May 2024 and the January 2024 paper entitled Reducing Red Tape. In particular, the area of access to lending by SMEs needs to be addressed. I know from first-hand experience this is a real challenge.”
“I am sure I will probably echo some of the sentiments expressed by Deputy Lahart. At the end of his contribution, he referred to something with which I will start, namely that the programme for Government is laudable and I commend it. However, it is based on the premise that we continue as a prosperous country and continue to collect taxes, primarily from foreign multinationals. For example, out of the approximately 2.6 million people working in this country, about 350,000 work for multinationals. More than 50% of all of the taxes collected in this country come from multinationals. Corporation tax comprises approximately 87%. VAT, PAYE and PRSI exceed 50% of all of the tax take. It is, therefore, critical that we protect those jobs and industries, otherwise the programme for Government will fall apart.”
“A lot of people pull down the radios, get batteries and get them working. The information on the radio from the ESB could have been better. All the ESB communication mechanisms need to be improved. The other area that can make for good communication is local and national newspapers that come out on a daily basis. The ESB did fantastic work with great people who worked overtime. I know that myself, I saw it all over the place. They just need to communicate their message better to the public.”
“I actually met with senior ESB people across the road in Buswells Hotel in October when they made a presentation to Deputies from County Wicklow because there had been a considerable number of outages last summer all over the county. I learned from this that the main issue was that there was a serious issue with poor tree maintenance. That was the main cause of many of the problems. It is easy to be wise after the event, but this storm was much worse because tree maintenance was not at the standard it should have been. That is a lesson that has to be learned. I am sure the ESB knows it a lot better than I do, but it needs to be put out there. The second point is around communication. Obviously, phones, TVs and so on do not work during the power outages, but there are other methods of communication.”
“First, I pay tribute to the people of County Wicklow who elected me here. I thank them for placing their trust in me. Second, I would like to say that I want to work with the other three Wicklow TDs - Deputy Whitmore has just stepped out of the Chamber - for the betterment of County Wicklow. Third, and probably more importantly, I want to work with every Deputy in this House for the betterment of this country. I am happy to work with everyone to improve the quality of life for the citizens of this country. I will be brief in my contribution on the power outages because I do not want to repeat what has been said already. I will say a couple of things, however, the first of which is on the whole area of tree maintenance.”
“It is a great honour to be elected to represent the wonderful people of County Wicklow. I am very grateful to them for the trust they have put in me. I wish to raise the lack of funding for national roads in recent years. This has impacted the people of Wicklow, which is a commuter county. The N81 is one of the most dangerous roads in the country, as has been proven in several studies. The N81 is the only national road coming out of Dublin that has not been upgraded. It is a death trap. A preferred route was picked but it has now been shelved. The new programme for the N11-M11 improvement scheme was shelved in October 2022. That needs to be re-enacted. Finally, the commuter train to Wicklow is crowded. It needs carriages and more trains. It is part of the programme for Government, which promises new roads and enhanced rail services.”