Ivana Bacik
Dublin Bay South · Labour Party · Ireland
“Just today I and other local representatives got an email from the owner of two restaurants in Dublin city centre about this issue. The Minister of State’s brief includes not only the circular economy but also small business.”
“The Bill Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party are proposing is not one we suggest is a silver bullet or a panacea but it offers one small, constructive mechanism to address the dysfunction in waste services.”
“In Dublin Bay South we have superb Tidy Towns organisations that I am proud to work with from Ringsend and Sandymount across to Portobello in my area to Rathgar, Rathmines, Terenure, Donnybrook and Ballsbridge. We see really important work being done by Tidy Towns organisations.”
“The owner says he no longer has space to accommodate additional recycling bins, cannot leave recyclable waste out for collection and cannot leave flattened cardboard outside for collection. Private waste companies must send a vehicle to collect this directly from premises. This is costly, inefficient and unnecessary.”
“I do not mean just in Dublin, though Deputy Sherlock and I are focusing on Dublin and most of the TDs present are Dublin ones, as clearly this has ramifications across the country and the dissatisfaction and the concerns Deputy Sherlock’s constituents and mine are expressing are ones felt across the board.”
“We want to see a move, as Deputy Sherlock has it in the Bill, from competition in the market to competition for the market and this Bill would represent an important positive step on that journey to quality public services provided by the State and to remunicipalisation. Deputy Sherlock has set out the detailed provisions in the Bill.”
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“I welcome a group of transition year students who are with me today into the Gallery. They are aspiring TDs and are very welcome. This Government is budgeting like there is no tomorrow. It seems that prudent Paschal was actually profligate Paschal. Mr. Donohoe goes to Washington and leaves behind an overspend climbing towards €4 billion in 2025. In his second week on the job, the Tánaiste has had a rap on the knuckles from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. IFAC has once again pointed out what is plain for all to see. The Government’s budget is a work of fiction. The Taoiseach has just said that the Government is competent on the economy, but it does not even have a fiscal plan beyond next year. Were the Taoiseach a CEO coming before a board of directors, it is frankly hard to see how he would be allowed to continue in his role.”
“In France today, the French Government is moving in court to suspend the Shein website - this online shopping platform's website - because of the sale and advertisement of these awful objects that are perpetuating this sexist attitude towards women and perpetuating a culture where we cannot have the zero tolerance we all want to achieve.”
“Today, we mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. We need to commend the bravery of all those women who have come forward and who have made changes and advocated for change, from Lavinia Kerwick to Natasha O'Brien and so many more. I acknowledge the progress that has been made on the introduction of Coco's law, the offence of coercive control and Cuan, the new agency, but I also recognise how much more there is to do in terms of lack of refuges and more legislative change. I want to speak about something that came out at the weekend. We are all conscious that we cannot have zero tolerance of violence against women while we are normalising attitudes that facilitate or tolerate sexist abuse. We saw the Shein website advertising childlike sex dolls online.”
“The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, was established some time ago. We supported that in opposition, but we are still seeing such delay in offshore development. In the meantime, this is about fairness. It is about reshaping priorities so that those who have profited most from the crisis will pay their share rather than seeing the burden of energy costs pushed back on working people and on families and households. The Labour Party has put forward a series of supports and is simply asking the Government to adopt them.”
“I would certainly like to hear more on that from the Minister, but on the Taoiseach's lack of presence here, of course he must represent the country abroad, but we had understood he would be here today and it is a common courtesy that we would be notified in advance of Leaders' Questions when he is not taking them. On the Minister's response, we absolutely support retrofitting. In fact, what we in the Labour Party have been critical of is the delay in the roll-out of affordable retrofitting. Around the country, people are frustrated at the delay on retrofitting, missed targets on retrofitting and a lack of affordability, just as people are frustrated about the delay in the roll-out of renewables. We want to see renewable capacity ramped up at great scale. All of us are frustrated at the delays.”
“In the Minister's previous response, he talked about a report due in 2026, but in a cost-of-living crisis, people need protection now against corporate greed. Labour has called on the Government to force supermarket giants to publish profits, yet the Government has refused to do so. It has refused to use its legal powers to control energy prices. The Government has spoken about meeting with energy companies in September, but what has come of that? Where are the promised hardship funds? Where are the promised supports for households? All we saw was one-off measures stripped away in the last budget in the service of VAT cuts for fast food giants. People are at the pin of their collars and the Government needs to take on these corporates. Will the Government finally tackle profiteering in energy prices, in groceries and in housing?”
“The Minister just spoke about Ireland's energy bills compared with our European counterparts. Our energy bills are still markedly higher. The driver of those prices is not war; it is corporate greed. We see that elsewhere too with supermarkets hiking their prices at the tills, rents and mortgages climbing, and people's personal finances under attack from all angles, having less and less left over at the end of each month - less for Christmas, car repairs, a burst pipe or any unforeseen eventualities. What is most galling is the sense that things are much worse than they could be because the Government could be doing more. The Government has given a message to hang in there but is offering no evidence that its policies are anything worth waiting for.”
“People simply have no more to give, as I know the Minister will be aware. Before this cold snap hit, 300,000 people were already in arrears on their electricity bills. The Government has offered nothing to help reduce household costs or to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. I know the Minister has just said of course we need to reduce reliance fossil fuels but the Government is way behind on retrofitting targets and so carbon emissions continue to rise. People living in draughty homes have no option but to rely on fuels that are unsustainable both for our planet and for household finances. It is three and a half years since Russia's horrific onslaught on Ukraine but now in 2025 energy providers are hiding behind what is a geopolitical tragedy to justify price hikes that cannot be explained by supply costs.”
“Tá an Taoiseach as láthair, it seems. It is a nice surprise to see the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, today. Temperatures are dropping rapidly as winter approaches. Household heating bills are rising just as fast. One million households across Ireland use oil for home heating, representing 38.9% of all households. The price of their bills has rocketed up by 9% in just one month. On its own, that would squeeze any household but that spike comes on top of a barrage of other price hikes. Energia, SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Éireann and Flogas have all put up their prices again. These are highly profitable energy companies doing very well, some would say obscenely well, while bill payers face an impossible choice to freeze or to feel the squeeze, trying to make ends meet this winter.”
“On the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, there are huge concerns about the damage it risks to our climate commitments and the livelihoods of farmers and, of course, about the well-documented potential for abuses of workers and human rights. Did the Taoiseach make opposition on these grounds clear at the European Council? Is the Government working with like-minded member states to ensure that this deal does not proceed at this late stage?”
“We need to see decisive measures to accompany that to expand collective bargaining coverage and improve rights for those who are members of unions. We welcome the fact the Government finally published its collective bargaining action plan earlier this month, but the Government will be judged by the concrete actions it takes. Here in Ireland, just four in ten workers are covered by collective agreements. This is far below the EU average and just half the 80% benchmark required by the directive. What concrete steps will the Government be taking to ensure we close the gap to the threshold and see that directive implemented in full?”
“It is instructive that the Government did not see fit to oppose the Opposition motion that was passed earlier in this House, and in doing so, it has signed up again to passage of the Bill. We in the Opposition will continue to hold the Government to account on that. On workers' rights and the adequate minimum wage directive, just last week, the European Court of Justice issued its judgment upholding the EU directive. This was nothing short of a landmark moment for workers' rights and I welcome it. Fair pay is at the heart of the European social model, the model that we, the S&D group and the Party of European Socialists have been pushing for. We have also been pushing for formal, statutory recognition of collective bargaining.”
“She is pushing hard at EU level for change on climate. In the Taoiseach’s speech to us earlier, he spoke about action at EU level on Israel and Palestine. I reiterate how disappointed most people in Ireland were at the lack of action taken by the EU to ensure accountability by Israel for its brutal genocide on the people of Gaza. There are clear steps the EU can and should take, even at this late stage, such as the suspension in full of the EU-Israel association agreement, tougher trade sanctions and a complete arms embargo, in particular. In Ireland, of course, we can and should be passing the occupied territories Bill in full to cover trade and services by Christmas.”
“We have called for a common housing policy, just as we have a Common Agricultural Policy. We must now see Europe-wide action to tackle housing and ensure better levels of state intervention. We must also work together across the EU on climate. COP talks under way in Brazil have really illustrated the strength of the EU as a bloc pushing for stronger action on climate. It is not just stronger action to tackle climate change for its own sake, because through a just transition we can also see a new green industrial revolution and the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs through the roll-out of wind energy and solar power through emerging technologies. I welcome the appointment of a socialist commissioner, Teresa Ribera, who is now the Commissioner for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.”
“I attended the Party of European Socialists' summit in Amsterdam just last month, where we developed policies and a programme for change, in particular focusing on those issues of housing and climate. On housing, we were really glad following the last European elections to see the Party of European Socialists and S&D group in the parliament focus on seeking action at Europe-wide level to tackle the housing crisis. There is now a special committee on housing, and Aodhán is the S&D group rapporteur on that. For the first time, there is now a housing Commissioner at EU level, which the Minister is well-aware of, in Dan Jørgensen, the Commissioner for energy and housing. A key priority is to ensure we can see reform of state aid rules in order that homes can be built at the scale so badly needed through the deployment of state investment.”
“As others have done, I wish to utter words of condemnation of Russia as we see its brutal escalation of its war on Ukraine. In last night's horrific attack there were 25 casualties, as we are hearing. This is yet another indication of Russia's brutality, following on from what is going to be four years next February since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All of us stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Since we elected our new MEP for Labour last summer, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, the Labour Party has been working ever more closely through the Party of European Socialists with our European allies on a programme for change across Europe, and in particular on issues around housing, climate action and our vision for a social Europe.”
“I know all of us hear from families who have been told their child requires surgery, yet are given no date, no confirmation of treatment and no offer of treatment abroad. We also need to hear whether further protected disclosures are being made and what is to happen to children on waiting lists now.”
“The Labour Party certainly welcomes the fact that the Minister for Health has brought a memo to the Cabinet to establish a statutory inquiry into care for children with scoliosis and spina bifida. Again, I express my deepest sympathies to Gillian and Stephen and the family of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who so tragically died. All of us are concerned to ensure that the newly announced inquiry will be comprehensive and effective in getting to the root of the issues here. As my colleague, Deputy Sherlock, has said, a twin-track approach is needed, first to address the disgraceful failures in respect of children like Harvey, and, second to get a handle on what is continuing to happen for children in the system today.”
“He did not acknowledge the considerable disquiet expressed by the Irish Planning Institute in July when he sought to bring them forward. He did not acknowledge that the institute said it was not convinced the announced changes would bring down development costs or accelerate housing delivery, just as Government's misjudged VAT cut is based on no evidence that there will be any closure of the viability gap or any increase in the building of apartments or the supply of homes that communities need. The Taoiseach knows this.”
“I reject the Taoiseach's misrepresentations of what I said. He is trying to construct a false narrative. Labour has always been constructive from Opposition. Indeed, we supported the Land Development Agency, just as we support the tenant in situ scheme. As the Taoiseach knows, in our manifesto we set out clear plans for housing to ramp up the Land Development Agency to deliver homes at scale and have a State-led approach, of course recognising a role for the private sector but recognising also that the State must take on a much larger role in delivery of homes. I notice the Taoiseach did not mention the revised apartment standards.”
“The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste attacked me and the Labour Party's housing spokesperson, Deputy Conor Sheehan, and accused our party of weaponising the courts because our councillor, Darragh Moriarty, was one of the councillors involved. The Government then backed down in the courts on Monday of this week. It was a dramatic climbdown. This was a significant development that shows that there is no strategy and that no strategy underlies this change. It just an admission of failure. Does the Taoiseach admit that the Government's housing policies are failing, its attempt to reduce apartment standards has failed and its new housing plan is a further admission of failure?”
“Relaxing minimum housing standards was not in Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael's election manifestos last year That is no wonder because if it was, they would have spent the election campaign explaining why people should look for a return to shoe boxes and grotty bedsits. They would have faced the same critique they are getting now from the Irish Planning Institute. Instead of announcing it, the two parties kept it quiet and ran on falsely inflated home building projections. When the Government leaked those plans on a Sunday last July, the Cabinet agreed it by the following Tuesday and councillors justifiably brought a legal challenge to its hasty change. The Government lashed out.”
“There is nothing wrong with trying new things and, indeed, each week the Labour Party and others urge the Government to change its housing policies, but not like this because the Government tried this move before and it was a disaster then. If we cast our minds back to 2018, the then Fine Gael housing Minister, Eoghan Murphy, introduced similar plans to reduce standards and a regulatory mess ensued. Indeed, it was a mess that forced one of his successors, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to amend apartment design rules again. Why does the Government opt to repeat the mistakes of the past and, worse, to do more than merely repeating them? The current Minister for housing, Deputy Browne has sought to introduce a wrong-headed change without the required strategic environmental assessment.”
“Worst of all, the Taoiseach's Government has normalised the eviction of children, at a time more than 5,000 children are without a home. This a national disgrace and the Government's housing plan is a disgrace. People can see the Government has no real plan for housing. It is forming policy on the hoof, so it is no wonder its policies do not work. Let us take its recent plans to rip up minimum apartment standards and gut planning rules less than a year after the then Minister for housing, Deputy O'Brien, passed what he called "a comprehensive planning law". On a random Sunday last July, the Government leaked to the papers new plans to make homes smaller by drastically cutting planning standards.”
“The Government finally published its long overdue housing plan last week. After all the anticipation, what it delivered was nothing more than old milk in new bottles. There was nothing new on affordable homeownership, no clarity on what new powers the Land Development Agency will have and no ambition on social housing. It is just an open door for speculators and land hoarders. Worse again, the Government has abandoned annual targets for new home building. Could there be a more blatant admission of failure than that? The Government has also essentially confessed to the locked-out generation that it has truly run out of ideas, simply telling them to hang in there while removing the very tools needed to measure progress. It does not take a genius to understand why. When you scrap metrics, you scrap accountability.”
“It is a so-called new housing plan that was nothing more than old milk in new bottles and so little hope for those locked out of homeownership. A locked-out generation is being told to hang in there at the same time they see annual housing targets simply removed from the plan and at a time we see 5,000 children in homelessness, which is a national disgrace. We need more than a change of personnel. We need a change of government. We need a left-led government because only such a government can deliver the hope and security families, households and communities around the country so badly need and are so badly looking for. We wish the individual Ministers well in their new roles but we cannot have hope they will offer any sort of security for the future with their Government.”
“Changing the names on the doors in Government Buildings will not provide that security or hope for the future. The Taoiseach's coalition, it seems, will continue to govern with an approach that smacks of more of the same. Maybe the Minister, Deputy McEntee, will finally pass the occupied territories Bill in full by Christmas, as we in opposition have been pressing for the Government to do. Maybe the Minister, Deputy Naughton, will address the scandal of the thousands of children waiting for assessments of need and for school places, the lack of places for autism services and all of those issues that Cara Darmody and others have been bringing up so frequently. What we saw last week in the housing plan was more of the same.”
“In her campaign, she united the parties of the left and other parties comprising people who see the need for an alternative vision and for an active State that can provide for those in need, that can build homes, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and provide public services and those climate action measures that seem to have slipped off this Government's agenda but are so patently necessary to secure the future for our children and grandchildren. This resignation takes place at a very challenging time. There is ongoing uncertainty with Trump's tariffs and trade tantrums, and a winter of rising bills and stagnating wages ahead of us. That is why we need a strong and secure programme for change, a programme that will guarantee greater security to households and secure lives and livelihoods.”
“We saw that in the October budget, which was a gift to burger barons and big builders, as Deputy Nash said, with reckless tax cuts, massive giveaways to corporate chains and nothing for working families. We need an alternative politics that delivers massive State-led investment. The Labour Party mission is for an active State. That is why we believe we need a left-led Government. We saw a real appetite for that sort of alternative politics and alternative Ireland in the landslide win, just two and a half weeks ago, by Catherine Connolly in the presidential election.”
“This is a Government of failure that has no answers. It had no answers from its inception and it has no answers now. A lastminute.com change of personnel does not provide new answers. The Government is a conservative coalition cobbled together in three parts: two Civil War enemies, uneasily united and relics of a bygone era, with a third leg made up of the so-called Independents, the western alliance, and a Lowry leg of this wobbly stool uneasily united by Deputy Michael Lowry, a man found to be corrupt by a tribunal and who literally gave two fingers to the Dáil. This reshuffle brings back all those rather bad memories for all of us of that unedifying spectacle. The Government represents the politics of the past, which cannot offer hope to hard-pressed households.”
“Hat-trick. I am doing a Troy Parrott. On a serious note, insecurity and instability now lie at the heart of the financial engine of the State and at the heart of this Government in general. That matters because a government that lacks stability cannot offer hope. All of us feel the need for hope among the people and the communities we represent - people who feel the reality of the housing crisis or the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis, people with less money in their bank accounts at the end of the week or the month, with grocery and energy bills, insurance, rent and mortgage costs rising. Thousands of families are being driven into debt. Another generation of young adults face emigration. Thousands of children are on waiting lists. Some 300,000 households are in arrears on electricity bills.”
“There is no other way to describe so sudden a departure of such a senior Cabinet member less than a year after Government formation. It is a clear expression of lack of confidence. It demonstrates a crisis of confidence. Earlier this year, I remarked that the Taoiseach has become a very tetchy Taoiseach. I think he is now being joined by a rather twitchy Tánaiste and a fleeing finance Minister.”
“Similarly, on a personal level, I send my best wishes to the newly reshuffled Ministers, Deputies Harris and McEntee, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton and the Ministers of State, Deputies Higgins and Feighan on their elevation. I welcome the fact that we will now see more women in Cabinet. I welcome the fact that for the first time in Irish history, we are going to have a woman in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That is very welcome. However, Deputy Donohoe's announcement today indicates an abject lack of direction from Government. After less than a year in office, it shows the Government has no coherent programme of policies for the future; indeed, it seems the Taoiseach and the members of Government have no confidence, not even in themselves.”
“Go raibh maith agat. I am sharing time with our finance spokesperson, Deputy Ged Nash. At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the utterly tragic news from Louth at the weekend. Five young lives were lost horrifically on our roads. I express my deepest sympathies to their families and communities on behalf of the Labour Party. Today's shock announcement by the outgoing Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe - I think the Tánaiste used the word "shock" and while certainly it is a shock to us, it clearly was to him as well - underscores the crisis at the heart of this Government. On a personal level and on behalf of the Labour Party, I wish Deputy Donohoe very well in his new role. I wish him and his family well as he goes to the World Bank. I hope he will still find the time to continue writing his book reviews.”
“In that context, will the Minister to commit Ireland to being a climate leader within the EU? As the Minister for infrastructure, what are his plans to ensure that key public services will make life better for people-----”
“I too acknowledge the workers in the Gallery. This morning EU climate ministers agreed to reduce carbon emissions by between 85% and 90% by 2040, following marathon negotiations in advance of the COP30 summit. Ministers adopted a legally binding target for cutting emissions by 85% by 2040. On paper and in principle, it is positive to see this agreement reached, but the deal also mandates that another 5% reduction be achieved by outsourcing pollution cuts abroad through the purchase of international carbon credits. That get-out clause suggests that EU states will continue to believe that we can buy our way out of climate change and outsource our obligations to countries that have less. This is not so positive, especially as we are still miles off our target of a 51% reduction by 2030.”
“We are not the party of negativity, as the Minister suggests. Rather, we seek to ensure decent homes for people. I make no apology for seeking decent homes and decent housing standards as our councillors are consistently doing across the country. The Government needs to take responsibility for the failure and the failure in particular to adopt the radical reset that housing policy requires.”
“I do not know where to start in coming back to the Minister on his response. We all know Government housing policy has abjectly failed. The Government failed to deliver homes or meet its own targets. We saw vastly elevated and false targets last year, and thousands of people in homelessness. It is absolutely shocking to see so many children in particular without a home in an Ireland that is wealthy, where the money is there to make the changes that are needed. Instead of taking responsibility for Government policy, the Minister and his colleagues consistently choose to attack Opposition parties. The Labour Party put forward carefully costed and considered proposals. Unlike any other Opposition party, we chose not to narrow the tax base. We were realistic and constructive in our proposals.”
“Yesterday’s report should increase the Government’s ambition, not temper its expectations. Will the Government now correct its course and deliver a truly ambitious plan to build homes and adopt that radical reset on housing?”
“This is message is coming not just from those of us on the left, like Mamdani, but also from people like Stripe’s John Collison who asked at the weekend, “Why can’t Ireland just do things? It’s not for want of money.” I do not agree with all of his points, but he is right to say that Ministers have more powers to change things than they actually use. So, why does the Minister not step up? In the Government’s recent budget, it could have taken on the constructive proposals that we in the Labour Party put forward to ensure investment in affordable homes and decent public services. Instead, it chose to reward burger barons and big builders. It chose to make an evidence-free VAT cut, costing €681 million per year, and not to invest in tackling the housing crisis or the crisis in healthcare and childcare.”
“My message to the Minister today is this: it would be utterly bizarre and, indeed, irresponsible for the Government to take as inevitable the projection that the housing crisis will continue for another decade or more. Regrettably, the Government has taken this bizarre approach for some time because in the face of successive damning reports about the lack of public investment by the Government, it has acted as if it has no power to change outcomes. The Minister and his Cabinet colleagues are not bystanders. They need to let go of neoliberal ideology, step up and show some ambition and urgency. As the Government’s own Housing Commission recommended, a radical reset of housing policy is needed and the Government needs to accept that we can fix things with political action.”
“The report also issues a stark warning about the high cost to us all due to the Government’s failure to invest in climate action measures. The Tánaiste might like to take particular note of the report’s finding that “continued inward migration will be vital to maintain growth in the labour force.” So much for his outrageous dog whistle comment last week that there are too many people coming here. As I pointed out to the Minister yesterday, this report confirms that we need people to come here to share their skills with us to run our schools, cafés, crèches, care homes and hospitals and to build the homes we need. The report also tells us that the window of opportunity is closing when it comes to investing in infrastructure.”
“First, I want to say fáilte ar ais and welcome back to Deputy Boyd Barrett. I never thought I would say this, but I have missed his voice in my left ear across the aisle. It is great to see him back. I acknowledge the wonderful electoral victories against Trump in the US overnight. The stunning win by Zohran Mamdani in New York, in particular, proves that voters want a message of hope. That takes me neatly on to my question. Yesterday, the Government published Future Forty, a long-term economic assessment of Ireland’s outlook conducted by the Department of Finance. It projects that the housing disaster will continue for at least another 15 to 20 years, which is a truly grim analysis for every generation in this State.”
“These are not radical ideas; they are the natural continuation of what health experts, families and communities affected have been saying for decades. Our healthcare system already embraces elements of harm reduction, so we need to move our criminal justice system. On the one hand, the State acknowledges the illness of addiction but on the other hand endorses sending people to prisons where drug use is rife. We are telling people to use safely on the one hand and then criminalising them for doing so on the other. Decriminalisation is about saving lives. The Government’s response was that we should wait. We have waited long enough. It is time to act on the evidence and change the law; healthcare, not handcuffs.”
“Yet, more and more people are seeking treatment for problem drug use, new synthetic substances are emerging and the 2024 European Drug Report shows Ireland’s rate of drug deaths is among the very highest in the EU. We need change and we need an evidence-based policy. We need to look at other countries like Portugal where they redirected users from the courts to the health services and reduced overdose deaths. We need to look at the blueprint for reform offered in this motion. We call for a dedicated Cabinet committee on drugs use, for a comprehensive health-led response to possession and, crucially, for the decriminalisation of people found with drugs for personal use through repeal of section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1997. We want to see funding for harm-reduction services and genuine involvement of people with lived experience.”
“I represented people who were charged and prosecuted for possession of small quantities of drugs. That experience convinced me our system is broken. People are stigmatised and not supported through addiction and people's lives have been changed irrevocably by criminalisation and yet the last major policy breakthrough was brought about when Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was Minister and who successfully legislated for safe consumption areas. The long-promised first medically supervised injecting centre finally opened in December 2024 in Dublin, nearly a decade after Aodhán’s initiative. However, as our new motion notes, no further progress has been made on additional safe consumption spaces or on a change in policy.”
“I commend Deputy Marie Sherlock on proposing this important motion and pay tribute to our colleague, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP, who has led on decriminalisation for so long. I welcome campaigners and students to the Public Gallery and I thank them for their support on this. It is three years since Labour brought forward a motion on decriminalisation in November 2022. The Government’s response then was to give it time. It has had lots of time – three years. In that time, 30,000 people will have been arrested for personal drug use. We have seen thousands of overdoses, hundreds of deaths and families, communities and individuals behind those figures, trapped in cycles of addiction and stigma. I practised as a criminal defence barrister for many years.”
“Indeed, the interim report of the national energy affordability task force recommended that the regulator conduct a probe on price gouging following the patent failure of providers to pass on cuts in wholesale costs to hard-pressed consumers. The Government could also threaten greed-driven firms with a levy on their profits if they do not cut prices.”
“About 300,000 households are behind on their electricity bills and household electricity bills have jumped by more than €320 in a year. My colleague Deputy Ahern has been working hard to stop the greed that is driving this awful inflation and really making things so difficult for so many struggling households. Deputy Ahern has called on the Government to use the EU electricity and gas directives to introduce price regulation in these exceptional circumstances, namely, the complete failure of competition in the energy sector and the failure to protect vulnerable customers. There are other mechanisms. Section 10 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 allows the Minister to issue policy directions to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.”
“That is what we all know to be the case, so why is there a focus in Government rhetoric on scapegoating those who come here seeking asylum and somehow conflating them with the vast majority of migrants, who come by different means entirely? Just this week, the Cabinet has agreed a mean-spirited rent payment for people who have been fleeing Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine. It is not a revenue-raising measure; rather, Fine Gael sources have admitted, it is designed to disincentivise people fleeing war from coming here. Could we have a fact-based information campaign to provide an evidence basis for the debate on migration, please?”