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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“The Taoiseach and his Government colleagues must have known about the missed targets and this projection because they have seen so many public bodies already telling them about Government failure on this, for example, the SEAI and the EPA. While an ignorant failure of policy could be forgiven, this is a conscious failure of political will. There is no accountability for the Government's failure either. Last week, the Taoiseach told the House that he had noticed, I think from the Opposition, a "deliberate attempt" to present this Government as rowing back on climate change. The Taoiseach said there had been no resiling by this Government from climate action but, in fact, has there not been a clear rowing back from the position on climate taken by the previous Government, of which the Green Party was a member?”
“I want to raise the climate crisis with the Taoiseach. Today, we see the devastating report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council. They tell us that on its current trajectory, the Government will clearly miss our legally binding 2030 climate targets. We all know the consequences of that failure will be enormous. That is set out in the report: €26 billion in fines; and the really serious impact upon generations to come who will see a future stolen from them, generations who rely on us to take the necessary actions now to cut our emissions, tackle climate change and protect our biodiversity. The report is significant but it is not news.”
“All five of the Opposition leaders reached out to him and the Taoiseach yesterday to seek a meeting in order that we can bring calm heads to bear on resolving the issue in a measured way. I am disappointed to hear the Tánaiste say he will not meet us and I hope he will rethink this.”
“I welcome the news that the Taoiseach will be meeting Ukraine's President Zelenskyy today. It is very important that we reaffirm our solidarity with Ukraine, particularly at a time when US President Trump is intent on tearing up the international rules-based order with his appalling positions on Ukraine and Gaza. Recently, President Trump announced that he is intent on imposing a 25% tariff on goods imported from the EU. In the spirit of mutual co-operation and engagement, I ask that the Tánaiste, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, brief Opposition leaders on the risk assessment for Ireland and for jobs here of this proposal to impose these outrageous tariffs. I was very disappointed to hear of the Tánaiste's flat refusal or denial of any intent to meet Opposition leaders on the issues around Standing Order reform.”
“I am very disappointed by the Taoiseach's response because he did not address the substantive points I raised about the need to ensure a State-led response to the crisis in apartment financing. Instead, he engaged in dismissing Labour Party proposals. At least the previous housing Minister, Deputy O'Brien, accepted that we offered constructive opposition on housing in this House.”
“Will the Taoiseach consider deploying these funds, through the Housing Finance Agency, the strategic investment fund and other State funding vehicles, to deliver the homes and apartments that our communities so badly need?”
“The market has failed and ordinary workers and renters cannot bear the level of rents that speculators would want. Apartments constitute vital strategic infrastructure, as well as vital homes for our communities. Alongside our plan to scale up the Land Development Agency, the Labour Party proposes several State-led solutions to the apartment financing crisis. Here is one. With €140 billion sitting on deposit in overnight and demand accounts in our banks, why are we not offering people a State-backed solidarity bond to finance housing? At the same time, the State is salting away €4 billion a year into the Future Ireland Fund.”
“That is what was so dishonest about Fianna Fáil's general election campaign on housing. Fianna Fáil misled us all on the figures for housing completions, continuously promising 40,000 new builds last year when the true figure was 10,000 less than that. Fianna Fáil did not make proposals for tax breaks for developers until after the election, and did not talk about rent increases or the growing crisis in apartment financing. The truth is there are solutions which lie in a radical reset of housing policy, as the Housing Commission recommended. If the private sector and international capital are not engaged in financing the building of apartments, then the State must step in because only the State has the deep pockets necessary to underwrite the true level of risk and investment needed.”
“Is this decision now to appoint an outsider to head up the Government's new strategic housing activation office an admission that the Government's policy has failed? Fianna Fáil has held the housing brief for more than four years now. Those have been four years of failure, as acknowledged even by Government Departments. Department of Finance figures show that apartment planning permissions fell by one third in the first nine months of last year. The Department of public expenditure said this week that the Croí Cónaithe cities scheme was too small to ensure that apartment building could be viable. We are increasingly hearing from Fianna Fáil TDs the mantra that international finance will not invest in building apartments here unless they can get a higher rate of return. That is code for saying that renters will have to pay higher rents.”
“Every week brings yet more news of Government failure, as the housing crisis further spirals out of the Government's control. This week, we saw daft.ie report that rents have risen by a staggering 43% since the pandemic. At the weekend, right on schedule, we were treated to the latest top-of-the-head idea from the Government. First it was tax breaks, then it was beds in sheds and, this time, the housing Minister made a rare appearance to say he wants to appoint a maverick person to kick-start delivery of homes, a sort of "fixer-in-chief". In 2021, when the Government launched Housing for All, the Taoiseach described it as forming the "basis for a long-term sustainable housing system for this and future generations". We all thought the Minister for housing would be the fixer-in-chief.”
“The temporary protection directive has been extended to March 2026 so will he commit to retaining the ARP at least for that period?”
“I spoke earlier on the huge risks posed to the international rules-based order by the Trump presidency. It is a very important time for us to stand in solidarity with those campaigning for democracy. I am thinking of those in Ukraine and those of course in the democratic opposition in Belarus and in other countries around the world. Here at home, the Taoiseach said yesterday that Ireland would spend more to help Ukraine. Will he commit to retaining the accommodation recognition payment that supports more than 36,000 Ukrainians in Ireland? There have been reports that it will be cut. Other Opposition parties have called for it to be cut and reduced. I want to be sure the Government will commit to retaining the payment.”
“The INMO has come up with some proposals and we need to see fast tracking of training for community registered nurses and more places for training provided. There is a current shortfall of 600 positions for public health nurses.”
“Last week I raised the chronic shortages of staff across the healthcare sector with the Taoiseach and clearly that is contributing hugely to delays in the system and to the numbers on trolleys. Today the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, reported 669 people on trolleys, and 9,738 so far in February alone. This is clearly not just an issue around weekend cover or workplace practices. What is the plan from Government to ensure that we have increased bed and staff capacity so that people do not have to wait on trolleys? In particular, given the chronic shortage of public health nurses and the serious impact this is having on maternal and infant health, when will the HSE be publishing the report it has commissioned which will apparently provide recommendations to improve recruitment and retention of public health nurses?”
“It would have created a new statutory agency for governance of Dublin Bay, which would have been a model for other coastal areas and would have ensured much greater governance of the issue of water quality, ensuring our coastal areas, including our bathing areas would become genuinely well maintained public amenities for all to use. I am conscious that many people at inland lakes and in coastal areas now engage in swimming all year round or in using the waterways of Ireland and our coasts for leisure activities. We need to ensure water quality is improved upon for all those users as well, of course, as for ensuring water quality is improved for farmers and all those who engage in agricultural sectors.”
“The programme for Government refers to the establishment of the Cabinet committee on water quality in the context of the nitrates derogation and to evidence-based solutions to assist farmers to improve water quality. The Taoiseach stated the committee is due to meet shortly for the first time. I ask that the remit might extend beyond that issue and hope that it will. There are many other issues that are just as important around the need to improve water quality on our coasts and in our inland waterways. Will the committee also consider the merits of the Dublin Bay Bill 2021 which I proposed in this House some years ago and which the former Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien did not oppose, on Second Stage.”
“What is the Taoiseach doing to ensure that the tenant in situ scheme will be effective in keeping people out of homelessness?”
“The Taoiseach stated that it is unacceptable to have so many people in homelessness. There are 4,500 children in emergency accommodation. We need workable proposals from Government to address the housing crisis. We do not need things like beds in sheds; we need really workable schemes. We in the Labour Party welcomed the tenant in situ scheme. We recognise it is the only hope for many families faced with the prospect of eviction. What we are hearing from across the country is that it is simply not working. It is ineffective in the context of keeping people out of homelessness. We are hearing this from families who have been turned down and from landlords who cannot access the scheme and who are being turned down before they have even fully engaged with the process.”
“The proposal put forward by the Government to facilitate the group led by Deputy Michael Lowry does not even make grammatical sense, nor does it make legal sense. It would apply to members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to designate a body of Members who are not in opposition in this way.”
“On behalf of the Labour Party, I want to express our strong opposition to the Government's attempt to ram through this proposal to designate those who are clearly in government, who have supported the Government, as "Other Members". It is ridiculous to see the tortuous attempts the Government is making now to facilitate the Lowry lackeys by this attempt to shoehorn in-----”
“The Taoiseach spoke at an international conference yesterday and said that for small countries like Ireland “our only ultimate security is rooted in the international rules-based order”. He also commended Ukraine on fighting to uphold the principles of the UN charter. The UN represents an international rules-based order. President Trump is intent on breaking up that order. He should be condemned for that by all democratic leaders in Europe, because he turned his back on us with his vote at the United Nations yesterday.”
“I am glad the Taoiseach acknowledges the need for greater investment in the Defence Forces. We are all very aware of that. On the triple lock, however, the Taoiseach continues to say that retaining the requirement for a UN mandate leaves us at the mercy of Russia or China having a veto. The Taoiseach knows that the legislation underpinning the triple lock enables a UN mandate to give authorisation to the General Assembly and not the Security Council. The Taoiseach knows this. Further, it may be imperfect but the UN is the only legitimate international agency capable of authorising multilateral peacekeeping missions in which we would want to see Irish troops serving. It is imperfect and all of us want to see its processes reformed but nobody, including the Taoiseach, has offered any practical alternative.”
“Will the Taoiseach commit now to retaining the triple lock and addressing Irish security by investing in our Defence Forces?”
“We know that military neutrality comes at a cost but our Defence Forces are desperately under-resourced. As the former line Minister the Taoiseach must be embarrassed that members of the Defence Forces have reported having to sleep in their cars because they could not afford to rent a home on their salary. Why not afford decent pay and conditions to those who are defending our country? Why not act now to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the Defence Forces and invest in our defence infrastructure? The reality is that with or without the triple lock Ireland is highly vulnerable to attack and cyber attack. Closer alignment with NATO would not change that but proper investment would. Does the Taoiseach condemn President Trump for his siding with Russia, and his betrayal of Ukraine and European democracy?”
“We understand that proposals are being brought to the Cabinet next month to end the triple lock. This alarming proposed change appears to be a pet project of the Taoiseach. Over several years now, he has sought different ways to remove or undermine the triple lock. We are concerned that ending the triple lock would have an inherent impact on our military neutrality. It would open the door for members of our Defence Forces to participate in foreign conflicts that lack the protection of the blue beret and a United Nations mandate and that would compromise our neutrality. The Taoiseach has denied that this is the case in the past. If that is so, why is this being proposed? In a changing world, of course we need to discuss Ireland’s defence and security.”
“We in the Labour Party have welcomed the Taoiseach's commitment to continued solidarity with Ukraine in the face of the Russian aggressor. However, I ask that he now take this opportunity to condemn both President Putin and President Trump because the US vote yesterday was a crude reminder of the dark threat to our international rules-based order. Putin has effectively received an endorsement from the US, despite his illegal war. In the Middle East, we are all very conscious that Netanyahu is flagrantly breaching international law with the brutal bombardment and siege of Gaza and with Israel’s tanks now in the occupied West Bank. At this time, we must maintain our support for international law, peacekeeping, humanitarianism and political - not military - solutions to end global conflict.”
“Yesterday marked the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At this time, we remember all those who have lost their lives, homes and families in the brutal war that has ensued. We must reaffirm our solidarity with the people Ukraine at this time. On this sad anniversary, US President Trump joined with Belarus and North Korea at the United Nations, siding with the dictator Vladimir Putin, and voted against a resolution condemning Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine. It was a dark day for the United Nations and an extraordinary change of policy for the US. It is turning its back on European democracies. While the US goes rogue, we in Ireland must stand firm against despots and warmongers.”
“Monday will mark three years since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. I wish to express my solidarity, and that of the Labour Party, with the people of Ukraine who have endured such devastation over those three years and have defended their country so courageously against Russia’s imperialist aggression. I condemn last night’s remarks by US President Donald Trump implying that Ukraine had started the war. Indeed, I condemn what we are seeing now with the sidelining of the European Union and, most importantly, the sidelining of Ukraine from Trump’s so-called peace negotiations with Putin. Ireland is militarily neutral but we are not, and should not be, politically neutral when it comes to standing with Ukraine. I am asking how the Government can best continue to show solidarity with Ukraine as we approach this anniversary.”
“The shortage of public health nurses in the community is causing babies to miss key developmental checks and the HSE has confirmed it has had to scale back its service, thereby leaving children and babies at the mercy of a postcode lottery in terms of key developmental checks.”
“I have acknowledged there are issues with discharge rates at weekends. Clearly there are issues with workflow and management practices, but changes in workflow and management practices are no substitute for properly addressing the real issue underlying the crisis in healthcare, which is the issue of staff shortages. We are hearing from hospitals that know they need to recruit more staff, that have identified gaps and engaged in recruitment but are not getting the go-ahead from the HSE to be able to offer the jobs. Thus, we hear from healthcare workers who are leaving for other countries because they are so chronically overworked due to staff shortages. This is not just in emergency care but across our healthcare system.”
“We have an ageing population, we have more complex needs than before and demand for emergency care has increased, but that is no excuse for outrageous gaps and delays in the system. Last week I raised the case of an elderly woman in my constituency. She was left waiting three hours for an ambulance to take her ten minutes up the road to a hospital. I have received contact from so many other paramedics and ambulance workers since then about they care they provide being compromised by staff shortages. When will we hear more about the new healthcare plan, specifically on staffing and working conditions? Crucially, when will the Government urgently act to carry out the necessary recruitment drive to ensure we have enough staff working in our healthcare system?”
“When it comes to ending overcrowding, 83% identified bed capacity and 80% said recruiting more staff are key to addressing the issue. When it comes to building hospital capacity, clearly there are a great many measures that must be taken. Some of these have been announced, in fairness, by the Minister. We would welcome these, such as the digitising of health records, which is long overdue, and new methods to increase productivity and forward planning in advance of weekends we know will place more strain on the system. Ultimately, however, these measures will come to nothing until the Taoiseach’s Government acts to recruit more healthcare workers and until it introduces ways to improve conditions for staff who are already there so we have better retention rates, because staff do not feel they are being treated with respect.”
“These are serious issues but the single largest problem, in reality, is the continued chronic shortage of healthcare staff, including nursing, support and medical staff. The continued pause on recruitment is having a real and serious impact on healthcare in our communities and our hospitals and everyone knows this. Anyone who has recently visited a hospital knows this, so it is not just our view in the Labour Party. Last week, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation released its first Behind the Trolley Numbers survey conducted by nurses working in acute hospitals and treating patients on trolleys or in hospital corridors. This is the real-world experience of those on the coalface of the crisis. Their view is overwhelming.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. This winter has set yet more alarming new records for people on trolleys in our emergency departments. That means more people whose care may be compromised because there is no space for them or no one to admit them. It means more risks for patients’ conditions to worsen in a place where they should expect to improve. I welcome the new efforts the Minister for Health announced to tackle overcrowding. These are long overdue. In yesterday’s press release from her Department, she identified two issues exacerbating the problem. The first, she said, is the ongoing lack of capacity in hospitals. The second, she tells us, is the increased number of people on trolleys over weekends and on bank holidays due to lower discharge rates. She spoke strongly on radio about this earlier.”
“We welcome the commitment to investing on an all-island basis and the additional funding to the shared island fund. There are two areas that I would ask to be included. As the Taoiseach did not mention them when he was listing the priorities, I want to ensure they are clearly up on the agenda. The all-island strategic rail review report was published last year and contains really important proposals, including a proposed railway line from Portadown to Derry, with a spur to Letterkenny. Investment in rail is one key priority on an all-island basis. The other issue comes from the SDLP, which made very practical policy proposals last year for developing the all-island economy and North-South co-operation, in particular on renewable energy infrastructure. I ask, again, that this be prioritised.”
“Does the Taoiseach propose that at the next meeting with Keir Starmer, which I think he said will be in March at the next British-Irish Summit, he will speak to the Prime Minister about how best to ensure that Britain and the EU can stand firm in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and ensure that any negotiations or peace agreement is not done over their heads and without their input or the input of the EU?”
“We see the Trump Administration tearing up the international rules-based order, undermining and destroying international human rights protections and environmental accords, pulling out of the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, sanctioning officials from the International Criminal Court, promoting ethnic cleansing in Gaza and now seeking to negotiate a deal with Russia over the heads of the people of Ukraine and sidelining the EU. My family background is Czech. The Czech people know about what Munich accords can mean and what they can lead to. There is desperate fear and distress across the EU and across Ukraine in particular as we approach the dreadful anniversary of the invasion just three years ago and the appalling devastation we have seen across Ukraine.”
“As the US Administration moves to the authoritarian right I think all in this House agree that it is vitally important that we strengthen solidarity across Europe and that we strengthen our links with Britain and between Britain and the EU. Given our unique bilateral relationship with Britain and the fact that we now have a Labour Prime Minister in Britian, we will all agree it is especially important that Ireland strengthens those links with Britian. The Taoiseach said that on 27 January, in his phone call with Keir Starmer, they spoke about Ukraine and Gaza but so much has changed since then.”
“This is a discounted rental scheme for key workers that is very welcome. It is a collaboration between Google and Clúid Housing. Again, it is very welcome but why is it that a private company is stepping up to do this? Why are we not seeing more of this sort of positive development for housing in the city centre within the canals and in the Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 area coming from the State? I endorse the questions that others put to the Taoiseach about including local elected representatives on the Cork city task force and seeing more commitment on the Cork events centre. Our councillor Peter Horgan in Cork has fought for years for transparency with regard to this project.”
“I spoke earlier about the awful incidents of knife crime, particularly on South Anne Street, and expressed my sympathies to the family of Quham Babatunde. I do so again, as I do to all those victims of South Anne Street and Stoneybatter. Clearly we need to see the positive aspects in the report of the Dublin city centre task force implemented, particularly where the report called for 1,000 extra gardaí. We need a commitment from the Government that recruitment will be ramped up within An Garda Síochána. We need to see conditions, particularly for trainee gardaí, made more attractive so that we will see more gardaí brought on. This is a crucial issue. In terms of improving the quality of life in the city centre, we saw an announcement today of a new development in Boland's Mills in Barrow Street.”
“I express my sympathy to the family and friends of Quham Babatunde, the man who was so tragically killed in a knife attack on South Anne Street early on Saturday morning. Indeed, I express my sympathies and thoughts to those victims of violent crime that evening and in a previous incident in Stoneybatter, also in the city centre of Dublin. These shocking crimes illustrate for many a concern about safety on our city streets and a concern about the need for a more visible Garda presence on the streets. I know the justice Minister has been launching a recruitment campaign, but when I speak to gardaí locally, they tell me there is a still serious shortage still of gardaí, of personnel, available to police our city streets and to make people feel safer.”
“Instead of engaging seriously with the Opposition on our constructive proposals for housing, the Taoiseach simply engages in name calling and suggests we are misrepresenting things. I ask the Taoiseach to listen back to his housing Minister who was on the radio just now. He said that tax breaks were on the table.”
“Will the Government's new plan take seriously the need to protect renters and take seriously the scourge of vacancy and dereliction or will we see a return to failed Fianna Fáil policies on tax breaks for developers?”
“We welcome this focus and the fact we may now say farewell to Housing for All, which has patently failed, but we are concerned about what this new review will deliver. We do not want to see it deliver tax breaks that fail in the supply of more homes. We want to see a vision for an active State - a State that would take on stronger CPO powers, provide protections for renters, ensure the delivery of homes as a public good and intervene to address the real scourge of vacancy and dereliction across the country where we know 81,000 residential properties were vacant in the final quarter of last year, of which 14,000 were in Dublin. That crisis is just one example of lack of ambition and lack of radical policies.”
“It seems as if it is making policy on the hoof and it seems Fine Gael agrees with this critique. There is now a clear split in Government ranks. We understand the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has set his face repeatedly against the introduction of tax breaks for developers. The former Minister for housing, Eoghan Murphy, documented this in his own book where tax breaks were previously ruled out. Both parties are contradicting each other on this on the airwaves. If they cannot communicate with each other, how does this sound to those at the sharp end of the housing crisis - the parents of the 4,500 children in emergency accommodation? How does this sound when Government cannot agree on what policies it is going to introduce? We understand the Cabinet committee on housing has met and has agreed to draft a new housing plan.”
“It seems, however, that it does have ideas and we have heard two ideas from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The first is to end rent pressure zones without a safety net for renters while the second is to return to the era of Celtic tiger tax breaks for developers. Indeed, just now on the radio, the Minister said that tax breaks must be on the table. These ideas from Fianna Fáil represent an audacious step for sure but one in the wrong direction and not the radical reset for which the Housing Commission called. If the Taoiseach was so convinced that lifting rent pressure zones and introducing tax breaks for developers would solve the housing crisis, the question is why Fianna Fáil did not seek a mandate for those policies in the last general election.”
“We know that housing is the single most immediate challenge facing this Government - the civil rights issue of this generation. Last week, the Labour Party offered a motion that was the first opportunity for TDs to debate housing in this Dáil term. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage was a no-show and there was tumbleweed on the Government benches during the debate. No senior Minister showed up to contribute to the debate on our serious and constructive proposals which offered a credible pathway to ramp up the delivery of homes. The lack of input from Government suggests it is not taking the housing crisis seriously. In the debate, I suggested that the Government was devoid of ambition and ideas in tackling the housing crisis.”
“I reviewed the 2023 annual report of the Arts Council which is now online. The report of the chair, drafted in June 2024, makes no mention of any of this. Artists and all of us must have confidence in the Arts Council, in its senior management and in the Department of the arts, because, as the Tánaiste said, there is so much public money at stake here. It is important that our artists are properly supported. In restoring that confidence, it is important that we have a root-and-branch review of the Arts Council processes and internal culture, of the level of the Department's oversight and of public procurement rules.”
“I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I am glad he has acknowledged there are clearly questions for the Department as well as the Arts Council. I listened to the Minister expressing his anger and disappointment on the radio this morning, but we need more than just expressions of anger and disappointment from the line Minister. We need greater clarity on when he became aware of this. I am conscious he is only recently in the job. As I stated, however, this Government contains many Ministers who were also Ministers in the previous Government. There is also a question of the levels of knowledge of the previous Government about this and about the timelines involved. We need clarity on the timelines for the review that has been commissioned and we need greater clarity on the timeline of events which led to this overspend.”
“I understand that two reviews of this project, which raised concerns about levels of risk, took place in the summer of 2022 and at the end of 2023. Can the Tánaiste explain why, particularly at that earlier juncture in 2022, a decision was apparently made to proceed with the project notwithstanding serious concerns? Can he make a commitment that the review the Minister has ordered into the Arts Council, which we welcome, will include a root-and-branch review of governance and management systems? I reiterate my call for a Dáil debate on this massive waste, which has caused such anger among the public.”