Pa Daly
Kerry · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I thank the Minister of State for coming in to deal with this issue when other colleagues were not available. She will be able to bring her experience of this area to this debate. I am slightly caught for time, so I will try to parse it a little bit. I wish to ask the Minister of State about the harmful content on social media platforms.”
“While we know violence against women is a crisis and femicide in Ireland is a crisis, it is overwhelmingly men who carry out these acts. These are men of all cultures, races and ethnicities. However, social media giants have a responsibility and are clearly not stepping up to the plate. They are not complying with their obligations.”
“The Digital Services Act was introduced. It was to ensure a safe, predictable and trusted online environment and to prioritise greater activity and online safety. There is the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 to protect children and the public from harmful and illegal content. There is a danger.”
“We are running over time but I will make one more point. If, as it provides in the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, we are to protect children and adults from online conduct, how does it look as an example to younger people in particular when this content is still allowed to be there?”
“Somebody even said that they hope these comments are not going to be deleted to suit one's ideology, which they misspelt. That is the kind of narrative that is going on. They are mocking her beliefs and her. It is similar to what is being investigated by the police in Britain.”
“Bhíos ag caint le healaíontóir i gCiarraí níos luaithe um thráthnóna. Labhair sé liom mar gheall ar na mothúcháin a bhaineann le AI. Dúirt sé liom it could help to generate ideas, layouts and content more quickly, leaving more time to focus on strategy and working with clients.”
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“While I should not look at neighbouring counties, there are way more in those counties. Even one town neighbouring County Kerry has more early intervention classes than the whole of Kerry combined. It is not a very big town either. When we drill down further into the figures, the situation is bleak. There are six places in each of County Kerry's two classes because many children need to stay on for a second year. The number of school places available at the start of every school year then becomes even smaller. This year, only three or four places were available for the whole county for 1 September 2025. It is not good enough to say this situation is being looked at and a place will be available next year. This is undoubtedly a nationwide crisis and no county has escaped, but the situation in Kerry seems way worse than anywhere else.”
“I raise the issue of early intervention for preschool autistic children, who would get a support teacher and an SNA. One child, who has profound needs, is non-verbal and needs 24-7 support, has recommendations from the NCSE and a SENO that he be offered a place but has been denied one in Killarney because none are available in County Kerry. What makes the situation even more frustrating is that there is a school, with the staff, the space and the support of the school principal, willing to establish the early intervention class in Killarney town, but this has been refused. More children are being locked out of appropriate education for yet another year. The people of Kerry are feeling let down because they see there are only two early intervention classes in the whole county.”
“This is one of the most frustrating issues I am dealing with in County Kerry. It is clear that too many children are being denied their right to education. Parents are contacting me about this issue, including, recently, one parent who has been involved in education for 20 years. Her other children have gone through the system. It is with her youngest child that she has faced the system and the bureaucracy. She feels increasingly frustrated, despite having given every inch she has to obtain an early education class for her child. She is not succeeding and it is of great upset to her. This is a woman in the Killarney area. Other families also feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and that their children are being left behind and not getting as fair a chance as other children.”
“The trial is not until later in the year. I am asking the Minister to take up this case with the British Government because Mr. Devlin is being held on charges which are not counter-terrorism charges, even though that is the method being used to keep him on remand. He and some of his co-accused will be in jail until next year. I ask the Minister to take up this case as urgently as possible to have him released on bail.”
“Jordan Devlin is an Irish citizen. He is one of the Filton 18. He has been held on remand in Wormwood Scrubs since August 2024 on charges, among others, of criminal damage and violent disorder. The charges relate to dismantling weapons, including a quadcopter drone which is used in the relentless attacks on Gaza.”
“D’aontaigh Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí suíomh a thabhairt don phobal i nDún Chaoin chun clós súgartha a chruthú ag Ionad an Bhlascaoid sa bhliain 2021. Tá €40,000 faighte acu. Tá cead pleanála ann. Tá deontas ó NEWKD ach níl an léas sínithe fós. The OPW agreed to give a playground to the community in west Kerry in 2021. There is still no lease signed by its officials. Tá an t-am ag sleamhnú agus gan aon rian den chlós súgartha le feiscint. They have no answer. It is frustrating to deal with the OPW. Even in Ballyduff it agreed to consider a playground for the community there. The Rattoo tower is still open. We cannot even get an answer, never mind a result from them.”
“Those were for exceptional cases, involving quite vulnerable people, and the rug has been pulled out from under them, some of whom have been living in those houses for approximately 12 years. We have a plan. We need more social and affordable housing. We need a plan to freeze and reduce rents now, and reverse the restrictions recently introduced in the tenant in situ scheme. I call on Kerry's four Government and Government supporting TDs to make this a priority.”
“The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment has skyrocketed by 31.7%, which is a price hike second only to Deputy Conor D. McGuinness's constituency in Waterford. The story is not much better for those looking to buy a house. The average price in Kerry is now more than €311,000, a 15% increase compared with last year, and 5% since the previous quarter. Compared with pre-Covid house prices have surged by 55%. It almost beggars belief. It is unsustainable. We have been clear in Sinn Féin that rising rents should not be the punishment for Government failures, and people need to see this Government fix the crisis and not come up with more excuses. The staff in Kerry County Council put huge effort into the tenant in situ scheme. There were three cases outstanding where sales were agreed, but they cannot complete those now.”
“Daft's latest report says the average rent in County Kerry is up between 13.2% and 31.7% depending on the type of property compared with this time last year. The Government should be hanging its head in shame when it comes to its handling of the housing crisis. We can go back to 2011 when the Government, in effect, stopped building social housing, through to the abolition of the town councils, which certainly did not help, and then on to the present day, when all of the various Government schemes seem to be making things worse rather than better. We have had some of the steepest rises in the country in Kerry. The average increase for a four-bedroom house is the highest in the State, having risen by more than one fifth compared with this time last year.”
“The Tánaiste said recently it is a real challenge to know what is going through our skies, despite all the notifications. There is clearly a draft report. Will the Minister share it with the House before the recess and let us know what is contained in it? I think most would agree we should do everything to have no part in the slaughter of medical attendants, children and others in Gaza by Israel. We cannot be complacent. We need the facts. We know there are complaints and that the Department is aware. It is not acceptable to stand idly by and wait until the beginning of September before this document is shared with the public.”
“While it is true to say there are media reports, there has been more than that. Complaints have been made to the Department about this. While the Minister says the Department is scrutinising information, a freedom of information request revealed that, on 13 March, a draft report was furnished to the Department. This was denied by the Department in the committee last week, when it said it was an ongoing document. It says in the freedom of information document it is a draft report. For ten months, the Government has done nothing while Israeli bombs, munitions and weaponry have passed through our airspace. Every time there is a flare-up of conflict somewhere else, what is going on in Gaza is forgotten. It is unfortunate that nothing seems to be done. I am worried this report will not be furnished in the three weeks left before the recess.”
“As the Minister probably knows, under the Air Navigation (Carriage of Munitions of War, Weapons and Dangerous Goods) Orders 1974 and 1989, it is prohibited for civil aircraft to carry munitions of war in Irish sovereign territory without being granted an exemption to do so by the Minister for Transport. Is the Minister aware of this? I presume he is. Complaints have been made that Israeli munitions are being carried. Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?”
“Will the Minister of State commit to expanding this type of service in order that people in more rural areas can access public transport like people in the more populated areas?”
“Another type of rural transport which does not get much of a mention and which has been suggested to me by Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh and people working in her office is the door-to-door services. In many counties, no new door-to-door services have been funded for a number of years. Connecting Ireland funding has generally gone towards high-frequency services, which, of course, are beneficial and have been used a lot but are not the only type of service that is desperately needed. In rural areas of Mayo and other western counties, for people who cannot afford a car or those who no longer drive, the door-to-door network is essential. There are some door-to-door services that operate weekly or biweekly but we need more frequent door-to-door services.”
“We have a problem, in that, because of the housing crisis, many students are talking public transport to college. The bus from Ballybunion through Listowel and into Tralee is oversubscribed. Will the Minister of State commit to producing another bus for September?”
“Of course, the Minister of State is more than welcome any time. Perhaps we could take a bus trip around west Kerry during the recess. That applies to the Minister as well. There is a feeling that there is a regional imbalance and that the infrastructure is much better in the cities than it is in, for example, west Kerry. Cars are the dominant mode of transport in rural Ireland. They are used for 82% of all trips. The National Transport Authority's latest household travel survey demonstrates that a significant portion of the population does not access public transport services at all. From the massive increase in the numbers accessing the services that have been provided, we see that, when they are provided, people will use them. We can see that from the Local Link services, where demand is outpacing what is being delivered.”
“On bus routes in west Kerry, there is a shortage of bus stop signage, poles and paper schedules. In Baile na nGall, there is a parking exclusion zone, so buses cannot turn properly. In Lios Póil, there is no dedicated bus stop, so many people have been caught out because they did not know where to stand when the bus was going past. This is symptomatic of the lack of infrastructure for Local Link services. The International Institute for Management Development has said Ireland's infrastructure is the area in which our performance is weakest and the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said it rates very low when compared to other European countries.”
“Does the Minister accept there is a problem with accessibility and affordability in rural areas and less well-off areas? Will he make any provision in the next budget to broaden the grant scheme to make it more accessible and affordable and, perhaps, as the CCAC suggested, extend it to second-hand EVs in order that people who have less money can afford to purchase one? The EPA's assessment of ports indicates our ports are way behind and that much more must be done to deal with more frequent storms, floods and coastal erosion, particularly on the east coast. What steps are being taken to make ports more resilient to the storms and weather events we will see in future?”
“As with retrofitting, it is only those with significant means who can afford to participate in the grant scheme. There is a serious problem in that EVs are more accessible for middle-class people than for working-class people.”
“I do not agree with the Minister's claim about all the progress being made. In fact, progress is stalling and any gains that have been made are quickly being overtaken because the plan is not delivering. We definitely will miss the target of having 1 million EVs on Irish roads by the end of the decade. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has said we will probably miss it by up to 300,000. Sales of new EVs have fallen by 24% and there was an 8.1% decline in used imports. We are also falling way behind in the roll-out of the charging infrastructure, with a deficit in rural areas in particular. At the end of 2024, there were 2,802 publicly accessible charging points. That is seven per 10,000 people, compared with 13 per 10,000 in Britain.”
“Is the Minister aware that the CCAC's recently published annual review of the transport sector is clear that the Government is failing when it comes to a just transition? There are serious problems in the transport sector because it is Ireland's biggest source of energy demand. Last year, transport emissions reduced by only a tiny 1.3%.”
“The Minister of State did not say that the reductions would be changed or altered. He did not give any indication in that regard. Those fare reductions must not be reversed because if we are to continue to make the progress that has been made in recent years, it is important that fares are kept as low as possible. We heard what the Minister of State said. It is important for the Government to get on with it. Implementation should be the priority. People are sick of announcements when there is zero progress. The clear targets for projects, such as the western rail corridor and MetroLink, which must be put in place. Transport emissions have already been mentioned. They comprise one fifth of Ireland's total emissions and half of them come from passenger cars.”
“A well-connected, functioning and affordable public transport system is essential for regional balance. The effort to create balanced regional economic growth on the island has been neglected for decades by successive Governments. We heard earlier about the northern and western region and that there is still no rail in Donegal. That region ranks in the bottom 10% of the EU's 234 regions in terms of transport infrastructure. The Government cannot stand over that anymore. It leads not only to a lack of confidence but also to a deep unfairness and inequality. It was good to see the recommendations of the all-island strategic rail review because it is a good way for Ireland to course correct. I noted what the Minister of State said in his opening statement about fare reductions and that keeping fares low is a priority. It is vital.”
“Many people, I know from experience, including older people and those who do not like having to change trains and who have difficulty accessing public transport, like to take the direct route. It is those trains, in particular, that have the fewest services or no services at all. Bus stops were mentioned. The system for implementing new bus stops is far too cumbersome. There are overly long negotiations between the councils and the National Transport Authority, NTA, before funding is provided for a bus stop. That must improve. I will come back to the point about older people and people with disabilities. The situation for them must improve. Some 18% of people have a disability but only 6% of people with a disability access public transport. That is unacceptable. I know what the Minister of State said.”
“It is an economic engine that connects people to their jobs, education and services. A number of small issues with public transport are important. When people are travelling on public transport, it is important that they are comfortable. It is not acceptable anymore that people who are undertaking four-hour or four-and-a-half-hour rail journeys from Tralee, Galway and the west generally, and almost everywhere else apart from the Cork-Dublin-Belfast rail line, cannot access even a bottle of water on the train. If you are travelling for that length of time and if the train is not delayed, and in fairness it is usually an efficient enough service, you should be able to get a cup of tea.”
“I thank the proposers of the motion and acknowledge the fact that the Government is supporting it. We in Sinn Féin also support the proposals in this motion. It is clear that successive Governments have repeatedly failed to build a modern public transport system that is fit for the 21st century. We only have to look at Dublin's MetroLink, which has been stuck in the pipeline for decades, to see why Ireland regularly ranks as having one of the worst public transport systems in the EU. As a result, public confidence in public transport is not as high as it should be, to say the least. We want to have a fairer system in towns, villages and cities across the State. We want a system that is sustainable, affordable, accessible and safe. Public transport is about far more than just trains and buses.”
“They have an empty building, they have an empty classroom and I ask the Taoiseach to intervene to ensure that such a facility is made available to Murhur National School.”
“Murhur National School in Moyvane, in north Kerry, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week. I wish the principal, Finola Fogarty, and all the school community, staff and past pupils all the best. I am sure the Taoiseach would agree that children with additional needs in rural areas are just as entitled to a full education as those in urban areas. In Murhur there are five children in the local community who require and would benefit from an ASD unit there. They cannot access an appropriate class in Moyvane village. Some children are forced to commute outside of the county to access that, and this causes extra stress and upset to the child and to the family. There is a solution.”
“I ask the Minister to outline the progress made towards meeting the 2030 retrofitting and heat pump targets. Similarly to the EU targets, these measures seem to be out of reach for many people who are of limited means. What measures are his Department taking to accelerate this?”
“Ordinary workers and farmers cannot continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden by paying for the grid through network charges - we spoke earlier about the unfairness of how these are distributed - when data centres are being given the green light to gobble up all the new capacity that has become available in recent years. In other jurisdictions, these centres pay a larger amount towards essential infrastructure. The exact same should happen here. If the Government is serious about prioritising the construction of new housing, it must follow this path.”
“Does the Minister have a view on what the CRU said about mandating data centres to have a supply of electricity for themselves? Access to public infrastructure and our natural resources has been prioritised for data centres. However, the energy regulator in the Netherlands has the power to prioritise projects that identify social goals which can be prioritised for connection to the energy grid. That does not seem to be the case here. Does the Minister have an opinion on that? He must examine these measures and their applicability here.”
“Why has the Government been blasé about these warnings? The reality is that successive Governments have failed to plan. The reason we cannot connect homes and data centres is straightforward; there is not enough capacity on the grid. What measures is the Minister taking to ensure that data centres do not gobble up all the new capacity? Will he review and reform the first-come first-served policy and mandate the CRU, which has commented on this issue, to prioritise new connections?”
“Anybody who was in the House for any period earlier today will realise the priority and urgency afforded to the housing crisis. There are 15,580 people homeless. Then there is the rest, which Minister would have heard about, such as the average cost of rent being above €2,000. There is a housing emergency but instead of prioritising homes, this Government and those that preceded it have been reckless when it comes data centres. Instead of an approach that balances the energy demand from centres alongside that of other users, there is an absence of a plan. This Government is allowing the limited space on our grid to be gobbled up by data centres. The Minister's officials, including the Secretary General of the Department, have stated that policy choices need to be made between further data centre expansion and increasing housing supply.”
“Regarding officials in his Department expressing concerns that policy choices will have to be made between data centre expansion for AI and housing delivery and the priorities relating to same, will the Minister make a statement?”
“If someone can already afford a car that costs €45,000, a grant of €3,500 is not really going to cut the mustard. Will the Minister introduce tiered grants to encourage more people to access EVs?”
“The Minister hinted at electric vehicles. The EPA report emphasised not only that the plan is not working but also its unfairness. It is not being done in an inclusive way. Many people are locked out of the Government's schemes. As the Minister mentioned, we need to have hundreds of thousands more EVs to keep within the carbon budget but the grant scheme that the Government has does very little to help ordinary workers and families who cannot afford the huge price. According to the latest research, the Government scheme does not adequately support lower income households, impedes EV take-up and jeopardises the achievement of emission targets. That is reflected in the uptake where it is concentrated mostly in wealthy areas of Dublin and Cork, but working-class and rural areas are left behind.”
“What we need from the Minister are urgent measures such as the publication of the land use review, the onshore wind energy guidelines and the marine protected areas legislation. Where are those?”
“The thrust of the question is why the slowdown and what measures exactly is the Minister taking to accelerate or redress the apparent slowdown, according to the statistics from the EPA. On the ramifications, we all know about the ecological collapse and energy independence. We know that there is a need for clean energy and to reduce the bills of consumers but the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council have said that it could cost us up €26 billion in effective fines from the European Union. The 23% figure is based on additional measures that have yet to be identified. With the Government's plan, the best we can hope for is a reduction of 9%. What exactly are those additional measures? What are the unallocated savings?”
“The Minister is probably aware of the latest emissions figures as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency last week. It is a stark warning. Ireland seems to have gone backwards in its climate ambition because the latest greenhouse gas emissions projections form the EPA said emissions would fall by up to 23% if every climate policy currently planned is implemented on time, down from the projection of 29% during the previous year. The gap is widening between what is achievable and what are legally binding emissions reductions.”
“We also need to look at the role of the regulator, which needs to be strengthened. Is the Minister going to make these charges? Will he distribute network charges and the PSO levy to reduce the energy burden on households, if he is not going to introduce the other measures?”
“There is an awful lot the Minister can do to bring down household electricity prices. The additional costs on household bills make up around 50% of the final electricity price to consumers. The programme for Government omitted any mention of network charges. It gave a vague commitment to explore funding models for the PSO to reduce bills. Is the Minister going to do that? He can tackle the regressive PSO levy on network charges now because network charges could be four times what they are now following the conclusion of price review 6. This burden could and should be distributed fairly, rather than ordinary householders being forced to bear the brunt. Grid upgrade and repair could also be financed through Exchequer funding rather than levying it on top of household bills.”
“The last time we were here, the Minister said he would publish the CEPA and GNI reports. Will he publish them? Will the Minister categorically rule out any new levy on household bills? I ask him to do so. Will he ensure that the PSO levy network charges are distributed more fairly?”
“It is interesting that the Minister mentioned the independent surveys and the recovery model because as he knows, Irish households are crippled by the most expensive electricity prices in Europe. Average electricity costs here are almost €1,800 per year, €350 more than the European average. The Government parties all promised they would introduce measures to help with the cost-of-living crisis when they were campaigning last November. Despite this, energy prices are 61% higher than they were in 2022. The Government has ruled out energy credits this year, saying they cannot become the norm. People are struggling, yet as part of the energy security review, the Government has suggested another levy, which would push up bills even further. When the Minister says temporary, what timeframe does he have in mind?”
“It is up to the Government to sort it out rather than blaming the hard working staff of Kerry County Council or the people who are waiting on the housing waiting lists.”
“There is only one other county, Wicklow, which has two houses empty for longer than seven years whereas in Kerry we have 18 houses empty for that long or more. Linked to that is the fact that Kerry has the longest average turnaround time for boarded-up houses, a staggering 65 weeks. A full 30% of boarded up houses in the entire State are in Kerry. What is going on there? This week we discovered that the OPW has 70 empty properties around the State, some of which have been empty since 1974, which is more than 50 years. It is difficult to deal with the OPW . It agreed to give a site for a playground, for example, in Dún Chaoin but three years later that still has not been completed. There is no management and nobody seems to be in charge.”
“When speaking to people in Kerry and dealing with the housing officers in Kerry County Council who are swamped with a deluge of people who are suffering from notices to quit, long waiting lists, rents they cannot afford and being denied access to some of the various schemes, it is obvious that the answer is more social and affordable housing. However, in Kerry, there was no affordable housing scheme. Under the tenant in situ scheme there were three sales agreed but they have all been pulled from the most vulnerable of people who were waiting. Houses in Kerry have been boarded up for close to ten years, which is the worst in the country. A few years ago when the tenant purchase scheme was announced, the Government expected that conveyancing would go through within four months but that was never going to happen.”
“The terms and conditions of that scheme specified that the sale must be completed within four months. Anybody who knows anything about buying a house or conveyancing knows that is impossible. When it was raised in the Dáil, Micheál Martin said it was a cop out by Kerry County Council when it sought basic details as to how the scheme was to be implemented. It is clear to me that there is no plan. Today's announcement was more chaos and more confusion for people who are vulnerable. People are looking for answers. They are going to get their answer. They are going to get their answer this day week outside the Dáil and they are going to get their answer in Cork on Saturday week.”
“A person might live an hour or two away from Tralee but that is the only emergency accommodation that is available for that person. After five or ten years of this Government - whatever way you want to call it - and 14 years of Fine Gael in government, that is the situation for people seeking emergency accommodation but, in addition, there is no affordable housing scheme in Kerry. We saw the recent changes to the tenant in situ scheme. There were three very worthy cases into which a lot of work had been put by the local authority. There was a lot of effort and these are people who really needed to be helped out. Sale was agreed but now they cannot progress the sale or sign contracts to give these people the security they deserve and require. A couple of years ago, the Government announced a new tenant purchase scheme.”
“The fundamental difference between the Government's attitude towards housing and the Opposition's attitude is that the Government thinks - the Taoiseach said it again today - that the answer to all the problems is just to provide more units. He believes that providing houses that have rents of €3,000 per month is okay so long as there is more supply in the market. He thinks that is going to fix everything. It is a market-based policy which has been failing for years and it will continue to fail in the future. A housing officer on Kerry County Council recently told me it is like a jungle out there. We are now dealing with more older people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who are renting houses and are made homeless. There is a situation in Kerry where all of the people who need emergency accommodation in the county are put into one place.”
“I am asking the Government to address energy affordability by reviewing the way it is tackling it, including the PSO levy and the network charges. I hope that will have the support of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, if they turn up, the regional Independents, if they continue to support the Government.”