Peadar Tóibín
Meath West · Aontú · Ireland
“Lonely Planet. It did a review of Dublin and stated, "Once Dublin’s grand boulevard, O'Connell St has struggled with decline". It stated that vacant buildings, derelict upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”
“The Irish people are a generous and decent people and have been over the past number of years, with the provision of supports to people from Ukraine who are fleeing the war. This is right and just. The war unleashed on Ukraine is absolutely wrong. Aontú will support the reduction in the rate of payment under the scheme.”
“I am very disappointed to see that the Government, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit will vote against an amendment that wants to means test the payment, as an amendment also did on the previous occasion, and put it on a level footing with other housing assistance payments.”
“Landlords are rational and they will make economic decisions to best suit themselves. Landlords have been more inclined to take on Ukrainian tenants over Irish tenants in recent years. This system is discriminatory. It gives an advantage to guests in the country over the people who have lived here for most of their lives.”
“Anyone who sat the leaving certificate economics paper just a few weeks ago will know that demand also has a role. It determines what rents are, the price of houses, etc. It is physics and maths and not ideology. We need to get to a situation where we equalise supply with demand.”
“A global study by TomTom indicated that it is the 38th most congested city globally, behind cities such as London, Toronto and Rome. The task force indicated that the Cork Luas system would be built. That Luas system is in planning and that planning is taking a long while.”
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“Anyone who sat the leaving certificate economics paper just a few weeks ago will know that demand also has a role. It determines what rents are, the price of houses, etc. It is physics and maths and not ideology. We need to get to a situation where we equalise supply with demand. This means the Government building more homes but it also means making sure demand is not too much. To make sure we do not have a pull factor, it is important the services and the provision in this country are equal to those in other European countries, so there is fair distribution of people from Ukraine who need help.”
“I am very disappointed to see that the Government, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit will vote against an amendment that wants to means test the payment, as an amendment also did on the previous occasion, and put it on a level footing with other housing assistance payments. Most parties will also vote against the proposal to protect rent-a-room tenants from eviction. It has been reported again that some landlords who wanted to take rent from the ARP scheme made way for that scheme by removing certain tenants in the rent-a-room scheme, which was also wrong. There is a disconnect in the Chamber among some of the parties in relation to these supports. The housing crisis is the Government’s fault. The lack of supply is the Government’s fault.”
“Landlords are rational and they will make economic decisions to best suit themselves. Landlords have been more inclined to take on Ukrainian tenants over Irish tenants in recent years. This system is discriminatory. It gives an advantage to guests in the country over the people who have lived here for most of their lives. The fact that this is not being means tested is extraordinary. That we can have two people living on the same street and on the same wages but one of them is getting a further subsidy from the Government is shocking. The fact that many in this Chamber do not understand this is also shocking. We can have a Ukrainian family on a six-figure salary who can get the subsidy and a neighbour on a five-figure salary who cannot.”
“The Irish people are a generous and decent people and have been over the past number of years, with the provision of supports to people from Ukraine who are fleeing the war. This is right and just. The war unleashed on Ukraine is absolutely wrong. Aontú will support the reduction in the rate of payment under the scheme. The scheme that was created was uneven, unfair and discriminatory for those seeking accommodation or housing. It created a two-tier support system, which is unfair. This two-tier support system has threatened cohesion. It has caused anger and pushback among the general public. There have been reports of Facebook pages where Ukrainian nationals have posted messages looking for homes where they say they can afford the rent and they can pay an additional tax-free €600 on top of what the asking price is.”
“A global study by TomTom indicated that it is the 38th most congested city globally, behind cities such as London, Toronto and Rome. The task force indicated that the Cork Luas system would be built. That Luas system is in planning and that planning is taking a long while. Can the Taoiseach give an update on when exactly the Cork Luas system will be built so that people can actually get around the city of Cork in a timely fashion?”
“Lonely Planet. It did a review of Dublin and stated, "Once Dublin’s grand boulevard, O'Connell St has struggled with decline". It stated that vacant buildings, derelict upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its character. Moore Street, right beside it, was promised to be redeveloped by 2016, and here we are ten years later. It is a site of drinking, drug-taking, urination and defecation. It is part of the national monuments battlefield sites. Is there a move by the Government to buy Moore Street from Hammerson in a similar fashion to how it bought the Carlton site on O'Connell Street? That is my first question. My second question is about Cork. Cork is now one of the most congested cities in the world.”
“Údarás na Gaeltachta should be the housing authority for the Gaeltacht, because it is the only organisation that is really knowledgeable about the task and that has the prime objective of it. I know the Minister is shaking his head, but many local authorities simply do not really have a focus on the Irish and Gaeltacht areas.”
“To illustrate the idea, if there are ten people in a bar in the Gaeltacht and one is an English speaker, there is a tendency for the other nine to default to English to make sure that the English speaker is not left out of the conversation. One of the big threats in Gaeltacht areas is often high numbers of English speakers. Once it gets past a certain threshold, it significantly changes the language in that local area. It should be a prime objective of the Government to create a strong, vibrant, Irish-speaking area That cannot be done anywhere else where the language is not a community language because outside the Gaeltacht, the language really only exists in networks, and networks are far poorer in terms of language depth, knowledge, and so on.”
“Recently, the Government had produced new guidelines on that and there were major concerns those guidelines would have the effect of reducing the Irish spoken in Gaeltacht areas if we sought to house a large number of English speakers in those Gaeltacht areas.”
“A part of that question focuses on the development in the Gaeltacht areas. Obviously, the Gaeltacht is the well of the Irish language. The Gaeltacht is currently at such a level where it is at the edge of continuance. This could be the last generation with the Irish language as a community language within the Gaeltacht. One of the big elements of the Gaeltacht has obviously been the ability to raise families in the Irish language. Housing is a very important element of that and there are significant campaigns currently out there as a result of the lack of proper housing within the Gaeltacht. There are also language schemes but there is a threat potentially of people coming into Gaeltacht areas with only English and therefore changing the community language within that area.”
“A total of 2,119 pubs have closed since 2005, and another 1,000 pubs are currently at risk. It is estimated that 100 local shops close every year in Ireland, which means two shops are shut on a weekly basis. In the past decade, 257 post offices have closed; that is one post office closing every fortnight for ten years. Some 139 Garda stations were closed 13 years ago, and if you put it over a stretch in time, that is equal to one Garda station closing every month. Indeed, there are 53 Garda stations with no garda at all.”
“I ask in that the Government side with the artists and ensures that there is an ecosystem in which they can operate, get paid properly and deliver content into the future.”
“He brought the case to the High King of Ireland, Diarmait mac Cerbaill. The latter sided with St. Finian, saying the famous phrase that to every cow belongs her calf and, therefore, to every book belongs its copy. What is happening here in relation to AI is in direct opposition to this. This has a number of significant outputs. Not only is it stealing and impoverishing generations of artists, and not only is it reducing the creative output, but it is also concentrating power into the hands of a very small number of tech oligarchs across the planet. This generation has probably seen one of the biggest concentrations of wealth in the hands of so few. I do not think this has happened since the end of the 19th century.”
“It is true that the quality of this content is significantly off the creativity of human content but it is already being monetised. It is already in competition with real artists for ears, eyes and wallets. As a result, it is already shutting down content creation. There will come a time, if we are honest, that the differential and quality will narrow in the future. Let us be honest, what is happening is theft. It is the stealing of other people's content. It is individual companies making a profit out of other people's work. People might be au fait with the legend that copyright was first developed in Ireland. It is recorded that St. Colmcille secretly copied the manuscript of St. Finian at night. This was discovered by St. Finian and he demanded the replica manuscript back. He felt the reproduction of the manuscript was rightfully his.”
“The same thing happened in the music industry. Instead of artists selling records, tapes and CDs, a small number of firms started to monetise other people's content on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify and paid a pittance for the content they were selling. This means that those in the music industry have to rely on music performance in the main to be able to have a full-time career in music generation. That has significantly reduced the generation of content in music over the past number of years. AI is bringing the whole process a large step further. A small number of very large powerful billionaires can now scrape the content of thousands of artists, authors, graphic designers and musicians and replicate similar content.”
“In the past couple of years there has been a collapse of many forms of media in this country. The reason for this has been that the authors of content are not getting paid for their material. It is not that no one is getting paid for the material; there is a cohort of individuals who are getting paid, but they are the people who are creating the content. Journalism is an example. It is a key pillar of a functional democracy but it is dying on its feet because social media is taking the creative content and selling it for clicks and for advertising revenue. That is plainly wrong, but the political establishment does not have the backbone to stand up to the large social media firms and, as a result, this is happening. If the creators of the content do not get paid, after a while content does not get created.”
“The gardaí failed these victims and survivors. The South-Eastern Health Board also failed to follow through on these complaints. In his report, Mr. Justice Michael White said that Bill Kenneally was surrounded by the influential in Waterford society, including his uncle, Billy Kenneally Snr., and his cousin Brendan Kenneally, who were both Fianna Fáil TDs for Waterford, and his uncle Monsignor John Shine, who was influential in the church. These actions may seem like they were from a bygone time but, in truth, that instinct is still in organisations to defend themselves. Organisations still often put their own interests ahead of the interests of survivors. On the question of children being at risk today, there are dozens of children in the charge of Tusla who are missing as we speak. Many are exposed to shocking levels of abuse.”
“I also welcome the report that has been done on this issue but the process for these reports is incredibly slow. We need a permanent office of public investigation in this country, one that retains the skills and experience needed to undertake these types of investigation in a speedy fashion. The slow process of investigations is damaging. Long and winding investigations mean that those who have suffered have to suffer for longer and some people never achieve justice. The vile crimes of Bill Kenneally have done much harm. These crimes have damaged and destroyed lives and have consumed the lives of many others for decades. In this specific case, truth and justice were prevented by some of the most powerful organisations in the State. It is shocking that senior gardaí who had been informed of these crimes in the 1980s did not act on them.”
“I, too, want to commend many of the victims and survivors of Bill Kenneally, some of whom are joining us in the Gallery today. In any situation, it takes incredible bravery and courage to be able to come forward and tell your story, and more so when many of the organs of the State ignore you, do not listen to you and in some cases undermine you as well. These victims and survivors have not only taken on an evil predictor, but they have also taken on many of the powers of the State. We are also thinking today of the dozens of other victims who for different reasons have not been able to come forward publicly. I welcome the State apology by the Government. This apology is a culmination of decades of campaigning by people who have been providing information. It is a long time coming but it will bring closure to many people.”
“It has rained for 77 days across Ireland so far this year. At the start of the year, there were 54 consecutive days of rain. We have been blessed with a couple of weeks of fine weather, but already we have a six-week hosepipe ban in a number of counties. There are towns and villages in my county that have not had a proper water supply for weeks. Uisce Éireann is spending €250,000 a year to tanker water to Ballivor. The local school had to close as a result of not having a supply of water. Uisce Éireann was fined €20 million for not reaching its targets in terms of fixing the 36% of water supplies that are leaking from the pipes. It has admitted that it will take until 2050 to fill the gaps that are blocking the building of homes in this country. Even in developing countries, it is government's responsibility to keep water in the taps.”
“My family member attends the Alzheimer society daily and gets enormous support, love, care and treatment from the Alzheimer society, and would be lost without it, as would the family. It is a pivotal element of that person's care. Home care remains the backbone of dementia support. It allows for people to remain familiar in their surroundings. It connects them to their family and their community.”
“It is important to remember that. Dementia gradually takes away memory, confidence and independence and affects the person's ability to drive, manage finances and stay connected with the world and community. It also profoundly affects spouses, sons, daughters, neighbours and friends who also have to deal with the condition. It is important to remember, however, that many people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease can be very happy in themselves. Sometimes, it is the people around the individual who suffer more from the experience. I am very lucky that in our case the individual who has Alzheimer's is not anxious or stressed and does not have those difficulties. We would be lost in our family if it was not for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the amazing work that it does.”
“Their campaign has created an enormous legacy for their mother and they have delivered the most incredible tribute that any family could deliver for their mother. I join the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in saying there is no doubt their mother is looking down on them with enormous pride in what they have achieved. Early onset dementia is a serious blow and challenge. I urge the Government to do all it can for research and development. Like many others, I also have loved ones in my family who have suffered from dementia. It is an enormous challenge; there is no doubt about that. Dementia significantly changes many aspects of that individual. It is called the long goodbye and, over time, family members feel they are losing certain aspects of their loved one. The truth is that their essence is always there.”
“I too commend the amazing work of Jordan and Cian Adams on their incredible journey. Doing 33 marathons in the space of 33 days is an incredible feat. I have done one marathon in 52 years and it is more than enough for me. Raising that level of funds and awareness throughout the country is absolutely amazing, and it reminds us that in this country, people have the power and one or two individuals can change the world in a range of different ways. Sometimes we forget individuals can be the source of major change in this country. I also pay tribute to their Jordan and Cian's sister, Kennedy, for all the work she has done in organising their campaign. I offer the three siblings my deepest sympathies on the loss of their mother, Geraldine, at such a young age.”
“On the other side of the debate, some people are blaming immigration. Will the Government create a speedy, detailed, evidence-based investigation into what is causing the surge in violence against women, one that is not ideologically predetermined but is based on facts and figures?”
“Adina Constantin, aged 50, was found dead in her home in Portlaoise on 5 July. Jamey Carney, aged 43, a mother of a teenaged girl, was found dead in her home in Killarney on 7 July. Masumeh Manojan, aged 31, was murdered in Clifden on 28 May. Eight women have been killed in this State so far this year. There has been a shocking increase in the rate of murder of women in Ireland and genuine alarm is taking hold. Boys are growing up on a diet of hardcore and violent pornography. The Government has the brains to stop the advertising of junk food because it knows that it leads to obesity but it does not seem to have the brains to stop the provision of hardcore violent pornography to young boys, despite the overwhelming evidence that it leads to violence against women. On one side of the debate, people are blaming toxic masculinity.”
“If we can prevent young kids getting onto these vehicles and driving them in a manner that is so dangerous, we can make sure that people can live positive, full lives and that the pressure does not come on the health service. If the Minister could use her influence at Cabinet to look for the registration of these vehicles, that would make a significant difference.”
“I agree that it is important to focus on the outcomes of these tragic and serious accidents and the fact that many of these injuries are brought to the grave and are lifelong injuries that completely negatively impact the development of these children through their lives. It is time we looked at the registration of these vehicles. These are powered vehicles that can travel at speed. They should be registered in the same way motorbikes are registered. Nobody would think a person should be able to get on a motorbike without training, without being able to use the vehicle, without being at the right age and without registration and insurance. We know that prevention is better than cure.”
“There should be fines involved in this, and gardaí need the ability to pursue scramblers and scooters to make sure they can actually bring them to a halt.”
“I appreciate that it is the job of the accident and emergency departments to treat patients, but I also believe that you cannot manage if you cannot measure. The collection of data on public health issues is a key element to track the development of a public health crisis through society. I also understand that some of the issues around this are not necessarily under the Minister's Department's direct responsibility, but we do have a crisis in this country. I myself have seen children as young as ten or 11 whizzing around in gangs, oblivious to the directions of the roads and roundabouts, flying on paths in public parks. These vehicles are being misused around the country and it is leading to a public health crisis. Parents need to take responsibility. There is a massive lack of responsibility being taken by parents of pre-teen children.”
“There has been a big increase in the numbers of deaths and serious injuries caused by the use and misuse of e-scooters. E-scooters are now the biggest cause of traumatic brain injuries among children. Children are being killed and gardaí working in the area have been injured. CHI has reported that six children have been admitted to intensive care in Temple Street with traumatic brain injuries, following accidents involving e-scooters in just two weeks. What steps is the Government taking to prevent these injuries and then to ensure the necessary resources are there to treat those injuries?”
“Will the Government make a commitment to stop the increase in tolls? Will it commit to stop punishing commuters and start to provide the public transport capacity that is needed?”
“Commuters woke up this morning to the news that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, is considering putting up tolls on the Dublin Port Tunnel. It recommended an increase from €13 to €14 and said it was modest. On what planet is a €14 toll modest? We are told that the increase is to stop congestion. Why is it that when it comes to congestion the only tool in the Government's toolbox is a stick - a toll hike to beat people off the road? What about providing more public transport? This year, the Government will provide no new net public transport capacity. Projects such as the Navan to Dublin rail line and MetroLink are proceeding at a glacial pace. The Government operates in slow motion when it comes to infrastructure. Both these projects have been discussed for decades and neither are likely to happen in the next ten years.”
“Micheál Martin's position is guided not by what is good for this country but what is good for his narrow, electoral interests.”
“Micheál Martin often says reconciliation has to happen before unity. What evidence does he have that reconciliation is more likely in a partitioned state than in a united Ireland state? Reconciliation has pretty much happened in the South and it still has not happened in the North because of that partition. Micheál Martin's position on a united Ireland is the most un-Fianna Fáil position on that issue of all Fianna Fáil leaders. The question is how a person so opposed to those key Fianna Fáil values could ever have become leader of Fianna Fáil. Liam Mellows once said that if Ireland was partitioned, there would arise two establishments on both sides of the Border that would depend on the Border for their power. Sadly, Mellows was right.”
“It was available in Dublin but, despite living 90 minutes away, she was not allowed to use it. Very ill, very sick and very weak, she was forced to leave her family and take treatment in London, where she died. Imagine if we had a simple policy where you got treatment in the hospital closest to you. Imagine the difference that would make in people's lives. That is the type of work we should do now. If Aontú had ministries in the Assembly in the North, we would work with our counterparts in the South in systematically going through each department to start to equalise services North and South. We welcome this Bill but we do not think a citizens' assembly is enough. We believe there is a need for a new Ireland forum where all the political parties and all of civic society gets together to discuss what is needed for this particular plan.”
“All of those individuals agreed with me that if we planned, funded and delivered services together, they would simply be better, more efficient services. Irish unity is a clear pillar of Aontú. We are a practical united Ireland party. We believe the process should start now. We do not even have to wait for a referendum to start that process. The Border is like a wall with 1,000 blocks. Each of those blocks is a blockage to services on an all-Ireland basis. Each time we join up those services on both sides of the island, we take down a block, which reduces the height of the wall, improves people's lives and then makes unity easier on that sunny day. Catherine Sherry was married with three children just north of the Border. She was diagnosed with lymphoma in September 2024 at the age of 42. Treatment was not available to her in the North.”
“That has a real cost, with the economy in the North stagnant, because of the lack of self determination. Public services are falling apart at the moment because of that lack of self determination. Unity would radically increase the welfare of everybody on this island. The people of Newry are just as bright as the people of Donegal, the people of Dungannon are just as hard-working as the people of Monaghan and the people of Derry are just as enterprising as the people of Letterkenny. The key difference is the issue of self determination. I had the honour of researching a report for the enterprise committee in 2018. This was the first ever report on the all-island economy since partition. I interviewed hundreds of people from farmers to trade unionists and from all different backgrounds.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille seo. Self determination is the most important political and democratic right. We in Ireland have learned that lesson hard. London rule has cost this country dearly. Millions of Irish lives have been lost through famines and wars and millions of people have been forced to emigrate as a result of that right. In case anybody has forgotten, Brexit has reminded us again. It proved without a shadow of a doubt that London does not give a tuppenny damn about the North of Ireland. The North of Ireland was the last thing on the minds of the little Englanders who pushed for Brexit. I have visited the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster many times. Members have admitted to me that the fastest way to clear the floor of the House of Commons is to call for a debate about the North of Ireland.”
“Over the next six months, the Government wants to increase excise five times in a cost-of-living crisis. I am asking the Minister of State not to do that and to back the Aontú Private Members' motion.”
“How can he stand over a Government company making €3 billion profit in four years and then in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis jack up the cost of electricity? The fact the Government is allowing that to happen is a major problem. Last year there was €4.3 billion in fuel taxes and €1.2 billion in carbon tax, a tax that hardly existed five years ago. These are excruciating costs for families. They are hurting and damaging families. They are damaging businesses. These high energy costs are bad for the economy. That is never discussed here, that jobs are going abroad and businesses are closing because the Government is a high energy cost Government. The Government must gets to grips with that and realise what levers are in place. One of the levers is excise costs.”
“Health accounts for 40% of that overspend and capital infrastructure overruns saw €1.6 billion in one year. At the heart of the cost-of-living crisis in this country is the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Independents Government tax gauging the people of Ireland and allowing for dysfunction to reign in terms of the infrastructure and the spend in this country. Ireland has the highest electricity prices in the whole of Europe and the second highest in the world. Incredibly, ESB made a profit of €3 billion just in the past four years. ESB is a public company operating on the basis of Government policy and that company is now looking to increase electricity prices today. Does the Minister of State not see the problem here?”
“There is the recent €127,000 for the HSE Kerry bike shed, following on from the €336,000 Dáil bike shed, and the €10 million that is going to be spent on the Dublin City Council offices in Wood Quay that it plans to knock in three years' time. Then we have the €2.4 billion on the national children's hospital, which is basically a monument to Government waste at the moment. There are so many examples of taxpayers' money, which is extracted from their pockets, being incinerated by Government over and over again. One of the most insidious levels of Government waste that never gets looked at in this country are the overspends on an annual basis. From 2021, the Government has been overspending by €5 billion a year and it has come under pressure from IFAC in relation to it.”
“Most people do not mind paying taxes as long as they get value for money in the services those taxes are producing. We can look at the level of Government waste that is happening. Some €50 million spent on an Iarnród Éireann IT system that never worked. When we asked the Taoiseach about it, he did not know the answers. Some €300 million has been spent on metro north and not a shovel has been put in the ground. When it was announced 20 years ago, the price of it was €2 billion but now the price is edging towards €16 billion. There is the 100 electric buses that were bought that never moved an inch because somebody forgot to provide an electricity charger for those buses.”
“It must also be said that the Government was pulled kicking and screaming to reduce these costs, and the reason for this was people power. It was because of ordinary people taking to the streets of this country and demanding help. Ordinary people, whose businesses, families and jobs were falling around them, took to the streets in desperation and this forced the Government's hands. If we are honest, the major reason this Government is not increasing excise until September is that it is fearful the protestors are going to come back onto the streets on this issue and it does not want these protesters to put bad luck on this EU Presidency. That is the biggest issue here. The frustrations people have about the level of tax on fuel at the moment is because the tax they are paying is ending up in waste. That is a major issue.”
“Incredibly, Sinn Féin was the only Opposition party that voted against the excise cuts that helped people over the past few months. Incredibly, Sinn Féin is now arguing against those excise increases, having voted against them being cut in the first place. Deputy Guirke spoke about the fact that Aontú did not speak on the Finance Bill. That is rubbish. Incredibly, Deputy Guirke, the stone-thrower, did not speak on that Bill; we in Aontú did. In 2024, Deputy Guirke had the lowest speaking contribution in the Dáil. He spoke for one hour in a whole year in total. Deputy Guirke is the Fr. Stone of Irish politics and he thinks being a TD is a remote job. It is not. Those who turn up here make the decisions, and not turning up and staying silent does not help the people of Meath.”
“The grid is creaking. It is grinding to a halt. Dispatch down, constraints and bottlenecks are all brakes to the addition of renewable energy. Every single turbine that is added has a diminishing return. We are paying €500 million a year to renewable energy providers to stop producing electricity. The dysfunctional system means the network costs and the stabilising costs of the network are actually now more than the wholesale cost of producing electricity in Ireland, and that is adding to everybody's bill. I want to talk about Sinn Féin's contribution. Sinn Féin Members spent their time attacking Opposition TDs on this while letting the Government off the hook. Let us be clear about this. Aontú voted for the excise cuts that helped people over the past few months.”
“We have no offshore wind energy generation. Not one turbine is operating in this country. The Government is brilliant at developing conferences, brochures, plans and policies. Sticking a turbine in the sea does not work for the Government though. That is the major problem with all of this. Dysfunction in the system is holding back renewable energy. We have, at the moment, marginal pricing in energy pricing in this country. That means the price of a unit of electricity is priced at the last unit that is added on to the system. If we keep adding data centres in this country, we are never going to get out of the grip of gas. We are never going to run fast enough to get free of gas being the marginal unit of electricity produced. The Government is going in the opposite direction in terms of freeing this country from renewable energy.”
“We want to see solar panels put on the roofs and increased supports for retrofitting in this country. Most families would give their right hand to get out of fossil fuel dependence and to have the public transport solutions they need but the Government will not provide it for them. This Government has also spoken about renewables. The biggest brake on renewables is this Government. We have been told for years that Ireland is going to become the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy - of wind energy. Yet, in recent times, we have become a net importer of electricity. We are going in the opposite direction to the rhetoric that the Government is using in these terms. We have been told about offshore wind. Forgive me if I am cynical in relation to this. This Government has had six offshore wind conferences since 2021.”
“The truth is that most of middle-Ireland is considered too rich by the Government for those supports but they are actually too poor still to pay for electricity and fuel. As a result, half a million of those families are currently in energy arrears. We, too, want Ireland to decouple from fossil fuels. We want Ireland to become self-sufficient in terms of energy. Energy independence is as importance as fuel independence. Being dependent on the Middle East and on Russia is a major exposure for this country. However, the way to do it is with a carrot rather than a stick. I am the chair of the Meath on Track campaign. We have been campaigning since 1994 for a rail line. The earliest possible time that will arrive is 2036, that is, if nothing stops it, and there is likely to be another slip in relation to that.”