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upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”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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“First, this motion tackles the shocking democratic deficit in the presidential election that we are all witnessing at the moment.So many people are angry at the presidential election farce that is unfolding, and frustrated at being locked out of the presidential election campaign.If implemented, this reform would open up the presidential election nomination process to ensure that a larger number of candidates, more representative of the people, would be able to participate in an election campaign.It would allow for the democratic competition of ideas, where the best ideas would percolate to the top.”
“I am delighted to be able to table Aontú’s second Private Members' motion in this House.This is a significant motion.It is one of the biggest reforms of the presidential election and Áras an Uachtarán in the history of the State.It tackles three areas of real importance.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises that: — there is a need to reform the presidential election nomination and voting process, to ensure all Irish citizens living north and south are entitled to vote for the President of Ireland; and — future healthy robust campaigns should facilitate a competition of values and ideas, and a diverse range of candidates who will provide democratic choice for citizens; notes that: — currently Irish citizens who live in the North of Ireland can stand in a presidential election, campaign in a presidential election, win a presidential election, be the President of Ireland, but cannot vote in a presidential election; — Irish citizens in the North of Ireland, are recognised by the Good Friday Agreement, hold Irish passports, live in Ireland, but cannot vote in an Irish presidential election; — affording Irish citizens in the North of Ireland the right to vote in presidential elections does not remove one right from our unionist brothers and sisters; — 700,000 Irish citizens in the North of Ireland are disenfranchised in presidential elections; — 73 per cent of the participants of the "Fifth Report of the Convention on the Constitution - Amending the Constitution to give citizens resident outside the State the right to vote in Presidential elections at Irish embassies, or otherwise", voted in favour of giving Irish citizens in the North of Ireland the right to vote; — opinion poll research has suggested that 49 per cent of voters do not feel represented by the current presidential election system, and 55 per cent of voters believe that the Constitution should be changed to make the nomination process easier; — there is a lack of transparency around the Office of the President and Áras an Uachtarán, and these institutions do not have the same level of transparency which applies to Government Departments and State agencies; and — the Constitution and the law set out the nomination process by Oireachtas members, County Councils, and the nomination by an incumbent, and these rules make it difficult for a prospective candidate to get onto the ballot paper; and calls on the Government to: — commit, within a period of two years, to enacting Aontú's Forty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Voting Rights in Presidential Elections) Bill 2025 or similar, in order to grant voting rights to Irish citizens living in the North of Ireland during presidential elections; — repeal Section 42(h) of the Freedom of Information Act 2014, which exempts the President from the mechanisms of this Act; — introduce, within the next six months, legislation which would mandate the publication of an annual report by Áras an Uachtarán, which would detail all costs associated with the entertainment of foreign guests and dignitaries hosted by the President, all costs associated with foreign travel by the President, costs associated with the running of Áras an Uachtarán, including decoration, repairs, and refurbishment costs; and — amend the law to allow 14 Oireachtas members or more, 110 county and city councillors or more, or three county or city councils, or an incumbent to nominate a presidential candidate.”
“Liam Mellows said that if a Border was to arise, there would rise two establishments North and South, both depending on the Border for their existence and so it has happened. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are both regional parties, not national parties, and in a united Ireland Dáil-----”
“All of them agreed that if we plan, fund and deliver together that infrastructure and those services will be more efficient and better for people. What we are saying to the Government is that while we are waiting for unity, there is nothing stopping this Government and the Executive in the North of Ireland from taking down each brick in the Border one by one. That would improve the lives of people in terms of making those services better but it would also make the transition to unity easier. It would create a process of convergence on both sides of the Border that would make that sunny day happen much sooner. Traditionally, people felt that unionists were the major block to Irish unity but that is not the case. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are the biggest barriers to Irish unity at the moment. They will not say it out loud-----”
“Two cancer services are disjointed. Two university systems are working in isolation from each other and it goes on and on. Even if you look at planning, the motorway that was built from Belfast to Newry turned left to a small village, Warrenpoint, instead of going straight to Dublin. When they went to build another university in the north of Ireland, they did not go for Derry in the north west; they went for it being built on the other side of the Bann. I had the honour of researching and authoring the first committee report on the all-Ireland economy in Leinster House since partition. I interviewed about 100 people from all communities and walks of life: business people, trade unionists, people from the community sector etc.”
“They knew there was a massive cost to London rule and that self-determination was key to economic survival. Brexit has shown that without a shadow of a doubt. London does not give a tuppenny damn about the North of Ireland. The North of Ireland was the last thing in the minds of the little Englanders as they pushed for Brexit. If you want to clear the floors of the Houses of Parliament in England, all you have to do is push for a debate on the North of Ireland. Irish unity is a key pillar for Aontú. Our very name means "unity". We are a practical united Ireland party and we want this country to start the process along that journey. We believe the Border is a wall with a thousand blocks. Each block stands for a blockage between North and South. For example, there are two air ambulance services not working together.”
“I welcome this motion and I welcome the opportunity to sign it. Ireland is on the verge of Irish unity. Full independence is within touching distance for this generation. Full self-determination is in the reach of this Dáil. There is a once-in-a-century alignment of factors that has opened the door to the possibility of unity. We have demographics, Brexit and the increasing change between North and South in terms of living standards. Irish unity is a matter of justice, economic necessity and national interest. The men and women of 1916, who fought in the Easter Rising, knew that unity and independence were not just a pipe dream. It was actually a matter of survival. That was the generation that rose from the ashes of the Famine. They knew that decisions made in London would never be in the interests of the Irish people.”
“We have the longest planning in Europe. We have the longest licensing and permits system in Europe. We have the longest tendering time in Europe at the moment. It is incredible. The whole system is falling apart. When will the Government reform it to make sure we can build infrastructure properly and on time in this country?”
“Storm Babet hit Cork two years ago. It caused damage estimated at about €200 million. It hammered the area, and it is very lucky that nobody was killed. Since then, practically nothing has been done. The area has been promised flood defences for decades but, in the best-case scenario, it is going to take eight years for those flood defences to come into play. Navan is the largest town in the country without a rail line. More Meath people commute than in any other county and we commute further. Return journey times are about four hours at the moment. The former TD, Noel Dempsey, promised the rail line in 1994 but the best-case scenario is that it will be 2036 before it is built. The Taoiseach said that the planning process has evolved. The planning process has not evolved. The Government created the planning process.”
“I seek to table an amendment to the Order of Business under Standing Order 35(3) to allow for questions to the Ministers for children and justice on the crisis in Tusla and IPAS and on the circumstances that led to Tusla losing a ten-year-old child yesterday and the alleged shocking crime, the murder of a child in Tusla care last week and the ongoing scandal of asylum seekers who have received deportation orders but have not been deported.”
“Dá mbeadh eastát tithíochta istigh i Ráth Chairn, bheadh siad sásta bogadh ann. Ciallódh sé sin go mbeadh níos mó tithe saor le fáil sna bailte eile. Ba cheart go mbeadh an Rialtas ag déanamh iarrachta an eastát tithíochta sin a thógáil. Is í an fhadhb atá ann ná go bhfuil éileamh amuigh sa phobal mar gheall ar an nGaeltacht ach tá baic fós ann agus níl an Rialtas ag déileáil leo mar is cuí.”
“Tá an chuid is mó de na naíonraí sa Ghaeltacht ag feidhmiú trí Bhéarla ag an mbomaite. Tá sé sin dochreidte. Nuair a théann páistí go dtí an chéad chéim, bíonn brú orthu an Béarla a labhairt. Mar gheall ar an rud is tábhachtaí, tá titim ar an líon daoine atá ag labhairt na Gaeilge taobh amuigh den chóras oideachais bliain i ndiaidh bliana. Is teip ollmhór ó thaobh an Rialtais é sin. Tá clanna atá ag iarraidh a chuid páistí a thógáil sa Ghaeltacht ag iarraidh teach a bheith acu sa Ghaeltacht ach níl siad ann. Tá an feachtas BÁNÚ atá ag gearán, mar is ceart, nach bhfuil tithe le fáil sa Ghaeltacht. Luaigh mé an plean a bhí agam le Ráth Chairn cheana. Tá go leor daoine san Uaimh, i nDroichead Átha agus i mBaile Átha Cliath ag iarraidh a chuid páistí a thógáil i nGaeilge.”
“Tá an Stát ag cur brú ar thuismitheoirí agus páistí dul isteach i scoileanna lán-Bhéarla. Tá an t-éileamh ann ach níl an Rialtas ag cur an tsoláthair ar fáil. Tá sé sin dochreidte. Tá 25% de thuismitheoirí ag iarraidh Gaelscolaíocht le haghaidh a gcuid páistí ach tá an Stát ag cur áiteanna scoile ar fáil do 5%. Nach bhfuil an locht ar an Rialtas mar gheall ar an bhfadhb sin?”
“I slí amháin, tá an ceart ag an Aire. Tá dea-scéalta ann anseo agus ansiúd ach, nuair a fheiceann tú an pictiúr iomlán, tá fadhbanna móra ann. Tá an tAire ag caint faoi airgead. Ba mhaith liom maoiniú an Arts Council a chur i gcomparáid leis an airgead a théann go dtí an Ghaeilge. Thar na blianta, mhéadaigh an t-airgead a théann go dtí an Arts Council go mór ach níor choiméadadh an Ghaeilge ar an gcéim chéanna leis. Má chuireann tú Údarás na Gaeltachta i gcomparáid le Fiontar Éireann ná an IDA, feicfidh tú go bhfaigheann siadsan go leor airgid cé nach bhfaigheann an t-údarás ach giota beag airgid. Maidir le cúrsaí oideachais, tá sé dochreidte go bhfuil an líon páistí atá ag freastal ar Ghaelscoileanna ag titim. Tá 25% de thuismitheoirí ag iarraidh a gcuid páistí a sheoladh go dtí Gaelscoil ach níl ach 5% ag freastal orthu.”
“Scríobh Charles Dickens an abairt "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Is féidir an méid céanna a rá mar gheall ar an nGaeilge. Tá go leor fuinnimh sa Ghaeilge ag an mbomaite, go háirithe ar na meáin shóisialta. Tá sé feicthe ag daoine gach lá. Tá go leor suim ag daoine óga inti. Mar gheall ar an Oireachtas, tá go leor fuinnimh ann an bhliain seo freisin ach tá go leor de na rudaí tábhachtacha - an líon daoine atá ag labhairt na Gaeilge sa Ghaeltacht, an líon páistí atá ag déanamh Gaeilge le haghaidh na hardteistiméireachta agus an méid seirbhísí atá le fáil sa Ghaeltacht - ag titim. Tá fadhbanna ollmhóra ann. Cad atá an Rialtas ag déanamh chun é sin a athrú?”
“The Tánaiste needs to ask himself that question. I want to bring this back, if I can, to the individual people who are concerned in this and the case of Kira Carberry, a 22-year-old girl from Longford. She was diagnosed with early onset scoliosis at the age of ten. At that time, she had a thoracic curvature of 45 degrees and was put on an urgent waiting list to see a consultant. That did not happen for 11 months. In that period of 11 months, the curvature more than doubled. While she waited, her thyroid was damaged, which affected her mood. Her lungs were crushed, which left her with lung disease. She struggles with stomach problems, which cause her chronic pain every single day, and she is dependent on medication to deal with that pain.”
“We have heard a lot of nonsense today from the Government about the timing of this debate. This is the Government's motion. We in Aontú promised in August, after the death of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, that we would bring a motion of no confidence at the earliest opportunity. Next week is our earliest opportunity to do that. If the death of a child, the continuous, painful suffering of hundreds of children and the disablement of hundreds of children are not reason enough for a motion of confidence, what the hell is? In all the debates we have all the time in this place, if the continuous dysfunction of an organisation for well over a decade leading to all of this harm and the relationship with that organisation and the Minister in charge is not reason enough for a motion of no confidence, what the hell is?”
“It is absolutely necessary that the Taoiseach can give a commitment to the families today that we are not just going to go through the motions in these actions and that they will mean something. The other aspect of this is accountability has to be imposed on this Government. If there is no cost in terms of these actions by Ministers, there is no change. People are cursed to wake up morning after morning to these situations happening over and over.”
“I asked Simon Harris 13 months ago how many children were taken off the waiting list for scoliosis treatment. Some 13 months later, Simon Harris does not know the answer to that question. That is an incredible situation. The Taoiseach spoke about the folding of CHI into the HSE. I welcome that. It is something we pushed for. I had this debate with the Taoiseach. The truth of the matter is that unless you get to the core of the dysfunction at management level, it is not going to make a whit of difference. I also welcome that there is an investigation into this but the truth of the matter is that so impervious is the management of CHI to transparency on this issue that unless there are tools to force it to come before that investigation and provide papers, it is not worth a hill of beans.”
“Today, we learned in the newspapers that the completion date for this €2.24 billion hospital will be missed for the 16th time, an incredible situation. Next week, we propose to table a motion of accountability. The Government brought forward a motion of confidence to this week. It is a cynical political trick to ensure voters will not be thinking about the Government's abysmal record with these children when they go to the polls in the presidential election. The timescaling of any debate by a government on that basis is absolutely wrong. I ask the Taoiseach to tell the families who have been campaigning that there will be a statutory public inquiry with the power to compel people and parents.”
“CHI has descended into dysfunction over the past decade because of a lack of transparency. Twelve reports have been written about CHI many of which are still not published. Many of them castigate the continuous disaster within that organisation. In 2017, Simon Harris promised that no child would wait longer than four months for an operation. This was not an exceptional promise. It was a promise to implement an international norm. Simon Harris failed in that promise and so too has every single Minister for Health. There is no accountability without a cost for wrongdoing. Real accountability can be the catalyst for change. This is an issue the Government keeps missing. This Government is allergic to accountability. Look at the ballooning of the national children's hospital.”
“The Taoiseach must recognise it is outrageous that parents in such a circumstance have to pour out their grief over and over in the public domain to shock the political system into dealing with this issue. The group also spoke about the toxic management culture in CHI and the bullying of staff and parents. One parent alleged that CHI falsely referred their child to Tusla because that parent was active in seeking treatment for their child. We were told of the spending of taxpayers' money without oversight, the insertion of unauthorised springs into children, hundreds of children going through operations that were not necessary and other hundreds of children on waiting lists. We were told not all of this in the past tense; much is still in the present tense.”
“Yesterday, the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and the families of children affected by the scoliosis crisis gave a presentation in the audiovisual room. Mothers told of the deaths of their children and of the continuous extreme pain many children felt and others told of lungs and stomachs being crushed and their children being disabled for the lack of treatment. Images were shown of rods that were inserted breaking through the skin of the children. We heard about children suffering from infertility and higher rates of cancer because of the lack of treatment. The parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a nine-year-old boy who died during the summer having waited years for an operation, also spoke in the audiovisual room.”
“The Taoiseach mentioned earlier that the electricity price is tied to the price of gas. Again, that is the Government's legislation.”
“Rip-off Ireland is alive and well. I have seen incredible figures that energy prices in Ireland are three times the wholesale price, which is one of the highest gaps in the world. The gap between the retail price and the cost of producing it is again one of the biggest in the world. Electricity companies are failing to pass on savings they are making, and why would they? The ESB is a semi-State, it delivers Government policy, it is one of the biggest players in the market and it is profiteering as well. This is a dysfunctional market. It is the Government’s market and the Government is responsible for it. In response to another TD, the Taoiseach mentioned the €190 million energy support fund, which he said is being paid out. Just €3.9 million of that €190 million has been paid out. That is outrageous.”
“In fact, 200,000 young people have emigrated from this State in the past number of years because the Government has made it impossible for them to afford a home.”
“In its derelict homes plan, the Government is looking to create a new system and maybe legislate next year, a draft inventory for vacant properties maybe in 2027 and maybe create a tax in 2028. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government for the past 15 years and the idea they are planning something that will not come to fruition for four or five years is wrong. They talk about more gardaí, teachers and nurses but where are they going to live? If a nurse and garda marry each other and look to buy a house in the mid-east region, both incomes do not allow them to afford it. Unless the Government gets it together to provide homes, all the talk of new doctors, nurses, teachers and gardaí means nothing.”
“I am talking to builders in Meath at the moment and they are not working. They are not building. They say it is simply not viable for them to build. Having builders at home doing nothing in the middle of a housing crisis is incomprehensible. If the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, thinks the €8,000 benefit just for apartments will effect radical change in relation to housing, he is absolutely wrong. There was nothing in the budget on the 4,000 empty local authority homes. There are 168,000 derelict and empty homes in this country. That is a massive amount. As I said yesterday, having derelict homes in the middle of a housing crisis is the same as exporting food in the middle of a famine. It is absolutely wrong.”
“This budget is a disaster for whole swathes of society. Simply put, people will have less money in their pockets and will have to pay out more. Working families will pay more tax. Commuters will pay higher prices for fuel. Older people will be worse off in terms of purchasing power. Families will have to pay more for heating their homes and will face higher prices. The Government announcement on housing is so frustrating. There was a VAT reduction in terms of construction, but only for apartments which will not be sold en masse to families but, in the main, to property developers and property investment companies for rentals. Do not get me wrong. Aontú supported this cut in VAT for apartments but we wanted the Government to go far further. There should have been a VAT cut right across the construction sector.”
“What do these people get in this budget, however? There is nothing, nada, faic, zilch. The Government was showering its largesse on these individuals within a fortnight of the general election last year. This side of the general election, however, there is nothing for them whatsoever. In many ways, the Government has designed the budget around the election cycle and the needs of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rather than on the economic cycle and the needs of the people. It is an incredible situation. The Irish Wheelchair Association has estimated that people with disabilities will be €1,614 worse off annually because of this year’s budget, pushing those individuals into poverty. It is highly cynical that the Government blatantly buys an election and then the following year drops all of those individuals on which it showered money last year.”
“This time last year, in advance of the general election, the Government injected a sugar rush of once-off measures into the Irish economy, including a double payment for long-term social welfare individuals; €300 for fuel allowance on 4 November; €400 for working family payment on 4 November; €400 for disability invalidity pension and blind pension on 4 November; two double payments for child payment for each child, one on 5 November and the second on 3 December; €200 for the living alone allowance on 11 November; €400 for domiciliary care allowance and the carer’s support grant on 11 November; and €100 for each qualifying child for the qualified child payment on 25 November. Then what happened? On 29 November, there was the general election. This was an incredibly cynical action by the Government.”
“I understand Tusla got an increase of €16 million in terms of its investment. This country has been consumed by the crisis happening in Tusla for the whole of the summer. We have had the State searching for the remains of two small boys. We have 105,000 children who were referred to Tusla this year, 35,000 more than actually sat the leaving certificate. There is a tidal wave of pressure coming on Tusla. Tusla says it needs €400 million extra to be able to do its job. When the next crisis happens, and it will happen, when a child either loses their life or has a significant, radical challenge to their life, we will be in here and people will be speaking in measured tones about how shocking it was, how heartbreaking it is to hear, and how disastrous it is, yet the budget is not being used as a tool to make sure it does not happen again.”
“I want to talk about older people and those living in poverty. A €10 pension increase for older people when inflation has pushed food prices well beyond that is wrong. We need to make sure pensions are indexed to the average wage so they keep apace of the costs older people are dealing with. Meanwhile 200,000 children are currently in poverty. The Government thankfully took a leaf out of Aontú's book. We suggested last year that there should be a second child benefit for those who are in poverty. I am delighted the Government took that idea but it has not been implemented yet. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, said two weeks ago that the Government just has not got it together to put in place what is necessary. It is incredible. Those children are suffering significantly and their futures are hampered as a result. Their potential is reduced.”
“I welcome the tax on derelict houses but note again the low level of ambition. There is an ability deficit, a competency deficit, in the Government when it comes to these issues. The timeline is appalling. The Government is looking to introduce legislation maybe next year, draft up an inventory of vacant properties in 2027 and then introduce a derelict home tax somewhere after that. In provincial towns across the country, especially in the west, the main streets are festooned with empty properties. Empty properties in the middle of a housing crisis is akin to exporting food in the middle of the Famine. It is absolutely wrong. The main streets of towns right across the west, such as Claremorris, are literally falling down because of derelict homes in a housing crisis. It is absolutely wrong.”
“Why should the Government take €54,000 out of the building of any house in a housing crisis? Left, right and centre in every town and parish, builders are not building today in a housing crisis because they cannot make it work for them financially, yet the Government is taking €54,000 typically off an average house in VAT. There is not VAT on the building of homes in the North of Ireland. The Government is driving inflation and driving costs, and preventing the system from working. There are 4,000 empty homes and it takes an average of eight months for them to be flipped and turned around so people can use them. Meanwhile in the private sector, it takes three weeks for a home to be flipped and re-rented so people can use it. Why is that? There is nothing of any depth in this budget in that regard.”
“On Electric Ireland, there are currently dozens if not hundreds of homes across the country that are empty because they cannot get connected to the grid. There are loads of building projects currently not going ahead because they cannot get a connection to the grid. There is no serious investment to make that happen. I welcome the reduction in VAT on apartments. It is going to make a difference of about €8,000 in the building of an apartment. There is a sustainability gap of about €100,000. Closing that gap by €8,000 is not really going to make a significant difference. It is also actually going to help the investors. For Mary and Pat down the road who want to buy a house, this is going to make no difference to them at all. We should have the level of ambition where we scrap VAT completely for the building of homes.”
“They said that by 2050 they will have those gaps finished. In 25 years Uisce Éireann aims to have the gaps that are blocking the building of homes filled, so those homes can be built. Most people, if you told them the housing crisis was going to exist for another ten years, would literally be pulling their hair out. Uisce Éireann is saying it cannot get to grips with the infrastructure problems for another 25 years. The money that has been put into Uisce Éireann is paltry. I could have missed it but I did not see any word of the Apple tax in this budget. It was all the rage before the election but it seems to have fallen off a cliff in terms of investment now when the Government is in business.”
“I want to talk about the issue of housing. I am amazed that we have had a crisis of such enormity yet there is such lack of ambition in terms of the Government responding to this crisis. We have among the slowest planning and permit systems in the European Union. We have one of the slowest tendering systems in the EU. We have judicial reviews to beat the band to stall major projects. There is nothing in this budget in terms of reforming the whole process which is grinding the building of homes to a halt. Then there is the issue of Uisce Éireann and Electric Ireland. Uisce Éireann was in the infrastructure committee a couple of months ago. I asked the officials how long it would take Uisce Éireann to fill the gaps that exist in the water infrastructure that are currently blocking the building of homes.”
“One of the replies that came back was amazing, that €74 million has been spent on commissioning reviews in this country, reviews that often do not even get read or are sometimes not even published, and often just remain on a dusty shelf. This budget is promising €21 million extra for the running of the Oireachtas, and nothing in it about tillage, farmers who are at the pin of their collar in terms of the costs they are suffering and the lack of prices they are getting for their product. Parliamentarians can vote themselves €21 million for the running costs of the Oireachtas. Some €1.3 million was spent by the Department of agriculture to get UCD to conduct a review into Ireland's dog population numbers. The level of reviews, publications and reports is astounding and the money being spent on them is absolutely massive.”
“For most families, a budget includes the income that comes in, but also what goes out, and in terms of what goes out, many families are forced to make efficiencies to make sure they can make ends meet. This Government will not even do that. That blinding lack of focus on waste is a disaster for this Government. I have said it before, but if either the Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, or the Tánaiste, Deputy Harris, were employed by a private business, they would be fired right now because of the level of waste that is happening in Irish society. It is extremely frustrating. I put in a number of parliamentary questions recently.”
“That is where the Government needs to change in relation to this. One of the big problems I have - and I do not think any political party has mentioned this yet - is the single lack of desire in this budget to deal with waste. Waste has been one of the most defining elements of this Government over the past ten years. This Government has become allergic to accountability and responsibility. As a result, we have seen so many projects balloon in cost in our time from the national children's hospital down to the last news report of the €100,000 bike shed for the National Maternity Hospital. However, there is nothing in this to say that the Government is going to fix the problem and save money for the State.”
“I am from a constituency where the Government promised a rail line for the past 20 years. It is still not in place. People would love to ditch the car and get onto the train to get to work, but the Government will not provide it. People are crying out for solar panels, but it costs €10,000 to put solar panels on their roofs. People are looking to get their houses deep retrofitted, but it can cost €30,000 to €40,000 to get that deep retrofit in their homes. People would love to buy electric cars, but they are significantly more expensive. Instead of using the carrot in terms of changing people's behaviours when it comes to climate change, this Government is following on from where the Green Party left off. It is the tax stick to beat change into people. It is wrong. It is hurting people, and it is not fair.”
“This was highest ever in the history of this State in the jaws of a cost-of-living crisis. It is an incredible thing. Usually, governments reduce the pressure on families who are suffering from the cost-of-living crisis, but this Government went in the opposite direction. On the carbon tax, it is an incredible situation. The carbon tax is being increased this year again. Last year, carbon tax took in about €1.1 billion. It is going to be increased again this year. The Government says it has no other option and it wants to change people's behaviour around climate change, but there is more than one way of changing people's behaviours. The Government does not need to use a stick all the time to change people's behaviours in terms of climate change. People are crying out for public transport, but they cannot get it in their local communities.”
“-----and this year they will retrench on it. One of the major problems with this Government is that it is focusing on the actual cycle itself. Post-election budget hammers the middle-income earners. Instead of the promised tax cuts the Government mentioned, for middle Ireland there is a tax increase today. It is an incredible situation. Instead of the cuts to student fees, there is a fee increase today. Instead of a once-off energy credit for families suffering from the cost-of-living crisis, there is a carbon tax increase today. The Government is going in the opposite direction in terms of the promises it made last November. One of the biggest problems of the Government is that it is one of the key drivers of the cost-of-living crisis. Last year, the Government took in €4.1 billion in fuel taxes.”
“Basically, there is no need to spend because they got the votes that were necessary to get them into these leather seats-----”
“It is important because we had an individual whose job it was to be the director of elections of that campaign and who was also at the time expected to produce a budget. That individual, and the truth be known, went through a serious crisis while trying to introduce a budget. That is a mistake. It is a mistake in relation to making sure that this issue of budgetary development is so important. It should have the full attention of an individual and not what has happened over the past number of weeks. In many ways, this is a post-election budget. Budgets are usually designed to fit the economic cycle, but what we are seeing here is a budget that is suiting the electoral cycle. This time last year, we were all listening to all the different promises of a giveaway budget but here we see retrenchment in the Government's budgetary plans.”
“Budget 2026 is remarkably flat. It is a budget without vision. It is absent of ideas and innovation. The budget looks like it was written by a senior civil servant just looking to keep the system ticking over. I imagine maybe that is what happened because the Minister, Deputy Chambers, was too busy. He was involved in the omnishambles of the presidential election campaign.”
“There is a law currently that states that the carriage of munitions of war through Irish airspace without permission from the Minister for Transport is a criminal offence punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. We should be pulling every single lever to make sure we have an immediate response to actual events that are leading to the deaths of men, women and children in Gaza, yet we are not seeing that immediacy. We are seeing prevarication in relation to actual steps that we could take now.”
“I have a couple of questions. Will the Tánaiste give a date for the occupied territories Bill? He mentioned the complexities in relation to Israeli arms flights over Ireland. There is a danger that people can hide behind complexities. The Ditch has reported that the Irish State authorities in the last two months have assisted FedEx flights flying through Irish territory as they illegally carried F-35 combat jet parts to an Israel Defense Forces air base. The F-35 fighter jets have dropped 900 kg bombs on Gaza. It is a significant issue that our Defence Forces and our territory would facilitate these flights happening. If The Ditch can get to the heart of the contents of those flights, it is very hard to see that the Irish Government cannot actually put a stop to this or at least use the current law.”