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upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”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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“A representative of CHI said in an interview that there will be more intensive care beds in that hospital, but in the same interview could not say that those beds will actually be opened when the doors of the hospital are opened. The interviewee said that they do not know exactly when those new beds will be open. There is no clear timescale for those beds to be open, to change the situation where hundreds of children are having their operations cancelled. Give us a clear timescale today and we will believe the Minister.”
“I put it to the Minister that these are not "challenges", these are hundreds of children who have been damaged because of wrongdoing in these hospitals under the Government's remit. The word "appalling" does not equate to accountability. They are not the same thing. The Minister standing up here and saying how shocked she is does not change things at all. A mother was on "Prime Time" during the week discussing the fact that numerous reports have been written regarding similar situations, with dozens of recommendations, but have simply never been implemented. The parents do not trust the Government to get this right. The Minister spoke about this being "a priority". A new national children's hospital is being built.”
“Fine Gael stated that they wanted to make Ireland the best country in Europe to be a child, but presumably that does not apply if they are sick, if they are waiting for surgery, or if they need a scoliosis operation. How does a child developing a curvature in his or her back of up to 125° achieve that goal? How does an unapproved, experimental spring put into a child achieve that goal? How does an unnecessary operation for a child achieve that particular goal? We in Aontú have raised the issue of accountability so many times in this Chamber. Why can the Government not move from recognising there is a crisis to implementing accountability? Will the Government remove the board of CHI or will it allow it to remain in place after such devastation to so many children?”
“That alone is a scandal of enormous proportions. In the last two weeks we have heard reports of hundreds of unnecessary hip operations carried out in two Dublin hospitals, with 79% of the hip operations carried out in Cappagh hospital and 60% of the operations carried out in Temple Street simply not meeting the threshold necessary for the surgery. As the Minister can imagine, those parents are sick to the stomach about what happened. When the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, was Minister for Health, he promised that no child would have to wait for more than four months for a scoliosis operation, yet today children are waiting for up to three and a half years for that operation.”
“I repeat that there have been 161 cancelled surgeries for children in just the last three years. It is an incredible figure. There was no clinical reason for the cancellation of these surgeries. The surgeons were there and they were ready. The operating theatres were ready. The equipment was ready. The very sick children were fixed for the surgery but there were simply no beds for these children to recover in. It is an absolute scandal. We have just come from Covid-19 when the talk was about the necessity for intensive care beds in this country. CHI has been in the news for many other reasons in the last couple of weeks. There was the implementation of unapproved non-CE marked springs, which were put into children and which were made from corrosive material, resulting in significant pain, suffering and stress for those innocent children.”
“Information released to Aontú in response to a parliamentary question in recent days has shown that in the last three years, Children's Health Ireland, CHI, has cancelled more than 160 operations for children in Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals due to the lack of intensive care beds. These are cancellations for very serious operations for children who are very sick. Nine of these cancellations were for heart operations for children. Ten cancellations were for children needing serious orthopaedic surgery. There are just 23 paediatric intensive care beds in Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, and just nine in Temple Street. Many of these children and their families have waited years for what in some cases is lifesaving surgery, only to get the heartbreaking news that the surgeries have been cancelled.”
“We propose that the best retaliation would be no retaliation for the moment for the Irish economy because a retaliation from the European side will also put Ireland in major difficulty. We are asking the Government to get real and make sure there is an urgency on this issue. Thousands of Irish jobs and the incomes of so many people are under threat. The Government needs to get active now.”
“With this crisis looming, probably one of the biggest existential crises threatening this country and our economy, it took Aontú to be the first to put in on the Dáil agenda. It is so frustrating that we are here on the day these tariffs have been implemented and we still do not have a finance committee or a public expenditure committee or a Good Friday Agreement committee to deal with the North-South elements of this. The political establishment has spent more time in dysfunction in the past few weeks than in preparing for this particular crisis. What we are doing now is urging this Government to take a stronger role in negotiating with the United States and with the EU. We are asking the Government to make sure there is a policy of de-escalation within the EU.”
“The Irish people have paid 47% of the cost of that economic crash even though we were 1% of it. Another example is the Mercosur deal. The Mercosur deal is an international trade deal based on the needs of German car manufacturers and not on the basis of those of Irish farmers. When there are competitive interests within the EU, we often do not get the right shakedown with regard to needs. That is why it is really important that we do the necessary negotiations with the US. The reality is Ireland could actually be a bridge between the US and the EU in this particular crisis. The other issue I wish to raise is that it is incredible that this is the first time the crisis around the tariffs has been put on the Dáil agenda.”
“Another element of this motion is to ask the Government to do more in terms of negotiating with the US and strengthening our case. Other than today's meeting with Lutnik and a couple of conversations that Ministers have had with Republican parliamentarians in the United States, there is very little evidence of real diplomatic efforts to make Ireland's case to the US Administration in the matter the Government should. That is not unusual because this Government outsources most things to the EU in many ways. The difficulty is that although the EU was good for Ireland in the Brexit negotiations, it was poor for Ireland in the context of the financial crash 15 years ago. It made decisions on the basis of the needs of Germany, France and Italy and not on the needs of the Irish people.”
“That is the first thing. The second issue is that we obviously need to develop FDI but we also need to develop indigenous enterprise and the way to do that is to make sure first of all that input costs are low. Input costs in this country are massively high. They are threatening indigenous and FDI business at a big rate. The other issue is that there are, or should be ,other competitive advantages in this country, such as transport, housing, communications and education, but the Government has been incompetent in its delivery in all those areas over the past two decades. That has weakened our suite of competitive advantages and narrowed our emphasis on the corporation tax element, which again has put us in the sights of the US. We need to do more.”
“Ten individuals control 40% of the corporation tax coming into this country. Corporation tax is the second biggest tax in the State. It makes up 27% of the tax receipts. That is a massive exposure. It is a very narrow tax base. It means that if decisions are made by those ten individuals, it creates a big hole in our budget.”
“-----in which it makes sure indigenous enterprise is also thriving. That is a big problem. The Government has massively exposed Ireland by not developing indigenous enterprise in recent years. It has created a weakness in the Irish sector. I will give an example if the Minister of State and the Minister will stop shaking their heads for two seconds. Ten CFOs control 40% of the corporation tax coming into this country.”
“I am aware that the Government is going to state it has changed the corporation tax system and accepted the OECD’s best formula on corporation tax; however, truth told, the Government was pulled in that direction kicking and screaming. At meetings of the finance committee, I sat in front of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers who were absolutely against the idea of changing and regularising our corporation taxes to make them more internationally fair. Corporation taxes are very important.”
“We need to provide export-diversification supports and ensure relevant firms have the ability to hold on to staff if they go through a period in which income has collapsed. We need to create a sectoral task force where relevant stakeholders, including employers and trade unions, can start to steer its direction. Those stakeholders would have far more knowledge about their own sectors than most people in this House. We need to continue to attract FDI but we really need to develop stronger indigenous enterprise, which is less mobile and less likely to leave the country. We need to reduce our reliance on corporation taxes by properly investing in other competitive advantages, such as those associated with transport, housing, communications, energy, water and education infrastructure.”
“There was a danger regarding bourbon and Irish whiskey, and I am thankful for the efforts the Government has made to knock bourbon off the retaliation target list from the EU perspective. We need to significantly increase Ireland’s diplomatic footprint in Washington DC and the Republican political party. Most of Ireland’s influence over recent years has been on the Democrats. It has been weaker in respect of the Republican Party, and we in Aontú are reaching out to that party at the moment. We also need to increase the staffing of the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union, which is not at the level that is necessary at present. We need to develop what I would say are Covid- or Brexit-magnitude supports for indigenous businesses to ensure they are ready in those sectors most hit in terms of exports.”
“We also need to understand what the US wants. The US has a perception that there is a significant trade imbalance with the EU. We have to address that perception to be able to properly negotiate with the US. We also need the EU to be pragmatic and de-escalate. An escalation would be massively damaging to this country. The EU cannot out-bravado Donald Trump. Donald Trump is unencumbered by common sense, political pressure and international convention, so the idea that we can somehow out-bravado him on this, given that he has launched a 104% tariff on China, is absolutely wrong. I actually believe the best retaliation is no retaliation until we properly negotiate what the EU does. We also need to ensure the EU does not make targets of Irish sectors for retaliatory tariffs.”
“They want low-cost inputs, to be able to transport their products with ease in and out of the market, to be able to communicate properly with the rest of the world, to be able to ensure red tape and bureaucracy do not hamper their development, a good investment environment within the economy, and well-educated people. If most businesses have these, they will be happy to do business in a location. However, we do not have them. The main frustration for so many people has been the incompetence of the Irish Government in making sure the infrastructure in this regard is built. What we are looking for in this motion is simply for Ireland to take a far stronger negotiation stance with the US Administration. Aontú and I believe Ireland could be a bridge between the US and the EU in terms of the negotiation.”
“Ireland has an incredibly unbalanced economy, so we really need to develop our indigenous sector. We need to build a strong one that is able to compete internationally so we do not have the weakness in the future. How do you build a strong indigenous sector? One of the first things you do is make Ireland a good place to do business. Right now, Ireland is extremely expensive. Irish electricity prices are the highest in Europe and that is hurting foreign direct investors and indigenous businesses alike. Ireland has endless capacity shortages. We have shortages in key infrastructure, from housing and energy to transportation, and these represent competitive disadvantages in business. Most businesses will tell you they want a number of things.”
“Considering that corporation tax now represents 27% of the Irish net tax intake and is the second biggest head in tax receipts, and that ten individuals determine 40% of the corporation tax paid, it is startling that we would have such a narrow tax base. We are here all the time listening to the Government on the need to broaden the tax base, yet the reality is that it has become narrower and we have become significantly dependent in our budgetary expenditure on that narrow tax base. That shows how under threat our expenditure will be if we lose the significant elements of the corporation taxes. For sure, manufacturing companies will not leave overnight, but much of the corporation tax is paid on intellectual property and already we are seeing a reduction in intellectual property in Ireland.”
“It is true that Ireland’s membership of the EU attracts FDI, that Ireland’s being an English-speaking country is useful to US firms and that Ireland has had a well-educated workforce, but the primary tool Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have used to attract FDI has been the provision of bargain-basement corporation taxes over the years. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made this country a tax haven. In fact, Ireland is considered by the Tax Justice Network to have leapfrogged the Bahamas to become the ninth most significant tax haven, according to its ranking. That makes us a target of the US because Trump sees our corporation tax rate as a threat to his economic model. Let me show how precarious the situation with corporation taxes is. Ten CFOs are responsible for 40% of the corporation tax paid in Ireland. That is an incredible figure.”
“Typically, a developing country would use the FDI to bring in capital and expertise to be able to grow its economy so it can then develop a strong indigenous enterprise. That has not happened. That second element of government policy has never really happened in this country. As a result, Ireland is very much exposed to the movement of FDI. Indigenous enterprise is stickier, less mobile and less likely to leave this country if the prevailing wind changes. Foreign direct investors are far more likely to leave. One of the other threats to this country concerns corporation taxes. Again, the Government has really focused on a very small basket of competitive advantages, and that basket contains, primarily, low corporation taxes.”
“The economic vista facing this country is significantly poorer. Unless there is a resolution of this, we could be a looking at a situation not too dissimilar from the economic crash in 2008. We could be looking at situations where we are talking about reduced taxation receipts, reduced public expenditure and the word "austerity" word could be used in the next two or three years. This is how deadly serious the situation we are in at the moment is. I mentioned FDI and so on but one of the things we have to do is use this situation as an opportunity to reset the Irish economy to a certain extent. I said that FDI was good but FDI is normally used as a transitional economic policy by developing countries.”
“I want to say very clearly that FDI is good, FDI has a significant positive effect in this country and FDI should be nurtured but our dependency on the FDI sector has put us in this over-exposure situation at the moment. We have another difficult aspect to consider here and that is the all-Ireland economy. As there are now two different tariffs in both parts of Ireland, that means we have an added complexity. In recent years, we have tried to navigate through the Windsor Framework to make sure the all-Ireland economy can function but now we will have a situation where whiskey from Cork has one tariff while whiskey from Antrim has another tariff. There are many enterprises along the Border that have integrated supply chains, which really makes it very difficult to understand how these companies will be dealt with in terms of these tariffs.”
“Anybody who studied economics for the leaving certificate or in university will have learned all about the fact we are very exposed to international trade as well. This increase in global tariffs will affect international trade in a significant fashion. It is estimated that there is a 60% chance of a global recession and this will hurt Ireland hard. There is no doubt in my mind that we are exposed significantly because of the economy that has been build by generations of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments. The indigenous sector has been the poor relation of enterprise development over the last number of decades and, as a result, we have a massive exposure to FDI.”
“Ireland exported €223 billion of goods last year and a third of these exports, €72 billion, went to the United States of America, of which €58 billion were made up of pharmaceuticals and chemicals. This is an enormous exposure. It is interesting if you compare and contrast our exports to the rest of the EU. We exported €81 billion worth of goods to the EU in 2023. The EU is our biggest trading partner but it is not that far off where our trade with the United States is. There is only 12% of a difference. The Irish economy, as it is currently structured, is significantly integrated into the US economy. Ireland is in real danger and in serious trouble if this escalates. Escalation is the enemy of the Irish economy in the trade war with the United States. We are not only exposed to the US. We are, by our nature, a small, open economy.”
“Maroš Šefčovič has threatened to create an EU anti-coercion instrument, the ACI, which could have an enormous affect on US businesses, their services to the EU and their access to public procurement tenders in the future. In fairness to him, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Harris, rightly stated this would be the nuclear option in terms of the tariffs imposed on the world. Ireland is the most exposed country in the European Union to the United States's tariffs. We have seen a reprieve for pharma so far, but the pharmaceutical sector was targeted again in the rhetoric of Donald Trump last night, which means it is very likely to be hit by a significant tariff in the near future. A full scale tariff war would affect Ireland disproportionately.”
“Trump's global tariffs come into effect today in many parts of the world and the size and breadth of those tariffs are eye-watering. Absolutely nobody in this Chamber would have believed we would be looking at the size of the tariffs being implemented today. The idea that a 104% tariff is being placed on goods from China into the US is absolutely startling. It completely eviscerates the world economic order for the last 30 or 40 years. The EU is now facing 25% tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium, and the so-called reciprocal tariffs on all other EU goods of 20%. This creates an enormous challenge for so many Irish businesses.”
“I am proud to move the first Aontú Private Members' motion in the Dáil this morning. We have decided to use our time as best we can in an effort to make sure we fight for Irish jobs, which are in significant difficulty, fight for the standard of living for families and fight for the economic health of our country. All of these issues are in grave danger today. I believe this is a dark day for world history. It is definitely a dark day for the Irish economy and it has been a shock to many people as to how little time the political establishment has spend on this particular issue since the election. It looks like this particular issue has been eclipsed, in many ways, by the chaos in the Dáil over the last number of months.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises that: — Ireland is the most exposed country in the European Union (EU) to a United States (US) tariffs war, and while a reprieve has been given to the pharma sector, the landing zone on tariffs is still not known; — a full-scale tariff war will affect Ireland disproportionately, and while Ireland exported €223.8 billion of goods and services last year, one third of these exports, €72 billion, went to the US, of which €58 billion of this is made up of pharmaceuticals and chemicals; — Ireland is a small open economy, and a fall in international trade, precipitated by the increase in global tariffs, will hit Ireland hard; — Ireland is potentially facing a fall in employment and job creation, leaving many indigenous businesses, especially in the agri-food sector and drinks sector, badly hit; — corporation taxes are likely to fall, and future public spending is in real danger; and — the all-Ireland economy and the Windsor Framework will face significant challenges with differing tariff regulations on each side of the border, and products with integrated North–South supply chains will face major difficulties; acknowledges that: — Ireland's economy is unbalanced, and Ireland is heavily reliant on the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector and has a small, weak indigenous enterprise sector; — Ireland has become a very expensive location to do business and has the most expensive net electricity prices in the EU; — Irish firms seeking to grow are often located outside of Ireland; and — Ireland has capacity shortages in many key infrastructure areas, from housing to transport to energy; and calls on the Government to: — take a stronger and more direct role in negotiating with the US administration, as the stated objective of the US administration is to reduce the perceived trade imbalance between the US and the EU, and seek if this can be addressed while protecting the Irish economy; — demand that the EU pursues a pragmatic policy of de-escalation; — ensure that the EU does not make retaliatory tariff decisions that makes a target for the US of key Irish enterprise sectors; — significantly increase Ireland's diplomatic footprint in Washington DC, with the Republican Party in the US, and in the office of Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU; — develop Covid-19/Brexit magnitude supports for indigenous enterprise sectors that will be worst hit, providing export and market diversification supports, and provide increased grant funding for increased research, development and innovation; — create sectoral taskforces to include relevant stakeholders, including employers and trade unions, and provide adequate income supports to workers who lose their jobs; — continue to attract and support FDI, but also start to develop a stronger indigenous enterprise sector which is less mobile and less likely to move out of Ireland; — reduce the reliance of corporation tax in Ireland's enterprise policy by investing in other competitive advantages, such as transport, housing, communications, energy, water and education infrastructure; — reduce input costs to businesses, such as electricity, property, banking, insurance, and other utility costs; — review non-human resource regulation on indigenous enterprise, with a view to cutting unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy, which will simplify and speed up the planning process, and improve investment opportunities for growing Irish firms; — create a better regional and spatial delivery of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland investments; and — reinstate the Oireachtas Joint Committees on Enterprise, Trade and Employment and on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach immediately.”
“For 50 weeks of the year, this heated swimming pool is not being used by anybody. This is an example of the Government's approach. It is largesse for the political establishment and it is charges and belt-tightening for citizens. It is incredible that the Government has squirrelled away vast sums of money in recent years while there are so many capacity constraints within Irish society. We hear the Government is looking to spend €10 billion piping water from the Parteen basin into Dublin at the moment. Currently, there is a 37% leakage rate from the pipes in Dublin. We are going to spend €10 billion piping water from the Parteen basin to allow 37% of that water just to disappear through leaks. It is absolutely wrong. The Government must desist.”
“A person earning ten times more can pay the same in water charges as someone on a much lower income. As the Minister will know, Aontú has been running a campaign against excessive Government waste for a number of months and as part of that campaign we have been putting in questions to the OPW. A recent reply we received from the OPW to parliamentary question we tabled stated that there was a nice heated swimming pool in Farmleigh. We asked how many times this swimming pool had been used and, of course, the Minister responsible for the OPW did not know. However, we then found out that Farmleigh only receives two delegations of visitors a year. We know that for 50 weeks a year Farmleigh is empty of its objective purpose, that is, to provide hospitality for delegations.”
“This was badly needed investment that should have gone into capital infrastructure. For a Government to do something so stupid once is shocking, but for another Government to even consider repeating such a mistake is absolutely unforgivable. The major reason I have for being against water charges is simply ability to pay. In the 1780s, economists decided that one of the best ways to introduce a tax was to say that the more you earn, the more you pay. They created the idea of a progressive tax. Here we are, nearly 250 years later, and Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents in government still do not seem to understand that key element. Water charges are ignorant of people's ability to pay. They are ignorant of family sizes and of disability.”
“Aontú is completely opposed to water charges. I was proud to be the chair of the Meath Right2Water campaign that fought alongside men and women across the country to protect families from the worst excesses of water charges ten years ago. It is incredible that the Government is considering revisiting water charges. The Fine Gael and Labour Party Government that previously tried to introduce water charges squandered more than €1 billion trying to implement them. This included €550 million spent on the installation of water meters. It also included the conservation grant of over €94 million. We must not forget the €5 million used to administer refunding the water charges. That Fine Gael-Labour Party Government literally flushed hundreds of millions of euro in taxpayers' money down the drain.”
“All I am saying is that we need to match urgency within the Department to the level of crisis that exists in the real world for very many people. We need the State to go through the system, make sure it is done properly and carefully and protect taxpayers' money, but I want the Minister of State to inject significant urgency into the process. For people who are currently living in hotel accommodation or emergency hubs, life is urgent. They need to get out of those hubs and into a home, have their own front door, have the protection of their own home and be able to get on with their lives.”
“Aontú put in freedom of information, FOI, requests to each of the local authorities and found there were 4,000 empty local authority homes in the country. If those 4,000 empty local authority homes were brought back into use, they would be enough to house the total 15,600 people who are currently homeless. We found that it is taking on average eight months to get those local authority homes back into use, while it takes less than two months to get private rental accommodation back into use. This is the key. While the Minister of State set out the criteria that have to be gone through to get those back into use, the State is incredibly cumbersome, slow and bureaucratic about getting them back into use.”
“It is not just the OPW. It involves many departments, including the HSE and the Departments of agriculture and Justice. Hundreds of properties and parcels of land owned by the State are vacant, many for decades.”
“I welcome the sales of those properties. That is a good thing, but the Minister must admit that on a day when 15,600 people are homeless, the idea that one Department would have 45 vacant properties is absolutely wrong. The OPW is involved in a total of 450 lease agreements which concern approximately 374 properties. We have seen the OPW lease property from Larry Goodman where someone measured it incorrectly and the taxpayer is paying rent for space that does not even exist, which is quite incredible. That was before the Minister of State's time in the Department. Having vacant properties in a housing crisis is akin to exporting food in the middle of a famine. It is absolutely wrong and what I missed in the Minister of State's response was any real sense of urgency to offload the 45 properties and make sure they were brought into use.”
“The might also mention the Midleton flood defences, which have been mooted since 2017. My understanding is that the planning application has still not been processed. It is a real life and death issue for the people of Midleton. Vacant property during a housing crisis is one of the biggest problems I have with this Government. This and the previous Governments are the biggest hoarders of vacant property in the State, believe it or not. Last month, the OPW wrote to me stating it had 67 vacant properties. What efforts are being made to get those vacant properties back into use or to sell them so they can be brought back into use?”
“We also have a situation where €300 million has been spent on metro north and not one shovel has been put into the ground. People at home are so frustrated with the fact that their hard-earned taxpayers' money is being incinerated and is not achieving the public infrastructure they so badly need.”
“Bureaucracy does not create accountability. Accountability is an issue that is created if there is a cost to an individual for making a mistake over and over again that costs the State. I very clearly asked what the total overruns in public infrastructure projects were. The accountability to the Dáil has not achieved an answer on that here and now. I also asked what overruns were happening in public projects at present that the public did not yet know about. It is important that we put this question in shining neon lights because the Department knows about cost overruns that it will not tell people about yet. That is a real problem for transparency and accountability. We have a situation where 100 Dublin Bus electric buses did not move an inch because somebody forgot to put in a planning application for a charger.”
“This means that it is costing some €750,000 per delegation. The house is empty for most of the year. This level of waste would not be acceptable in any other location in the country, yet it is allowed to happen under the Minister's watch.”
“The process is clearly not working because we are coming down with cost overruns left, right and centre. One of the reasons for this is that the Government is allergic to accountability and has been for a long time. Even when answering a simple question here on the actual cost overruns over the past five years, this level of accountability is refused. The Minister has not even answered the question that was put on today's Question Paper. Farmleigh House, for example, is another project we in Aontú have been researching. It was bought and refurbished for some €52 million. Over the past 24 years, it has received approximately 70 delegations that have stayed there. That is an average of three per year. Farmleigh House is empty for approximately 48 weeks a year. In the past ten years, only two delegations, on average, have visited annually.”
“The previous Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments had a reputation for incinerating public money through wastefulness in public projects. We have numerous examples, from the Gucci bicycle shed to the WRC wall, to the national children's hospital, to the ventilators that never worked. The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, does not have that reputation and I think he could bring change to the Department. What cost overruns does the Department know about that the Minister has not told the public about yet?”
“What specific efforts are we involved in to try to put pressure on the United States to ensure pharma does not become part of the landing zone?”
“Obviously, this is bad news for Ireland - there is no doubt about that. While the pharma sector seems to have been given a reprieve for the moment, which is a blessing, the secondary effect of tariffs internationally will be a dampening effect on the world economy. We are a small, open economy and will be very sensitive to that. That will have a significant effect on our tax take - both on corporate taxes and, potentially, a shrinking job market here in the future. The best thing for the European Union to do at the moment is to de-escalate the situation because an escalating tariff war does not suit Ireland. What real efforts is the Government making to negotiate directly with the US on this? I understand it is a European competency in many ways but we have a leverage in the US that many European countries do not have.”
“When you create that situation, it is ripe for complaints, conflict and difficulties. When that relationship between local communities breaks down, it is a major difficulty. In recent years, we have also seen a significant number of decisions made by the Government that had an authoritarian element to them and affected certain elements of society in a significant way. I am thinking of the fact that Ireland had the most severe restrictions of any European country during the period of Covid when we took civil liberties away from individuals. I remember a picture on television of young people who had been having pints on South William Street being marched off the street by gardaí in full riot gear. It was an incredible situation. We have to improve the numbers and relationship to make sure we do not have a conflict.”
“Ireland has the lowest of number of police per capita in the whole of the European Union, and for the past five years, the number of gardaí has fallen significantly. That is even before you take into consideration the population increases that have happened in the State. In terms of the Garda's footprint right across the country, we know there is a serious problem with the Garda retreating into the big towns and away from small towns. Towns like Ballivor, Longwood, Summerhill, Athboy and Oldcastle in County Meath that had their own functioning Garda station for maybe 100 years now find they are either closed or they have a garda for five hours on a Saturday. That is an absolute disgrace. There are approximately 56 Garda stations under the new figures that do not have an assigned Garda.”
“The nature of policing is radically changing in this country. There is absolutely no doubt about that. That relationship between citizens and the Garda is actually crumbling. Much of the Garda's authority over decades has been the fact that gardaí have been able to work in partnership with positive relationships with local communities. That has meant the level of difficulties that have come to pass between police and citizens has been relatively low in Ireland compared to other European countries. There has not been the same level of conflict in this State, typically, with the Garda as there can be in certain other countries with their own police forces. We have seen a significant fall in the number of gardaí over the past number of years.”
“There is not a committee functioning in this Dáil at the moment. No wonder we cannot build a hospital in this country without the prices ballooning out of control. No wonder there is not a house for a young person, and that young people have to emigrate to actually get a house. It is beyond time that we cop on to ourselves in this Chamber and see can we work to fix those issues. This issue has eclipsed the biggest existential economic threats to this economy, which are the tariffs, in the past number of weeks. We dearly need to listen to the people outside of this bubble, and we need to cop on to ourselves fast.”