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upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”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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“In other words, the Government majority on a committee will simply not facilitate the Bill moving to Committee Stage to allow it to proceed. If that happens, it will be absolutely shocking. One of the barriers to this Bill - it is the same as the barrier to a united Ireland - is that some political parties see these steps as a threat to their own party interests. Some political parties put their party interests ahead of the national interest on these issues. Before partition was introduced, Liam Mellows stated that if partition was introduced, two establishments would grow on either side of the Border that would depend on the Border for their power and the removal of the Border would threaten their ability to govern, and so it has come to pass in many ways.”
“The majority of Irish citizens, when polled, say over and over again that they support a united Ireland. This Bill does not even go that far. It is an incremental step along the way, but it does not go that far. My understanding is that the Government is not going to oppose the Bill on Second Stage. I welcome that. It is wonderful that the Government is not going to oppose it. I urge the Government to join in a cross-party effort to speedily get this legislation through the Oireachtas in the next year. Sometimes, it is the practice of the Government not to oppose something that is popular. We often see that the best way for a Government to say "No" is to say "Yes" and then do nothing about it. My worry is that this Bill will get through Second Stage but then languish just before it gets into committee.”
“If there is a wrong in relation to people not being given the right to vote in the North of Ireland, that wrong lies on the shoulders of the people here. It is over 100 years since the Irish Boundary Commission. If the Minister of State knows her history, she will know that the Boundary Commission was just one in a long list of bitter blows against Northern nationalists in terms of participating in Ireland. It shut the door to Northern nationalists playing a democratic role here. Surely, it is now time, 100 years later, for us to open that door to these citizens to be able to vote in this country. From what I know, Fine Gael supports a united Ireland. It is my understanding that every party in this Dáil currently supports a united Ireland. For some people, Irish unity is for some time in the future. For Aontú, we support it now.”
“Often, we talk about the constitutional situation in the North of Ireland as, when nationalists gain something, it in some way takes a right from our unionist brothers and sisters. This Bill does not do that in any sense. It does not remove anything from our unionist brothers and sisters. It simply adds to the rights of Irish people. On most of the constitutional questions that we discuss, debate or converse on in the Dáil, we talk about not having the ability to do it. However, the crazy thing is that the power for this change lies not in Westminster or Stormont, but here in Leinster House. It is we who can make the change in law to create the constitutional right for people to have a referendum on this issue. This is in our gift.”
“They can win a presidential election. They can actually be the President of this country, but they cannot vote in presidential elections. Mary McAleese is the perfect example in this regard. Would the Minister of State deny Mary McAleese's Irishness? Would she say that she is less Irish than she or I because of where she was born and raised? I am sure the Minister of State would not do so. Yet, in a legal and democratic sense, we do exactly that to well over 700,000 passport holders in the North of Ireland. Irish citizens from the North of Ireland can join the Irish Army. They can fight and die for Ireland but they do not have the right to vote in a democratic election on the island of Ireland. That is an affront. It is wrong and it needs to be changed. The legislation that we in Aontú have put forward is not a zero-sum Bill.”
“Hundreds of thousands of citizens who were born in Ireland, who live in Ireland, who play Gaelic games and who hold Irish passports are refused the right to vote. In many ways, this is an affront to the Good Friday Agreement, which states that citizens in the North of Ireland have the right to Irish citizenship. The Good Friday Agreement has been in place since 1998 but we still have not implemented the spirit of it in the intervening period. I ask the Minister of State to imagine the sheer joy of Irish citizens in the North of Ireland if they were able to cast a vote in an all-Ireland election for the first time since 1918 and the sheer joy she would afford them if they were allowed to do so. Shockingly, a person from the North of Ireland can campaign in a presidential election. They can put their name forward for election as President.”
“Indeed, the last time Irish citizens in the North of Ireland got a chance to vote in an all-Ireland election was in 1918. That is an incredible fact. This Bill should not be underestimated. I ask the Minister of State to imagine circumstances in which she, as a passport holder and an Irish citizen, did not have or was denied the right to vote in a presidential election. Imagine if it was not just her but also her family and entire constituency that was refused the right to vote in a presidential election. I imagine she would be furious. She would see that as a massive attack on and affront to her democratic rights. Yet, that is exactly what is happening in the North of Ireland at present.”
“Tairgim: “Go léifear an Bille an Dara hUair anois." I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am delighted to be able to introduce this Bill in the House today. It is a good-news story. The Bill simply seeks to extend the democratic franchise, the right to vote, to all Irish citizens across the country in presidential elections. This is no small thing at all. Enfranchising 1 million Irish citizens is massively important. It is historic in many ways. This Bill would have significant consequences. To put it in context, the last time we saw a Bill affecting the franchise on this island at this level was in 1918. The last time that any legislation was passed to give the right to vote to a section of Irish citizens across the country was over 100 years ago.”
“The Government has a role in this supply chain in terms of the taxes and tolls it is putting on hauliers and the fact that we have an oligopoly, a small number of supermarkets where there is very little competition in terms of the price of products.”
“The food situation is incredible. Ireland is now the second most expensive country in the whole of the European Union. It is 15% higher than the average EU price in relation to food. Compared to just five years ago, shopping for groceries costs 40% more. A trolley that used to cost €150 is now €225. People are paying an extra €3,000 a year for exactly the same groceries. Chicken breasts were €5 in 2022, now €12.98. Steak was €10.66 a kilo in 2022 and is now €19.49. Butter is €1 more than it was just a year ago. The price of eggs has increased by 35% since 2021. Government Members should not shake their heads.”
“We see the jacking up of rents at the moment because of dysfunctional housing policy and the Government's immigration policies as well. Look at the semi-State ESB. It is making super-normal profits - €650 million last year - while electricity prices here are higher than in practically any other country in Europe. In terms of fuel, the Government is taxing petrol and diesel at the rate of 65% for a staple, not a luxury good, an item that people have no alternative but to use. In respect of the tolls on the M50, we found out they are now collecting €216 million, double what it was just ten years ago. I look at the pittance the Government provides in terms of home heating oil and kerosene. Older people are sitting in the cold regularly for the want of the money to fill their tanks with kerosene, and there is nothing being done.”
“This is a rip-off Government. The price of petrol, diesel, home heating oil, electricity, groceries, rents, house prices and childcare are all sky-high. The Government plays a significant role in jacking up the prices on all of those. It is hitting families really hard. I know of parents who are lying awake at night trying to work out what bill they are going to be able to pay. People on good wages and in good employment are actually living month to month now on overdrafts. Many families are just one thing going wrong with their car away from not being able to stay on top of their bills. It is not an accident. The Government is making it harder in many ways. In terms of taxes, the Government is incinerating taxpayers' money with incredible waste.”
“I am sure the Ceann Comhairle has heard it said a million times in this Chamber and in the media that this money is going to be spent on climate change issues. It is not, in many cases. Some 19% of that money was simply went into the State's coffers and 17% of it was spent on social welfare. A massive proportion of carbon tax is simply a tax by any other name-----”
“The Government announced fuel supports and a reduction in fuel costs for particular sectors. I understand the package amounts to €750 million in total. Let us that put that in perspective. A reply to a recent parliamentary question stated that the Government took in €4.3 billion in fuel taxes and €1.2 billion in carbon tax last year. Both of those were the highest amounts ever. The justification the Government uses when it comes to carbon tax is that it ring-fences it and uses it for carbon reduction measures. Of course, like a lot of what the Government says, that is completely untrue. The reply to an Aontú parliamentary question shows that between 2020 and 2023, 39% of all carbon tax collected was not spent on climate action schemes.”
“Is it any wonder that mothers and families are living in fear when Tusla seeks to take their children from them and they go into a legal system that has a complete lack of transparency and openness and where their voices are not heard? Is it any wonder that those mothers are living in fear as a result? The Minister has the opportunity to leave a legacy that opens up the process, with voices being heard, children being protected and there being scrutiny and accountability.”
“The number of children in this country that the Government is exposing to rape, sexual exploitation and becoming drug mules is increasing in real time. That is a national scandal. The Government has said this will be sorted out. The waiting list for the regulated residential sector in this country is 50% of all of the children. These are the children who are in situations where they cannot be put into ordinary foster families. Their situations are very serious. They need residential places, but the waiting list is so long that they makes up 50% of all of the children in the sector. This problem is going nowhere fast because there is a lack of investment in locations and a lack of management. There is a mismanagement problem at the heart of the system.”
“That is a national scandal and the Government used it as an excuse to say it was fixing the problem in the system. The Government has said that the number of special emergency arrangements is falling. Again, this statement is disingenuous, which is just a fancy term for "not telling the truth". The reason the number of children in special emergency arrangements is falling is because the number of unaccompanied minors coming into the system is falling. Those unaccompanied minors who are coming into the system are now being sent to the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, for age verification, as the Minister will know. They are being signposted to a different location, as such. However, the number of Irish children in special emergency arrangements has increased in the past year.”
“One reason Tusla is falling apart is because we have an absentee Minister for children. The response of the Tánaiste to last week's programme on Tusla was to say that everything was getting better and the special emergency arrangements were reducing in number. He boasted that special emergency arrangements were being closed, as if the Government was proactively seeking to end the practice. The truth is very different. The truth is that special emergency arrangements were closed down not because extra capacity was put into the system, but because documents were falsified. Some five special emergency arrangements were closed because they were referred to the Garda National Vetting Bureau. The Government was putting extremely vulnerable children into special emergency arrangements that are being referred to the Garda National Vetting Bureau.”
“One of the reasons we have a shocking mismanagement of Tusla is because, in many ways, the Minister for children is absent without leave. When we have a housing crisis in this country, we have a housing Minister who is regularly questioned and has to be responsible and accountable for what is happening in housing. When there is a crisis in the health service, the Minister for Health is questioned regularly and held responsible for what is happening. However, when there is a crisis in Tusla, the Minister for children is invisible. The only critique I have from the RTÉ show last week is that there was no reference to the Minister. The strategy of the Minister for children when these crises arrive is to be hidden from sight and inaccessible for questioning and accountability.”
“There is a necessity for the Minister to seek to reform this system because it is radically broken, extremely damaging to children and phenomenally damaging to parents. I want to make a brief reference to some of the elements that came from the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on Tusla last week. In all of the discussions, it is sometimes forgotten that there are many good workers in Tusla doing the very best they can for children in extremely difficult circumstances. I know of many good workers who are regularly getting burned out. Young people come out of college with all of the necessary zeal and energy to tackle very difficult situations, but because of the pressure they are being put under, they are becoming burned out and leave the sector after a while.”
“At the heart of this is the necessity for women and mothers to be listened to and for their grievances to be addressed, and that is not currently happening. We need to amend the Child Care Act 1991 to provide HIQA with the necessary powers to sanction Tusla when it fails to meet the statutory obligations. One of the major problems with the in camera rule is that it prevents accountability. It massively reduces the ability to have public scrutiny of judicial decision making. Most people in the general public would be blind to what is happening in these courts on a daily basis. Some families would go so far as to say that, in their experience, the rule is a gagging order in many ways.”
“Some parents have said they are even afraid to talk to the Garda about their experiences because of the in camera rule. It is nearly seen as a complete block of communication for an individual who is probably in one of the biggest nightmares a parent can be. Tusla has taken children from mothers off the back of false information in the past, and that is absolutely factual. It has had to apologise in certain cases and it has had to return children to those parents. Tusla has placed inaccurate information on mothers' files in certain situations. It has wronged birth mothers on many occasions. The system is failing those mothers especially and they have nowhere to go. I have raised these cases in the Dáil Chamber many times.”
“The other aspects of why these cases are so difficult is because it is difficult to determine what the truth is in such situations. Both parents are so emotionally invested in the situation that some parents will do anything to make sure the child is not taken off them. I have dealt with many mothers and some fathers who have been shockingly aggrieved at what has happened to them. One of the issues that has come through is that their voices regarding those grievances are not being heard and that the in camera rule is stifling their ability to seek help or support. One aspect of this is many parents ring me and say that they do not know whether they have the right or ability to speak to me as their TD and converse with me about what is happening to their children because of the in camera rule.”
“The nightmare was heightened by what we saw on "RTÉ Investigates" just last week. Many children who are in very difficult circumstances and are taken from their parents often find themselves in a situation where they are exposed to rape, sexual exploitation, grooming by drug gangs for the sale of crack cocaine and even killed. The idea that your child would be taken from you is a nightmare of epic proportions in the first instance, but then for them to be given to an organisation that is itself mired in controversy because of the disasters befalling so many children is horrendous. I do not know how I would feel if it happened to my own child. I imagine it would be all-consuming in terms of the stress, pressure, anger and frustration that I would feel.”
“Míle buíochas leis an Teachta Gogarty as ucht an Bhille seo a thabhairt os comhair na Dála. I welcome and thank the Alliance of Birth Mothers Campaigning for Justice for all the work it has done on this issue in recent years. One of the most difficult cases that regularly comes into my office is when a child is taken from their family or parents. That is because the act of forcibly separating a child from a parent is probably one of the most damaging things a State can do, if it is done in the wrong situation. It has an enormous impact on the child and will last with them for the rest of their lives. It also has a harrowing impact on a parent. One of the worst nightmares that could ever face any parent is having their child forcibly taken away from them by the State, especially when you look at what is happening with Tusla.”
“We are calling for the Government to make sure that collective bargaining is brought into this country and that workers have a proper right to be represented.”
“I noticed very strongly that only when businesses are in equilibrium with employees in terms of the power dynamic are they likely to have a proper functioning business with happy employees who are productive and working well. When that power dynamic shifts and either one has too much power, that actually leads to a really difficult working situation and leads to damage to the functioning of that business. For an equilibrium and for a power balance to exist between employers and employees we must have the right to trade union membership and the right to collective bargaining. If we do not have that balance in the relationship, there will always be a section of employees at the wrong end of that power balance who will suffer. That suffering will be seen in exploitation and the loss of the ability to survive in terms of the work they do.”
“It means that workers have more disposable income because the services that they need are provided properly by the State as well. In truth, when I speak to workers around the country they tell me that some of the biggest problems they have at the moment are the cost-of-living crisis, the price of houses and the cost of rent. If we look at the incompetency of this Government, in many ways it is driving wage inflation in this country because workers are trying to keep up to be able to pay for the costs that are coming at them. Before I became a TD I worked as a management consultant. I worked with hundreds of different businesses.”
“No business and no employer should have the right to build a business model that can only function when it provides a level of standards in terms of wages, pay and conditions that are not enough for people to be able to survive and live well. That should not be allowed. One of the biggest threats we have to the cohesion of the world at the moment is the over-concentration of wealth that exists and the fact that 1% of the wealthiest own about 43% of global assets. The lack of employee power in that relationship with employers leads in to that issue. The Government also needs to look at the role it plays in this. Public services really can help in terms of workers. It provides a social wage, a type of income top-up, in relation to this.”
“Exploitative work such as bogus self-employment is a significant problem still today. It is an incredible situation. It robs the State of the taxes it is entitled to. That should be rooted out. It also robs the workers themselves of their rights and safeguards in terms of being able to look after holiday pay, sick pay and pension entitlements. The national minimum wage needs to be sufficient, in truth, to deal with the 140,000 workers who currently are the working poor in Ireland. It is an incredible situation that 140,000 people are working but still do not have enough to be able to make ends meet in this country. That is a major problem.”
“Aontú supports workers' rights. Good work should ensure good pay, terms and conditions. A worker who works hard should have a decent wage and should be able to live well. Aontú is committed to justice in the workplace and the rights of workers on the island of Ireland to fair pay for fair work, and to allow for fair living conditions. We support dignity at work and the rights of workers to equitable pay and working environments. Low pay and precarious work affect many people in this country. Some firms are treating workers without respect and with limited guarantees in terms of paid hours. I brought in the Banded Hours Contract Bill back in 2015. That Bill aimed to address erratic working hours in this country. Right now we need a strong and resourced agency to ensure proper compliance and legislation enforcement in these practices.”
“The Tánaiste said once that he wanted this country to be the best country in the world to be a child. For many of these children, with these horrors, it is one of the worst countries in the world to be a child at the moment. Children are being killed, raped and groomed at a cost of €14,000 a week to the State. When will there be accountability? When will the resources be matched to the needs? Will the Tánaiste give a date and a commitment that by the end of this year, these SEAs will be closed?”
“The Tánaiste has not given a date or a commitment that these will be closed completely. The "RTÉ Investigates" programme was of great value but there was one problem with it. The Minister for children was invisible in that show. Tusla is not operating in a vacuum. Tusla is a product of the Tánaiste's Government. It is a responsibility of the Government's Minister. The lack of funds and the lack of social workers is a policy choice by the Government. This scandal is unfolding in Tusla. It ranks up there with many of the scandals in the past but the difference is that this is unfolding in real time for the Government, and Tusla cannot be used as some kind of insulation blanket to separate the Tánaiste's Government from the responsibility for this horror.”
“I believe this is one of the most disgusting, shocking scandals that has happened to children in the history of this State. When I first raised this in the Dáil four or five years ago, it was so horrendous that I was sure that the Government would put an end to these special emergency arrangements. It has not. It is actually getting worse. Will the Tánaiste give a commitment today and a date for when the Government will end the special emergency arrangements in this country?”
“There have been 13 homicides, 38 deaths as a result of suicide, and, in another parliamentary question from us, we learned that eight children were killed so far this year who were known to Tusla or in the care of Tusla. Mr. Justice John Jordan said that some of these failures are outrageous and an affront to the rule of law. He warned that Tusla is extraordinarily exposed to significant future compensation claims as a result of the harm that is being done to these children. Judge John Campbell stated that he was incandescent with rage that a secure bed could not be found for a child deemed at risk of death. He noted that children who should be getting ready for Santa Claus were being placed in unregulated placements. Judge Simms provided three important documents to the last Minister for children, Roderic O'Gorman, which were shredded.”
“Children are being raped in the care of Tusla and known to Tusla. This was reported last night. We have uncovered a harrowing case of a 14-year-old girl who went missing from Tusla just 24 hours after she was placed there. The child was missing for an entire year. She was then found in a brothel. She was a victim of unimaginable exploitation when she was supposedly in the Government’s protection. The Minister has refused in a follow-up question by ourselves to answer if anyone has ever been prosecuted for the trafficking and exploitation of that child. Children are being killed in the care of Tusla and known to Tusla. Two hundred and thirty-five children known to child protection services have been killed in the last 12 years.”
“Last night, “RTÉ Investigates” broadcast a shocking report on Tusla and children in State care. This is something we in Aontú have been raising solidly for the past five years. The report was obscene. Young children are being taken from very difficult backgrounds from their parents and being placed into special emergency arrangements. These are often unregulated, often with staff who are unvetted and some of those staff do not even have references. Children are being located in apartments and hotel rooms and are being moved around on a regular basis. In short spaces of time, a child could be in 20 separate locations. Children are sleeping in car parks and sleeping in broken-down cars. They are being groomed by crack cocaine dealers. Children are being sexually abused while in the care of Tusla.”
“That is one of the objectives that have been ignored. The other objective that we have to look at is the provision of proper public transport. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in commuter hell at the moment. They undertake two- or three-hour journeys in and out of Dublin on a daily basis just to be able to work. That objective is not being achieved either.”
“If we are spending big chunks of money on the deep retrofitting of homes but it is not leading to the practical, real-world reduction in the consumption of fuels, then that money is going to waste in reality. We are not meeting the objectives and we are paying the money on it. I would like to hear the Minister’s views on how we can square that circle in achieving those objectives. We want to see the reduction of pollution and particulates in the air as well as the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere, but we want the Government to realise that there are other objectives that need to be achieved as well. One of the main objectives is fuel and energy affordability and security for families. That has been ignored, which is why we had the big crisis that led to the omnishambles last week on the streets of our country.”
“Every time the price of a home increases, it becomes less viable to build, causing fewer builders to build and a reduction in supply. We know every time the price of a home increases, it also costs more to rent and makes it less accessible to people. While we might achieve the objective of fuel efficiency with A-rated homes, it costs us in the provision of homes on the other side. I still believe that the provision of homes is the most important issue facing the country. The Minister must have seen this report recently that outlined that people who were spending more in A-rating their homes were not necessarily reducing their energy consumption by the same amount. That is a significant problem.”
“We have never been as rich but we also have never had as much of a squeezed middle as we do now. Middle income families often fall off a social welfare cliff. They are given no supports. They are too rich for energy social welfare supports but too poor to be able to provide the alternative sources needed to get out of carbon fuels. I will mention something of interest to the Minister. This Government has competing objectives. One of them is the building of extra homes. Highly rated homes are obviously an objective in terms of reducing our energy policy, but they have a negative effect on the supply of homes. It costs an extra 12% to build an A-rated home compared with a normal home. We know there is a viability problem.”
“These people would give their right arms to be able to get out of the car and sit in a train rather than the four-hour, desperate commute they have. The carrot I mentioned is the provision of public transport, including extra bus capacity as well as train capacity, to get cars off the road in order to clean the air so that people can live healthier and longer lives. That is the frustration that exists among people. Deep retrofitting of homes is still inordinately expensive. It is incredibly expensive for those who live in a semi-detached or detached home, even with the grants provided. It is not available to most income classes at the moment. The provision of solar panels is still incredibly expensive. It costs between €7,000 and €12,000, depending on the level of rooftop solar panels and the type of battery you choose.”
“It is about fuel prices, the M50, traffic congestion and public transport, which are all reasonable and important issues. I am told a freedom of information, FOI, request was submitted to the Department of Transport. This was reported in The Sunday Times this year. The FOI asked whether more public transport capacity would be provided in the Department’s budget this year. That report said that there would be no extra capacity in public transport this year despite the level of funding going into it. A lot of people are travelling from the likes of Meath. Some 60,000 people are forced to use their cars because there is no rail line. It has been promised since 1994. It is going to happen in, maybe, 2036 if no judicial review or anything else happens.”
“Competency is needed for the Government to be able to deliver it, and competency is in short measure in this Government for sure. Alternatives need to be offered to people. We heard about cars idling, for example. I will attend a public meeting tonight in Castleknock Lawn Tennis Club at 7.30 p.m. If the Minister is around, he might like to attend. It is not too far from him.”
“At the other end of the scale, we have individuals who, for want of turf, sticks and coal, cannot heat their homes. My difficulty with this Government is its reliance on the stick rather than the carrot to change people’s behaviours. The shocking level of taxation put on fuel, for example, is a stick to move people out of fossil fuels but many people simply do not have an alternative. Behaviours are not changed when there are no alternatives. This simply enforces a punitive tax on people that they cannot afford to pay. There is a massive cost barrier in switching from coal, turf or sticks. These people do not desire to pollute or create unhealthy breathing air for individuals, but they have no option because they have no other fuel source. The Government must use the carrot. This approach is harder.”
“There are people around the country, especially in regional and rural Ireland and older families who do not have the technology to use sustainable energy, who are dependent on turf. They cannot come about turf, however, because the local fella up the road who used to cut half an acre of bog cannot sell it to them any more as a result of Government law. One of the big problems is that the Government’s attitude to energy is Dublin centric. The fact the Government was not willing to give a real relief on kerosene - home heating oil - which is the basis of home heating in most of regional and rural Ireland, shows the disconnect of Ministers in this Government. They do not see beyond the M50 when developing policies. This is quite a hardcore Bill, with €500,000 in fines and search and seizure powers to be provided in certain situations.”
“The issue we are hearing on the doorsteps and in our constituency offices is that people are struggling to keep the lights on, their houses warm and their businesses going. The unaffordability of fuels is the biggest issue people are experiencing. In reality, fuel poverty and the lack of fuel also cause deaths in our country. It is estimated that approximately 2,800 people die in our country per year as a result of a lack of fuel. That is a very serious issue. In a scenario where fuel is getting harder to secure, reducing access to other fuels leads to poverty, people being unable to heat their homes, and deaths. That is not being understood enough by the Government.”
“While Fianna Fáil wallows in never-ending dysfunction, older people in this country struggle to keep warm. The country cannot wait for Fianna Fáil to get its act together. I agree with many of the Fianna Fáil backbenchers, in that Micheál Martin has to go. All of these decisions the Government is involved in have significant consequences. Some of those consequences are unexpected. I agree that we must become a country with far cleaner air. No one wants to see individuals lose their lives prematurely due to poor air quality or people developing diseases of the lung, etc., as a result of poor air quality. This legislation does not exist in a vacuum, however. It must exist in the real world in which people live and are struggling. The baseline is that we have 320,000 Irish households currently in fuel poverty.”
“It is interesting that this Bill is being discussed in the Dáil in the middle of a fuel crisis for so many people. The Bill will focus on air pollution while many family businesses and small business will struggle simply to keep their houses warm in this fuel crisis. I received an email from a constituent during the week. She is a carer. She called in to see one of her clients, an elderly gentleman. He was sitting in front of his electric oven to keep warm because he had run out of oil and sticks to be able to heat the house. That is an incredible image. Pensioners who worked all their lives in this country are now forced, due to the lack of affordable fuel, to sit in front of an electric oven to keep warm. In many ways, it puts this discussion into perspective. There is a slow-motion leadership challenge happening within Fianna Fáil.”
“One of the most controversial elements of the omnishambles of last week was the threat of the Garda and the Army. The Government was actually calling in the Army when TDs like me were trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the situation. There is also chaos within the Government. The Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, spoke to the Tánaiste and Taoiseach about utilising the Army for Whitegate refinery on Wednesday, 8 April. The next day, the Minister made public that a request was being made to the Defence Forces. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, was not informed until just before the request went in. Deputy McEntee is the Minister for Defence. She is the line manager when it comes to the Army. Why is it the case that we have this level of chaos within the Cabinet that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is not being consulted?”