Pearse Doherty
Donegal · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I move amendment No. 1 to Seanad recommendation No. 2: To delete from the row dated "1 September 2026" down to and including the row dated "1 May 2030" and substitute the following: " 15 July 2026 €502.88 €502.88 €371.85 €371.85 €371.85 €0.00 €210.45 €172.14 €167.25 €79.17 €11.48 14 October 2026 €502.88 €502.88 €371.85 €371.85 €371.85 €0.…”
“Next week, this House will rise, the doors of Leinster House will be locked and Ministers will head off on their summer holidays. Their parting gift to ordinary Irish people across the State will be to have locked in fuel price increases that will hit them in their pockets.”
“That is not acceptable and it is why we in Sinn Féin have tabled this amendment to say that these price increases should not be going ahead and that prices should be properly monitored at the appropriate time.”
“This is tied to the latter amendment and I will speak further at length on that. Recommendation No. 1 deals with the diesel rebate scheme, which operates within a window that closes on 1 October.”
“Hope is what we rely on when we have no control. It is not a substitute for prudent economic planning. There is zero certainty here. There are no guarantees that the Strait of Hormuz will remain open or that global supply lines will not be choked tomorrow morning.”
“As if that were not good enough, the Government is not just hitting people with increases on petrol and diesel. On top of that, it is going to hit them with an increase in the cost of home heating oil, natural gas and a basic bag of coal.”
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“We need to know when they will know whether the children's operations were necessary and how many children we are talking about.”
“Another family has contacted me about their daughter who suffers aches and pains that did not exist before the hip surgery three years ago. They recently received a vague letter about a further follow-up but nothing about their daughter's specific case. A mother told me about her three-year old having surgery in both hips. She was told that if they did not go for surgery, her daughter would be facing hip replacement surgeries in her 30s. She prays that she made the right choice. Every single mother and father I spoke to is hoping that their children needed that surgery because the thought of it having been unnecessary is absolutely devastating. They simply cannot understand why they are being left in the dark. The State first and foremost must be open and honest with parents. We need the answers to the questions.”
“These are parents who thought they were doing everything right and that they followed all the medical advice. Now they are left with a fear in the pit of their stomachs that they may have done something wrong. Well, they have not done something wrong. The State has failed them. The system has failed them. They are worried that the pain they watched their children endure was not necessary. One child had what is deemed an unsuccessful hip surgery. That child went from a walker and independence to needing a wheelchair. The child suffers digestive issues from not being able to stand. The challenges now faced by this family are made worse by doubt and not knowing if the surgery was ever justified in the first place. They do not know where to turn because their trust in the medical system, the system they once relied on, has now been shattered.”
“I thank Deputy Cullinane for moving this motion on unnecessary hip surgeries in children. It is not one or two but, frighteningly, we now understand this could be a routine practice. It is staggering to have to stand here in the Dáil and actually say that, but that is potentially what we are looking at. We are talking about children as young as two years of age being put through invasive surgery - as Deputy Cullinane said, cutting into their hip bones followed by painful recoveries. It is a harrowing experience for any child, or family, to go through, but that is what happened to hundreds of children. Since my colleagues and I raised this in the Dáil, family after family have been in contact with me. They are all similar phone calls. They are all similar conversations. The families are desperate for answers.”
“Sanction is needed to allow the additional ten pupils to get their education. Can the Minister give any comfort to the families because it is absolutely cruel that the mothers who had to come here last week, although given commitments that they would know the position early this week, are still in limbo? Specialised equipment has to be ordered for the children; they cannot just walk into school in September.”
“Last week, mothers from Donegal travelled up here to sleep outside the gates of Leinster House. They did so in desperation because their children, ten with additional and special needs, do not have a school place for September. There is only one school in the county that they can go to, and that is Little Angels. It is now more than six weeks since I raised this on the floor of the Dáil with the Minister. It is a month since I put a proposal to her, with my colleagues, on how to resolve this issue, and I am in regular contact with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, but these parents still have no certainty. The new Little Angels school was built with fewer classrooms than the existing one – it is a scandal – despite the growing need for places. The old school is going to be left empty.”
“We have put other cases that have come to us on the record where people got second opinions only to be told the exact same thing, that the child did not have the condition, and where the child is now thriving. The audit is looking at a period of two years and 561 children have to be recalled. If this issue goes back as far as 2014 or 2016, we are potentially talking about thousands of children.”
“The former Minister knew about this since May last year. Parents found out last week. The Minister is absolutely right about how it must feel for parents. Imagine thinking that was your child. The draft report has been published. It found that hundreds of children did not need this operation. We now have this other information from 2016, which I just put on the record, where a second opinion was sought. The parent talked about how the child was going to go under the knife and have her hip sawed into, a second opinion was sought and they were told the child did not need the operation and did not even have the condition. She is currently enrolled in gymnastics. This is a scandal of huge magnitude. This is not a lone incident.”
“It is the job of the Government to sort it out, not to sit back as spectators. At what point does the Government take responsibility? When does this come to an end? The Government must get to grips with the scale of the hip surgery scandal. The families deserve answers. They want to know how many children are involved. How far back does this go? When will parents be informed if their child was operated on unnecessarily? Will the Government commit to expanding the scope of the audit beyond the narrow two years, so that all children and parents get the answers they need? How is it that a health Minister has known about this for a year but parents were only told about it last week? Where is the open disclosure? Where is the compassion in that?”
“In his words, that surgery would have required "sawing into her hip bone and reshaping the socket". Because the child never showed any symptoms, the parents sought a second opinion from a specialist orthopaedic surgeon in the North. That consultant concluded that their daughter did not need the surgery, as she did not have the condition. He said that he was horrified that a doctor had made such an error of judgment and that he would inquire about it. This was years ago. The parent went on to tell us that the stress they were under during this time was like nothing they had ever experienced before. That is not the only case we have heard of where people got a second opinion, to be told that no condition at all was evident. Catastrophic failures in children's healthcare have been known for a long time.”
“The question these parents are asking us is why they were kept in the dark for so long by the Government. We know that 561 children must now be independently assessed following the audit, which covered the years 2021 to 2023, but that is only two years. What we do not know is how many children are affected. It may be hundreds or even thousands. Just how bad is this? We are being contacted by parents whose children's cases reach back a decade and further. The emails and phone calls keep coming. It looks like 2021 to 2023 is only the tip of the iceberg. It goes way beyond those two years. One horrified parent contacted us this week. His daughter was a patient in Temple Street in 2016 from the age of one year right up to three years. A consultant diagnosed the child with hip dysplasia and was adamant that she needed surgery.”
“It is the same hospitals over and over again. The Government is standing back and acting as a spectator in all of this. We see it in the scandal of hip operations being carried out on children when, as we were told, those operations were not needed at all. Patients only received letters about the scandal in recent weeks but information released to us this week reveals the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, was informed about this a year ago and the current Minister was briefed in February. We are talking about the possibility of young children put under the knife and their bones being sawed into. It is traumatic surgery, and it happened to children between the ages of one year and seven years. It is beyond the worst nightmare of any parent.”
“Gan dabht, tá scrios déanta ag an scannal i dtaobh cúram sláinte leanaí ar leanaí agus ar theaghlaigh ar fud an Stáit. Tar éis muinín a mhilleadh i measc go leor daoine, tá an Rialtas anois ag gníomhú mar lucht féachana, cé go bhfuil freagracht air dul i ngleic le seo. Tá tuismitheoirí amuigh ansin nach bhfuil a fhios acu go fóill ar dhéanadh obráidí ar a leanaí gan ghá nó gan chuireadh. Níl sé seo maith go leor. Children's lives have been devastated by the litany of failures in healthcare. The public have been listening in real shock and anger recently. On Tuesday, we had the damning report on how unauthorised springs were implanted into three children during spinal operations. The failure to protect these children is an absolute disgrace. There is a pattern of broken behaviour when it comes to children's healthcare.”
“The use of some of the tools relating to anti-coercion measures that are being trumpeted by other countries would also have a deep impact on jobs in Ireland and enterprise here. It is time to have cool heads and not follow President Trump down the road of economic self-sabotage which would eventually have ordinary workers and families pay the price.”
“If you are looking at implementing tariffs as a set of countermeasures to what President Trump has done, the scale and breadth of that will mean that the prices paid by Irish consumers will be pushed up in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. The scale and breadth of that will impact on Irish jobs and Irish public finances. That is not just what Sinn Féin is saying; the ESRI and Department of Finance analysis states this is the case. We need to be very cautious not to do what President Trump has done, which is a reckless agenda that will impact US consumers. We must not fall into step on the same thing. Those countermeasures would be a tax on Irish consumers and Irish people and European citizens would pay the price for it.”
“We need sectoral assessments done immediately - I asked this of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, last week - and those assessments need to be shared. Through those assessments, we could look at how and if we need targeted supports to support enterprise, jobs and employees. The all-Ireland economy needs to be prioritised. The North-South Ministerial Council will have an important role to play and needs to be convened without delay, as Deputy McDonald said. A word of warning must also be issued. Europe is set to look at several countermeasures and will join Canada and China on that but it is also looking at a second set of countermeasures.”
“He wants unfettered access to every market. The US main trade grievance with the EU is the trade deficit. President Trump blames the deficit in goods predominantly on non-tariff barriers but that really means our laws and standards, specifically our health, environmental and agricultural standards. We should not make any mistake about it: agriculture is very much in the crosshairs of the American Administration and but our agricultural standards cannot be dictated to us by any country, even one as powerful as the US. We must protect Irish farmers and Irish agriculture. Talking about tariffs while making concessions on laws and standards would be a mistake and would undermine our sovereignty and credibility. I want to repeat several asks we have today.”
“I am sure there is not a Member in this House who has not been told by businesses - whether they are some of the largest in the country or smallest - that the issues pressing down on them are the issues of housing, infrastructure, energy, cost and insurance; all things that are within the grip of the Irish Government. We need to send out a strong signal to people in industry that we are going to take our economic competitiveness into our own hands to lead with no more losses or delays being an issue so we can finally get to grip with the crises facing this country. We also need to ensure Irish interests are heard at EU level because we cannot outsource this to Europe. We must have a strong Irish position on what works for Ireland. President Trump is openly talking about prying open markets and breaking down barriers.”
“We also need to look at what is within our hands, however, and what we can decide on. Tariffs cannot be an excuse to drop election promises. We need to strengthen our workforce by providing affordable childcare. We need to give people security by building the homes workers can afford. We need to invest in apprenticeships, education and research and we need a health system people can access when they need it. There is an overlap between what people need and what our economy needs. We need an ambitious investment strategy in public services and infrastructure that includes public transport, energy, water and roads and urgently addresses the backlog in planning.”
“Irish people are genuinely concerned about what this all means for them, as well as the tariff talks, the retaliatory measures from China, countermeasures from America, further countermeasures from China and whether this will be the playbook we see with regard to the United States, European Union and Ireland and how this will affect their lives. Many people in this country are already being ground down by the relentless cost-of-living crisis and they simply cannot absorb higher prices from tariffs. Those who have not felt the benefit of the so-called "good times" know all too well they are likely the first to be hit in bad times. People are worried about their jobs, particularly those in certain sectors and those within the FDI sector. We must focus on what we can control and use our influence externally.”
“President Trump's tariffs are an unjustified act of aggression that will damage the US and the global economy. A full trade war has the risk of unleashing a global recession and that is the scale of threat we possibly face. The stakes are high and now more than ever is a time for cool heads. Irish interests and the interests of ordinary workers and families need to be at the front and centre of every decision. It needs to be the prism through which we make all these decisions. We cannot get away from the fact tariffs are taxes. They are either paid by the companies or by consumers and what Trump is selling to the American people is a fantasy when he says otherwise.”
“This was not something of the group's making. Defective blocks got onto the market because of a lack of regulation during successive Governments. Now, the funding the group was told would be there to help it rebuild its premises has been refused to it. How many times do we have to raise this issue? The Government has made pledges on community childcare facilities. There is a serious issue with childcare. This community group tells us it will not be able to function next year unless it gets the funding to rebuild the playgroup. Will the Tánaiste please intervene, knock some heads together and give this group the money it needs to rebuild a community playschool that is falling apart because of defective blocks?”
“I raised the issue of the Raphoe community playgroup a number of times last year. I had commitments from the Minister that funding would be available. The Tánaiste met the group. We were told funding would be available. It applied for the funding it was told to apply for but it has not been granted the funding. It has written to the Tánaiste and he has responded that the council rather than the group owns the land. Despite the fact it has a 22-year lease, it cannot rebuild the community playschool. Why is this important? This is a community group funded by the EU and fundraising money. Its building has defective blocks and is condemned. Currently, the playgroup is in another building that is not fit for purpose. It has to take the tables and chairs and put them in a shed every evening. It is not acceptable.”
“The real question is: will counter measures bring Trump to the negotiation table? We need cool heads, negotiation and calm. During the first Trump Presidency, there were counter-measures and it did not result in his tariffs being reduced. Is there discussion on non-tariff measures at an EU level? Is that in the sight lines of Europe? There is a big impact and a big risk for Ireland if it focuses on tariffs.”
“I understand that the North-South Ministerial Council is awaiting confirmation from the Government. This is important because there will be cross-cutting in terms of agriculture, finance, the economy and jobs. We need the type of all-Ireland approach that we saw during the Brexit negotiations in a very clear and effective way. I agree with the Tánaiste's points about Trump and about the fact that Europe did not bring this upon itself. I am glad Europe has not gone with immediate counter-tariffs, but we need to be very careful in the context of the impact of any countermeasures. We know that countermeasures will increase prices for Irish consumers. That is something that should not be tolerated in these circumstances. It will risk jobs and the public finances.”
“Does it support counter-tariffs? The ESRI and the Department of Finance have told us that counter-tariffs will have a negative impact on jobs and will result in job losses and higher prices for Irish consumers. What is the Government's position on non-tariff measures? There has been speculation that tech could be in firing line. This would have a significant impact on Irish jobs. What contingency plans are in place? Is the Government looking at supports for particular sectors that will be impacted as a result of what has happened? Will it convene meetings of the various party leaders and of North-South Ministerial Council as soon as possible?”
“I repeat that request and ask that such a meeting should take place without delay. We need to have a laser focus on things we can control. There are certain things we cannot control. We need to make sure our voice is heard in Europe. We also need to protect the all-Ireland economy and ramp up badly needed investment. We have been saying for years that we have allowed our competitiveness to slip. Businesses big and small have been telling us about the issues that are affecting us. We need investment in housing, infrastructure, energy, transport and childcare. This is a time for cool heads. We need to take a breath and look at the reality of all options that are on the table. We also need clarity on the direction of travel of the Government. What position is the Government going to take at European Council meetings?”
“We also need to actively look at how we de-risk the economy and mitigate the impact of these tariffs. The fact that pharma has not been hit with these tariffs buys us some time, but the reality is that we do not know how much time we have. There are serious issues with regard to the all-Ireland economy now we have two different tariff rates on this small island of ours and, potentially, two different responses to those rates. I have been in contact with my party colleague the Minister for the Economy in Northern Ireland. I ask that those in government work hand in glove and in lock step with their counterparts in the Assembly. The first step in this regard would be to convene the North-South Ministerial Council without delay. I ask that this be done. Yesterday, Deputy McDonald asked the Taoiseach to convene a meeting of the party leaders.”
“What Trump did was an act of self-sabotage that will heap higher costs on US consumers. That is what tariffs do, especially blanket tariffs. We need to be careful not to step into the same space, risking jobs and higher prices for workers and families. We need to protect people struggling with a cost-of-living crisis from higher prices. Working people cannot be expected to pick up the tab from this mess that Trump has created. This morning, I raised with the Minister for Finance the need for a very early assessment of the impact of these tariffs on particular sectors. That is what we need in order to make sure that the supports at State and EU level are in place. We need to see urgency in contingency planning, making sure supports for industries and workers are ready to go, if and when they are needed.”
“Chuala muid ó Donald Trump aréir go mbeidh sé ag cur taraifí i bhfeidhm ar fud an domhain. Is polasaí gan tuiscint é sin a ndéanfaidh earraí níos costasaí do mhuintir na Stát Aontaithe agus a mbeidh impleachtaí aige sa Stát seo agus ar fud na hEorpa fosta. Last night, we were subjected to US trade aggression. To add insult to injury, we had to watch the US play the victim. Trump talked about prying open markets and breaking down barriers. He wants unfettered access to every market, and the EU is front and centre in that agenda. What Trump calls reciprocal tariffs are no such thing. I watched him as he waved the US trade estimates report, a US document that clearly sets out that the average EU tariff is 5% on US goods. Fact and reality took a back seat last night when he went on to claim that the EU has tariffs of 39% on US products.”
“What is the position of the Department of Finance? Does the Minister for Finance agree with the Minister for housing's assessment that banks should lend more to developers with less equity provided by those developers? Will the Minister answer that question clearly because I would like to know, in his engagement with the banks, whether that something that is going to be under consideration?”
“Will the Dáil be given some clarity as to the Minister for Finance's position? Does he agree with his Cabinet colleague that banks should lend more to developers on the basis that the developers would have less equity? That is the proposal that has been made. It seems a bit hare-brained and Celtic tiger era, but it is not the first time we have seen something like it. We deserve to know what the Department of Finance and the Minister for Finance's position is. The Governor of the Central Bank has clearly poured cold water over the idea. I could not believe that the Minister for housing would make a statement like that without even discussing it with the Minister for Finance or the banks, but then, it is Fianna Fáil we are talking about, so I will leave it at. What is the Minister for Finance's position?”
“The Central Bank has come out and poured cold water on that. Surely the Minister, as Minister for Finance, is engaging with the Central Bank on this matter or is his Cabinet colleague doing a solo run? Double-digit price inflation is back for the first time in eight years. It was 11.6% last year. There is a role for the Central Bank in controlling inflation. It is reported that the Minister is to meet the banks concerning this idea about less equity from builders and more lending by banks. Is that actually on the cards?”
“We discovered during the election period that many of the Minister's colleagues, maybe himself included, went out and argued that there were going to be 40,000 houses delivered last year, which we know was a big lie because the Department of Finance had provided an assessment to the then Minister before the election that that was not possible. Indeed, there was a risk of fewer being built than in the previous year, which is what actually transpired. The Central Bank is pouring cold water on and disputing the Government's housing projections for the next three years. It believes that the Government will deliver 13,000 fewer homes than projected over the next three years. The Government is trying to justify measures whereby banks should lend to developers where developers have less skin in the game themselves.”
“What engagement has the Minister had with the Central Bank regarding tax incentives and other demand-side measures for housing and will he make a statement on the matter, particularly in light of what appears to be the Governor of the Central Bank pouring cold water on the latest apparently back-of-the-envelope policy on housing from the Minister for housing? It is reported that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, will meet the banks regarding that proposal. What discussions has he had with the Central Bank on this and what is his view regarding banks lending and reducing the level of equity builders would need to have when lending for housing?”
“They told people they would not be better off. The Minister should talk to the family that has now been paying €12,000 more per year on their mortgage because that loan was sold off to a vulture fund. That is the change. That is the difficulty. To tell them they have the same rights and entitlements is not the issue here. The are being screwed royally by these vulture funds, and the question is: what is the Government going to do? Is it going to continue to sit back and allow tens of thousands of Irish consumers to be fleeced in this way?”
“First of all, that is not true. It was not the case. On vulture funds, until last week those people were not able to even go to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, a legal provision that everybody else had until I pointed it out to the Minister and forced that to be changed. The Minister said he would not mind if his mortgage was sold to the vulture funds. He made that statement to try to guarantee or give comfort to people that everything would be okay. I put it to him that there are 7,000 homeowners who are being charged an interest rate of over 8.5%. There are 100,000 homeowners who are being charged an interest rate of over 6%. They are all with the vulture funds. Why did this happen? Because the Minister, and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, allowed this to happen. They blocked legislation that would stop this happening.”
“If someone is one of the 7,000 who is being charged 8.5%, he or she is paying €12,000 more because his or her loan was sold to a vulture fund. We know that during that time, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil sold the Irish people a fairy tale, telling them that they would be no worse off. The reality is that these mortgage prisoners are worse off, and they need a way back to normal banks. They cannot switch because some of them are in arrears or have been in arrears in the past. Has the Minister anything to say with regard to providing a pathway back for these people so that we have normal lending rates as opposed to what is now happening with rates of 8.5% and 6% and with over 100,000 mortgages in that position?”
“That is all cold comfort to people who are mortgage prisoners. The Minister was one of the cheerleaders who cheered this on and told them all there would be no difference and that it would be no problem whatsoever and they would have the same protections. However, he failed to deal with the main issue we are addressing. There are 7,000 mortgages holders that are now being charged over 8.5% with the vulture funds. There are 100,000 mortgage holders who saw their interest rate go up over 6% last year. To give a bit of context, if somebody has a mortgage of €300,000 and is paying 6%, he or she is paying €1,800 per month, which is over €6,000 more than somebody with a high street lender fixing at just over 3%. That is €6,000 more out of people's pockets.”
“The scandal of selling off mortgages to vulture funds has never been addressed. Just this week, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, FSPO, legislation passing through the Seanad is finally giving people access to the financial ombudsman. That was only one of the many promises that mortgage holders would be treated the same that was broken. What steps is the Minister going to take to protect mortgage prisoners from extortionately high mortgage interest rates? We know they are being fleeced by the vulture funds. The Minister promised, along with others, that there would be no difference if their loans were sold on to mortgage funds. What an empty promise when we now see so many people paying extortionate interest rates in the hands of these vulture funds.”
“It is interesting that the Minister would not answer my question on support for tariffs that will lead to prices for Irish consumers increasing. For his information, Michelle O'Neill was on a trade mission to the US in the week before St. Patrick's Day. We will continue to use our influence. If Deputy Donohoe, as Minister for Finance, wants to score political points on this serious issue, that is disappointing, particularly in light of what we are facing.”
“In the context of EU countermeasures, I am deeply concerned that we could have a scenario where, as the ESRI and the Department have indicated, countermeasures will impact on jobs, economic growth and the public finances and will obviously push up prices for consumers. What is the Minister's concern in this regard and in the context of the fact that EU countermeasures could give rise to a proper trade war? The US Administration has adopted a unilateral position. We need to get into dialogue with the US Administration in order to try to de-escalate matters and get it to reverse its decision. We have to be careful that we do not step into a trade war.”
“The key here is negotiation and de-escalation. We need to get to a point where sensible and cool heads prevail. What happened yesterday was an act of economic sabotage by the US Administration in respect of its own economy. What was done will push up prices for American consumers. Obviously, the analysis was based on a 25% tariff, which was more severe than what we have seen, particularly as a tariff of 20% on pharma has been excluded at this point. This would probably allow for GDP growth of approximately 2% to 2.5% in the next number of years, which would be positive. Would that be correct?”
“Am I right in saying that we would still see growth right throughout the four-year period that has been assessed? In other words, modified domestic demand and GDP will continue to grow in all scenarios. Indeed, employment would also continue to grow, despite it being reduction from what would be the case in a non-tariff scenario.”
“Given that the ESRI and the Department of Finance have worked out these models, I put it to the Minister that we should very quickly have information on the 20% scenario outlined by the Trump Administration last night. The analysis done by the ESRI and the Department of Finance examined the potential impact of a US Administration tariff and gave us the numbers for it. They also looked at the impact of countermeasures from Europe. These are still unknown, but different scenarios were assumed. In all circumstances, in the context of jobs, public finances, tax, the economy and businesses, it was shown that countermeasures from the European Union would have a significant impact on Ireland. On modified domestic demand, the analysis carried out was based on a 25% tariff. The Minister referred to it decreasing by 1% to 2% from the baseline.”
“The modelling to which I refer estimates that the impact on the public finances would be approximately €500 million. Given what was announced yesterday, it appears that the impact will be somewhat less. Will the Minister elaborate on this matter?”
“This question relates to the potential impact on unemployment and tax revenues as a result of the announcement of US tariffs. We heard what Donald Trump had to say last night, with 20% tariffs being imposed on this State. Pharmaceuticals will not be the subject of a tariff, although we hold our breath in relation to that. We have the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and Department of Finance modelling on 25% tariffs and a reciprocal tariff from the EU and their impact in the context of job losses and potential income from taxation. Has any early work been done on what these tariffs will look like when it comes jobs? In all circumstances, the analysis shows that employment will continue to grow, even on the basis of the 25% tariff scenario.”
“If access fees are not being charged currently, why would the Minister of State not agree to an amendment ensuring access fees are not charged in the future?”
“I move amendment No. 7: In page 18, to delete lines 23 to 35 and substitute the following: “(2) The Minister shall, following consultation with the Bank, make regulations to prohibit the charging of an access fee where the withdrawal concerned is from a relevant account.”. This is a simple amendment. The legislation states that the Minister may, following regulations, prohibit the charging of ATM access fees or a set-up cap of such ATM access fees. Access fees for withdrawing cash from a relevant account should not be allowed. The amendment is in keeping with that view. I ask the Minister of State to outline where access fees are being charged currently and if they are being charged for withdrawals from a relevant account.”
“That recommendation clarified legal tender. It implied mandatory acceptance, but that was never reflected in Irish law or in the State's approach to cash. In June 2023, the European Commission adopted a draft regulation seeking to give force to that recommendation. The European Commission's proposal requires that euro cash acceptance should be mandatory across the euro area. We should not have to wait for the EU to tell us that this is what we have to do. We can and should take the necessary steps to protect the use of cash. If that is not done, as I said, there is no point having access to cash if where people want to spend that cash, or the businesses or entities in which they want to use it, will not accept it.”