2026-06-10

The Taoiseach has brushed aside growing calls to stop Ireland's Nations League fixture against Israel while the genocide continues against the Palestinian people. His response and that of the Government have been utterly disingenuous. Nobody is asking the Government to usurp the role of UEFA or the FAI. The Taoiseach is being asked to show leadership, support the position that this game must be stopped, protect Irish players from any repercussions, provide the political, diplomatic and financial backing necessary to make that position sustainable and protect the FAI. There is a clear precedent for this. The Irish Government supported opposition to sporting fixtures involving apartheid South Africa. The Taoiseach was in Cabinet in 1999 when the Government refused visas to the Yugoslav team ahead of the planned Ireland-Yugoslavia fixture. In neither case was the Government organising or cancelling sporting fixtures. It was, however, providing leadership, so the truth is the Taoiseach can act. I know my microphone has been switched off.

Deputy, everyone is subject to the same time constraints.

The Taoiseach can act and have influence but he chooses not to. Thank you for turning my microphone back on. I was two seconds over, was I?

You were 20 seconds over and into someone else's time, Deputy.

Thank you for turning off my microphone.

Learn the rules.

In the minute available to me, I will make the point that at one level the Deputy says that she is not asking us to usurp but she is, really. I do not understand the logic of what she is saying.

Then the Taoiseach cannot read.

We are not members of UEFA. The FAI has to navigate UEFA in the same way it has to navigate FIFA. The Irish football team has had a lot of success recently.

Do not start waffling again. I know that.

Stop with the interruptions, please.

The bottom line here is-----

The Irish Government was not the IRFU when all of you took the right stance.

The Irish Times reported-----

I am sick of this.

-----on figures that my colleague, Deputy Liam Quaide, obtained. Reports of wildlife crime to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, have nearly doubled in five years.

Nobody wants to talk about it.

Sorry, a Cheann Comhairle.

I cannot hear a thing.

Please do not interrupt, Deputy McDonald.

I will start again. The Irish Times reported yesterday on figures that my colleague, Deputy Liam Quaide, obtained showing that reports of wildlife crime to the National Parks and Wildlife Service nearly doubled in five years, from 301 incidents in 2021 to 581 last year. These are serious offences and include illegal hedgerow removal, habitat destruction and unauthorised drainage, yet prosecutions collapsed to just 17 in 2024. That is one prosecution for every 34 reported crimes. Three entire counties had zero prosecutions in five years. Yet, when Deputy Quaide sought answers from the NPWS on its staffing capacity, the Minister of State refused to provide them. Without enforcement our wildlife laws are not worth the paper they are written on. Will the Taoiseach commit to a full review of the enforcement capacity of the NPWS and ensure there is transparency about the staffing of national parks in all regions?

I read that report and I will engage with the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, and the NPWS. I think we have roughly doubled the staffing level of the NPWS in the past five years and have provided it with additional resources, correctly so. The Minister of State is very focused on the enforcement dimension. There has been good success also in terms of conservation and the biodiversity side of the equation, so to speak. Enforcement is important because we need to stop this crime. It is interesting that in the initial phase of the reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle there were some cases of birds being poisoned many years ago but with education and by working with co-ops and people, a better understanding emerged. That programme is now a resounding success. Enforcement is important but education and working with people to change attitudes and culture are also very valuable inputs to this.

The cost-of-living perma-crisis is hurting all our communities, worst of all people on low and middle incomes. Spiralling costs in housing, health, energy and groceries are forcing people to spend more and more of their pay on bare necessities. This is causing real suffering. In this context, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has again issued warnings about the Government's spending. Five out of every six euro collected in corporation tax is being spent, but not in a sustainable way and not to deliver quality public services. We, in the Labour Party, are for public spending. We know communities need investment and we backed our spending plans with revenue raising proposals - taxes on wealth and not work. We have called for investment in what matters, not just for sectoral interests that shout the loudest. The Government is leaving PAYE workers behind. There was nothing for them in the Finance Bill debated last night. Will the Government give working people a break and commit to indexing tax bands for PAYE workers now to protect against inflation, as we in the Labour Party have consistently sought?

I am not quite clear about what the Deputy articulated in that minute, in terms of whether it was more spending, more tax or whatever.

It is how it is spent.

We appreciate the role of the fiscal council. Its reports are a valuable part of the budgetary process. We fully accept there are issues in terms of how we manage our public finances in the context of the revenue. However, the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund have been a success and they have not been funded by borrowing to date.

We supported them.

It is interesting that if we look at Irish expenditure over the last number of years in terms of the argument around the sustainability of public expenditure, there is no doubt that there have been a lot of increases, but one metric to evaluate is to look at total gross voted expenditure as a ratio of national output. Basically, we are kind of tracking fairly consistently over the last years, at about 33% through the 2026 to 2030 period.

We are all sticking to time, Taoiseach. I call Deputy Coppinger.

It did increase sharply during Covid.

I condemn the horrific attack on the man in Belfast. I hope he recovers and I send my solidarity and hope the perpetrator is brought to justice. However, I also want to condemn the horrific violence that is being wreaked in the North since that attack. It is straight from the far-right playbook to use an horrific tragedy or incident when it is a person of colour who is the suspect in a violent assault and to implement its precooked plan of racist and chaotic destruction. People are being stopped and questioned about their skin colour, nationality and race. Homes have been destroyed. Families who have been in the North for decades have been burnt out or attacked in their homes. Businesses have been set alight. Outside actors like Farage and Musk are intervening and actively whipping up violence as well. There has also been an element of hand-wringing from some politicians in the North who have been involved in stirring up racism themselves in the past. I commend the activist groups that have intervened and shown that type of solidarity. The majority of working class people do not want the North to unfold into a racist hellhole.

I appreciate the comments Deputy Coppinger has made. The violence last night in Belfast, the racism on display and the burning out of families because of their ethnicity have to be roundly condemned. It is very dangerous. It puts Northern Ireland in a very difficult and challenging spotlight in terms of where the North goes into the future societally. Some areas are potentially becoming no-go areas because of the colour of someone's skin or their ethnicity, despite the fact they might have been living in an area for quite some time. It is making life very difficult for many families and causing anxiety and stress. It will demand a significant community response and a response from social services. It is a very serious issue. On the exploitation of this by far-right elements in particular, we have to be extremely vigilant of in dealing with this because it is happening in other locations and jurisdictions as well.

The EU migration pact was passed in the Dáil by just seven votes and within six months, 35 TDs had either retired or lost their seats. Ireland is not in Schengen. Ireland shares a common travel area with Britain and we are an island nation. We have every right to control and manage our own borders. Yet, in June 2024 the Government voted to surrender that control. It handed decision-making over to the EU in terms of who can enter Ireland, how claims are processed and even the potential fines we will face. This pact was not designed for Ireland. It was not designed for our geography or, indeed, our housing crisis or public services crisis. Incredibly, the Tánaiste cannot outline to the Dáil-----

I am the Taoiseach.

-----what this is going to cost in terms of fines.

The Deputy is confused on this one; there is no question about that. The International Protection Act 2026 has been introduced by this Dáil and supported by this Dáil. It will provide a very fair, sustainable, efficient and robust asylum procedure. It will also result in faster dealing with applications and appeals that may be made against those decisions. It will be much faster. It also enables us to return asylum seekers who need to go back to the place where their asylum application originated in Europe. This is strengthening laws in respect of asylum seeking and no amount of shallow, empty soundbites that are used against this legislation will sustain. This is, again, part of a wider agenda to try to instil fear and misinformation.

Hear, hear.

What Deputy Lawless said there is misinformation. It is absolute misinformation.

It is handing over control to Europe of how they are being processed.

It is absolute nonsense and I think it is wrong.

We had a protocol and we could have opted out.

Nonsense, just bloody nonsense.

I raise the issue of St. Joseph's Secondary School in Spanish Point, County Clare. A beautiful school, its enrolment has doubled across the last decade. With that growth have come certain difficulties for the school. At the moment, 216 female students in the school have to use four toilet cubicles. That is all the students have. The school has been approved for ten more toilet cubicles but the approval just sits on a shelf. The school keeps sending in the paperwork the Department requires but it is getting very little back. It has been approved for new science laboratories, preparatory areas, a music room, construction rooms and two general classrooms. It keeps sending in the information the Department requires but it seem to be on a hamster wheel going no place. For five years, the school has responded to every single thing asked of it. This is now at a critical stage. The school is now turning away students because it cannot cater for and those who are in the school do not have basic infrastructure like classrooms and even toilets. I ask the Taoiseach to intervene. I have raised this at the education committee and with the Minister but it does not seem to be going any place. It will need new impetus to get it moving.

I thank Deputy Crowe for his robust advocacy on behalf of St. Joseph's Secondary School and its extension application. I take on board what he said. There has been significant investment in school buildings but, clearly, there is a necessity for more. I will engage with the Minister for education on this issue to see if we can move forward and advance this extension for the benefit of the students who attend the school and, of course, the staff who work there, as well as the wider community. It is a valuable school in a beautiful part of the country. We will certainly do what we can. There are wider issues as well.

No international protection applicant should be sleeping in a tent in a public park in any part of this country. Yet, in my constituency, in Herbert Park, it is a regular occurrence of late that international protection applicants are sleeping in tents in a park beside a playground that people frequent with their families and children. From the questioning I have done in the public accounts committee, we know the average duration of stay of an international protection applicant in a tent is less than two days. We are paying €1 million for an NGO to refer international protection applicants in a tent to an accommodation service. As the International Protection Act comes into being very shortly, can the Taoiseach say that there will no longer be tents in public parks anywhere in this city in which international protection applicants will be sleeping? Operationally, we can make changes to prevent that happening. Even at the smaller numbers that we had in the past, this is not sustainable. Nor is it fair on the international protection applicants or the communities in which these tents are being put up.

It is absolutely not sustainable and it is not safe for people either. It is not appropriate. It is wrong that people should feel the need to use tents at times. The facilitation of that is something I have issues with. The Government does not support that. The Minister has sought accommodation in different locations but also, the Act itself will lead to much faster treatment of applications. About 70% of applications are decided in the negative; in other words, people do not actually have an entitlement to asylum. The number of negative responses to appeals is quite high as well. Speed in assessing the applications and also the appeals is crucial to this and critical to the avoidance of the kinds of issues the Deputy has raised.

I wish to raise again the atrocious conditions of many roads in Counties Cavan and Monaghan. I have raised this with the Taoiseach on a number of occasions. He has responded by saying that his Fianna Fáil representatives have also raised this issue with him but, clearly, he has either not listened or his Cavan-Monaghan representatives are not effective. This year, the Government allocated less funding for local road restorations to Cavan and Monaghan than last year. Our local authorities are doing their best. They are trying to patch and stretch the funding but the funding simply is not enough. At a time people are paying more and more in taxes and charges for the luxury of driving their cars, which is, in fact, a necessity, I ask the Taoiseach again: will he ensure that Cavan and Monaghan receive additional funding as a matter of urgency for our local road restoration and maintenance?

The Deputy is being unfair to his colleagues, Government TDs who are-----

Less money this year than last year.

-----people of considerable experience and who have had significant impact over the years in respect of Cavan-Monaghan. There has been increased funding overall in terms of roads this year. I will engage with the Ministers for housing and the environment, local authorities and the Minister for public expenditure to make sure we can deal with the significant challenges that people undoubtedly face across the country in respect of roads, road maintenance and restoration.

I want to raise again the issue of microgeneration and the tax exemption limit for households. As I said here yesterday in the debate on the Finance Bill, targeted and practical changes over the lifetime of this Government will help us pull away from fossil fuels and towards renewable fuel permanently. One such change is the microgeneration taxation exemption. While the extension of the €400 exemption for selling electricity back into the grid to December 2028 is welcome, it is not enough. Once households exceed that threshold, the additional income must be declared and they have to enter into an administrative process to do that. It introduces a bit of complexity for them. We know where energy prices are going. They are going up at the moment. Electric Ireland and company are putting those prices up. Can the Government look at raising this cap to €600, recognising that it will help us collectively achieve decarbonisation and energy security goals?

It is a very reasonable point the Deputy is making. It is a good scheme and it has been a good, welcome initiative. We always evaluate initiatives in terms of how they are working. I will speak to the Ministers for energy and Finance in respect of this.

I welcome the statements from the Minister, Deputy James Browne, the Minister of State, Deputy John Cummins, and the Tánaiste on overhauling rural planning. This is an issue the Taoiseach feels very strongly about himself. Kerry has been severely impacted. Places like Kilcummin and Beaufort are effectively sterilised, as is the Ring of Kerry route. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, has questions to answer on this and on not allowing us to use existing entrances on the N70 or the N86 Tralee to Dingle road. Meat needs to be put on the bones of those statements. For us to really make an impact on people's lives, we have to give clear direction to the local authorities as to what the Government's policy actually is. When will the national planning statement for rural planning be announced? What can we expect to see in that to help people to build houses for themselves?

I thank the Deputy for his comments. This is a very important issue for people generally, but young people and young couples in particular, in rural Ireland. Given the housing crisis we are in, we simply have to look at every avenue to increase housing capacity. The Minister and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing have been working substantively on this with significant proposals. I envisage that in the next number of weeks, they will bring it to Cabinet. We have had a discussion at the Cabinet subcommittee on this and hopefully it can be brought to a conclusion sar i bhfad.

For a number of years, I have been working with St. Joseph's Gaelic football club in Wexford on the development of a fabulous new facility in the heart of Wexford town on Whiterock Hill. The club is just about to put the final touches to it. It has received assistance over the years, of course, but in the final touches, it has received an offer from Uisce Éireann to connect to water and sewerage services. Whiterock Hill is not an isolated area. There are about 1,500 houses on the hill and this will be a community facility. The club has received an offer of connection for €52,000 from Uisce Éireann, which will connect it to water and sewerage services. As I said, it is not in the middle of nowhere. It is alongside a main road and there are houses all around it. Can the Taoiseach personally intervene on this? I have written to the Minister for housing and I have received an acknowledgment. The club is anxious to get going on a fabulous community facility but €52,000 is just unacceptable.

I pay tribute to St. Joseph's Gaelic football club for its ambition and energy and for serving the community so well. This project represents the manifestation of a further milestone in the club's development and history. I will ask the Minister and endeavour to engage with Uisce Éireann to see if anything can be done here to facilitate what is a very significant community facility for the wider community that will be used by all.

There are few other instances in the country that highlight how challenging and difficult we have made it to complete crucial infrastructure projects than the Galway city ring road. As the Taoiseach will be aware, the project was first mooted and planned for in 1999. There have been three separate planning decisions. The design and planning work that has gone into each of those has taken a significant time. There have been alternative compulsory purchase orders and a number of legal cases. The latest and third grant of planning for the project was on 9 April this year but, unfortunately, that faces judicial review, posing further delay to this crucial project and potential derailment. On 14 April this year, TII announced it had reached agreement with parties, which will allow the withdrawal of the judicial review proceedings relating to Luas Finglas. TII said that this means Luas Finglas can now proceed. Last December, our colleague, the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, confirmed the withdrawal of judicial review proceedings against An Coimisiún Pleanála's grant of planning for the metro project following constructive mediation. I ask that the Taoiseach supports-----

The Taoiseach to respond now, Deputy. Time is up.

-----engagement with the transport authorities and the parties who have taken judicial reviews.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I also recognise the strength of his advocacy in regard to the ring road in Galway and the absolute necessity for it. It is with some degree of dismay that we read that there will be a judicial review of the planning. I urge the authorities - and I will engage with them - to see if mediation can bring about a speedier outcome to the issues that have been raised. My understanding is that the county council is the lead authority but I will talk to TII, the county council and relevant Ministers. I have spoken to the Minister for Transport on this because, for the wider public good and for Galway generally, this road needs to be built.

I want to condemn the horrific attack in Belfast on Monday night and commend those who bravely intervened. I also want to condemn what was effectively a racist pogrom in Belfast last night. The scenes and the stories of families having their homes burned down and being forced to flee out of burning homes by violent gangs were absolutely heartbreaking. It is grimly reminiscent of the pogroms in Belfast in the 1920s and the 1960s. The Taoiseach has rightly condemned those who set those homes alight. Will he also condemn those who fanned the flames online? I refer to the likes of Elon Musk, one of the richest, most powerful men in the world, Tommy Robinson, Conor McGregor and also those politicians who have engaged in the scapegoating of migrants. These people, who are at the top of society and some of whom are rich and powerful, are happy to see people divided and to see hate and division spread to distract from their own failures that people in our society are paying for.

I condemn, and I have condemned, what happened on last evening. "Racist pogrom" is a good description of last night in north Belfast. I made the point in my earlier remarks that there were certain media outlets of a particular political disposition that sought, from observing some of the interviews, to raise tensions. That is unacceptable and I roundly condemn that. Everybody has a responsibility for what is said because the dignity of every individual must be respected. To have families and young children subjected to what happened last evening is unacceptable. What happened the previous evening was savage and has created huge anxiety, fear and anger. That must be acknowledged, but all of us in political life, as public representatives, must call out the level of racism that was evident last night.

I am appealing to the Taoiseach with just a couple of days to go to enact the European Union migration and asylum pact. I tried for almost two years on the Business Committee to have a debate here. Deputy Carol Nolan and I, and our rural Independent colleagues, tabled a motion on 1 May 2024, a May Day call, which the Government voted down. I appeal to the Taoiseach to have a pause and try to listen to the people. I ask the Taoiseach to please give the people a voice here and do not be patronising like he was in reply to Deputy Paul Lawless. This vote was passed in summer 2024 by a margin of merely seven votes. That was before we had nearly 40 new TDs here. We all condemn the savage attacks in Belfast and that have been ongoing in this country. The Government has turned a blind eye to it and tried to demonise people. Please put this to the people and let the people decide. Is the Taoiseach so frightened of the people that he will not do this?

The Deputy's time is up. He is penalising everybody else.

This is parliamentary democracy. By 86 votes to 62, the International Protection Act 2015 was passed in this House. It has been signed by the President. Why are Members inventing and deliberately misinforming people? That is what is going on here. This law has been debated in this House at length.

It was guillotined.

Deputy, stop interrupting.

It has been passed by this House. People have different perspectives, as they are entitled to. It has been passed, signed, and is coming into law. That is all. This is a new development where TDs are coming in to say that a matter was only won by this amount or that and we must have another debate, despite the fact that legislation went through all Stages. This is misinformation and let us call it out. All last week, there were emails going to everyone about how a terrible day was going to happen on Friday when legislation that was debated here at length was commenced. Legislation is commenced all of the time. That is all that is happening. By the way, it gives us control.

Since first being elected to the Dáil, I have repeatedly raised water outages in Trim, Clonard and Ballivor in County Meath. Outages and disruption are causing huge frustration for residents in these areas, and rightly so. Recently, residents in Ballivor went days without water and this forced school closures and disruption to local businesses. Five years on from when the project was announced, construction has not started on the long-promised new water reservoir in Ballivor. Water is tankered in daily. Houses are being built where water infrastructure cannot cope. Uisce Éireann has been frustrating to deal with. Standard responses are being issued days after outages with no real answers for people in Ballivor who know that water outages will happen again. Just yesterday, parliamentary questions seeking answer on this issue from the Minister were disallowed, stating that the Minister has no responsibility to the Dáil for this matter. Nobody is responsible for anything. Can the Taoiseach commit to coming back to me with a start date for the upgrade to Ballivor water storage project? When will a shovel be in the ground? Previous commitments have not been honoured.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I cannot get involved in every single scheme with Uisce Éireann but I would say to Irish Water that it needs to reflect on its relationship with public representatives because the number of TDs who are complaining about not getting replies is too high. Something needs to be resolved here to have a proper flow of information. I will check with Irish Water but the Deputy is saying he cannot get any information. I do not know.

Not a word.

I am sorry, Deputy.

A number of TDs have been raising this kind of issue from time to time.

We need to know.

I will go back to the Minister. We do not want people to have to flood the system with a load of parliamentary questions about a particular scheme. That information should be provided to Members automatically. I am hearing now of Members using AI for parliamentary questions. If we keep doing that, we will have thousands of questions in here and the system will be paralysed. I know the Deputy is not doing that, in fairness.

I raise ongoing issues in my constituency of access to appropriate school places for children with additional needs. A parent was in touch with me about her child, Roman Slater. She is really worried. He is five years of age. He is currently in his third year of ageing out in pre-school. He has no placement and no July provision. He is on the list for schools locally, including St. Brigid's Infant National School and Gaelscoil Uí Earcáin, but he has not yet been placed in a school, St. Canice's, where classrooms are being developed currently. His parents feel that they have not got the help needed from the special educational needs organiser, SENO. They are still waiting for a final report and assessment of need that has not been received. They are worried about where he will have a school place in September. On that, St. Canice's school has just completed the modular build for additional classroom, but parents are still waiting to hear if they will actually have places in September. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, if he can follow up on these cases please?

I will talk to the Minister of State. If this modular building is complete, there will be classes. We have allocated an extra €646 million over and above the Estimate of last year to the Department of Education and Youth. A significant amount of that will be allocated to special education for the express purpose of more teachers and special needs assistants. We want every child to have a place in September. If the Deputy can send the details on to the Minister of State, I will alert him that the Deputy has raised an issue with me here.

This month's Irish Business Against Litter survey found an increase in the number of cigarette butts around our community. Cigarette butts cause damage to the environment in a number of ways. They are microplastics. They leach into the water system. It has been estimated that one butt can contaminate 1,000 litres of water, yet throughout the country, local authorities are doing nothing in their plans to educate or to enforce the law. Even here, in the smoking area just outside, there are butts scattered around. The Taoiseach should see the Department of agriculture building, where there is a massive number. There is significant ignorance and it is damaging our environment. We need to get a little tougher about it. I know it is not the biggest issue in the world but it is for the fish in the ocean and the lakes.

It is a no-brainer. I am appalled that there are cigarette butts on the ground outside State institutions. It should not happen. It is just unacceptable. Every individual has responsibilities in that regard but we do, as institutions of the State, have responsibilities to make sure that does not happen. I will ask for a re-examination of that and see what measures can be taken to clamp down on this.

Are there plans to ensure that Uisce Éireann becomes more accountable to this House? The level of response and the slow rate of response to queries from Members of the Oireachtas is not acceptable. I would like the Taoiseach to commit to raising this with the chief executive of Uisce Éireann. The problem is that we are forced to table questions in this House and they are then disallowed, but we cannot get any answers from Uisce Éireann. I have specifically raised on a number of occasions plans for the development of the Ferns and Camolin wastewater treatment plant in County Wexford and Aughrim wastewater treatment plant in County Wicklow. We have seen water out yet again in Gorey in the past number of days. I appreciate the Taoiseach cannot get involved in every scheme or issue but the level of communication from Uisce Éireann to elected members is not acceptable.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know he has raised it previously. Uisce Éireann is subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and is accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts but that is more in terms of the broader governance issues. It is also subject to requirements of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and has, I understand, established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. It has acknowledged, as I said earlier, that there are concerns around the effectiveness of communications of Uisce Éireann with public representatives. It has undertaken a review of elected representative engagement, with input from across its entire business, which is due to be concluded shortly. I will engage again with the Minister in light of this discussion with the Deputy and others in respect of a need to change and maybe demonstrate, by experience, an improvement.