2026-05-06

I welcome the public in the Gallery to our session. I will now take Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 38. I call Deputy Mary Lou McDonald.

The urgent need for an emergency budget grows by the day. In the past week, we have had report after report all saying the same thing: this crisis is getting worse. This morning, we heard that rising prices hit the average household by close to €2,000 a year. Families are under huge pressure to keep up with the cost of groceries, fuel, insurance and energy bills, and €2,000 is a lot of money for those working families. For many, it is the difference between staying afloat or going under. The big question everyone is asking is: what is the Taoiseach waiting for? How bad do things have to get before he wakes up and acts? What happened on Friday last should be a loud wake-up call for his Government. PrepayPower, Ireland's largest pay-as-you-go energy provider, announced sharp hikes in its electricity and gas prices. Nearly 250,000 customers will see their average yearly bill shoot up by almost €300 and that is only the start. More increases are on the way. We already have the highest electricity prices in Europe, which was confirmed by Eurostat today. We pay €480 a year more compared to the EU average. Other suppliers will hike their prices in coming weeks, and why would they not? The big energy companies have nothing to fear from the Government. It has not laid a glove on them. It has taken no action to get prices down and its gutless, carte blanche approach and refusal to rein in these companies has left us with the highest electricity bills in Europe, bills that are landing now and have pushed more than 300,000 households into arrears. People are sick of the Government standing back as they take hit after hit. It will not take on the energy companies to get the prices down. It will not provide energy credits to help households with bills and it pushes back against the immediate need for an emergency budget. We have a do-nothing Government led by a do-nothing Taoiseach. As prices go through the roof, the Government leaves people in desperate situations - stress, worry, cutting back, going without and working hard but still struggling for the basics - but it has the resources to act. The surplus provides room to help but the Government's message to the working people of Ireland is to struggle on, make do and wait for next year's budget as the bills pile up. This is not just a bad political choice; this is, in fact, a dereliction of the Taoiseach's duty to the people who keep this country going. Tá tuilleadh arduithe ar phraghsanna leictreachais os ár gcomhair amach, ach tá Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael fós sásta suí siar agus faic a dhéanamh. Tá cáinaisnéis éigeandála agus creidmheasanna fuinnimh ag teastáil láithreach. The time for lame excuses is over and the time for action is now. An emergency budget is not just another call from Sinn Féin. It is essential to help prevent households from going to the wall. Energy credits are vital to help families cope with runaway electricity prices. It boils down to this. The Taoiseach can either deliver an emergency budget, provide the energy credits, give households the lifeline they desperately need, or he can stand back and continue to do nothing.

Ní aontaím in aon chor leis an Teachta. Tá an-chuid déanta ag an Rialtas go dtí seo, idir an cháinaisnéis a bhí againn agus an pacáiste a d’fhoilsigh muid coicís ó shín, chun an brú atá gan dabht ar theaghlaigh agus ar mhuintir na hÉireann a ísliú agus a laghdú. Mar aon leis sin, tá an-chuid infheistíochta curtha isteach againn i seirbhísí oideachais, sláinte agus i go leor seirbhísí eile. I just want to say at the outset that the Government from the budget onwards has focused on investment in services and alleviating pressures on families, and will continue to do so. We acknowledge that there are significant pressures on people because of a range of issues, not least the impact on fuel prices arising from the Middle Eastern war, which follows the tariff issue and which follows the situation with the invasion in Ukraine, and the post-Covid inflationary cycle that occurred then, which was at 10%. One of the challenges here is how to respond properly, sensitively and in a targeted way that also maintains economic balance and proportion. What I mean by that is that if we were to take the Sinn Féin budgetary package that it put forward at the last budget, and if we were to add the €3 billion and more, we would be looking at inflation rates of about 5% or 6% in our economy. That is the reality of it. You have got to be careful. You can keep spending more and more money every month but it will have an inflationary impact and we will be chasing inflation. That will not alleviate pressures on working families because when inflation gets higher, it is those on the lowest incomes who will suffer the most. We have to be extremely targeted in how we do things, both sectorally and in terms of low-income groups. Remember we have reduced VAT already in terms of electricity charges down to 9% and we are going to maintain that out to 2030. That just gets ignored when the Deputy lists everything. We announced a €755 million to €770 million package recently to alleviate the pressures on the public and, indeed, on crucial sectors around food production and around haulage, and on many thousands of workers working in those sectors. Also, as we were doing that, we have increased expenditure on education by €646 million additional to the budget. We have choices here. You cannot have it each way and every way. We are keeping a focus-----

The sums are wrong in the budget.

-----on those services. If you keep spending billions now, you will not have the money for education, special education, childcare reductions and health services. You will not have the funding for all of that at the next budget or, indeed, for next year. On what we have done so far, we extended and increased the fuel allowance and we expanded it in terms of the number of people it covers, particularly those on the working family payment. The minimum wage has increased significantly. We have deferred the carbon tax increases and we have a variety of packages for a range of sectors. Our social welfare payments went up €10 in the last budget. It has come under huge pressure since then, and I acknowledge that. We also put in record increases to child income support payments - the highest on record. That was a really significant and targeted message. The way the Deputy wants it is that she wants not to do that. She wants us to move away from that sort of targeting approach. Then, in the context of the October budget, we will have available to us other mechanisms like tax and other measures that we can introduce that can benefit people to get them over the winter period, which is going to be a crucial period for all.

The Taoiseach acknowledges on the one hand go bhfuil daoine is teaghlaigh faoi bhrú, that people are under pressure. He acknowledges the stress that people are living with daily. I am sure the Taoiseach accepts the figures and facts presented to him of over 300,000 households in arrears, of energy prices, including gas and electricity, rising again and of people here already spending more than anyone else across Europe on their electricity costs. He acknowledges all of that but then when the obvious question is asked of him, which is what will the Government do to respond now in May, not next October or January, as these bills are landing and as families are under this level of pressure, the Taoiseach comes up blank. All he offers is spoof and distraction. Nobody is going to buy that because people have to live with the realities of the here and now.

Thank you, Deputy.

When will the Taoiseach intervene? He really is a do-nothing Taoiseach-----

The Taoiseach to respond.

-----or else he is just so incredibly indifferent-----

The Deputy's time is up.

-----to the reality of people's lives.

The Taoiseach will respond.

Does he listen to people?

I call the Taoiseach.

Does he hear what people are living with?

The Deputy's time is up. Please comply.

No disrespect to the Deputy and her party but she is the personification of spoof and bluster.

Hear, hear.

If we had introduced the measures she advocates from last October, we would be looking at an inflation rate of close to 5%. That is by any yardstick or formula. That is the reality. We have already acted and the Deputy knows that. Some €750 million is not spoof; it is real funding that we have budgeted for and allocated in terms of the food production sector, farmers, contractors and the haulage industry. We have hundreds of thousands of people working in all of those sectors. It might be spoof to the Deputy because she is a Johnny-come-lately when it comes to the farming world-----

Pardon me?

-----but it is not spoof to the people benefiting from it.

Says farmer Micheál.

Please.

In terms of the people who are going to benefit from it-----

Silage, manure and cow dung. Was the Taoiseach out cutting the silage?

Please, Deputy McDonald.

Go away out of that.

Exactly, the Deputy does not want to listen to anybody because she is incapable of listening to the truth.

I thank the Taoiseach. I call Deputy Bacik.

The bottom line is-----

The bottom line is time is up.

-----the Deputy's approach all along on this------

Did the Taoiseach come in on his tractor?

Deputy Bacik is on her feet.

Rising costs are blowing a €2,000 hole in average household budgets this year. That is in today's Irish Independent. The cost of food, health insurance and energy are all soaring. Ireland has the highest household electricity prices in the EU, as Eurostat has confirmed. The Government's words of sympathy for struggling families are meaningless because it is failing to take action to cut energy costs. It is hunting with the hounds and running with the hare and the hare has got its brains too, it seems. We saw a hare-brained notion from Deputy James O'Connor that nuclear power somehow represents a solution to the crushing cost of energy here but as the Deputy has not acknowledged, in countries with a planning system that actually works, nuclear still takes 15 years to come on stream at a minimum. The stakes for hard-pressed households and PAYE workers are just too high for this sort of public brainstorming exercise form Fianna Fáil TDs. We in the Labour Party welcome national conversations about energy security but not at the expense of actual delivery. Let us look at delivery. In Ireland, we are still at best four years away from delivering any offshore wind energy. That delay is due to lack of Government ambition and government focus. It is deeply regrettable because unlike nuclear, wind power offers feasible, scalable projects. Other countries have led the way on renewables. Let us take Spain, a European leader. More than half of Spanish electricity is generated from renewables. Its government, a labour government, saw which way the proverbial wind was blowing four years ago when Russia mounted its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Spain rapidly ramped up renewable energy capacity, achieving 75% low-carbon electricity generation last year. Solar and wind power are significantly lowering energy bills in Spain. Why are we not doing the same? Our climate boasts plenty of wind but without turbines it is going to waste. As a result, people here are wasting hard-earned money filling the coffers of oil and gas giants. Households here pay €500 more per year for electricity than the EU average. Why does the Government not focus on rapid delivery of renewables? Instead of delivery, it seems that Fianna Fáil are the Don Quixote of Irish politics; it is frightened of windmills. What else can explain the delay? There is so much more we could do. It is not just wind energy; there is also plug-in solar and enhanced battery capacity. Renewables can drastically reduce household bills. We need them to cut emissions and meet climate goals too. The Government is failing to insulate people from the cost of energy now and failing to ensure the future of our younger generations. Its go-to solution for energy shocks is subsidies for fossil fuels and energy companies are reaping windfall gains. Where is the windfall tax that could fund targeted energy credits, as Labour has sough,t and where is the climate action plan for 2026? It was due in January and still has not appeared. When will we see the Government take action on renewables to cut costs for struggling households?

The Deputy mentioned that Spain was at 50% renewables for electricity generation. Last February, 50% of our electricity generation was renewable. I believe the Deputy is misleading the House in her political characterisation of the Government in respect of renewables. We have been driving renewables for quite some time over successive Governments. In terms of offshore wind, I established a clearing house in my Department that meets with the industry, Departments and regulators to remove systemic potential barriers to offshore wind delivery. We have had a series of auctions. We have a number of offshore wind farms in the planning process. Surely the Deputy must know that. While she exaggerates and makes silly statements about Don Quixote and all that nonsense, it is far too serious for that. She says she is interested in national conversations and then lambastes Deputy O'Connor for initiating a national conversation. Where is the consistency in that approach or the logic in what she is saying? France is a good example where there is a combination of sources, with nuclear being one. It will take time but we have to have these serious conversations and examinations. I made it very clear last weekend that our main focus was on offshore wind, and we have made substantial progress on onshore wind. The reason for the high cost of electricity in Ireland is, yes, an isolated grid with a lack of interconnection. We have two gas interconnectors to Britain and we are on the cusp of completing an interconnector with France. We have also initiated discussions with Spain about an interconnector with it because Europe needs a comprehensive grids package to reduce our historic dependence on imported fossil fuels. We rely substantially on imported gas, which increases and exacerbates the price situation in Ireland vis-à-vis other countries. In purchasing power parity in the European Union, we are the fifth highest, which is too high. Structural reform is the way to deal with that but that will take time. There is no point in pretending it will not. We have our offshore wind targets to 2030 and 2040 of up to 20 GW and I believe we can achieve that. If the Deputy talks to those in the industry, they acknowledge that Government is engaging proactively on that topic. However, we also have to alleviate pressure. The Deputy scoffed at the idea of subsidies for fossil fuels. At the moment, people need supports. I am surprised. Is the Deputy now against what we did in subsidising the costs for people out there motoring or involved in our trade, or in farming and agricultural matters?

Things are serious. They are serious for the many thousands of families and households in arrears on their energy bills. They are far too serious to be toying around with distractions about nuclear power when we know the solution lies in the scalable projects of renewables. The Taoiseach speaks about a Government focus on renewables, but it is clearly evident, particularly since the Green Party left government, how there has been a slowdown in Government commitments on climate and on renewables. Last week almost 60 countries met in Colombia for intensive talks to forge a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. Ireland's decision to send a senior civil servant rather than the climate Minister speaks volumes. The Government is not taking this seriously. I used Spain as the example. Let us look at the Eurostat figures. Last year, Irish electricity cost 40.42 cent per kWh. That is 40% over the European average and well above the Spanish cost of 24 cent. The figures speak for themselves. The figures for the households in arrears speak for themselves and we know the answer. In opposition, we supported the MARA legislation, but there is still no urgency on rolling out renewables to help struggling households.

It is a big political untruth to suggest that since the Greens left, we somehow reduced our commitment to renewables.

It is evident.

It is a deliberate misrepresentation for political purposes, and that is all, but it is false and it is untrue. Since this Government was formed we have established a clearing house, which my good colleague, the former Minister Eamon Ryan, refused to do, although industry wanted to engage. The one difference we have made here is to facilitate the engagement of industry to stop the them-and-us approach and work systemically on the barriers to successfully deploying offshore wind farms. We are making progress. There are significant challenges globally in that respect, with supply chain issues and the United States approach to wind. We are in a good position in terms of the auctions we have already held and the submissions to An Coimisiún Pleanála that have already occurred. We have had engagements with MARA and with An Coimisiún Pleanála. The Critical Infrastructure Bill will be very significant in enabling us to prioritise-----

The time is up. Thank you, Taoiseach.

-----what is a critical issue for the country-----

I call Deputy Holly Cairns. The time is up. Thank you, Taoiseach.

-----namely, the development of offshore wind.

I have called Deputy Cairns.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. There is a constant dread that is now hanging over people’s lives. It is a quiet, growing panic about whether they can make it to the next payday. We have more evidence today of the huge cost-of-living pressures people are under. A new survey in the Irish Independent confirms what we already know, which is that costs have soared again. Households are now spending on average an extra €2,000 per year just to get by. People who could never afford luxuries now cannot afford the basics. Everything they earn is swallowed up by skyrocketing rents, childcare fees, mortgage payments, and energy and grocery bills. As those people desperately tread water, this Government refuses to throw them a lifeline. Even when Eurostat tells us that electricity prices here are the highest in the EU, at nearly 40% above the average, the Government is still telling people to wait until the budget in October, or maybe even next January, to get any support. Does the Taoiseach realise how crushing that is to hear if you are already at breaking point? The Government has the resources to act; it is just choosing not to do so. The Social Democrats have a comprehensive plan that could be adopted now, with targeted measures to support low- and middle-income workers who are now under enormous pressure, including a €400 energy credit targeted at households earning up to €70,000, a supplementary mileage scheme for essential workers like nurses and carers, and a €400 emergency cost-of-disability payment. As the Taoiseach knows, disabled people were struggling long before this energy crisis. Disability was meant to be a priority for this Government. What will it take for disabled people to be heard? We need emergency supports today and solutions for tomorrow to protect households from future energy shocks. That is why we have proposed a "solar for all" plan that could be rolled out rapidly and would bring down costs instantly. It includes making solar panels free for the homes most at risk of energy poverty, doubling grants to €3,600, a new grant for battery storage and finally rolling out plug-in solar, which this Government has delayed for far too long. Imagine the difference it would make to people’s lives if they could simply plug in solar panels from their balconies and watch their bills fall. These measures are practical and achievable, and would make a real difference, so why is the Government not doing any of this? The Taoiseach says he supports targeted measures and says this is an unprecedented crisis, so why will his Government not act like it and deliver the targeted support people need now?

First of all, the Government has provided targeted support. The evidence is there in terms of the free school books at primary and secondary levels. That is a significant measure we have brought in, which this year again will assist many families with what was a major cost for those with children attending primary and secondary school. We have expanded the free hot school meals programme. We have expanded childcare and we need to do more on the childcare front. We have the €280 new baby grant, for example. Hospital inpatient charges were abolished. We have expanded free GP care significantly, particularly for children. In the most recent package, we have significantly provided for a reduction in diesel and petrol that will affect ordinary people. That is immediate and that is happening. If it was not, their costs would be significantly higher. We have also provided packages for the transport sector of about €40 million per month. There is a €100 million worth of a fuel scheme for farmers, contractors and fishers. Of course, the diesel rebate increased to 12 cent per litre. We expanded the fuel allowance and increased it to €38 per week. We expanded eligibility and brought in those on the working family payment. Now about 470,000 households benefit from that. The Deputy cannot ignore all that. She does not get to choose which measures Government has introduced to ignore, and just articulate a banal assertion that Government has done nothing. Just because the Deputy keeps saying Government has done nothing does not mean that is true. Clearly, Government has done a lot. The reality is we have a budget in October. We do not know where this crisis is going or, indeed, the more medium-term consequences of it. We need to hold some resources in reserve for the winter period, at a minimum, and work out how best to systemically cushion the lowest income groups and those who need our support the most. I support the Deputy's broad principle of targeting. I have challenged others in the House who do not support it but I do. In the budget, we have a far better range of measures so we can arrive at a balanced approach where we can give working people relief but where we can also target measures. We did that in the previous budget with child support payments, which were the highest on record, in terms of what we did there to try to eat into the issue of child poverty. We want to do that consistently over time. We also want to make sure we can reduce the cost of childcare and look again at what we can do in healthcare. Can we add to measures we have taken previously with HRT, free contraception and so on? If the Deputy wants to blow everything today and spend €2 billion or €3 billion now, she might come back in July and say let us spend another €2 billion. By the time we get to October, there will be €5 billion or €6 billion spent. That is no way to run a country either.

This is not about ignoring certain measures the Government has introduced but when I ask the Taoiseach about targeted supports for people who cannot pay their bills, in the context of an energy crisis and rising costs of 70% in a month for home heating oil, it is not that I have no regard for the free book scheme. For somebody watching, who is struggling to pay their bills, when the Taoiseach is asked about targeted energy supports for people who cannot pay their bills and he talks about the school book scheme, they despair. In the context of these rising energy costs, the Taoiseach understands there is an energy crisis, understands we have energy costs that are 40% higher than the European average and understands how much people are struggling. How does he expect people to wait until October? We already had hundreds of thousands of people in arrears on their energy bills before this crisis. We already had disabled people out on the street protesting for an emergency disability payment. Even before that, we knew that one in five disabled people is living in poverty but the Taoiseach will not bring in any measures between now and the budget for these people who need help.

We invested an additional 20%, up to €500 million extra, in disability services. That is systemic, sustainable and something that will happen year on year. We increased the domiciliary care allowance for a second year in a row by an additional €20. We will do more in the forthcoming budget. If you look at the changes we have made to the fuel allowance scheme, a two adult household will benefit by about €2,300 per annum as a result of that. A lone parent family will benefit by up to €1,800. These are significant measures we are taking. We extended it because of the impact of the war in the Middle East, which has undoubtedly created huge pressures all round. The biggest issue is uncertainty about how long this crisis will last and the direction it will take in terms of the impact on fuel prices, which will then impact everything else. We have to be very careful too of the inflationary impact of Government spending. If Government just allocates another €4 billion or €5 billion, that sounds great but it simply brings us to a 5% or 6% inflation rate, which would not be sustainable.

In yesterday's Irish Independent newspaper, a headline read Ireland should seriously look at the option of nuclear power, says the Taoiseach. He said in Yerevan, and I quote the Taoiseach directly, "we certainly should look at and examine options like nuclear power seriously." I asked the Taoiseach the exact same question in the Chamber two weeks ago. His answer was that "the direction of travel has to be in the renewables area". He dismissed the Barryroe oil field. He defended the 2021 ban on oil and gas exploration. He cited the enormous costs on nuclear energy - that is the record - as a reason for caution. That position is on the record of this House in response to my question. Which is it? Is it the answer that the Taoiseach gave this Chamber two weeks ago or the answer that he gave the cameras in Armenia? The contradiction continues. The Minister for Finance and Tánaiste, Deputy Harris, says that nuclear energy should be considered with an open mind. The Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, has said that there is an argument for nuclear energy, that the argument is decades old and that we are now living in a different world. Billy Kelleher MEP, the President that would be, says that he would back a motion to overturn the 1999 ban at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis later this month. The Taoiseach's Ministers, MEPs and backbenchers are all moving in one direction, yet the 1999 ban remains law, the 2021 oil and gas exploration ban remains law and the Government has not introduced legislation to lift the nuclear prohibitions and does not have plans to reverse the exploration ban. I made the point to the Taoiseach in this Chamber two weeks ago - it is on the record of the House that he did not deny it - that Ireland bans nuclear energy at home while it imports nuclear-generated energy directly from France through the Celtic interconnector. That is not climate leadership but policy contradiction, which is sitting unanswered on the record of this House. Ireland imports 86% of its energy, one of the highest dependence rates in Europe. Norway and the United Kingdom face the same markets - and the same pressures, indeed - but they produce energy; we import it. They have options; we have none, because of Government policy that has closed every door and dressed it up as Government policy. Will the Taoiseach today in this House, on the record, commit to bringing forward Government legislation to lift the 1999 nuclear ban? Will he reverse the 2021 gas and oil exploration ban to allow Barryroe to be excavated? Will Irish families continue to pay the highest prices in Europe? Will the Taoiseach save his real answers for foreign summits?

When the Deputy asked that question last month, I stressed the importance of renewable energy. In Armenia, I made it very clear that our immediate focus is on offshore wind. I pointed out the very significant progress we have made in respect of onshore wind and, indeed, solar. Solar is moving at pace in Ireland and I trust the Deputy is supportive of that. Deputy James O'Connor is introducing legislation which the Government will examine, along with the question of a legislative response in respect of nuclear, but we understand that it will take time. It is not going to immediately alleviate the pressures that people are under. One of the reasons we announced investment in a strategic reserve of liquefied natural gas, LNG, for example, was to deal with the security issue of energy supply. If anything were to happen to gas interconnectors through malign third-party actors, we would need a fallback. That got attacked as an anti-climate measure-----

It is.

-----or was somehow portrayed as rowing back when, in fact, it was the very strong advice in the Department in respect of our vulnerability to anything happening to those gas interconnectors. We are not connected yet to France so we are not yet importing nuclear. That has been delayed a bit, through no fault of the Government or anything like that. I take the Deputy's point that once that connection happens, we will, to all intents and purposes, be importing energy generated through France's nuclear capacity. If we connect to Spain in the fullness of time, it would more likely be renewable of one sort or another, given the prevalence of renewable in the Iberian Peninsula. I believe we should have a serious examination of nuclear because we need to work out costs and timelines. There have been advances in technology in the smaller reactors and so on, and I am all for that. Barryroe has been around a long time.

So has the Taoiseach.

Not quite as long as Barryroe, although I do travel the length and breath of the Barryroe parish. The oil issue has been around for a long time. Successive companies - this is the only point I will make in respect of it - did not feel the capacity was there or were not in a position to bring it to the surface and so on. It did not appear at any stage to be economical through its a long history. I am not an expert on that. We are very clearly focused on the renewable agenda and have made huge progress in this country. If we are honest, fossil fuels have impacted negatively on the world for a long time.

I thank the Taoiseach. What he has done in this Chamber is exactly what he did in Armenia, namely he said a great deal while committing to nothing. Within the past hour, the Taoiseach has twice referenced renewables and connecting to Spain. It is worth putting this on the record of the House because people hold up Spain as the great renewable energy country. Renewable energy in Spain is at 21% while its nuclear energy is at 20%. If we connect to Spain, which is the Taoiseach's plan, we will take nuclear energy from it. We have to admit there is a policy deficit here. We are looking at taking nuclear energy from a foreign body but there is a ban in the Government's legislation on such energy. We have spoken about Barryroe. We have been back and forth on it. Deputy Collins has been brilliant in speaking about Barryroe. Lift the ban, let them drill and let them decide. Let them see if there are 1.6 billion barrels of oil in that oil field. Let us take that because we realise we will be stuck with that type of energy for the next decade.

I thank the Deputy for his commentary. I am consistent. We should examine the issue of the potential of nuclear power given the changing technologies and how technology has advanced. However, our first priority in the here and now is renewables, including wind, solar and anaerobic digestion. We have made a lot of progress on those fronts, in particular solar latterly. Industry, in particular, has adopted solar, be it rooftop or in farms adjacent to major factories. There has been a very successful outcome. On the accelerated EU proposals for greater EU level co-ordination, the EU grids package is key. That means connecting to Europe more and more and Europe developing strong grid connection to give it energy security and independence. The biggest negative impact on Europe is this energy question. We have had numerous crises going back over five decades and we need to make sure the next five decades are not similar.