2026-04-16

Sula dtosaím, tabharfaidh mé aitheantas do bhás an-bhrónach bean as Gaoth Dobhair i mo chontae féin, Dún na nGall, Moya Brennan. Ba bhean iontach í Moya a raibh croí mór aici. Bhí sí ar dhuine de na daoine ba dhílse agus b'fhírinní a bhí ann riamh. Cara a bhí inti fosta. Ba dhuine de chairdiúlacht agus de chineáltas do gach duine a raibh aithne acu uirthi. Ar ndóigh, bhí glór a tháinig ó na haingil aici. Chuir an glór sin Dún na nGall ar an léarscáil dhomhanda. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis. Cuirim mo chomhbhrón ó chroí in iúl do Tim, Aisling agus Paul, do chlanna Jarvis agus Uí Bhraonáin uilig, dá teaghlach, dá cairde agus do gach duine atá faoi chian ina diaidh. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann. After weeks of turmoil, protest and public anger over soaring fuel prices, what is most striking is that the Tánaiste's Government is still not listening. Right across the State, over 750,000 households rely on home heating oil to keep their homes warm. For them, this crisis is not abstract. It is immediate and it is punishing. It is the difference between heating their home or going without. Despite everything that has happened over the past number of weeks, the protests, the pressure and the clear message from workers and families right across this State, the Government still has not reduced excise on home heating oil by a single cent. There is nothing. The Tánaiste now expects a pat on the back for not increasing the carbon tax on home heating oil in a fortnight's time. Instead, he will impose that increase in the very depths of winter. For families already stretched to the brink, that is no relief at all. What does it say about the Government that, after weeks of anger and hardship, it still does not get it? The Government still simply does not understand the lives people are living. It does not understand the fear of a bill landing that cannot be paid, the quiet dread of a cold home or the constant calculations required just to get through to the end of the week. There is a complete lack of urgency, of empathy and of basic understanding from the Government. What we have seen is not just inaction, but a pattern of behaviour that poured fuel on this crisis. Last week, members of the Government chose to insult, demean and even threaten those who took to the streets. These are people who were left with no choice but to rise up out of desperation because their livelihoods are being decimated. That is the reality. They are seeing cut after cut and price rise after price rise and they felt they had no other option but to take a stand. Now, to add insult to injury, many of those same workers are returning home to find parking fines landing through their letter boxes. This is the wrong response. It is a response that punishes people who are already pushed to the brink. These are people who did not have money last week and they are now being asked to fork over hundreds of euro for parking fines. For goodness' sake, where is the common sense in all of this? Has the Government learned nothing over the last week? It is it not listening to where people are at? Is it any wonder that this Government is so detached from people's lived realities? It is staggering. The Government refuses to act on the issue of home heating oil. It dismisses and belittles those in hardship. It makes life even harder for many of those same people. I will ask the Tánaiste a direct question. How does he justify the decision not to decrease excise duty on home heating oil by a single cent? Given all that he knows about people being pushed to the pin of their collars and going without heat in their homes, why does the Tánaiste, as Minister for Finance, simply ignore those people, refuse to listen to them and refuse to act on their behalf on the issue of home heating oil?

I join with the Deputy in extending sympathies to the family, friends and community of Moya Brennan. She was a musical icon, a unique voice of extraordinary talent and somebody who played no small part in bringing Irish music to an international audience. May she rest in peace. I thank the Deputy for the question. This has been a very challenging period of time for the people of this country. The pressures that people are feeling are real. We are working constructively to endeavour, as best we can, to assist people at a time of huge global turmoil. There is sometimes an effort to divide society into different groups. Everybody will benefit from the energy package we have put in place. That is because, as the Deputy knows, when you take measures to reduce energy prices, that has a positive effect in moderating the likely increases in the rate of inflation. While there has quite rightly been much discussion on fuel this week, we hope the measures we have been putting in place will have a broader positive impact in suppressing, insofar as possible, what is likely to be a growing rate of inflation. That is passed through directly when it gets to the supermarket floor. That is the first thing I would say. I will get to kerosene in a moment but the second thing I will say is that this is not a small package by any fair or objective measure. I presume the Deputy would acknowledge that. It is a package of a total of €750 million in supports. It is either the largest or one of the largest packages in the European Union. I am holding up a table that proves that. This Government has taken action on behalf of the people of Ireland, introducing one of the very largest packages in the European Union. The details of the package are well known. There are reductions in the excise duty on petrol, diesel and green diesel. There is a package for farmers, farm contractors, agricultural contractors, hauliers, bus contractors, fishers and many important supply sectors of the Irish economy. The Deputy is also right that there is a real issue when it comes to the cost of home heating oil. On that much, we agree. However, we disagree on how to respond. We have taken steps to help people with home heating oil. We took a conscious decision to expand the fuel allowance season. The fuel allowance season was meant to be over by now. It was not meant to be available to people this month. It is worth €152 per household as a result of that extension. That is costing €71 million. The Deputy will know that the households that are most in need from a fuel poverty point of view get that. He will know such households in his own constituency. We all know them. They include many pensioners, carers, people with disabilities and, crucially, many low-income working people who are in receipt of the working family payment. About a quarter of all households in the country now receive that payment. I ask the Deputy to let people know that. This is a targeted measure. I am watching what is likely to happen in Northern Ireland today, which the Deputy's party will know well through its role in the Executive. The measures Sinn Féin is likely to bring in today with respect to home heating oil will also be targeted measures and not universal measures. On the second thing we have done, it is important to listen and we listened when people in this House said that we should suspend the increase in carbon tax on kerosene and green diesel. We support the carbon tax, as do most of the Opposition although Sinn Féin does not, because it plays a very important role in funding the climate transition and in supporting farmers, retrofitting and those in fuel poverty. We introduced that suspension. Sinn Féin's solutions are not as easy as the Deputy suggests. I looked at one of those solutions. We should all look at people's ideas and be willing to engage on them. I had my officials look at Sinn Féin's proposal to return the carbon tax to the 2023 rates and to backdate this reversal to 1 May. I have been told that Revenue does not hold records of any individual end-users. Therefore, any retrospective adjustment is unlikely to be possible and could result in the unjust enrichment of suppliers, substantial administrative burdens and unanticipated costs to the Exchequer. This is not a question of a lack of empathy but one of making sure that the solutions we come up with together are practical and workable. We have a large package of measures in place and we will continue to work our way through this challenging time.

I really do not understand why the Tánaiste is not listening to ordinary people. There has been an outpouring right across the country. The Tánaiste can wave his graphs all he wants, but he needs to really listen to ordinary people.

It matters.

A young woman wrote to me and lots of other people this week. I think it is important for me to read out what she said. Listen to this. She said: My own situation is becoming unbearable. Despite being in a dual-income household, I haven't been able to afford home heating oil for three weeks - three weeks without heat, not because I have been irresponsible but because I simply cannot afford it anymore. At the same time, I'm paying extortionate rent for a home that I can't even properly live in. Damp is setting in because I can't afford to heat it. I feel trapped. I am being squeezed from every angle with no relief and the future feels completely out of reach. She went on to say: I will never own my own home in this country despite working full-time and doing what I was told - going to college, getting the degree. As a working-class child of two working-class parents, that dream is gone. There is no pathway forward, only increasing pressure and diminishing hope. They are the people the Tánaiste needs to be listening to, not waving his graphs. He should listen to ordinary people and respond. What was the Government's response this week? It would not cut a single cent of carbon tax from home heating oil. She is in a house that she could not heat for three weeks. She works full-time and her partner does the same, and the Government ignored her this week because it is not listening and it is completely out of touch.

No, it is quite the opposite, in fact. People are living through very tough and very challenging times but Deputy Doherty has got to be honest with that person who wrote to him as well. The Deputy can talk about waving graphs, but facts matter. I had Sinn Féin's measures assessed by officials in my Department, and they came back and said it was not doable.

Cutting carbon tax? Of course, it is.

Hang on a second. May I speak, please? Thank you. Revenue does not hold records of individual end users when it comes to home heating oil. If we did what Sinn Féin proposes, and I am accepting-----

We are not looking for retrospective-----

You are.

That is nonsense. On home heating oil.

With regard to a proposed amendment for solid fuel carbon tax, the Sinn Féin amendment proposed reverting to 2023 rates and backdating the reversal to 1 May 2023.

We did not ask for backdating.

I am going to write to the Deputy and explain to him the practical challenges with the Sinn Féin's measures. There are practical challenges.

Cut the carbon tax on home heating oil, simple as. The Tánaiste knows he can do it if he wants to.

Can I say something else? The Deputy had his time and I think the people deserve better than shouting and roaring. We cannot get through this global economic crisis if every week we come into this House-----

She cannot get through the week, never mind the crisis.

-----and the proposal is to abolish taxes and spend more. That is not a sustainable way through this. Abolishing taxes and spending more would not steer us-----

What does the Tánaiste say to her?

Deputy Doherty, please.

What I say to that person is we have her back. We put in one of the largest packages in the European Union.

Ah here.

Come on.

We have reduced excise. They are benefiting from that at that pump. We have extended the fuel allowance and we will work through this together-----

Is the Tánaiste telling me that he has her back? She cannot heat her home.

-----while Sinn Féin refuses to condemn intimidation against gardaí this week. It refused to stand by-----

She did not intimidate anybody.

She did not but you refused and your leader refused-----

She is sitting in a cold house. She is working every hour that God sends her.

Deputy Doherty.

She did not intimidate anybody.

Time and time again, Sinn Féin refused to condemn the blockades. It is now in favour of blockades.

The Tánaiste is diverting. There are people sitting in cold homes and the Government refuses to cut carbon tax.

Hang on, Deputy Doherty. You put the question and the Tánaiste has attempted to answer.

I am sorry. I am deeply frustrated. I apologise to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle but not to this fella over there who is completely out of touch.

You are out of touch.

For the last 10 years, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments have been lucky enough to preside over very healthy public finances. How they have spent – or misspent - our great wealth is another matter, though clearly the anger and frustration that we saw on our streets last week means that, even with the vast resources at the Government’s disposal, it clearly is not getting it right. It has been in its gift to splash the cash whenever its wants. There were tax breaks for big developers and burger barons in the last budget and more sectoral handouts this week, but where is the bailout package for PAYE workers to protect their incomes, to reduce their bills with targeted energy credits and measures to adopt solar and retrofitting at scale? Too many people simply cannot afford to even consider getting SEAI grants. If successive Governments had taken our climate commitments seriously, we would not be in the cost-of-living crisis that we are now, with some of the highest energy prices in Europe. We have a budget for our emissions in this country. We have legally binding targets to reduce our emissions, or at least I thought we did. Our carbon budget is very much in the red and the Minister has admitted that we are going to miss our 2030 emissions targets by as much as 50%. The climate change and fiscal advisory councils have warned us that fines are going to come in, ranging from €8 billion to €26 billion by 2030. Who is the Government going to ask to pay for it? It will be PAYE workers again who will have to shoulder that burden. Yesterday was overshoot day. If the rest of the world consumed at the rate that Ireland has since 1 January, we would have run out of resources globally on 14 April. That is a month earlier than it would have been last year. Would the Tánaiste tolerate this lack of budgetary indiscipline when it comes to our public finances? He has just said that we cannot keep spending more. Of course, he would not tolerate this but the manner in which this Government approaches everything to do with climate, environment and biodiversity gives the impression that we have loads of carbon budget to spare for all these highly polluting new projects that it wants to pursue. New private wires laws are going to turbocharge data centre expansion and imported fracked gas through the new liquefied natural gas reserve will power them. Once again, it will be ordinary PAYE workers who will pay the price for all of this in their energy bills. Most worryingly, we see the Government deciding that it just does not want to bother with the climate Act at all when it comes to large critical infrastructure projects. This Government has consistently scapegoated environmental concerns arising via the planning process or judicial reviews as the root cause of its inability to deliver anything meaningful, but none of the delays relating to the new children’s hospital, for example, were due to environmental objections. There are any number of reasons it takes time to deliver large projects but dumping on environmentalists and environmental law is just dishonest. We all want to see critical infrastructure delivered and delivered quickly, but will the Government reverse this decision to disapply the climate Act from the Critical Infrastructure Bill and can he tell me when PAYE workers are going to get a break from the Government?

Hear, hear.

I thank Deputy Ahern for his question. I will reiterate my point that while there has been much discussion this week about various sectors that are vital to the Irish economy, whether they are farmers or fishers, hauliers or the likes, the fundamental point here is that this Government's package supports everybody because the PAYE worker and everybody else in this country needs food on the shelves. They need the ports operating, not blockaded. They need to make sure that our supply chains work. Many of the PAYE workers pulled up at petrol pumps this morning where the cost of petrol and diesel, while still too high, is lower than it was before we voted. In fairness, the Labour Party supported the cut on the excise this week as well. Crucially, measures that we take to try to somewhat contain - because no Government can fully insulate - the impact of very significant rising costs caused by the war in Iran help keep inflation down or at least moderate the growth of inflation. That does genuinely have a benefit for all of us in society, including PAYE workers. I am really pleased that there is a meeting taking place tomorrow at the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. As the Deputy knows, it is the body that brings together trade union representatives, employer representatives and senior members of the Government, including myself and the Taoiseach. It is more important than ever that we have really good and intensive engagement. I mean this sincerely: at challenging times in the history of this State, the trade union movement has stepped up time and time again and played a positive role. That does not mean, by the way, that we always agree on everything. I do not want to kill their street cred and I certainly do not agree with them on everything but having constructive engagement in process at times of challenge is something I value. This Government values it and I think this Oireachtas values it. I heard the comments of the general secretary of ICTU this week as well in relation to that. We should challenge ourselves, after the week that this country has had, to make sure we have very robust and constructive structures in place for ongoing engagement. I want to say that too. In relation to renewables, I will start with a positive. Half of all electricity generated in this country in March came from renewables. It was the first time. I think it was 49%, just under half. We are making some progress. We need to do more and we need to do it faster because - and I agree with the Deputy on this point - as long as we are dependent on dirty fossil fuels from abroad, there is a security issue in every sense, including an economic security issue. However, we are making some progress under the work of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. We saw 58,000 homes retrofitted last year. We have seen a record demand this year, with over 29,000 applications already in. We have improved the grants. I am sure that the Deputy was hearing from his constituents that it was cumbersome to have to do everything together. I was certainly hearing it from mine. As a result of those changes, the approval of the grants for heat pumps is up 95%, roof insulation is up 81% and cavity wall insulation is up 62% as well. In fact, in March alone there were more than 6,000 grant applications for windows and more than 6,000 grant applications for doors. These are encouraging signs. On the issue of critical infrastructure, critical infrastructure can include renewable energy as well. I genuinely think that we can have different perspectives on this. It is taking far too long to deliver transformational projects, including transformational projects from an energy point of view. The Critical Infrastructure Bill tries to get that balance right.

I thank the Tánaiste. We welcome the LEEF meeting next week and the Labour Party will be supporting our trade unions here when they are looking for pay rises, when they are looking for remote and flexible working rights. We are calling for free and cheap public transport and an expansion of those types of schemes. The Tánaiste did not indicate that the Government will continue to abide by the climate Act when it comes to our critical infrastructure. There are reasons other than those relating to environmental laws for projects in this country being delayed. A lack of resourcing of planning authorities, regulatory bodies and the courts over the past ten years has resulted in projects being delayed. It is not fair to dump on environmental laws. It is not as if our rivers and waterways are in pristine condition or that our biodiversity is in a strong position. We need the climate Act. The whole point of section 15 of that Act is that public bodies can be held to account in the context of performing their duties in conjunction with our climate obligations. That should not get in the way of the construction of critical infrastructure. I ask the Government to look at this again and to reverse the decision in relation to the Critical Infrastructure Bill and section 15 of the Climate Act.

At least your politics are honest in the sense that we can either agree or disagree on certain policy areas and you can criticise us and we can criticise you. You do not come into this House and constantly suggest the abolition of significantly important taxes and come up with a load of new spending ideas at the same time. That is not a sustainable position. It was very interesting earlier in the week that the House did not divide when it came to some of these issues. It did not divide along the lines of the big bad old Government over here and all of the Opposition together over there. We were better than that, or at least many of us were, in terms of trying to engage constructively. I appreciate that.

They voted no confidence in you. You may forget that. Are you serious?

Deputy Doherty, you had your go. It is their time.

This is Simon and his wee-----

Stop, please. Go ahead, Tánaiste.

This week the Sinn Féin Party took to social media to criticise Labour and the Social Democrats. I thought that was pretty pathetic.

You must be more worried about Micheál than we thought.

Come on, Pearse, give everybody a chance in this House. No bully-boy tactics, please. We support the Critical Infrastructure Bill. We will be happy to tease through the detail of it. The Deputy is right in that there are lots of factors involved. At times, environmental law can be a factor when there are projects we need to deliver at real speed. This is not about all projects; it is about those that are deemed to be critical. As the Minister takes the Bill through the House, he will engage constructively and tease through the detail.

It has been a bad week for the Government; it is been a good week for people power. The fuel protests caused the resignation of a Minister of State and the sudden appearance of the young Turks of Fianna Fáil. Those protests led to the majority of the Government being reduced and the Government being destabilised. That is before we get to the by-elections in just over a month's time. It is often said that power comes from the barrel of a gun, but in this country it often seems to come from the cab of a tractor. The message that people will take, correctly, from the Government's response to the protests is this: if you do not take militant protest action and if you are not representing landlords or big business, the Government will ignore your demands, no matter how reasonable or justified they are. The fact that five years into a cost-of-living crisis the Government is still ignoring the demands of workers, carers and disabled people on the cost of living is truly outrageous. Prices have gone up by almost a quarter in the past five years, but the Government decided that the cost-of-living crisis was over as soon as the general election was. That is why it used the budget to withdraw the cost-of-living measures that it used to buy the general election. That included a cruel €1,400 cut for disabled people. That was a targeted measure. Since taking over as Minister for Finance, the Tánaiste has ignored the very reasonable and modest request for €400 emergency payment in order that people can pay their winter heating bills. He has lectured workers, disabled people and carers that he has to be responsible and careful with the State's finances. Of course, that did not stop him finding €700 million for tax cuts for fast food chains and the hospitality industry, €400 million for property developers and €300 million for Google. It has not stopped him from finding €220 million down the back of the couch to give to hauliers and farmers. Some of the excise cuts will trickle down to workers, which is welcome. It would not have happened without the protests. We have called for a price cap for years and we introduced legislation in that regard over two years ago. Without a price cap, the cuts will be quickly swallowed up by the further increases in oil prices caused by Trump and Netanyahu's illegal wars, which the Government still has not condemned despite all of the talk of standing up for international law. It is the same old story. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have plenty of money for business but when it comes to workers and carers, out comes the poor mouth. The trade unions need to take heed. We are in a new period at home and abroad and a new phase of militant protest is needed. Workers do not need tractors to force the Government to listen. The most effective form of disruptive protest is the strike, a power that all workers have. It is clear that the Government can take emergency measures when it wants to or is under pressure to. When will it introduce universal measures to protect ordinary people from the cost of living crisis? It has cut the price of petrol and diesel. Will it make public transport free immediately? Will it bring in a €500 energy credit for every household paid for by a levy on data centres? Will it levy the owners and operators of private jets so that they do not benefit from the excise cuts?

We have to acknowledge that real wages in this country are rising. We also have to acknowledge that we made very significant increases, quite rightly, in the disability budget this year, albeit with a big focus on service provision. Those increases totalled over €600 million. The Government is committed to the introduction of a cost-of-disability payment and a lot of very good work is being done by the Minister, Deputy Calleary, my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and others. The consultation on that has closed. There was very good engagement from stakeholders, including people with disabilities and their representative bodies. I thank them for that. I need to keep saying, because it is true, that the measures we took have benefits for some sectors but they also have an overall economic benefit that helps everybody. There is nothing that triggers inflation more than commodity prices. If we cannot take measures to try to suppress energy prices, insofar as anyone can during a war and the knock-on impact on supply to which it gives rise, inflation will increase even further. That will have a detrimental effect on the people to which the Deputy referred. I accept his bona fides in highlighting their cases. The Deputy mentioned Google and others. That is fine; that is his politics. I must point out that €109.3 billion is expected in total tax revenue this year, about €34 billion of that, or 31.1%, is expected to come from the same corporate taxpayers the Deputy demonises. That is before we even get to the income tax benefit of the many thousands of people who work in those communities, some in Dublin and many outside it in terms of regional development. The Deputy's views on protest are well known. We can have a debate on his a loose enough definition of what constitutes a protest. He and I have different views as to where peaceful protest starts and ends. Lots of genuine, decent people protested this week. There were also people who crossed the line in terms of legality. I saw people saying pretty horrific things to Deputy Murphy about his support for LGBT people in this country. I agree with him on his support for those people, and we have common cause in that regard. It worries me slightly that he is willing to perhaps adopt common cause with people who abhor much of what he champions. He may agree or disagree with that. I am not saying this to be provocative or rude, but the Deputy sees the bigger prize as mass protest. That merits reflection. Many people leading the protests oppose and abhor everything Deputy Murphy stands for, whether people think that is right or wrong. On the VAT cut in the hospitality sector, which is supported by some but not all of those in opposition, people can refer to beef barons and name large fast food change chains. The vast majority of people who benefit from the reduced rate of VAT on hospitality are small restaurants and cafés and rural pubs that serve meals in the middle of the day. They are the backbone of the domestic Irish economy. They employ a hell of a lot of people directly and provide benefits to more people indirectly. It is a measure that becomes more important than ever now in terms of supporting the domestic economy and reducing the cost for SMEs at this difficult time.

I do not think the Government gets it. If it got it, we would not have seen the scenes we saw over the past ten days. That is a result of the Government not listening and not acting. One in five people is at risk of poverty. Two in five parents have skipped meals or cut back on what they are eating in order that their kids can have enough to eat. Hundreds of thousands of people are in arrears in on their electricity or gas bills. That is what drove the protests. The common cause I and People Before Profit make is with people who are fighting for action on the cost-of-living crisis. The core demand that emerged from the protests related to price caps. We were the only party calling for price caps. We introduced a Bill precisely two years ago in which we called for price caps. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated from supporting protests by the presence of some far-right agitators with their own agenda who are simply trying to hijack and misuse people’s anger. We make no bones about supporting effective protest. I have heard the Tánaiste say on multiple occasions that the package brought forward the other day had nothing to do with the protests. I do not think there is a single person in the country, including the Tánaiste, who believes that. No one believes it. The message the Tánaiste sent out on foot of his actions is that protest works and achieves results and concessions. That is a message to everyone. We want to see that built on by mass, effective – including disruptive – protest to force universal action for everyone.

The Deputy used the term “disruptive protest”. I will not speak for Deputy, but I will say that I do not support the blockade of critical infrastructure or the idea that someone can tell me whether I can move freely around this country. I do not support some of the comments online last night from the so-called self-appointed leaders that if anyone on these benches on this side of the Chamber attends an agricultural show, we will be dragged out of it. I do not think the Deputy supports that either. We should condemn that, because we are better than that. On price caps, the Deputy has a view. We have a different view. We do not believe they work. Liz Truss tried a version of this. We believe that price caps transfer the cost from the forecourt to the taxpayer. It does not disappear; it is just transferred. Price caps have significant budgetary implications in terms of the delivery of public services because they do not reduce the cost; they just transfer it from the forecourt to the taxpayer. It is not free money. It has a real impact, and it would cost many billions. There are challenges in this country, but figures from the CSO now show that the average weekly wage is over €1,000. We are creating 200 jobs every working day. We have an ability to make real progress on key issues and help people to work through the challenges they are facing.

I want to spend some time addressing an issue I have referenced before, namely the growing crisis of so-called parking wars and the service charge-related instability that is turning home ownership into a nightmare in many of our new communities. I give the examples of the Clonburris and Adamstown strategic development zones, SDZs, in my constituency, with which my independent colleague Councillor Helen Farrell, who I welcome to the Public Gallery, will be all too familiar, as will the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins. There are other large-scale developments in respect of which people were sold the promise of sustainable living but, instead, residents who can afford to pay for housing or those offered places on choice-based letting, end up being trapped in a planning vacuum. The guidelines have slashed parking ratios to the bone. There is often fewer than one space per unit on the basis of the fantasy that our public transport is already world class. As we know, it is not. There is absolute chaos in many estates in Adamstown central, Seven Mills, Kilcarbery and Citywest. Traffic index data from January confirms that Dublin is the third most congested city in the world. Residents in the SDZs are at the centre of this gridlock. It might be argued that it is counterintuitive to call for more car parking spaces, but there is a difference between owning and using a car. We should by all means discourage car use, but with a lack of public transport, people do not have the ability to get from A to B. They are often stuck because public transport in their areas is not yet a viable alternative. Reports from March show that the Connolly-Adamstown rail line is at full capacity, with over 200 people boarding at single stops and commuters literally pinned to the doors. We know that the DART+ South West is promised. In Citywest and Kilcarbery, for example, residents have been forced into rotational parking apps that limit parking to three days. People can book it in advance. This causes issues because people who have designated spaces are seeing other people park in their spaces. Rented houses in which there are three people working in jobs that require them to travel means that vans are parked all over the place. A lot of the time, the owners feel that they do not have any other choice. The other issue is the skyrocketing service charges in some Dublin estates, which have increased by more than 53%. A recent report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, confirms that three out of four owners' management companies, OMCs, have inadequate sinking funds for long-term repairs. I have two questions. First, will the Government immediately review the parking ratios in Clonburris and Adamstown SDZs to facilitate overspill parking spaces? We cannot build car-free developments while the National Transport Authority admits that we do not have sufficient corridors. Second, will the Government finally complete the transfer of the Multi-Unit Developments Act to the Department of housing so we can have a regulator with teeth and stop the type of two-tier citizenship whereby homeowners are forced to pay for their own roads, lights and security on top of record property taxes?

I thank Deputy Gogarty for raising this matter. I am grateful to have the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, beside my for some local knowledge on some of these issues. I was in Clonburris not that long ago. I will get to some of the infrastructural challenges but I must say, being honest, that I was pleased to see the number and quality of homes being built and the partnership model that seems to exist – certainly from my visit - between the Land Development Agency, developers and the local authority. That is an important template for others to learn from. We all know we are living through a housing emergency. We are all under pressure as the people’s representatives to see more homes built. We have set a very ambitious target of 300,000 homes by the end of 2030. We have to get there. Quite frankly, that means all of our communities and constituencies taking more houses. I am encouraged to see the increase in this regard in Lucan, Clondalkin and more generally across the Deputy’s constituency of Dublin Mid-West. It is also true that those increases are putting real pressure on infrastructure. The Deputy highlighted the example of parking today, but there are a variety of issues in this regard, including public transport, schools and pitches. That is one of the reasons we set up the housing activation office because we need our local authorities to be able to work with central government. We need them to inform us about the key pieces of infrastructure they need or the things they need to be unblocked in order to deliver these homes, because we need to build communities as well as houses. I live in a constituency that is not vastly different from that of the Deputy, especially the northern half where there is a significant number of additional houses being built, which we are glad to see. The challenges around ratios, parking spaces and the need for people to have a car are real and present too. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue, I will talk with the Minister, Deputy Browne. Some of these are matters for the local authority. Others are matters that central government can work through. I am hearing about service charges a lot. This is a real issue for people. I need to check with the Minister for housing on this. We are committed to that transfer taking place and the completion of the Multi-Unit Developments Act. Let me try to get the Deputy an accurate timeline as to when that is likely to happen.

The council is only implementing the legislation it is told to implement. When I tried to get a major department store into the Adamstown SDZ, council officials refused and said it would upset the retail hierarchy because Tallaght and Liffey Valley are the two main retail centres. Therefore, anyone living in Adamstown has to go to Liffey Valley. Buses on the L51 and L52 routes do not turn up half of the time, so people are going to have to drive to do a proper shop. Unfortunately, they cannot get the train to Liffey Valley. These are the kind of real-time issues that arise. People in the social houses at the Crossings in Adamstown are being told they have no parking spaces. We have seen situations where people are parking on footpaths and in bus lanes. For someone like me who lives the green lifestyle, is vegan, etc., the obvious reality is that people need to have access to cars. We have to revisit this issue and ensure that there is some form of parking spaces are designated for people in these areas.

I do not doubt the Deputy’s green credentials, in fairness. The Deputy makes a fair point. All of this is always a balance. We are in a housing emergency but the point is that we want people to move into those houses and for them to become homes. Practical requirements about where people park their cars are not issues that should be dismissed. The Deputy’s community is, perhaps, a good example or case study for Government to reflect on. In many parts of the country, we are not seeing enough homes being built. In other parts, including in the Deputy’s constituency, we are seeing a significant number being built. Maybe that needs to be reflected in terms of some of the specific challenges there might be in areas like Adamstown and Clonburris where particularly high densities of housing are going in. On foot of the Deputy raising the matter, I will discuss it with the Minister for housing and ask him to come back and have further engagement with the Deputy on it.