2026-02-11

Before calling Deputy McDonald, I welcome to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery the Canadian ambassador, H.E. Dennis King, who is on a scheduled visit. Although I spoke to him earlier this morning, I take a moment to convey from us all our heartfelt sympathy following the tragic incident that occurred yesterday in British Columbia. The ambassador should know that the victims, the injured, their families and the whole community of Tumbler Ridge are in our thoughts and prayers. I thank him for being with us.

I echo the Ceann Comhairle's sentiments entirely. I also welcome to the Public Gallery the delegation from Donegal who are here today to save the flights accommodating cancer patients from the county. I understand they have gathered some 15,000 signatures for their petition over recent days. It is a disgrace that they have to come here to fight that fight but I commend them on their efforts and wish them every success. It is a decision that needs to be reversed. The Government is set to throw renters to the wolves. Today, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will push through their rent hikes Bill and it will be devastating. Previously, in rent pressure zones, any increase was set at the rate of inflation or 2%, whichever was lower, but the Government is tearing that up and opening up the floodgates. From 1 March, it will allow rent for new tenancies to be reset to the full market rate. This is a hammer blow for ripped-off renters and a gift for big landlords and vulture funds. It will mean huge rent hikes, increased pressure for renters, more young people forced to choose between emigrating and moving home with their parents and, shamefully, it will mean more families and children pushed into homelessness. Up to 60,000 renters will be hit by a huge rent hike every single year. That is the hard truth. Of course, the Government's defence of the Bill is that six-year tenancies will protect renters, but they will not. A total of 25% of tenancies in any given year are new tenancies, with people moving in and moving on all the time. Most tenancies last three and a half years, not six. The majority of renters will be hit quickly, and hit again and again, and very few will escape these hikes. It will be a nightmare for people who feel they have to stay put for fear of having to pay a hugely increased rent on a new tenancy. It will be a nightmare for students, apprentices, trainees, nurses, teachers and anyone who moves frequently for work or education. A total of 7,000 Irish medical professionals were registered to work in Australia last year. If the Government's Bill goes through, we will lose many more because the rent hikes will be off the charts. In Galway city, for example, renters will fork out €5,292 more per annum. Here in Dublin, an extra €3,516 a year will be due. In Cork city, in the Taoiseach's neck of the woods, renters will pay an extra €3,336 a year. These increases are on top of already staggering rents. Nobody will be able to afford these increases; there is not a chance of it. It is straight out of the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael playbook to give a big payday to landlords and vulture funds and screw over ordinary tenants. If they gave a damn about renters at all, they would end this rip-off, not fuel it. They would ban rent increases and make rents affordable. Caithfear stop a chur le Bille Fhianna Fáil agus Fhine Gael chun an cíos a ardú. Níl ann ach bronntanas do na tiarnaí talún móra agus cuirfidh sé níos mó brú ar na tionóntaí. Renters have known for a long time that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael simply do not have their backs. For over a decade now, they have allowed renters to be ripped off relentlessly and mercilessly but they are crossing a big red line here. A Bill to allow rents to be increased by €3,000, €4,000 or €5,000 will do incredible damage to people's lives. It cannot go ahead. I urge the Taoiseach to scrap the rent hikes Bill.

Hear, hear.

First, I acknowledge the presence of our good friend, H.E. Dennis King from Canada, and articulate our deepest sympathies to the people of Tumbler Ridge and to Canada more generally on the appalling murder of nine innocent victims yesterday. Our hearts, prayers and thoughts are with the entire community. I also appreciate and welcome the attendance in the Public Gallery of people from Donegal in respect of the only flight from the county, which is subsidised substantially by the State. Obviously, the Minister for Transport does not get involved in the contract itself in terms of engaging with the contractor. Deputy Gallagher has been extremely active in pressing this issue with the Minister and me from its very first iteration. We are endeavouring to do everything we possibly can legally to try to respond to the needs of the people of Donegal, particularly those who travel for cancer treatment. The Government wants to do everything it possibly can within the law. We will continue to work on behalf of people to enable us to do that. Regarding the rental reforms, I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's proposition. In the first instance, we should remember the origin of the Bill was the Housing Commission. I recall Sinn Féin and others saying we ignored the Housing Commission. The commission recommended a reform of the rent pressure zones, coming up with an idea around reference pricing, which it did not detail, and so on. The Housing Agency was then asked to review the rent pressure zones, which it did, and it recommended the nature of the changes the Minister has introduced in terms of the reform of the rent pressure zones, which will give stability, clarity and certainty to renters and landlords into the future. According to the census, there could be up to 500,000 people renting, from social renting to private tenancies, and up to 240,000 more private tenancies. Those existing tenancies will not be impacted by the Bill. That is the first thing I have to say. There are very important protections, which the Deputy has deliberately ignored, in respect of these measures. The six-year provision gives a security we never had before in this country and aligns us more with European rental systems in terms of giving tenants greater security and greater protection. Dr. Michael Byrne from the school of social policy, social work and social justice at UCD has noted that what is being missed in the current discussion is that the new legislation is designed, once established, to reduce the level of notices of termination. We are now moving to the ending of no-fault evictions. The ESRI also recommended reform of the rental system. Everybody did, but someone has to make a decision here. The Minister and the Government have taken a decision-----

Oh you have made a decision. There is no question there.

The bottom line is that more landlords-----

-----and Sinn Féin is trying to usher it in because it is interested in chaos, but supply is also important.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Time is up. Deputy McDonald to respond.

Scarcity of supply will be the most impactful thing on prices over the medium term and the Deputy knows that.

And who is responsible for-----

Sinn Féin has no interest in supply and has demonstrated no interest for quite some time.

Neither have you.

Just to explain to the Taoiseach, who clearly cannot grasp this very simple concept, there is no security of tenure if you cannot afford the rent.

Hear, hear.

That is it. When rents climb and climb and you just cannot make it month after month, that is not secure. That is a recipe for chaos in your life. That is a recipe for driving people to Dublin, Shannon or Cork airport to go thar sáile, far, far away to live their lives or, in the case of families, for driving them into homelessness. The Government has made a decision and it has made it very clear whose side it is on. It is on the side of very large corporate landlords; not just any common or garden landlord but the large ones and the vulture funds. They want market rate and the Government is giving it to them on a silver platter. I have told the Taoiseach that most tenancies do not last six years. They average at three and a half years and 25% of tenancies every single year are brand new. Will the Taoiseach answer that?

The Deputy could not care less about whether we provide more houses for the young people of this country because every policy-----

That is ridiculous. How many years in government now?

She is against everything. She is against every proposal. She is full of soundbite and shallow-----

Take responsibility for your own inaction.

The truth.

It is not the truth. I am telling you now where you are. You have opposed every single thing for the last four years in relation to housing here.

Look at the housing crisis that-----

And they have objected to it.

It opposed all the affordable schemes we came up-----

There are 16,000 people living in homelessness-----

-----with that were trying to help young people. The bottom line here, through the Chair, is that we need supply and we have to have a rental framework that facilitates investment and greater supply of housing.

We need Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out on their ears.

What the Deputy is ignoring is that half a million people currently renting in Ireland today will not be impacted by these measures because there are a lot of protections built in here. A national rent protection zone is there at 2%. The ESRI recommended 4%, actually. These are modest measures designed to get clarity and stability but, above all-----

You will see.

-----to bring supply. If you do not have supply, prices will rise, without question, and Sinn Féin has never answered the question of supply.

You have never addressed supply.

You are just barren in terms of any ideas-----

We could tell you what was-----

I thank the Taoiseach. Time is up.

-----or any substance around that issue.

Time is up. Before I move to Deputy Cairns, we can have robust debate but I ask all Members that the debate be respectful with a mindfulness towards our Gallery being full.

The Gallery is fine. The people in the Gallery recognise the truth.

Today, the Government is using the guillotine to ram through legislation that will have one overriding result, that is, allowing record rents rip even further. Once this legislation goes through, it will mean monthly rents for new tenancies being reset to market rates. People watching at home might not know what that means because the phrase "market rate" does not capture what is really going on here. People will see monthly rents for new tenancies soaring to €2,500 to €3,000 all over the country. That is €30,000 or more every year in after-tax income that renters will be expected to pay. What nurse, teacher, garda or retail worker can afford that? What will happen to our critical public services when staff cannot afford their rents? What will happen to our cities and our towns when people are priced out of them? Why would young people stay here through their 20s and 30s just to hand over all of their income to a landlord? What kind of a life is that? How many more children are going to become homeless because of this legislation today? I welcome some aspects of the legislation. The Social Democrats have fought for a long time for improved security for renters and for a rent price register. However, the impact of some positive reforms is going to be completely swallowed up by the impact of what the Government is doing on rent prices because people are already struggling to pay record rents. More and more of them are being forced to move back in with their parents or to sleep on friends' couches and record numbers are becoming homeless. This is not just a housing disaster; it is a social catastrophe. The Social Democrats would do things differently. Just last week, we published detailed plans explaining how we would set up a State construction company and acquire four modular home factories to turbocharge the delivery of social and affordable homes. We have also published plans to set up a new State savings scheme to use just some of the nearly €170 billion sitting in Irish deposit accounts, and earning almost no interest, to build the homes we so desperately need. This could be a real national effort to finally address this crisis that hundreds and thousands of us could be a part of. There are solutions to this housing disaster. There is another way. The Government could finally admit that its approach is not working. It could change course and direction. What the Government is doing is a betrayal because these plans did not feature in the Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael general election manifestos or in the programme for Government. The coalition parties misled the public on housing figures to get back into power, and then quickly went back to making policies that mainly protect-----

The Deputy will be back in. The Taoiseach to respond.

-----developers and investment funds. It is not too late to step back from the brink, abandon plans to jack up rents and finally protect renters.

First of all, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is éard atá i gceist ag an Rialtas ná i bhfad níos mó tacaíochta agus cosanta a thabhairt do na daoine atá ag íoc cíosa faoi láthair. Sin bun agus barr an chinnidh atá déanta ag an Rialtas. I do not agree, fundamentally, with the Deputy. Again, this is being portrayed as the Government wanting to undermine renters. That is such a ridiculous assertion. The origins of this come from the Housing Commission. The Social Democrats' housing spokesperson spent about a year and half condemning the previous Government and this Government for not following through on the Housing Commission. The Housing Commission recommended that we permanently reform the RPZs. The Housing Agency came forward with recommendations to do that. The ESRI said we have to do it. Most economists agree we have to do it. Why? We have to get more supply into the rental market. If we do not, prices will continue to rise. The only effective way to moderate pricing in the rental market is to increase supply. The Government is biting the bullet and taking action here. Some would say it was too modest in terms of the supply side. The Opposition is dead set against any supply measures. It just wants the banning of rent increases. Just ban everything. Everything would then remain static. Prices would increase even more and we would have huge issues with supply. That is the fundamental difference between the Opposition and the Government. We want to sort out the housing issue.

Oh my God. Oh my good God.

We want to deal with it and we want to take this issue on. I have read and looked at the Social Democrats' policy proposals-----

This is a disgrace.

-----on a State construction company, which is about social housing, I think they would acknowledge, and would take a minimum of two years to establish. We already have the Land Development Agency, which is doing social housing and affordable housing and will also be doing private housing and doing that mix. The Social Democrats want to create a new agency on top of that just to do social housing, to have direct labour, which I think will be very problematic and challenging in the construction labour market we have in the modern era and I am not so sure it is a tenable proposition. It then says it will create four factories somewhere - just build them.

There is a lot of absence of feasibility. There is a real feasibility issue with its proposals. On the SSIA, we did an SSIA in the past but that will be another number of years before the funding comes on stream.

Start now.

There is huge public money going into housing. There is €9 billion this year and there is multibillion-----

If we could get more in, we would not have to-----

-----going into infrastructure. The issue is we do need private sector investment, which the Deputy's party has a huge problem with. It just hates the private sector.

The saving scheme is private sector-----

The Taoiseach to respond.

The Social Democrats hate the private sector. They do not believe it has any role in housing.

Absolute rubbish.

That is another fundamental difference. The Department of Finance says we need about €20 billion a year to get to 50,000 to 60,000 houses per annum. We have a clear pathway to doing that. We need private sector investment to create additional supply. Does the Deputy accept that or does she not? Her spokesperson does not seem to accept it.

When the Taoiseach considers the context of 17,000 homeless people, including 5,000 homeless children, when you consider the fact that rents have gone up 117% between 2010 and 2025 when the EU average is 28.8%, when you consider that house prices are up €200,000 since 2015, he comes in here week after week and says that his approach is working. Every day he stands up and defends his approach and somehow tries to blame the Social Democrats is another day he loses even more credibility on housing.

Hear, hear.

All I can say is, I hope in the lead-up to the next election, people judge the Taoiseach not on his empty promises in those few weeks, but on his actions now. In the depths of a housing crisis, he is introducing legislation that allows landlords to jack up rents to so-called market rate in between tenancies, which will result in more children being evicted into homelessness. It is a disgrace.

Hear, hear.

Again, the Deputy comes in with the usual soundbites and trot them out-----

Get the violin.

-----and make assertions about the bona fides of people on this side of the House, which I think are unworthy. Everybody in this House wants to resolve the housing crisis. We have a clear view that it has to be a combination of public and private sector investment.

It is clear to everyone the Taoiseach's approach is not working.

The Deputy did not respond to my positioning. She is opposed to private sector investment.

That is not true. Why are you saying it?

I think that is a real issue in terms of getting supply. I did not interrupt the Deputy. She and her party have a habit of continuing interrupting when we try to respond to their points. I have no issue with a debate in the House, but I am making valid points. I have read her party's housing construction policy. In my view, it is not going to add value in the next two to three years. It could not.

The Taoiseach has been saying that for ten years.

The Deputy has not explained how it would deal with the existing Land Development Agency, which we have now provided billions for in terms of doing the work that it has to do. It has a pipeline of about 11,000 to 12,000 houses. Her proposals are fairly weak, if I am honest, in terms of dealing with the thing

But the Taoiseach has no problem giving investment funds their-----

Please, Deputy.

----- thousands of euro extra.

I am not blaming her for anything. I am simply saying what she is coming up with is not that effective or does not really have the capacity to solve the housing problem. There needs to be more scrutiny of what her party is coming up with.

Pot kettle black.

The Government has proposed to scrap the triple lock. In 2013, when the Taoiseach was on this side of House, he said "triple lock ... is at the core of our neutrality". I agree with what he said then. As a member of the defence committee, we have looked at this very carefully, and I am fully convinced that what he said is true. He will try to justify the abandonment of the triple lock because we live in a changed world. He has said things like this, but neutrality was adopted during World War Two. The 1960 Defence (Amendment) Act set out clearly that the UN mandate is required for the deployment of a contingent of the Defence Forces overseas. That was in the middle of the Cold War and at a time of huge international conflict. The veto the UN Security Council can exercise is something that is raised. The Taoiseach will use this to try to justify the case for the abandonment of the triple lock. In 2013, he said the UN "is not working as it should but we must not abandon it as an essential part of the international system." I agree with that also. From 2020 to 2024, the UN Security Council passed 264 out of 284 resolutions without a veto being exercised, and the Taoiseach will tell us Russia will veto a peacekeeping mission. Will he tell me which one it vetoed? I have been looking for it. Yes, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is wrong, but the United States and Israel are two countries that have consistently undermined and trampled over UN resolutions and UN decisions. I remind the Taoiseach of the weekend poll which again showed 71% of people in favour of maintaining neutrality. This comes on the back of a flood of right-wing propaganda in dozens of newspaper articles over the past 12 months calling for the scrapping of the triple lock and neutrality and the full participation of our Defence Forces in combat overseas. Proceeding to scrap the triple lock and shredding not one but two national declarations that the Taoiseach's party drew up is likely to be unconstitutional and will probably be met with a court challenge. In the Nice Treaty, the Taoiseach's party put in that: "Ireland reiterates that the participation of contingents of the Irish Defence Forces in overseas operations, including those carried out under the European security and defence policy, requires (a) the authorisation of the ... [UN] Security Council or the General Assembly ... (b) the agreement of the ... Government and (c) the approval of Dáil Éireann". The very same words were used in the national declaration attached to the Lisbon Treaty. A solemn declaration was in the Nice Treaty to hold that. The Taoiseach and I know that the first two attempts to pass the Nice and Lisbon Treaties failed, and his party had to do that to get them through. That is fair enough, but is he now going to shred those two national declarations? Is he now going to repudiate the will of the Irish people and erode Irish neutrality?

Our military neutrality is defined as not being a member of a military alliance and we are not members of a military alliance.

We might as well be.

We do not intend to be. We are not a member of NATO, fundamentally. The triple lock relates to our participation in peacekeeping missions. We want to continue the tradition of Irish participation in peacekeeping missions. It has been a very noble one. It is probably one of the defining qualities of Irish foreign policy. People accept our bona fides in the international field, whether it is military peacekeeping or in civilian peace monitoring, contributions to conflict resolution and participation in multilateral fora from the United Nations, to the African Union and European Union, but the world has changed dramatically. I know the Deputy said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was wrong. I would respectfully say it was far more than wrong. It was appalling, horrific and is having horrific consequences. If the Deputy stands back, why should Russia have a veto on whether Irish peacekeepers participate in a peacekeeping mission or not? When I say a veto, it is very clear that Russia, geopolitically over the last two decades in particular, does not want UN peacekeeping forces in a lot of parts of the world. If the Deputy takes Niger, Mali and all those areas in the Sahel, what has the Wagner Group been doing there for quite some time and Russia? They have been facilitating coup d'états, trying to exploit the natural resources of those countries in return for protecting the elites who perpetrated a coup d'état. Is that the country that should determine whether Ireland participates in a peacekeeping mission or not? The US has decided that the UN should not support the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL. When I was out in UNIFIL before Christmas, a lot of members of our Army were asking straightforward questions as to where they get the experience in the future of peacekeeping and what the next theatre is for Irish troops to have experience in peacekeeping. Will the US determine that? Will China determine that? When we were on the Security Council, we wanted to connect climate security and make it a core principle. Russia vetoed it. We nearly got there, but Russia vetoed it. In increasing times, we have been part of NATO peacekeeping missions. We have been part of European Union peacekeeping missions and we have been part of African Union-led peacekeeping missions. The key issue is the principle of peacekeeping. Why are we afraid in Dáil Éireann, with Seanad Éireann, to give ourselves the unrestricted authority to do that? We are the democratically elected people of this country. What is the problem? Do we not believe in parliamentary democracy? Parliamentary democracy is the cornerstone of one of the longest living democracies around the world, which happens to be Ireland. Maybe a bit more faith in ourselves and self-respect and self-esteem would go a long way to allay the propagandistic fears that have been articulated about this initiative.

I would remind the Taoiseach of two things. One is that I know the UN is not perfect and the veto may be exercised, but I also told him of the 264 resolutions that were passed in a four-year period without a veto being exercised by any of the five, including the US. None of what I am saying goes against strengthening our Defence Forces capacity and having a level of co-operation in terms of sharing information, etc., with other countries. That is not the argument I am making here. If national declarations are made - the Taoiseach's party in government solemnly made those national declarations regarding the triple lock and neutrality to the Irish people - is the Taoiseach going to tear them up? They are there in black and white on those pages. He knows why they were put there. It is a good thing they were put there. Now, what he is proposing to do is stand that on its head. I reminded him that neutrality was brought in by his party in times when the world was at peril, a lot worse than what it is now. There are some people in the world who have gone mad; I agree with the Taoiseach on that. Netanyahu, Trump and Putin have gone crazy, but what we should not do is join military alliances and add to the madness that is going on. We have bona fides and some credibility to speak at international forums because we are neutral. We need to defend that neutrality.

It is because my party introduced the concept of neutrality during the Second World War that I have the self-confidence to deal with this and to be absolutely confident that this is not about ending military neutrality. I make that point more generally. We have evolved independent Irish foreign policy-----

You said the triple lock is the core of neutrality.

-----ever since in a manner that has been respected around the world. The UN Security Council is a post-war creation and is ridiculously outdated. Five members of the Security Council do not represent the world any more. Africa should be on the Security Council.

That is one-----

Latin America should be on the Security Council. It should be expanded and reformed, but we cannot get reform. We support reform of the UN Security Council. That is a problem in itself. There is no sense of Ireland being a warmongering nation in any shape or form, nor do we have the capacity to be one. What we have capacity for is being professional peacekeepers, where we have made a significant contribution around the world. There has not been a peacekeeping mission sanctioned since 2014. The one in Lebanon is coming to an end at the behest of the Security Council. We are really restricting our capacity for peacekeeping by the composition and behaviour of the Security Council. That is a big issue which we cannot ignore.

I also acknowledge the presence of the Canadian ambassador, H. E. Mr. King. On a personal level, I thank the Prime Minister of his country for the leadership he has shown at Davos and elsewhere in standing up to buffoonery and a lack of common sense internationally. In particular, I offer my condolences to his country, especially the families of those killed and injured at Tumbler Ridge. The specific matter I want to raise is hydrogen, but I want to talk about the broader picture first. From listening to a lot of the debates here, I can see the amount of hot air generated. If we put a little turbine at the top of the House, we would be able to light up all of Dublin sometimes. I am a firm believer in investment in renewable energy. We are way behind where we could be. We have the potential to create 37 GW of offshore wind by 2050 and possibly another 15 GW of onshore wind and solar. That is before we even look at areas such as tidal, which the east coast and the Shannon Estuary have an abundance of, and wave energy. We are sadly lacking in that regard. As a result of grid challenges and the fact we cannot store the energy produced by renewables at their peak, we are wasting a lot of energy. Many hard-pressed consumers in my constituency are struggling to pay their bills. It is a huge waste to see all that renewable energy being produced but not being used and dissipating. The answer in this regard is the creation and storage of green hydrogen. In that context, we have a hydrogen strategy that was initiated in 2023 and a hydrogen plan containing 21 key recommendations that was brought forward in 2025. In the context of reaching our 2030 targets, we are already falling behind. I will digress by saying that we also need battery storage, but hydrogen is going to be key. Off the Dublin coast, on the Kish Bank, there are salt caverns and off the coast of the constituency the Taoiseach represents are depleted gas fields. There is huge potential to store green hydrogen created from renewables with the lowest possible loss from the initial energy generated. We could store green hydrogen for use by industry and aviation. We could be net exporters of hydrogen as well as other forms of energy, such as electricity, very quickly, if we put in the necessary infrastructure right now and ramp up. I would like a commitment on how soon we can get a hydrogen network operator for Ireland appointed and on getting the pre-planning for the appointment of a safety and economic regulator for hydrogen here done.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am absolutely at one with him in terms of a commitment to investment in renewable energy. Ireland put a lot of eggs in that basket over the past decade and is continuing to do so. In 2023, Ireland was ranked second in the world in onshore wind energy generation. I am not too sure that is appreciated even in Ireland. We will continue to build on that. The programme for Government includes a commitment to 9 GW of onshore wind, 8 GW of solar energy and 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030. These are very challenging targets. On the question of hydrogen, some progress has been made, although there is a degree of scepticism as to the timeline for the realisation of the proposals around that. I will return to that. I established a clearing house upon this Government entering office to bring the private sector in to talk to Departments and to hear the perspective of regulators in order that we could hear the perspective of those involved in the wind industry. The purpose of this was to try to accelerate matters and to look, generically, at what barriers there are and the issues holding us back in the generation of offshore wind in particular. I passionately believe we need to get offshore wind farms established - certainly, at least one or two - by 2030 or 2031. That is absolutely essential in order that we show people a clear and tangible pathway as to the journey we are on. We have made great progress on onshore but increasingly in the House and in public debate, we have mixed views about this. When I use the word "we", I mean society. Already, people want guidelines to restrict solar. Solar is in its infancy, but it is moving very fast. Tremendous progress is being made with solar. There have been global issues with offshore, although I am confident that we can iron out the challenges the wind industry faces in developing offshore platforms. The grid is vital, as the Deputy said. Potentially, up to €18 billion has been agreed, although it could be €14 billion. We have given equity of €3.5 billion to EirGrid to leverage that funding to substantially increase the capacity of the grid to deal with this. More work needs to be done on the research side in respect of hydrogen. The Deputy is correct that caverns exist that have potential when it comes to storage. On the issue of tidal, I have been to Wales where I saw fairly experimental - or, certainly, embryonic - projects in place to harness tidal energy. There has been some research in Ringaskiddy in respect of that. If I am honest, however, it seems we are some years off that and off the use of hydrogen as well.

It is about using this time to try to keep the country on track in relation to the 2025 national hydrogen implementation plan and its 21 key objectives. For example, we are trying to get the potential routes to market for up to 2 GW of hydrogen production from offshore wind by 2030. I acknowledge the challenges in ramping up our offshore wind, but we already have excess capacity at peak times that cannot be used. If this were used, it could push energy prices down and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels further in terms of both the wider climate change debate and our energy security in a very dangerous world. We need to ramp up whatever we can. We could start at least one hydrogen hub based on existing renewable energy production. That is why we need to get the hydrogen innovation fund in place by next year as planned. We need to get the hydrogen network operator appointed. Will the Taoiseach commit to these small steps in order that we can keep on track?

I thank the Deputy for his commitment and interest in this. Certainly, I will talk to the Minister and the Cabinet subcommittee dealing with this issue in terms of the hydrogen innovation fund, the network co-ordinator and the establishment of a hydrogen hub. There is a lot of potential here. We should be in earlier, and we should increase our research capacity in that field.

On the topic of energy, I welcome, on behalf of Deputy Ken O'Flynn, the group of retired CIÉ workers who are in the Gallery. They are most welcome.