2026-02-05

The new contract about to be signed by the Government for public service obligation, PSO, flights from Donegal to Dublin will mean a loss of afternoon flights. This is a public service obligation; it is supposed to serve the public but it is not. We know the people of Donegal are rightly outraged at the new proposed contract. Flights from Donegal to Dublin in at 8.30 p.m. and coming back from Dublin at 6.30 a.m is ludicrous. Nobody is demanding that. It will not work and there will be ghost flights. This is a €17 million contract. The midday service has worked for decades. It is why nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition in 48 hours. This is being led by a charity that provides support for over 500 people who depend on this flight to get their treatment in Dublin because we live a nine-hour return journey away by road. I have spoken to many of the patients myself. If it was not for this flight, they would not be able to avail of their cancer treatment. They cannot even book flights after the 26th of this month because there is no contract in place. This route is not a luxury; it is a lifeline. This is a Government contract. It is a public service obligation. It has to serve the public and not the airline. I am asking the Tánaiste to commit that the Government will not enter into this contract until the midday service is secure.

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this issue. I am acutely aware of the deep concern felt by people who live in Donegal and particularly, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, patients and their families who depend on this air service to access specialist medical care, including cancer treatment. He has given us a sense of the depth of feeling with so many people having signed a petition in such a short time. I am clear that the route is not about convenience. It is about trying to manage illness with dignity and reducing the physical and emotional strain of the long journeys. I have briefly engaged with the Minister for Transport on this issue. I know it is currently operated on a PSO contract funded by the Exchequer which provides two daily return services. The Minister is continuing to monitor the operation and performance of the service in line with the terms of the existing PSO contract. However, on foot of the Deputy mentioning this I will ask the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, to come back to him directly.

Some years ago, working with Deputy Ged Nash, we steered the Competition (Amendment) Act 2017 into law to protect freelance actors, musicians and writers in bogus self-employment. These were people who should have been designated as employees. A recent Supreme Court decision clarified the test for determining employment status under the Taxes Consolidation Act. The Supreme Court ruled that Domino's Pizza delivery drivers were employees and not independent contractors. Responding to that recent decision, Revenue is updating its code of practice in determining employment status. The decision is welcome, particularly for workers exploited through the gig economy, but recently it has been brought to my attention that unforeseen consequences may follow for a small number of low-earning sole traders, such as journalists who need to contribute to multiple media outlets. There are concerns that a one-size-fits-all approach may not take into account the legitimate practices of genuine freelance contributors who are tax-compliant as sole traders. I am raising this with the Tánaiste to see if it has been brought to his attention. I am happy to correspond with him further on it. I have engaged with the NUJ on it. There are concerns that a blanket ruling from Revenue might inadvertently have the impact of restricting a diversity of voices in our media. I stress that it is very welcome that we see the Supreme Court decision in the Karshan, or Domino’s Pizza, case. For most people in a scenario where it is not clear, particularly in the gig economy, it is very welcome to see their employment status designated as that of an employee. However, there is concern about this unforeseen consequence, specifically in the media.

I thank Deputy Bacik for raising this. Of course I am aware of it. I would appreciate further engagement with her on it. It will probably require longer engagement than we have here today. As she said, it arises from the Supreme Court judgment of October 2023 in the case of Revenue Commissioners v. Karshan (Midlands) t/a Domino’s Pizza Limited. There has been a period of time since then. It goes without saying that Revenue is independent of me, as it should be, in relation to how it applies tax law in Ireland. Obviously, it cannot ignore the Supreme Court judgment and I cannot interfere with its application of the judgment. However, I have heard directly from some of the sectors that have expressed concern about this. To be truthful, the immediate solution does not seem apparent but I am happy to have engagement on this. Revenue would make the point that it has engaged extensively, set out criteria and so on but I would welcome further engagement.

This weekend the Social Democrats will hold our party conference in Cork, which is a city starved of Government investment. The people of Cork have been long promised light rail but not a single penny has been provided under the new transport plan. However, that is not the only broken promise. We have no BusConnects; no new dental school; no business school; no safe injection facility; no new homeless hub; and no new library. The most notorious example is the failure to build the Cork events centre. Ten years ago, in the dying days of a general election campaign, the Tánaiste’s former party leader and then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, flanked by other Fine Gael and Labour Party Ministers, turned the sod on the project. It was a nice photo op but nothing more. The press release from the developer, BAM, said that a 6,000-capacity multi-purpose venue would be built within two years. A decade on, the only thing the people of Cork have been left with is a large derelict site in the city centre. It is nothing more than an eyesore with a new bridge to nowhere. Next week marks a decade since the sod was turned. To mark the tenth anniversary, I will host an event where the events centre should be. I would love to see the Tánaiste there and I would love to hear what he has to say to the people of Cork about the Government’s failure to deliver on these key infrastructure projects for our city.

The Deputy mentioned the "bridge to nowhere". I remember Sarah Palin using that phrase. When Barack Obama rang Sarah Palin when she was chosen as a vice presidential candidate, he wished her luck but not too much. I wish the Deputy good luck with his party's conference this weekend in Cork. I would push back on the idea that we have not invested in Cork. There has been €400 million in URDF funding for Cork alone.

It was not used.

I have long made the point that we need to see a Cork city task force. When I was Taoiseach we set one up for Dublin and we are seeing the benefits of that. I think Cork should follow that lead. It is also a commitment in the programme for Government. I have raised it with the Lord Mayor of Cork and the Cork city chief executive. I am due to visit shortly. I will get the Deputy a specific update on the events centre in advance of his gathering, I hope. In fairness to the Taoiseach, I know he takes this issue very seriously. There was a requirement on the basis of legal advice to undertake certain actions but the Government remains committed to the Cork events centre. The Government remains very committed to Cork. I assure the Deputy that the Taoiseach remains very committed to Cork too.

Saoirse and Darren are a couple in their 50s, both of whom are working. They have been renting for 15 years. They pay €2,000 a month in rent in a big residential development in Cherrywood. Incidentally, their rent may get hiked because of the Government’s Bill. They have enough for a deposit and want to buy a home – a one- or two-bedroom home – but the banks will not look at them because they are in their 50s. What they need is genuinely affordable housing. The last bit of affordable housing in our area was 30 affordable homes in Shanganagh but there were 640 applicants and there are no more in the pipeline. Cherrywood’s developers were given €13 million of LIHAF funding to build it. At the time, we were initially supposed to get 40% of the development in affordable housing in exchange for that funding. That did not happen. Then we were supposed to get 300 affordable homes. Now we are told that is not happening. In the place where this couple live - they are currently renting at €2,000 a month and cannot buy - we were supposed to get affordable housing which would actually give them an option. There is no sign of it despite the fact that the public put in €13 million precisely on the condition that there would be affordable housing, something that is now not happening. I want somebody to look into what I think is a scandal that leaves people like Saoirse and Darren high and dry.

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for raising the need for more affordable homes and the concerns of Saoirse and Darren so that it is an option for them to purchase their own home which is something they want to do. We have included in the new housing plan that local authorities not only must have commitments to social housing and social housing action plans for their own county but must also now have affordable housing plans as well. I do not have the specifics in respect of Cherrywood with me but I will ask the Minister, Deputy Browne, to consider the issues the Deputy raised and revert to him directly.

This country has been washed out by flooding the length and breadth of Ireland. It was Wexford last week, Bantry a couple of months ago and Midleton over a year ago. It is scandalous that it can take a couple of decades to get flood defences to the point of being ready. It must be explained because it seems that no one has control. There is one thing we can do, however, and that is the cleaning of our rivers. I have advocated for this here for over a decade. In Wexford last week they were saying that the rivers are full of silt and the same thing was said in Midleton not so long ago. I have always said that if the bath is full of silt or sand, the water has only one way to make its way out, and that is over and down, and to wash out the house. Will any river cleaning programme be put in place? This is something I have requested for a long time. If it is going to happen, when will it happen? This is very serious.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. He is right. In areas like his constituency in west Cork - Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Bandon - we have seen a number of flood relief schemes that have really helped. I know the people of Bantry are waiting and we are very eager to work with them on that. The point I am trying to make, and to be fair to the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, the point he is loudly making in Government and we agree with him, is that there is a need to look at what can be done in the interim and in the here and now. He has also identified the issue of river cleaning, as well as the issue of small trees in rivers and under bridges over rivers impeding the flow. The Deputy can expect the Minister of State to want to engage with Cork County Council in relation to this issue.

The national development plan is an important investment in the future in terms of infrastructure. Last week’s sectoral announcement on education was welcomed in parts of my constituency. A new nine-classroom school extension has been approved for St. Canice’s Girls National School. However, I must say there is a lot of confusion on the ground regarding the announcement. Schools that would have been regarded as being at very advanced stages are wondering if they are still on the list. Are they still being funded? Where are they? I want to raise some specific schools and the Tánaiste might want to come back to me in writing on them. There is a general point about us providing more clarity to school principals and boards of management. St. Aidan's CBS in Whitehall and Gaelscoil Uí Earcáin are both at advanced stages. If they need funding to be drawn down, they are wondering whether it will be available. The Department of education site on the Swords Road will include four schools, the largest development the Department of education will ever undertake. It will be Gaelscoil Áine, Ellenfield Community College, An Cosán Community Special School and Clonturk Community College. It is part of the ADAPT 4 programme. It is not on the list but surely given amount of work that has gone into it, it will be funded. I would like more clarity on those. General communication to other schools is also needed.

The Deputy's broad point is right. Without being flippant, when it comes to capital planning we have to start somewhere. It was important to get the first tranche out there and moving because a lot of other schools are wondering what it means for them. The Minister for education is conscious of that, as am I along with the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Chambers. In the period ahead, we will be looking at what other schools not on the list have an ability to move forward. The Deputy has been in this House long enough to know that when it comes to capital, there is often a churn and opportunities to add more schools. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, on the specific projects - St. Aidan's, the Gaelscoil and the four-school development on the Swords Road - and ask her to come back directly to the Deputy on them.

I wish to raise ophthalmology services in Longford-Westmeath or the lack thereof. In 2024 we lost our service in Longford and since then we have had periods of no service with people having to travel to Dublin or Athlone or a temporary service back in Longford. The most recent correspondence I got from the HSE stated that for patients in Longford-Westmeath requiring a consultant ophthalmologist the pathway for access to the service is currently the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin as there is no consultant based in the Regional Hospital Mullingar, which covers Longford and Westmeath. When will we get our service back in Longford-Westmeath?

I thank Deputy Carrigy for raising this important issue. He is right that people in Longford are currently being told that the pathway to access a consultant ophthalmologist is the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin. I think that is the primary referral centre. It is a long way from Longford to that hospital in Dublin, particularly for someone with an ophthalmology condition. Currently there is no consultant ophthalmologist based at the Regional Hospital Mullingar. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is engaging with the HSE to see whether recruitment of a consultant ophthalmologist based in the Regional Hospital Mullingar is viable. It is something that she and I are eager to progress. Once the Minister hears back from the HSE, she will engage with the Deputy. I will also keep in touch with him on it.

After three and a half years, next week or the week after we will reach the cliff edge for the pilot basic income for artists scheme without any sign of the promised successor scheme, nor any clarity as to when the new replacement scheme will open for applications or even what it will look like. I ask the Tánaiste to enlighten us as to the shape, size, cost and timing of the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan's, newfangled basic income scheme for artists. When will it be open for applications? That is the main demand from the artist community.

I know that Deputy Ó Snodaigh has been a supporter of this initiative for quite some time. There will be a new development in relation to this. I am reluctant to say it will be at Cabinet next week. That is what my memory tells me, but it is certainly imminent. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, will be bring proposals on it to Cabinet this month. It could be as soon as next week but certainly this month. I will ask the Minister to update the Deputy directly on the details.

I wish to raise the issue of the Aer Lingus, Dublin Airport Authority and Shannon Airport Authority pensioners who retired before 2014. They report an erosion of between 55% and 60% in the value of their pensions since 2007 due to cost-of living freezes, the pension levy and retroactive pension cuts introduced in 2015. They were defined benefit pensions built up over as much as 45 years yet the rules were changed after a time without compensation or mitigation. Pensioners had no representation in these decisions. They have no income protection or security in retirement. Will the Minister review the cumulative impacts and engage directly with the affected pensioners?

I thank Deputy Brabazon for raising the need for clarity for these pensioners, which I know he has raised previously in this House. I will speak with the Ministers, Deputies Chambers and O'Brien, and get the latest update.

In December 2020, the west Offaly power station in Shannonbridge closed due to the failure to secure planning for transition to biomass. This left a financial void of €1.7 million per year from a commercial rates perspective. Thankfully the Government stepped in and has supported Offaly County Council ever since. However, that support is due to conclude at the end of 2026. Measures have been taken by Offaly County Council to try to fill the void but right now we need to be able to give certainty to the people of Offaly that there will be no impact on services as a result of this. I ask the Government to engage with officials from Offaly County Council and, rather than having a cliff-edge effect at the end of 2026, to consider a tapered reduction so that we can phase this out and mitigate the impact.

Deputy Clendennen has engaged with me on this matter. He has made the point fairly and forcefully that we should not have a cliff edge with Shannonbridge. We have provided €1.7 million to Offaly County Council over the last number of years and that will be the case this year. I have asked my officials to engage with Offaly County Council and with Longford County Council. Deputy Carrigy has also been in touch on having that tapering. That will occur.

I acknowledge that Irish cancer services are among the best in the world. I want to pay tribute to all the staff who work in cancer services. However, we are beginning to see slippage in some areas which is disappointing. The response to a parliamentary question from me on key targets set by the HSE for diagnostics and treatment shows that we are beginning to see serious slippage. One in seven chemotherapy appointments did not happen on time. In my constituency of Waterford, it is one in three. Only half of breast cancer surgeries happened on time. It is worse for lung cancer surgery where 39% did not happen on time. For prostate cancer surgery 62% did not happen on time. I have engaged with the Irish Cancer Society, which has advised that there is equipment which is either not available or only working partially because the staff are not there. A lot of it is outdated. We do not have enough radiation therapists. I do not want to see slippage. I do not want to see us go backwards. I want us to always have the very best, world-class, gold-standard cancer services. I ask the Tánaiste to engage with the Minister for Health to look at the data and ensure that the investments which are needed in the national cancer strategy and in cancer services right across the State are in place so that we do not have a geographical postcode lottery in accessing care. No matter where people come from, they should have access to timely care.

I thank Deputy Cullinane for raising this issue. Yesterday was World Cancer Day and it is really important topic. I fully accept his bona fides in this. We all want to see real progress on this. We have made significant progress as a country but there is certainly no room for complacency. The Deputy and the Irish Cancer Society are right to highlight the areas in which we have to challenge ourselves to do better. I know the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is fully committed to this. I will certainly take the Deputy's challenge in engaging with the HSE, the Minister and the whole of Government to see what more we can do. I am also due to meet with the Irish Cancer Society shortly for further engagement on this.

I recently had a very engaging chat with students from the politics and society class in St. Joseph's College. It is a school the Tánaiste is very familiar with. They asked some very interesting questions, including one on Seanad reform and specifically about having more diverse voices and minority voices included, going beyond the Taoiseach's nominees to assist. I was thinking about that in the context of the Manning report which proposes having more of a democratic input from the public. We have seen the expansion of the universities on the university panel, which is welcome, but we need to make the Seanad more democratic. For example, we could have different sections like labour and arts where a member of the electorate could choose the section they wish to vote in. We should engage and open that process again to have real Seanad reform, as was the wish of the people in the referendum over ten years ago. The Government might revisit the issue and look at real Seanad reform this time around.

I thank the Deputy. I know St. Joseph's well. It is a school I have frequently visited. I was out there relatively recently with the school principal, Bernadette, and others for the opening of their extension. Any time I have been there, including during the general election, I always find the students give me a good grilling and are very engaging. I thank the Deputy for raising with me the output of some of his engagement with them. On the issue of Seanad reform, the Seanad referendum was one of those ones that we clearly got wrong. The people of Ireland said they wanted to keep a second Chamber and they wanted a bicameral system. They were right, as the people of Ireland always are. They are sovereign in these decisions. What everyone did say during the referendum, though, was that we want to keep the Seanad but we want to reform it. The question was always whether the reform would ever happen. Years later, truthfully, it still has not. I need to engage with colleagues to see where that is at. Any reform of the Seanad would require a cross-party view as to how to take it forward. The Manning report did do some interesting work but I will speak to the Minister for housing and local government in the first instance.

Finglas is a strong, proud community. However, it faces challenges and some very high levels of disadvantage from a long-standing lack of public investment in communities. It is a community devastated by recent tragedy, so it is deeply disappointing that a vital counselling service for young people in Finglas, the Hear Me Out youth mental health service run by the Finglas Youth Resource Centre, is facing a lack of funding. The service has provided support for hundreds of young people in relation to various issues such as anxiety, drug use, school refusal, self-harm and trauma. Now the service has had to take the initiative to organise a fundraiser in Erin's Isle GAA club on 21 February. I know the community will support that. Is it not unacceptable that a youth counselling service providing vital support in Finglas has to organise a fundraiser because of the lack of certainty of funding? Hear Me Out has submitted a detailed business proposal to the HSE inclusion office and to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. The service has been given limited funding by Dublin City Council but is likely to face funding uncertainty in less than six months. Will the Tánaiste raise this issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and the HSE and ensure that this service can continue?

I certainly will. I acknowledge the huge sense of loss and tragedy the Deputy's community is experiencing now. I thank him for telling me about the Hear Me Out youth mental health and counselling service. It sounds like it has made a really positive impact in his community. On foot of the Deputy raising it here today, I will raise it with the chief executive of the HSE and with the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, in relation to where the service's application for funding certainty is at. I will ask that the Minister of State comes back to the Deputy directly.

I want to raise the importance of proceeding with the N/M20 Cork to Limerick motorway project. It is not just a road project; it is a vital piece of national infrastructure that will shape the economic and social future of our region for generations to come. For far too long, communities and landowners along this corridor have endured congestion, delays and safety concerns. Families, commuters, businesses and emergency services all feel the impact of an outdated and overburdened route on a daily basis. Proceeding with this project in 2026 is essential. I am calling on the Tánaiste to maintain the momentum this year to provide certainty of funding and to ensure that this project proceeds without any further delay.

I thank Deputy O'Shea for raising this important matter but also for his continued focus on infrastructure development in Cork. I agree that the N/M20 Cork-Limerick project does represent one of the most strategically important infrastructure investments we can make for the southern region. When completed, this project will really transform connectivity between Ireland's second and third largest cities, Cork and Limerick, and will deliver better links not just for these cities but for all the communities including many the Deputy represents across the corridor, including Buttevant, Croom, Charleville, Mallow and Blarney. This investment will also improve connections to west Cork and Kerry and will help support balanced regional growth and ensure communities outside the major urban centres can fully participate in our economic success. There are critical safety deficiencies on the existing N20 route, so this is also about saving lives and preventing serious accidents on a road that currently poses significant risks. I am absolutely committed to working with the Deputy to deliver this project through the proper planning processes. I look forward to continuing to work with him and all public representatives to see it progress.

The people in my constituency of Dublin Fingal West wait for up to 14 years in most cases on the Fingal County Council housing list. Some of them are left waiting in overcrowded accommodation, some of them in emergency accommodation, some of them paying eye-wateringly high rents. When a person has a medical condition or a disability, this is often made worse by their housing situation, as I am sure the Tánaiste can appreciate, so they can apply for assessment for medical priority. It takes an awful lot to fill out the HMD 1 form and, in fact, I am told on a very regular basis now that GPs are refusing to fill it out for medical card patients. That is something that should definitely be looked at. When they fill out that form, and it is hard to fill it out, they have to wait. The Tánaiste will be well aware of the waiting lists to see doctors and every other medical professional. When they do fill out and submit the form, it is now taking 16 months, nearly a year and a half, to get that assessment done. By any measure, that is too long. I am inundated in my offices in Balbriggan and Rush with people and all they are looking for is an update. They want to know if anyone has looked at their medical priority and if it is going to be considered at all. It is not the case that the waiting times are this long in every other local authority. I ask the Tánaiste to investigate this and find out if the source of the issue is resources or what the blockage is. It is unacceptable and I am sure the Tánaiste will agree with me that people should not have to wait between 14 and 18 months.

I do agree and I thank the Deputy for raising it. I will certainly undertake to engage with the Minister for housing, primarily, and the Minister for Health on this and revert to the Deputy directly. While I am on my feet, I also want to say the Deputy raised an issue with me before in the House in relation to victims and survivors of domestic abuse, when they are moving from one local authority list to another, and the time they were on the previous list not being recognised. It is an important issue. I acknowledge and thank the Deputy for raising it. On foot of that, the Minister for housing has said he will issue a direction to all local authorities to make sure that issue is rectified. I want to acknowledge that while it came to my mind.

I thank the Tánaiste.