2026-01-20

19. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [65889/25]

20. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [71903/25]

21. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [1829/26]

22. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3647/26]

23. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3650/26]

24. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3743/26]

25. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3744/26]

26. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3746/26]

27. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3921/26]

28. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach for an overview of his Department’s annual report for 2024. [3924/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 to 28, inclusive, together. The Department of the Taoiseach's annual report for 2024 was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in October of last year. I hope everybody has read it. The report sets out the work of the Department in 2024 to achieve the strategic priorities identified in its statement of strategy and to support the implementation of the programme for Government, including: delivering the executive functions of the Taoiseach and the Government; supporting the Taoiseach in carrying out his duties as Head of Government, including in relation to the Oireachtas, constitutional issues, protocol and civic policy, the European Council, the North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council; working with the Office of the President and with the Oireachtas; engaging with the formulation and implementation of Government policy, mainly through the system of Cabinet committees, senior officials groups and the parliamentary liaison unit; supporting the offices of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Government Chief Whip and the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs; providing the Government secretariat; providing the Government Information Service; providing briefing and advice for the Taoiseach and the Government on the full range of domestic policy issues and on European Union and international affairs; and co-ordination roles in various cross-government initiatives, including Housing for All, climate action, child poverty and well-being, migration, the national digital strategy, the national risk assessment, the well-being framework, policing reform and community safety, the National Security Analysis Centre and the Dublin north east inner city initiative. In terms of metrics illustrating its outputs during 2024, the Department supported 46 meetings of Government, which dealt with 1,130 memorandums to Government; supported 52 meetings of Cabinet committees, generally chaired by me, as well as meetings of associated senior officials groups; supported attendance by the Taoiseach at eight meetings of the European Council and attendance by the Minister of State with responsibility for European Union affairs at nine meetings of the General Affairs Council; and supported five visits by my good self to Northern Ireland. Through the work of the shared island unit within the Department of An Taoiseach, the Government committed to building consensus around a shared future. For example, six shared island dialogue events were held in 2024, while the Government announced the largest ever single package of island-wide investment commitments, of more than €800 million, including €600 million towards the A5 road upgrade for the north west, as well as funding for the iconic Narrow Water Bridge at Carlingford Lough. We laid the groundwork for a major overhaul of children's services, through the Cabinet committee on children and education and disability, and began the development of the new national disability strategy. My Department also supported an extensive round of engagements at EU and international levels that focused on issues of significance for Ireland, including climate and energy. I have since then established an offshore wind energy clearing house group, which brings together key players from the public and private sectors to tackle issues that are causing delays to the delivery of offshore energy infrastructure. We have delivered a number of important State ceremonial events, including the Stardust commemoration, the 1916 Easter Rising commemoration and the national day of commemoration. We have transferred 583 files to the National Archives; facilitated and managed 150 media events; issued 243 press releases; responded to numerous media queries and updated gov.ie on an ongoing basis; prepared responses to 801 parliamentary questions; drafted 199 speeches; dealt with more than 140,000 items of correspondence; and processed 275 freedom of information requests. The Department's 2024 annual report is published, in English and in Irish, on gov.ie.

We have ten speakers and we are tight on time. I ask people to make their points in maybe 30 seconds, starting with Deputy Séamus McGrath.

This is ridiculous. Thirty seconds. This is happening every second slot. We warned about this when the Government cut Taoiseach's questions.

I take your point. I have just come into the Chair. We could start with-----

It is happening every week.

-----Deputy Ryan O'Meara.

Twenty-five seconds.

The Department of the Taoiseach's 2024 annual report states that 7,126 affordable homes were built, but none of those affordable homes was built in my constituency of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. I will give some examples of areas where we need housing. Towns like Nenagh, Thurles, Roscrea, Borrisokane, Ballina and Newport, Templemore, Borrisoleigh, Urlingford, Freshford, Toomyvara, Cloghjordan and Cappagh White are just examples of towns and villages across north Tipperary, mid-Tipperary, west Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny where young people and families need an affordable home and a start in life, those abroad want to come home, those living at home want a place of their own, and those with unsustainable rents want to afford to live. I want my constituency of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny to get real affordable housing schemes in our towns and our villages. I gave just some examples; I could give many more. What will the Government do to deliver affordable homes for north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny?

I want to talk about the section of the report on building consensus on a shared island. The Taoiseach will be aware that, last week, there was the launch in Belfast of the public media Ireland report. This is the first time I have seen a report in preparation for the media around this subject. Academics from DCU and Ulster University considered what would happen to the public service media in a reunified Ireland. The report rightly highlights the important role the public sector and broadcasting will have in the reunification process of our island. It makes 13 recommendations. What will the Taoiseach's Department do to advance the research of projects like this from DCU and Ulster University on an all-island public service media and begin Government preparations for Irish unity? Can we have a debate in the Chamber about the recommendations made in this report, so everybody will have their say and we can make this really valuable work count as a first step?

We want to see delivery in relation to special education and autism classes. Two schools that have delivered as necessary are Monksland National School in Cooley and Ardee Educate Together. I have brought up these issues before. A TD in the Taoiseach's own party brought up Monksland National School. She could not have been happy with the answer given. I certainly was not happy with it. Monksland National School was given two prefabs. It got permanent plans for a general purpose room and for a canteen. People are eating in their cars or in a shipping container at the minute, which is hardly acceptable. There were plans for special education teaching, SET, rooms and autism spectrum disorder, ASD, rooms. It is asking for contact from the Department. I request that an official from the Department contact me. We could resolve this issue. There is an even simpler issue with Ardee Educate Together. It is about parking spaces and delivering before further works are done. We are getting down to the wire on the timeline. I need somebody from the Department of education to make contact so we can resolve this. Louth County Council is the project manager but there is a serious requirement for action.

The Department of the Taoiseach's annual report talks about values of treating the public fairly and promptly. I question whether the Government has treated the survivors of industrial and reformatory schools who were on hunger strike outside the gates of Leinster House fairly and indeed promptly because they are very angry at the lack of progress on the commitments the Government entered into over two months ago when they came off their hunger strike. They tell me that they have no communication from the Department of education. They say that no services are in place and they are still suffering physically and psychologically, with no access to services. They say there is still no State apology. There is a commitment that a State apology be given. It was supposed to be given promptly. We are now told that it will be given before the end of January. The end of January is next week. Will the Taoiseach confirm to them at the very least that there will be a State apology next week on this? When will the other commitments that the Government entered into over two months ago be fulfilled for these vulnerable and determined individuals?

I read the Taoiseach's 2024 report, although it is 2026 now. I specifically read the social policy and equality section. Within that is a broader discussion about disability inclusion in a wider context. Under that, the Taoiseach set up the Cabinet subcommittee on disability, which he has referred to here on numerous occasions here and in his dealings with me. I bring to the Taoiseach's attention that if people are looking for residential care or an independent living environment for their son or daughter in Cork, which is the only place I can speak to, they have virtually no chance of securing that right for them. It could be an adult with an intellectual disability or whatever the case may be. It is so difficult to get that type of service delivered in our CHO at the moment. I am saying that in the context of meeting a group called the before we die group. I know they will be contacting all TDs in our area over the coming months. They have a group in Dublin too. I am asking the Taoiseach to meet them because that group needs to be heard about the day-to-day travails that they have to go through to secure services for their children, specifically residential care for their children.

On the theme of sustaining the economy, I raise the need for an updated support strategy for retailers across this country on our main streets, high streets and towns and villages. We want our towns, villages and cities to be vibrant, busy and attractive places but many retailers are under severe pressure, whether it is due to the increased cost of doing business, the ongoing challenge of online shopping, or, of course, changing consumer habits. They need support and while the Government has invested in things like town and village renewal, the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, and so on, a specific, focused strategy needs to be put in place to support our retailers, or I fear that many of our towns and villages will be hollowed out and will become places with increased vacancy, dereliction and so on. We need to address this issue and support our retailers. I ask the Taoiseach to please take this on.

A huge amount of resources went from the Department of the Taoiseach last year into trying to strategise and manage the visit to the White House for St. Patrick's Day. I am wondering what the hell level will be needed this year for the Taoiseach to manage such a visit if it goes ahead because we have a demagogue, dangerously unleashed at this point. I was never a fan of the shamrock at the White House. There are other ways of meeting important people without giving that photo opportunity to somebody like Donald Trump. What is the Taoiseach's red line? Trump is a racist who has unleashed ICE to kill people, to strike fear into people of colour, who cannot go into the US right now. He is a tyrant who has invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its leader. That leader will be on trial on 17 March, if the Taoiseach is planning to go. Now Trump is emboldened to attack Greenland. He is a misogynist who has promoted the sexual assault of women and the demeaning of female journalists. He is a known rapist. He was convicted in a civil trial. I know women's lives do not matter much but do children matter because he is obviously a paedophile as well? He is listed in the Epstein files. He is pictured with very young girls constantly. He spied on the dressing rooms at teen pageants. Does any of this matter at all? Will we continue to talk about bread on the table and allow a dangerous demagogue like this to operate on the world?

The mission statement for the Department of the Taoiseach in its report says it is about ensuring a sustainable economy and a successful society. Neither of those things is possible unless we address the lack of social and affordable housing and the housing crisis that is faced in this country. Recently, in my area, an area called Old Connaught, on the border of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Wicklow, there was a local area plan discussion about building social and affordable housing. Our councillors, Melisa Halpin and Dave O'Keeffe, proposed that we should have a condition that all the housing, much of it on public land, should be social and affordable, because we do not need more unaffordable housing. The Government's councillors laughed and scoffed at that, then proposed and voted through plans to cut the developer levies, in other words to give a handout to the developers. How is that compatible with the aspirations of the Department of the Taoiseach?

The Taoiseach's Government and governments around the world have an important choice to make. The choice is whether the profits of big tech corporations are going to come before the health and safety of our children. For now, these interests are counterposed. We saw it in a stark way in the mass production of child sexual abuse imagery and sexual abuse imagery of women on Grok. There was a protest outside the offices of X at the weekend. I know the Taoiseach previously heralded AI as akin to the industrial revolution or the printing press. This is how it is being used by the big tech corporations. A big question is whether we will follow the original advice from Coimisiún na Meán to turn off the toxic algorithms on social media. They are algorithms made to maximise eyeballs on the screen, to maximise profits, and which push hateful, misogynistic, suicidal material, and eating disorders on young people. Does the Taoiseach agree that we should turn off the toxic algorithms? We will introduce a Bill to do that on Thursday.

I thank all the Deputies who raised a variety of issues. Deputy O'Meara raised the issue of affordable housing, specifically in Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny in a variety of towns. There is a variety of schemes to help people to afford housing. Lots of people have used the help to buy and first home schemes. The local authority affordable scheme has had applications in some counties more effectively than others. Some of that is to do with valuations and so on. We will see what we can do to make sure that every county benefits from those schemes. I was in Wexford last week, where plenty of affordable houses were built with subsidies through the local authority affordable scheme. I will talk to the Minister for housing about what is happening in Tipperary, north-west Kilkenny and those areas. Affordable housing is the significant issue because we are making progress on social housing. Deputy Conway-Walsh raised the issue of the public service media. Again, I know there is a conference but we are actually doing work on that under the shared island initiative. We have allocated very substantial investment through the shared island initiative to media to increase reporting North and South and to have a more seamless interaction across both. This has not been happening to the degree it should have been in the past number of years, either with Southern media covering Northern Ireland or Northern Ireland media covering the Republic. We have put substantial funding through the shared island endeavour. Public service media in the modern era is critical for societal cohesion and it has to operate to very high standards of impartiality and with the public interest at the core. On Deputy Ó Murchú and special education, again, this is a matter for the Minister for education. I know Deputy McGreehan has been raising these issues also. We will relay that back to the Department. The Deputy is saying, and I have no doubt he is in contact with the Department-----

Yes, but there is a time delay-----

We will keep going. Deputy Doherty raised the issue of those who were on hunger strike. We have made very good progress in respect of that. I have communicated in respect of that to those involved. I have written but they may not have received anything.

They have received it.

Fine. It is very clear from that correspondence that we are very close now-----

Is there an apology next week?

-----to bringing that to finality, including the issue of an apology. Turning to Deputy O'Sullivan, again in terms of disability and inclusion, we have since this report and the general election, established a disability unit in the Department, which manifested itself in the budget in terms of the domiciliary care allowance, the monthly allowance, going up another €20, and in terms of the income disregard for carers being significantly enhanced and the level of increases going up. In terms of the residential and respite area, the investment in the budget was an extra 20% in services. There are issues in the residential and respite areas. There is no doubt about that. We were at the Horizons centre last Saturday morning. I was there as was the Deputy and we heard first hand the issues facing many parents of children. There is then the issue of adults with disabilities and the future for them and how their elderly parents worry about that. A lot of our work in the coming months will be focused on residential and respite. There is the changing nature of respite as well, which I thought was an important point made by the Horizons group last weekend. I will certainly meet the before we die group and see how best we can address the issue. We do need to take the anxiety and the undoubted worry and stress from the parents and those who are going through that uncertainty and lack of clear knowledge as to the future. Moving to Deputy McGrath, specifically on retailers, there is a lot of pressure on them. I think we have to work more with local authorities again in respect of the cost framework and cost environment. A lot of good work has happened on the public realm investments in terms of facilitating footfall and making city streetscapes pleasant so people will want to come into a town or city centre. There is also the active travel dimension but that too can restrict other aspects of access to city centres as well in terms of traffic. It is about trying to get the balance right there. Deputy Coppinger said we had deployed huge resources last year. We did not. It was just human capital.

I am sorry. It was what?

Human capital.

Just human capital. Myself and a couple of others.

Yes. That is what I mean. That takes money.

There were no huge resources. No huge resources are allocated to strategising about how we engage and meet with other leaders.

The Taoiseach is not named.

I will say this to the Deputy on where our focus always is. The economic relationship is critical. I would not undermine that. It is not about the profit of companies but that critical economic relationship is about employment for a lot of people in this country. It works both ways, by the way. Irish companies have access to the market there and do well in the United States, and want to continue to do well. We are in a very difficult situation - Europe is and Ireland is. I outlined earlier during Leaders' Questions the approach we are going to take. Turning to Deputy Boyd Barrett, yes, we do need a sustainable society. We need social and affordable housing. I do not believe our councillors scoff at anything to do with housing. They take it very seriously.

They did.

They want more housing. They want more affordable and social housing and to enable people to either buy or rent at affordable prices. We need to get supply up. I think some of Deputy Boyd Barrett's policies would depress supply. That is where we differ. We need to get supply to 50,000 or 60,000 per annum. I think a lot of what the Deputy has articulated over the years would depress supply. It is not possible to do it all through social housing. We need private sector investment as well as public sector investment on a huge scale. Turning to what Deputy Murphy talked about, nothing can come before the health and well-being and safety and security of our children. No company can. The 1998 Act is very clear. Any sharing or any generation or possession of child abuse images, child sexual abuse images, is illegal and must be prosecuted. The Garda is pursuing it. The European Commission has responsibility for very large online platforms like X. Coimisiún na Meán is working with the European Commission in respect of what has transpired with the Grok app. It is a very serious situation. I would point out that comments are made very generally about Ireland and the regulatory environment. The Data Protection Commission, DPC, levied €4 billion in six years on technology companies. That is not evidence of people taking a light-handed approach.