2025-12-16

I welcome those from Mercy College, Woodford, County Galway, who are in the Public Gallery. I want to express my condolences to the families of those whose lives were so brutally taken during the horrific gun attack on Bondi Beach on Sunday. Our thoughts are with those families, the injured, the wider Jewish community and, of course, with the people of Australia and Sydney. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamnacha. Households hammered by relentless hikes in energy and electricity prices are in disbelief today. They have awoken to the news that their bills are set to increase even further. Electricity network charges are being hiked, forcing hard-pressed households to carry the can for upgrading the grid. Customers here, as the Taoiseach knows, are squeezed to breaking point just to light and heat their homes. They pay among the highest electricity prices in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of working households cannot pay their energy bills because of these non-stop hikes. Price-gouging energy companies are making bumper profits to the tune of millions of euro, if not billions. In the past couple of months, we have seen energy companies, one after the other, jack up their prices so that a million households now face higher bills this Christmas. They fleece people at every turn and the Government has not laid a glove on them. Worse than that, it has actually enabled this behaviour. At the same time, the Government cancelled energy credits in a budget of €9.4 billion, in which, astonishingly, it managed to leave working people worse off. It has also increased the price of petrol, diesel and home heating oil. Now people face another increase to their already unaffordable electricity bills. The upgrading and modernisation of our national grid is incredibly important. It has to be a priority. God knows real progress is badly needed after decades of terrible planning and chronic underinvestment by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It simply beggars belief, however, that ordinary households will be hit with another increase to improve the grid while energy companies laugh all the way to the bank. Energy companies are making millions of euro, eye-watering profits. It is incredible, therefore, that struggling customers will be asked to fork out again. If the Government really cared about fairness, if the Taoiseach's Government cared at all, it would put the onus for funding this upgrade where it belongs: on the mega-rich energy companies and other large energy consumers. It would not go to ordinary people again. The Government should not be adding a single red cent to these rip-off bills, especially during such tough times. It should be about getting costs down, reducing electricity prices and making life affordable. Tá an Rialtas ag roghnú billí leictreachais daoine a mhéadú ag an am is measa, nuair atá teaghlaigh faoi bhrú uafásach cheana féin le billí ollmhóra le híoc acu. Ní féidir leis seo dul ar aghaidh. The Government's failure to tackle the energy rip-off leaves people in desperate situations. Not alone is the Government not doing anything to help working people; it also stands by as these bills will be increased again. Does the Taoiseach think this is a fair way to treat people already fleeced by non-stop electricity price hikes? What is his response to today's news? Will he intervene as Head of Government to put a stop to this increase?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Before I begin to respond, I want to take a moment as well to express my sympathy to and solidarity with the Australian people and with our Jewish community here in Ireland as they come to terms with the horror and the grief of the mass shooting event at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Fifteen people, including a ten-year-old child and a Holocaust survivor, were cruelly murdered and more than 40 others injured for no other reason than their Jewish faith and identity as they gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. I am acutely conscious of the feelings of vulnerability and isolation that an event like this can cause among our own small Jewish community. I take this opportunity to send a very clear message from the Dáil, and as Head of Government, that our Jewish neighbours are an important and very valued part of our society and that there can be no place for antisemitism or antisemitic rhetoric in our State. In respect of the issues Deputy McDonald raised, first, price review 6, which will facilitate investment of up to €18 billion in our energy grid, is essential and will copper-fasten and benefit every job and every potential future job in the country and will underpin the building of 300,000 houses and their connection to the grid and the electrification of the public transport system. It is a major decision by the Government. The Government has allocated €3.5 billion in equity to help to leverage and underpin the enormous investment that will occur from this. In many respects, this is a decisive moment in respect of the energy grid. I acknowledge fully and understand the pressure people are under in respect of energy bills. Part of this announcement is the work of the national energy affordability task force, which was established by the Minister and which has already published its first report. Its task is to identify measures that will reduce electricity prices in the short term and permanently. Some of its measures were delivered under budget 2026. These include the decision to extend the reduction in VAT on electricity from 13% to 9% and significant work on the fuel allowance. We included those on the working family payment. An extra 50,000 people will be paid the fuel allowance in March and that will be backdated to January. Of course, we increased the fuel allowance. An extra €140 will now be available for over 450,000 recipients between September and April. The €400 income tax disregard for households involved in energy microgeneration has been extended. There are also the budget measures more generally. Retrofitting has grown significantly over the past number of years and is making a real difference to many houses. A deep retrofit can save over €1,100. Approximately 228,000 upgrades have happened now in terms of homeowners. Some €1.5 billion has been allocated for that. This year alone, another 64,500 home energy upgrades will happen, in addition to 14,300 local authority upgrades. We are progressing significant change in energy consumption within our households, more generally. The affordability task force has to look at the more fundamental issue of the regulatory framework that governs energy prices in this country. That is a key objective of it, allied with European initiatives that will be required in terms of how energy is priced in the European market.

We have had price hike after price hike. As I said earlier, not a glove has been placed on any of these gouging companies. Some 1 million households will face higher bills this Christmas. Over 300,000 households are in energy arrears. A so-called affordability task force has done absolutely bugger all to achieve affordability for those households and struggling families. We have a Government that is prepared to sit back and let households suffer. That is what I hear. Nobody is contesting the need for investment in the grid but the Government needs to accept the reality of what is happening in households right across the land as we approach Christmas. The reality is that working households, and let me emphasise that I am talking about working households, cannot meet their bills. Today, they wake to the news that in fact those bills will be increased again. I ask the Taoiseach not to offload this to some task force. What will he do to ensure that those bills can be met, that they are reduced and that families can have an affordable life again?

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine-----

Oh Jesus, do not start.

-----we did allocate up to €3.3 billion in energy credits. The bottom line is that universal energy credits on an ongoing basis are simply not fiscally sustainable. The resources we have must be targeted, particularly to low-income families, which is what we have done. The Deputy wants everybody, irrespective of income-----

No, I want working people to be able to pay their bills.

-----forever and ever to be getting energy credits. She wants the wealthiest in society-----

No, I do not.

-----to benefit from energy credits. She does. That is what she asked for.

One voice.

This is disgraceful.

Whereas I believe that what we did with the fuel allowance and what we have done-----

You are a disgrace.

-----with the working family payments and so on is the proper way to proceed. We also have to change the regulatory framework. That is not simple work. It is under way, though, and will ultimately help us to deal with the issue. The bottom line is that €18 billion is an enormous sum of money. The Deputy has not given any rational explanation as to how she thinks it should be------

Can you make the energy companies-----

You are giving it to the energy companies.

Jesus, the indifference is stunning.

Sympathies from this side of the House also to those affected by the terrorist attack in Sydney. There was an outstanding piece of journalism, which I keep referring to, in the Limerick Leader two weeks ago. I have in my hand the front page of the newspaper, which shows the faces of four young women who lost their lives because of the health issues in acute care in the mid-west and University Hospital Limerick. They were Aoife Johnston, 16; Niamh McNally, 16; Eve Cleary, 21; and Leona Cusack, 33. It was an outstanding piece of journalism by Sandra Quinn. The issues in relation to acute care in the mid-west is the topic I have spoken about the most in my political career. It is probably the reason I got into politics. I have had to tell personal stories in the Chamber in relation to my dad, my mother, even my wife and my neighbours. I have spoken about how care is thought of in the mid-west and the discrimination that has happened to all of us in Tipperary, Clare and Limerick over the past 20 years since the Government made the decisions on downgrading hospitals without the infrastructure being put in place. In the south east, they have four model 3 or model 4 hospitals, in south Tipperary, Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny. We have one. We have one accident and emergency department for 450,000 people. It is shocking. It is discriminatory. Along with my colleague, Deputy Sheehan, and all our representatives, I very much welcome what the Minister has announced today. It is very rare that somebody in opposition will stand up in Leaders' Questions and say that but it needs to be said. In principle, what has been announced today is very welcome, and the engagement the Minister has had with us, particularly in the last two weeks, is also something different and very welcome. There always is a "however", and the "however" here is the detail. We will support the Minister on this decision. The reality is that we need close on 600 beds in the mid-west by 2040. However, the capital envelope for this is too small. It is €9.2 billion up to 2030. Our capacity as a country to deliver on this is not there. My question to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Minister for public expenditure, if he is going to be still there, is this: will the Government give the financial capacity to deliver on this plan? Without that financial capacity, this plan, with all the goodwill of the Minister and everyone else, cannot be delivered on. It is impossible. It just does not add up. Will changes be made to the capital plan of the HSE in order to deliver this for the mid-west and end the discrimination that has been happening to us?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is very serious. The Deputy rightly referred to the shocking deaths of Niamh McNally, Leona Cusack, Aoife Johnston, and Eve Cleary. From that, there is no question that the mid-west needs additional investment but also reform. The reform dimension started two years or more ago now and has had impact, but the investment also has had impact. The level of increase in investment over the last five years in the mid-west is quite substantial, which gives prospects for significant investment in the next five years and even beyond that. Investment in the hospitals in the region went from about €370 million to €689 million. The UHL budget has gone from €265 million to €507 million, and then on the current side there are additional doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals and so forth. In that period, about 420 additional beds will be delivered across the mid-west region, including 48 additional beds. The Deputy has the details of that in Ennis, St. John's and so on, and for Nenagh. There are additional needs. In the context of options A, B and C in the HIQA report, the Minister brought to the Government this morning a proposal to progress all three, first in terms of additional capacity in the existing site. It is interesting that the average number of people waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick has almost halved in the weeks since the new 96-bed block opened compared to the weeks prior to it. Enabling works are under way, as the Deputy knows, for a second 96-bed block at UHL. The Minister is mandating the HSE to acquire a site as close as possible to the existing site. In terms of option C, which is model 3 reconfiguration across the mid-west, the Government has agreed to develop a model 3 hospital in the HSE mid-west that will provide a second emergency department for the region. All three options will be pursued by the Minister. The Deputy has experience as a former Minister and he knows the important decision is the one that has been taken. A lot does depend on implementation and progression. The acquisition of a site will be very important. The speed of consideration in terms of option C will also be very important. The Minister will develop a strategic plan for option C for the commencement of reconfiguration. I do think it is possible.

I thank the Taoiseach for that, but he has to answer the question. Will the capital allocation for the Department of Health - HSE capital spending - be increased dramatically to deliver the project? It cannot be delivered at the moment. This decision cannot be executed. It is impossible. There is not enough money there, particularly if we look at the existing commitments relating to elective hospitals and everything else. In reality, option B should become option C. That is the quickest and best solution for the people of the mid-west. I respect that the Minister will never want to discuss sites, and rightly so. What we should do is acquire a site and deliver option B and then wrap option C around it in stages in future years. That is what the mid-west really needs. I encourage the Government to provide a capital plan to deliver that, along with the upgrades to Nenagh and Ennis, including pathway changes, diagnostics being moved and everything else. Ultimately, unless there is an increase from the Department of public expenditure in relation to the capital provision for the HSE, with the best will in the world, the Minister cannot deliver this without the money being given by the Government.

The amount of capital being allocated for projects across health and education is enormous.

This is new.

Unprecedented levels of capital investment are being allocated. The Deputy knows that very often there is a parallel between the speed of acquisition of sites, speed of delivery, design and planning. There are a load of variables before we get to the drawdown of substantial capital in relation to a number of projects. The enabling works are happening in terms of the second site. There is an acknowledgement that there are capacity limits to the existing site in UHL. The acquisition of a site is extremely important. At that point, it will be necessary to incrementally build up and then free up and decant services from the main hospital site. Equally, there is no reason, given population growth and everything else, why we should not be incrementally reconfiguring and moving to a model 3 in the wider mid-west region. If we took the view at the start of every capital programme that we just do not have enough capital, very little would have been built in the country.

At the outset, I join others in expressing my utter revulsion at the horrific antisemitic attack in Sydney on Sunday. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, friends and the wider Jewish community. During last year's election campaign, the Taoiseach said his party's guiding principle on disability issues is "nothing about us, without us." I happen to agree with him about the importance of that principle. Put simply, it means listening to disabled people, ensuring people with disabilities have a seat at the table when policy is being formed and listening to their feedback about how policy is working. This matters because disabled people unfortunately have a long history of being spoken for rather than listened to. This is, of course, particularly important when it comes decisions that specifically impact their lives. My question is very simple. Why is the Government not listening to disabled people? Their voices are loud and clear. They are angry about and upset by this Government's decision to slash their incomes by up to €1,400 in the budget. The Disability Federation of Ireland has called this a "devastating setback" which "leaves disabled people poorer, unsupported and excluded." It warned that "without urgent change … disabled people will remain trapped in poverty and exclusion in one of Europe's wealthiest countries." The Government did not listen. Last week, disabled people braved the storm to protest outside the Dáil. One man spoke about relying on food banks because he cannot afford groceries. Another woman described having to go to libraries to stay warm. This is a crisis. It is not sustainable. Disabled people are clear about what they need, which is an emergency €400 winter payment. That will still leave people €1,000 worse off, but it will at least go some way towards meeting the cost of food and bills this winter. The question is whether the Government is listening. Every time disabled people raise issues about the budget, all we get from Government is deflection. Investment in services is conflated with a recognition of the cost of having a disability. The Government ignored its own reports on the huge additional cost of having a disability and took the decision to cut people's income, removing one-off payments without replacing them with anything permanent. Many people are full of dread about the future because they literally do not know how they will keep food on the table. Will the Taoiseach tell the people watching whether the Government will introduce a €400 cost-of-disability payment for the winter? When will it will introduce a permanent weekly payment?

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. We are listening to people with disabilities. Last Monday, we had a very significant meeting with disabled persons' organisations in the context of the implementation of the national strategy for disabled persons and the action plan that underpins it. There were a number of Ministers present, and I chaired the meeting. Each Minister outlined his or her programmes in respect of the action plan, following on from the publication of the strategy some months ago. The whole purpose was co-design and to listen to and engage with representatives of various pillars of disability organisations in the country. There will be further meetings, which will be more thematic and which will relate to specific areas. I established a disability unit in my Department to drive change across Government in respect of disability. We also have a Cabinet committee on disability, which I chair. There was a particular focus on the issue in the budget. At today's Cabinet meeting, we produced a budget spotlight on the measures taken in respect of disability. These include a 20% increase in services, the largest increase in disability services for quite some time. We need more, and we need to do more. The special education budget is now over €3 billion. That has to manifest itself in additional classes, teachers, special needs assistants and therapies in our schools and it is doing so. Very quickly after coming into government, we were in a position to roll out the school therapy programme. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, is doing phenomenal work in special education along with the Minister, Deputy Naughton, as he did with the previous Minister, Deputy McEntee. We are very focused on establishing that programme in the early months of the new year before expanding it to all special schools in the next school year, during the period from September to January. We will then expand it further. We will continue to look at ways to improve the quality of education for children with special needs and how to ensure the right placements on time with the right therapeutic supports. We are also continuing to recruit for CDNTs and so forth. The Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, is working on the issue of the cost of disability. He is leading the strategic focus network on the cost of disability, working closely with disabled people and their advocates to shape how this payment will be designed and delivered. Several meetings have already taken place. The intention is to bring a proposal to Government in the first half of next year. The bottom line is that we want to embed a permanent change in our payments systems and across all Government Departments. Once-off payments are no substitute for that. The once-off payments were introduced to deal with emergency situations arising out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are not fiscally sustainable in the long term.

The Taoiseach says he is listening but he has inadvertently told us very clearly that he is not. I ask again whether the Government will introduce a €400 winter payment. Investment in services is welcome and absolutely essentially but, with respect, it is not what I am asking about. For example, investment in special schools will not put food on the table, pay bills or pay people's rent. Ireland has the lowest rate of employment for disabled people in Europe and one of the highest costs of living. People were outside the Dáil last week, in the middle of a storm, to protest. They told us how embarrassing it was for them to have to do that. One in five disabled people in Ireland lives in consistent poverty. That was before the Government slashed their payments. The Government is either not listening, does not get it or simply does not want to do anything about it. Which is it?

I disagree with the Deputy. This is a priority for me and for the Government. Just because she stands up and says it is not does not mean it is not. It is, but we need permanent change and permanent improvements, not just once-off stuff every year. That will not cut it either and-----

Why not cost for-----

A permanent costed disability payment.

Deputy Calleary is working through the detail because is not simple. He is going to work through it and will have proposals in the first half of next year. This year, we brought in the highest ever increase to the child support payment, namely €16 per week for children over 12, up to €78 now-----

That is not relevant to what I am asking.

Of course it is relevant. That is for all children. There has been a €20 monthly increase to the domiciliary care allowance-----

Answer her question.

-----on the back of a very big increase last year. We are not going the route of short-term, once-off payments. Such payments are not fiscally sustainable in terms of the €3 billion and more we allocated last year.

Property is not fiscally sustainable.

It is not your turn Deputy McDonald.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

Please allow someone else to have the opportunity to hear my reply.

I am supporting my colleague and her very reasonable question.

I thank the Taoiseach. Time is up.

It will be interesting to see how long the Deputies opposite will remain colleagues, but anyway.

To start with, we in Independent Ireland extend our sincere sympathies to the families of all those who lost their lives in Australia in the past few days as a result of the Bondi Beach tragedy. What happened last Friday in Brussels was nothing short of a disgrace. It was a betrayal of the Irish fishing industry and of every costal community in this country. Ireland has been stabbed in the back by those who call themselves our European partners. The outcome of the EU Fisheries Council negotiations for 2026 quotas represents a black day for Ireland. It is a day that will never be forgotten by our fisherman. For decades, Ireland has played by the rules. Since 1973, we have opened our rich waters to Europe under the Common Fisheries Policy. We gave access and we sacrificed. In return, we were promised a measure of fairness, a safeguard called the Hague preferences. That was our crumb of comfort when cuts were imposed. Last Friday, that safeguard was ripped away. It was blocked deliberately by the Netherlands, backed by France, Germany and, shamefully, Poland, which had pledged support but which turned its back when it mattered. The Netherlands, with its factory ships and super-trawlers, already dominates our waters. It control fleets across Europe. It has now ensured its dominance will continue, while Irish fishermen are left to rot. The countries involved have declared war on the Irish fishing fleet. Let us talk facts. Belgian beam trawlers will haul 400 tonnes of black sole from Irish waters in 2026. Irish fishermen will catch just 28 tonnes in our own waters. We are staring down the barrel of a loss of over €100 million in quota value, a hit of more than €200 million to wider seafood sector and more than 2,500 jobs gone from communities that have already been gutted by years of EU mismanagement and Government indifference. Let us not forget that this is not the first time. We were sold out during the Brexit negotiations. A deal struck at Christmas that year gutted our industry, and now we are here again. We depended on Barnier that time and he stuck us on the double. Now, it is another Christmas, another blow, another betrayal. The amount of fish we will be allowed to catch in 2026 in the waters off our coast will be less than 9%, while others have increased their shares to 91% as a result of this action. Where is relative stability now? Those involved blocked the Hague preferences and secured their own access. They did all of that under the banner of European solidarity. Solidarity - I hate to say it - my arse; this is piracy dressed up as policy. I say this plainly. Ireland has been betrayed. The Common Fisheries Policy is corrupt. It is designed to serve the interests of the big players, such as the Netherlands, France and Germany, while crushing small coastal nations like ourselves. What do we get from our Government? Silence and platitudes. There is no fight, no backbone and no defence of our people. Where were the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the senior Minister last weekend? The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, was there, but where were the rest? We need a full scale political response. We need to challenge this injustice at every level. We need to-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----protect what is left of our industry before it is whipped off the map. If we do not, mark my words, the Irish fishing industry will not survive another decade.

The Taoiseach to respond.

Will the Government challenge this in courts going forward?

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. I agree with him that what happened in Brussels last week was absolutely unacceptable in terms of the pulling back of the Hague preferences. The situation is far more grave than that, however. In terms of the overall issue, it was on scientific advice that the Council based its decisions. The Deputy is familiar with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, report, in which the scientific advice was, in essence, for a reduction of 70% in the total allowable catch for mackerel - that is existential for the pelagic fleet - a 41% reduction in respect of blue whiting and a 22% reduction in respect of boarfish. These are devastating losses for our fishing community, with consequential issues for seafood sector, for processing downstream and for coastal communities that are dependent on jobs arising from that. The issue of unsustainable fishing of key pelagic stock such as mackerel by certain coastal states outside the European Union has been raised by Ireland repeatedly. We have, through the AGRIFISH Council, called for urgent European action to save the north-east Atlantic pelagic stocks. Again, Europe needs to negotiate far more strongly in terms of sending a clear message that actions that threaten the sustainability of our shared stocks are not acceptable to the European Union. There needs to be a concerted response. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, travelled to all the capitals and worked extremely hard. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, was there with the Minister of State at the time. I met with all the major fishing organisations last week or the week before last. What we have to do now is develop our approach. Today, the Government took a decision to establish a task force with the industry to come back to us in the first quarter of next year in terms of how we, nationally, can support our fishers and create a sustainable pathway over the next number of years. We intend to re-engage regarding our limitations under existing state aid rules. Given the existential nature of this hit to the Irish fishing industry, we will have to respond in a strong way in terms of financially supporting our fishers over the next number of years. Approximately €102 million is involved, and that does not take account, as the Deputy said, of the impacts on the value chain in the seafood sector for fish processes and ancillary services. That is also an issue of significant concern. The Hague preferences would have accounted for somewhere between €13 million and €18 million of that €102 million, so it is a much bigger issue, notwithstanding the unacceptable nature of the decision of other member states not to facilitate the granting of the Hague preferences. We will work now with the industry with a view to designing a package and a framework to create a sustainable future for Irish fishing.

Let us be honest: a task force is political theatre. It will not restore quotas, it will not save jobs and it will not undo the betrayal of last Friday. Ireland has been stripped of the Hague preferences, with our share cut to less than 9% while others walked away with 91%. That is piracy, not partnership. I met many trawler owners in Castletownbere on Sunday. They tell me that 30 articulated lorries come into Castletownbere every week and leave it with Irish fish out of Belgian, Spanish, French, UK and German trawlers. They are robbing our Irish fish in our Irish water and taking it into their countries while we stand idly by and accept this. I am not asking for another committee or report. Will the Government take this fight to the highest court possible? Will it challenge this corrupt decision by legal means or will it stand by while Dutch super-trawlers plunder our waters and Irish coastal communities are wiped off the map? Let us have no more excuses. Will the Government fight or will it surrender?

Hear, hear.

I put it to the Deputy that what I am proposing is far more realistic in terms of an immediate or timely response to the predicament and the dire situation Irish fishers find themselves in, primarily, let us be honest, because of scientific advice. When the stock is-----

What caused that to happen?

I gave the reason earlier.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn, this is not your question.

This is Deputy Collins's time. Sinn Féin cannot cannibalise everyone else and grab their time. I know it tries to do it politically.

What have you done, as Taoiseach of our country, since last Friday?

Deputy Collins is the one Deputy in this House who has raised this issue.

You have not done a thing.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn's party chose not to raise it. Deputy Collins raised it and, in fairness to him, he should be allowed time for a response.

There has been not a word from you.

I say to Deputy Collins that we will look at all options. The most immediate one I am concerned about is that we need a framework of response in order to bring about a financially sustainable future for Irish fishers. That is important. We want to work with the industry to do that.