I ask Members to stick to their allotted times and not to interrupt other speakers.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Questions on Policy or Legislation
73 contributions, as the Official Report records them.
I put it to the Taoiseach to again hike up toll charges on our roads is unjustified and unjustifiable. If this goes ahead in January, it will represent the sixth such hike in prices in as many years. It will happen at a time when petrol and diesel prices are very high, but also at a time when the Government is also moving to increase public transport fares for buses and trains. The average person is caught every way. For a Government that talks a lot about easing cost-of-living pressures and looking after working families, it is a joke at this stage. I want the Taoiseach to intervene to put a stop to and freeze this or for the State to intervene and cover this. It certainly should not go ahead. It is most unfair at a time when we know that individuals, families and businesses are struggling.
It is not the Government that is doing this. There are very clear legal frameworks governing the operation of public-private partnerships, PPP, that built our motorways. That is the challenge here and it is related to the CPI inflation figure for the 12-month period to August 2026. Even Transport Infrastructure Ireland does not have the right to unilaterally change the basis on which PPP toll rates are revised.
They were frozen before.
There is a framework governing how the public-private partnerships-----
I know how it works.
If the Deputy knows how it works, then she knows that I cannot intervene unilaterally.
The M50 is not a PPP.
I know that for ten years the Government has intervened.
You know how this works - we do not interrupt.
Yesterday, families from all over Ireland stood outside the Dáil to campaign for a stronger Government response to drug-related intimidation. On the morning of that day, another family had their home petrol bombed on Clanbrassil Street, Dublin 8. In the past ten months, three children have been murdered through petrol bomb attacks on their home. Countless others have been targeted with violence and more are being coerced into engaging in criminality. This is endemic across Ireland. We need a national emergency response. The DRIVE programme referenced earlier by the Taoiseach was funded last year to the tune of €340,000. We need a response that meets the scale of what is becoming a crisis, where lives are being lost.
The Government has been relentless in taking on criminal gangs over many years. We have broken up many big criminal gangs here through very focused action by An Garda Síochána. What tends to happen is that new generations of criminals emerge and they manifest what they do differently. There is no question that this intimidation phenomenon by criminals is abhorrent and there can be no toleration of it. An Garda Síochána will focus very specifically on this and on those who are committing these murders and very violent attacks and we will bring them to justice.
This month marks 65 years since the international withdrawal of the drug thalidomide from the market, yet survivors with the Irish Thalidomide Association are forced to continue their campaign for justice. I am so disappointed to be raising this again with the Taoiseach, as I have done over many years. Finola Cassidy, the well-known campaigner on this issue, just turned 65 last week. She said her birthday wish was for the State apology to thalidomide survivors to be front-loaded. Whenever I raise this with the Taoiseach, he says that a resolution process is under way but why are survivors still contending with so many delays? Why are survivors still awaiting a promised date for a next meeting? It is simply unacceptable because, very sadly, we are learning every year of more affected people and their parents passing away, dying without ever seeing the justice they deserve. It is long past time that this 65-year-long saga came to an end. Can we see an apology for survivors and justice along the terms they have sought for so long?
What has been sought has changed as well in respect of some legal realities governing all of this and the role of the company involved. The delays are not on our side. We have met. We have had some good productive meetings and there continues to be engagement between the legal representatives and officials in my Department, and we are seeking to get a date soon for a further meeting. I want these issues resolved as quickly as we can. It has been frustrating from my perspective that certain aspects of this have not moved on as quickly as I thought they could have.
I am asking the Taoiseach to urgently intervene in the proposed plan for Ballyconnell Estate in Falcarragh. The proposed transfer from Údarás na Gaeltachta to Donegal County Council has been under discussion since 2018. Eight years later, despite continuous efforts, the local community is still waiting. It is about much more than transferring an estate. It is about unlocking the opportunities for Falcarragh and Cloughaneely and the wider Gaeltacht community in Donegal. Ballyconnell Estate could be a countrywide facility with public access to grounds, trails and heritage. It could support tourism, recreation, employment and the retention of young people and our language. The local GAA club is hosting an all-Ireland Gaeltacht competition in 2029, an event that only comes around every 20 years or so. They need facilities and for this estate to be opened with additional spaces put in place. This event could be in jeopardy. Could the Taoiseach intervene in this and get this over the line?
I did not quite get the full title of the estate but-----
Ballyconnell.
Tá dualgas ar an údarás áitiúil an cheist seo a réiteach le hÚdarás na Gaeltachta. Níor chóir go mbeadh aon mhoill air seo. Níl cúlra an scéil agam. I do not have the full background to the case. The local authority should resolve this. My understanding is that the Deputy is saying the estate should be transferred to the local authority so that it can be developed and opened up for community endeavour and recreational amenity and as an economic asset to the area. That has happened in many other places. I recall Spike Island. On one occasion, the county manager came to me and asked me whether I could get Spike Island transferred from the Department of Justice to the county council. He did not ask for any money by the way, and all current CEOs should take note of that. He just asked if I could get him the island. Look at Spike Island today. It is a major tourism resort. That is how things get done. I will follow it up.
The postal service is in tatters. I have heard that it is bad enough in the Taoiseach's constituency. I have heard a lot of stories recently in my constituency. One lady had no post for six weeks. Suddenly ten letters, some of which were from early September, were shoved in her mailbox. A public services card was delivered to the wrong address. This would be typed. Post did not arrive for three days and when the postperson was queried, the post was found to be in the van. I was handed a letter from a postman from another estate with a totally different name. We do have the new longer routes so a lot of staff are leaving. There is also the suggestion that parcels have been prioritised over letters. The service is not great. The Government can attach performance metrics and service retention clauses to An Post and also hold the board and CEO accountable. Will it try to do that given that An Post is autonomous but, at the same time, it should not be allowed to get away with a woeful service?
That is not our experience. I do not think that is uniform across the country, to be fair, and I would not like to use the phrase "in tatters". I will certainly ask the Minister if he can get an up-to-date performance report from the CEO of An Post.
I raise the important issue of ambulance response times in the east Cork area. Recently, we have received information that service provision in east Cork is under-serviced. This is causing enormous stress and is a health hazard to people who live in my constituency, particularly in the east and north Cork regions. Thankfully, the Minister for Health is already aware of the issue and has given some commitment that in the near future, we may see improvements. Will the Taoiseach reiterate to the Minister and the Department my concern to ensure that we do something to improve these services for the east Cork region? Of course, traffic congestion and other issues impact the response times but people on the ground are concerned about this. They need to see better provision and we also need to see the development of a new ambulance base, alongside the new ambulance training college in Youghal, to improve the service once and for all.
I thank the Deputy for advocating on behalf of the people of east Cork. I am conscious of the progress made in terms of the training base in terms of Youghal. I will speak to the Minister about this issue. It is an issue that gets raised periodically in terms of ambulance response times and the model that is used. I will certainly reinforce the Deputy's concerns to the Minister and talk to her about them.
This week last year, Claire Cullen from the small village of Riverchapel just outside of Courtown was preparing for her brother's wedding in the Dominican Republic. Claire, a mother of three, was a beautiful young woman, a well-known hairdresser and a gifted artist and musician. On 7 November last year, Claire was tragically killed in a hit-and-run incident in the Dominican Republic. The driver fled the scene but later handed himself into the authorities. This horrific incident had a devastating effect on the community of Riverchapel. One year on, Claire's family is still awaiting justice. I understand we cannot interfere with the judicial process in the Dominican Republic, but I ask that the Government continue to monitor and provide full assistance to both the Cullen and O'Brien families. Her husband Ronan, her three children and her extended family deserve justice for Claire.
I thank the Deputy for raising this very sad situation. I express my sincere condolences to the husband, children, extended family and friends of Ms Claire Cullen on the tragic loss of Claire in the Dominican Republic almost one year ago. The death of a loved one is a very traumatic loss for the family and the community and when it happens far away from home, it adds another layer to the enormity of the grief of the family. I assure the Deputy that officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been providing extensive consular assistance and support to Ms Cullen's family. The Embassy of Ireland in Bogotá, Colombia, is accredited to the Dominican Republic and provided extensive consular assistance in the immediate aftermath of her passing. Embassy officials and officials in the Department's consular directorate in Dublin have liaised closely with local authorities in the Dominican Republic to support the family in Claire's repatriation to Ireland. Since that period, the consular directorate has remained in regular contact. A dedicated consular officer in the Department was assigned to the case and remains available to support the Cullen family at any time.
The Taoiseach and Deputy Brennan might need to engage further.
I will talk to the Deputy to see if there is any more we can do.
The Government needs to end the recruitment freeze in the health services in Donegal. For years, we have struggled with a lack of staff in our hospital at Letterkenny, our mental health services, our disability services and our community hospitals. We have lagged behind the rest of the country. We won a campaign last year on the surgical hub. It was based on the fact that we had been neglected for years. Just as we are starting to turn that around, this recruitment freeze has kicked in. It has to be removed. We cannot continue to allow our people to suffer in the emergency department in Letterkenny, our staff to work in horrendous conditions and our people with disabilities and those using mental health services to be failed. Will the Government remove the recruitment freeze immediately?
Staffing levels have increased very significantly across the entirety of the health service in the past number of years. Budgets have gone up very significantly. There needs to be a degree of realism about this and how we plan sustainably for the provision of our health services. There has been expansion across the board. The surgical hub was a good decision that the Minister took. The Minister listened to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and Independent TDs. There was no campaign. The Minister was readily persuadable in respect of Letterkenny, and indeed other hospitals, because a surgical hub is a good model to try to ring-fence elective beds so that people can get their surgery done more quickly.
I will ask the Minister to engage with Letterkenny with a view to seeing what can be done. The staffing has increased all round this year again very substantially.
Over 20 years ago, the Government allocated €350,000 of sports capital grant to the KDUL, the Kildare District Underage League, for grassroots football. In 2023, that was finally drawn down to develop a state-of-the-art all-weather football pitch. In that time, no KDUL league or cup match has happened on this pitch, which is fully open, because a different entity, the KDUL CLG, has full ownership of it. I do not believe this was the intended use of that sports capital fund. I raised this on the floor of the Dáil last year with the Minister, who said that there was nothing to see here, that the fund had been drawn down, but we are still at a complete impasse. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister to convene a meeting with all stakeholders? We have the KDUL, the KDUL CLG-----
Who is that?
It is a private entity. It is essentially an academy football team and it has full ownership of it.
What team?
Klub Kildare.
The Taoiseach may respond, and he might need further engagement.
It is a completely different entity. This means 6,000 kids have no football.
This is not something that should be resolved in Dáil Éireann. This is crazy. I do not understand the full background to this. Obviously, someone applied who should not have applied. Is that it, or was there previously an harmonious relationship? I presume there was an harmonious relationship between the two entities when the grant was originally applied for. I will have to find out the background and will talk to the Minister. It is terrible. The kids should be playing on the pitch. We put the money in. It is taxpayers' money. It belongs to the community. That is how it should happen. We will have to watch how that model works because that cannot happen again.
Deputy Peadar Tóibín.
You cannot have private groups doing that. Sorry.
Here is something that can be resolved by Dáil Éireann, the Taoiseach will be glad to know. At the start of the year, I raised with the Minister for justice an organisation that provides services to migrants in Meath. I asked for the results of an investigation into alleged financial irregularities. At the time, the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, said that there was an investigation and that the Department was concerned about it, so much so that it had paused funding of the organisation. I have asked a subsequent question of the Minister, who again said he had concerns about it, but he said that funding had started. I have also asked for the publication of the investigation.
Either there were financial irregularities or there were not. A report was done into it. That report should be published. The name of the organisation is Cultúr. Surely taxpayers have the right to know whether State funds were misused in this case. Surely there should be accountability. Will the Taoiseach confirm today that the report will be published so that people will know whether there was wrongdoing in that location?
First, I do not have the background to that case. The Deputy mentioned an organisation called Cultúr. I will talk to the Minister about it, but in situations like this, one cannot just publish a report that could be subject to legal challenge or could be perceived to be defamatory such that people could take action and so on. I do not know the background to it. Obviously, the Minister, if he has expressed concern about it, did pause the funding initially. I cannot give the Deputy the reasons as to why funding might have recommenced. It may have something to do with the content of the report. I do not know. I cannot just unilaterally, without any background to this, condemn people, question them or put a cloud over their character or whatever.
I understand. The Taoiseach can ask the Minister.
I want to raise the serious issue of access to endometriosis care for women in the west of Ireland. I recently met Endo Ireland, which highlighted the difficulties facing women living with this debilitating condition. I welcome the Government’s national endometriosis framework, which designated Galway as a regional specialist hub, but over a year later Galway still has no lead clinician and no specialist excision surgery expertise. Women are being referred to Galway, where specialist treatment is unavailable, while Dublin hospitals are reportedly refusing referrals because they fall outside their catchment areas. These women are being left in limbo, suffering chronic pain without access to treatment. Will the Taoiseach commit to an immediate referral pathway for these women, a firm timeline for the appointment of a clinical lead and the full delivery of the Galway specialist service?
I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. The Government and I recognise how debilitating endometriosis can be and the impact it can have on those who suffer from it. To be fair, the Minister and the Government have put a particular focus on women’s healthcare over the last number of years, but particularly and more specifically in respect of endometriosis. A national funded plan to improve the care is being delivered. There is a national framework for management and so on.
On the specifics in Galway, I will revert to the Minister. Regional specialist centres for moderate cases have been established in the Rotunda, the Coombe and University Hospital Limerick, and I have a note that says there are clinics under further development in University Hospital Galway and the National Maternity Hospital. We also have two supra-regional specialist centres in Tallaght and Cork University Maternity Hospital. My understanding is the funding has been allocated. I am not clear as to why the appointments have not gone ahead in Galway. I will ask the Minister if she could follow up with the HSE on that.
The Government and the Oireachtas have done a lot of good and very important work on limiting the appeal, availability and use of vapes. The single-use vapes Act, which has come into law, bans the sale and distribution of disposable single-use vapes and aims to reduce environmental waste and limit access to low-cost vaping. The Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling) (Amendment) Act has banned fruit- and menthol-flavoured vape products and introduced restrictions on flavour descriptions, prohibition of display of vaping products and restrictions on their sale to under-18s. While there is a lead-in period for these Acts to come fully into force and we hope this reduces the number of vape shops, there is still a proliferation. Is the Government planning any additional changes to reduce the numbers of vapes shops on our high streets? There are some small towns with three or four vape shops, often near schools and busy roads and streets, and their visibility to young people is still there.
I accept the point the Deputy is making. I think vapes are shocking. They damage people’s health and more and more research is indicating the very negative impact of vapes on young people’s health and that of adults as well. We need even stronger regulation. The Deputy is correct. The Minister of State with responsibility for public health, Deputy Murnane O’Connor, along with the senior Minister, has introduced these two significant measures in terms of under-18s, narrowing point-of-sale displays, tastes and flavours and so on.
On the planning side, however, planning law does not distinguish between types of retail goods, so the regulation of vape sales, advertising and display rests primarily with the Minister for Health. There are retail planning guidelines. They do not allow regulation of shops by the products they sell; however, local authorities can address concentrations or impacts of particular retail uses to protect town centre vitality and visibility and ensure diverse retail offering, including litter, shopfront design and diversity of uses. There is room within those guidelines. I think we need to do more. I am talking to the Minister for housing about this. He has a lot on his plate in terms of the various planning statements his Department has to produce, but there is an issue here and many people are concerned about the proliferation of these shops.
Today is Groundhog Day because I am raising again the Government’s failure to properly engage on the future funding of the CCTV network in Limerick. This is about the fourth time I have raised this. The shortfall is €660,000. The mayoral forum met this morning again. I know that the Taoiseach was not there, that he sent his apologies and that a number of senior Ministers attended, but the Minister for justice did not send his apologies to the mayor. A submission was made by the mayor and the council to his Department. I am trying to be constructive. Will the Taoiseach at least ensure that the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, meets us as local Oireachtas Members, the príomh chomhairleoir and the mayor? We need to find a solution to this other than the mayoral fund. We need the Minister to sit down with us instead of continually ignoring our concerns. If we do not find a solution to this, we risk a return to a feud in Limerick.
I thank the Deputy for raising this. In fairness to the Minister for justice, he was here in the House from 10 a.m. to 12 noon to deal with the Private Members’ business, which I think people would expect in terms of accountability. The Minister for housing is more responsible for this. It comes under the aegis of the local authority in terms of CCTV, or maybe not. In early presentations, there was a reference to the local authority fund in terms of the CCTV provision in Limerick. As I said, I will talk to the Ministers involved.
These issues should be resolvable, given the increased public expenditure in all Departments and, indeed, towards local authorities.
I raise the matter of electricity supply in rural County Carlow, particularly in my home village of Kildavin. Some residents are getting increasingly frustrated by the constant interruptions to their supply. One resident recently told me that on one day in September, they lost their electricity 11 times. This is an issue affecting families, farmers, rural businesses and, in particular, people who are trying to work from home. I absolutely accept that the Government has made significant investment in improving critical infrastructure, grid infrastructure and the work of ESB Networks. When will families and households in rural areas of Ireland feel the benefit of that investment? Is there something the Government can do in the meantime, particularly given the increasing cost of electricity?
I met EirGrid recently with Government Ministers and our sense from the meeting was that resilience had improved overall this year and will continue to do so next year. I do not know whether there are issues specific to rural Carlow in terms of electricity outages, but I will communicate with ESB Networks and EirGrid about this to see what is going on in that location.
I raise the issue of Coláiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire as well as other school projects, not only in Cork North-Central but across the country. The Taoiseach is familiar with the project. He attended a number of years ago the launch of the proposal for a brand new school. Unfortunately, since then, the school has been stuck in the perennial 2A, 2B log-jam.
I recognise that capital spending on education has increased by about 70% since 2022 or 2023. I am not saying that significant investment has not gone in, but many projects like that of Coláiste an Phiarsaigh in Glanmire, where I live, are looking for confirmation of whether they will be part of any tranche of construction that will be launched next year. As we know, time is money. In the case of many of these capital projects, the longer we leave them on the long finger, the more likely it is that the cost will increase. It would be appreciated if the Taoiseach could bring some clarity to the situation.
I thank the Deputy for raising this. He has been raising it for quite some time and there is a degree of frustration on his part and that of the school patrons and community about progressing the school to the next stage. While he is correct in saying that additional funding has been allocated to education, inflation has eaten up a significant amount of this. The cost of school projects generally has increased, per project, by significant degrees. That said, I will keep a focus on this and will engage with the Minister for education on progressing the project as quickly as possible.
Last night, Donald Trump took a hammering and the reason is that he failed to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Ultimately, people punished the US Government when they could not pay their bills. I believe the same will happen here if the Government does not deal with the immense pressure people are under. Diesel, for example, is still over €2.10 per litre and almost 50% of that is taxation. The Government will still take in more this year than in any previous year in carbon tax and VAT. Electricity prices in this country are the highest in Europe, 40% above the EU average, yet the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has implemented further network charges in the last number of weeks. Will the Taoiseach address the major pressure so many families are under with housing, rent and energy? It is crippling so many families.
The cost of living is a major issue facing many families and that is why we took a lot of measures in the budget, including cutting taxes, bringing in a new cost-of-disability payment, reducing childcare costs at the commencement of the new childcare year next year and strong social protection increases. All of that, and specific measures for food production, haulage and farmers, were to try to ease and alleviate the undoubted costs of energy, which are caused outside the country by the wars in Ukraine and Iran. They have raised prices dramatically. We have had two crises in the last five years with the wars in Ukraine and Iran and the closure of, and restriction of traffic through, the Strait of Hormuz. Very few governments have been in the position we have been in, to try to alleviate the pressures on the public., but they are significant. The Government cannot deal with every cost increase across the economy. What we can do is try to protect as many people as we people as we possibly can.
Last Thursday evening, I received a phone call from a family of five, including two children aged 16 and 12, who had presented as homeless to Cork County Council in Annabella, Mallow. They were told no emergency accommodation was available. The Simon Community in Cork was also full when they made the call. That night, the family of five slept in a church in Ballincollig. On Friday, they returned to Cork County Council only to be referred back to IPAS. I have seen correspondence in which IPAS directed them back to the local authority, while Cork County Council said it needed clarification from the Department of justice. They were eventually given accommodation last night, so they spent five nights sleeping in the church in Ballincollig.
It is difficult to stand over a system in which a family is passed between State agencies while two children remain homeless. Will the Government review the legislation and ensure there is a clear, enforceable responsibility to provide emergency accommodation when families present as homeless?
I do not have the specific background. It is not acceptable that a family of five with two children would have to spend time in a church. I presume that if they had been moved on from an IPAS centre, it was because their residency had been confirmed or they have permission to remain in the State.
Yes.
There have been movements from IPAS centres, but they should be organised and structured better than what happened here. I take the Deputy's point. I will not say it is in any way satisfactory. It is not.
Will the Taoiseach allow people to decide on the Government's proposal to scrap the triple lock by calling an ordinary referendum on the Defence (Amendment) Bill? Why? Because it is a matter of national importance - the Taoiseach himself has said the triple lock is at the core of our neutrality - because people have voted on this in terms of the Nice and Lisbon treaties, and because Fianna Fáil in government promised people that if it were to ever change the triple lock, there would be a referendum. Brian Cowen, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, in 2002 stated:
The National Declaration [the civil declaration] confirms...that we will continue to take our sovereign decision...based on the triple lock guarantee of UN endorsement, Government decision and Dáil approval....there will be no change to that situation unless the people first give their assent in a referendum.
Will the Government hold to that commitment Fianna Fáil made and allow the people to decide?
Through the referendum on the Nice treaty, we inserted in the Constitution a prohibition on Ireland joining a mutual defence pact in the European Union, so we already have a provision in the Constitution prohibiting Ireland joining any mutual defence pact, which the Deputy never references. No one on that side of the House ever references it.
That is different from the triple lock
It is crucial because the Deputy says we want our young people to join a European army. They cannot. We could not do it. No government could because there is a constitutional prohibition on it.
The Deputy mentioned an ordinary referendum. We have never had an ordinary referendum. We only have referendums to amend the Constitution, that is, to delete something from the Constitution or to add something to it. The Deputy is endeavouring to create a new form of check or limit on the democratically elected representatives in the Parliament.
Fianna Fáil promised people
That concludes questions. I thank the Taoiseach.
We have a parliamentary democracy.
Fianna Fáil promised people.
Deputy, please, show courtesy.
Through the referendum on the Nice treaty, we inserted the strongest possible protection-----
Taoiseach, your time is up. We have finished.
-----against Ireland joining any mutual defence pact.
There will be no change "unless the people first give their assent in a referendum".
That is the end of Questions on Policy or Legislation. Taoiseach, please. Do not antagonise him.
No change. Fianna Fáil promised people.
Deputy Murphy, respect the direction of the Chair. Out of courtesy, I allowed the Deputy in even though we were over time. I might have to review that in the future.
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