Paul Lawless

Rural Ireland is bearing the brunt of the country's energy policy and getting very little in return. In Mayo and right across the west of Ireland, planning applications for huge wind turbines are landing at massive rates. These structures are not small. Indeed, they are bigger than the Dublin Spire, Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty. Community consultation is simply inadequate. In some cases, it i…

We have a big problem with gun crime in this country. It is important that we work collectively with other countries to stop that. Crime is causing enormous stress for rural communities, in towns and villages right across the country. It is important that we have a serious conversation about what happens to people when they are released from prison. Over the past five years, more than 3,500 person…

23. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the most recent EU leaders' meeting. [45639/26]

43. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the revised national digital and AI strategy. [45640/26]

The EU migration pact was passed in the Dáil by just seven votes and within six months, 35 TDs had either retired or lost their seats. Ireland is not in Schengen. Ireland shares a common travel area with Britain and we are an island nation. We have every right to control and manage our own borders. Yet, in June 2024 the Government voted to surrender that control. It handed decision-making over to …

-----what this is going to cost in terms of fines.

It is handing over control to Europe of how they are being processed.

We had a protocol and we could have opted out.

Mayo is one of the most scenic and beautiful counties in this country. In recent years, we welcomed the US President and I understand next week Mayo is due to welcome the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. Tourism is the lifeblood of so many areas in Mayo, including west Mayo, east Mayo, north and south, in Cong, for example, Westport, Clare Island, the Barony of Erris, which is absolutely stun…

There are some positive elements in the Bill that I would very much like to vote for and then there are difficulties with it as well. It is very broad and diverse. It would have been much more positive if we had the opportunity to engage with the issues on an individual level and discuss them in detail. We support the proposal on counselling notes. People who have suffered, in particular from sex…

Let us be honest about the fuel support scheme. The Government sold farmers a pup. When the price of green diesel spiked by 80% and farmers were struggling, the Government offered them 2.4 cents off per litre. It was an insult. We warned the Government on the floor of the Dáil what was going to happen. Sure enough, what happened was a revolt. When farmers and contractors went to the trouble of pro…

Today in Ireland, a pensioner living alone or a family pays almost twice as much for a unit of electricity than a data centre. This is despite the fact many data centres are parts of the wealthiest corporations in the world. The demand from data centres is driving up the cost of electricity. In 2024, data centres consumed 22% of electricity in Ireland. That was more than every household in urban I…

If the Government is going to make Ireland the data centre capital of Europe, it better have a plan. A plan does not mean that ordinary households are subsidising data centres. That is currently what is happening. The report to which I refer estimates that the current trajectory in terms of data centres is 22%, and that this is on the rise and is driving up the cost of energy in this country. The …

I am talking about the energy crisis and families across Ireland.

Aontú will be supporting the motion brought forward by my colleagues in Independent Ireland. As someone from a rural constituency, I know the hardships and difficulties that a high cost of fuel imposes on rural constituencies. We need economic controls and supports that trigger automatically when price inflation and fuel inflation soars. We cannot continue the current system where small businesses…

How fitting it is that we are here today in the heatwave of summer 2026 discussing outdoor dining and socialising on this beautiful day and a beautiful week? Right across Ireland, people are enjoying a beverage outside in the sunshine. Good luck to them and God bless them. We had a long winter. I hope that every person enjoys the beautiful weather we are having. I supported this legislation last …

19. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on infrastructure will meet next. [39395/26]

There is a significant cost to having a disability. We all know that. We do not need any more reports, consultations or reviews. This is very clear. The cost involved is in the region of an additional €1,500 per year. The Indecon report of 2021 clearly outlined the cost of disability. That report was commissioned by the Government. In light of inflation, we know that the cost has risen significant…

Neutrality and our triple lock is a serious element of our defence and foreign policy. Indeed, Irish people widely support our neutrality and are proud of it. I want to clearly say to the Minister that if she and the Government want to remove the triple lock, put it to the people by means of a referendum. Promises may not mean much to many Government politicians and, indeed, promises mean very li…

The Government has a habit of signing up to laws and targets, making announcements and slapping itself on the back before walking away. It walks away without a plan, without any ring-fenced funding for the targets it has set out to achieve and really without any plan to deliver what is proposed. The EU Nature Restoration Law is a perfect example of this. We are now legally obliged to restore at le…

This week I spoke to a family from County Wicklow. The parents are Ciaran and Jessie Redmond. Their daughter was recently diagnosed with leukaemia. They are facing eviction. They were both self-employed, hard-working parents doing the best they can for their family. Unfortunately, Ciaran has been forced into taking some leave from his work to care for his daughter. They do not qualify for any supp…

We are now over a month since the fuel protests and not a single cent of the Government’s fuel subsidy has been paid out to farmers and contractors. This scheme was announced to great fanfare to quell the protests, but the application process only opened in recent days. Farmers and contractors still do not know how much they will qualify for because the scheme is capped. The window for application…

My question to the Taoiseach-----

Does the Taoiseach accept that the fuel subsidy package is totally inadequate for farmers and contractors?

The very clear methodology we outlined over the fuel protest was to scrap carbon tax because that would have provided an immediate relief to farmers and contractors who desperately needed it. Instead we are now a month on from the fuel protest at a time when the cost of fuel is still very high. Green diesel is still extraordinarily high in terms of last year's figures and there has been no relief …