Micheál Martin

We want it out of An Bord Pleanála as quickly as we can but, given the experience of the High Court the last time, I presume those concerned do not want to end up there again. We have the commission, An Coimisiún Pleanála, which will over time be given mandatory timelines to deliver on planning positions. It is a very serious issue. One wonders why we have had serial objections to wastewater trea…

I actually won it but at great cost subsequently, I can say. In response to Deputy Coppinger, as I indicated earlier there actually is a European directive.

The Irish Aviation Authority has responsibilities here.

The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will publish a policy framework in the summer in respect of drones. I do think there are issues. There is a balance in respect of the growth of technology and Enterprise Ireland supports up-and-coming technology companies. Drones will be used everywhere in different contexts.

I do not agree with it for fast food. I was going to come to that. The Deputy is implying a criticism of Enterprise Ireland for supporting a technology company.

I do not criticise Enterprise Ireland for supporting a technology company or a drone company. There are applications of drones that would be particularly legitimate. Why someone has to get a drone for a cup of coffee is beyond me. You need to walk around to the local shop and get your coffee, or make the cup of coffee, or green tea or whatever your poison is. I have to agree with the Deputy there.…

I apologise. To Deputy Ó Cearúil, I absolutely agree on the need for social infrastructure to be considered alongside expansion, schools, creches and other social infrastructure. I agree with Deputy Heneghan on the detention ponds and all that. There are mechanisms that are low cost that can be used and should be deployed. On Dublin Bay more generally, we want to clean up our waterways and estuar…

I was intrigued by the Deputy's commentary that he has very good local contacts with Uisce Éireann and that occasionally he has very good engagement with the corporate level but suddenly it seems to have fallen into a lull at the moment.

You want us to step in and resuscitate----

----oil the wheels of your engagement process with Uisce Éireann. I will take an opportunity to refer them to your comments.

I will remember that.

I join with the Ceann Comhairle in welcoming our special guests from County Tipperary, our Little Blue Heroes, who have come to watch proceedings here in the Dáil. They had a busy morning. They had a Garda escort and were greeted by the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Michael Murphy. I was delighted to attend the Little Blue …

We will deal with this issue in the budget, but consumer price inflation, as measured by the European Union harmonised index of consumer prices, HICP index, has eased significantly over the past two years, with the annual inflation rate in May 2025 standing at 1.4% compared with 2% in May of last year. That is below the 2% target rate of inflation set by the ECB. In April, Ireland had the sixth lo…

Additionally, with inflation expected to grow by 2% this year, nominal wage growth-----

-----is set to reach 5.5%. That will result in real wage growth of between 3% and 3.5% this year. When inflation was high, we did not have that to offset it. We now have it at significant levels. That is an effective way of dealing with this issue, in addition to the measures we will take in the budget to deal with that.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I take issue with the term "released" from school. Children these days enjoy school and have very good experiences in our schools but they are going out to enjoy the summer holidays. Through many other avenues of government, we will endeavour to give supports to children throughout the summer holidays. More specifically, the issue of homele…

Over the last five years since Fianna Fáil came back into government we have built close to 48,000 social houses - delivered. That is the most in 40 years. You would have to go back to the 1970s to get that level of social housing construction, but we need more because the population has increased. That is a factor in this. The composition of those presenting for homelessness and emergency accommo…

-----and through the approved housing bodies and those involved in the homelessness area to address this issue.

The question is?

Am I going to-----

First of all, I say to the Deputy that he has a tremendous habit of asserting what I said earlier, which of course I did not say at all.

I did not rattle off any figures when I was answering Deputy McDonald.

I did not. What I said was, I outlined what TASC, the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, said in its publication today. That is not rattling off figures. It basically said that the short-term, once-off cost-of-living packages that we introduced had a very significant impact in helping people to deal with what has been the worst inflationary spiral since the 1970s, which we had after Covid and…

-----but they still did not go to meet the enormity of the increases people experienced at the time. Do not say I just rattled off figures. I did not.

I then went on to say that we had extended the VAT reduction to 9%, which we did. That is not rattling off figures. That is a fact, which has had some impact. I mentioned free-of-charge HRT coming in on 1 June.