Paul Murphy

The programme for Government promises an annual cost-of-disability support payment, suggesting that it will be incrementally increased. Instead of introducing that in the last budget, the Government introduced an incredible series of cruel cuts, totalling over €1,400 for disabled people. When is the Minister going to right this wrong? What level of payment is he going to introduce? When is he goin…

It says a lot about the priorities of the Government that it can have fast-tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants and developers whereas, although it has this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost-of-disability payment, the payment does not come in. Instead, the Government cuts disabled people's income substantially. We know and the Government acknowledges - it has commissioned the report i…

If the Minister wants to quote payments, we can quote payments. The Irish Wheelchair Association, Access for All Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland have done very good work in making people aware of the cruel cuts that the Government has introduced in the last budget. The disability support grant was €400 previously. It has been removed, meaning a loss of €400. The living alone allow…

13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will introduce an emergency winter payment for disabled people to compensate them for the cuts imposed on them in the Budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2795/26]

This follows on from a number of previous questions. I would say disabled people watching this at home are screaming at their television screens because they are being told by the Minister not to worry as a permanent payment is coming. What they are saying, and I quote Joan Carthy, is that people are suffering today and they cannot wait another day, never mind another four years. They desperately …

I find it bizarre that the Minister is saying he has responded. He has not responded. There is an ask that has come as a consequence of his budget decisions, which cut a bit over €114 from disabled people. While it is true that the Minister has given a little bit of this back through the small increases, he has left people worse off to the tune of more than €1,000 per annum. Their ask is that they…

There was an interesting opinion poll a few weeks ago that showed only 27% of Irish people had a positive view of AI compared with 48% who believed that it would be a force for bad in the coming years. Research by RED C found that Irish people have among the lowest levels of trust in AI in the world. That demonstrates some good sense. Why? I think it is because people smell a rat. This is being fo…

I feel that every couple of weeks for the last number of years, I have been getting up here giving out about ghost buses, buses that are put out of order or are packed and people cannot get on them, buses that are cancelled, people waiting forever and people not being able to rely on basic public transport services in this country. There is no recognition by the Government of the fundamental issue…

It is Government policy to slice and dice and privatise our routes in Dublin. By every metric of reliability, punctuality and penalties incurred, Go-Ahead is much worse than Dublin Bus. Why then is the Government persisting with privatising routes and giving them to Go-Ahead? Why are they not returned to Dublin Bus? Will the Government call a halt to the plans to privatise even more routes to Go-A…

I want to return to the issue of the €141 million paid by the public to the World Bank in advance of Paschal Donohoe taking up his new job. Yesterday the Taoiseach told me a formal business case was prepared by the Department of Finance and the low option was €141.4 million. I have read the business case. It lists a number of options. It lists option 3, which is the World Bank's envisaged level an…

We need to urgently debate the threat that Donald Trump and US imperialism pose to the entire world. The Taoiseach was at pains to downplay it earlier. We have seen nothing but a boot-licking craven response by the Irish establishment. At the start of this year, the US bombed Venezuela. It killed multiple Venezuelans as well as Cubans and kidnapped Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

The response to that from the Tánaiste was to say that the kidnapping was complex in terms of international law.

The UN Secretary General has been very clear that it is a breach. We need to discuss this and if the Government thinks it is okay for the US to go around kidnapping presidents it does not agree with.

What about the appeals?

10. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs will next meet. [1550/26]

Last weekend, the US ambassador attended a far-right conference in Meath. It was a who's who of the Irish far right - Malachy Steenson, Sharon Keogan, multi-billionaire businessman Declan Ganley, an array of transphobes and anti-choicers. The conference explicitly encouraged American interference by the American far-right in Irish politics. Presumably, the US ambassador was nodding along when the …

Israel.

26. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Government co-ordination will next meet. [1551/26]

Is the Taoiseach at all concerned that it appears the public paid a €10 million sweetener to the World Bank to ease the way for Paschal Donohoe to get his high paying €600,000-a-year top job there? Was the Taoiseach made aware at any stage in the discussions that the World Bank was asking for €131 million? The Department officials were advising not to give any more than that anyway yet Paschal Don…

We would tackle big tech, yes. Correct. We would want that.

103. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the action he will take to reduce energy demand and carbon emissions from data centres in view of our legal obligations to reduce both energy usage and carbon emissions; his views on whether the new CRU policy is compatible with those obligations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73592/25]

It seems we would be losing out on our country becoming a toxic waste ground. The new CRU large user policy enables further exponential expansion of data centres. It allows them to generate their own electricity using fossil fuels. The CRU is also allowing data centres to connect directly to the gas network in South Dublin County Council's area. How can the Government possibly say any of this is i…

Will the Minister of State expand on how it is possible to have a policy of exponential growth of data centres that are using fossil fuels? How does that coincide with what he says to the effect that this has to exist within the bounds of our climate targets. We are signed up to the EED, which has a legally binding target to reduce energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030. Ireland's target reduction is…

That is my question. The Minister of State is in the Department of the environment. He cannot just say something and then move on. It is completely illogical to say, on the one hand, that we are committed to this legally binding target of reducing energy consumption but, on the other, that we agree with a decision paper which states that our level of electricity usage will continue to grow and tha…

I did not say that.