Naoise Ó Muirí

I wish to raise two issues in this debate, which I welcome. The first is planning certainty. If you talk to any home builder of a medium scale, 20 or more units, they will tell you planning uncertainty is a huge challenge when it comes to being able to build new homes. This includes the additional information processes in local authorities, adding uncertainty to their timelines, and unclear decisi…

What are the Minister's views on the recently published national climate change risk assessment as published by the EPA?

I read the EPA report. It is a little unexciting - that may be the way to put it. There are four really good priority risks identified well in the report. These include the risk of disruption and damage to energy transmission and distribution infrastructure due to extreme wind, which is exactly what happened during Storm Éowyn. There is a similar risk to communications, which is also what happene…

Just for my own information, how does it work in terms of capital funding? Does that come through the NDP? If the Minister of State does not have the answer now, perhaps he could come back to me later. I am interested in understanding how that funding channel works.

85. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for an update on the progress of a State data centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27731/25]

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I have a couple of comments. I welcome the fact that the project seems to have worked well. We hear a lot about public sector projects and about the ones that do not work well but this one seems to have come in on time and on budget. It is very positive that the data will be located in Ireland. It is very important that the State has control of its own data bec…

I thank the Minister of State. Decarbonisation is vital. Data centres are with us for the long term. Let us distribute them; they have economic value. It is a good way to distribute economic value to other regions in the country. Those regions may have better access to renewable energy than the Dublin region or Leinster. In the long term, the Government can take a lead on this. I know the Ministe…

As a first-time Deputy, I welcome the Bill. The supports it provides are very much necessary. The original residential institutions redress scheme was very transactional and survivors had a really hard time applying for redress. As Deputy Heneghan mentioned, the Artane industrial school was in our constituency. I am acutely aware of the trauma endured by those who attended the school, both while …

In this Chamber on Tuesday night, I asked the Minister for agriculture a question and he confirmed that farmers cannot put excess solar energy back onto the grid. These are the farmers who access the solar capital investment scheme. The Tánaiste or I can put panels on our roofs and we can feed excess energy back into the grid. Farmers cannot do that. It is fundamentally unfair. There are 130,000-p…

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for being in the House today. I am hugely proud of the education system in Ireland, partly due to the fact that there are a lot of educators in my extended family and there is a lot of experience with the educational system. I welcome that there seems to be a move in the education system away from a pure focus on class sizes towards investing in spec…

I echo the supports for BusConnects. It is a very important project for Dublin in particular. It cannot come soon enough. I wish to speak about the urgent need for security personnel on public transport services in north Dublin, in particular during evening hours. I thank my local colleague Councillor Supriya Singh, who has raised this matter at many local forums, including Dublin City Council's …

I thank the Minister of State for the update. I welcome in particular the public transport safety working group because all the important players are around the table with the aim of ensuring the safety of passengers. The NTA does its own public transport passenger security reports. I understand that it surveys users. Although the general day-to-day experience is very good, almost half of public t…

I understand the Minister of State, who has special responsibility for nature, heritage and biodiversity, has particular interests and b'fhéidir grá, even, for biodiversity. As Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy I really hope we can work together to ensure our habitats can be protected and the tools and mechanisms that delivered those protections for them can be s…

119. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if TAMS 3 is facilitating investment in farms to help make them more resilient in the face of severe storms such as Storm Éowyn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25109/25]

I wish the Aire the very best with his brief. It is an important and challenging one. The way that window was opened in responding to a storm was very welcome. Storm Éowyn showed how vulnerable rural communities in particular are in the face of extreme weather events. The Minister mentioned the grants to redo roofs. It would be a good time to look at the solar capital investment scheme, SCIS, whic…

I was reading about the scheme. There is just one little wrinkle, which is that there does not seem to be support for microgeneration. A farmer cannot put panels on the roof and put excess power back into the grid. It seems a little unfair, given that you can in a residence. If there are panels on the roof of a home, excess power can be put back into the grid. That feels like a missed opportunity.…

I will ask about e-scooter speeds. E-scooters are a welcome part of any mobility strategy but those who speed on them are a danger to themselves and everybody else, including pedestrians and cyclists on the road. There is a 20 km/h speed limit but it is difficult to enforce in reality. I understand it from An Garda Síochána that it is a statutory limit. Will the Taoiseach consider giving An Garda …

When it comes to driver testing wait times, the story in Dublin Bay North is no different from anywhere else. In February 2025, Raheny had a wait time of 33 weeks, up from 14 weeks in February 2024. The pass rate in Raheny is 55.1%. The number of tests done in Raheny in April 2025 was 468, which was down from 642 in April 2024. This is a reduction of almost 30%. There is a similar story in Killest…

125. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Health when the review of the model of care for eating disorders will be completed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24140/25]

I will bring the Minister of State back to the completion of the review of the model of care for eating disorders. Will she make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister of State for the update. As she said, it is a complex area. The disease has been misunderstood for years. It affects girls and young women, in particular, in difficult circumstances. We regularly get the opportunity to attend briefings. I attended the Cared Ireland briefing, which was really powerful. It included testimonies from people who have suffered from eating disorders …

That is probably the best setting. It is best to do it in a community or distributed setting. The capital plan will require funding for beds. Does the Minister of State envisage that happening in the short term or will that be a three- to five-year part of the capital plan?

95. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the way in which his Department will work with officials throughout government to ensure the tourism industry is supported across all regions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23102/25]

I ask the Minister the ways in which his Department will work with officials throughout Government ensure that the vital tourism industry is supported across all regions and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire. Ní raibh seans agam comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis as a phost nua sa Rialtas. I wish to raise a number of items, the first of which is the quality of tourism statistics. Good quality data is really important for tourism policy planning and for making progress in determining where Government resources should go in tourism. There has been an issue, as highlighted …