Mairéad Farrell

I also welcome the Greybridge Classic Club. I would only love to be part of its Christmas lights run. It sounds amazing. Property tax is going up for people and every household will be hit with a higher bill. Over the course of the weekend, I held a number of clinics - in the city, Clifden and other places in Connemara. At every single clinic, a pensioner came to say they were extremely worried a…

The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, knows and has spent time in the coastal communities I represent in Galway. We talk about Connemara and the four offshore islands in Galway West where the lifestyle is completely interwoven with the sea and fishing. It really is a way of life. Anyone who is familiar with fishing communities knows the importance of European fishing quotas and of states respectin…

The Government cannot stick to its promises.

There are institutional barriers that affect women leaving domestic violence that we can and should change. One of those is the fact that women on the council waiting list in one county who move back to their home county due to domestic violence have to reopen a new application in the new county. Therefore, they are not eligible for emergency accommodation, cannot get homeless accommodation, are n…

Could the Taoiseach look at that?

There was shock across the State when the news broke on budget day that there was going to be no tax breaks for workers. I was in disbelief. I had assumed that, given a €2.5 billion tax package, there would surely be something in the budget for ordinary workers, who we all know are at the pin of their collars trying to make ends meet. The fact they were not mentioned and not heard by this Governme…

People are really worried about their electricity bills. On Monday, the SSE Airtricity price hike is going to kick in. That is hundreds of thousands of households that are going to be hit with a big jump in their bill. That comes, obviously, after the hikes we have seen from three other companies since the budget was announced last week - a budget in which the Government made a terrible decision t…

To be honest, and I get this all the time, sometimes I think the Tánaiste forgets that he is the Tánaiste and has been in government since 2011. We now have a situation whereby people are struggling more and more. Why? It is a direct result of the policies and budgets the Government continues to implement. The Tánaiste said during the general election that the Government would do this, that and th…

Three years ago, I raised the story of a couple who had been scammed of €4,000 they had saved in their Revolut account for their wedding. They had huge issues at the time in trying to contact anyone beyond a bot about this scam. After raising this issue, I was flooded with people contacting me saying they too were hit by such scams and could not contact the company. Today, I was again contacted b…

Go raibh maith agat.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Today the Government has made it very clear that nothing will change for working people who are absolutely put to the pin of their collar trying to make ends meet. Rents will continue to rise. Childcare will still be unaffordable and unattainable for many and the income of working people will fall in real terms because the Government's tax package does nothing for ordinary workers. The Government …

Let us look at what the Ministers have presented here today. This €9.4 billion budget package is a rip-off. There is nothing in this budget for working people and families. It ends energy credit supports, increases income taxes in real terms and hikes student fees. At the same time, this budget has one of the biggest tax packages in history, giving away lavish tax cuts to the richest in our societ…

That is outrageous. How that can be done is unconscionable. The fact that the two Ministers delivered the policies of today and did not mention homelessness is beyond belief, but it is probably not beyond the belief of all those people who are in homelessness because that is what they expect. Homelessness is not an inevitability; it is the result of having a weak, broken housing system that fails …

There is no clarity in this budget about what the Government will actually do to improve mental health services, both for older and younger people.

Access to services should be based on need and not where people live or their ability to pay privately. That is not the case for so many, however. It is certainly not the case for the people who have an eating disorder and need inpatient care. We still only have three specialist public inpatient beds for adults, and they are largely based on where a person lives. Eating disorders have the highest…

As the Government well knows, its exclusive retrofit scheme is out of the reach of many, particularly people who are living in energy poverty and all those with homes that were seriously damaged during Storm Éowyn and that remain extremely cold as a result. The Government should replace the current scheme with a tiered and targeted vision that would allow people on middle and low incomes to retrof…

Households continue to subsidise data centres' electricity bills through the PSO levy. The burden is due to get bigger because the Government refuses to change its unfair approach. This budget is a missed opportunity to end our over-reliance on fossil fuels. Renewable sources such as offshore wind provide cheaper, more reliable and sustainable energy that will protect us in a volatile global marke…

Social enterprise policy is incredibly important. It is something that we all see in our constituencies. The crucial aspect here is it includes many people and communities that are often very much excluded. If we are serious about it, I ask the Minister of State to look at how we do procurement and how we use social clauses in the context of procurement. The biggest spender in the State is the Sta…

Sometimes we need to be really honest with ourselves. At this moment in time, we know one in five children is living in poverty, 300,000 households are in debt on their electricity bills and nearly 200,000 others are in debt on their gas bills. We need to look at that and make decisions that impact people's lives and help them. We are bringing forward this constructive motion to try to assist in t…

1. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation for an update on general budgetary expenditure measures. [39486/25]

Is dócha gurb é seo an uair dheireanach a bheimid ag suí roimh an samhradh. An cheist is mó atá i mbéal an phobail faoi láthair ná céard go díreach a bheidh ag tarlú leis an gcáinaisnéis. I ask the Minister for an update on general budgetary expenditure measures. There had been an expectation that the summer economic statement was due to be released this week, but it now looks like it will be next…

I thank the Minister for that initial overview. It will not surprise him that I raise this, but one of the big things is the capital spend on infrastructure. Storm Éowyn put into sharp focus the creaking infrastructure we have across the west of Ireland, in particular. That is obviously an area I would like to see huge progress in. I am aware the Minister knows the west of Ireland quite well. I kn…