Eoin Hayes

As this is my final time speaking, I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all of the staff in the Oireachtas, including the ushers in particular who take such good care of us and everybody who makes this place work so well, for all that they have done. I hope that they get a good and well-deserved break. It is possible, perhaps even hopeful, in my lifetime that we will see a united Ireland and the end o…

I congratulate the Spanish on their victory last night at the World Cup. I welcome the Taoiseach's report. In Spain the price per MW hour for electricity is €14 and in Ireland it is nearly ten times higher, at €130. Pedro Sánchez has been more vociferous in his criticism of inaction against Israel than this Government has been. He passed an occupied territories Bill before Ireland did so, includi…

Certainly not.

The Government closed down Dublin Castle and the surrounding area in my constituency for the EU Presidency security arrangements for six months. Shockingly, it gave no official communication to any of the businesses affected in advance. One business, the Silk Road Café, has had to take legal action that is currently with the courts. Another, the Bottega Toffoli restaurant, has seen turnover reduce…

I welcome this opportunity to make statements on dementia and the programme for Government commitment on this issue. On behalf of the Social Democrats, I also welcome Cian and Jordan Adams and all those in the Gallery today, who care so much about this issue. Cian and Jordan inspired the whole country with their marathon running. It was a huge achievement. In particular what has stayed with me fro…

By far the hardest conversations I have with constituents are the ones struggling with disability services for their children. I knock on the door and it opens, sometimes with their dependent adult child with an intellectual disability by their side. You can see the difficulty etched into the faces of those who care so deeply for those vulnerable family relatives and their despair with the State t…

We are talking about this year, not last year.

This Bill is an admission of failure. It is an admission of failure on energy policy and energy security. It is an admission of failure of several Governments' inability to plan properly for energy in Ireland. I had to stop myself for a second and think that, yes, it is 2026 - that is what is written on the Bill - but we have climate goals to 2030 and we have to get to net zero by 2050. Does the …

4. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline the plans his Department has to reverse the trend of increasing levels of poverty amongst older people living alone; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46289/26]

My question is about older people living alone. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, about 30%, or one in three, are at risk of poverty. It seems quite incredible that in a country with a €9 billion surplus in cash and one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world that we would have such a level of people living alone and pensioners in poverty. I would like to hear what the Minister …

The Minister said that the State pension is aimed at making sure older people do not experience poverty but, according to the CSO, one in ten is experiencing consistent poverty. That is a doubling since the year before in 2024. Notably, this is particularly acute in rural areas and in the Minister's constituency of Mayo and Belmullet. Some 27% of households are reliant on the State pension exclusi…

I would strongly welcome the Minister doing that in the forthcoming budget. To come back to the fuel allowance in particular, many older people are struggling to heat their homes. They are often staying in bed rather than getting up because they cannot afford the gas or the home heating oil. I want to focus on the question of targeted energy credits. This is something that has been talked about i…

A Cheann Comhairle, you might join me in welcoming Abraham Phelan and Rikke Sorensen from the Silk Road Café, who are here in the Gallery. This past weekend, the Silk Road Café, a private operator in the Chester Beatty Library on the Dublin Castle campus, was forced to close as a result of upcoming EU Presidency events there. Over the last number of weeks, several of us in this Chamber have raised…

It definitely was in the next month. He has a lease until-----

When the Government announced the AI strategy in February, there was a very long press release, but it did not mention the word “jobs”. I want to raise a specific case in my constituency. Covalen made 720 workers redundant, and it blamed 540 of those lay-offs on AI. The company works for Meta. A total of 540 workers were under the two-year mark for statutory severance payments and they also have a…

The Minister drives from Mullingar most weeks when he comes to Dublin 2, which is in my constituency. He might have noticed the state of the roads in Dublin city. They are in a huge state of disrepair. It is problematic for many residents. The Minister must imagine my surprise when I received an email this week stating that the area engineer for this area does not have any budget remaining for the…

On the eve of the World Cup, it is worth remembering the immense potential for good that sport, and particular football, can have in the world. Much of what we will see in the coming weeks will be the global community coming together to cheer on their teams in the spirit of friendly competition and comradery. While the power of sport can be used for good, the same power can be usurped and used to …

A short drive from here is the Poolbeg area. The Irish Glass Bottle site is expected to have about 10,000 residents at peak when it is completed but there is a major traffic congestion problem. If the Taoiseach tried to go there this afternoon, he would experience it. We are waiting on the Poolbeg Luas. There was a report saying it could be delivered by 2030 and I want to understand why it will no…

That would be an update. It is not in the national development plan, NDP.

The moniker for the Fianna Fáil Party is the Republican Party. What is the Taoiseach's plan to end partition? There is a huge set of tricky issues here. How do we integrate a health service? How do we think about housing? Property prices are about a half or third in Northern Ireland. How do we think about public transport? How do we think about constitutional changes? It does not seem like there i…

I start by thanking Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. It is very important and I am very glad that it did. Here we go again. We are back here again, several months after I introduced a motion calling for an emergency winter payment for people with disabilities. I am a new TD. I like to listen to what is happening around here. One of the first debates I saw was a three-hour debate on dis…

Over the past number of weeks, Meta and Covalen have announced redundancies totalling over 1,000 job losses here in Dublin. This comes on the back of a severe stalling in graduate hiring in Ireland, leaving many young people without an economic future, as if it was not hard enough under this Government. I have been speaking with many young tech workers in my constituency who are deeply afraid that…

Mere words, Minister.

I am proud today to support my party leader, Deputy Holly Cairns, in this Bill to implement much-needed changes to legislation governing terminations of pregnancies. There is a worthwhile history lesson we should remember in this debate. The people of this Republic made their decision on access to abortion care in 2018 by an overwhelming majority in the affirmative. Many opposed to this Bill will …

This morning, the Taoiseach opened a cost-of-disability summit. Immediately prior to him doing so, the Minister for Social Protection was on “Morning Ireland” and refused to commit to a cost-of-disability payment in the forthcoming budget. Over the past month, the Government refused to introduce targeted energy credits that would benefit people with disabilities. Earlier this year, it refused to s…