Eoin Hayes

A public building has been vacant in my constituency for several years. I would like to know what the Government is doing to rehabilitate vacancy across public agencies, with value for money at the core of that. In October 2025, I asked Transport Infrastructure Ireland about a 125 sq. m vacant kiosk at the Ranelagh Luas stop in Dublin 6, to which it replied the long-term use was still being consid…

Is two years acceptable?

That is fine.

I would like to echo Deputy Murphy's call to reduce the time requirement for the wage subsidy scheme. The OECD published a report not too long ago saying that 10% of the working-age population had a disability and 25% of people with disabilities in 2019 were unemployed. It is the largest employability gap in the developed world and is higher than the United States or the United Kingdom. Dr. Mel Co…

That is what the OECD said.

To come back on those figures briefly, the Minister referred to just under 100,000 employers having signed up to the scheme and over 700,000 participants. This gives me a sense that the average number of employees per business that has signed up is about seven. I would like to get a sense of whether the Minister has an understanding of the spectrum of sizes of employers and the number of employees…

An average.

I have been speaking to a lot of disabled people over the past few weeks about their experiences and on this question of a cost-of-disability payment, permanent or otherwise. Some of the stories they told me were that they were using only one heating bar on their electric heater rather two because they could not afford the cost of electricity, that they were going in for central dialysis in a hosp…

It is profoundly wrong to chase a defenceless animal to exhaustion and have it ripped apart by dogs and call that a sport. It is a barbaric and cruel practice that has no place in a modern society. It is a throwback to empire. It is a loathsome practice. Those are not my words. They are the words of backbenchers from Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Those words ring true and matter. They shou…

Yesterday, the Taoiseach did not answer my party leader, Holly Cairns, on whether an emergency winter payment for people with disabilities would be provided. Instead, he said the Government wanted to embed permanent changes to payments, but it has not done that either. The Government has instead slashed the income of some of the most vulnerable people in this country by €1,400 before those permane…

So, he is ruling it out.

This will be real change.

It is often said that a dog is man's best friend. In Ireland, we are no different. Who of us do not remember the old stories of Cú Chulainn, who was named after the hound, or Fionn mac Cumhaill and Bran? There are nine Irish breeds of dog, the most famous being the wolfhound. We have a proud and long history in our mythology and society of a wonderful relationship with dogs. Unfortunately, we also…

I was genuinely shocked and appalled by the video that was circulated by the Department of housing yesterday. It was drafted by a charity, as we know, but it was released on the Department of housing's official communication channels. It actually beggars belief that some bright spark in the Department of housing came up with releasing that video. Is it now official Department policy that young peo…

Is that the official policy of the Government? The numbers have doubled in a decade and the Government still wants them to move in with their parents. Youth unemployment among the highest it has ever been, if you strip out Covid and the recession. What is the official policy of the Government for housing for young people?

It was released by the Department.

I really like numbers. I look at numbers all the time. There are approximately 750,000 people who are about to go on auto-enrolment in January, approximately 1.5 million recipients of social protection payments and zero offshore wind farms in this country that are operational. A magic number I just discovered is minus €250. The reason I really like numbers is that they often bring clarity. Politic…

Households.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 11, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: “(a) in section 10(2), by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (b): “(c) act with fiduciary responsibility to the participants in the scheme in the discharge of its functions.”,”. This amendment follows on from our discussion on Committee Stage regarding board composition and the responsib…

I am disappointed at that response. I understand the logic the Minister has put forward and I accept that the Department is doing all that it can. However, I have very real concerns that the Department and the Minister are not sufficiently prepared for this launch date. As much as they have done a promotional campaign, there are equally some unscrupulous actors equally promoting themselves to dive…

I thank the Minister. I genuinely welcome the clarity he will bring on the fees in the Cabinet memo next week. I also welcome the work he will be doing in regulating the allocation of funds for employees towards the right products. I would support him in bringing those regulations expeditiously, as reported in the media. I just do not agree that investment managers can be charged with the responsi…

Hear, hear.

The renewed calls for a border poll on reunification in recent months point to a definite direction of travel on the issue of a united Ireland and on that question moving from the realm of the idealistic to the practical. My party and I would welcome the opportunity to advocate for reunification and believe that a united Ireland achieved by truly informed communities North and South in a process d…

I will send the Taoiseach a copy if he likes.

74. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection when his Department will establish, and make publicly available, the administration fees and charges being imposed as a part of auto-enrolment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62261/25]