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with dignity, autonomy and security. Urgent action needs to be taken to provide respite as residential care. An emergency funded plan is needed in the forthcoming budget for adults with intellectual disability living with parents … aged 70 years or over. These parents cannot wait for systemic change. They need action now. Will the Minister include emergency funding in the budget he is due to introduce in two weeks' time

originally planned may not be prudent. Again, the judgment should be made in the round, through the budget. Turning to the Bill itself, Sinn Féin promises an emergency period during which the mineral oil tax on kerosene used for home heating would be set to zero. The Minister … rising strongly. This is the contradiction at the heart of Sinn Féin's position; it consistently opposes the carbon tax but its alternative budgets have repeatedly relied on the revenue it generates. It cannot credibly promise to abolish the source of funding while continuing to count the same

blunt and honest, that was far from the form of the last budget. It is in the power of this Government to cut the cost of home heating oil by accepting the emergency legislation put before it by an Teachta Doherty. This gives the Government a direct line

substitute the following: "Dáil Éireann declines to give the Home Heating Oil (Emergency Mineral Oil Tax Reduction) Bill 2026 a second reading on the grounds that related matters are being considered as part of Budget 2027 on 6th October 2026"." Ireland has a strong economy

Carbon tax detractors often claim that it is a regressive form of taxation, but I do not believe that. In last year’s budget, over €1 billion raised through the carbon tax was allocated to alleviating fuel poverty and reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, thus protecting those … unfortunate reality for some Deputies in this House is that climate change is real and it is accelerating. We have just emerged from a summer of extreme weather events both at home and abroad. We need immediate, targeted protection for households under pressure but we also need sustained

bills; — Budget 2025 provided a €250 energy credit to households, paid between November 2024 and February 2025, but this was not renewed in Budget 2026; — up to the end of the 1990s, the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) was a world class energy company, delivering low-cost energy, governed … affordable electricity for all and be central to the achievement of a fossil fuel-free economy and society; — People Before Profit-Solidarity’s Emergency Price Controls Bill 2024, introduced in the Dáil at First Stage in May 2024, calls for electricity prices to be capped for households

racing every day just to keep up. People have to be able to heat their homes and that means cutting prices. The emergency legislation we are debating this evening would remove all excise duty on home heating oil, removing the carbon tax entirely. This is the eighth time … Government has voted against them; six times against these very measures. The Government now indicates it may move on this in the budget. That U-turn is the direct result of sustained political pressure from Sinn Féin and others and growing public anger. However, we know what

time, petrol and diesel prices are rising. Energy companies are hiking their bills and groceries are getting dearer day by day, stretching household budgets. A fill of home heating oil is now approximately €700 more expensive than it was at the start of the year. The cost … every TD should support this legislation and give relief to families and workers out there. It is a straightforward piece of emergency legislation. It is a measure that removes all excise duty and all carbon tax from home heating oil and provides immediate relief to people who desperately

horrible to see people who are sick endure financial hardship. It is right that we have mechanisms such as the medical card, discretionary emergency medical card and GP visitor card. However, a callous oversight by the Government has been a failure to increase related income thresholds for those … since 2006, eligibility limits for medical cards have not increased. I ask that the Taoiseach consider this in next week’s budget

commission placements within the region where possible while working with service providers and on housing solutions to reduce the reliance on emergency and out-of-area arrangements. HSE confirms that significant progress is being made in County Meath to expand capacity and meet growing demand for planned residential … term growth and is currently collaborating with service providers and HSE national disability services to plan for further planned residential placements in 2027. Budget 2026 provided approximately €3.9 billion to specialist disability services with specialist disability residential services making up the largest part of the disability funding disbursed

highly trained healthcare professionals and they should be allowed to operate at the top of their licence. Community pharmacists have been providing emergency contraception prescription-free since 2011 and real consideration should be given to extending this to oral contraception. This would make the process faster and easier … that one as well. Also on the topic of contraceptives, there is a need to expand the free contraception scheme in the upcoming budget. The scheme is currently available to women aged 17 to 35 but we know from the National Women's Council and others that

just in Ireland but across the European Union and large parts of the world. In an Irish context, we will have our budget next Tuesday, when we will endeavour to assist people with those bills, particularly through the winter period. The Government is conscious of the increased financial … highly interconnected nature of EU energy markets - when we acted, we did so at an EU level - and a view that an emergency intervention to mitigate the effects of high energy prices at the time could not be sufficiently achieved by member states individually. It continues

relying on GPs but because GPs are not accessible and because people cannot get a timely appointment, they end up going to the emergency department. I say that in the context that we need to better resource and support our pharmacies, particularly in disadvantaged communities. The deprivation grant … that this is a really important service for women. We need the Minister, as a woman, to champion this within the health budget. We look forward hopefully to some progress on that. There are two final issues I want to raise. The first concerns the reports this week

consider funding increased access to ICS-formoterol combination inhalers prescribed as maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) in Budget 2027, given the potential for improved asthma control to reduce exacerbations, emergency healthcare utilisation and associated healthcare-related carbon emissions. [66486/26

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the €15.4 million EU emergency fertiliser package will be made available to farmers; if he will confirm whether additional Government funding will be provided under Budget 2027 to supplement this allocation; and the proposed eligibility criteria and minimum payment thresholds