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technicians who hold a contract with the HSE to operate the scheme. Services available annually and on demand include an examination, two fillings, emergency extractions, and a scale and polish. More complex care, such as dentures and a broader range of treatments for patients with additional needs … local HSE principal dental surgeon. To support contractors to provide care under the scheme, an additional €10 million was made available in budget 2022 to increase the preventative care available and, from May 2022, increase by 40% to 60% the fees paid to contractors for most treatment items

further to business representative groups either through the enterprise forum or the retail forum the Minister, Deputy Burke, and I chair. If it emerges as a key priority, then certainly we will feed it directly into those considerations and escalate it through the proper channels. I accept some … small businesses and enterprises may face with rising input costs. That is why we have stepped up substantive supports in recent times. In budget 2026, we delivered over €9.4 billion in a pro-enterprise package to try to support our SMEs and businesses over the next number

fund to continue to support the core funding allocation for Irish universities. I sat down with the IUA and we reviewed its pre-budget submission, which has a number of worthwhile asks within it. I am continuing to engage with the IUA on a very regular basis … very much aware of their asks. We have met their funding requirements for the last couple of years through a new framework emerging from, first, the Cassells report and then the Funding the Future study. That funding is now being committed on a multi-annual basis

Homeless accommodation in Galway city and county is full. This means that at least two councils cannot provide accommodation in cases of emergency. At the same time, if somebody is trying to get a HAP property in Galway city or county, it is nearly to impossible to find … that the house will be sold in the very near future. I understand that there was an issue with the council receiving its budget allocation for 2025 but I hope that this has been resolved at this stage. If the house is not purchased under this scheme

foster a sense of security, especially among the most vulnerable in our society; — that our communities rely on the Gardaí to respond to emergency calls, patrol our neighbourhoods, prevent, detect and investigate crimes; — that An Garda Síochána play an important role in the recently established Community Safety Partnerships … Garda Síochána has increased by almost 50 per cent since 2020, with investment of over €2.74 billion for 2026; — that through successive budget increases the Government has ensured that An Garda Síochána has the resources, leadership and technology to deliver on its mission; — that a major capital plan

Tánaiste's predecessor, Paschal Donohoe, said that there was no need for cost-of-living payments in the budget because “inflation has now returned to normal rates”. He said that inflation would be around 2% this year. That is clearly not the case. We have over 4% food … going to be a cold hard Christmas for many people. At this very late stage, I am asking the Tánaiste to bring forward emergency cost-of-living payments

well over a year since the Minister received that report, yet virtually nothing has been done outside of a budget allocation that has been trumpeted several times this week. People have continued to be locked out of access to civil legal aid through those years. The lack … conclusions of the report are clear. The committee heard of lengthy waiting times, serious staffing shortages, difficulties recruiting and retaining practitioners and the emergence of legal aid deserts, as they are known, where people struggle to access representation, as the Minister of State has heard from a number

data on the number of households eligible for but not yet in receipt of social housing in my constituency of Offaly. The Parliamentary Budget Office analysis was based on what it would have cost to house the number of households on the social housing waiting lists, plus … county council list was put at €338 million overall. That figure really sums up all of this. It sums up the acute emergency that we have because the cost is staggering. We have an immigration crisis that is overwhelming our accommodation capacity. I have tabled a number

treatments. UHL has one of the busiest emergency departments in Ireland. Presentations totalled 87,194 in 2024. Between January and June this year, emergency department attendances at UHL were 9% higher than in the same period last year. Despite this, the daily average of patients counted on trolleys … reforms across health services in the region. There has been ongoing investment in additional capacity at UHL in recent years. UHL’s annual budget spend has increased from €265 million in 2019 to €507 million in 2024. A package of wide-ranging reform measures is also being implemented

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

means of ensuring that it is perpetrators who are removed from their homes, and speedily. However, we also appreciate that in an emergency, victims need support to flee and to escape violence. Freedom from violence should not be a luxury. I thank the Taoiseach for his commitment … clarified but the support of Government, in principle, is vital. Can I ask that we might see funds allocated in this year's budget

level of evictions since the Famine and the highest level of homelessness on record - but that it is also incompetent. There are record budget surpluses, yet people cannot get around our capital city. They cannot access health services or housing, the most basic of infrastructure. Why is that … outsourcing. We see this most clearly in the area of housing. Over €1 billion per year is going to for-profit providers of emergency accommodation and private landlords through the housing assistance payment, HAP. That is €1 billion every year that gives nothing by way of a permanent

last October's budget of €9.4 billion, the Government made the very cruel decision to leave disabled people worse off by €1,400. Since then, life has become so much harder for everybody, but all the more so if one is a disabled person who has fallen further … further behind. Our Dáil motion yesterday called on the Government to do two things. First, to deliver an emergency €500 cost of disability payment now and, second, to introduce a new permanent cost of disability scheme. Instead of listening, the Government pushed back. It rejected our motion

must be conscious of the delicate position of the public finances, largely underpinned by volatile corporation tax returns, in the face of emerging economic threats. At the same time, successive years of economic and employment growth have created capacity constraints and cost pressures in the Irish economy that … delivery, healthcare, energy, water, innovation, public services and addressing climate change. There are increasingly difficult choices to be made. Now, during the first budget of this Government, it is essential we take steps in the right direction and make these decisions to address and mitigate economic and societal

important issue and for his constant advocacy on in respect of those who have mental health challenges, disorders and illnesses. As he knows, budget 2026 focused on the provision of a crisis resolution response, especially for those who attend acute hospitals out of hours. I was able … this, for our nine model 4 hospitals and one model 3 hospital, so there are ten hospitals in total where each emergency department out of hours will be provided with four clinical nurse specialists or advanced nurse practitioners who will be able to support the non-consultant hospital

Over the past five years alone, 1,300 projects have been progressed. These are new schools, large-scale projects, additional accommodation projects and emergency works projects. There have been 1,300 projects over the past five years. That is €6 billion that is being spent right across … team in the Department because we and they are a team that can deliver a significant amount of work within the budget we have. Obviously, the more money we have, the more schools we will be able to build. We now have a budget of €7.55 billion

joined disabled activists and disability groups in a protest outside the Dáil this morning. They were protesting over the fact that the recent budget has plunged them into poverty. One disabled person described how, for example, he has to sit down and consider whether … having to go to food banks to get sandwiches because he cannot afford food. They were pleading with this Government for an emergency winter payment to be provided to deal with this and for a cost-of-disability payment. Will the Minister respond

second highest on record. We have a fundamental problem in how the Department of Health and the Department of public expenditure and reform budget for the health services. We are continually hearing that recruitment is the problem and, in the Minister's view, that the service is overstaffed … demand in the health services. I have asked the Minister specific questions with regard to the gap between the forecast demand for emergency department, ED, attendances, rapid access cancer clinics and endoscopies in the tier 3 escalation areas and what has actually proved to be the case this

then Minister, Deputy McEntee, we significantly increased the maximum penalties for those who assault a member of An Garda Síochána, or indeed our emergency services more generally. I thank the Deputy for highlighting that and join with him in the condemnation of that. As he knows … allocation of Garda resources. Of course, the Minister for justice and the Government are responsible for making sure the gardaí have the resources, budget and policy they need to do their job effectively. I am informed that when allocating and transferring garda members to and from any division

with the same urgency as physical health. Someone experiencing a mental health crisis should not have to go to an overcrowded accident and emergency department. We need universal counselling in primary care, integrated child and youth mental health services up to the age of 25, specialist eating disorder … absolutely no point in promising a new service without a credible plan for the people needed to deliver it. That brings me to budget 2027. Every cent spent improving mental health services is welcome, whether its crisis intervention talk therapy, eating disorder treatment or suicide prevention, investment

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

theasa tí, tá siad tréigthe. Beidh Sinn Féin ag brú le haghaidh fíorghníomh anocht. These soaring fuel prices are a real emergency for households requiring real action, not the half measures the Government presents today. We will not watch on as the Government lets people down again. These … people they look after and people with disabilities, who, it should be remembered, were left €1,400 worse off in the Government's budget. We will therefore move an amendment to the Government's financial resolution to deliver the maximum excise cut possible for diesel and a similar

arguing that the EU incorrectly adopted the levy under Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, TFEU, as emergency measures rather than requiring unanimous agreement. The last time this was done, it was subject to legal challenge. The Government is working … There is an interconnectedness to this. We have provided significant financial assistance to families and businesses. We will be doing more in the budget to help people with the structural costs they face in their lives. We will continue to keep all matters under review

therefore, no cuts to the allocation. I understand what the Deputy is referring to, however, which is the conclusion of what was temporary emergency funding that was introduced following the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022. As I said, that was time-limited, temporary funding … funding has now concluded, and ESOL funding has reverted to its pre-2022 core funding, which is in line with the parameters for budget 2026. While I acknowledge that the ending of these temporary supports presents challenges for some ETBs, it is important to be clear that this

Taoiseach has said that a key issue for him in the budget will be child poverty. I agree with the focus, but his words ring very hollow because we have heard all this before. The previous Government made reducing child poverty a priority. What has happened since … doubled to more than 100,000 in 2024. That is not a blip. Nearly 5,000 children are now homeless and living in emergency accommodation. That so many children are being failed and left behind at a time when the State coffers are overflowing is utterly shameful