While we may differ politically, I will miss him at some of the same gigs we managed to attend. While we differ politically, we also differ in terms of our football teams as well but we can move beyond that. In Deputy Donohoe’s engagement with me and my party over the years, he has shown nothing but respect, integrity and honour and I thank him for that. I wish him, Justine and the family every success in his next chapter. The changing of a Minister for Finance is no small thing. When the figure at the top of the D…

My colleague and Labour MEP for Dublin, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, has led the charge - as has rightly been said - on this issue in Ireland for a number of years now and he is continuing to lead the way in Europe. The most obvious example to follow in a European context is that of Portugal. One thing is crystal clear from the Portuguese example, that is, moving to a health-based approach and away from punishment, reduces serious harms from drug use. Portugal has more than 20 years’ experience under its belt and in the firs…

We have been reading a lot of significant information in the media in recent days and weeks about plans the Minister appears to have to improve the delivery of infrastructure and capital development in the context of the revised national development plan, NDP. Will he elaborate precisely on what those plans are and how he plans to implement them?

This is all well and good and we have been reading a lot about this since the revised national development plan was published. We will see updates on specific projects shortly. Will there be timelines for those projects? Looking beyond the abstract, what will it mean for people? For example, will the package of proposals that the Minister wants implemented shorten the timeframe for the delivery of the MetroLink or the northern line DART project to Drogheda? How many new homes will it deliver? At the moment this is …

Would the Government take any responsibility for what the Minister described as the unnecessary processes that have developed over time? We hear a lot of analysis of this and finally the Government appears to be cottoning on to the fact we have a real problem with delivery. We have been saying it in opposition for years - I try to be constructive and put forward alternative proposals for delivery of infrastructure - but it is only when someone like John Collison writes an article for a national newspaper that senio…

The Tánaiste said nothing about Drogheda.

He was on Instagram all weekend and said nothing about Drogheda. He did not condemn it.

The man with no thought that goes untweeted said nothing. It is my hometown.

It is true though.

I am pleased to speak on the Finance Bill. It gives effect to many of the announcements made in the budget two short weeks ago. If we needed any convincing that budget 2025 was all about the pending election, budget 2026, a bare budget for working people, and the associated Finance Bill prove the point beyond any doubt. This time last year, billions in once-off payments were thrown around in a transparent attempt to buy votes with our own money. There is little sign of support for struggling citizens today. The ele…

A bit like the help-to-buy for the property developers.

It is getting worse.

They support the viability gap.

It is a failure in the housing stock .

It is shameful.

It was published this morning. The Taoiseach can challenge it himself.

I will be sharing time with my colleague Deputy Sherlock. The story of Ireland over the past decade has been a story of missed opportunities. There was a catastrophic failure to build the homes we need when we could and should have done. The Government is so crippled by caution and conservatism that we are only now, a decade into a unprecedented spell of uninterrupted growth, facing up to the chronic infrastructure deficits in transport, health, education and energy that put our economic model and our society at ri…

It will not help. It will make things worse. It is an insult. It is quite frankly offensive.

People I represent are handing back groceries at the till when they get there because they do not have the money to pay for them all. Where is the dignity in that? They are afraid to put on the radio in case they are told about another expected hike next month in their electricity or gas bills. It is frankly hard to accept the claim that the Government is all about targeting when the social protection package - the thing we use to target the most vulnerable - is so wide of the mark. Here are some of the one-hit won…

I remember when Fianna Fáil used to care about the social protection system. Can someone do a welfare check on Willie O’Dea? Where is he? He must be mortified, absolutely embarrassed. When the Society of St. Vincent de Paul said €16 were needed to be added to every core weekly payment, we agreed. We made allowance for that in our costed alternative budget. As for Fine Gael, we had the usual pre-budget whining, pitting one section of welfare recipient against another, all for the headlines - nasty, unbecoming, divis…