In the last question the Minister mentioned the retrofitting and heat pump targets but the target to retrofit 500,000 homes to B2 standard and install 400,000 heat pumps by 2030 seems to be far behind. The Government has delivered just 12% and 3% of those targets. The Government has often said that investment and delivery will rapidly increase year on year, but the budget for 2026 tells a different story. The Minister said it was a record increase but it has the same capital allocation for retrofitting as the Revis…

I am not sure the priority has been proven to be those who are most in need. It is not just me questioning the Minister of State’s statement that significant progress has been made. Social Justice Ireland has said the retrofitting scheme constitutes little more than a wealth transfer. The programme for Government made a number of promises to focus on lower income homes to have retrofits each year from 2026 to 2030 but since then there have been zero changes to how the grant scheme is administered and zero effort to…

I accept there is a need to simplify the process because it seems to me there was a lack of planning in that some news reports said householders were told to roll back or change their retrofitting efforts on the basis that they were in breach of planning permission. Only 355 loans have been approved over the last year. If the average loan is about €48,000 that is only €17 million which is far from the game-changing results we were promised. Again, the high concentration of loans going towards the east coast has led…

The amount that can be raised through network charges to fund grid upgrades and the renewable heat obligation will come up soon. The Minister mentioned he has spoken to energy suppliers, but has he spoken to them as well as the regulator on the pressures these will put on household energy bills? While we accept that investment in the grid and transition to renewable heat are essential, what safeguards will be put in place to shield householders from increases?

Most people will know, and the people in the Gallery will know, that the need for the grid upgrades is driven in part by the growing energy demands of data centres, whose usage has increased by 400% since 2015. Therefore, all the extra energy we are creating in renewables is being gobbled up by the data centres. The Government's own officials last November, in a memo issued by the Department of public expenditure, pointed out that the upward pressure on energy bills is due mainly to data centre expansion. That foll…

I think we all agree that the equity investment we were discussing last night is necessary. Unfortunately, however, there does not seem to be anything there to safeguard against repeating past mistakes to ensure that the investment is directed towards the social good and to prioritising energy affordability. One company, Energia, justified its recent price hikes based on the network charge increases. On its website it says that it has worked to minimise the impact on customers but that the price changes are unavoid…

I am standing in for Deputy Carthy. I ask the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment his proposals to increase the amount of polyethylene terephthalate, PET, plastic recycled in Ireland. The EU is discussing collating data. We have to export a huge proportion of it. Since the deposit return scheme was introduced, the recycling rate has risen from 49% to 91%, 76% of which is from the deposit return scheme and 15% of which is from mixed recycling. Some €4.6 million was spent on public awareness last year an…

What measures are being taken to ensure a greater proportion of the plastic is recycled? When will they be put in place? Schemes like the deposit return scheme can only be successful with public support. Of course it is, in effect, based on taxpayers' money via the rebate. With the most households already stretched, every additional cent has to be justified. We need transparency. I know that Re-Turn produced its annual report in August. It failed to disclose the CEO salary, but what we did learn raises questions ab…

I thank the Minister of State for that part of the reply, but the question about what happens to the Re-Turn money and the money made from the scheme requires a bit more clarity. The unredeemed deposits are worth over €100 million. Income generated from producer fees and recycled material is €50 million and although the report mentions unreturned deposits of €66 million, it was actually €103.2 million, so Re-Turn deducted €36 million as an estimate of how much deposits would be returned after the year end. These ar…

Unfortunately, we have turned a corner in this State. During the past week, we have had convictions for racially motivated murders and the lives of babies put in danger in Drogheda, where there was no way out of a burning building except down a stairs. Some of the online commentary in response to the attack in Drogheda were: "the person who did it must be staying there", "it was an inside job", "they did it themselves", "immigrants looking for better accommodation", "scum will get a nicer hotel now" and "there are …

I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “(2) To insert new subsections after subsection (4): “(4A) The Board shall borrow to invest in projects on the basis of a prioritisation framework which encompasses— (a) congestion softeners in areas of high congestion, (b) security encompassing hospitals, Garda stations, water safety and wastewater treatment, (c) basic needs encompassing residential constuction, (d) exceptional cases of public interest, and will exclude grid infra…

I will come back in regarding a number of matters. One relates to what the Minister said about PR 6. While I appreciate that what was published during the summer is a draft decision, that is all we have to go on at the moment. We do not fully know what will be there but under the CRU's draft decision, households and SMEs will see their electricity network charges increase, while large energy users, such as data centres, will see reductions of up to 18%. It also stated that the grid upgrades are being driven in part…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, lines 32 to 36, to delete all words from and including “and” in line 32 down to and including line 36 and substitute the following: “ “(c) up to such amount as will enable such employees or trustees to maintain the same percentage of capital stock they held of the total capital stock issued by the Board that they held immediately before the relevant stock was issued, and (d) the approved scheme shall be subject to independent audit and the findings shall be published within 3 mont…

I did not get a chance earlier to pay tribute to and congratulate Catherine Connolly. I also pay tribute to Sr. Stan who was a Listowel woman and a Kerry woman. In a week when we saw the outrageous attack on the house in Drogheda and convictions for racially motivated murders, I would love to know what she would have thought about the way the country is going. I pay tribute to her for all of her work with immigrants and the homeless over the years. Due to decades of underinvestment, bad planning and mismanagement b…

Sinn Féin has long called for this debate and I am glad to finally have the chance to stand up for coastal and fishing communities. I thank our fisheries spokesman, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, for pushing for this debate.

These fishing communities have played a critical role in our economy and culture for generations but are now facing an existential threat following proposed cuts to our fishing quota and the Common Fisheries Policy. Just as we must protect marine life and biodiversity, we must also prioritise the communities that have lived alongside them for generations. Science and sustainability are not incompatible with thriving coastal communities; both can exist harmoniously. However, due to decades of EU inaction and diploma…

Despite 100 years of partition, the ties that bind us together remain strong. Many of us have family ties across the Border, such as my family ties in Enniskillen, Belleek and Derry. Those cousins are just as Irish as I am. Some 20,000 to 30,000 people cross the Border every day to work. When my club, Na Gaeil, plays in the latter stages of the all-Ireland club championship, we have to deal with the challenges of teams from both sides of the Border in Ulster. Politically, we also have to combat the lines that the I…

The education of children with special needs is one of the most frustrating and distressing situations for parents in County Kerry. They look on and see potential and achievable progress denied. As one mother said to me, the early years system is broken and the lack of appropriate services will have lifelong impacts on her son. Everywhere we turn we see that services have huge waiting lists, a shortage of staff and a lack of resources. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Healy-Rae brothers are continuing to stand over a…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I appreciate that he is only standing in for his ministerial colleague. He said there has been significant investment but we are just not seeing that locally in Kerry, which has one of the lowest numbers of early intervention classes in the State. An early intervention class includes a qualified primary school teacher and SNAs teaching the children. As one mother said to me, this setting of targeted and specific expertise can be life-changing for children. This is why th…

Ba mhaith liom ceist a chur mar gheall ar aonad oinceolaíochta san ospidéal i dTrá Lí. The continued failure to provide and deliver a stand-alone oncology and haematology unit at University Hospital Kerry is totally unacceptable. Patients and families in County Kerry deserve the highest standards of care. The minimum they should get is oncology services that are at least the equivalent of those in other counties, with chemotherapy, immunotherapy and compacting. I was informed in response to a parliamentary question…