I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle's office for the opportunity to raise this issue at short notice. Most Deputies have received correspondence from the Before We Die campaign. There is a notable lack of planning for the situation of adults requiring residential care as their parents approach their later years. There is huge stress, anxiety and worry for those parents as to what will happen to their children. There seems to be a huge lack of planning. We have moved away from decongregated settings but it seems th…

I thank the Minister of State for that reply. He clearly has a fair idea as to the extra challenges there are in a county like Kerry. It is not realistic to go from the very north of the county to mid-Kerry, which is at least an hour each way and would be very tiring for adults and children. Speaking to people working within the services, there are 80 plus school leavers in Kerry who will require these services. I note the Minister of State said at the start of the response that systems should be put in place by th…

The United Nations is citing Ireland as a cautionary example of what happens when Government policy fails to keep pace with the explosive energy demand from data centres and AI. We are not leaders or an example for the rest of the world but a warning. This did not happen overnight. It is a result of political choices, the lack of a framework and the lack of a plan. What is the Minister's grip on this? Does he have any plans to deal with the mounting criticisms of our approach to data centres?

I agree that data centres are necessary in this country but it is a question of planning appropriately for what is there. The European Commission has already set out a clear pathway for a grid prioritisation framework, putting the public need, system readiness and climate obligations at the centre of decision-making. Here in Ireland we have an open season policy of first come, first served regardless of who benefits. Who is inevitably benefiting? It is the larger corporate and AI users of data centres. This is why …

I thank the Minister for the reply but one of the consequences is in relation to our energy security. This is not a theoretical difficulty any more. When the system is pushed to its limits the risk is not that abstract. What we have, and we have seen this already, are blackouts, supply disruption and emergency measures. This is what happens when a grid is under strain. EirGrid has been warning about it for years. The Secretary General warned of the dangers of the approach and said that we need to choose between hou…

The Minister knows we have the highest electricity bills in Europe. Families are struggling with increased costs year-on-year. The Government is continuing to preside over a system where costs are driven up by poor planning, over-reliance on imported gas and an energy model that prioritises the large corporate demand, particularly from data centres, over ordinary customers. Can the Minister explain why we are paying so much, what the Government has done that allows infrastructure and policy failures to push up the …

The Minister said, and we all agree, that energy bills are too high, whether we have the highest, the second highest or the fourth highest costs. We all know that energy companies are, of course, going to raise their bills year-on-year. They have an obligation to shareholders, and they want to make a profit not only this year but an increased profit next year and the year afterwards. The question is: when is the Minister is going to step in and tell them that enough is enough? I ask this because there is a lack of …

Some progress is being made in offshore renewables but there is no State investment in it and we are way behind with it. Even one of the Government’s own Ministers said it had been sitting on its hands and navel-gazing about offshore wind for many years.

The energy credits were supposed to be just a temporary measure while the structural failures were being sorted out. It is not just Sinn Féin or other Opposition parties saying this. The International Energy Agency, IEA, has queried and called into question the huge gap between the retail price and the wholesale energy costs here. Even the Taoiseach himself has admitted that price gouging is going on. We have the biggest gap in the world and it costs three times more to buy energy here than it does to produce it. T…

Recent reports have stated Government measures will not be sufficient to reduce emissions in order to meet our national and EU climate targets and obligations. What measures is the Minister taking to address this?

We accept, and the Minister accepts, that the small amount of money allocated for the new EV scheme, which is commencing on 1 July, is not going to address the issue. The way things are going, those funds will probably have been used up by the end of that month. Even though some money has been ring-fenced for rural areas, the scheme is not going to address the glaring need there. The EPA has made it clear that even if the current measures were to be delivered, they will only cut emissions by approximately 25%. On t…

I know the Minister has been asked to do that in respect of EV cars and it is good that he is moving towards addressing an issue for which we have been calling for a long time, which is the prioritisation of rural areas. What about second-hand cars? It is still the case that for people who will be selling or scrapping cars, it is a small amount of money. How about a scheme for second-hand purchasers if, for example, it is their first time buying an EV? We need a just transition. We need free or subsidised retrofits…

On the family law section, I want to raise one issue with the Minister. I was the beneficiary of the criminal legal aid scheme for many years. Concerns have been expressed by people who are on the scheme. As the Minister knows, a flat fee payment is coming in from 1 July and people will only be paid at the very end, when a case finishes in court. If people appear once or if they appear 20 times, they will only be paid at the very end. There are scenarios, particularly for vulnerable people, children, and people who…

If the Minister of State was the manager of an under-16 team and the manager of the other team called or made a racist comment about one of his players, what would he do? He would take his team off the pitch and he would tell the other team to get their act together before he would recommence. If someone stole the land of another and dispossessed them in their thousands, deliberately starved another nation, rained artillery upon them, shot footballers in the foot, used pitches as detention centres, shot 114 childre…

Whatever about what was said when the triple lock was introduced, it is clear that there is great concern about it and 40% of the questions tonight, including the next question, are in relation to the triple lock. I want the Minister to outline the proposals she has to remove it. When will we see the Bill? I know the Minister has abandoned the plans for a citizens' assembly but is there a timeline? I presume there is not going to be a referendum. The Minister has no plans, certainly, for a referendum. I look around…

Ballyduff National School has been serving the community since 1839 and has been in the current building for the past 60 years. There are currently 96 pupils attending. It has had an autism class for the past few years with six pupils, and that is full, but there are five other children who are currently struggling to access the curriculum because they do not have the supports that would be there from an autism class. There are five qualified children and two awaiting assessment. There will be an ongoing need into …

We will be supporting the Bill. Notwithstanding that, however, there is the issue of funding with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. There are some concerns on a broader level. This is more, as they say, upstream. Regulation is to be in place, I understand, for 1 September for non-domestic gas, and roll-out plans, preparation and training, making sure that people who are qualified will be in place. There is a suspicion that pre-Creeslough we knew that the installation practices for third-party meters,…

The ambassador is very welcome. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation but I do so with a clear warning. Expanding the remit of the NTA cannot mean exporting the same mistakes we have seen in Dublin to the rest of the country. BusConnects promised badly needed transformation, better routes, more frequent services and a modern system but in many cases, this is a far cry from what was actually delivered. Like most projects delivered by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, it was marked by delays, spiralling cos…

I want to ask the Minister about the LIS funding scheme, in particular relating to County Kerry. A significant number of roads are on the list. While I appreciate Kerry County Council is doing the best it can, it is only able to address a limited number per year.

I thank the Minister. The difficulty and the reason Kerry should be treated as more of an exception than other counties, such as the midland counties, is that there are 580 roads in the scheme for the county. I appreciate 37 were done last year but if we do the maths on that, we are talking the best part of 20 years. A lot of the people who are contacting me from places like Ballinglanna near Causeway, Tiershanaghan, Ballyheigue, Kilgulbin, Ardfert, Ballyconry near Ballyduff and Dromid in south Kerry will be drawin…