This is a quote from Mario Draghi's report on European competitiveness, which was published last year: In a world of stable geopolitics, we had no reason to be concerned about rising dependencies on countries we expected to remain our friends. But the foundations on which we built are now being shaken. The previous global paradigm is fading. The era of rapid world trade growth looks to have passed [...] and our dependencies have turned out to be a vulnerabilities. Recent events have rendered his words to be underst…

A Government's majority is a mandate to govern, but it is not a mandate to dilute and make less effective the long-established principles and rules of how this House operates, the very basis for our democratic exchange functions. The Government is held to account by the Opposition. That accountability must be honest, rigorous and searching. It will work only if it is independent of the Government. This week, the Dáil is undermining that absolute principle, not for policy but for patronage, not for principle but for…

Coillte has got rid of Coillte Nature, its not-for-profit climate division. We are told it is being absorbed into the wider organisation. We are told that the need for a separate nature team has been superseded by the overall Coillte strategic vision, which was published in 2022. Yet, that strategic vision - that very document - spotlighted Coillte Nature as delivering nature projects at scale. Only last year, Coillte Nature signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Parks and Wildlife Service on restor…

Did Coillte tell the Minister that it was doing it?

Today, we discuss a significant but overdue change in our social welfare system that seeks to address a long-standing injustice. The social welfare Bill we are discussing is a direct response to the Supreme Court ruling in the O’Meara case delivered in January last year. That ruling exposed the very real inadequacies in the current law. It also reaffirmed the need for a system that is fair, more inclusive and in particular reflective of modern family life. Before I discuss the Bill and some of my concerns, I recogn…

lreland’s neutrality with regard to participation in armed conflicts, our position in not joining military alliances and our commitment to the specific ideals of the UN Charter have always allowed us to exercise a significant voice towards building and achieving peace as a resolutely non-aligned nation. I think on all sides of the House, there is agreement that the value of this independent role on the world stage must always be central to our foreign policy, as it underlines our legitimacy as an honest, independen…

I welcome the fact that this motion has been brought to the House today. Its passage will bring clarity and certainty to the 37,000 Ukrainians who are currently in homes supported by the accommodation recognition payment, ARP, and the thousands of Irish people who have provided them with accommodation. It is worth recalling that the ARP was conceived at a time of extreme crisis, when thousands of people were arriving in Dublin Airport every week, including men, women, children, the elderly and people with disabilit…

North Korea.

The basic income for the arts scheme is a proud legacy of the Green Party's time in Government. It is benefiting more than 2,000 artists with a monthly payment. I believe this scheme should be maintained and, indeed, enhanced. Can the Minister give us an indication of the research that has been done on its impact at the same time as the pilot is operating? Can he also give us an indication as to whether keeping the scheme or growing it is one of his budgetary priorities?

I am glad to hear the Minister refer to the impact assessment his Department conducted after year one of the scheme. I was really impressed by some of its findings, including artists being able to spend up to eight hours a week more on their practice and having the ability to invest up to €550 monthly into their practices for materials, workspaces and the like. There was a 9% increase in the number of artists able to sustain themselves solely in their practices because of the support the basic income scheme provide…

The qualitative research is extremely valuable when we are investing significant amounts of taxpayers' money. The research process was built into this pilot from day one to ensure we were assessing the scheme's actual outcomes. We look forward to seeing the qualitative paper the Minister spoke about earlier. There are options here. The Minister could look to extend the scheme for the existing 2,000 participants, he could look to bring in a new 2,000 participants into the scheme or he could look to grow the scheme i…

It is not often that I find myself in agreement with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, but this morning, he tweeted that the Government had opened the door to commercial LNG facilities becoming part of the energy mix in Ireland and I fear he might be correct. Could the Minister clarify whether the Minister of State is wrong? Will the Minister commit that this Government will follow the policy of the previous Government and oppose commercial LNG facilities becoming part of the energy mix in Ireland?

As a TD, I have had the opportunity to visit many local schools. One thing I love doing is meeting a politics and society class and having an opportunity to discuss with them the topics they are studying and what is happening in our country. One such visit has always stuck with me. We ended up discussing the work-life balance Act and the extra rights it provided through domestic violence leave and extra time for breastfeeding breaks, proposals for which we would expect broad support. I remember a young man asking m…

In recent weeks the performance of one company, Go-Ahead, which operates bus routes across Dublin, has been widely criticised. At the same time Go-Ahead is being rewarded. It has successfully tendered to operate new bus routes. Does the Minister understand the frustration commuters feel at not getting the service that should be delivered, and at new services being awarded to that same company? Will the Minister tell us what tangible actions he and the NTA are taking to improve the commuter experience?

The reputation of this company has taken a real pounding because it is not meeting the services it committed to. The commuter experience is a key part in determining demand for public transport. People are telling their friends and family that they cannot rely on route X or route Y. It is negative in terms of encouraging people to make that shift to public transport. I have always felt the NTA needs to put a greater focus on the issue of the commuter experience. That is why in our recent manifesto we proposed the i…

Sticking on that idea of the commuter experience, one proposal I welcome in the new programme for Government is the proposal for a transport security force. Many of us who have had a negative experience on public transport, particularly because of the location as you can be isolated in a train or Luas carriage, know it can be hard to get out of those situations. That is why we need a transport police. That is something the Green Party suggested in its manifesto. Will the Minister tell us about his ambition for this…

I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his election, and I congratulate the Minister on his appointment. Last October, the Green Party and I championed the idea of a baby boost payment of an additional €280 when a new child is born. I was happy to see it included to see it included in budget 2025 and it was implemented in late 2024. Will the Minister give an update on its uptake around the country and its costs to date?

Getting this idea over the line was surprisingly pretty hard. It was a long negotiation to get full agreement to get this into budget 2025. That surprised me considering that it is quite a small overall cost of €15 million compared with €180 million to do the double payment on child benefit. In light of that fight to get it over the line, I want the Minister's assurance that he sees the baby boost as a staple part of range of social welfare supports given and paid to families to support them and that he sees this c…

I appreciate the Minister's clarification that the baby boost payment is here to stay. It is an initiative that the Green Party and I are proud to have led in introducing. A universal payment that is targeted at a particular time in a family's life where almost every single family is under pressure financially when a new baby arrives is a meaningful step the Government and the State can take to help. The programme for Government makes reference to other targeted payments, particularly looking at a new targeted chil…

I will use my time to focus on a few of the recommendations of the Housing Commission’s report. I note there have been some important policy changes in recent years - the introduction of cost rental housing, the vacant property refurbishment grant and the new land hoarding tax – but we still have a dysfunctional housing market. People are still struggling significantly to access home ownership and rents are far too high. While the fundamental aim has always been to have supply, that is the job of the State and the …