Energy costs in the State are astronomical and are having a detrimental impact on competitiveness. This rip-off of Irish customers was confirmed again today by a recent international report, which revealed that our retail electricity prices are three times higher than wholesale prices, one of the highest price gaps in the world. We are completely exposed to the price of fossil fuels on the international markets and this is driving up the cost of doing business here, with businesses being ripped off. Decarbonising a…

Obviously we all welcome the ceasefire and we wait with bated breath but what is important is what is within our capacity here and the commitments that have already been made. My question to the Taoiseach is on the occupied territories Bill. Is the occupied territories Bill going to be implemented in this term of the Dáil, will that include goods and services, and can the Taoiseach comment, as the previous speaker said, on the authorisation by the Tánaiste of the plane that landed to refuel on its way to Israel ove…

There is a lack of transparency around this budget. It is disgraceful. Despite having 15 Ministers and 23 Ministers of State, we have no costings of existing levels of service. How does the Government know what is going on within the Departments if it does not know the costings of the levels of services that are already in place? How does the Government know how much it has for new measures? It makes a complete mockery of the budget. Imagine if Sinn Féin presented a budget without the existing levels of service cos…

I want to talk to the Minister about the defective concrete block legislation once again. We have been back for three weeks. Each week I look at the programme for the week and each week my colleague Deputy Mac Lochlainn, the Sinn Féin Whip, asks for the legislation to come before us here, to the House, to be able to be dealt with. We are in a situation where homeowners are still waiting for the updated grant rates and the increased timeframe for completion to be applicable retrospectively to all applicants. It is n…

At the outset, I acknowledge the protesters who gather every weekend around this country, and what the Irish people have done to stand up for Palestine and what they continue to do. I want to acknowledge that in the House today and thank them for it. I extend deepest solidarity to the Palestinian people who are living under unimaginable and horrific suffering and starvation at the hands of the Israeli Government and its allies. The outbreak of this horrific genocide is approaching its second anniversary. Gaza has b…

I raise the serious issue of the shortage of beds in Beaumont Hospital. An example of the impact of this shortage is brought home by the very serious case of one of my constituents. I have his family's permission to raise his case with the Taoiseach because they are absolutely desperate. His name is Henry Keane from Blacksod and he was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour. Since 17 September, he has been waiting in Mayo University Hospital for a transfer to Beaumont Hospital. He is listed under a consultant in Be…

It seems desperately unfair that the runaway house prices across the State have led to an increase in home insurance costs. Home insurance is becoming a real problem meaning that some struggling families opt to underinsure their home or go without insurance altogether. The consequences of families taking a chance and foregoing home insurance played out earlier this year when Storm Éowyn arrived on our shores. Families without insurance were left relying on the state to step in and cover the cost of storm damage whe…

Will the Minister outline the measures he is taking to ensure small- and medium-sized businesses can access affordable credit and avoid being burdened with high borrowing costs? Access to affordable credit is a significant barrier to our SMEs that want to expand and grow their market share. As they try to navigate their way around all of the challenges they face, they need access to credit.

I welcome these initiatives but last year, in 2024, we saw no real growth in Ireland's SME bank debt, with continued low demand from applicants and an overly cautious approach to risk from the banks. SMEs with any form of credit challenge find it difficult to access credit from the traditional financial institutions, even more so since the departure of Ulster Bank and KBC from the market. These are the sources where most small and retail businesses go to look for credit. Despite what the Minister says he is doing t…

I welcome this. The problem sometimes is that many of these systems are automated and somebody may not have an absolutely clear record. There can be many reasons for this which are explainable, and at one time people could have gone in and sat down with the bank manager to explain the reason something happened and they could come to an agreement. This was also the case for people with good creditworthiness. This is something that needs to be looked at. With regard to the length of time it can take to draw down cred…

The previous question is a very important one. Will the Minister outline the means by which the Department is simplifying access to existing grant and support schemes for our SMEs and the steps he is taking to reduce the administrative burden for those businesses? The administrative burden on small and medium-sized enterprises is a major impediment for business owners around the country at the moment, sucking vital resources away from businesses that could be better deployed elsewhere. By no means am I suggesting r…

The issue is that we still have too many people coming into our constituency offices who cannot get the help and support they need to access grants. I hope that any grants announced in the budget will be thought out properly. The way to do that as regards the design of the grants is to have small businesses involved at the design stage of these grants because they will be able to see what impediments may arise that would prevent them from accessing the grants. You often find that the businesses that least need a gr…

Will the Minister think about this? In Sinn Féin's manifesto and over a number of years, we have envisaged the establishment of a mol gnó, a new Irish enterprise agency focused specifically on scaling existing Irish businesses. This would be a strong agency for non-export focused start-ups and established companies. It would specifically cover the void in support from existing agencies like Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. Enterprise Ireland and the IDA do a really good job but we are not using the space we have at …

My question relates to the publication of the action plan on collective bargaining that underpins the EU directive on an adequate minimum wage. When will we see the contents of this plan? What is the timeline for the delivery of the legislation underpinning that? There is a commitment in the programme for Government to finalise this action plan by the end of 2025. It will be October next week and the Minister is running out of road in this regard.

This is absolutely critical because we are at a juncture regarding how we will shape our economy going forward. We cannot have an economy without workers. We need to stop viewing it as workers versus employers because the benefits of collective bargaining are huge. I commend the campaign in this regard which is being run by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, in particular, and the presentation yesterday in the audiovisual room. People will be surprised to see that although there is a constitutional right for peopl…

Six of the top ten FDI companies enable union representation. We know for a fact that it increases respect for management. It increases as union recognition increases. We need to take heed of the good jobs Bill in the North as well, because that is really making inroads in this area in terms of union recognition. As a party, Sinn Féin has long stood in support of trade union recognition and the fundamental right of workers to be represented by their unions. I acknowledge the work of my colleague, Deputy Louise O'Re…

No child in Ireland in 2025 should grow up without a home or without hope for the future. If this Government runs its full term, every single child in Ireland will have been born and grown up under a Fine Gael Government. Thousands of those who are children now are going to look back in the years ahead and ask why this happened and why they had to grow up in these circumstances. Those on the Government benches opposite are at pains to tell us how well the economy is doing, reciting statistics on low unemployment, G…

Up and down the country, but especially in rural areas, the inflexibility and lack of common sense of the Department and Bus Éireann constitute a real issue. I will ask the Minister of State two questions before I outline a case for him. Why is there separate vetting in every Bus Éireann office for drivers? I am thinking of where someone crosses over the Galway border from Mayo. Drivers often have to get up to ten separate Garda vettings. It does not make any sense when we have a shortage of drivers. I heard the Mi…

It is beyond time that we end the rip-off of energy bills facing every household and business up and down the country already on their knees with the cost-of-living crisis. More energy increases come at a time when we are already paying the highest levels of energy prices in Europe. That is a badge of dishonour for this Government. How many homes are going to be cold tonight as people try to hold out and not turn on the heat until next month? This staggering cost of energy in the State is a direct result of politic…

I welcome the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. However, the Minister and I know that the road from here to Mayo is paved with good intentions and unimplemented strategies, many of which have been outlined here. The subsequent action plan and its implementation will be the test of whether the strategy will bring about genuine change or is just another collection of words. The fact is that the Government is breaking the law, as Cara Darmody continues to point out again and again, as regar…