Go raibh maith agat. I welcome the women from Mayo to the Public Gallery. As we have been going door to door and speaking directly with families ahead of the by elections this Friday, the one issue that is raised more than any other is the unaffordability of energy and electricity. People are afraid to turn on their heating. Others are rationing, cutting back on essentials and living in constant anxiety about the next bill arriving through the door. Does the Taoiseach accept that this situation is unsustainable for…

The prolonged Government-sponsored housing crisis is affecting every community in this State, none more so than County Mayo, where there are 2,664 people on the council waiting list, 924 people on the HAP waiting list and 744 people on the RAS list. As a result of the Government’s housing policies, working people, pensioners and vulnerable tenants are being forced out of their homes with nowhere for them to go while private rents continue to spiral out of control. Recent figures from the Residential Tenancies Board…

The prospect of 720 job losses at Covalen has caused enormous anxiety for workers and their families and our existing legislation on statutory redundancy is no longer adequate. After losing their jobs, Covalen workers are worried about whether they will have meaningful access to retraining and reskilling pathways and alternative employment. They are concerned about cooling-off periods and non-compete arrangements preventing redundant workers from potentially taking up employment with rivals. Will the Taoiseach ask …

The Israeli Knesset has approved, by a substantial majority, legislation that will permit the execution of Palestinian prisoners. This comes amid continuing international concern regarding the humanitarian catastrophe and genocide in Gaza, the treatment of Palestinian detainees and repeated warnings from human rights organisations regarding violations of international law. Most people in Ireland are deeply alarmed by measures of this nature, which risk further undermining the prospects for peace and accountability.…

International Nurses Day is about recognising the extraordinary dedication, professionalism and compassion shown every day by nurses across our health service. They are the backbone of patient care. I have seen at first hand in Mayo the incredible work nurses do every day. However, too many are working under relentless pressure in overcrowded hospitals, understaffed wards and unsafe conditions that are driving exhaustion and burnout. Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have failed to deliver safe staff…

Workers and families across this State are really struggling with the weight of the highest electricity prices in Europe. We have normalised these and it is not good enough. We all spoke earlier about nurses on International Nurses Day, and they are struggling too. This energy crisis is impacting everyone across the country. Parents and carers are cutting back on essentials, workers are rationing heating and households are falling deeper into poverty, simply trying to keep the lights on and keep heat in the house. …

I thank Deputy Gogarty and the Independent Technical Group for bringing forward this important motion. Family law is not working to protect the children of this State. Children are not only failed by family law, they are all too often put in harm's way. That means the State is facilitating harm to children. The system is massively skewed against women and children but I acknowledge that it impacts men as well. It ignores domestic violence and threats to kill, and forces children to continuously meet those who have …

The scheme is not fit for purpose. We need 100% redress. Getting the work done is unaffordable for too many people. Particularly in my county of Mayo, the gap between the grant and the rebuilding costs is too big. Defective concrete blocks constitute one of the greatest scandals ever. We need a public inquiry to run in parallel with getting the homes rebuilt. People have to wait months on end just to get a result of the testing. I would say to people not to rebuild their homes without replacing the foundations.

Recent announcements regarding job cuts at Meta and possibly at one of the outsourcing firms, Covalen, serves as another wake-up call for Government that we need to diversify the economy and build a new economic model to attract new strands of foreign direct investment, FDI. Many of these job cuts have been attributed to AI and automation but the Government cannot allow this to be catalyst for further job losses across the sector. We must ensure that Ireland remains competitive and an attractive destination for FDI…

As someone who comes from Erris in County Mayo, I have witnessed the Corrib Gas project and how little we have benefited from it in the local area or in County Mayo and beyond. We advocated many years ago for that project to be in public ownership and to do it that way instead. We have an opportunity here with wind energy, but we should have progressed it much further by now. We have an opportunity to look at a public ownership model as well. There is an onus and a responsibility on us to do that.

I wanted it in public ownership.

No, it is not-----

No, but there has to be-----

The Taoiseach will end up making the tea for them.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises that the ongoing cost-of-living crisis is putting significant pressure on workers and their families as inflation continues to increase, eroding living standards and affordability for workers; notes that: — overall employment figures mask that one quarter of jobs in Ireland are considered "poor quality", characterised by low pay, insecurity, and poor working conditions; — the findings of the 2026 Ireland Thinks poll, commissioned by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), fo…

I thank all my colleagues for their contributions. I have to say I am dismayed to see the lack of Government speakers on this important issue tonight. It does not bode well. It sends a message out to workers that there is nothing more to see here. I am really disappointed. I thank all of the Opposition for their contributions. I acknowledge the work of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the engagement we had earlier today. Its contribution reflected the lived reality of workers across the State and their voices…

Towns and villages up and down the country are suffering from dereliction. Vacant and boarded up shops are all too common now in once vibrant communities and towns. Once thriving businesses, which employed local people have been replaced by empty units, a visible reminder that the Government is failing our SME sector. What new initiatives does the Minister plan to introduce to tackle this escalating problem given current solutions are not working?

The Minister's policies are not hitting the ground because towns and villages are hollowing out, with visible increases in vacancy and dereliction and declining footfall. Small and independent retailers, particularly in rural and regional areas, are facing unsustainable cost pressures. We know that rising costs in energy, insurance, rents and commercial rates are disproportionately impacting small businesses compared to the larger multinationals. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, who is beside the Minister will…

What the Government is doing is not working because vacancy rates in many towns are persistently high or rising, particularly outside the major urban areas. According to the GeoDirectory commercial buildings report prepared by EY in February, the national commercial vacancy rate in Ireland increased to 14.6% by the end of 2025. This is the highest rate recorded by GeoDirectory since it began tracking commercial vacancy data in 2013. In total, there were 30,687 vacant commercial units across the country in the fourt…

I should not need to tell the Minister that businesses up and down this country are really suffering from an energy crisis that the Tánaiste and the Minister's party leader have acknowledged is the worst the world has ever seen. Yet, in the eyes of business owners, the scale of the supports from the Government do not match the scale of the crisis. What additional new measures will the Government put in place to support all businesses facing increased operating costs arising from the ongoing fuel crisis caused by th…