I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the issue of biodiversity and to mark National Biodiversity Week today. This week should be not just a celebration of one of this country’s prized assets, including our natural environment, landscapes, coasts, wildlife and waterways, but also a call to action because while we market ourselves on the aesthetically rich, green environment that we have been blessed with, we do not do the best job of looking after it and nurturing it, at least at State level. Forty shades o…

Hear, hear

From data centres.

I am sharing time with Deputy Lawlor. As we are discussing this issue today, I am thinking of Fiona Holland, who was a teacher in Scoil Maelruain's Senior National School in Old Bawn in my constituency. She tragically passed away last week following a road accident in Terenure. Fiona played a huge role in her community and was loved by her students. I know what a huge impact her loss has been and will be on her community. My thoughts today are with her family and friends and the staff and pupils in Scoil Maelruain.…

I echo Deputy O'Callaghan's concerns about this. We obviously want to see infrastructure delivered quickly in this country. Our biggest concern with the Bill in general is the disapplication of the climate action Acts. Given that is a power that will be given to the Minister, it is important that the Dáil and Seanad have a say in any project that is designated. Our amendment would essentially flip the burden. Rather than something being annulled requiring a resolution from the Dáil, we would say it will not take ef…

We are all agreed that there are delays and problems in delivering infrastructure in this country. The problem is that the Government and the Minister have come to the wrong conclusion about why this is a problem and why this is happening. He is determined to blame judicial reviews and environmental laws and to dump on environmentalists. These are people who are just trying to ensure that the law is upheld as it is and that decisions of our public bodies are made in the appropriate manner. The reason we want transp…

I thank Deputy Daly and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this legislation. I am disappointed that the Government will not be supporting it. The Labour Party and I have long called for enhanced powers for the CRU. Indeed, I have my own electricity regulation Bill, which seeks to give the CRU the ability to issue specific emissions reduction or offsetting obligations on large energy users, like data centres. I hope we get the opportunity to debate that Bill on Second Stage in the House in the not-too-distant future. I …

I pay tribute to Deputy Nash for his immense work in preparing this mini-budget, which I commend to the House. After Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the energy crisis that followed, the Labour Party was the first party to call for a windfall tax on the gross and excessive profits that were being made by energy companies. It took the Government a year and a half to do it but a temporary solidarity contribution, as it became known, was enacted in 2023 and covered the excess profits of fossil…

I would like to ask the Minister about the electrification of our heavy goods vehicles fleet and for a report on the zero-emissions heavy duty vehicle purchase grant and zero-emissions heavy duty vehicle infrastructure grant schemes, including the number of applications received and funding drawn down since their inception; the steps he will take to encourage and increase uptake among those in the haulage and farming sectors.

I ask this question in the context of the €500 million package with no strings attached announced for the haulage and farming sectors. While we recognise the need for these packages, we also have to recognise this exists because of fossil fuel dependence in those sectors and it is in many ways a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry. As part of a just transition, we must make this choice easy for hauliers in particular to decide to purchase zero-emission vehicles. The figures are not great. In 2025, of 2,564 HGVs pur…

No country is doing particularly well in this area but even across Europe 4.5% of HGVs are zero emission and we are only at just over 1%. In China, it is up to 25%. It is leading the world in this regard. The charging infrastructure grant is important because hauliers say to us they cannot avail of this not only because of the cost of the vehicles but also the lack of infrastructure. My understanding of that grant is that €1 million was allocated last year, less than €200,000 was spent and €188,000 of that was on a…

As the Minister knows, family law remains one of the most overlooked and under-resourced areas of our justice system. The attitude to family law is epitomised by the huge site earmarked for the headquarters of the new family law courts back in 2014 that has been lying vacant and waterlogged on Hammond Lane in Smithfield for years. Planning permission was granted in 2024 and it might be completed by 2029, if we are lucky. None of these delays have anything to do with environmental law or judicial reviews, by the way…

As my colleagues have said, there are three of us here from the constituency but it is fair to say the five TDs in our constituency support the school in this regard. There is a short-term and long-term need in the school. The short-term need is to get an emergency grant to fix this roof, which is badly leaking. Almost daily water is dripping into classrooms and leaving pools. When we were there one of the classrooms was referred to as the Amazon rainforest by the students because of the rain coming down. There are…

The principal and staff of the school are doing a brilliant job and it is a fabulous school. It is a big school in Old Bawn. There are about 700 or 800 students in it. It is lucky the school has a big site where it will be possible to build the new school at the same time as keeping the existing building going and doing it in phases without the need for additional funding for modular or temporary accommodation for the students. The school can do this project with relative ease on its existing site. We call again fo…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta O'Gorman agus an Comhaontas Glas as an rún den scoth seo a chur chun cinn. Tá sé tráthúil agus Lá Domhanda na Cruinne á cheiliúradh againn inniu. Tacóidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis an rún. This motion provides a stark picture of just how far we have slipped and continue to slip in terms of our climate goals. I have been really struck by how little emphasis the Government has placed on our response to what is the greatest existential crisis we face not just as a country but as a plan…

I have serious concerns about a proposal by An Post to relocate a sorting office from Edmondstown in Rathfarnham to Lucan later this year. This facility has served people in Knocklyon, Whitechurch, Firhouse and Rathfarnham for decades. Closing it would be a particularly bad blow, given the recent closure of the much-valued and much-used post office in Rathfarnham village. It will impact postal services in our area. It will have knock-on impacts with regard to delivery times and general service levels. Instead of ha…

Also for data centres.

There were any number of interventions that we felt that the Government could have made to alleviate and reduce the cost of fuel for hauliers, farmers and everyone else. It is very disappointing that the one climate-friendly measure here has been undermined, and that the Government has chosen to jettison this over other subsidies, direct payments and excise cuts. These are all measures that we want to support. Our fear here is that the Government has deferred this amount and it was scheduled to come on in May becau…

It is a central plank of addressing climate change in this country. It is a crucial funding source if we are ever going to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels. I take the point that it is for the Department of Social Protection but the Minister was not able to give me any figures for how much this deferral will cost. I would appreciate if the Minister's Department or the Department of Social Protection could get back to me on exactly how much it will cost. On an ongoing basis, will this be made up from ge…

For the last 10 years, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments have been lucky enough to preside over very healthy public finances. How they have spent – or misspent - our great wealth is another matter, though clearly the anger and frustration that we saw on our streets last week means that, even with the vast resources at the Government’s disposal, it clearly is not getting it right. It has been in its gift to splash the cash whenever its wants. There were tax breaks for big developers and burger barons in the last…