I move amendment No. 7: In page 8, after line 41, to insert the following: “Review by electricity supplier 6. (1) Where an electricity supplier refuses to make an electricity costs emergency benefit payment then the final customer may request the electricity supplier, on or before 30 June 2025 to review its refusal. (2) The request under subsection (1) shall state the reasons why the person making the request wishes the refusal by the electricity supplier to be reviewed. (3) The electricity supplier shall within 28…

I move amendment No. 10: In page 14, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “Reporting 14. (1) The Minister shall, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the application of the No. III Scheme and the submeter support scheme to address high electricity costs. (2) The Minister shall, within 12 months of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the application of the No. III Scheme and the submeter support scheme compared to emergency me…

Regarding Thornton Hall, the Minister stated the timeline was a number of weeks. Is it still mid-October? I am conscious that the end of June and the end of September were initial dates that have passed. I am concerned the updates we are getting from the Department are not detailed, whether that is in terms of the transport plan, social protection, health, well-being, noise assessments or wastewater treatment. What is the current state of play and is the target still the middle of this month? Is it still in the reg…

I welcome the opportunity to respond to the budget. I will focus on the budget for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. There is funding for energy credits but because of the Government's failure to respond to the need to reform the public service obligation, the network charge and the standing charge, those energy credits are wiped out immediately. Between the public service obligation regressive measure and the network and standing charges, it is essentially a subsidy for large energy us…

The senior Minister will be well familiar with the fact that my county has the lowest number of gardaí per head of population. It is not just the lowest number but the lowest by far. The difference between the lowest and the highest is double, so there are twice as many gardaí per head of population in Waterford at the top of the list as there is in Meath at the bottom of the list. That is not fair, reasonable or equitable by any measure. What is the Minister of State doing to address it? Does he recognise it as an…

Go raibh maith agat. I am not going to disagree with anything the Minister has said, other than that the problem is so big and we need a hell of a lot more. I welcome the work that is done by the Garda, the huge operations they have put in play. At times they have put considerable players out of action, even on a town level. Unfortunately, sometimes that takes three or four years to work its way through. Sometimes by the time you get rid of that major drug dealer, the dealers on the street barely remember who they …

There is chaos on commuter rail services since the changes at the end of August. I have constituents contacting me who use Laytown station, and Gormanston and Drogheda. The changes at the end of August have led to widespread delays, overcrowding on platforms and overcrowded trains. It is a well raised issue. There is concern in our county as well that there are changes coming for the bus services. There has not been good engagement in relation to that. We look at the Tánaiste's own county and city in terms of the c…

Sinn Féin welcomes the Bill and the opportunity it presents. Those of us who engage with friends and counterparts in different European countries are aware of the relationship people have with their medical information. Often, with an app on their phones, they can access lab results or other information in real time. They think nothing of it and have had that technology for almost decades. It is an indication of how far behind we are. I remember meeting, as part of a Sinn Féin delegation back in 2010, 2011, 2012, w…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and the provisions in it that will be of benefit. As Deputy O'Reilly said, we will continue to engage over the course of the Bill's passage through the legislative process. The Bill contains several important measures such as the exemption relief, the opportunity for virtual meetings, the enhancement of regulatory bodies and powers, and the extension to the review of privileged material from seven days to 14 days. It must all be seen in the context of supporting small…

I thank Deputy Cullinane for bringing forward this important motion. I extend my deepest sympathies to the family, friends and loved ones of Aoife Johnston. In my contribution, I want to focus on capacity and call out what has been a dominant theme in healthcare planning in this jurisdiction and State for the past 30 years, namely, centralisation. We had the Hanly report at the start of the decade, and then the Teamwork report. Such reports always point towards centralisation. I remember at the time those reports w…

Colleagues, led by Deputy Mark Ward, will cover the Sinn Féin position on this issue and they will continue to engage with it. I want to focus on the issue of implementation and capacity within the system. In the first instance, I will stay local and draw attention to a response to a parliamentary question I got regarding east Meath and Ashbourne CAMHS services. It states that A Vision for Change, which we heard about in 2006 and which I remember as I worked in the health services at the time, recommended 11 clinic…

I thank Deputy Kerrane for bringing forward this motion. The Sinn Féin plan to deliver childcare at €10 per day or €200 per month is visionary and ambitious but it is also realistic and achievable. In that regard, all we have to do is look to the likes of Denmark and Sweden for examples. In Meath, on the basis of CSO figures, almost 10,300 children would benefit from this measure immediately. By introducing it, we would lift a massive financial burden from families. In Meath, families are paying between €800 and €1…

Will the Minister of State provide an update on the work his Department is undertaking to engage with other agencies to leverage support programmes and funding opportunities to maximise local supply chain content levels in the domestic Irish market, as contained within Powering Prosperity: Ireland’s Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy? Will he provide a breakdown of the agencies he and his Department have engaged with, the dates on which they met to discuss this and the outcomes of these meetings? I ask him to make a…

There is a lot in the question and a lot in the answer. At the root of it, however, similar to my colleague, Deputy Quinlivan, is the concern about what we are hearing with regard to the readiness of the industry here, whether we look at ports, planning, the grid or supply chain. It is a statement of fact at this stage to say that none of our phase 1 offshore wind farms will be developed on this island. There is a real concern that will continue into the future. When we meet with representatives from ports, there i…

The Minister of State mentioned in one of his earlier responses in the Chamber that we are very well progressed and in a position to maximise these technologies and the huge potential, as he will be very familiar with himself, off the west coast. There is a significant piece there in terms of technology which, of course, is floating offshore wind. There is a concern that we are slow. We are slow in terms of DMAPs and in terms of sending the signal to the industry, to the researchers in the area, that Ireland is ser…

Grants for offshore wind.

This morning, the Climate Change Advisory Council published its built environment annual review 2024. It wants to see the ambition and rate of upgrades to social homes doubled. It highlights the need for special measures to support older people to achieve warmer, more comfortable, healthier homes. It highlights that many of the worst performing homes are likely to be owned by older people and householders who are least likely to be able to afford works. This echoes Social Justice Ireland, Friends of the Earth, the …

For sure.

That is the Government's approach. It is not the Sinn Féin approach.

Sinn Féin would spend more money and deliver more retrofits. If the Government followed our plan and listened to the Climate Change Advisory Council-----