There has been a welcome U-turn on the ten-year rule. We have discussed this on a number of occasions in the Chamber and in the committee. I believe there was intransigence on the part of the responsible authorities, which flew in the face of the obvious. I welcome that there has been a U-turn and that there is a consultation, which I hope will come to a successful conclusion. An extension of the ten-year rule will mean that up to 4,000 vehicles will not be off the road next year. Is the whole episode not proof-pos…

I hope it is introduced but it is a U-turn. A number of months ago when I raised the issue with the Minister, he could not have been more categoric in his opposition to it, despite the fact that at the time taxi drivers right across the country were shouting from the rooftops about the impending crisis. The job of the Taxi Advisory Committee is to advise. The NTA told us yesterday that it did not advise on the impending crisis. At the transport committee last week, we heard from the four groups representing taxi dr…

How does the Minister intend to address poor service standards, including no-shows and poor punctuality, on many bus routes operated by Go-Ahead Ireland? Will he make a statement on the matter?

Go-Ahead Ireland has a limited number of services, yet I hear about many of them from colleagues throughout the country, largely in the commuter belt area and Dublin, such as the 184, the 185, the 45A, the 238, the 270, the L52, the 115, the 120 - I could go on. I raised this with representatives of the NTA who appeared in committee yesterday. There are problems in the sector generally, but they are particular and pronounced with Go-Ahead Ireland. The services provided are having a significant impact on families ge…

In light of those fines and the recognised poor standard of service, there are questions to be asked as to why it is worse with Go-Ahead Ireland than it is with State providers and as to its terms and conditions of employment and so on. Was it a mistake to privatise those routes? Should they have been maintained within the State service? Plenty of private providers do an excellent job where the State has failed to provide services throughout the country, particularly in rural areas, but in this case they are largel…

I have previously raised this matter with the Minister. There is considerable potential in this project. The Minister has put his finger on the issues. I and the Mayor of Navan, Councillor Eddie Fennessy, have met Meath County Council about this matter. It a Gordian knot of complexity because of how the greenway is linked with the navigation project. The environmental piece and the reinstatement of the old navigation way make the situation complex. Those aspects need to be separated. I commend the activism of the N…

There is a great opportunity here, as can be seen from the demand. A great many schools are putting up their hands, eager to lead by example and to address the congestion and chaos outside our primary and secondary schools. It is a positive scheme but greatly oversubscribed. There is a real need to unlock that potential and opportunity. This will require additional funding and a different approach to speed up the process. I appreciate that the process is bottom-up and involved but it will take far too long to deliv…

There is a very significant opportunity here. Much of what we discuss with regard to climate action is contentious and difficult but here there is a perfect alignment between the wishes, needs and frustrations of people and the solutions that are available. On the solutions, the Government needs to look at the opportunity presented here and to treat our education centres, our primary and secondary schools, as catalysts for climate action as regards going to and from school, school transport, safe routes to school a…

We have an energy and security crisis because of gross mismanagement by successive Governments, particularly in the last decade. Principally, therefore, the responsibility lies with the Fine Gael party, it having been a continuing feature of Governments in that period. There has been gross mismanagement. This is a matter of energy supply and demand. Those Governments rolled out the red carpet for data centres, which have huge energy demand. At the same time, they Governments failed time and again to deliver on supp…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the refusal of the Government to reduce and cap electricity prices leaves households facing into an extremely worrying and uncertain winter, and this is particularly the case for those who simply cannot afford to retrofit their energy inefficient homes; — emissions from the residential sector amounted to 11.4 per cent of the State's total greenhouse gas emissions last year; — poorly insulated homes require greater amounts of energy to heat, increasing carbon emissions and re…

I thank those who have contributed to this debate. It is notable that neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael could present a speaker. Maybe they do not see the same problems that we do. Maybe they do not represent the same constituents that we do, namely, those who are struggling to access these schemes and to heat their homes this winter. I have to say in response to the Government contribution that we are setting out a clear challenge to the Government. We have identified weaknesses in the schemes, as the Minister hea…

I ask the Minister his plans to reduce the price of electricity and energy for households and businesses over the coming months, if he has examined introducing a price cap on electricity in Ireland or introducing other market reforms or interventions, given the market is broken, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

It is quite incredible that we have a situation whereby the Minister acknowledges the measures to which he referred are needed at this point in time but, in effect, he and the Government have been a barrier to those types of progressive reforms at a European level. Whatever the situation was in October 2021, I think it was clear at that stage, given the European toolbox had been published a number of weeks earlier, that reforms were needed. As recently as June this year, the Minister confirmed to my colleague, Depu…

What has the Minister been doing for the past year?

The Minister is right. If I were him, I would not answer the question I was asked. I would not talk about how I and my Government stood in the way of progressive measures and proposals at a European level to address the fact gas is driving prices and this is, in essence, playing into the hands of Putin. Gas is driving the price of electricity. The Government and the Minister have resisted these progressive moves for close on a year at this stage. Consumers in Spain have benefited to the tune of €1.4 billion in a co…

We are proposing a cap and a windfall tax.

The Minister's proposals will benefit people with holiday homes.

What are the number of retrofits completed under the warmer homes scheme and, separately, under the one-stop shop service? What are the measures the Minister will take to increase the roll-out and to better target supports to those most in need? Does he agree a dedicated retrofit scheme aimed at households that rely on solid fuels for heating is needed, and will he will make a statement on the matter?

About €5 billion will come in the years 2028, 2029 and 2030. A significant problem with the funding model is that it is back-loaded to this degree. On those figures from the Minister, and we had them earlier from the Minister of State as well, how many of these completions have been done to a B2 or B2-equivalent standard? How many of them have been done to that standard simply with the addition of solar PV? Does the Minister have those figures? I ask this because it is important in respect of the difference these r…

I refer to being in line with the recommendations of the Climate Change Advisory Council, CCAC. For attic insulation and cavity walls-----