My question is about the uptake of the working family payment. As the Minister knows, child poverty is one of the priorities for the Government and a major scourge within our society. I would like to hear how the Government is focusing on getting families who need that payment and would do very well with it to take it up.

I thank the Minister for his reply. On Committee Stage, the assistant secretary general shared the information that, as the Minister said, there would be 56,000 recipients in 2026. However, the Department estimates a 53% uptake among those who are eligible, which means that approximately 50,000 people who would get that payment were they to apply for it are not getting it. That is a big problem. What comes to mind for me is the fact that the Government was able to work with Revenue to identify all recipients of car…

I accept that. I appreciate anything the Minister and his officials do in that regard. It is important to acknowledge that consistent child poverty is at 8%, so it is double what it was before. When we take housing into account, it is about 10%. It is about 26.6% for families whose youngest child is between the ages of zero and five. Working families really do need this kind of support. Child poverty is something that comes up in the context of the budget every year. Last year, the Taoiseach said he wanted a second…

My question is about the payments and income disregards, how they are adjusted over time to keep up with inflation and the changes to the national minimum wage. As the Minister might be aware, and I am sure many advocacy organisations have said to it to him as they have said it to me, the changes to the minimum wage have implied a certain number of hours that someone can work that puts them over the income disregard threshold. Therefore, if the minimum wage goes up, as it has in the last while, which is very welcom…

I completely understand. The Minister trots out this line that he is keeping up with inflation or surpassing inflation. However, all the research would suggest - this is something put out by the European Union and the OECD - that the lower income populations have a higher rate of inflation because, as a proportion of their income or their costs, they often have to pick more expensive options. Whether it is pay-as-you-go electricity meters, not buying food in bulk or otherwise, a lot of things are really hard for th…

There is also the context of housing. We know that poverty is increasing when we take housing into account. I do not lay that at the Minister’s door, and I believe it is a whole-of-government problem. The Minister said that he increased the fuel allowance by four weeks this year, and that was a welcome and needed measure. However, it is important for people to understand that it was actually a restoration. Fuel allowance was for 32 weeks before the austerity era. That is core to this whole problem: we do not look a…

I thank the Minister and his officials for bringing forward this Bill, much of which contains, as he said, technical and administrative rationalisations. That is the unseen and unglamorous work in legislation and Departments but it is important, and I sincerely thank the officials for doing it. Improvements to the operations of the Charities Regulator are very welcome to ensure public confidence in the efficiency and effectiveness of its governance. Charities do incredible work across this State in aiding our most …

I welcome this timely motion and its call for a moratorium on data centre development and for electricity credits for families paid for by a tax on corporations. The other week, the energy Minister, as he did today, made the outrageous assertion that data centres are to Ireland what car factories are to Germany. It is a fallacious argument with no merit whatsoever. Instead of creating hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs like the automotive industry, data centres create a tiny number, as Deputy Murphy outlined…

As this is my final time speaking, I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all of the staff in the Oireachtas, including the ushers in particular who take such good care of us and everybody who makes this place work so well, for all that they have done. I hope that they get a good and well-deserved break. It is possible, perhaps even hopeful, in my lifetime that we will see a united Ireland and the end of partition on this island. I sincerely hope that we do in a way that benefits all people of all communities, traditions …

I congratulate the Spanish on their victory last night at the World Cup. I welcome the Taoiseach's report. In Spain the price per MW hour for electricity is €14 and in Ireland it is nearly ten times higher, at €130. Pedro Sánchez has been more vociferous in his criticism of inaction against Israel than this Government has been. He passed an occupied territories Bill before Ireland did so, including a ban on advertisement of services. He has denied the US access to Spanish territory for operations in the Persian Gul…

Certainly not.

The Government closed down Dublin Castle and the surrounding area in my constituency for the EU Presidency security arrangements for six months. Shockingly, it gave no official communication to any of the businesses affected in advance. One business, the Silk Road Café, has had to take legal action that is currently with the courts. Another, the Bottega Toffoli restaurant, has seen turnover reduce by 40%. A third, the MB Glow spa and aesthetic clinic, is losing €4,000 per week. As the owner of the last establishmen…

I welcome this opportunity to make statements on dementia and the programme for Government commitment on this issue. On behalf of the Social Democrats, I also welcome Cian and Jordan Adams and all those in the Gallery today, who care so much about this issue. Cian and Jordan inspired the whole country with their marathon running. It was a huge achievement. In particular what has stayed with me from the media coverage of it was the question of the licence to live for people with early onset dementia or associated co…

By far the hardest conversations I have with constituents are the ones struggling with disability services for their children. I knock on the door and it opens, sometimes with their dependent adult child with an intellectual disability by their side. You can see the difficulty etched into the faces of those who care so deeply for those vulnerable family relatives and their despair with the State that continues to fail them so badly. During my first elections, the local elections in 2024, I remember meeting the olde…

We are talking about this year, not last year.

This Bill is an admission of failure. It is an admission of failure on energy policy and energy security. It is an admission of failure of several Governments' inability to plan properly for energy in Ireland. I had to stop myself for a second and think that, yes, it is 2026 - that is what is written on the Bill - but we have climate goals to 2030 and we have to get to net zero by 2050. Does the Minister know how long it takes to build an LNG terminal and to develop these gasification units? It takes years. I expec…

My question is about older people living alone. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, about 30%, or one in three, are at risk of poverty. It seems quite incredible that in a country with a €9 billion surplus in cash and one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world that we would have such a level of people living alone and pensioners in poverty. I would like to hear what the Minister is going to do about it.

The Minister said that the State pension is aimed at making sure older people do not experience poverty but, according to the CSO, one in ten is experiencing consistent poverty. That is a doubling since the year before in 2024. Notably, this is particularly acute in rural areas and in the Minister's constituency of Mayo and Belmullet. Some 27% of households are reliant on the State pension exclusively. They are living alone; they are isolated in rural areas and entirely reliant on State support. One of the things t…

I would strongly welcome the Minister doing that in the forthcoming budget. To come back to the fuel allowance in particular, many older people are struggling to heat their homes. They are often staying in bed rather than getting up because they cannot afford the gas or the home heating oil. I want to focus on the question of targeted energy credits. This is something that has been talked about in the House many times. There are 500,000 households in arrears, according to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.…

A Cheann Comhairle, you might join me in welcoming Abraham Phelan and Rikke Sorensen from the Silk Road Café, who are here in the Gallery. This past weekend, the Silk Road Café, a private operator in the Chester Beatty Library on the Dublin Castle campus, was forced to close as a result of upcoming EU Presidency events there. Over the last number of weeks, several of us in this Chamber have raised the issue and written to various Ministers but no one has given us an adequate response. The lack of engagement with a …