Will the Department of Social Protection remove the inconsistencies and anomalies in the current jobseeker's allowance scheme that discourage people from taking up employment. Will he give some further information on that? It is an important issue. It is something we have previously discussed. I would appreciate it if the Minister could advise the House on whether his Department plans any moves on this.

I appreciate the response. This is an important issue that has been raised by the Citizens Information Board. It was highlighted that the working-age payments scheme should be based on the working family payment model, whereby a person receives a payment based on a percentage of the difference between his or her income and the specified threshold for his or her family type. However, the board also pointed out how crucial and important the administration of the working-age payment is, given the difficulties regularl…

The programme for Government states that we must ensure the social protection system is work friendly and that welfare traps which inhibit people from taking up work are removed. At present, a person on jobseeker's allowance who receives an offer of part-time work may actually end up worse off financially if their hours are spread across the whole working week rather than being concentrated over three days or less. This could easily be addressed with some focus, and I appreciate the comments the Minister has made. …

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this important matter regarding my constituency. It is about Kilcredan National School, which is located in the peripheral regions of Youghal and Midleton towns. It is a rural school but it is also a very large school. It came about because of the merger of three existing primary schools in that parish into one. Although it was a very good idea and the school is excellent, run by a brilliant team of people, they have come under huge pressure in recent years from the Department …

I welcome the Minister of State's statement. He understands rural Ireland and the issues I am raising because our constituencies are not that dissimilar. We share a county after all. I welcome the inclusion of Kilcredan in the pilot project by the Department of Education. I would appreciate if the Department would share that information with me so I can bring it back to the parents and the school and if the information was shared with the school. It is an easy issue to solve. There should be a recognition in the ma…

With your kind permission, a Cheann Comhairle, Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan will be sharing some of my time. I appreciate the opportunity to raise issues pertaining to my constituency and nationally relating to Irish Water. In particular, I want to raise the case of what is going on in Ballyhooly, a small village outside of the town of Fermoy. Ballyhooly has had ongoing significant problems with water outages and burst water pipes. I have raised the issue in the House on multiple occasions. There does not seem to be p…

I express my gratitude that this topic has been selected for discussion. It is incredibly important. It relates to the rapid development of solar across my constituency and in Cork North-Central and Cork South-Central. This is about what I see as the wholesale changing of the function of agricultural lands in my constituency and their use as solar farms. We are starting to see what these solar farms look like, with the developments that have already taken place in Midleton, and how they change the landscape. I will…

I thank the Minister of State. In my opening statement, I referred to what is happening with the solar development in the Killeagh-Inch area and Mountuniacke, but there are others, north of Midleton, in Leamlara, and Lisgoold, and towards Watergrasshill, more are being proposed in Kilquane around Knockraha. What is also disturbing, as the Minister of State highlighted, is the lack of regulation, which, by the way, really suits the developers. They love it. The famous statement is "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts", b…

In the context of the tariffs, I raise what we are doing here in Ireland and what we can control. So much of what is going on in the United States, no matter what Ireland says and no matter what Minister we dispatch to Washington, is not going to be able to reverse what the Trump White House intends to do. I was there a few weeks ago, and it was interesting. The Acting Chair was there and we got to see him in the flesh. They are very intent on what they are doing. Whether their ambition is to devalue the dollar or …

I raise with the Taoiseach the issue of energy security ahead of the infrastructure meeting. I want to bring forward the idea that Ireland follow suit and join other countries in the EU which use nuclear technology as part of their energy production. Ireland has the highest non-residential electricity prices in the European Union as of 2024, according to Eurostat. Finland has the cheapest because between 35% and 40% of its energy comes from nuclear power. Should we not look at nuclear as a solution instead of focus…

Household electricity prices in the EU in 2024 were the highest in Ireland and the lowest in Finland. The reason for this is that Finland generates 35% of its energy from nuclear power. Ireland has a growing economy of more than 5.3 million people. Do we need another Ardnacrusha Shannon scheme moment a century on where we decide how we are going to power our economy? In my constituency of Cork East, thousands of acres of agricultural land, the finest in the country powering our world-leading dairy sector. are being…

I thank Deputy Daly. I must say I agree with a lot of the points he made. I should not say that as the Chair, but anyway.

We now go to Deputy Paul Murphy. He has three and a half minutes.

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 26 March 2025.

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Jen Cummins - To discuss the need for a multidenominational school for Dublin 8. Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss the lack of school places for children with additional needs in the north inner city. Deputy William Aird - To discuss development of a new courthouse in Portlaoise. Deputy Alan Kelly - To discuss the requirement for a new hackney licence to…

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about coming tariffs and what they could do in particular to the whiskey industry in Ireland. I was with the Taoiseach in Washington DC this week. He did a difficult but good job representing the country. We are concerned about the impact coming tariffs could have on Irish Distillers. Could there be an investigation to see if bourbon could be excluded from EU tariffs to protect the Irish whiskey industry? We must recognise the role Midleton plays across the world with Irish Distillers. S…

I take the opportunity to recognise the delegation from the Danish Parliament who are joining us in the Gallery with Deputy Malcolm Byrne of Wexford. They are all very welcome. Ireland has had 62 years of a diplomatic relationship with Denmark - I checked. They are most welcome and I thank them for being here.

Deputy McGuinness please, without interruption.

One second. We have had a debate here without interruption from all sides and all parties, both Government and Opposition.

The only Members who have repeatedly commented since I sat in this chair are Deputies Cronin and Devine.