I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the price of energy has more than doubled in the past year; — consumers' energy bills have increased to an average of €4,300 per year; — more than 40 per cent of households are now estimated to be living in fuel poverty, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute; — a consultant geriatrician at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital told RTÉ in December 2022 that older people were developing hypothermia in their homes because their homes were so cold; — the…

The Minister of State's response to the Social Democrats proposal for a targeted price cap does not make sense. He says that he is reluctant to do this because the profits of energy companies could skyrocket. Those profits are skyrocketing now, and we are seeing people suffer. We are seeing businesses go under, parents who cannot feed their children and elderly people who are suffering from hypothermia because they are afraid or unable to put on their heating. The reason the Social Democrats proposed the price caps…

The Dáil is in the final stages of legislating for the redress scheme for the survivors of the mother and baby homes. There is widespread criticism of this scheme from Opposition, legal and human rights experts and, most importantly of all, from the survivors. The main criticism stems from the exclusion of survivors who have spent less than six months in these institutions. That means the trauma of a baby who was forcibly removed from his or her mother is not being acknowledged by this scheme. That accounts for app…

The Tánaiste should not compound the wrongs.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I will raise the issue of hyperemesis. As she is aware, it is a condition whereby pregnant people suffer from severe nausea and vomiting. It is very debilitating for people and can lead to many of them ending up in hospital through dehydration or weight loss. It impacts 1% to 2% of pregnancies. There was a campaign by Hyperemesis Ireland relating to the medication used to treat hyperemesis, Cariban, which is incredibly expensive, prohibitively so for many women…

There are a few things in the Minister of State's response that I find quite concerning. The first is that it is quite a hands-off response. It sort of says, "We have done what we can do and now it is up to the clinicians and the people suffering from this to lobby the drug manufacturers to get them to put the application in." That is not good enough. There is an issue. If, as the Minister of State says, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, recognises it as an issue, he should be looking for solutions to help women in or…

Will the Minister of State ask the Minister to review this process with the HSE?

Coillte and the issue of forestry are rightly the topics of this week. I have received hundreds of emails from constituents on the issue. A protest about the issue is happening outside the gates of Leinster House now. The Minister and his Government have been caught out by the public in allowing a deal to go ahead that they should never have entertained. I am also sure everyone concerned about the Coillte deal will be equally as exercised when they read in today's Irish Examiner a piece by Paul Hosford about the EU…

The Minister needs to read the letter from the EU.

The Government and the EU are completely at odds on this matter.

The EU agrees but says that is not happening.

When this Government talks about forestry, biodiversity or our environment, it says all the right things. It says all the things that people in our communities want to hear. We have the Tánaiste talking about rewilding land. We have the Taoiseach talking about turning the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss and leaving the planet to the next generation in a better condition than we inherited it. We hear the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan's evocative descriptions of forestry and what Ireland could and sho…

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I appreciate this is not his area, so I hope he has been well briefed. It is a pity the Minister for Education is not here to take this issue because it is important for many students and parents in north Wicklow. Greystones Community College is a secondary school in Greystones. For many years, there was great pressure and demand for school places in our locality and we were delighted when the school was sanctioned, given it met a significant need in the area. Since its …

I thank the Minister of State but, unfortunately, not a single question was answered and there has been no further update on this issue. He said the Department has a strong record of building schools and I absolutely disagree, not least in respect of Wicklow. In that county, there have been years of instances where demand has built up and students cannot get into a school within their locality, where they have to fight for a place and where their parents or the school community have to campaign. When a school is fi…

On a point of order-----

Coillte’s plans to partner with a private investment fund are causing huge concern across the country. Under the plans, Coillte will source tens of thousands of acres in rural Ireland, plant the trees and manage the forests. The State entity will do all the work with regard to this project - it will do all the heavy lifting - but private international investors will reap the rewards. This is a very lucrative investment for them: it is secure, low risk and profitable. Why is the Government facilitating this land gra…

The Government is subsidising these investors. They are using the same money to subsidise UK investors.

I will always welcome talking about climate in this Chamber but today I wish we had the implementation plan for the climate action plan. The clue is in the title; we need to see action. It is not just me or other Members of the Opposition who are saying we need to move from talk to action. It is also being said by the Climate Change Advisory Council, CCAC, and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. Hopefully we will have statements again when the implementation plan is published because that is going to be very …

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Bill. It speaks to a real concern many people have about the State's ability to ensure we have a secure supply of fuel not just for the coming winter and spring of 2023 but into the future as well. Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, fuel prices and supply chains have been heavily impacted. Many people are living that reality. It is good to see this kind of measure being given time in the Dáil. I share the concerns of others about how we are seeing many emergency measures …

I too send my sincere sympathies to the loved ones, family and colleagues of the soldier who was tragically killed last night and to the soldiers who have been injured. It is a devastating thing to happen for those families. Will the Minister provide an update on all carbon reductions achieved as a direct result of implemented targets in the Climate Action Plan 2021?