It is the EPA saying this, not me.

The new battery electric DART to Wicklow town was first promised in 2019 by then Minister, Shane Ross. His expectation was that Wicklow would see that electric DART by 2023. In 2021, a local Government backbencher stated that the carriages would be operational by 2025. In 2022, the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, announced that the electric DART would be operational by 2026. In February 2025, the date was pushed back to 2028. Last year, it was pushed back again to 2029. It was announced last month that Irish Rai…

The NTA in its current form is too distant, too rigid and too centralised. Simply put, it is not local enough. This Bill will go some way to help in this regard. The authority is not embedded in the communities it serves and it is increasingly seen as a large, unresponsive bureaucracy. Decisions are being made about towns and villages by an organisation that does not understand how they work. This is a major issue. I see it every day in my constituency of Wicklow. In Greystones, four school principals are represent…

We are not happy with that leader.

Yesterday the Government announced new rules and legislation regarding puppy farming. This is very welcome because for far too long, this and previous Governments have ignored animal welfare issues. However, there is a glaring omission in the legislation and that is the mention of a cap. Is it still the case that puppy farms will be able to have 300 female dogs breeding on site and potentially thousands of pups? If it is, then that is a huge flaw in the legislation. Last December the Social Democrats brought forwar…

It says an awful lot about the Government and about the Ministers in Government that-----

-----what was stated here and the promises and commitments made to us that night were not upheld.

I welcome the opportunity to mark National Biodiversity Week. I want to first set the baseline. Where we are at present when it comes to nature and biodiversity in Ireland is not a good place. A total of 90% of Ireland's EU-protected habitats are in unfavourable conditions, and 51% are deteriorating. Ireland has one of the lowest levels of protected land in the EU, with only 6% being designated as SPAs and 10% as SACs. Some 14.7% of Irish species are threatened with extinction, and 2.7% are already regionally extin…

What did the Tánaiste say about debates in this Chamber?

This week, I went to Clonshaugh in Dublin to see what was supposed to be the 199 bus, which was meant to go from Glendalough through Roundwood to Bray. The 199 service was announced in April 2025. In May, I was told by the NTA that it was fully funded. In June, it went out for tender and in August, Nolan Coaches won that tender. It bought a bus and hired four drivers for that service. It was meant to start in September. September came and went - no bus. January came and went - no bus. March came and went - no bus. …

I thank the Minister for her contribution and for meeting with us and the interim Chief Medical Officer, CMO, and the deputy CMO. She has gone through all of the reasons this is not going to work. She gave technical details. However, we can agree on the principle of what we are trying to achieve. We want this to go to the next Stage where we can have that in-depth discussion. We need to bring the experts before the committee. We need to bring people with lived experiences before the committee. We need to have this …

That is rubbish.

Half a billion euro has been left unspent when it comes to climate action measures. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, in the middle of incredible energy shocks, where people cannot afford to pay their electricity bills. We need to have a debate on how the Government is going to spend that money. The Social Democrats have proposed a solar-for-all scheme and a targeted energy scheme. We need to see some movement on this. Can we have a debate on the matter?

It is economically illiterate for this country to sit on €500 million that has been set aside for climate action and not spend it while at the same time looking at funding renewable energy projects in other countries to make up for the fact that we have not done enough on climate in this country. It is crazy. Will the Taoiseach please explain his rationale on that?

Ireland is one of the lowest rank countries when it comes to protecting nature. A total of 90% of protected sites are in unfavourable condition. It is going to cost hundreds of millions of euro to restore nature across this island. Where will that funding come from? Is the Taoiseach having any conversations at a European level about funding nature restoration?

I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill. The Social Democrats will be supporting it. Transparency in our energy pricing sector is long overdue. This Bill ensures that. It also strengthens the mandate of the CRU to actively intervene in the energy market in the name of the public interest. It places energy affordability at the heart of energy regulation. This is all very welcome. For too long, Irish households have been asked to accept price increases and to trust that those increases are justified and fair with…

The EU is built on partnerships and collaboration. It works because member states commit to pulling their weight, particularly on cross-border challenges like climate change. Climate change policy within the EU relies on the key principle of trust that every country will do its part. Today, we learned in The Irish Times that Ireland might be trying to buy its way out of delivery by funding renewable projects abroad rather than meeting targets at home. That is not partnership; that is avoidance. That avoidance will …

People all over this country are being absolutely crushed by incredibly high electricity prices that are just going up and up. We have 317,000 households in arrears. These are people who work hard and do all the right things but just cannot manage to keep their heads about water. It really does not have to be this way. The Social Democrats have put forward a proposal for solar for all, a doubling of the grants, a battery grant for households, to include the warmer homes scheme in the solar panels scheme and to also…

I thank and acknowledge the Minister for being here today. I have often spoken in this House about animal welfare, particularly puppy farms and the regulation of dog breeding. One of the things that we can agree on in this House is that Ireland is a nation of dog lovers. If the Minister goes down any street, he will find someone out walking their much-loved dog. They form a huge part of our homes and our families. Unfortunately, there are far too many people in this country who are not dog lovers, and, in fact, see…

I thank the Minister. I appreciate his answer and clearly this is something he wants to drive strongly forward, so I look forward to working with him on it. It is a really important piece of work and I have always wondered why there was never any previous moves to strengthen it. It is good to hear the Minister is taking that seriously and I look forward to hopefully seeing the results and report from the stakeholder group because it is important it is taken into account in the legislation. We will wait for that pro…