The Minister of State mentioned introducing subsidised public transport services. I want to raise the issue of rural children being excluded from the scheme because it has not been extended to commercial operators. At a recent appearance at the transport committee, David Conway from the Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland said his operators are excluded from the scheme. He found that surprising given they are included with some other elements. Our heavy reliance on commercial transport operators in rural…

Is mian liom ceist a chur ar an Aire Stáit mar gheall ar na salaries that have recently been announced for a number of incoming CEOs. Those salaries concern commercial State bodies under the aegis of the Minister of State’s Department. Has he discussed these increases with the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services Reform and Digitalisation?

Of course we need to ensure that we have the best people for the job but it is not all about top dogs and the CEO. In a cost-of-living crisis, will the Minister of State outline the reasoning behind these salary bumps, some of which are over 33%? This morning, I listened to representatives from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Ireland on the radio outlining that more and more families, particularly middle-income families, are seeking its help because of the massive increases in the cost of living in respect of el…

That would be fine if there were also fair play for workers and families, many of whom are also working in essential services. We need fair pay for them. The decision to abolish the pay cap is going to increase wage inequality. There will be a much bigger gap between the CEOs and the people who are doing the work on the ground. In the recent budget, supports to help people with the cost-of-living crisis were ripped away. Last year, the CSO identified that in-work poverty stands at 5.9%, meaning approximately 145,00…

I think I was meant to have the next question. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, to write to me via email with a response as to whether there is a review into concerns about whether Uber coming into the taxi market complies with the Taxi Regulation Act.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — there are 11 toll roads in operation across the State, 10 of which are on the national roads network with two of these being in full public ownership and eight roads across the State are tolled under Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the Minister for Transport holding responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the National Roads Programme; — motor tax can either be paid in one less expensive lump sum or more costly instalments disproportionately impac…

On a point of order, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, mentioned that there was countermotion. That was not notified to the proposers. We checked with the Whip's office and it does not seem to have it either.

There was none lodged. It was not moved.

If ever anybody in this State needed proof or evidence that the Government does not care about the cost-of-living crisis or the increased costs on motorists, they can see it in the Minister's own speech from earlier on. He said that this House should reject the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion and instead support the Government's countermotion on this matter. The Government did not even bother to lodge a countermotion. It is farcical in the replies the Minister gave earlier on that he mentioned he is aware that mo…

Did we start a bit ahead of schedule?

I ask the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment about the reforms to the energy market he is considering to reduce high energy costs. An interim report from the national energy affordability task force was published earlier this week. It was a disappointment to many because it identifies some of the well-known problems in Ireland's dysfunctional energy market but offers no solutions. Households are facing a fresh round of price hikes just as the Government rips away supports. They need action. This seems…

One of the frustrating things about the report from the steering group is that it is just an interim report. We have been told there will be a roadmap. If you were to be cynical, you would say that we first had a report and will now have a roadmap that will not be published until some time in 2026. It is really the destination that we are looking for. The report reaffirms what we have been saying for a long time, which is that no more than lip service is being paid to the crisis and that, because the energy credits…

I am glad the Minister mentioned the discussion he is having with the energy companies. Many of them say they had to put up prices due to the network charges, but network charges only rose by about €29 this year. At a recent meeting of the climate committee, the justification for the price hikes by, for example, Energia came under scrutiny. There are concerns that these are being used as an excuse but we in Sinn Féin introduced legislation to enable the Government to hold energy companies to account and it was reje…

In the last question the Minister mentioned the retrofitting and heat pump targets but the target to retrofit 500,000 homes to B2 standard and install 400,000 heat pumps by 2030 seems to be far behind. The Government has delivered just 12% and 3% of those targets. The Government has often said that investment and delivery will rapidly increase year on year, but the budget for 2026 tells a different story. The Minister said it was a record increase but it has the same capital allocation for retrofitting as the Revis…

I am not sure the priority has been proven to be those who are most in need. It is not just me questioning the Minister of State’s statement that significant progress has been made. Social Justice Ireland has said the retrofitting scheme constitutes little more than a wealth transfer. The programme for Government made a number of promises to focus on lower income homes to have retrofits each year from 2026 to 2030 but since then there have been zero changes to how the grant scheme is administered and zero effort to…

I accept there is a need to simplify the process because it seems to me there was a lack of planning in that some news reports said householders were told to roll back or change their retrofitting efforts on the basis that they were in breach of planning permission. Only 355 loans have been approved over the last year. If the average loan is about €48,000 that is only €17 million which is far from the game-changing results we were promised. Again, the high concentration of loans going towards the east coast has led…

The amount that can be raised through network charges to fund grid upgrades and the renewable heat obligation will come up soon. The Minister mentioned he has spoken to energy suppliers, but has he spoken to them as well as the regulator on the pressures these will put on household energy bills? While we accept that investment in the grid and transition to renewable heat are essential, what safeguards will be put in place to shield householders from increases?

Most people will know, and the people in the Gallery will know, that the need for the grid upgrades is driven in part by the growing energy demands of data centres, whose usage has increased by 400% since 2015. Therefore, all the extra energy we are creating in renewables is being gobbled up by the data centres. The Government's own officials last November, in a memo issued by the Department of public expenditure, pointed out that the upward pressure on energy bills is due mainly to data centre expansion. That foll…

I think we all agree that the equity investment we were discussing last night is necessary. Unfortunately, however, there does not seem to be anything there to safeguard against repeating past mistakes to ensure that the investment is directed towards the social good and to prioritising energy affordability. One company, Energia, justified its recent price hikes based on the network charge increases. On its website it says that it has worked to minimise the impact on customers but that the price changes are unavoid…

I am standing in for Deputy Carthy. I ask the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment his proposals to increase the amount of polyethylene terephthalate, PET, plastic recycled in Ireland. The EU is discussing collating data. We have to export a huge proportion of it. Since the deposit return scheme was introduced, the recycling rate has risen from 49% to 91%, 76% of which is from the deposit return scheme and 15% of which is from mixed recycling. Some €4.6 million was spent on public awareness last year an…