The Government could not have had a more targeted measure than the energy credits that we have had for the last number of years and people are facing the same if not higher energy prices now. The Government continues to blame everyone apart from itself for it. The costs are due to political choices about whose energy needs get prioritised, who pays and who is protected. However, the Government has chosen to prioritise the energy needs of data centres and the profits of energy companies rather than ordinary people w…

Officials warned that the Government’s approach to data centres is posing a threat to housing targets and driving up our energy costs. Does the Government plan to continue to bury its head in the sand or is it going to tackle this head on? I am not sure which Minister of State is going to take this question, but if it is the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, I was listening to him on Radio Kerry last week when he was talking about marine planning. He criticised the Government, saying it needed to move away from nav…

The large energy users the Minister of State is talking about are relatively getting off the hook and they are pushing up household bills. In a confidential memo recently released to us under a freedom of information request, the Secretary General of the Department of public expenditure warned that soaring electricity demand, largely attributable to data centres, is forcing the State to spend heavily on new power generation and grid upgrades. As the grid is paid for through network charges, this is inevitably leadi…

Why then is the Secretary General of the Department saying what is being said and that housing is being threatened by the larger users of electricity? The current proposal in price review 6 is to increase network charges for households. Presumably, the Minister of State does not disagree with that. At the same time, the proposal is to decrease charges relatively for data centres. This is unjustifiable. The excuse used by a lot of the energy providers, such as Energia, is that their network charges are rising. Small…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the time to raise this important issue. The Equality in Education group has said that 168 children have been offered an appropriate school place but cannot take it up due to delays in essential building works. We believe there is a certain amount of waiting list manipulation going on. A place in an unbuilt school is not a place. A place in a cubby hole with no changing facilities for two children is not a place. Even when special transport is granted to a school that does not t…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am delighted to propose that the Criminal Justice (Promotion of Restorative Justice) (Amendment) Bill 2023 move to Committee Stage. I thank Deputy Quinlivan for co-signing the Bill and Professor Ian Marder of Maynooth University, who did a lot of work in helping us to prepare the Bill. I also thank Lee Daly, who worked in my office, and the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, for its work in helping us along with the Bill. Many changes to criminal justi…

I will briefly wrap up. I would like to be associated with all the comments made regarding the staff, the Ceann Comhairle, the Department of justice and my own party. I have a couple of brief points to make. There should be very few limits, if any, on restorative justice. I see what the Minister of State is saying about dismissing cases but cases are commonly dismissed under the probation Act anyway. The Minister of State also mentioned that this could affect Garda vetting. There was a Garda vetting Bill that propo…

We welcome the establishment of this commission of investigation into historical sexual abuse in schools. It is long overdue, of course. The commission must seek to acknowledge the harm done to the thousands of children in this State. We urge that the commission is carried out in a proper manner, avoids the failings of previous commissions and that it puts survivors at the very heart of everything. I previously mentioned to the Minister some of the other survivors of mother and baby homes, for example, and the good…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis labhairt ar an mBille um Thorann Aerárthaí (Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath) a Rialáil (Feidhmeanna a Aistriú), 2024. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Duncan Smith. I thank him for the effort that he has put into this Bill. It addresses an important issue, namely how we manage the impact of a growing airport on the surrounding environment and local communities. This Bill recognises that the current framework guiding the regulation of aircraft noise is not fit for purpose and a change in appro…

Gabhaim buíochas le hOifig an Chinn Comhairle as an deis a thabhairt dom an cheist seo a ardú. I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the time to raise a matter, which is of deep concern to people in south Kerry. The Minister of State is probably aware of this issue and I hope he will have a positive answer for the people who are waiting for one. As the Minister of State will be aware, a hub for outpatient psychiatric services in St. Anne's Hospital, Cahersiveen holds a fortnightly clinic for out…

I am, but this matter is so important. I am going down straight after it.

It is not about the Minister of State.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. If we got some proper answers, rather than smart answers, from the Minister of State, then we would not have to go down that road. From the Minister of State's answer, I understand there is a requirement to find a more suitable location for the National Ambulance Service, but this does not have to be at the expense of the good services carried out in the Cahersiveen area. If the Minister of State would only focus on the issue at hand, we are not talking about Killorglin. There a…

The all-island strategic rail review sets out a vision for the development of Ireland's rail system to 2050. It was jointly commissioned by the Department of Transport and the Department for Infrastructure in the North. The review aptly demonstrates the advantage of taking an all-island view, which the Minister of State hinted at. Appropriately enough, it has 32 recommendations. These aim to enhance connectivity across the island, with high-speed trains, an expansion of the rail network, double-track upgrades, new …

We cannot equivocate on this issue. The volatility in the Middle East has been caused by Israel's ongoing decades-long genocidal campaign in Palestine and by its recent aggression against Iran. Israel is acting with impunity as the world watches on. Nearly 100,000 people are dead, with many more left permanently disabled or as lone survivors. As Mo Chara said, "The Palestinians have nowhere to go. It’s their ... home and they’re bombing them from the skies". Babies and toddlers have had multiple limbs amputated bef…

Jordan Devlin is an Irish citizen. He is one of the Filton 18. He has been held on remand in Wormwood Scrubs since August 2024 on charges, among others, of criminal damage and violent disorder. The charges relate to dismantling weapons, including a quadcopter drone which is used in the relentless attacks on Gaza.

I am coming to the question.

He is being held on remand at the moment in Wormwood Scrubs.

The trial is not until later in the year. I am asking the Minister to take up this case with the British Government because Mr. Devlin is being held on charges which are not counter-terrorism charges, even though that is the method being used to keep him on remand. He and some of his co-accused will be in jail until next year. I ask the Minister to take up this case as urgently as possible to have him released on bail.

This is one of the most frustrating issues I am dealing with in County Kerry. It is clear that too many children are being denied their right to education. Parents are contacting me about this issue, including, recently, one parent who has been involved in education for 20 years. Her other children have gone through the system. It is with her youngest child that she has faced the system and the bureaucracy. She feels increasingly frustrated, despite having given every inch she has to obtain an early education class…