They are tied to it.

Twenty-nine per cent of Irish households are now living in fuel poverty. That is the highest number on record. The percentage of domestic electricity customers in arrears is heading towards 13%. Some 300,000 electricity customers and 183,000 gas customers are in arrears. Since 2021, electricity costs have increased by 69%. The cost of gas has increased by 102% in the same period. Electricity companies are still jacking up those prices. It is incredible. The Minister and the Government always talk about the fact tha…

The average price of a house sold last year was €426,000. This is eight times the average income at the moment. The average rental price for a two-bedroom apartment at the moment in this State is over €2,000. It is an incredible situation. We talk about the homeless figures and we do not realise how serious it is. A total of 402 people have died in homelessness just in Dublin in a five-year period. Nobody is actually recording those figures in any other local authority in Ireland. It is incredible. I want to raise …

The greater Dublin region is grinding to a halt. If you stand on any bridge on the M50 in the morning and look north or south, a stationary line of cars stretches out as far as the eye can see. The cost of congestion is going to reach €1.5 billion by 2040. Dublin is ranked the worst capital in Europe in terms of time and money wasted because of traffic congestion. Incredibly, studies show that the average speed of a car is now 12 km/h. That is slower than the horse-drawn carriages of the 19th century, believe it or…

The Tánaiste mentioned a number of stages in a multi-stage process. Each of those stages is taking longer than it actually took to build it in the 1860s with picks and shovels.

The national development plan review means very little. At best it is talking about the rail line being delivered by 2036 but there is already a landowner talking about taking a judicial review against it, which is going to blow that out of the water. This project is in reverse. We were told we were going to have the railway order in 2026 and now it is being pushed back to the end of 2027. The Government has increased the budget, I agree, but those come after this country being second from the bottom in Europe for …

At the rate this Government is going, yes.

The purpose of the British legacy Bill was to grant to amnesty to those who had killed innocent civilians. There appears to be a significant contradiction in the position of the Irish and British Governments in the new joint framework that seeks to replace that. The British Government is briefing that there will be safeguards for British army veterans. I asked Simon Harris this question and he said that was separate from the joint framework and that the British were looking for their own safeguards in their own leg…

It is more likely to happen in a united Ireland.

The New Ireland Forum.

The New Ireland Forum.

We are just giving suggestions.

But it is not getting us anywhere.

Will the Taoiseach address the lopsided protections for veterans?

It is a problem then.

It is all in the delivery.

The children's disability network team, CDNT, in Meath is not fully staffed. According to statistics I received today, there are 20 vacant posts across disability teams in Kells, Dunshaughlin, Navan, Slane and Trim. Separate data received by Aontú today show that the Government is actually reducing the number of college places for speech and language therapists, from 370 in the year before Covid to 355 last year. The Government is reducing the number of students filling the necessary college places on an annual bas…

Aontú obviously supports this Bill. We support the arrangements to allow for seating in public spaces for pubs and restaurants without a need to license it. There is a big question here regarding what is happening our pubs in this country. There is a significant fall-off in the number of pubs on an annual basis. There is a significant change in the social behaviour of society. More alcohol is sold in off-licenses every year and less alcohol is sold in pubs every year, and that is bad thing. A pint sold in a pub is …

Aontú believes that we as a country should do our best to help those who are fleeing war and violence. We believe that there are many people who come to Ireland and make a really valuable contribution to our society and that there are many essential sectors that would not function properly if we did not have these people here. We believe that everybody who is here should be treated with respect if they are here legally and we believe that the colour of a person's skin is of no more significance than the colour of t…

This Government has been an absolute disaster when it comes to building homes. It is by far the biggest failure of this Government over the past while and it is hitting families massively and especially young people hard. House prices are now eight times the average earnings and the average house price sold last year was €426,000, an amazing figure. The average rent currently for a two-bedroom home is €2,000 and the availability of homes has crashed since pre-Covid levels. Incredibly, we have 16,600 people languish…