I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 12 together. The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I both attended the recent G20 Summit in South Africa. We had a number of conversations in the margins of meetings there, including on the situation in Ukraine, on which an informal meeting of the coalition of the willing took place. Previously, I met with Prime Minister Starmer at Chequers on 12 September. We discussed a broad range of matters, including the positive state of bilateral relations between Ireland and the UK. We also discussed the legacy framework - this was one of the reasons I went to Chequers - which was published subsequently on 19 September. The Prime Minister and I took note of progress on the UK-Ireland 2030 programme of strategic co-operation since the summit on 6 March on implementation across each of the programme’s four pillars of security, justice and global issues; climate, energy and innovation; growth, trade and investment; and culture, education and people-to-people links. We looked ahead to the second UK-Ireland summit, which Ireland will host in the spring of 2026. This work complements that undertaken under the British-Irish Council, which will meet in Wales later this week, and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which took place in Dublin on 17 November. The Prime Minister and I also discussed a range of international issues, including the catastrophic situation in Gaza. We agreed in particular on the then urgent need for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid at scale, as well as finding a pathway to a two-state solution for a lasting peace. We committed to continue to work together with the coalition of the willing to strengthen support for Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to stop its war of aggression on the people of Ukraine. Deputies may wish to be aware that the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, was in Ireland last week to mark the agreement of a new bilateral co-operation framework between Ireland and Scotland. The new framework includes six broad areas for future co-operation, including in the context of a strengthened Ireland-UK relationship. I also met with First Minister Swinney in Government Buildings during his visit.
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I thank all of the Deputies for raising a range of issues. Deputy Smith was the first to raise the issue of legacy. I believe there is a sincere commitment on behalf of the British Government as to the implementation of the legacy framework. That is shared by Prime Minister Starmer and, indeed, Secretary of State Hilary Benn, who has acted honourably in all of the negotiations and discussions in respect of the legacy framework. I visited Chequers last September specifically on legacy, along with other issues. It was important to meet with Keir Starmer on that. He has experience of the North from a former role there. I know the Deputy has been a strong advocate on Belturbet and Monaghan and Dublin. From our perspective, it is important that the Denton report may shed some light on the Monaghan bombing and related issues Deputy Ó Murchú raised. This is relevant also to the activities of the Glennane gang and we eagerly await its publication. Operation Kenova was quite good, in my view, particularly in terms of the victims, who were very impressed with Jon Boutcher when he was in charge of Kenova. They articulated to me that he was one of the first people they met who understood where the families of the victims are coming from. Deputy Moynihan also raised legacy. We have responsibilities in our jurisdiction. If assertions are made about us, we need to robustly deal with them, but the most effective way to do it is to make sure we respond properly to legacy. As part of the framework agreement, the British Government has, with speed, produced its legislation. That demonstrates the seriousness with which it is approaching this essential work. We are also producing legislation once the UK legislation is enacted. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has said he is hopeful the general scheme of the Bill will be published in April or May of next year. Enabling reciprocal co-operation between the two jurisdictions is at the heart of the agreed joint framework on legacy. Additionally, as part of the joint framework agreement, the Garda Commissioner has agreed to the establishment by the end of this year of a dedicated unit as a central point of contact in relation to Troubles-related investigations undertaken by An Garda Síochána. That is an important step forward. Unionist communities in the North have always had a view. We did the Smithwick tribunal and we dealt with it quickly as part of the commitment of earlier agreements, but we do also have to be upfront in terms of the legacy framework and respond properly and comprehensively in relation to that. I say to Deputy Ó Murchú and all those concerned about legacy that it is not about British state violence alone. It is about that, but it is also about the role of the paramilitaries, such as the Provisional IRA. I have met families of victims who have had no closure at all in terms of atrocities committed by the Provisional IRA or the Ulster loyalist groups. The focus has to be broad-based. There is an opportunity in this legacy framework to give closure to families once and for all, after decades of a lack of closure. Deputy Coppinger raised the issue of Saoirse Wagner and asked me to talk to the Queen's University authorities. The right to protest is sacrosanct. A number of Deputies have raised this issue. Sometimes protests impede other people from doing their normal work, which is a problem. People are entitled to protest. When the war in Gaza started, I was addressing a group of 100 law students, but the objective of a protest was to stop me and to interfere with the exercise and engagement with about 100 law students. People were shouting internally, security asked them to leave and eventually they did. I was in no doubt that the whole purpose was that I would not have that engagement. Where is the balance of rights there in terms of my freedom to speak as a public representative or the freedom of people in the community to hear me? A lot of protests have crossed the line, in my opinion, with a view to stopping things happening. During a consultative forum on security challenges that I hosted as Minister for foreign affairs two years ago, the protests at that were not about protests. They were deliberately calculated to disrupt the event.
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It was a legitimate consultation. If the Deputy believes in freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, what he and like-minded people were about was stopping that from even happening. They never complain about that. It is fair play for them to do that. There is balance here.
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Of course the Deputy knows about the protests. She knows all about them.
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They were on the public television, for God's sake.
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They were on the public television, in the media and everywhere. In this House-----
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-----assertions were made. I am not calling it that.
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The point I am illustrating is that there are different forms of protest on the continuum and some of those forms are unacceptable-----
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-----as an infringement of the rights of people generally. That is the point I am making.
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It is not a one-way street-----
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-----all of the time. That is the point I am making. Ramming gates at Shannon Airport is not a legitimate form of protest. Stopping trade through Dublin Port is not a legitimate form of protest-----
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-----because people's livelihood depends on it. Eighty per cent of trade in this country goes through Dublin Port. Having a problem with a company is not a justification, in my view, for disrupting the entire port. I have no problem having a debate. I participated in protests as a student. I think student protests are important.
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I did, actually
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The Deputy can do that. Joe Duffy was put in prison as a result of that protest. It was to do with medical cards. There you are now. Students in this country automatically had medical cards at one time. That was taken away in the eighties. The point is that legitimate protests-----
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I think it was the Deputy's former colleagues in the Labour Party.
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That is history. Protests happen, and I have no issue with that, but there is a continuum. I will take the Ceann Comhairle's advice. To Deputy Ó Murchú, I have dealt with some of the legacy issues, which Deputy Conway-Walsh also raised. I will talk to Queen's University on that point. In terms of the Dundalk bombing and the Glennane gang, I hope Operation Denton will shed light on that.
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I will come to that. On Deputy Boyd Barrett's question, there is no relationship between the strategy and policy of the Israeli Government and my views on the renaming of Herzog Park. I have a very basic view. Throughout the history of the State, there have been namings and renamings. I am, and have been, a student of history and I taught students. I always showed them that the names of parks could be the remnants of empire or anything, but they are windows to explain the history of a given subject or personality. If we keep shutting down everything that is named after somebody, there will be no history left.
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There will not be a history left.
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That is not the point.
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It is, actually, if you go back through his father and before that and examine how Jewish communities came to Ireland in the first instance. There is huge history there, for God's sake.
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As a historian and someone who is interested in history, I would be very careful.
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Breandán Ó hEithir wrote in Lig Sinn i gCathú about the thirties when places were being shut down left, right and centre.
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There is a lot more to it than that, but it has nothing to do with this. I can put Deputy Boyd Barrett at ease in that regard.
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By the way, I object, like the Deputy does, to Israel's consistent messaging that if you are not onside, you are offside or antisemitic. That is wrong. You are entitled to be against Israeli Government policy and criticise it and not be labelled antisemitic. That is absolutely correct and I support it. Deputy Tóibín should talk to his former colleagues in Sinn Féin in earnest and engage with them on the health services in Northern Ireland. That is one issue. There are broader problems with the National Health Service generally, but there are real issues in Northern Ireland. There is no question about the pressures on the health service there.
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Under the shared island initiative, we are trying to do specific projects and programmes, for example in paediatric and cardiovascular health, cardiac surgery and the cancer centre at Altnagelvin hospital. Those are good programmes that have worked very well. Deputy Quaide referred to Prime Minister Starmer. I do not see him as an authoritarian person when I meet him. I spoke about the continuum of protest. I am not au fait with British security services or why they came to do what they did in respect of Palestine Action. We have proceeded differently in this country. When I meet Prime Minister Starmer, I will have an opportunity to deal fundamentally with a range of issues although we cannot deal with every single issue. The UK has had challenges on both sides of the political spectrum in respect of protests and the nature of those protests. I dealt with the points raised by Deputy Shane Moynihan about Operation Denton. The Sudan issue is one I have raised consistently with leaders, including publicly, at the G20 summit and at the Africa-European Union summit. It is catastrophic. It rarely gets mentioned in this House, but 12 million people have been displaced. Genocide against the civilian population is happening there. Some of the rebel forces are being supported by neighbouring countries with arms and so forth. To respond to Deputy Conway-Walsh, the framework is Article 2 compliant. It is far stronger than its predecessor as a legacy Bill. Deputy Murphy raised the new co-operation agreement. It absolutely makes sense that we co-operate very closely with the United Kingdom on the gas connectors, for example. Those are a huge security vulnerability for both the UK and Ireland, but particularly for Ireland. Within a week, our economy would come to a standstill if anything untoward were to happen to those interconnectors. I hope the Deputy would agree that we should have close defence co-operation for our economic security, in particular, and for our subsea cables. That will mean a lot of technological co-operation. When a Russian shadow fleet crosses over those pipes or subsea cables, very often divers have to go down and check that the pipes are okay. That is co-operation. Letting people know that somebody who might be up to not good is in your terrain is co-operation. Intelligence services sharing information about terrorists or potential attacks is co-operation. There should be no big deal about co-operation. By the way, on the origin of our neutrality, it was not an anti-imperialist origin. In fact, at the consultative forum, there was a very good seminar on our neutrality and its origins. Obviously, the Second World War was at the core. We were neutral in not having issues with Britain and the occupation of Northern Ireland and so on, but the more fundamental issue was that it was a neutrality of survival. No one was in a position to defend Ireland in 1939, 1940 or 1941. There were good presentations made at that consultative forum but Deputy Murphy boycotted it because he felt it was not worthwhile. It would have been informative had he gone. It would have provided a more nuanced view-----
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-----of the origins of our neutrality.
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I apologise. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for her tolerance.
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 to 23, inclusive, together. Regulation, and the extent of any regulatory or administrative burden, has recently become a greater focus at European Union level and nationally as a means to further enhance competitiveness. At a European level, both simplification and implementation are important Commission priorities. The Commission is striving to simplify and lighten the administrative burden of European Union regulations to ensure they are proportionate, stable, coherent and technologically neutral. Likewise, our national regulatory framework is a central focus for the Government as we strive to support competitiveness at a time of international economic uncertainty. In line with the programme for Government, we published an action plan on competitiveness and productivity on 10 September this year. The action plan includes actions across government to ensure the development of a more effective regulatory system which will support economic growth. These actions reflect priority areas where targeted public policy intervention can have the greatest impact. These include a red-tape challenge to reduce regulation for SMEs; the application of the SME test by Government Departments to all measures, in particular policy initiatives where it is proposed to increase costs on small businesses; expediting the Environmental (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill; commencing reforms, as we have done, under the Planning and Development Act 2024 to enhance delivery of infrastructure; and implementing the outstanding recommendations from the review of the administration of civil justice review group report. Increased regulatory burden has also been identified as a barrier to infrastructure development and delivery. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, supported by the work of the accelerating infrastructure task force, this morning, with Government colleagues including me, the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, published a plan which will include extensive regulatory reforms aimed at accelerating the delivery of critical infrastructure. Today's plan provides the blueprint to reduce complexity and blockages in the system and deliver infrastructure with urgency. The changes we are initiating today are vital if we are to maintain our competitive position in an ever uncertain world. They are also necessary to support our citizens with top class public services, job security, access to housing and all other facilities necessary to enjoy the stability and good quality of life we are all entitled to expect. The actions are ambitious but achievable, and delivering them will require commitment and co-operation across a broad and diverse range of stakeholders, from political, legal and public sectors, industry and society as a whole. We have established a cost-of-business advisory forum where business owners and representative bodies can speak directly to decision-makers about the real-world impact of regulations, fees and operational challenges. The work of that forum is under way. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, is working on the simplification omnibus packages put forward by the European Commission in a range of policy areas, most recently the Commission's digital simplification omnibus package, which was published last month. My Department will play a co-ordinating role across these different regulatory reform initiatives, as outlined in the action plan on competitiveness and productivity, including the establishment of a central economic regulators' forum, and we will work with the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and other Government colleagues on that agenda.
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Deputy McCormack raised infrastructure reform, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses. Some of the measures we have taken in respect of deferring the alignment of the minimum wage with the national living wage will help to avoid the escalation of costs because the SME sector has borne the brunt of a lot of additional costs over the past five years. There is no doubt the reduction in VAT on hospitality will help a lot of SMEs in the hospitality sector and hairdressing as well. The number of sick days leave is going to be quickly expanded. We have expanded it to three days. The cumulative cost of everything has been fairly excessive. The Small Business Forum is there to try to balance imposition on small business as well as the cost. The other issue is the sequential approach to planning and regulations as opposed to a concurrent approach whereby instead of waiting for the planning to be done, agencies do the procurement. Instead of waiting for environmental assessments, doing them all in parallel would speed up a lot of activity. In many instances, we are constantly looking at the avoidance of increased cost for SMEs and trying to slow down the increased costs that have come their way. It is interesting the rate of youth employment has crept up in the past six to nine months. I believe that is related to costs on SMEs. Deputy Dolan is correct that retrofitting is the most effective way to reduce costs. Between 2019 and September 2025, the Government provided over €1.5 billion in support to homeowners for over 228,000 upgrades, including 30,000 fully funded retrofits under the warmer homes scheme. It is estimated that if a deep retrofit is done, it can save a household up to €1,100 per year in energy costs. I get the Deputy's point that the administration of it needs to be faster. There is also resource demand in respect of it as well with some people not being able to afford to do retrofits because of the cost. On Deputy Ó Murchú's issue, I do not have the specifics on Ardee Educate Together National School. I do not know what the interaction with the county council is, but in any event-----
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They should sort it out. A school is an important facility. The county council should be facilitative in the building of a school.
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Deputy O'Rourke raised regulation online. We have now established the regulatory framework governing online. There is ongoing review in respect of it. Children must be protected. That has to be the optimal. Deputy Coppinger raised healthcare assistants and family reunification. We have significant reunification in Ireland under our migration system, in particular when people leave direct provision who have residency. The Minister will bring forward legislation in respect of this and these are issues we can discuss in greater detail at that stage. On Deputy Murphy's point, I will talk to the Ministers responsible. There has to be proper regulation of management companies. There are fundamental rights involved in terms of those complexes. I will pursue that with the Minister and see where we are in terms of amendment to primary legislation. Deputy Quaide raised the issue of counselling and psychotherapy. On qualification frameworks and regulators generally, we want more therapists, but they have to be highly qualified. Public health is number one and the protection of the consumer. In some instances, they can be quite protectionist as well. The judgment called for regulators and I would like CORU to get the judgment right in terms of not having the bar so high that there are only highly qualified, and others are not. That is not just in terms of therapy and counselling; that is in terms of teaching and a range of other issues. Deputy Conway-Walsh raised the regulation of quarries. I will talk to the Minister involved in that. We can overregulate too but I take the Deputy's point about the quality of aggregate and quality of the product. There are existing systems to deal with that. The SEAI is there. There are various regulatory bodies to deal with the quality of materials, but I will talk to the Minister in respect of that. New bodies were set up after the defective blocks scheme. Deputy Boyd Barrett raised taxi regulation. I will talk to the Minister about the issues that the Deputy raised. There is a balance between consumers, those availing of taxis and the regulation of same. We had regulation a long time ago; it did not work. There was always an imbalance between supply and demand. I will look at this and will talk to the Minister for Transport in respect of it. He is fully aware of it.
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