First of all, I do not believe €750,000 is right, proper or appropriate in terms of 14 steps, but it seems to me the scheme that was completed by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was not just about 14 steps. Nonetheless, the cost is excessive by any yardstick. The Deputy said Sinn Féin had called for a waste audit. I think Sinn Féin could take the example of Deputy Albert Dolan here in front of me, who has done more than most Deputies in the House to shine a light on public expenditure with his online facility and so on. He is a Deputy who is doing the work Sinn Féin is asking us to do.
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Sinn Féin is very good at asking and asking but, surely it has a bit of resources and capacity, if it is that concerned about waste-----
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-----other than utilising a particular case, which was bad, to try to just go on the waste thing as a political and electoral exercise. In terms of the interaction between the NTA and the county council, €750,000 is too much. Accessibility is very important. In that context, accessibility for wheelchair users, cyclists, parents with buggies and so on was the original objective, apparently, of this scheme by the council and the NTA. More generally, about €360 million of capital funds has been provided for walking and cycling infrastructure in 2025, the vast majority of which was on budget and on time and provided exceptional resources to people. That is the other side of this story. We can pick the one project that is, without question, excessive and difficult to comprehend in terms of costs, but there have been many other projects I have witnessed that have revolutionised active travel in every town, city and county in the country. Thankfully, more funding will be announced today in respect of more active travel in terms of greenways and so forth. Yes, there has to be a rigorous focus on costs - there is no question about that - and on value for money in respect of changes. There is a local authority audit structure to audit what local authorities are doing, and also in respect of the NTA. I am sure the Deputy is aware, as she has probably spoken to her party's councillors and so on, that this particular project apparently included a new pedestrian-cycle ramp, new granite to upgrade the existing concrete footpaths, construction of a new signalised pedestrian crossing, traffic calming measures, retaining walls and so on, which were all put in. That is a significant list. Again, I do not personally engage in every item of council expenditure, although I think the work that Albert Dolan has done has been very effective in providing material for people to track public expenditure on specific projects. I am sure Sinn Féin can avail of his good work in respect of that. It is a serious issue if a council exceeds significantly. The original cost was in or around €400,000 and the final cost was €750,000. By any yardstick, that is unacceptable, notwithstanding whatever complexities were involved. Admhaím nach bhfuil sé sin sásúil in aon chor. Bhí an togra faoi stiúir ag Comhairle Contae Dhún Laoghaire agus Ráth an Dúin. Bhí sé ag oibriú leis an NTA ar dtús ach don togra faoi leith seo, is an iomarca caiteachais ar fad é.
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I just have.
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The Minister, Deputy Chambers, has already introduced more robust and tighter procedures in the area of public spending. On the other hand, the Deputy is saying we are very mean and so on, we are being criticised for overspending-----
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-----notwithstanding her desire that we spend billions more.
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The Deputy wants us to spend billions more than we allocated in the budget. Ireland's economy is one of the fastest growing economies globally. The stewardship of this economy has been good by this Government and by the previous Government despite Covid-----
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-----despite Brexit, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed and the tariffs emanating from the United States. This has been a competent Government with regard to the economic management of this country.
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The policies we have pursued are far superior to anything Sinn Féin has produced on the economic front over the past number of years.
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There is no question about that. We have no truck with any waste in public expenditure-----
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-----and we will deal with it at every layer of Government. Sinn Féin has councillors on that council. Were its councillors with every other councillor tracking it? It is not good enough that there should be that level of expenditure, but we will deal with it.
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A credible which?
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Yes, they will. I will say on the IFAC criticisms that you have had both sides. I also welcome the transition year students. By the way, the Deputy's party was notified by email at 2.30 p.m. on Friday that I would not be here yesterday. There was maybe a bit of inadvertent misleading of the House yesterday but we will pass over that. IFAC did a research note recently on the impact of US tariffs and other policy changes that might affect corporation tax receipts. There is a downside to it. We know about the exceptional reliance on corporation tax, but that is accepted. Equally, IFAC stated in that note that while there was a surge in pharma exports due to the tariffs at the beginning of the year, there has also been a permanent increase in activity here. Ireland is still a key manufacturing hub for ingredients in popular weight-loss drugs. They will grow strongly. Global sales will reach 62 billion in 2030. The patents do not expire until 2036 or 2037. The global minimum tax pillar 2 will generate extra top-up revenues. The point I am making is that we need downside and upside scenarios in economic planning. Invariably, if it is a downside, IFAC has to do that as that is its job. However, it is equally valid to say you need upside scenario planning as well in future forecasting and planning. That does not tend to happen. I am saying that as a criticism of Government as well as the Government tends to go on the downside. That is acceptable. I have no issue other than to say that we should look at the other side of the equation as well. There is also the determination of expenditure rules. Future expenditure rules in my view should be credible and reflect growth of the real economy and inflation rates. Perhaps the fiscal target of 5% at the beginning of the previous Government did not adequately reflect real economic and inflation growth. What happened subsequently was that budgets went ahead of the 5%. When you factor in population growth in particular and the consequential pressures on services you begin to see how expenditure rose over that fiscal rule. Of course, we will be submitting a medium-term fiscal plan to Europe as is required, but we have to get it right. Deputy Bacik will be the first Deputy in here at next year's budget or the budget afterwards saying that we should have spent more on this or that. I want to make sure we have a medium-term fiscal rule with the Minister for Finance and Deputy Canney and the Independents that reflects reality, population growth and potential expenditures, and once we agree it to stay within those limits. The rule has to be realistic in the context of real economic growth and inflation forecasts and we are working on that. The IMF has done some work on this in respect of Ireland.
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We have announced a €270 billion national development plan. That is the fundamental pillar of this Government, and we have already allocated the funding. Today a transport sectoral plan will be published which will be significant for roads, rail and bus developments that will happen as a result of that. We will have a children and disabilities sectoral development plan. We will have a health sectoral development plan that puts flesh on the bone of real projects that will happen. It will be transformative. It is not just investment. It is also reform led by the Department of public expenditure and Jack Chambers in respect of the infrastructure division and getting infrastructure done faster. If we could have fewer objections and judicial reviews, we might achieve that. The Deputy spoke about a €300 million VAT reduction for construction and apartments. If we get more apartments built, we will get a net increase in revenue out of it, not a reduction. We do need more apartments. There is no question about that. We are not building enough of them. That is why the VAT reduction in the budget was introduced, along with all the other measures we have done on housing, including rental reform of the RPZs, which was recommended by the Housing Commission, to make sure we will get accommodation and private sector and public sector investment in housing to get the number of houses and apartments we need built.
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I could not agree more in terms of the depraved and shocking violence against women in our society on an ongoing basis. It is truly shocking. This is despite the fact that the Government has taken unprecedented actions legislatively to deal with this, including the establishment of an agency, Cuan, which is doing good work. The previous Government established that to deal with domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. About €80 million has been allocated to support Cuan and services working to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. That is an increase of €12 million year on year. However, that on its own will not solve what are more fundamental issues within society itself. The Government has a zero tolerance attitude to this, and we are supporting quite a number of community organisations that support victims and survivors. We will accelerate the delivery of additional refuge spaces and safe accommodation while also providing stronger supports. There is funding for additional safe spaces, with a commitment to provide 282 safe spaces by the end of 2026. I am sure the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and Cuan can provide the Deputy with their timelines for the various centres that need to get done and their development. The Minister is also introducing significant legislative change to allow for the removal of guardianship rights from a person who has been convicted of killing their intimate partner under the proposed Guardianship of Infants (Amendment) Bill and has advanced provisions to limit the disclosure of counselling records in rape and sexual assault cases under the proposed criminal law and civil law Bill 2025. That was agreed some weeks ago by Cabinet. The Minister secured Government approval on 21 October to progress the criminal law (sexual offences, domestic violence and international instruments) Bill. That includes measures to allow perpetrators of domestic violence to be included on a new register run by the courts and strengthen the law on sexual consent. Convictions will be published online by the Courts Service under a specific heading of domestic violence judgment register. This will help people who are in a relationship or considering a relationship with a person to discover whether the person has a history of serious domestic violence convictions. Victims will be required to provide consent before the convicted abuser can be named on the public register. The Minister secured Cabinet approval for the drafting of legislation to address the disclosure of counselling records in sexual offences criminal trials. This will amend the current statutory framework to ensure that judicial oversight governs the disclosure of such records-----
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-----and that disclosure takes place only when, in the court's opinion, it is necessary to avoid an unfair trial. Drafting is at an advanced stage and is continuing at pace. The Minister will also examine other steps, including additional adjustments to legislation, in order to further restrict the disclosure of counselling records and is consulting with the relevant stakeholders in that regard.
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To be fair to the Minister, he is advancing and working at pace in respect of legislation on the disclosure of counselling-----
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I did not interrupt the Deputy. Maybe she should engage with the Minister-----
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-----in an informed and evidence-based way. The Minister will be very open with Opposition spokespeople in dealing with this in the context of what is possible and what is not possible. The Government's view is very strongly supportive of reducing significantly, and seeing how far we can go-----
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-----in avoiding, the use of counselling notes against victims-----
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-----and in terms of other measures the Minister is prepared to consider. More fundamental, however, than all the legislation in the world is a change of culture and approach within society itself.
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I know the Deputy's job is to criticise the Government and so on, but there are more fundamental issues at stake in terms of violence against women. The Minister has done some research and so on. Universal access to violent pornography, for example, is now emerging as a factor in the level of violence that has been perpetrated against women.
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We need to deal with this collectively.
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I agree with him. There is a serious issue facing society which will undermine the cohesion of society in terms of the level of hate out there and the level of hate that is articulated online and, worse, in terms of the actual murder of people and physical attacks, as the Deputy mentioned, on two drag queens in Cork recently, but also the murder of a person because he was from another country - I spoke to the minister from that country at the time in respect of that murder - and in terms of various other attacks. Recently, I met a group of young people who were working with my Department in respect of the child poverty programme. It was a group of teenagers, Irish citizens with different ethnic backgrounds. They spoke about the fear of going into town. In one case, a guy said to me his younger sister was chased home from school because of their ethnic background. There is a very real issue here. I recently spoke to people involved in the Dublin city business initiative providing supports for people in different communities. A number of employers instanced to me the number very serious assaults on employees because of their ethnic background. These are not isolated cases any more. I believe it is very serious. I met the church leaders recently, all the interfaith groups, and the common issue was the fear of attack. The Indian community suffered significant harassment recently. There is fear there. This is something we did not have to deal with to this extent five years ago. It is above party politics. I fully agree with the Deputy that the question of the algorithms is an issue. Toxicity is directed at quite a number of politicians. The Deputy was a victim of quite a bit of that when he was a Minister. The Garda does exceptional work in helping politicians and helping people to deal with such attacks. The gardaí involved are very professional and have a great sense of perspective in terms of the various types of threats and incidents that happen. It is at a level that I have never experienced in my life, in terms of the approach to the political world, and it is very serious. As the Deputy will recall, with the hate crime Act we bought it last year, the last Government got into very choppy waters within the House politically. However, we got it through and the penalties have been substantially increased for hate crimes relating to ethnicity, sexual orientation or whatever.
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There was a time in the last Dáil when there was a preponderance of opinion that suggested-----
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-----that hate crime legislation was not needed. We have a real problem.
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I certainly will revert to the Government in respect of that and will also ask the relevant Ministers to engage with Coimisiún na Meán on this. It is hate across different sectors. What happened to Citywest was appalling, as was the deliberate attempt to burn out a family in Drogheda. These are new thresholds that are being crossed. Children could have been killed. It was a very lucky escape for children and a family. Someone deliberately tried to burn them, essentially. We have to be extremely conscious of what is happening. In Citywest, the principal of a school spoke afterwards about the impact on children going to school the following day, or not going to school, because of the anxiety generated as a result of the aggression, hostility and hate articulated towards them.
Sentiment score: -0.12