I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 14, inclusive, together. The National Economic and Social Council advises me on strategic policy issues relating to sustainable economic, social and environmental development in Ireland. NESC is currently working in four main areas. With regard to Ireland’s future power system and economic resilience, this work investigates the impact of renewable energy targets in four areas: economic and enterprise opportunities; reliability of supply; energy costs; and export potential. The first in a series of reports on this topic was published on 18 April. Work is also under way regarding artificial intelligence, including a focus on AI adoption and its impacts on Irish public services and the labour market. It will focus on issues such as transparency, ethics and equity and help build public trust and confidence around the challenges and opportunities of Al. It is expected that this work will be completed in quarter 4 of 2025. Work is under way regarding household and communities’ perspectives on energy. This work focuses on the benefits, for households and communities, from new approaches to how we use and generate energy. It will consider protections for vulnerable groups, including those experiencing energy poverty. It is expected that this report will be published in quarter 2 of 2025. Work on carrying and delivery capacity, in collaboration with the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, will look at ways Ireland could improve its long-term planning, provision and delivery capacity in areas such as housing, infrastructure, healthcare and other services. It is expected that this report will be completed in quarter 4 of 2025. Work on this programme will be ongoing throughout the rest of 2025. In addition, NESC recently published a report, Deepening Compact Growth in Ireland. The Government welcomes the publication of the report, which was published on 6 May. The report makes several recommendations to make more progress on compact growth. Compact growth is Government policy, as stated in the national planning framework, Ireland’s long-term strategic spatial plan for the period to 2040. The Government confirms its commitment to this objective. Many of the commitments made in the programme for Government will contribute to compact growth, for example, the creation of a new strategic fund to invest in infrastructure, acquire land, assemble sites and de-risk sites in existing towns and cities to maximise their potential growth.
Sentiment score: 0.27
Quite a number of questions were asked about the NESC report. I certainly will revert back to NESC on Deputy Brendan Smith's consistent seeking of a particular study on the challenges facing the central Border area. A number of reports have been done by NESC on North-South development but Deputy Smith wants something a bit more specific on the central Border area and the challenges in respect of the area. I have made the point myself that foreign direct investment in and around the Border area, or on a North-South basis, is something IDA Ireland could reasonably pursue also. It is an area that has not really been pursued to the degree that perhaps it could have been in the past. Deputy Lahart raised the issue of energy poverty. His request or suggestion that local authorities should consider bulk buying energy is a good idea. This would involve using their purchasing power in respect of the properties they own to get a competitive price and reduce the costs. There are also new options emerging. When I say new, in south County Dublin it is already being done in terms of district heating. This should be accelerated by local authorities. It would go a long way towards dealing with issues of energy poverty. The warmer homes scheme is effective and has an impact but it is limited in terms of the number of people covered in any one year. Nonetheless, incrementally and cumulatively, over time it will impact many people to their benefit and betterment. Deputy Ó Murchú followed on from what Deputy McGreehan said earlier by articulating his delight at Louth's victory at the weekend. We congratulate Louth again. Deputy Ó Murchú is ambitious for the higher gifts and the need for a stadium in County Louth. When Deputy Ó Murchú says it was on the reserve list, the national sporting bodies listed priorities in respect of their own sports as to which facilities they felt could be dealt with first. The most recent large infrastructure fund was not large enough, or much of the funding had been committed to projects earlier, some of which are now coming to fruition. We could ask NESC to commission a study on how we can enhance the capacity of the regional supports around the country-----
Sentiment score: 0.26
-----to take on the might of Dublin and the big cities. In any event, we will work on that. In response to Deputy Murphy, I believe that local authorities should be far more active in the pursuit of CPOs on derelict sites. There is the Derelict Sites Act. Some complain that it is not strong enough. I have never bought into that. I have always sensed that in a lot of local authorities there is a degree of inertia around pursuing implementation of the Derelict Sites Act. There should be dedicated teams actively pursuing those issues. In response to Deputy Connolly in respect of the action points, etc., much of NESC is conditioning and moving public mood and opinion in a given direction. Some of its recommendations can be of a general nature but ultimately they find their way into governmental policy, strategy papers and White Papers in terms of signalling a change of direction in relation to specific policy areas. On the future power system, we have had a series of meetings already with CRU and with EirGrid around what is happening between now and 2030. There is a piece of work to be bottomed out in respect of the impact of AI on our future energy needs, in particular, because it uses up an enormous amount of energy. That work is under way between the Department of climate and the Department of enterprise. The two Departments are working on that aspect of it. There is a degree of visibility now. PR6 will be coming forward. It is being submitted to CRU, which will outline the investment in the grid for the next five-to-six years, which is looking like it could be close to double the level of investment in the grid over the past six years. Deputy Coppinger raised the issue of family reunification of workers in the healthcare sector, particularly in private nursing homes. That is an issue I will talk to the respective Ministers about. There is a human dimension to that which I acknowledge and accept. It is trying to get the balance right within society in terms of the population growth, which has been quite exponential over the past two decades, in particular, and which has had its own impact on services - housing, healthcare and services generally across society. Nonetheless, when you meet workers who are three and four years separated from their wives and children and who are in a distant land, humanity would say there needs to be a certain response. It arises not only in the healthcare area. It is in a number of other areas as well. I could not agree more with Deputy McCormack on modern methods of construction and I would be very interested in the further education sector dealing with that issue. There is capacity in that sector and in Mount Lucas, in particular. I might talk to the Deputy about that later. Certainly, we should talk both to the Minister of State for further and higher education, Deputy Marian Harkin, and the Minister, Deputy Lawless, in respect of pursuing that agenda. In response to Deputy Malcolm Byrne, data centres are fundamental to the economy and to the digital economy, in particular. Digital and green is where the future is. They are not mutually exclusive. It creates challenges, about which there is no question, but we cannot just say there will be no more data centres for the next seven or eight years and we will get on fine; we will not. We need a sensible debate on that in the House as well. The development in Arklow, using offshore wind as well and connecting up with an offshore provider in respect of the energy issue, was interesting. In response to Deputy McGrath, compact growth is the key to sustainable. We both saw in the docklands development in Cork where that is very much manifest. There have been challenges trying to get the apartment blocks going but it is very contiguous to the city centre. Essentially, it is a new lung in the city centre. We can go up. Planning is facilitating height, transport connectivity, etc. There is huge potential there. The NESC report is particularly applicable to the whole idea of really getting momentum on that.
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In response to Deputy Geoghegan, I met with David McRedmond recently. We are making progress. The interdepartmental group will, I hope, bring proposals soon and I will bring that to the House in due course before the recess.
Sentiment score: 0.29
I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 25, inclusive, together. The Cabinet Committee on Northern Ireland was created on 18 February 2025 to oversee implementation of relevant programme for Government commitments and ongoing developments in relation to Northern Ireland, Irish-British relations and the shared island initiative. As well as considering issues relevant to the Government’s position as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, including our role in Good Friday Agreement institutions such as the North-South Ministerial Council, the British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, topics for discussion will also include the annual United Kingdom-Irish summits and their agreed programme of work, and the continued roll-out and development of the investment, research and dialogue strands of the shared island initiative. I look forward to attending the next British-Irish Council summit in June in Newcastle, County Down. I welcome also that North-South Ministerial Council sectorals are continuing at pace, with seven having already taken place this year and another due to happen tomorrow. I also look forward to attending the next plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council, in June, hosted by First Minister O'Neill and deputy First Minister Little-Pengelly. Membership of the Cabinet committee consists of: the Taoiseach; the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and for Defence; the Minister for Finance; the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform; and the Minister for Justice. The Minister of State, Seán Canney, is also entitled to attend. Other Ministers and Ministers of State can also be invited to participate as required. This Cabinet committee will meet biannually. Its first meeting took place on 12 May. Issues related to Northern Ireland will continue to also be discussed at Cabinet, including where decisions are required, and at leadership level.
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I thank all of the Deputies for raising their various issues. On the work of the shared island unit, Deputy McGreehan mentioned Greenore Port. The first port of call - excuse the pun - should be to the Department of Transport. The shared island unit is not there to replace existing funding streams or strategies but to develop connectivity at structural levels, community levels, between local authorities and so on. I will talk to the Deputy later about the specific issues there. Ports policy is covered by the Department of Transport. The ports must be subject to ongoing development. Deputy Ó Murchú referred to the murder of Sean Brown and the need for an inquiry. We have pushed for such an inquiry and articulated that need. I have to be balanced here. Deputies Ó Murchú, Brendan Smith, Tóibín and McDonald also raised these issues. Deputy Smith raised the issue of the legacy Act in its entirety and the need for the fullest of information regarding Belturbet and Dublin and Monaghan. All of that is encapsulated by the legacy Act itself. The first thing that needs to be said in the context of resetting relationships is that this British Government has moved very significantly on the legacy Act compared to the previous British Government. The level of engagement now between the Irish Government and the British Government is significantly upscaled and of a different order compared to the level of engagement by the previous Government. I just want to make those points. In respect of the case, it is still with the European court, although the key areas that we had pursued, or on which we rested the case, with regard to immunity have now been dealt with. The banning of civil cases has now been dealt with as well. There is a lot of engagement going on between officials on both sides in respect of a new potential dispensation on this, and whether we can we get agreement on a common approach to legacy, which I think would be very desirable.
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Let me finish, please.
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Regarding the legacy Act in general, if we could be, and if we in the Republic were, satisfied that there would be reciprocity in terms of information and so forth on both sides - people are seeking information from the Republic and the Government in the Republic in respect of a number of cases, including the Kingsmill case, and we co-operated on the Kingsmill inquiry, and we now have a memorandum of understanding with regard to the Omagh inquiry - I believe that the broad nature of legacy needs to be dealt with once and for all and comprehensively. The published Kenova report was quite revealing on state collusion between the United Kingdom's state forces and loyalist paramilitaries. It was also quite scathing of the work, activities and atrocities committed by the Provisional IRA. It was quite scathing and comprehensive. It said that the Provisional IRA did more damage to its own community than anybody else. We have never had a debate in this House about the Kenova report. Maybe that part of the Kenova report was too unpalatable for us to have a debate. I would like a debate on the entirety of Kenova in this House.
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Let us discuss it. Maybe half of it does not suit and, therefore, there were no calls from the Opposition for a debate on Kenova. We do need totality on legacy if we can. I go back to the Eames Bradley report. There has never been a successful approach that enjoys everybody's participation-----
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-----in respect of legacy. There are aspects of the legacy Act that we do not agree with and are seeking to change. There is ongoing engagement between the Northern Ireland Office and our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Cabinet sub-committee has discussed this and the prospects of whether we can get a joint approach in respect of legacy that would be endorsed by both Governments. This work is currently under way. On the other issues that were raised about the Good Friday Agreement, and to respond to Deputy Devlin, it is a living document, as Deputy Currie said as well. I would be open - I have put this idea forward in the context of the shared island - to see if there is a way we could develop a shared history programme. It may be an option for schools North and South to engage in. Is there a possibility to develop between academics North and South an approach to historical perspectives? People come from different communities with different perspectives on the histories. We did a lot of work during the decade of centenaries. A lot of good, informed history was written and updated, with new angles and new approaches to it. That could be informative to a younger generation. It is a worthy project.
Sentiment score: 0.29
Shared literature and poetry on the curriculum, North and South, is also something we should do. There are cross-Border benefits with taxation. Deputy Ó Murchú asked about this. The inter-sectoral ministerial meetings are dealing with those issues. The Minister for Finance, with his counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive, have had discussions. Taxation is a challenging and complex issue, as I am sure the Deputy is aware, but it is a pressing one for workers North and South. There are significant anomalies there. Deputy Paul Murphy raised the issue of the demonisation of migrants. Migration is an issue now in a way that it was not a decade ago. It is a significant issue. It is a significant issue in the United Kingdom and in the Republic. We need to approach it with sensitivity and honesty. In my view, it is legitimate for countries to say that the cases of those who are not entitled to asylum should be dealt with in an accelerated way, with due process offered. Then, if someone is not entitled to asylum, he or she should not remain in the State. There is absolutely no doubt that migration is now impacting on the politics, the political narratives, and the electoral outcomes in a lot of societies and a lot of countries across Europe, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, and we cannot be blind to that reality either. Governments are adapting and changing in respect of that reality. There are limits to what governments can do and there are limits to how far governments can respond. That needs to be understood also. Deputy Coppinger raised the issue of trans rights. The British Supreme Court decision in respect of British legislation and does not have application in the Republic. We need to approach that issue with the utmost sensitivity. Every young person going through a very difficult journey in life does feel very vulnerable. I heard recently of statistics on the higher numbers of self harm among LGBT people but particularly among the trans community. This is very worrying. That is why there is a responsibility on every public representative to speak in an informed way, but always having in one's mind the person and the individual who is going through that journey and not to be judgmental. People can have their positions and people can have their perspectives but it is very important that we retain the capacity to have a genuinely sensitive discussion about these matters in our political discourse. That is what we will do. I hope the Oireachtas can unite on such an approach as being appropriate to the values we have set out in our own legislative frameworks. This is something I would continue to pursue.
Sentiment score: 0.10