First, I have always acknowledged the critical role that those who work in the National Ambulance Service play in our health service. The Deputy said she does not know what I see when I look at a paramedic. I was critically involved at an earlier time, as Minister for Health, in the professionalisation of the first responder service. I have the greatest and highest of respect for the transformation that has occurred. It has been a good transformation. We have modernised the first responder approach in medicine and in health. That is critical in terms of the acute service, but, more importantly, it is critical in terms of patient outcomes and the outcomes of very serious accidents or developments or cardiac arrests or whatever. The first responder is key. The fact that we have professionalised and modernised that is a good thing. We have always acknowledged and the State has always accepted that pay structures need to be modernised. I refer to the previous engagement at the WRC. I said this to the Deputy yesterday. It is very dishonest of her to say that this has been ignored for six years. That is not the case. Negotiations took place. There was engagement at the WRC. It concluded with significant outcomes, in particular, the State offering pay increases of between 3% to 14% linked to reform. This was on top of the 9.25% increase under the current public service agreement. While union leadership did recommend this proposal to their members, it was rejected by staff following a ballot.
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That is not ignoring something for six years.
Sentiment score: 0.31
How can the Deputy, with any credibility, come into the House and say that this was ignored for six years, when, clearly, there were negotiations and an outcome? There were negotiations between the unions and the HSE. The unions recommended it. The members voted against it. Dialogue is the only route to resolving this. I am of the view that it will get resolved, but it has to be resolved through dialogue. The 24-hour work stoppage concluded this morning. The HSE and the NAS made every effort to minimise the impact on patients, but we do know that there were significant delays in ambulance response times. That did cause distress and upset to those who were depending on the ambulance service. I also acknowledge the engagement of SIPTU and Unite in contingency planning in advance to assist in reducing the risks to patients. It is recognised and welcome that, on a number of occasions, the National Ambulance Service staff returned to work to support the management of critical cases. I acknowledge that and their desire to ensure patient safety and continuity of emergency care being the overriding priority. The HSE and the Department remain ready and available to re-engage through the WRC or the Labour Court processes. I urge SIPTU and Unite to return to those mechanisms in the interests of patients, staff and the wider public. An tslí is fearr chun é seo a réiteach ná go mbeadh plé idir an HSE, SIPTU agus Unite chun an scéal seo a réiteach agus an tseirbhís a chur ar ais i bhfeidhm go hiomlán. Admhaím go bhfuil bunathruithe tar éis tarlú maidir leis an tseirbhís. Tá an Rialtas sásta glacadh leis sin agus déileáil leis. Rinneamar é sin cheana féin, agus tá súil agam go mbeimid in ann é a réiteach tríd an WRC agus an Labour Court. I urge all involved to get back to the industrial relations machinery and use the WRC and the Labour Court to get this resolved.
Sentiment score: 0.10
Again, the Deputy is mischaracterising my approach to this. This is a very serious issue. The Deputy knows in her heart of hearts that this has to be resolved through the industrial relations machinery. She knows that. In every single public service dispute that can occur, taoisigh will not be getting involved. In my case, there is a proper way to do this. You cannot have a situation where we ignore completely the informed, sophisticated and experienced people we have in the Labour Court or in the Workplace Relations Commission. That is how these disputes get resolved. The Deputy knows that. We have also invested very significantly in the ambulance service. Overall funding is up about 41%. That is up €83 million between 2022 and 2025. In three years alone, it went up 41%, to €285 million. Staffing is up - 588 staff.
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There has been an investment of €126 million in the ambulance fleet and there is a further investment of €20 million planned-----
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-----for 2026.
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There has been substantial investment in our ambulance service and there will be more.
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In terms of childcare more generally, there has been very significant progress made in childcare in the last number of years. Again, Deputy Cairns will not acknowledge that, but it is the reality in terms of both reduction of costs and, indeed, the increase in the numbers of children availing of the various programmes we have. In terms of the national childcare scheme, about 277,000 children will be supported this year. That is an increase of 27,000 children in just one year. Income thresholds are rising from September of this year, from €34,000 and €68,000, ensuring more low- and middle-income families qualify for higher levels of support. Some 105,000 children continue to benefit from two years of free preschool under the ECCE programme and the access and inclusion model now supports a record 8,400 children with disabilities, ensuring access to mainstream early learning and childcare. Core funding now exceeds about €420 million. That is a 62% increase since 2022, with 93% of providers signed up. After subsidies, parents in many instances now pay no more than €198.70 per week for a full-day, 45-hour place. We have more to do and we want to reduce the fees even further. We are going to continue to work on that and the forthcoming budget will be an opportunity to improve the situation in terms of the cost of childcare and also, of course, in terms of payments. Regarding human capital and people who work in childcare, we have focused on that in particular in the last number of years, and this year's core funding allocation includes about €45 million ring-fenced to support improved pay for early-years educators and school-age childcare practitioners where new employment regulation orders are agreed. We achieved a milestone in the last Government by agreeing such a regulation order and the most recent employment regulation order delivered an average 10% increase in minimum pay rates, benefitting over two thirds of the workforce. The pay-related negotiations are conducted through the joint labour committee, with Government backing the outcomes financially through the core funding. For the first time ever, the State is now the directly supporting the creation of new childcare capacity through a State-led building, acquisition and delivery programme targeting areas of greatest need, including places for children under three years of age and in rural and disadvantaged communities. There is €135 million in capital investment available over the next five years, with up to eight buildings to be selected for investment in 2026. There has been steady progress made. In terms of the broader issue of State-led childcare provision, childcare has evolved over the last 30-odd years, beginning, actually, in the Department of justice under the new opportunities for women, NOW, programme. It has evolved through both community playschools, private operators and some-----
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I will come back in.
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I believe in childcare for the development of the child primarily. Anything we do in the area of childcare or early education should be about the child as the primary issue, actually. I know a lot about Montessori and I know all about early education because I was involved in it and I had Green Papers and so on. Maybe people should examine the Social Democrats' proposals and the lack of substance in them, the lack of detail, the lack of flesh on the bone.
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Deputy Cairns is now suggesting we can seamlessly move from a model we have developed over years through community-----
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You are saying that and you are holding up the prospect that we can, with a click of the fingers, seamlessly move into a-----
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I did not interrupt you, Deputy Cairns, in fairness. I never do interrupt you. Every time I say a few home truths, you all get a bit agitated and have to heckle back.
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The bottom line is this: the Social Democrats do not do detailed policy propositions.
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That is the bottom line. They are talking about promises and commitments. The bottom line is a lot of what the Social Democrats say as a party lacks that substance and that detail. You cannot, overnight, move from where we currently are into a full public model. You just cannot do that and you should acknowledge the honesty of that proposition.
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In the first instance, we have a very clear asylum system in this country which is fair and robust. I do not approve of any commentary that would in any way undermine any particular ethnicity or any person with a particular ethnic background. I have been very clear about that. My understanding is that the former Taoiseach, Mr. Ahern, has resiled from those comments and says he has no issue with people who come through our asylum process. I want to be very clear from my perspective and my party's perspective that we do not approve of those specific comments. They were in a conversation which was subsequently published. It was not, therefore, a distraction process by anybody here because no one could anticipate that any commentary of that kind would be in the public domain. Be that as it may, our position is very clear. We have a fair and robust asylum process which has accelerated a lot. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has outlined that. Then we have a broader migration narrative. People come from Europe, the EFTA countries and beyond, who work in our economy and our health service. We have many Irish citizens with different ethnic backgrounds who play a very full and meaningful contribution to Irish life. Regarding the broader issue of housing, this Government, in particular over the last number of years, has substantially step-changed the provision of social housing. This year, up to 9,000 were built, compared with very low numbers four or five years ago. There has been a very substantial step-change in the provision of public housing itself. Significant funding is also made available to local authorities, and particularly Dublin City Council, in respect of regeneration, refurbishment and maintenance. In the first instance it is a matter for Dublin City Council to make sure its housing stock is properly maintained and refurbished. We establish local authorities. We give them powers and remit. Anytime they do anything then, the Dáil - or elements of the Dáil - in a reflex wants to come back in and say that local authority does not have any space or parameters in which it can develop policies itself. These are elected representatives of many parties, including the Deputy's, and they have to organise and run their councils in a sustainable manner. That is a matter for the councils. Government does not dictate every single item of local authority policy. What we have tried to do in the last while is to say to councils that they need to zone more land for housing. I do not know whether the Deputy agrees with that but we believe councils need to do this. We need more space for local authority housing, social and affordable housing, and affordable rental as well. That is the most fundamental-----
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-----way to meet the housing needs of people in Dublin Central, and, indeed, across the country.
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First, that was an unacceptable comment the Deputy made. That is not the Fianna Fáil approach and it is not Fianna Fáil policy. By the way, the Deputy is not shy himself in terms of mischaracterising people, spinning and deliberately exaggerating positions of different politicians on an ongoing basis. You are no angel yourself when it comes to politics, and do not pretend that you are.
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The other problem is on councils. I have been on a city council. I have always divided the council between those who genuinely want to govern or run a city, as opposed to those who just oppose everything and never voted for a budget in their life. Did the Deputy every vote for a budget in his life on a city council?
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He probably did not.
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Yes, but your party, I mean. Those you represent. They never do.
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You want more and more, and more services. Services here, services there, but when it comes to the annual budget, you guys never vote for them.
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However, other politicians have to step up with a bit of guts and courage to vote to make sure a city runs. That is the difference between the Deputy's politics and the politics of the majority-----
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That is the fundamental point I would make. By the way, the city council did not pull funding-----
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-----from Oliver Bond flats. That will be sorted out very quickly.
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I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue. We probably need to situate this in a European and global context rather than just in a narrow national context, although I take the Deputy's point that there are vulnerabilities in terms of the importation of a range of foodstuffs and that we need a plan regarding food security on the island. Our dairy and meat industries are probably more carbon efficient than others across the globe. We export to about 170 countries, so we feed a lot of people by means of the dairy, beef, lamb and pig industries. That is a factor which speaks to European food security and food security in Britain, where a lot of Irish produce is consumed. Globally, we use a lot of our technology and expertise to help sub-Saharan African countries with climate-resilient crops and so on. I accept the Deputy's basic premise that we need to do more in the context of horticulture and tillage. We need to look at incentives to give us greater security and capacity in that respect. The Minister for enterprise recently announced a scheme to bring flour milling back into being here. Schemes that can guarantee farmers a market or an outcome in respect of a product are important. I do not mean to digress, but I was at a Diageo facility earlier in the week. I was interested to learn that 10% of the barley grown in the country is used by Diageo. That is quite extraordinary. About 5% of Irish dairy is used to produce Baileys, which is exported all over the world. We are part of a global food supply chain. The Deputy has highlighted a weakness when it comes to tillage and horticulture. The dominance of meat and dairy is, to a certain extent, related to global supply chains, markets and the returns achieved. We have to work on ring-fencing good returns for tillage and horticulture into the future. Land pricing is a factor in that regard. We need to systematically identify potential weaknesses that would cause problems if global events were to restrict the supply of vital imported foodstuffs or general foodstuffs we currently import. We have seen that in the Ukrainian war, which could have had impacts on Africa as a result of the blockade in the Black Sea. Türkiye and other countries had to intervene in that regard. We see it now in an energy context in the Middle East. I accept the Deputy's general proposition that we need to be very alert to the issue of food security because we are vulnerable to global events.
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That is fair. I will engage with the Minister for agriculture on the Deputy's overall point regarding a national food security plan. There is merit in that. In recent years, the former Minister of State, Pippa Hackett, and the then Minister, Deputy McConalogue, were very involved in supporting organic farmers. In that context, €256 million was allocated to support organic farmers. That resulted in significant five-year growth and a 5.5% increase in organic production up to 2025. About 5,500 farmers are now engaged in the organic farming scheme. That is up 223%. We have made a lot of progress on the organics side, which is related to this issue in terms of capacity. I take the Deputy's overall point and appreciate the constructive manner in which he put it forward.
Sentiment score: 0.41