2. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. [6017/26]
Sentiment score: 0.00
The World Economic Forum is a place where billionaires and multimillionaires gather together with Heads of Government and Ministers. It is a place where the policy interests of the billionaire class are transmitted to their political representatives, the likes of the Taoiseach. In this country, the richest billionaires we have, who obviously are not resident, are the Collison brothers. They, like many of the tech bros, share a libertarian ideology about deregulation of everything, so-called YIMBYism, which has the happy coincidence of also maximising their ability to maximise their profit. The Taoiseach denied earlier that the shed-sit idea has come from the Collison brothers. He might tell me where this idea did come from if not from the Collison brothers. I do not mean these in terms of family members but in terms of the idea of these becoming long-term rentals. It is clear if we check the record that it is coming from Progress Ireland, which is funded by the Collison brothers. Seán Keyes, the head of Progress Ireland, has claimed this idea, saying it played a role in this coming through, illustrative of the corporate capture of this Government.
Sentiment score: 0.32
Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about the workers today.
Sentiment score: 0.00
He has to repeat the Kilmainham workers, though.
Sentiment score: 0.00
They are one of them.
Sentiment score: 0.00
For the family members, not for renters.
Sentiment score: 0.00
24. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the Cabinet offshore wind energy clearing house. [29039/26]
Sentiment score: 0.09
The new cost-of-living crisis underlines the need to get to 100% renewable energy as quickly as possible. For Ireland, that means developing offshore wind. It is quite incredible that for the past 20 years, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have been in power and have failed to add any offshore wind energy to the grid. We have less offshore wind energy today than we did 20 years ago, despite all the talk of climate crisis and so on. Why? It is because the Government is relying on the private market and ignoring the lessons of our history, that large-scale energy projects should be publicly owned. It is a point the Minister, Deputy Chambers, made in his budget speech, praising the role of a fledgling State in building Ardnacrusha. We had 80% of our electricity from renewable energy at that point. We had energy security. We had almost zero emissions from our electricity system and we threw that all away to become 80%-----
Sentiment score: 0.04
-----dependent on fossil fuels. We cannot control what we do not own.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Will the Government change course and switch to a public model?
Sentiment score: 0.00
Fianna Fáil was in government for a long time before that.
Sentiment score: 0.00