The Government won a confidence vote in Dáil Éireann yesterday by a substantial 14-vote majority.
Sentiment score: 0.83
That is the reality, despite the Deputy's description of what transpired yesterday. The truth is that I am extremely disturbed that Deputy McDonald has not yet, as the main Opposition leader in this House, had the courage of her convictions or the decency to separate what is right from what is wrong. Yesterday, one of her Deputies could not condemn threats or intimidation against An Garda Síochána. On a programme last night, Deputy Kerrane was asked a straight question-----
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-----"Do you condemn the threats and the intimidation of gardaí?"-----
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-----and the Deputy said, "I do not condemn the protesters."
Sentiment score: 0.29
On what happened, I fully respect the right of people to protest, even the people in the Gallery in terms of the Dublin City Council situation in regard to rent. People are entitled to protest. In my view, you seem incapable of saying it is wrong to blockade our only oil refinery. You cannot say that is wrong, even though it would have led to a scarcity of oil supply and an increased fuel crisis. You cannot say that it is wrong to blockade ports, even though it would destroy our economy.
Sentiment score: -0.36
You cannot say it is wrong to intimidate bus drivers. You do not have the courage. You are weak as a political party. Absolutely.
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You could not do it. You tried to jump on board. That is the sad-----
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I did not interrupt you, Deputy. I would appreciate-----
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I have a few things to say .
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I fully respect the rights of people to protest.
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I fully respect the right of people to protest-----
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I fully respect the right of people to protest but surely it is possible in this House for us to get agreement on basic rights and wrongs in terms of what should and should not happen.
Sentiment score: 0.87
That is something you have not been prepared to do. I regularly engage with people in terms of protest. I am not a member of Dublin City Council. We have a system of local government in this country and there is a differential rent system. It is a critical piece of the State's system of local government which, as you know, is far better than the private rental sector or anything near it. It is subsidised housing costs and supports households. I believe Dublin City Council should do far more in terms of regeneration. We have funded local authorities up and down the country in terms of regeneration and they should do more-----
Sentiment score: 0.06
-----in terms of refurbishing flat complexes, in particular, which I have been in in recent years and which I accept are not acceptable. A lot of capital money has been allocated to Dublin City Council and, essentially, there is a huge issue of housing maintenance. The city council obviously has a revised rent structure now. It is a matter for Dublin City Council, the executive and the council itself to explain and defend that. We do not run the councils.
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Let us not pretend we do. I know the by-election is coming and I accept that but we do not run councils from Dáil Éireann and it is disingenuous and dishonest of the Deputy to say-----
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-----that I could not care less. We have eight councillors in Dublin City Council out of 60. The Deputy is in attack mode. That is what she does generally speaking.
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What about this specific one?
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Dublin City Council is responsible for housing policy. Government funds local authorities the length and breadth of the country.
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Sorry, it funds them very substantially, and funding has increased-----
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Funding to local authorities has increased very significantly over the past five to six years.
Sentiment score: 0.27
There is no question about that. Also, the number of social houses we are building that are of a very high quality is the highest since the 1970s. There were close to 12,000 social houses delivered last year.
Sentiment score: -0.07
There is the highest number of direct builds ever built in our country - 8,500. There is a lot of work going on in social housing. I am not specifically responsible for what transpires in Dublin City Council and it is a matter for the council. Again, I have to go into the details of what is proposed. I do not have the details of the specific differential rent scheme the council is introducing.
Sentiment score: -0.03
I fully accept people are under enormous pressures, in particular because of the war in the Middle East. People have had to endure a range of shocks going back to Covid and right through the war in Ukraine which had a severe impact on oil and energy prices and fed into general significant inflation in those years. Then we hit the tariffs a year ago, which is having an impact on a number of our companies, and now there is a war in the Middle East which has had a severe impact on oil prices again and is feeding into inflation. There is no question that people and families are under huge pressure. The ESRI also said successive Government measures shielded people substantially but could not cover everything. I would say no Government in the European Union has provided as many cost-of-living supports over the past five years as this Government.
Sentiment score: -0.34
That is the reality but it still does not mean that people are not under pressure. We introduced some fairly radical schemes that would not have been thought possible five years ago, like free book schemes for every child going to school and free hot school meals. Across the board, we have brought in measures such as extending free GP care and many other measures in health in particular and in transport to try to ease the pressure on people in a systemic way. I would welcome a conversation because I think the Deputy has a responsible approach to politics although I thought last week she was noticeable by her silence.
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The reason being-----
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I understand why and I think we need a discussion about it in this House. There is a lot of what went on that the Deputy would not have agreed with, if she is honest. That was evident in the voting pattern last evening. I think the Deputy got a glimpse of what sidling up to Sinn Féin can mean for her party and the damage it can do to it in the time ahead. I would welcome a debate in terms of priorities or a discussion and engagement on priorities. The Deputy's party opted not to go into government; that is fair enough. That was her decision and she opted not to go into government because she was afraid of the people alongside her. We are in government-----
Sentiment score: 0.20
We are in government. I will accept any constructive proposal on the cost of living, a sustainable way in terms of climate and also energy security. Thankfully, we have national oil reserves. Last week, we had a round-table meeting with those involved in NORA and in energy security. I can share that with the Deputy if she wishes.
Sentiment score: 0.42
We are going to diversity more into renewables. We have diversified substantially into renewables in this country. Over 40% of electricity generation now is onshore wind generation. We have had two successful auctions for offshore wind. I actually agree that the only way to avoid these types of global shocks is by having more renewables as they contribute to the grid. There is no other way. If one looks at all the shocks from the 1970s onwards, they were shocks because of wars or fossil fuel shocks. They have dislocated economies and caused pressures on families and jobs. We know that from various recessions we have had to encounter in previous decades. Therefore, it makes logical sense that we would invest in the resources we have. As the Deputy knows, we had auctions for offshore wind, which is a significant opportunity. I set up a clearing house from my Department to try to remove barriers and obstacles to the development of offshore wind because-----
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-----I think it is essential------
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-----to decrease our dependence on imported fossil fuels.
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The Government, before any blockade, was in discussions with the Irish Road Haulage Association, the IFA and farm contractors. In fact, we had introduced a €250 million package three or four weeks ago in the House. As I said earlier, we have been introducing cost-of-living packages on an ongoing basis. The budget had some significant measures, including the DEIS plus scheme, for example, to help low-income families in particular, the fuel allowance and so on. Everybody accepts that people are under enormous pressure - everybody in the House does - because of global crises. The war in particular has exacerbated matters and prices have shot up. That has really caused concern. I do not think the Social Democrats predicted what happened last week. They said very little last week at all, which is fair enough. They said nothing.
Sentiment score: 0.03
Last Sunday was Deputy Cairns's first speech, and that is fine. I am just making the point. I accept fully the point on more investment in solar. We have invested a lot in solar, and we will do more. There is a €750 million package on top of the budget. We have a further winter to go. We do not know where the war is going to go, what the trajectory will be or what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz. There are two dimensions to this. One is supply, which is critical. That is why I could not understand the blockade of an oil refinery and why we could not get consensus. That makes no sense, because it leads to a scarcity of fuel and to more prices going up. Surely we can all agree that this is not the correct way to protest because you damage jobs and the economy. That is a reasonable point to make, and I should not be condemned for making it. I am not condemning anyone other than saying protest absolutely. It is important we have protest. It is important that we have people advocating and agitating for change in society. I believe passionately in that, but I also believe in human rights for people. I received an email earlier in terms of people belonging to a particular group who said they had to leave the protest at Whitegate because they could not believe what happened. A lot went on that no one here is prepared to call out. I refer to lorry drivers being intimidated, a GAA club being targeted online because buses were parking there and the bus company involved being targeted and intimidated. These are elements. The vast majority of those involved are reasonable, decent people who, correctly, were highlighting and identifying fuel protests, but it is disturbing. I accept fully that the Opposition wants the Government to get a kicking. I do not expect the Deputy to defend the Government. That is accepted. However, it is disturbing that she does not have the courage of her convictions in calling out that. There is an element of people out there - not even in politics but in communities - who are afraid to say that and who feel intimidated to articulate it. That is, unfortunately, where we are.
Sentiment score: -0.11
I welcome constructive proposals in respect of solar. We are investing in solar. Solar is doing very well and is growing very fast as a contributor to energy.
Sentiment score: 0.45
There is very strong potential in solar. We are supporting ordinary people in terms of the installation of solar panels on their roofs. We created a retrofitting industry in the past five years in this country through successive investments and commitments, and that remains. On the cost of disability, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, is working in consultation with stakeholder groups, to have, once and for all, a proper programme and provision in respect of a cost-of-disability payment. It is not simple, and it is better that we do it systemically and embed it in the budgets of the future. That is what we are committed to doing; just as we significantly increased the thresholds around the carer's allowance, which was a substantial measure in the budget, and just as we put an extra €500 million into disability to improve services for people with disabilities.
Sentiment score: 0.54
Ireland will continue to produce its own energy, but it will be in renewables overwhelmingly. We have a very poor record in terms of oil and gas exploration over the decades. Kinsale gas was first brought onshore in the 1970s, and we have had Corrib. Barryroe never showed any prospects. Barryroe could have been exploited if it had the prospects which Deputy O'Flynn said it had decades before any legislative prohibition on oil and gas exploration. We are overly dependent on imported fossil fuels. I accept that. There needs to be a strong grid connection with Europe and the UK. The interconnection with France will be a significant milestone. I hope it will come on stream next year. I met the Spanish Prime Minister recently, and we agreed that we would explore a grid connection between Spain and Ireland. There is potentially strong European funding for greater interconnection and grid connection across Europe. That is a key strategy of the European Union. The reason our Anglo-Irish summits are so important is because we have a very strong economic relationship but we also have a strong energy relationship. We have the gas interconnectors with the United Kingdom. We are exploring with the UK further combined work in terms of offshore wind in particular and how we can complement supply chains in the context of the generation of energy through offshore wind. In terms of nuclear, again, the investment in nuclear is enormous. We are putting about €18 billion into the grid over the next five years' investment to both absorb additional demand and also to further integrate renewables into the grid expertly, which we do very well as a country. I see solar as a very significant growth area. Solar has grown exponentially over the last two to three years in terms of rooftops and so on, but a lot of companies are using solar, which is reducing their dependence on imported fossil fuels. In companies like Eli Lilly in Kinsale, for example, 25% of its energy is powered by a solar farm in the environments of the factory. There is rooftop solar in PepsiCo in Carrigaline. Many other companies are moving in that direction. I suggest the direction of travel has to be in the renewables area. I do believe in climate change. I know a lot of people do not; I do. It is interesting. I take the Deputy's point about nuclear-----
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----- but the energy source that did most damage to the planet was actually fossil fuels.
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I did not advise the Deputy of that either.
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There are challenges, yes. That is why we have to invest in storage as well. That is a technology that is developing fast as well. I was at a recent investment in the midlands in Offaly. I believe Offaly and Laois can become a real powerhouse for energy into the future with a lot of industrial development alongside of it. That investment was from a Korean company partnering with an Irish company in terms of storage. On the integration of renewables into the grid, we have a good record in that respect in this country. We need to keep striving to do more of that. There are other forms like anaerobic digestion. I put it to the Deputy, however, given his capacity for campaigning for any group that develops an opposition to something, if a nuclear facility was proposed for Cork North-Central, I am not so sure what side of the coin he would be on.
Sentiment score: 0.20