Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Tá an-chuid déanta ag an Rialtas ó thaobh na gcostas maireachtála de. Bhí an-chuid laistigh den bhuiséad a bhí againn i mí Dheireadh Fómhair, go háirithe dóibh siúd ar ioncam íseal agus an-chuid cabhair tugtha againn tríd leas sóisialach chun daoine a chosaint agus cóir agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine. I do not accept the Deputy's overall presentation of the Government's response to what are significant pressures on the people in respect of the cost of living. Of course, that began a number of years ago, particularly coming out of Covid and the war in Ukraine in terms of energy prices. We have now moved from a situation where inflation was 10% to a point where it is significantly below that at 2.6%. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we were looking at 10%. That came down to 5% in 2023, 2.7% in December 2025 and 2.6% in January. That is the overall inflation rate. In terms of energy, I still disagree with the Deputy that we should retain universal energy credits. I find it difficult to comprehend that a party that comes from where it claims it comes from would argue that millionaires and people on very sizeable incomes should get energy credits and particularly when, in terms of the totality of the cost-of-living payments we had been making in the worst of times during and post-Covid and in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Deputy is saying we keep that €2 billion or €3 billion going on top of the expenditure we have already increased by about 8%. If we took the Deputy's budget proposals, they would add 2.5% to the cost of living at a time when she is complaining about the cost of living. She has form on this. Her last episode in terms of energy policy was a Liz Truss moment and I can recall that. Now she is saying we should keep energy credits. Employment is very strong. The best protection people have in terms of meeting inflation and cost-of-living pressures are high-quality and good-quality jobs, and making the fuel allowance available to those on lower incomes or those on the working family payment which is what we did in the budget. We increased social protection payments by about €10 per week and made a very big increase in child support payments. Children aged 12 years and over get an extra €16, bringing it to about €78 per week for families in that situation while those with children aged under 12 get an extra €8, bringing it to €58 per week. These were substantial targeted measures for those on the lowest incomes. I would have thought the Deputy would have favoured that approach yet she wants millionaires and the very well-off to get the benefits from the budget allocation. The fuel allowance now covers 26% of households - up from 23%. This is a targeted and intelligent way of allocating resources to those who need them most. We have extended the reduced 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity until the end of 2030. That is a five-to-six-year measure. Home energy upgrades have been hugely invested in, with approximately €558 million allocated. Microgeneration income tax exemption is well provided for. These are embedded measures which will have a medium to longer term impact. It is better to put money into measures that are there for the long haul, as opposed to the Deputy’s never-ending short-term knee-jerk reactions to every issue that arises.
Sentiment score: 0.15
Actually, the energy credit would help the vast, vast majority of those who are not in arrears. The Deputy should think about it for a moment. She identified how many people are in arrears. The vast majority of people are not in arrears. People are under pressure; do not get me wrong. The energy credit applies to everybody; it is universal.
Sentiment score: 0.24
That is what she is arguing should be extended to everybody. Surely it would be far better to help those who are in genuine difficulty.
Sentiment score: 0.13
You are not leader yet, Pearse, for God's sake.
Sentiment score: 0.00
You have been making attempts lately but just let me respond to the leader.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I just want to make the point that we have targeted our measures-----
Sentiment score: 0.08
-----to meet those who are in difficulty, and that is the key. Once-off cost-of-living measures are not fiscally sustainable for the next number of years. The €3 billion and €4 billion we allocated for two years, we just cannot keep doing that. We have a strong economy. We have probably one of the best employment positions of any European Union state. We want to preserve that and we also want to support those who need support, and we will, in terms of energy affordability and security.
Sentiment score: 0.29
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I first became aware it yesterday via the media. That is fine. The Department of foreign affairs became aware of the case in October and had been providing consular assistance to Seamus Culleton and his family via the teams at the consulate general in Austin, the embassy in Washington DC and our consular unit in Dublin. We have migration law in this country. We have laws. There is legal status in Ireland and there is undocumented status in Ireland. All countries, bar none, have migration laws. We have sought, over the years, to try and regularise the undocumented in America via legislation in Congress on the Hill. Long before President Trump entered the White House, this has been a challenge. Deputy Bacik and everybody else in the House knows that. We came very close a number of years ago with the E-3 visa. At that time, we lost out by one vote on having a number of thousand visas from the Australian visa allocation allocated to Ireland. One vote stymied what would have been a significant breakthrough on that occasion. It has been extraordinarily difficult to get consensus on the Hill in respect of migration for any one specific country because Hispanics and Latinos will all want similar deals. It is either a deal for all or none, and that has been the consistent position in the US for the past decade or so. That makes it particularly difficult in terms of endeavouring to the get the Irish who are undocumented in the United States regularised. It is a very traumatic and difficult position for people to be in when it comes to their families and the many who have established homes there and so on. Families in the US are always watching over their shoulders and worried about a knock on the door or their being in a position where they would be deported. Deportations have been going on for quite a number of years. There is a particularly intensity in the current ICE campaign. Of that, there is no doubt. The Government's position is that we will do everything we can to help Seamus Culleton, but we have to do it in a way that can really help and be effective for him. We cannot promise anything, because we do not control American migration law or practice. However, we can engage. We have engaged and we will continue to engage. We are concerned about the conditions that exist in the place where Seamus Culleton is being held, but we are also anxious for the matter to be resolved in the context of the status issue.
Sentiment score: 0.04
There are a number of cases. It could be five to six cases, but they vary in status. The Deputy is implying, wrongly, my approach to this. I would have thought that the prime objective is to secure status. People want to get out of the detention facility. The Deputy knows best.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I would argue that it is status. Let us not do anything that could make that more difficult. That is all I am saying.
Sentiment score: -0.25
This cannot be resolved in the public domain. The Deputy should know that. Either we want to genuinely try to help, and I know the Deputy does-----
Sentiment score: 0.11
The issue is status, it seems to me. That is the number one issue that I would like to see dealt with. I cannot promise anything in respect of securing that, but I would have thought it would be the objective for Seamus Culleton. He is married, he has been there for 20 years and he has a business. That is the ultimate objective that we want to achieve.
Sentiment score: 0.16
Without question care for mothers particularly postnatal is absolutely important. Despite what the Deputy said, the Government has made a lot of progress in this area over quite a number of years, in particular the establishment of nine postnatal hubs, giving women access to postnatal care in community settings. Additional funding of €2 million in 2025 will initiate four further hubs which will bring the total network to €13 million. Some €28 million in new development funding has been invested in the national maternity strategy, transforming maternity services for mothers and babies. Over 550 additional full-time staff have been funded across maternity services, including 44 consultants, and 381 nurses and midwives. In terms of the mental health dimension, the expansion of specialist perinatal mental health services has been prioritised and again funding has been provided for additional posts this year to meet the demand, particularly in the busiest of hospitals. The HSE is reviewing the model of care this year with a view to further expanding services as per the programme for Government. The perinatal mental health service is available in all 19 maternity hospitals nationwide, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old with an existing or new mental health challenge. Work is under way to deliver Ireland's first mother-and-baby unit with a site currently being confirmed at St. Vincent's hospital. There have been a lot of service improvements. Without question we have more to do and we will continue to invest in this area as we have in maternity more generally. There will be a successor to the current national maternity strategy. The current one runs from 2016 to 2026. That is imminent and work is under way on that. The programme for Government commits to the mother-and-baby mental health unit, doubling the number of multidisciplinary teams for pregnant women, increasing the number of perinatal mental health midwife posts, and proactively providing mental health supports through maternity hospitals following trauma events connected to pregnancy and childbirth. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is strongly committed to this. There are a range of other programmes in the gynaecological and obstetric area where there have been very substantial investments and improvements. That has to also be acknowledged. Significant developments have taken place with postnatal depression and care after pregnancy. We acknowledge clearly the need to do more and are prepared to do more.
Sentiment score: 0.20
The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are absolutely committed to expanding this. I am not clear about that 29-year reference but I repeat that in terms of mental health, the perinatal mental health service is now available in all 19 maternity hospitals, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old. That is the current position. As we discussed this morning, both the Minister and the Minister of State are quite committed to prioritising this even further and also in terms of the mother and baby unit in St. Vincent's Hospital. Again, I see no difficulty in the Government working with the Opposition in this area and working with the campaign in terms of ensuring that we do the best and the optimal for the women and children of Ireland.
Sentiment score: 0.36
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is an extremely important issue. The ultimate priority, of course, is housing. All of us in this House agreed a long time ago that housing is a priority. Short-term lets, particularly in cities and large towns, have replaced a lot of rental properties for housing. That is the ultimate priority. Cities and large towns provide the best opportunity for short-term letting properties to be returned to the long-term rental market. We had a meeting last evening of party leaders and the Ministers responsible, Deputy James Brown and Deputy Peter Burke, who is initiating the legislation. First, it will be for towns above 20,000. Many people thought it would be 10,000. I thought that Deputy Collins was getting up to welcome that development but anyway-----
Sentiment score: 0.23
It is above 20,000 and we are trying to get the balance right between tourism and housing. It is important to note, there will be an obligation to register. The Bill is the short-term letting and tourism legislation. We published that, as the Deputy knows. We got Cabinet approval. I think it has gone through pre-legislative scrutiny. It will introduce a national register of all short-term let properties to improve oversight and compliance. It also aligns domestic law with the European Union short-term rental regulation, which will be effective from 20 May 2026. There are various criteria. The Minister, Deputy Browne, will then develop a planning statement on short-term letting. In terms of the planning status I thought the Deputy would have been aware that any variation from residential to commercial and Airbnb - we sought the Attorney General's advice on this - requires planning. That is just the law as it is. We are examining the process of registering so that we would facilitate opportunities for those registering to regularise planning over a particular timeframe. That has to be tied down with a degree of precision. That will happen before the Bill comes to the Dáil. That is all fairly imminent. Those are the factual legal positions. I think we can achieve it. I would not be coming forward with the potential doomsday scenarios the Deputy came forward with. We need to keep calm here and facilitate regularisation, if people have not done that already. A year or two ago, if, bar in the case of home sharing, someone wanted to change the status of a particular house to an Airbnb scenario, by law, as it currently stands, the person would need planning permission to do that.
Sentiment score: 0.11
The Deputy is confusing his Bills.
Sentiment score: -0.23
You are.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 has nothing to do with short-term letting.
Sentiment score: 0.00
No, it does not. I want to make it clear that the short-term letting Bill will be brought to the House by the Minister, Deputy Burke. We had a meeting of the housing committee yesterday. We dealt with it. The issue in terms of variation is a matter of law as we stand, and that is anywhere, not just in the context of short-term lets. For any premises, permission has to be obtained for a variation of use to commercial. The Deputy knows that because he is a TD and he knows his way around the place in terms of these kinds of issues. Let us not pretend innocence. I would say the Deputy has helped a good few people down through the years to navigate all those kinds of things. Deputies on our side of the House are very anxious that we go to the 20,000 figure. We got the balance right and we have to bring forward the legislation. What we will endeavour to do is to enable people, as they register, to regularise their planning over a period of time, to give people time. By the way, I know the Deputy is concerned about Courtmacsherry and all of that. Brad Pitt is on his way to Timoleague, apparently. The Airbnbs will be full now for the next couple of days.
Sentiment score: 0.00