I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Before I begin to respond, I want to take a moment as well to express my sympathy to and solidarity with the Australian people and with our Jewish community here in Ireland as they come to terms with the horror and the grief of the mass shooting event at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Fifteen people, including a ten-year-old child and a Holocaust survivor, were cruelly murdered and more than 40 others injured for no other reason than their Jewish faith and identity as they gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. I am acutely conscious of the feelings of vulnerability and isolation that an event like this can cause among our own small Jewish community. I take this opportunity to send a very clear message from the Dáil, and as Head of Government, that our Jewish neighbours are an important and very valued part of our society and that there can be no place for antisemitism or antisemitic rhetoric in our State. In respect of the issues Deputy McDonald raised, first, price review 6, which will facilitate investment of up to €18 billion in our energy grid, is essential and will copper-fasten and benefit every job and every potential future job in the country and will underpin the building of 300,000 houses and their connection to the grid and the electrification of the public transport system. It is a major decision by the Government. The Government has allocated €3.5 billion in equity to help to leverage and underpin the enormous investment that will occur from this. In many respects, this is a decisive moment in respect of the energy grid. I acknowledge fully and understand the pressure people are under in respect of energy bills. Part of this announcement is the work of the national energy affordability task force, which was established by the Minister and which has already published its first report. Its task is to identify measures that will reduce electricity prices in the short term and permanently. Some of its measures were delivered under budget 2026. These include the decision to extend the reduction in VAT on electricity from 13% to 9% and significant work on the fuel allowance. We included those on the working family payment. An extra 50,000 people will be paid the fuel allowance in March and that will be backdated to January. Of course, we increased the fuel allowance. An extra €140 will now be available for over 450,000 recipients between September and April. The €400 income tax disregard for households involved in energy microgeneration has been extended. There are also the budget measures more generally. Retrofitting has grown significantly over the past number of years and is making a real difference to many houses. A deep retrofit can save over €1,100. Approximately 228,000 upgrades have happened now in terms of homeowners. Some €1.5 billion has been allocated for that. This year alone, another 64,500 home energy upgrades will happen, in addition to 14,300 local authority upgrades. We are progressing significant change in energy consumption within our households, more generally. The affordability task force has to look at the more fundamental issue of the regulatory framework that governs energy prices in this country. That is a key objective of it, allied with European initiatives that will be required in terms of how energy is priced in the European market.
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After Russia's invasion of Ukraine-----
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-----we did allocate up to €3.3 billion in energy credits. The bottom line is that universal energy credits on an ongoing basis are simply not fiscally sustainable. The resources we have must be targeted, particularly to low-income families, which is what we have done. The Deputy wants everybody, irrespective of income-----
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-----forever and ever to be getting energy credits. She wants the wealthiest in society-----
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-----to benefit from energy credits. She does. That is what she asked for.
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Whereas I believe that what we did with the fuel allowance and what we have done-----
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-----with the working family payments and so on is the proper way to proceed. We also have to change the regulatory framework. That is not simple work. It is under way, though, and will ultimately help us to deal with the issue. The bottom line is that €18 billion is an enormous sum of money. The Deputy has not given any rational explanation as to how she thinks it should be------
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is very serious. The Deputy rightly referred to the shocking deaths of Niamh McNally, Leona Cusack, Aoife Johnston, and Eve Cleary. From that, there is no question that the mid-west needs additional investment but also reform. The reform dimension started two years or more ago now and has had impact, but the investment also has had impact. The level of increase in investment over the last five years in the mid-west is quite substantial, which gives prospects for significant investment in the next five years and even beyond that. Investment in the hospitals in the region went from about €370 million to €689 million. The UHL budget has gone from €265 million to €507 million, and then on the current side there are additional doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals and so forth. In that period, about 420 additional beds will be delivered across the mid-west region, including 48 additional beds. The Deputy has the details of that in Ennis, St. John's and so on, and for Nenagh. There are additional needs. In the context of options A, B and C in the HIQA report, the Minister brought to the Government this morning a proposal to progress all three, first in terms of additional capacity in the existing site. It is interesting that the average number of people waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick has almost halved in the weeks since the new 96-bed block opened compared to the weeks prior to it. Enabling works are under way, as the Deputy knows, for a second 96-bed block at UHL. The Minister is mandating the HSE to acquire a site as close as possible to the existing site. In terms of option C, which is model 3 reconfiguration across the mid-west, the Government has agreed to develop a model 3 hospital in the HSE mid-west that will provide a second emergency department for the region. All three options will be pursued by the Minister. The Deputy has experience as a former Minister and he knows the important decision is the one that has been taken. A lot does depend on implementation and progression. The acquisition of a site will be very important. The speed of consideration in terms of option C will also be very important. The Minister will develop a strategic plan for option C for the commencement of reconfiguration. I do think it is possible.
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The amount of capital being allocated for projects across health and education is enormous.
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Unprecedented levels of capital investment are being allocated. The Deputy knows that very often there is a parallel between the speed of acquisition of sites, speed of delivery, design and planning. There are a load of variables before we get to the drawdown of substantial capital in relation to a number of projects. The enabling works are happening in terms of the second site. There is an acknowledgement that there are capacity limits to the existing site in UHL. The acquisition of a site is extremely important. At that point, it will be necessary to incrementally build up and then free up and decant services from the main hospital site. Equally, there is no reason, given population growth and everything else, why we should not be incrementally reconfiguring and moving to a model 3 in the wider mid-west region. If we took the view at the start of every capital programme that we just do not have enough capital, very little would have been built in the country.
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I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. We are listening to people with disabilities. Last Monday, we had a very significant meeting with disabled persons' organisations in the context of the implementation of the national strategy for disabled persons and the action plan that underpins it. There were a number of Ministers present, and I chaired the meeting. Each Minister outlined his or her programmes in respect of the action plan, following on from the publication of the strategy some months ago. The whole purpose was co-design and to listen to and engage with representatives of various pillars of disability organisations in the country. There will be further meetings, which will be more thematic and which will relate to specific areas. I established a disability unit in my Department to drive change across Government in respect of disability. We also have a Cabinet committee on disability, which I chair. There was a particular focus on the issue in the budget. At today's Cabinet meeting, we produced a budget spotlight on the measures taken in respect of disability. These include a 20% increase in services, the largest increase in disability services for quite some time. We need more, and we need to do more. The special education budget is now over €3 billion. That has to manifest itself in additional classes, teachers, special needs assistants and therapies in our schools and it is doing so. Very quickly after coming into government, we were in a position to roll out the school therapy programme. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, is doing phenomenal work in special education along with the Minister, Deputy Naughton, as he did with the previous Minister, Deputy McEntee. We are very focused on establishing that programme in the early months of the new year before expanding it to all special schools in the next school year, during the period from September to January. We will then expand it further. We will continue to look at ways to improve the quality of education for children with special needs and how to ensure the right placements on time with the right therapeutic supports. We are also continuing to recruit for CDNTs and so forth. The Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, is working on the issue of the cost of disability. He is leading the strategic focus network on the cost of disability, working closely with disabled people and their advocates to shape how this payment will be designed and delivered. Several meetings have already taken place. The intention is to bring a proposal to Government in the first half of next year. The bottom line is that we want to embed a permanent change in our payments systems and across all Government Departments. Once-off payments are no substitute for that. The once-off payments were introduced to deal with emergency situations arising out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are not fiscally sustainable in the long term.
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I disagree with the Deputy. This is a priority for me and for the Government. Just because she stands up and says it is not does not mean it is not. It is, but we need permanent change and permanent improvements, not just once-off stuff every year. That will not cut it either and-----
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Deputy Calleary is working through the detail because is not simple. He is going to work through it and will have proposals in the first half of next year. This year, we brought in the highest ever increase to the child support payment, namely €16 per week for children over 12, up to €78 now-----
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Of course it is relevant. That is for all children. There has been a €20 monthly increase to the domiciliary care allowance-----
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-----on the back of a very big increase last year. We are not going the route of short-term, once-off payments. Such payments are not fiscally sustainable in terms of the €3 billion and more we allocated last year.
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It is not your turn Deputy McDonald.
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Please allow someone else to have the opportunity to hear my reply.
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It will be interesting to see how long the Deputies opposite will remain colleagues, but anyway.
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I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. I agree with him that what happened in Brussels last week was absolutely unacceptable in terms of the pulling back of the Hague preferences. The situation is far more grave than that, however. In terms of the overall issue, it was on scientific advice that the Council based its decisions. The Deputy is familiar with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, report, in which the scientific advice was, in essence, for a reduction of 70% in the total allowable catch for mackerel - that is existential for the pelagic fleet - a 41% reduction in respect of blue whiting and a 22% reduction in respect of boarfish. These are devastating losses for our fishing community, with consequential issues for seafood sector, for processing downstream and for coastal communities that are dependent on jobs arising from that. The issue of unsustainable fishing of key pelagic stock such as mackerel by certain coastal states outside the European Union has been raised by Ireland repeatedly. We have, through the AGRIFISH Council, called for urgent European action to save the north-east Atlantic pelagic stocks. Again, Europe needs to negotiate far more strongly in terms of sending a clear message that actions that threaten the sustainability of our shared stocks are not acceptable to the European Union. There needs to be a concerted response. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, travelled to all the capitals and worked extremely hard. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, was there with the Minister of State at the time. I met with all the major fishing organisations last week or the week before last. What we have to do now is develop our approach. Today, the Government took a decision to establish a task force with the industry to come back to us in the first quarter of next year in terms of how we, nationally, can support our fishers and create a sustainable pathway over the next number of years. We intend to re-engage regarding our limitations under existing state aid rules. Given the existential nature of this hit to the Irish fishing industry, we will have to respond in a strong way in terms of financially supporting our fishers over the next number of years. Approximately €102 million is involved, and that does not take account, as the Deputy said, of the impacts on the value chain in the seafood sector for fish processes and ancillary services. That is also an issue of significant concern. The Hague preferences would have accounted for somewhere between €13 million and €18 million of that €102 million, so it is a much bigger issue, notwithstanding the unacceptable nature of the decision of other member states not to facilitate the granting of the Hague preferences. We will work now with the industry with a view to designing a package and a framework to create a sustainable future for Irish fishing.
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I put it to the Deputy that what I am proposing is far more realistic in terms of an immediate or timely response to the predicament and the dire situation Irish fishers find themselves in, primarily, let us be honest, because of scientific advice. When the stock is-----
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I gave the reason earlier.
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This is Deputy Collins's time. Sinn Féin cannot cannibalise everyone else and grab their time. I know it tries to do it politically.
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Deputy Collins is the one Deputy in this House who has raised this issue.
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Deputy Mac Lochlainn's party chose not to raise it. Deputy Collins raised it and, in fairness to him, he should be allowed time for a response.
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I say to Deputy Collins that we will look at all options. The most immediate one I am concerned about is that we need a framework of response in order to bring about a financially sustainable future for Irish fishers. That is important. We want to work with the industry to do that.
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