People are struggling under relentless cost-of-living crises. Despite that, the Tánaiste's Government has decided to increase carbon taxes. It is going to heap more pressure on workers and families, and we know the carbon tax is regressive. It hits ordinary people on middle and low incomes the hardest, and the Government plans to continue to do this for the next five years, all signed off by Independents who support the Government.

This is at a time when people are struggling with costs. We know that the cost of groceries has gone up. We see double-digit rent increases, crippling childcare costs, and insurance costs going up and up. In the face of all of this and all that pressure, what the Tánaiste and the Cabinet have decided is to put up the price of a bag of coal and of home heating oil, and to make people's gas bills higher. That is the effect of today's increase in carbon tax. Will the Government come to its senses on this issue and stop all carbon tax increases for the next number of years?

I thank Deputy Doherty. He is right with regard to making sure people can be assisted with the cost of living but I would point out this Government has taken a number of measures, and that wages in Ireland are now growing ahead of inflation. We have taken action with regard to reducing childcare costs. That is just one example. We have made school books free and provided free school meals, measures that really help many families right across our country.

People in Ireland know the long-established policy in regard to carbon tax and they now know where that carbon tax money goes. It goes into things like the fuel allowance, helping people on a social welfare, retrofitting and agri-environmental schemes for our farmers. We have been very clear with respect to the policy direction on that.

A bit like the Obamas, there is apparently a rift at the heart of this marriage of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Ministers barely being seen together this week. The Tánaiste said earlier that process matters. Can he confirm, with regard to the Government's so-called housing tsar, that Mr. Brendan McDonagh is the Government's preferred candidate, as the Minister, Deputy Browne, said on the radio? Will Mr. McDonagh's appointment go through an appropriate public appointment process? Does the Tánaiste stand over this, and does he think this is an appropriate way to run Government? Will the salary amount to the purported €430,000? I think this amounts to a gouging of the taxpayer. I thought Fine Gael, in particular, was supposed to be a prudent guardian of the public purse.

I thank Deputy Sheehan and assure him the Government is getting along very well, and Ministers are active and busy in a whole range of areas. If there have not been sightings of different Ministers together - I will have to inquire into that - it is probably because they have been too busy doing their jobs. We are at one with regard to the need to establish a housing activation office. I very much welcome the plans brought forward by the Minister, Deputy Browne, this week to get that up and running. It derives from the Housing Commission and many proposals put forward by opposition TDs in advance of the last election to break down silos, second expertise and bring in utility companies. That is the decision, and the only decision the Government has made.

As the Taoiseach said in this House yesterday and as I will say today, there has been no decision made with regard to the staffing of that office yet. We will continue to engage on these matters, and that will be the next decision to be made.

The Minister, Deputy Browne, said Mr. McDonagh is the Government's preferred candidate.

He can bring forward his proposals and we will consider them.

The housing crisis is a social and economic disaster. Solving it requires an emergency response that is unprecedented in scale and a radical reset in policy. Yet, what we have seen so far from this Government is disarray, half-baked ideas, kite-flying and a complete lack of a joined-up approach. The proposed appointment of Mr. Brendan McDonagh, NAMA CEO, now appears to have been another ill-thought-out solo run by Fianna Fáil to add to the scrapping of rent caps and the tax breaks for investor funds. How can we have any confidence that this Government will co-ordinate a solution to the housing disaster, when it cannot even co-ordinate and take a joined-up approach in its own Cabinet?

To be clear, the Government's new activation office is only a fig leaf of what the Housing Commission proposed as a comprehensive, resourced executive. The Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Independent both report today that Mr. McDonagh was due to get a pay cut if he went back to the NTMA. In creating a housing tsar, has the Government created a golden parachute to keep him on his outrageously high salary? How does the Tánaiste think, on this International Workers' Day, low-income workers feel with the postponement of their living wage, while the Government creates gold-plated positions for insiders?

Nothing like that has happened at all. The Government has established a housing activation office. We would be delighted to constructively engage with the Deputy and all of the Opposition in terms of how this office can work effectively. We have all seen the need to break down silos, second people and bring in expertise. We should not be referring to people outside the House by their surnames and calling people tsars and all that sort of stuff. There are no such plans to create any tsar. There are plans to create offices, which will have to be staffed and populated. The Government will decide in due course, as we tease this through, how best to do that. All of this has to be about building more homes. The success or otherwise of the next five years will be in how we make progress in building more homes for more people in our country.

Baineann mo cheist leis an gcreat náisiúnta pleanála athbhreithnithe. Is cúis imní agus díomá araon a laghad tuisceana atá ann sa phlean sin. It really is a serious worry to me that there is a complete absence in the national planning framework of an understanding in regard to the Irish language and the serious emergency in the Gaeltacht. In almost 200 pages, there are barely three paragraphs on this and they tell us about only one aim, cuspóir amháin, which is to zone in on language planning. There is no recognition of the emergency and the serious challenges facing the Gaeltacht in terms of its survival without a housing policy that is sustainable. That emergency has been raised repeatedly but it is not there when I read the national planning framework document.

The Minister, Deputy Calleary, tells me he intends to engage directly with the Minister, Deputy Browne, on planning guidelines specifically for the Gaeltacht. I will ask the Minister to engage directly with the Deputy in regard to her feedback on the issue.

The total Israeli blockade on humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip has now passed 60 days, in what the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, has described as a "new unseen level" of humanitarian crisis. A recent report by Amnesty International stated that Israel was carrying out livestreamed genocide in Gaza, routinely targeting civilians and engaging in torture and enforced disappearances. We are on the third day of hearings by the International Court of Justice into Israel's obligations to Palestinians. The Government's intervention in that case was very welcome but it seems that since the St. Patrick's Day visit to Trump, we have been cowed by US pressure. Will the occupied territories Bill come before the Oireachtas by the end of this term? As we have seen with other legislation, the Bill can be tweaked on Committee and Report Stages. We need to send out a signal that we are taking this issue seriously and doing what we can to call out Israeli atrocities.

The Government and I share the Deputy's view on what we are seeing in terms of the stopping of aid getting into Gaza. It is despicable and it is causing untold harm, to put it very mildly. One cannot find the words to capture how horrific the situation is in Gaza. I thank the Deputy for his comments regarding the Government's intervention on behalf of Ireland at the ICJ. I assure him that our work continues. We recently had an EU-Palestinian high-level dialogue, which was the first engagement between the EU and Palestine. I represented Ireland at that engagement. We have provided very significant funding at an EU level to support the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.

Regarding the occupied territories Bill, I remain absolutely committed to acting on the commitment in the programme for Government to bring forward legislation. I am due to meet the sponsor of the original Bill next week. I am eager to get to work with her on this but I am also every eager that any legislation we pass can genuinely be meaningful and lawful. I am happy to come back to the Deputy in the next week regarding my plans.

The programme for Government recognises the need to work in partnership with private childcare providers to make core funding work as well as taking the critical step into State-led childcare. The three main issues the Government needs to tackle are staffing, accessibility and affordability. The truth, as the Tánaiste knows, is that reliance on the private sector alone will never deliver the childcare capacity we need in communities, which is essential for workforce participation by women and equitable access to early learning and care. On May Day of all days, we also need to adequately recognise the role of our childcare workers. Does the Tánaiste have an update on the action plan in the programme for Government to build an affordable and accessible early childhood education and care system that includes State-led facilities, must be based on partnership, including with our experienced and trusted providers, but must also be bold in ambition?

I fully agree with the Deputy's description of what needs to happen. The word "partnership" is really important. We have such good examples of childcare providers across the country. We also have significant gaps in provision. I meet people who are frustrated when they hear we have reduced the cost of childcare. They say, "That is great but I cannot get a place". Cost and access, along, of course, with quality, really do matter. There are 21 commitments in the programme for Government in regard to childcare. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is looking at how we can bring forward the action plan. This is an absolute priority for the Government and it will require public intervention, that is, State intervention, starting with areas where there are particular gaps in service provision.

I raise the matter of waiting lists and times for children who require psychology treatment, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy in primary care in County Wexford. At present, the number of children waiting for psychology treatment is 833, with a waiting time of four and a half years. A total of 631 children are waiting for speech and language therapy, with a waiting time of two and a half years. In the case of occupational therapy, 1,312 children must wait more than three and a half years for treatment. The programme for Government states that the Government will invest in waiting list initiatives and enhance youth mental health services. What waiting list and mental health initiatives will be taken in County Wexford, where children are being left up to four and a half years without a service or a therapist, which is adding stress and causing further harm to those children's mental health?

There is a huge priority in regard to recruitment and retention within children's disability network teams, CDNTs, right across the country. As the Deputy probably knows, there was an increase of 17% in the CDNT workforce from 2023 to 2024, which amounts to the recruitment of 272 whole-time equivalent staff. That said, we need to do much more. International and domestic recruitments processes are under way, we have bursaries for postgraduate students and we have outreach into secondary schools and higher education authorities to raise awareness of the valuable work done by people in the disability sector. My door is open if the Deputy has any ideas for increasing staffing in this area.

It is an absolute top priority for me and my Government colleagues to make sure we have the therapists in place. The Deputy knows about the in-school therapies the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is rolling out right across the country in special schools and, eventually, in special classes in mainstream schools. Work is ongoing in a range of areas. In higher education, we have 150 extra therapists going through our third level institutions. We are also looking at therapy assistants and how we can upskill people through apprenticeships within the therapy space.

I refer to the safety of pedestrians on our roads. Between 2019 and 2023, 164 pedestrians were tragically killed on our roads and more than 1,400 sustained serious injuries. The provision of safe pedestrian crossings in our urban areas is critical to reduce this number. Unfortunately, the local authority in my constituency really is strapped for funding to provide new pedestrian crossings or retrofit older crossings to make them safer by installing raised platforms as a traffic-calming measure. I ask the Tánaiste to champion within the Government the provision of extra funding to local authorities to provide safe crossings for pedestrians throughout the country.

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of pedestrian safety and the need for the Government to make sure we adequately fund and provide support to local authorities for that purpose. In recent years, there have been a number of initiatives, including the walking to school programme, where there has been a real effort to make walking routes safer, particularly for schoolchildren and others. I certainly will take up this matter directly with the Minister for Transport and ask that he gets back to the Deputy to see what can be done.

Skellig Michael, where monks lived, worked and prayed hundreds of years ago, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its place in the history and culture of Kerry and Ireland is undisputed but it is also vital to the local economy of south Kerry, the Iveragh Peninsula and, indeed, the whole country. It attracts visitors from all over the world, even more so since the filming of the "Star Wars" series there in recent years. It is amazing for the local economy. The landing of passengers on the island requires a licence. At present, that is confined to 15 boats carrying 12 passengers, which amounts to 180 passengers per day. Last year, temporary licences were awarded to 15 operators. I am calling for the awarding of 18 licences to get us over the impasse that is there at the moment.

They would be confined to ten passengers each, keeping in line with the cap of 180, to ensure the season operates for the good of all concerned, on a one-season-only basis and with full licences to be reverted to in 2026. This is exceedingly important to bed and breakfast accommodation, guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, bars and coffee shops all over south Kerry. This needs to be resolved. Visiting the island is weather dependent.

I thank Deputy Cahill very much. I agree with him that Skellig Michael is such a beautiful treasure and an amazing place. I share his view that it is so important to support the maintenance and protection of what is a UNESCO heritage site and also to examine how we can assist tourists in getting there in an appropriate way. Therefore, I will certainly speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, on the issue the Deputy has raised regarding licensing and ask that he revert to him directly.

I ask for an update on the national roll-out of standardised labelling of alcohol products. I understand that in 2023 the then Minister for Health signed the regulations into law and that the labelling is due to come into effect a year from now, in May 2026. Could the Tánaiste confirm that we are on target for the labels to be on all drinks one year from now and whether there are any implementation issues remaining to be resolved?

I thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising this issue. We do need to consider the timeline for implementation. We find ourselves in a very new trade environment and we always say we have to try to control what we can control. This is certainly something that at least merits consideration when we hear the concerns expressed. I believe this falls into that category. I am not in a position to say today what exact decision the Government will make but I can say that the timeline around implementation is certainly under consideration.

I take this opportunity to commend the Louth under-20s and Fergal Reel, their manager, on what was obviously a fabulous win in the Leinster final against Meath. The minors are playing in the quarter finals tonight against Westmeath in Hunterstown and I hope that goes well. We obviously have an historic injustice that needs to be dealt with at the Leinster senior final on 11 May.

That is a very relevant question.

I would think that most right-thinking people will offer support.

Let me refer to a very serious issue. It concerns one of my constituents who contacted me. She had been working for Liberty IT as part of Liberty Mutual. She believes that in her section, which is in Dublin but with an awful lot of remote working, about 100 jobs are gone, and possibly another 20 in Cavan. She would have dealt with claims related to home protection and such in the US. In a six-minute meeting, the staff were told the jobs in question would be outsourced. I suppose the fact that we are dealing with an American company – I have spoken to the Minister about it – raises questions over whether this is part of a wider issue. I ask that all the supports necessary be offered in this case and that we facilitate people’s return to employment, if that is possible.

I also have a question, possibly, on the issue of artificial intelligence. I imagine that the Tánaiste might not be able to answer in full at this point but addressing the issue is absolutely necessary.

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. I cannot really win on the GAA question because by pleasing him I could offend the Minister, Deputy McEntee. There is no winning on this other than to wish everybody well.

On the serious issue the Deputy raised – it is not that the GAA is not serious – on Liberty IT, the challenge there and, no doubt, the real worry and stress for workers, I too will speak directly to the relevant Minister, Deputy Burke, and ask that he keep in touch with the Deputy on it.

More broadly, on the issue of artificial intelligence, ensuring we provide good ethical frameworks and clarity around artificial intelligence is going to become increasingly important for workers in both the public and private sectors in the time ahead.

The legacy Act gives an amnesty to murderers and blocks the families of murdered civilians from achieving justice. It is the son and heir of the cover-up by the British Army and RUC for some of the most heinous crimes in the North. It is unilateral action that actually undermines human law and human justice. It turns Britain into an outlier and indeed a rogue state. It is heaping more pain and suffering on so many families, who have already suffered so terribly under the hands of the British state. Today is the one-year anniversary of the Act. Sean Brown was abducted outside a GAA club in Bellaghy, County Derry, and shot dead by loyalists in 1997. Intelligence has clearly linked British state agents to the murder. The British Government is doing all it can to frustrate the inquiry. The Irish Government, under pressure from Aontú and other groups, took a case against the British Government to the European Court of Human Rights on the legacy Act. What is happening with this case and when can the families who have been wronged so terribly receive justice?

On the legacy Act, the Irish Government took a case not because of pressure from any political party but because it believes in international law, human rights and the Good Friday Agreement. We took one in a very difficult situation. We did not want to find ourselves in that position, but I can report to the House very good and constructive engagement between me and the Secretary of State on behalf of our respective Governments to try to get to a better place on legacy. The Irish Government’s clear landing zone here is that if there is to be an agreed position between the British and Irish Governments, it will have to be human rights compliant and try to bring victims and their families with us. I believe the next few weeks will show it is possible.

Specifically on the Sean Brown case, I have read the statement of the Secretary of State on Sean Brown. I understand the Secretary of State has filed applications with the Court of Appeal seeking an extension of time for decision-making and seeking protective leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in the case brought by Bridie Brown, whose husband was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997. However, as I said to the Secretary of State in private last week – I also said it publicly at our joint press conference – the Brown family has waited far too long to find out the truth about what happened to Sean Brown. We are approaching the 28th anniversary of his murder and, in the absence of an effective investigation into his death, which the UK Government has not yet agreed to, the passage of time makes it absolutely and increasingly pressing. Bridie Brown has shown enormous strength in pursuing this case through every available channel and I intend to continue to pursue it also.

This week we saw a new train fare structure rolled out around the Dublin area. While I welcome the simplification of fares, because I believe it was necessary, and also the reduction in fares for some towns, towns such as Greystones and Kilcoole have seen significant increases. This is really difficult to understand considering our transport emissions, the fact that we have to reduce emissions, the fact that we are not on track to do that, and the risk of having €20 billion in fines imposed on us by the EU if we do not meet our targets in this regard. The fare in Greystones has gone up by 30% for adults and something like 200% for a child, which is just incredible. Will the Government direct Iarnród Éireann to reduce the fare increases we have seen? As a matter of general principle until we get our transport emissions under control, there should be no increase in public transport fares for passengers.

As the Deputy can imagine, since both of us live in the area, I share her frustration on this. We know very well that as the review was carried out, there were some people, including in our constituency, who saw significant fare reductions, but there have also been what I regard as anomalies in that some towns have seen significant fare increases. In this regard, the Deputy rightly referred to Greystones and Kilcoole, two towns we know well.

The NTA and others will tell us that the changes are broadly revenue neutral, which is true, and that we are moving to a distance-based zonal system. The NTA believes the latter is fairer and easier for passengers to understand. However, this needs to be kept under review. From a policy point of view, we have taken a number of steps to try to help people with the cost of public transport, including the young adult card and the 90-minute fare. We have had money to extend that. We have seen a number of initiatives that have helped to reduce the cost and I would not like to see anything that counters that, so I am happy to continue to engage with the NTA on this, as I know the Deputy is. I will keep in touch with her on it.

The Tánaiste, as a dad of young children, like me, will appreciate the importance of public health nurses and the community health checks they perform. Could he give the House an update on the progress being made on the priority allocation of the 26.7 WTE community nursing posts that are currently being recruited by the HSE? Is there a timeframe for their being filled? We are aware of the importance of childhood development checks but we also know about the important role community nurses and public health nurses play with regard to older people who live at home and who may have a chronic condition as well and can be left waiting for treatment or intervention as a result of not having access to a nurse. I understand there has been a huge increase in the number of personnel working in the HSE and that the HSE is aware of the shortage in this area.

I ask that the Tánaiste redouble efforts to prioritise the recruitment of these roles. We want to ensure we catch conditions at an early stage in a child's life to make sure the child is set up for success and that healthcare in the community is maximised and optimised to its greatest potential.

I know this is a serious issue and has been in Dublin Mid-West, where it seems to arise particularly as an issue. There are approximately 1,803 public health nurses employed in the HSE and we have provided funding for another 26.7 - let us call that 27 - whole-time-equivalent posts in this year’s budget. My note here tells me that the HSE is making good progress recruiting those people, has recently been given commissioning letters to fill the new development public health nursing posts and recruitment has now commenced. My understanding is that, in parallel to this recruitment, the HSE is trying to carry out a number of short-term temporary solutions, including integrating services, reorganising work, engaging with the graduate nurse scheme to fill vacant positions and the redeployment of staff to make sure that areas retain a level of service while new staff are coming on stream. I will ask the Minister for Health to revert to the Deputy directly on the 27 new posts are they are rolled out.

I urge the Government to support calls for pension parity in our schools. The current lack of parity is adversely affecting our school secretaries and caretakers. All parents and caregivers know the vital role our school secretaries play in schools.

In the school I worked in as a SNA, our secretary is known by pupils and staff alike as Super Sue because she, like all school secretaries I know, including Nuala and Mary as well as Bernie in Kildavin are at the centre of the smooth running of a school. Likewise, caretakers like Johnny, Pat and Dick in Ballon, keep our school grounds and buildings safe and secure and are often the unseen workers in schools, as the nature of their work is often behind the scenes, but they are also critical members of school staff and deserve to be remunerated as such. Our schools would not function without secretaries and caretakers. Will the Tánaiste please support the calls from schools to give pension parity to school secretaries and school caretakers?

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I join with her in commending the fabulous work by our secretaries and caretakers in our schools. I had the opportunity last week to meet many of them at the Fórsa conference as part of the overall Easter conferences. We have made a lot of progress, notably in changing the way our secretaries are paid so they are now paid through the Department of Education. We are hoping to make similar progress for our caretakers. The next step, and the next request from our secretaries, is that there would be pension parity along with those changes. That is engagement that will have to happen as part of an overall engagement with the Department of public expenditure and reform. That engagement is ongoing through my Department with the Department of public expenditure and reform. We will engage with our secretaries and caretakers through their representative organisation as well. They are an integral part of our schools and it is really important that we support them in every way we can.

A commitment was made last autumn to make the increase in the cap for the defective block grant scheme available to all homeowners and not just new entrants. This is a straightforward amendment to the 2022 legislation and should have been brought through the Dáil and the Seanad before now. A large number of homeowners are facing real financial hardship trying to make the final payment to builders for remedial work. These people are already struggling and suffering with the fact their houses have defects. Leaving them to wait like this is very cruel. When will the commitment be honoured?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am aware of the commitment that was made and the anxiety people are feeling. I do not have the information in front of me today but I will ask the Minister directly to revert to the Deputy. I will outline that the Deputy has raised the issue and the urgency of trying to resolve this matter for her constituents.

I hope the Tánaiste can clarify exactly what our position on the Palestinian state is because I am genuinely baffled. On one hand, we recognise the Palestinian state, we support the Palestinian people and we support the ICJ case but, on the other hand, Congressman Brian Mast was hosted in Leinster House last week. He believes all Palestinians are guilty, including Gazan babies. We have also had a severely repressive turn towards Palestine solidarity protests. The Tánaiste will be well aware of what happened to Mothers Against Genocide but last night a protest took place at the Westbury Hotel where the Central Bank Governor was speaking. It was an extremely peaceful protest. Protesters went to make their case heard that Ireland should not be processing Israeli bonds, which are essentially war bonds, on behalf of the EU, particularly when we are meant to support Palestine. Vanloads of gardaí arrived to remove the protestors. They manhandled them, arrested some and at least one person has been formally arrested. We are seeing protest in support of Palestine that is peaceful being criminalised. The IPSC has posted about this on all its platforms.

The Taoiseach seems more concerned about what Kneecap is doing and not the people who are coming to Leinster House and being feted. The Cathaoirleach of the Seanad put a photograph up of that man on his social media as if there was no problem. I am asking the Tánaiste as Minister for foreign affairs and security when we will do something actively to actually support Palestine like ruling out the military use of Shannon, passing the occupied territories Bill and stopping Israeli war bonds being processed in Ireland by the Central Bank?

I think the Government’s position in relation to Palestine is very clear and so does the President of the Palestinian Authority, its Prime Minister and its ambassador to Ireland. Ireland stands in solidarity with the need for a two-state solution. Ireland believes in two states and we recognise the State of Palestine to keep that hope alive. We have taken a number of practical measures, that have not just been words, including, as Deputy Gogarty referenced, our submission to international courts like the ICJ, providing additional funding to UNWRA to provide direct humanitarian assistance to people in Gaza, and working at EU level on the EU Palestinian dialogue.

Why are protestors being attacked by the Garda?

I believe very much in protest in a democracy, that is, protest obviously within the law. I also believe our gardaí generally do a very good job in this country. I am not familiar with the protest the Deputy mentioned. I truthfully am not.

I hope the Tánaiste looks into it.

If anyone has any concerns on that, there are mechanisms by which they can be raised. However, protest is absolutely lawful in this country, that is, peaceful protest. It takes place and is an important part of a healthy democracy.