Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Iarraim ar an Teachta Doherty cloí leis na srianta ama.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Is mian liom fosta fáilte a chur roimh an Dáil to the First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and our MPs from the North who were elected to represent to represent their constituencies. I look forward to the day when they can rightfully take their seats in this House in a new and united Ireland. In between, I encourage the Government to revisit the commitment given by former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, in terms of providing speaking rights to those elected from the North.

Tá teaghlaigh ó thaobh na mblocanna lochtacha ag fulaingt. Dheimhnigh an comhfhreagras a d’fhoilsigh The Ditch idir an tArd-Aighne agus an tAire tithíochta an méid seo. Bhí a fhios againne go raibh an Rialtas ag iarraidh cúlú a chur ar an méid daoine a bheadh ábalta tacaíocht a fháil agus nach mbeadh 100% cúiteamh ar fáil. The homeowners involved in the defective concrete block scandal have continued to struggle with the failing redress scheme announced by this Government since 2021. The scheme failed to provide 100% redress as homeowners and their families faced financial stress and mental anguish while they watched their homes crumble right around them. Children are forced sleep in bedrooms with crumbling walls, families are forced to live in unsafe conditions and homeowners are facing massive shortfalls to rebuild their homes and their lives.

Correspondence released by The Ditch between the Attorney General and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage from September 2021 reveals what Sinn Féin and the campaigners suspected from the very beginning, which is that there was a concerted effort at the very heart of Government to block and limit financial support for those homeowners as their homes and lives crumbled right before their very eyes. The contents of the Attorney General's letter to the Minister for housing are shocking in the unwavering focus on ways to reduce the number of applicants to the redress scheme. He talked about how any improvements would likely increase the number of applicants to the scheme. There was an insinuation that affected homeowners would, in the Attorney General's words, "pitch his/her claim on the most generous basis that can be credibly advanced", rather than recognising that these are victims of a crisis in which they are facing financial ruin and hardship and who only ever wanted fairness, justice and a safe home for themselves and their children. The Attorney General in his correspondence calls into question the competence of certified engineers, questioning their expertise and even claiming that they would be susceptible to pressure from homeowners and would recommend anything other than what was right or what they would professionally recommend. He also questioned the expertise of local authority staff. The contents of this correspondence are shocking, with the Attorney General providing not just legal advice but policy advice on an issue that has destroyed so many lives.

The Government accepted much of the advice, which limited financial support to so many homeowners. The disastrous consequences of this decision are only too well known by the victims of this scandal. Only 61 properties have been fully remediated to date, and that includes under the old scheme that was announced in 2018. The failures of the Government in responding to the defect scandal are not surprising. The owners of nearly 16,000 apartments with emergency fire safety defects have yet to receive State funding despite the scheme opening last year. Legislation meant to underpin a wider redress scheme for people with Celtic tiger era defects has still not been published despite commitments that it would be published last September.

This Government has failed homeowners affected by the defective concrete blocks scandal. The financial distress, but also the mental anguish they face each and every day, is proof of that failure. The Attorney General said in his advice that it was important to urgently engage with local solicitors to pursue the wrongdoers. In his advice, he mentioned quarries and block manufacturers. He said there was considerable urgency with this. He went on to name Cassidy's quarry in County Donegal and he made it clear that a company going into liquidation could still be pursued and a claim made against it or its insurers. Therefore, on behalf of 7,000 affected owners of homes that have concrete defects, I ask the Tánaiste very simply why he accepted the Attorney General's advice when it comes to limiting their ability to access this but ignored the Attorney General's advice when he told the Government to urgently pursue the wrongdoers and named some of those companies that were the wrongdoers. The Government has done nothing about that since.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Hear, hear.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ar dtús báire, cuirim fáilte roimh an Chéad-Aire sa Tuaisceart, Michelle O’Neill, agus roimh fheisirí nua Pharlaimint na Breataine chuig ár dTeach.

Ní aontaím leis an mhéid atá ráite ag an Teachta Doherty. Tá sé soiléir go bhfuil an-chuid infheistíochta curtha ar fáil ag an Rialtas d’úinéirí tithe agus do theaghlaigh a bhfuil an-chuid damáiste déanta dóibh de dheasca míoca. Tá suas le €2.5 billiún curtha ar fáil ag an Rialtas don scéim seo. Is scéim i bhfad níos fearr í ná an scéim a bhí ann cheana in 2019, scéim a raibh Sinn Féin sásta léi.

Bhí Sinn Féin sásta leis an scéim a bhí ann in 2018-19.

I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy's presentation. Legal advice is always given to Government on a whole range of issues. I met with the representatives of mica homeowners at the time as Taoiseach. We dealt with many of the issues they raised with us in respect of the deficiencies of the 2018-19 scheme. The fundamental reality is that Sinn Féin supported and acquiesced to that 2018-19 scheme. Deputy Mac Lochlainn is on the record as having said that scheme would suffice. Of course, it was not satisfactory. That is why the Government acted in terms of dramatically changing and transforming the schemes.

The enhanced scheme, which was legislated for in June 2023, provides financial support to affected homeowners in Donegal, Mayo, Limerick and Clare. Additionally, Sligo has been added. Grants of up to €420,000 are available for affected homeowners, depending on the works required under the scheme. Transitional arrangements for the transfer of applicants from the older scheme to the new scheme were also provided. The enhanced scheme provides an evidence-based system for new counties or parts of counties to be designated as required. There is a lot of research and an extraordinary amount of work. A report on the first six months of the operation of this scheme was recently prepared for the Minister. It concluded that within the legislative framework set down by the Oireachtas, the scheme was operating satisfactorily. Indeed, the new scheme provides very substantial enhancements: 100% grants, subject to an overall maximum-----

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Outrageous.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----grant of €420,000 per dwelling; grant rates in keeping with advice from the Society of Chartered Surveyors; and a Government guarantee in the form of a second grant option, if required, for a period of up to 40 years. That was not in the previous scheme, which Deputy Mac Lochlainn was happy with.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The new scheme includes a revised application process, which removes the financial barrier to scheme entry; an independent appeals process for applicants; and alternative accommodation and storage costs and immediate repair works to the maximum value of €25,000, which people had asked for. It provides for the expertise of the Housing Agency in assessing applications, the inclusion of RTB-registered rental properties, which had not been included in the older scheme; the inclusion, as I said, of Clare and Limerick in the enhanced scheme upon commencement; and exempt development status for remediation works completed under the scheme. The scheme is estimated to cost €2.3 billion. I do not know how the Deputy can say the focus has been on limiting financial allocation to this scheme when the costs are estimated at about €2.3 billion. By any objective yardstick, it is a significant response by the Government. Quite a significant number of applications were received. The combined total paid to local authorities to date is approximately €49.3 million. Some 1,644 applications had been received in the older scheme - they have transitioned to the new scheme, plus a further 514. A total of 821 applications were referred to the Housing Finance Agency.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Homeowners are telling the Tánaiste that the scheme is not working. That is the nuts and bolts of this. Everybody can tell you this. Some 1,300 people turned up in Inishowen and 500 turned up in Mayo to tell us the scheme is not working. The scheme is not working. It locks people out. I have the Attorney General's advice with me. His advice was very clearly aimed at keeping people out of the scheme and trying to limit the exposure. How is it legal advice for the Attorney General to call into question the competence of certified engineers? How is it legal advice for him to call into question the competence of the staff working in our local authorities in Donegal and elsewhere? Riddle me that. The Attorney General was not giving legal advice in a lot of this. It was actually policy advice. Where he did give legal advice, in chapter 23 he says "it is important to urgently engage competent local solicitors". With regard to quarries and block manufacturers, he states:

There is considerable urgency with this because if any claims are not statute barred it would be necessary to issue proceedings urgently to avoid them becoming statute barred.

He goes on to discuss Cassidy's quarry and to question whether it was attempting to avoid liability by going into liquidation. He makes it clear that even if Cassidy's quarry goes into liquidation, it can still be pursued.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy. Táimid thar am.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I put it to the Tánaiste, three years on, that the Government has locked thousands of people out of this scheme.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy. You are over time.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Three years on, what has the Government done to pursue the wrongdoers, the block manufacturers and the quarry manufacturers that the Attorney General told it to pursue urgently?

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy Doherty went over his time. I do not mind a little leniency, but we are going to have to comply with the rules.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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First of all, we have locked nobody out of this scheme. Sinn Féin, and Deputy Mac Lochlainn in particular, gave an admittedly cautious welcome to the previous scheme in January 2020.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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So did the campaigners. So did you.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That scheme compares in no shape or form to the new scheme that this Government introduced.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Protect your friends.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Our scheme is far more comprehensive and far more expansive. It deals with all of the issues that were all of the issues raised with me when I first met with the group. The policy response has been a very generous one. There has to be an evidence-based approach to it. The Society of Chartered Surveyors was brought in to look at the costs and all of the implications and to make provision. I do not think there is a jurisdiction anywhere in Europe that would have responded in the manner that we have responded as a Government. We also created further additionality in terms of the retrofit schemes and the SEAI.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Answer the question about the Attorney General.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In terms of any new remediation, the retrofitting facility-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What about the Attorney General?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----is now available, which is additional again in terms of the scheme.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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You are too embarrassed to address the question.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Tánaiste, without interruption.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I reject the assertions from Sinn Féin. You have not been on the ball on this for quite a long time. For example, you never replied-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Why will you not answer the question?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----to a written request two months after the working group report was published.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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We tabled 80 amendments to the legislation, which you rejected.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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You never replied, for some reason, to give your own detailed position on how this-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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You rejected 80 amendments to the legislation.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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You guys dropped the ball a bit.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputies, I will not proceed in this manner.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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He is too embarrassed to even address the question, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy Ó Broin, I will not proceed in this manner. We are going to treat each other with dignity and respect.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What about treating the homeowners with dignity and respect?

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Oh now.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy, I am not going to repeat it. We are going to move on. I call Deputy Holly Cairns.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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You have ignored the issue.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Again.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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You have ignored the issue again.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Can we hear from the next speaker, please? I ask Deputies to listen to Deputy Cairns.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Is there a speaker or a heckler? Or are there both? You are not ready to be one speaker instead of two hecklers.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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If we got an answer on any of the questions-----

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Sorry, we have hecklers in chief and speakers in chief. Which one is it?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy Lawless-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I have asked the question twice about pursuing the wrongdoers.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Tánaiste could have spoken up for the homeowners.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputies, if this continues, I am going to stop the Dáil.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I apologise, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Apologies are not helpful at this point. We are going to move on with dignity and respect and listen to each other. We will hear from Deputy Cairns without interruption.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. A leading pediatrician has issued a stark warning about the dire impacts of child homelessness. Dr. Aoibhinn Walsh has said that children are presenting with rickets, anaemia, faltering growth, extreme tooth decay and skin conditions like scabies. Children with autism or intellectual disabilities experience additional trauma from overcrowded noisy emergency accommodation. She told The Irish Times, "They may be nonverbal, faecal smearing in hotel rooms, bed-wetting, refusing to eat, not sleeping." There is an enormous body of research that tells us that homelessness is disastrous for children's health and well-being. As far back as 2019, a study from the RCSI warned that 40% of homeless children experienced clinically significant mental health and behavioural difficulties. At the time, that report rightly garnered major headlines and media attention. It was also raised repeatedly in this House.

Five years later, Dr. Walsh's warnings about the catastrophic impacts of homelessness on children have largely gone under the radar. She is concerned that as a society we are becoming numb to the appalling damage being done to children. Why? Under this Government, thousands of children in homelessness is increasingly viewed not as a crisis, but as the norm. There are now 4,316 children living in emergency accommodation. At the end of this month, we will likely find that the figure has increased again. Since this Government took office, the number of children in homelessness has increased by 63%. Never before have so many children in the State been without a secure home. Never before have children been spending so long in emergency accommodation.

Of the nearly 1,500 families in emergency accommodation in Dublin in May, 26% of them had been homeless for two years or longer. Once families enter homelessness, it is getting harder and harder to get them out. That is why we must stop children and families becoming homeless in the first place.

The new Labour Party Government in the UK has said it will ban no-fault evictions. This will leave us as one of the few countries in Europe where these evictions will still happen.

Nobody who is a good tenant and who is paying their rent should be made homeless. If the Tánaiste really wants to tackle child homelessness and prevent more children going into homelessness in the next week, in the next month and over the recess, why will the Tánaiste not stop this from happening? Will the Tánaiste introduce a no-fault eviction plan?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Because that would make the situation even worse. Supply is the key.

First, I acknowledge that, without question, homelessness and emergency accommodation can be very detrimental to children's health and to people's health in general, but particularly for children. There is no argument there. The response is not one of the norm. Rather, it is one of a multifaceted approach to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first instance, and particularly families, and then exiting families, and children in particular, from homelessness as quickly as possible.

The Department of housing worked with local authorities to bring an additional 2,000 beds into use in homeless emergency accommodation over the course of 2023. During the first quarter of this year, about 650 households exited emergency accommodation. That is an increase of 7.2% on Q4 of 2023 and it is in increase of 18.5% on Q1 of 2023. During the same period, over 1,000 households were prevented from entering emergency accommodation by way of a tenancy being created. That is a 59% increase on Q1 of 2023. Close to 7,000 adult preventions and exits have been achieved over the course of 2023 and that is a 25% increase on what happened in 2022. There is progress in terms of the exiting and the prevention side of homelessness. That will continue. The tenant in situ acquisition scheme has been particularly effective with the number of preventions achieved increasing by more than 45%, partly as a result of the introduction of that scheme.

Very substantial funding has being made available to homelessness-specific supports in terms of proper and far more supportive accommodation than hotels or anything like that. The emergency and the family hubs, in particular, have been far more effective in that regard. There is quite a substantial number of those.

However, nothing can be more advantageous to a child's health than the provision of a home, and supply is the key to that. Since the Government came in, we have managed to facilitate the building of 110,000 homes. Last year, up to 12,000 social homes were delivered. That is the key.

There are growing numbers, and in some instances coming into the country directly to avail of emergency accommodation from Europe. That happens. In that context, we have a challenge in terms of them, under the framework, not being eligible for social housing. That requires emergency accommodation.

There are many factors but the key, in my view, is prevention and then rapid exit from homelessness as quickly as we can. The most effective way to do that is the supply of more houses.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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This week a primary school teacher told me about an incredibly upsetting incident in their classroom where they asked the children to draw out their house and mark the name of the rooms as Gaeilge and one child got very upset and whispered to their teacher that they could not do the exercise because they did not have a home. That is one of the 4,316 children who are homeless. The damage that is being caused as a result of this will be lifelong. The upset, the stress, the lack of proper nutrition, the cramped and unsuitable accommodation, the noise, the inability to have friends come over to play, the lack of security and the lack of a home is causing major trauma and one would swear from the Tánaiste's reply that there was not a 63% increase in child homelessness since this Government took office. Where is the urgency? With that backdrop and that context, the Tánaiste dismisses the desperate need for a ban on not-fault evictions without being able to explain why Ireland is so different to every other country in Europe. It is outrageous.

The Tánaiste says banning evictions for people who pay this rent would cause chaos or make the situation worse. Can the Tánaiste explain how it is the norm across Europe and Ireland is somehow different?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not dismiss anyone's arguments. I do not dismiss any issue. There should be an acceptance and an acknowledgement that elected representatives in this House, irrespective of party, have the same degree of concern and urgency about the homelessness crisis and housing crisis as the Deputy or anybody else does.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Hear, hear.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We do not have the same degree of responsibility the Tánaiste does. That is a nonsense thing to say.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing Commission report, for example-----

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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Which the Government is sitting on.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----talks about the reactive policies of the Oireachtas and Governments to the rental market. I would include the policies of the Deputy's party as part of that reactive approach-----

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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How is Ireland different to the rest of Europe?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----which would reduce the amount of rental properties available, which would make the housing-supply problem worse and which would make the homelessness issue worse. We have witnessed over the past while an increased number of people with houses for rent exiting the rental market or pulling out because of the kind of initiatives and proposals that the Deputy has put forward.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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No, because of your policies.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We need to expand the rental market, and the supply in the rental market, not depress it-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Tánaiste. Táimid thar am.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and we need to do that on a number of fronts.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Opposition is in charge now.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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As recently as five years ago, Ireland was being celebrated within the EU for road safety following a reduction in fatalities of over 40% yet this week Ireland's road death toll hit 100 people, meaning the overall number is now 14% higher than last year and we are just over halfway through the year. The year 2024 is on course to prove the most lethal for traffic fatalities in 15 years.

My colleague here is from Waterford. A 70-year-old lady there, on Tuesday, was in collision with a lorry. It is happening in every constituency.

We need enforcement. Given the rise in fatal road traffic collisions, the force must continue to adapt its policing initiatives to increase safety on Irish roads. I acknowledge that a great deal of progress has been made via April's Road Traffic Act passing into law. This law saw an increased focus on Garda enforcement, with every uniformed officer now spending 30 minutes per shift on visible roads policing.

However, in my constituency alone, in the last week there was a three car accident at Bellurgan petrol station and an accident just before exit 17 northbound where a car and caravan hit each other causing significant damage. This is causing a lot of tragedy in local communities.

The three main challenges are speeding and drink and drug driving. This is a massive challenge of our time. Since 2019, people aged between 16 and 25 have represented 20% of all road deaths despite making up only 12% of the population. This trend is sadly continuing in 2024.

The reasons behind problematic behaviour in young drivers is quite complex and multifactorial. We must invest in a more evidence-based approach to understanding problematic driver behaviour and provide greater education through public awareness campaigns.

In addition to enforcement and reform of the driving testing regime, we need to invest seriously in infrastructure improvement. Is the RSA budget fit for purpose? Ms O'Donnell of the RSA certainly does not believe so. Ms O'Donnell says we need a lot more investment.

On the provision of crash data to the local authorities, are we giving them the information that they need to help with safety measures?

Driver behaviour needs to be challenged, both by education, engineering, enforcement and sanctions.

Will the Tánaiste liaise with the Minister for Transport to ensure adequate funding is provided to the RSA towards enforcement and towards research and education campaigns to reduce dangerous driving? For example, in 2006, the random checkpoints came in and it put the fear of God into everybody.

It worked. We need to put more initiatives in place. Every life lost on the roads is a tragedy.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the very serious issue of road safety. We have all been shocked by the recent loss of life on our roads and concerned by the worrying increase in road fatalities. Some 188 road fatalities occurred in 2023. As of 11 July 2024, there have been 101 such fatalities, which is up by approximately 14 on the same period last year. We need a multifaceted response. We had far worse figures in the past. When Noel Dempsey was Minister with responsibility for this area, he set in train a dramatic series of proposals, with the establishment of the Road Safety Authority, which was chaired by the late Gay Byrne. It brought about a radical reduction in the loss of lives and rate of injury on our roads. The lesson from that is we can do it. If we rededicate ourselves and act proactively legislatively on the deterrents the Deputy suggested, and properly understand what is going on at present, we can deal with this and can get these numbers down. He mentioned speed, drink, drugs and behaviour. Those are issues that have to be tackled.

The Road Traffic Act 2024 was signed into law on 17 April. It dealt with three main issues: penalty point system reform; mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious collisions, which began on 31 May ahead of the June bank holiday; and the implementation of safer default speed limits as recommended by the speed limit review. It is expected that those measures will be introduced on local roads later this year. One of the challenges with road safety legislation and initiatives is, very often, they meet criticism or opposition on the ground. This has always been the challenge. We have to be very determined as a society about having to reduce the number of people, including children, being killed on our roads.

The development of the national road safety camera strategy will be an important step towards road safety. As part of the budget, funding has been made available for the GoSafe speed cameras, continuing the increased level of 9,000 hours of monitoring a month throughout the whole of 2024.

We all have a stake in this as citizens. We all have to watch our own behaviour. The uniformed members of An Garda Síochána now all carry out 30 minutes of high-visibility roads policing per shift. Last May, the Garda officially launched a system for identifying uninsured vehicles by scanning or entering the vehicle registration on the Garda mobility device. We will significantly increase spending on public awareness. Communication by the Road Safety Authority, as the Deputy said, is necessary. We will continue to support the authority. The forthcoming Estimates will reflect that.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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Our roads are not safe. I ask the Tánaiste to please listen. Our footpaths are not safe. You cannot even go on a footpath now because of e-scooters and bicycles. Our loved ones are passing away. These are things that can be prevented. On behaviour, when the Tánaiste and I were children - we are roughly the same age - we could go out our front doors and play a bit of football on the streets. Those days are long gone. There is no respect any more.

We have to get enforcement and sanctions. The Garda plays a big part in that. I have lived in the Dundalk area for the past number of years. I do not know when I was last stopped at a checkpoint. I am lucky enough in that I do not drink, and I pay tax on my car and do not have a problem, but it seems enforcement has completely and utterly stopped. It is totally and utterly wrong. We need action. Children are going out at night-time. We all hope that they come home and there will not be a knock on the door with police coming to say something has happened to them. Prevention is the best cure. A lot of money is being invested at present in the roads, which have improved. However, we need to do something about drugs, speed and drink. The Garda has to play a big part in that. It is up to the Government and the Minister to get it done. I ask the Tánaiste to please help and stop all these young people dying.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Behaviour is at the centre of this. The Deputy referenced an earlier era, although we sometimes look back with rose-tinted glasses at the seventies and so on. More people were killed on our roads then, when there were far fewer cars, than today, which speaks to that era and its lack of proactive safety measures. That is why what we did in the late nineties and early 2000s in particular, when Noel Dempsey was Minister, had impact. We need to rediscover that.

There is a drugs issue. Deputy Chambers, when he was Minister of State at the Department of Transport, moved on that as regards mandatory drug testing. That is increasingly happening in parallel with alcohol, which is as prevalent an issue now as it was in earlier eras, and is impacting on road safety. All levels, including human behaviour, An Garda Síochána, strengthening the legislation on limits, and the national road safety camera framework and so forth, are required to get these numbers down. We will continue to work on that. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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In 2020, people got 16.5 gallons of fuel for €100. Today, that same 16.5 gallons of fuel costs €139.42. In 2020, per €100 of fuel, the Government took €45 in tax on diesel and €50 in tax on petrol. Today, the Government is taking €62.74 in tax on diesel and €69.71 in tax on petrol. For a gallon of fuel, which is the same product we are paying for and getting today, the Government has now increased tax on 16.5 gallons of fuel by €17.74 for diesel and €29.71 for petrol. Even though we are getting the same product, we are paying €40 more in tax per €100, but the Government is taking €29.71 extra in taxes on petrol and €17.74 extra on diesel.

This has a knock-on effect on food producers using the transport network throughout the country. In the hospitality sector, the VAT rate was at 9%. We then had an increase in the minimum wage, which I welcomed. However, the Government put the VAT rate for the hospitality sector back up to 13.5%, which left people with no other option than to raise the price of their product. That sector could have absorbed the increased costs if the VAT rate was left at 9%. That could have absorbed the increases but the Government put 4.5% VAT back on. This means that while the cost of someone's lunch was €10 at one time, that person is now paying €15 or €15.50 for the same lunch to absorb the cost due to the change in the tax rate.

I use a business model for everything I do. I want businesses to survive. Common sense tells us that if a measure such as raising a wage is brought in, it has to be absorbed somewhere. By putting up taxes, however, it dilutes or gets rid of the wage increase that was given in the first place. The minimum wage was increased but as the price of the product people were trying to buy in order to live also increased, the Government created inflation. By reducing the tax rate, however, the Government will get the same tax margin back. As the cost of the product has gone up, the Government has less tax to take. Reducing the tax rate means people get more for their money. That is common sense. That is a business model.

People are in crisis in the country. They are working every day and hour to do what? To pay extra taxes. Will the Government please look at reducing the VAT rate for the hospitality sector to 9%? It can be left at 13.5% for a bedroom stay, but it should be reduced for the working person.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue, which has a number of elements. One is the petrol and diesel excise rates and VAT on hospitality is another. The Government is acutely aware of the impacts of energy price inflation and the broader cost-of-living crisis on households and businesses. Perhaps the Deputy did not get an opportunity to dwell on the work that the Government has done. I would argue the Government has acted decisively to lessen the impacts of inflation.

That includes €12 billion in supports to date to citizens to try to offset the costs of living caused by the energy crisis consequential on the war in Ukraine and the post-Covid period. In budget 2024 alone, it provided for €2.7 billion in once-off cost of living measures, including targeted welfare interventions, electricity account credits or energy credits, reduced VAT on electricity and gas and reduced public transport fares. In 2022, we also provided for temporary reductions in the excise rates of 21% and 16% per litre on petrol and diesel. The good news is that, thanks be to God, fuel prices have fallen considerably from the highs of 2022, when a litre of petrol and diesel cost between €2.10 and €2.20, compared with between €1.69 and €1.77 today, and a barrel of crude oil on global markets costs $84, well below the highs of more than $110 experienced during much of 2022. Consumer inflation has eased from a peak of 9.6% in 2022 to 1.5% in June. All of this is positive news.

With regard to the summer economic statement, we are proposing to put €1.4 billion aside for tax and we are looking at expenditure increases, year on year, of about 6.9%. That is very significant, by any yardstick. We have provided for tax reductions over the last four years of Government. The preference of the three parties in the Government, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, is to maintain a focus on the personal taxation front. Wages have increased. If we do not do anything with the personal taxation framework, essentially, we would be taxing people. However, to enable us to keep pace with wages and make sure people are not taxed could cost up to €1.1 billion for that alone. We are being warned, left, right and centre, not to overheat the economy so choices will have to be made, but the preference of the three parties is clearly on the personal taxation front. The cost of a full-scale VAT reduction would be about €750 million on top of the €1.4 billion, or if we were to try to do food alone, it is estimated at about €550 million. These are the choices that the Government will have to make.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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In 2020, it was €120 per sq. ft. to build a house and, today, it is anywhere from €180 to €200 per sq. ft. Given taxes at 23% on a 2,000 sq. ft. house, the Government was taking €4,600 in VAT but is now taking €9,200 because the base cost of that house has gone from €240,000 plus VAT to €380,000 plus VAT. It is the same house but the Government is taking more tax.

What is happening is that people in this country work and they pay taxes, but they do not qualify for anything. What I am looking for is a reward for somebody who works. I am talking about people who go out and work, pay for their mortgage, pay for their house and are no burden to the State. These people work for the vulnerable people, for the people who cannot work and they have no problem what. All they want is a reward system so they have something left at the end of the week and can say “I have something.” They do not complain but there is no reward for a person in this country who works. That is what I am trying to say to the Tánaiste. They are taxed out of existence, no matter what way they go.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Come on. The Government is reducing tax for workers. We are reducing income tax for workers and we reduced the universal social charge last year. The focus has been on reducing income tax to give people more disposable income and enable them to spend at their discretion. That has been the focus of the Government over the last four years. We have also reduced the cost of services in terms of transport and education, and the free books scheme has been a tremendous help to parents with regard to school expenditure. We have abolished hospital admission charges and have dramatically increased access to GP care - the biggest increase in access to GP care ever - which, again, reduces costs. The drugs payment scheme cost has reduced. There is a whole range of reductions in the cost of public services parallel with consistent reductions in personal taxation.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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There are higher taxes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy seems to want us not to reduce the tax for workers but, rather, reduce it elsewhere. I do not know whether he believes we should have a €2 billion tax package or a €2.5 billion tax package. He needs to specify what his priorities are.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I want a reward for somebody who works.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Our priority is to reduce taxes for workers to enable workers to have more disposable income to spend on services at their discretion and on what their families want to prioritise.