Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are dealing with this legislation because we need to. We all get the ins and outs of this Bill ensuring that capital money that is unspent will be deferred. I will deal with a number of matters that Deputy Bruton spoke about and on which I agree with him on some level, although clearly not what he said at the end. He spoke about some of the weaknesses we see in childcare and the fact that we have not put a fit-for-purpose system together. It is absolutely incumbent on the Opposition parties to put forward proposals in this regard. We do not have an alternative system that we can test and all we can do is put our costed proposals forward for lessening the impact of childcare costs on families out there.

We must go further in that regard and I have spoken many times about how the State has failed absolutely on the ideas of required community and family supports. We are dealing with a major number of social issues, including long-term and multigenerational unemployment, poverty and drugs on top of these. We are dealing with cases where we have failed to make interventions for communities and families. We have let desperate situations continue from generation to generation.

We deal with the issues, whether they relate to criminality, antisocial behaviour or those who do not necessarily have the skills that are required. It is incumbent on the State to carry out an audit not just in regard to those general situations such as dealing with childcare but also in regard to the issues where we find them, including those weaknesses in society we have failed to deal with. Having said that, it will take a much longer conversation than the three minutes of my contribution to this debate to put proposals forward.

A European Council meeting is to be held this week and the European Union is considering possibilities in respect of block-buys and alternatives. It is putting together a toolbox regarding how states can possibly mitigate some of the worst aspects of the energy crisis. The €100 rebate proposal that was put forward has been put on the back burner. It was not particularly useful. If we are to talk about certain issues we face relating to capital, we will need to get into the planning issues. Everybody from National Broadband Ireland, NBI, to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, has spoken about difficulties. We hope the Attorney General's review will lead to action and to doing what is necessary. Beyond that, if we are talking about NBI and the national broadband plan, NBP, there is an absolute requirement that we conduct due diligence and ensure we will be able to deliver. We need to deal with some of the difficulties that have come directly from the weaknesses in the contract.

See this speech in context