Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is í seo an chéad uair dom labhairt sa Dáil seo. Mar sin, gabhaim buíochas leis na vótálaithe i gCill Dara Thuaidh a vótáil ar son Shinn Féin. Unfortunately, I stand here frustrated with the same issues I raised when I was first elected in 2020. The programme for Government is not serious about addressing the urgent issues of housing, childcare and public transport, among a long list of other matters, and things have only got worse over the last five years. The number of homeless persons has risen. Shamefully, the number of homeless children has also risen. What is more, not only did the Government fail to reach its housing target again this year, but it deliberately misled the electorate on housing completions just prior to the election.

Over the weekend, Deputies may have heard of the waiting lists for a block of new builds in Leixlip in my constituency of Kildare North. People were sleeping overnight in their cars. More than a 100 people were sleeping out by 8 a.m., with only 25 houses available. The prices for those houses ranged from €460,000 to €535,000. Those exorbitant prices are a damning indictment of the Government's failed housing policy. Not shamed enough with homeless people sleeping in their cars, we now have people queueing to buy a home sleeping in their cars too. Families lucky enough have a home in north Kildare find that they are unable to access childcare. During the week, I spoke to people in Little Toppers, a crèche in Straffan, which currently has a waiting list in excess of 100 children, some since 2023. In that same village of Straffan, constituents have contacted me about a crèche building lying empty in a new estate while parents are crying out for a place for their child. This is so frustrating, particularly for women because they are invariably the ones expected to leave their jobs to care for their child in the absence of crèche places.

On the issue of public transport, I hear daily from constituents. The fair fares issue, which was brought up by my Kildare South colleague, Deputy Ní Raghallaigh, badly impacts Naas and Sallins as well. Buses on the W6 route serving Maynooth, Celbridge and Hazelhatch are not showing up. I am getting emails on this every day. The Government must urgently address the shambolic service delivered by private bus operator, Go Ahead. It should lose its contract, and do not get me started on the 115 bus route that allegedly serves Kilcock. We need Dublin Bus back in Kilcock.

The DART+ West project must be a huge priority for this Government. We must identify a suitable site in Kilcock so work can start on this vital infrastructure and it must be completed on time and on budget.

The purchase of Castletown House lands in Celbridge by the State and the OPW must also be completed and the estate reunited within the lifetime of this Government. The programme for Government states it will acquire key national heritage assets, prioritising State acquisition at both national and local level. This must be applied to Castletown House in Celbridge, which is close to the constituency of the Minister, if the OPW wants to redeem itself in the eyes of the people of north Kildare.

On defence, anyone who watched "Upfront with Katie Hannon" last night was reminded how successive Governments have treated members of our Defence Forces. Over the last few weeks, we have seen Micheál Martin strutting around Europe, rubbing elbows with NATO members and softening us up to play fast and loose with the triple lock and our neutrality. I remind the Government that our neutrality is above politics. The Irish people will not cede it for a political pat on the head. Despite the pressure from swathes of media and academia, our neutrality is something the Irish people are proud of. We are proud of our stance on being peacemakers not assistant warmakers. Tá súil agam, mar sin, go mbeidh an Rialtas dáiríre faoi na ceisteanna móra atá os ár gcomhair. Beart de réir briathair atá ag teastáil uainn, agus ní geallúintí bréaga.

I am glad it is the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, in the seat for this debate. I know it is the luck of the draw but the matter I raise - pensions - relates to her Department, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. I would like her to take account of the contributions from me and my colleagues, Deputies Wall and Kenny, over the next 15 minutes.

We are having statements on the programme for Government. What I will be speaking to is what is not in the programme for Government, but what was promised to be in it. I refer to reform of the single public service pension scheme, in particular for fast accrual pensioners. Who are they? They are workers such as firefighters, guards, those in the Defence Forces and prison officers - our uniformed services who have to retire at 55 years of age and are being told by this Government and the previous one, that when they retire at 55 they will have to wait 11 years for their State pension to kick in, and in that time, they can get another job.

These workers receive a fast accrual pension. This is not a free pension; this is a pension that they have to pay extra for in the years they work. They get nothing for free. They pay into it. They have to retire early because of the very understandable difficulties with their job in terms of their health and fitness. These are jobs that are very difficult to do beyond the age of 55 due to the ensuing health impacts. These workers have been left behind. All those who have come in to these Departments since 2013 are on the new pension scheme whereby they get their occupational pension at 55, although they do not have their State pension until 66. What we and this campaign, which is being run by a number of trade union groups such as SIPTU, the Prison Officers’ Association, and the Defence Forces representative bodies, seek is that a supplementary pension would apply when they retire at 55. This is one of the last of the FEMPI measures to be unwound. It needs to be brought in. It is morally and ethically right. We have a recruitment and retention crisis in these services because the pension entitlements are so poor for these workers.

A lot of the jobs are ones that these workers have wanted since they were kids. These are historically desirable jobs. People go through tough recruitment processes and then they find out that their pensions are not worth the same as those of their colleagues and that they are going to have to get a new job. What would someone in their 20s or 30s do if they were told they would have to get a new job at 55? They would say they might as well get it now. Why would they wait until they are 55? What condition would they be in to get a new job? That is why people are leaving.

This can be and should have been resolved. Promises were made to these workers by parties of government - by Fianna Fáil – that this would be in the programme for Government. What they promised was not even the solution, which is a supplementary pension; what they were promised was that a commission would be set up with stakeholders and they would investigate it and look into it. It was a watery enough promise but at least it was something. In a programme for Government that is riven with reviews and commissions, that this is not even in it is an affront to these front-line workers. We are going to have a debate about Storm Éowyn this evening, and we had one last week. Where were these workers? They were not safe at home like I was – like we all were - they were out working in it, because they had to, as they are front-line workers. These workers are being hit on the double. They are not just being hit after the age of 55 when they are forced to retire, they are being hit now because they have to pay extra into AVCs to supplement their pension. I refer to young workers in their 20s, 30s and 40s. They are also paying extra on their mortgages to ensure that they can have their mortgage paid by 55. We all know what mortgage rates are now. If people are lucky to have one for 30 or 35 years, they have to pay them at a higher rate and they have to pay extra on top of that in order to have some kind of certainty. This might be a dense issue for people outside to understand but it is a very real issue. Anyone in these Chambers who said this did not come up on the doorsteps was not listening to firefighters, prison officers, members of the Defence Forces and the guards, because that is what is happening.

There is going to be an avalanche of parliamentary questions and debates coming the Minister of State’s way. This was not a pre-election campaign to get a bit of energy before the election for the unions and the workers, this is a real injustice. However, it is an injustice that is solvable. We have the money to do it and we need the political will to do it. It is unacceptable for the Government to continue its previous policy of saying that people can get a new job when they are 55. It is something that we in the Opposition will not stand for. The Government needs to move quickly on this.

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