Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Just before we take Leaders’ Questions, I take the opportunity to welcome Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett back to the House.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy, everybody is absolutely thrilled to hear that your treatment went well. You are looking so well. Maybe you are somewhat quieter; we will have to judge that as we go.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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We never thought we would miss you so much.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The very best of wishes.

Now we shall proceed to Leaders' Questions. I call Deputy Cullinane.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome an Teachta Boyd Barrett back to the House. His return is great news.

Workers and families in this State are under savage pressure. They are being hit from every direction: soaring rents, sky-high energy bills, rip-off groceries, childcare that costs more than a mortgage, and insurance premiums that are through the roof. Yesterday’s Future Forty report from the Department of Finance clearly sets out how housing costs have skyrocketed in line with a cost of living that has spun out of control. Everywhere people turn, there is another bill, another squeeze, another hit. Now, as we head into Christmas, what does the Government do? It hikes up the local property tax. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, when people are counting every euro and every cent, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael decide to take more. This is a tax on the family home. It is not a tax on wealth or greed; it is a tax on ordinary people, including workers, pensioners and families, who are doing their best to get by. This one is on the Government, including the Minister for Finance, because it changed the law. The Minister widened the bands by just 20%, even though he knows house prices have shot up by 30% to 40% across most of the State. That is what is driving families into higher bands and costing them hundreds of euro.

The reality on the ground makes an absolute mockery of the claim of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, that only 5% of households would be affected by the band changes. Families in Waterford, Cork, Dublin, Louth and elsewhere all over the State are getting revaluation notices that claim otherwise. They feel angry, let down and tired of being bled dry. It is clear that the Minister's figure is not just wrong; it is wildly wrong. The number of households hit will be far higher than the Minister for Finance says, and his attempt to say otherwise is to take people for fools. They are not having it, because right now those same families are sitting at kitchen tables asking which bill to skip this month, be it the electricity bill, the rent or the groceries bill. The Minister came along and hiked up the local property tax. No sooner was the ink dry on a budget that left workers high and dry than the Government was back again heaping more pressure on struggling families. It handed out massive tax cuts and breaks to developers, banks and landlords and it gave nothing to ordinary workers to help them to make ends meet. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as always, found room for the vested interests but not for the people who keep this country running. The Government had choices, of course, but it made all the wrong ones. It scrapped the energy credits that helped families to heat their homes; it raised student fees, making it harder for young people to stay in education; it hiked petrol and diesel, driving up the cost of getting to work or bringing kids to school; and it increased tolls, punishing commuters. Now, on top of all that, it hikes up the local property tax. That is not leadership; that is putting the wealthy and the golden circles first. The Minister for public expenditure can spin it whatever way he likes, and so can the Minister for Finance, but when these bills land through the door, people will see clearly that, again, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are taking more from those who have least. The Government is taxing the family home when families are deciding which bill to skip. It is wrong, it is unjust, and it has to stop.

People have had enough of a Government that says one thing and does the opposite, and talks about helping families but quietly signs off on measures that hike up charges. It had a choice between standing with workers and households and squeezing them further. It chose to squeeze them further. The Minister and I know it does not have to be this way. He does not have to increase the local property tax. No parent, pensioner or worker should have to pay more on their family home. I am asking the Minister to do the right thing: stop these hikes and stop hammering working families.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I want to start by welcoming Deputy Boyd Barrett back to the House. It is wonderful to see you back healthy and well. You spoke with enormous candour and bravery publicly, which has helped many people who are experiencing cancer in their own lives or their families’ lives. I acknowledge that. It is great to have you back. You are certainly back in action, and I look forward to our engagement later on today.

On the local property tax, it is important to speak first about the Future Forty report, which sets out the wider economic and fiscal scenarios and the broader risks and megatrends that could crystallise over the coming decades. We know demographics are changing. Deputy Cullinane’s party leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, previously said that demographics will look after themselves, which shows the short-termist approach of their party when it comes to economic management and its inability to see the strategic long-term risks in our economy.

As we see from alternative budget scenarios, the Opposition wants to abolish the property tax, narrow our overall position on taxation and increase expenditure. This presents serious risks for our economy. The local property tax is a key source of funding for many local authorities across our country. It pays for services and amenities in each local area. It is a progressive tax linked directly to the value of properties. Higher-value properties are subject to a higher tax. By law, the local property tax is revalued every five years. There is ongoing work in the context of the local property tax changes from 2026 to 2030.

It is important that we have a broad-based taxation system as we plan for dealing with the long-term effects on the economy. All Deputy Cullinane has given is a platitude of negativity and attacks against the Government, but very little in terms of solutions as to how his party plans to pay for what must be paid for in the medium to long term. Sinn Féin must be honest about how it would manage the economy and pay for all the commitments and promises it is making across nearly every area of government. Its statements are not credible and that is why the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, made changes in the context of the local property tax, including the widening of the bands. In the absence of any change to valuation bands or rates, there would have been a much bigger increase in the overall local property tax.

That is why a significant number of homeowners will remain in their present bands for 2026 to 2030. The new annual charge for many households could be between €5 and €25 higher. We know there is discretion at local authority level to reduce or amend the local property tax depending on the decision of each local authority. That is why there has been significant work by the Department of Finance in terms of how it manages this self-assessed tax. The bands have been broadened and the Government did take measures in the budget to protect working families. The social protection budget, which the Sinn Féin leader dismissed yesterday, is €2 billion. The Deputy says it is insignificant. It is a significant, progressive and targeted intervention for those most in need in our society.

It is not credible to attack every area of taxation and then to attack every area of expenditure for it not being enough. Sinn Féin's position on the economy would seriously undermine the foundations of our State and undermine the future. We all need to be honest-----

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Do you not remember the troika? For God's sake, you crashed the economy.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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You crashed the economy.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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-----about managing demographics and the risks and concerns around global trade.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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What a short memory.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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That is why this Government has done that in budget 2026.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy Cullinane will respond.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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We have not taken the popular measures which Sinn Féin presents every week on additional temporary measures that are not sustainable in overall economics.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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What did Ivan Yates say?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I call Deputy Cullinane.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Neither I nor my party will take lectures from Fianna Fáil on economics. It crashed the economy and made people's lives a misery. They lost their homes and jobs. The Minister is in no position to come in here and lecture anyone on economics. When he talks about platitudes, I am talking about people who are making tough choices, such as what bills they pay. It is a reality facing those families. The Minister can come in and talk about Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin, but he should talk to the people listening who are affected by this. It is one hike after the other and it is the same with the property tax.

The Minister talked about the housing report as if it was some great report for the Government. That report said there will be 15 more years of housing crisis under the Government's watch. Another generation of young people will be locked into a housing crisis and locked out of any chance of having their own home. That is the shameful record of this Government. We cannot take 15 more years. I have asked the Minister a simple question. It is not supermarkets, groceries or insurance companies that have hiked up the property tax; the Government increased it and it can stop the increase. I am asking the Minister to stop it.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am being very honest with people when it comes to the need to have a broad-based system of taxation to manage the economy. The Deputy is being dishonest when it comes to his approach to managing the economy. Sinn Fein’s alternative budget would have increased net expenditure by up to 14%. That is a reckless approach. It would undermine the foundations of our economy and it would cause serious risk into the long term.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Is the Minister speaking from experience?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I will not take lectures from Deputy Cullinane or anyone from Sinn Féin when it comes to economic management. Their party leader has said in recent years that demographics will look after themselves. Has she read any report? Have any of their finance spokespeople read any report on the wider long-term trends for our economy?

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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It is all Sinn Féin's fault. We have been in Government, not you. Own your own responsibilities.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Sinn Féin's approach to everything is providing for a massive increase in expenditure, abolishing and narrowing different areas of taxation, and imposing greater taxation on jobs and enterprise in our economy. It would undermine all opportunities for growth.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Is it 1% of it?

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is avoiding answering the questions for ordinary working families because he has no answers.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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We have never been in government.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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That is why our approach in budget 2026 is progressive, fair, sustainable and targeted for those most in need.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I call Deputy Ivana Bacik.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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First, I want to say fáilte ar ais and welcome back to Deputy Boyd Barrett. I never thought I would say this, but I have missed his voice in my left ear across the aisle. It is great to see him back.

I acknowledge the wonderful electoral victories against Trump in the US overnight. The stunning win by Zohran Mamdani in New York, in particular, proves that voters want a message of hope. That takes me neatly on to my question. Yesterday, the Government published Future Forty, a long-term economic assessment of Ireland’s outlook conducted by the Department of Finance. It projects that the housing disaster will continue for at least another 15 to 20 years, which is a truly grim analysis for every generation in this State. The report also issues a stark warning about the high cost to us all due to the Government’s failure to invest in climate action measures. The Tánaiste might like to take particular note of the report’s finding that “continued inward migration will be vital to maintain growth in the labour force.” So much for his outrageous dog whistle comment last week that there are too many people coming here. As I pointed out to the Minister yesterday, this report confirms that we need people to come here to share their skills with us to run our schools, cafés, crèches, care homes and hospitals and to build the homes we need.

The report also tells us that the window of opportunity is closing when it comes to investing in infrastructure. My message to the Minister today is this: it would be utterly bizarre and, indeed, irresponsible for the Government to take as inevitable the projection that the housing crisis will continue for another decade or more. Regrettably, the Government has taken this bizarre approach for some time because in the face of successive damning reports about the lack of public investment by the Government, it has acted as if it has no power to change outcomes. The Minister and his Cabinet colleagues are not bystanders. They need to let go of neoliberal ideology, step up and show some ambition and urgency. As the Government’s own Housing Commission recommended, a radical reset of housing policy is needed and the Government needs to accept that we can fix things with political action. This is message is coming not just from those of us on the left, like Mamdani, but also from people like Stripe’s John Collison who asked at the weekend, “Why can’t Ireland just do things? It’s not for want of money.” I do not agree with all of his points, but he is right to say that Ministers have more powers to change things than they actually use. So, why does the Minister not step up?

In the Government’s recent budget, it could have taken on the constructive proposals that we in the Labour Party put forward to ensure investment in affordable homes and decent public services. Instead, it chose to reward burger barons and big builders. It chose to make an evidence-free VAT cut, costing €681 million per year, and not to invest in tackling the housing crisis or the crisis in healthcare and childcare. Yesterday’s report should increase the Government’s ambition, not temper its expectations. Will the Government now correct its course and deliver a truly ambitious plan to build homes and adopt that radical reset on housing?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The report from the Department of Finance is not a projection. It looks at over 2,000 scenarios on a no-change policy basis. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, was very clear yesterday that we are changing policy on an ongoing basis when it comes to infrastructure and housing, and we have more to do. We have a new housing plan being published in the coming weeks. We will have significant infrastructure reforms being published in the coming weeks, all to enable greater delivery of more homes and more infrastructure right across our economy. That is why it is important that we have that broad examination of the various economic and fiscal scenarios. It helps to set out the broader choices that we have as a Government and, indeed, as an Oireachtas around the risks which will crystalise. We know the trends on deglobalisation and how they will impact our wider long-term economic growth. We know the impacts when it comes to digitalisation and also the upside of that, if we can embrace that in the public service and also across all elements of the economy.

When it comes to housing delivery, if you look at the national development plan, you will see that next year we will have over €11 billion between current and capital spending for the Department of housing, which is a significant increase in overall spending to deliver more social and affordable homes. That mix of funding will be set out in the new national housing plan to really drive the delivery of more homes for families and people across our country.

It is not just about what the State is spending and allocating to housing. That is why when we bring forward measures, like the Minister, Deputy Browne, did yesterday on enabling private sector input in wastewater treatment plants, for example, what we heard from the Labour Party was total negativity.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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That is not true.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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That is a measure which enables infrastructure and growth to be developed to build more homes across our economy. I ask Deputy Bacik to look at her own party. One of her own councillors is involved in judicial review proceedings against the new apartment guidelines, which will deliver more apartments and more units in our economy.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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Smaller apartments.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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We need to complement the State investment in housing with a market that is viable and can work. The Labour Party has attacked builders and developers in relation to the VAT cut. That is all about having viability in the market. If we are serious about delivering housing and more apartments, we must have a viable market to deliver more homes. Many families and workers across our economy want to see the delivery of more supply and we have to be honest around using taxation, regulation and other policy levers - not only more spending - as a means to deliver more homes.

We have fronted up to the question of spending when it comes to the national development plan on infrastructure and housing, but we also need to reset a wider policy when it comes to regulation in our economy by examining rules, regulations and structures in terms of infrastructure and housing so we can deliver more homes quicker. That is the focus of the Government when it comes to the challenges set out in the Future Forty report.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I do not know where to start in coming back to the Minister on his response. We all know Government housing policy has abjectly failed. The Government failed to deliver homes or meet its own targets. We saw vastly elevated and false targets last year, and thousands of people in homelessness. It is absolutely shocking to see so many children in particular without a home in an Ireland that is wealthy, where the money is there to make the changes that are needed. Instead of taking responsibility for Government policy, the Minister and his colleagues consistently choose to attack Opposition parties.

The Labour Party put forward carefully costed and considered proposals. Unlike any other Opposition party, we chose not to narrow the tax base. We were realistic and constructive in our proposals. We are not the party of negativity, as the Minister suggests. Rather, we seek to ensure decent homes for people. I make no apology for seeking decent homes and decent housing standards as our councillors are consistently doing across the country. The Government needs to take responsibility for the failure and the failure in particular to adopt the radical reset that housing policy requires.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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We are absolutely fronting up to our responsibilities. I welcome any constructive suggestions on policy but a lot of the policy that is coming from the Opposition is just for more spending. The State has fronted up to that question when it comes to the national development plan - over €100 billion of spending in the next five years. The strategic focus is on infrastructure, housing, water infrastructure and energy infrastructure, all to enable more homes to be built across our economy. What the Deputy refuses to do is to be honest about proposals to also enable the market to function. We have viability gaps in terms of delivery of apartments. That is why guidelines should change. We have viability gaps in other areas of housing supply. That is why the reforms the Minister, Deputy Browne, has introduced to enable the market to function to complement the State's role in housing delivery is central to deliver the overall level of housing supply required in our economy.

The Deputy can attack the Government and talk about failure repeatedly but ultimately her approach would probably impose greater regulation, more stringency and more rules on the market.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Look at our manifesto.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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We would have less housing supply. That has been Labour's approach. Its councillor is involved in a judicial review-----

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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To uphold standards.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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-----on apartment guidelines. The Labour Party needs to be responsible as a party in stopping such a proposal.

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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First, on behalf of all of the Social Democrats, I extend a very warm welcome back to Deputy Boyd Barrett. It is great to see him back.

We are hurtling towards a catastrophe. A new UN report published as COP30 is about to begin makes that clear. Plans to limit global warming to 1.5°C have failed. That threshold will be breached in the next decade. We are now on course to see temperatures rise by 2.3°C to 2.5°C. This is an existential threat to our very existence on this planet. Too many world leaders either do not recognise this threat or refuse to take it seriously. We know that 1.5°C of warming will have unthinkable consequences. It will lead to increased drought, famine, flooding and countless deaths. It will see large-scale food insecurity, increased migration and economic shocks. The world will become an even more unstable and dangerous place.

Even the EU, which claims to want to counter this threat, is failing miserably. This morning, member states agreed to cut emissions by 90% by 2040. However, this comes with a broad acceptance that 2030 targets will be missed by a country mile. That is the stark difference between climate rhetoric and climate action and it is something the Government is guilty of too. The Government said it would reduce emissions by 51% by 2030. Then, incredibly, it put forward measures that could at best add up to a reduction of only 23%. Shamefully, zero offshore wind is being generated, with none likely in 2030 either. Our waterways are choked with pollution, primarily from agriculture run-off and wastewater. None of us has to look very far to see the impact of the climate crisis.

In my own local area, Bantry was once again hit by floods yesterday, devastating homes and businesses that have barely recovered from floods last October. The long-promised culvert works to protect the town will not even begin until next year. This Government tells us that it is taking the climate crisis seriously.

I wish I could sound more hopeful about this, but what we and future generations are facing is truly frightening. We need to recognise it and address it because soon we will reach a tipping point, which will mean abrupt and catastrophic consequences that cannot be reversed. We still have time to act but only if plans are turbocharged, fast-tracked and, crucially, implemented. The current approach is not working. What new measures and emergency options is the Government going to take to meet our climate targets before it is too late?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I share the Deputy's concern, as I know everyone in this House does, about the ongoing climate crisis. The work ongoing at COP at an EU level is all to ensure the European Union continues to show leadership when it comes to domestic policies but also to be responsible internationally when lots of world leaders and countries are backsliding on climate action. The work the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has done in the context of budget 2026 and the funding he has secured for his Department is all about trying to accelerate Ireland's energy transition and to underpin our journey to a net-zero future. It includes record funding of over €500 million for home energy upgrades and solar PV. This will help make homes warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat.

It is the most pressing change in our society. We have seen in the Future Forty report the huge risks that will crystallise if we do not take the action now on climate change. That is why it is central in the work we have done as part of the national development plan review. We have prioritised critical sectors in our economy.

When it comes to energy, for example, that is why €3.5 billion of an equity injection is being given to ESB and EirGrid, all to accelerate the need to build a grid that can match the renewables that we want to see onshore and offshore. It is also the work we are doing when it comes to reform of infrastructure in our economy. The report will be published in the coming weeks to try to enable much greater acceleration of renewables across the board.

We are absolutely committed to addressing the climate crisis. We also need to be resolute in the work the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, is doing in protecting our nature and biodiversity. We need to prepare in terms of climate resilience as well. It is not only action in terms of the emissions profiles but also ensuring our critical infrastructure is protected and is more resilient for extreme and adverse weather events which are happening.

The 2024 data from the EPA showed that Ireland's emissions continue to fall for the third year in a row and are at their lowest level in three decades compared with 1990 levels. Ireland's emissions decreased in 2024 and have decreased by 10% from 2021 to 2024. That is against a growing economy. If you take our comparators with many of the European economies that have populations which are relatively flat, or economic growth which is relatively flat, we have had extraordinary economic and population growth and we are still managing to reduce our emissions profile overall.

What the Government is focused on is delivering a just transition for communities, enabling opportunities through the action we are taking in terms of climate change and focusing on the huge opportunity that renewable energy represents. I mention the work that is being done to build a grid that can be connected to that renewable energy as it is being advanced through the respective processes.

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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It feels like I may as well be talking to the wall. We are nowhere near reaching our targets. It does not feel like the Government really understands the consequences of that. The Minister is talking about the huge amount of work on offshore wind but the reality is we generated more energy from wind 20 years ago. The climate crisis could not be more serious, and it is very obvious that it is not being taken seriously by this Government. There are no new ideas or no meaningful attempt to address it. There is absolutely no ambition. Climate action could be an enormous opportunity for Ireland. We could be leading the way. We could be developing offshore wind potential and become a net exporter of energy. We could be held up as the example of sustainable agriculture and food security.

Instead, it is business as usual. There has been no action on offshore wind. The Government is trying to hang on to the nitrates derogation for dear life and, predictably, we are about to miss our emission targets again. Target after target is being missed. You would have to wonder what is the actual point of Government targets, whether for housing, spinal surgery, emissions, you name it. They only exist in the Government's PR strategies. The Government's clear pattern is to promise everything, do nothing and then blame everybody else. Will the Minister please tell me what the Government is going to do to turn this around? Take responsibility and tell us what the Government is going to do to meet its emission targets.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Last January, Ireland hit a really important milestone of hitting 5 GW of installed onshore wind capacity. That is significant progress towards our 2030 target. We were ranked second in the world in 2023 for onshore wind generation.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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We have no auctions. None.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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A significant amount of auctions have happened for offshore wind generation, as the Deputy is aware. They are working their way through their respective development processes. What we are trying to do is to accelerate that so we can deliver greater offshore renewable energy.

Part of the problem with bringing people with us on climate change is reflected in the Deputy's remarks on farmers and agricultural. The Deputy has attacked the nitrates derogation. There was a meeting of 2,000 farmers in Fermoy, Cork earlier this week. They desperately want and need to hold onto that derogation. They are making massive efforts at farm level to make that transition and to build sustainable food systems. I am sure many of the farmers in west Cork would not welcome the Deputy's remarks, which will put them out of a livelihood.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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The Government is leading them to a cliff edge.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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If we weaponise climate action, as the Deputy has done-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Minister, time is up.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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-----we will not be able to take the climate action that centrist politics needs.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I call Deputy Boyd Barrett.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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You need to work with farmers, with the agricultural community-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Minister, time is up.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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-----in supporting their transition rather than weaponising the derogation.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Minister, respect the Chair. Time is up.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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So disingenuous.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is good to be back. It is particularly good to be back in the aftermath of the successful campaign of Catherine Connolly. I congratulate her in her position as our new President. It is also good to be back on the day that a socialist gets elected in New York. Signs of hope and portents of the future.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I hope the Deputy is not taking credit for that.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Certainly not. We might learn a few lessons from it though. I also thank colleagues across the House for their kind words today and messages during, before and after my treatment. I also thank the thousands of members of the public who sent very kind messages. They were very heartening and very helpful.

My biggest debt of gratitude is to the fantastic people who work in our health services, particularly the cancer services, in my case in St. Luke's Hospital, and the eye and ear hospital. There are similar people providing cancer services right across the country. They asked me to raise particular issues about the need to properly resource and support cancer services in this country. It is important to say that everybody has a stake in that happening. I did not know this, but 50% of people will have an encounter with cancer during their lives. Some 44,000 people this year will get a cancer diagnosis. The Irish Cancer Society made a whole series of requests pre-budget. It is still not clear whether any of those have been met to fully fund and resource the national cancer strategy.

There is a particular issue for me and for the people who provided me with care in St. Luke's in the area of radiation oncology machines. They are called linear accelerators. They, as well as the staff, infrastructure and so on, have given me my life back. Some 50% of those people who get a cancer diagnosis each year, which is a very high figure, will need these machines. Fairly incredibly, 35% of those machines, which are supposed to be replaced every ten years, are now 15 to 17 years old. Some 40% will need to be replaced in the next five years. This means there is a lot of discomfort and stress for patients and staff who need this lifesaving treatment. What the people who work in radiation oncology are asking for, and they have asked repeatedly for this, is a national radiotherapy replacement programme where there is centralised oversight and procurement and ring-fenced multiannual funding, going forward, so they do not have to come each year with a begging bowl for money to provide this absolutely vital machinery to save lives.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy and again welcome him back. I welcome the fact he has raised issues relating to cancer services and the national cancer strategy. It is important just to take a step back and look at the progress we have made over many years since the national cancer strategy was introduced. Over 65% of patients live for five years after a cancer diagnosis, compared with 43% in the 1990s. A lot of the difficult reforms that were introduced by Ministers in previous years around the centralisation of particular services and hubs have yielded much greater outcomes for citizens across the country. Like the Deputy, I commend all the workers across our hospital system who provide that daily care, compassion and support for people as they go through their treatment journey.

We have tried in recent years to build and resource a public health system that responds to the needs from a workforce perspective. That is why in the past five years we have nearly 30,000 additional healthcare workers in terms of whole-time equivalents working in our public health system to support and rapidly respond to diagnoses or particular incidents as they arise from cancer and a lot of other health perspectives. Next year, we will have an allocation of over €27 billion in terms of the overall allocation to the Department of Health.

The Deputy asked specifically about radiation oncology, which I will respond to. In my negotiations and engagement with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, we will have over €9 billion of capital in our health system over the next five years. That is a record level. The Minister is now developing a sectoral investment plan, working with the HSE on the capital needs in our system. Some of that will relate to radiation oncology or treatment interventions around replacing existing equipment. Others will obviously relate to new beds and building bed capacity across our system. As a Government, we have prioritised funding our health system, funding more workers and beds in our health system and also funding the technological improvements that I think will yield greater improvements in life expectancy. That is why we are taking digital health seriously and prioritising that from a capital perspective over the next five years. I will ask the Minister to respond in time to the Deputy's specific question and take a note of the work that is happening and the capital plans for the next five years. However, successive Governments have resourced and significantly reformed our health system and its cancer treatment. We are seeing the positive outputs from that due to the great work of the people the Deputy mentioned.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The professionals in this area stated in the context of the budget that radiotherapy services are operating significantly below capacity due to under-resourcing. They went on to state that our healthcare staff do everything they can to minimise the impacts on care for patients but it is simply not possible to provide optimal care in these conditions.

Sixteen of 24 working days last month were affected by unscheduled downtime. Machines are breaking down because they are too old, putting stress on patients and staff. Some €23 million per year is being spent on outsourcing to the private sector because of machines breaking down and not being replaced, and because of the lack of a national replacement programme. As I said, doctors who should be providing services and care to patients are instead, in their own words, coming to the Minister, the Government and Departments begging for money, resources and so on to replace the machines they need to provide the care to save lives. The Minister needs to respond to the specific request to have a national programme for the replacement of these machines and to have the staff and infrastructure necessary to deliver it.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I share with the Deputy the focus on ensuring that our health infrastructure, including radiation oncology machines or building better bed capacity across our health system, is achieved in the next five years. That is the work we are doing with the sectoral investment plan with the HSE to ensure we replace the equipment that is required and build additional capacity.

We are now funding a public health system which should become less reliant on the private health system over the next series of years in terms of outsourcing and some of what the Deputy referenced. I want to commend the enormous work and leadership of many people in our health system who have transformed outcomes. It is important, when we talk about the national cancer strategy, to note it is a strategy that has worked. It is delivering improved outcomes. Looking at the data over two to three decades, we have had a transformational improvement in that area over the last number of years. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to respond to the Deputy's specific question about radiation oncology. I believe there is significant scope over the next five years, through the investment we have put aside in the national development plan, to have a significant replacement programme for a lot of the health equipment which is required.