John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We now move to Leaders' Questions under Standing Order 38. I call Deputy Doherty.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Leas Cheann-Comhairle. He will indulge me in welcoming the páistí ó Scoil Náisiúnta Chnoc na gCaiseal in the Kingdom, County Kerry. They are very welcome to the Dáil today to witness proceedings as guests of Deputy Pa Daly.

Tá daoine ag labhairt amach le míonna anuas go bhfuil siad ag cuardach cuidithe. Tá cuidiú de dhíth orthu. Tá siad ag rá nach féidir leo a gcuid billí a íoc. Tá oibrithe, teaghlaigh agus pinsinéirí ag déanamh gach rud i gceart ach go fóill tá siad ag titim siar. Maidin inniu, dhearbhaigh an ESRI an rud a bhí ar eolas againn, is é sin go bhfuil an ghéarchéim seo go dona, go forleathan agus ag éirí níos measa. Bhí deacracht ag suas le 30% de theaghlaigh a gcuid billí fuinnimh a íoc. Is í an fhírinne, áfach, ná go bhfuil sé seo i bhfad níos measa mar léiríonn an tuairisc tréimhse ina raibh na creidmheasanna fuinnimh ar fáil agus nuair a bhí costas leictreachais níos ísle. Anois, áfach, tá siad i bhfad níos measa.

People have been crying out for months for help. They have been telling the Government that they cannot pay their bills. Workers, families and pensioners are doing everything right and they are still falling behind. This morning, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, confirmed exactly what they had been saying. The crisis is deep, widespread and getting worse. The real picture is even starker, however, because the report reflects a time when energy credits were still in place and electricity costs were lower. The crisis has got much worse since. The Government's response was to withdraw energy credits. At the very moment families needed help most, it took the supports away and made a bad situation worse. That is not just wrong, it is indefensible.

This report does not stand alone. On Tuesday, we learned that 317,000 households could not pay their electricity bills. People already falling behind are now being pushed further and further. Yesterday, in another report, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, told us that grocery prices were rising again, piling pressure on already stretched households. Bills are going up while supports are going down. This crisis is so severe that families with two incomes can no longer afford to pay their bills. This is not marginal; it is a social emergency.

Report after report, warning after warning, are telling the Government the same thing: the crisis is worsening and the Government is standing idly by. How many warnings is the Government going to ignore before it acts? This is not about statistics on a piece of paper. This is about people's lives. It is about people living in cold homes, parents skipping meals so that their children can eat and older people afraid to turn on the heat in their homes. It is about people rationing heat and cutting back on essentials. It is about living with constant anxiety over the next bill that is going to come through the door. All the while, the State runs multibillion euro surpluses, so there is no excuse whatsoever for inaction. The State has the money but it is a question of why people have never felt under so much pressure. Instead of addressing this, the Government has allowed this crisis to deepen, forcing families into impossible choices every week: heat or food, electricity or rent, keeping the lights on or falling into arrears. This is not inevitable. It is a political choice, and it is the Government's choice. That is why this is happening.

Sinn Féin has set out a clear alternative: an emergency budget to cut costs and support households right now. That is what is needed. It includes reinstating the energy credits that the Government withdrew and providing direct, immediate relief for families under severe pressure just to get by. The Tánaiste might not understand this, but out in the real world, people cannot wait for next year's budget or for the Government to get its act together in October. They need the supports now. It is now that bills are rising and that pressure is mounting, so they need the supports now.

How many warnings does the Government need and how many stories does it have to hear before it finally acts, introduces an emergency budget and restores energy credits for households that cannot wait any longer?

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Of course, the Government has not waited to act. It has introduced what is either the largest or second largest package of supports in the EU. It was announced on the floor of this House around two weeks ago, and I am pleased to say it is having an impact. While diesel and petrol prices are still too high, people have seen them lower at the pumps than they were before the intervention. People see that with their own eyes because we took the decision to reduce the excise on diesel, even going beyond what was allowed under the energy tax directive to reduce it further. We also took the decision to reduce petrol and green diesel costs. Yesterday, we announced two significant support schemes for crucial sectors of the economy - farmers, fishers, farm contractors and hauliers. I certainly heard words of welcome for those schemes, and I am sure the Deputy must have, too. I heard them on the radio and television. Farmers and their representative bodies said the schemes would help and make a difference. The scheme for farmers and farm contractors will open as soon as next Tuesday.

The Deputy is right to highlight the issue of inflation because the war against Iran - the bombing of Iran - has caused inflation to increase, but it is also true to say that the economic analysis of the package that we have introduced has shown it is suppressing inflation. The chief economist in the Department of Finance believes that the package we introduced will not just benefit farmers, fishers, hauliers and people at the pumps, but will also suppress inflation by around 0.6% per month. This will benefit people, by comparison with what they would otherwise have experienced, in the supermarket or local shop as they go about dealing with the cost of living.

The ESRI report did not fall from the sky. It was commissioned by the Government itself because it is always good to have an evidence base. The report states many things. It notes that the number of people at risk of energy poverty or of not being able to warm their homes nearly halved between 2013 and 2024. In 2013, in the depths of a financial crisis, 25% of households in Ireland were struggling to heat their homes. The percentage was still too high at the end of 2024, when it was down to 14%. The report also found that the fuel allowance scheme was very effective. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, his predecessors and this and the last Governments have not sat idly by since the end of 2024. In fact, in the two budgets since then, we took measures to increase the fuel allowance further and extend it to more people. We have seen it extended to more older people and to 50,000 more low-income families. We have seen the amount of the allowance increased also. The war has had a real impact, and that is why, in addition to those measures, we decided to further supplement it by €77 million, extending it for another month, benefiting 470,000 people.

The report refers to the need to help people to warm their homes and ensure they are more energy efficient. I am pleased to say that we are also taking measures in this regard, with record funding this year to help to upgrade people's homes, make them more energy efficient and make them warmer so they will be cheaper to heat, allowing us to move away from the over-reliance on fossil fuels. We have seen an increase in the application rate for these grants of 186% as a result of decisions made by the Minister for housing, Deputy O'Brien, and Government colleagues.

Grants for windows, doors and heat pumps are all up hugely on last year. Since 2019, over 250,000 home energy upgrades have been delivered thanks to Government funding of over €1.7 billion.

This is not a question of anybody having to wait for anything. This is a Government acting beyond the government of any other European member state to try to make real progress. The Deputy may like to put forward a narrative but people out there know that we have taken measures to reduce the price of diesel and petrol, help key sectors of the Irish economy and suppress inflation, and they know that we stand ready to take more in the months.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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With respect, the Tánaiste not understand the scale of the crisis in people's homes. Does he really believe that what he has just said here makes a blind bit of difference to any one of the 317,000 families-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Wow.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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"Wow"? Listen to this. Does that make a blind bit of difference to the 317,000 families that cannot pay their electricity bills now? The Tánaiste is talking about extending the fuel allowance. That ends today. He is talking about stuff that has already happened. They still cannot pay their electricity bills. That is the problem. Doe the Tánaiste know what he is telling them? He is telling them to wait until next year's budget. The bills keep on rolling in, the prices keep going up, the pressure is mounting, the billions of euro keep on rolling into the coffers and the Government will not give Irish citizens the support they need at this point in time. We need an emergency budget. The Government needs to restore the energy credits that it withdrew from those families in last year's budget. It made a massive mistake and has plunged families into crisis - 317,000 families. Just picture that. How many children and adults-----

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Doherty.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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These families cannot pay their electricity bills. They need support now. What the Tánaiste has said does not cut it for them because he does not understand the scale of the crisis. That is his problem.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is quite extraordinary that after 16 years as the Opposition spokesperson on finance, the Deputy still believes that a cost-of-living package of €750 million does not help. Of course it helps. It helps reduce the cost of diesel and petrol; it extended the fuel allowance; it is making people's homes warmer; it is helping the farmers, fishers and hauliers; and it is helping to suppress inflation. The Deputy wants to ignore all of that because he has this narrative of telling the Irish people that the Government is refusing to act. The Irish people are not stupid. They know we are acting.

A Deputy:

The Tánaiste is treating them as stupid.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Doherty is trying to convince them of a false narrative, but the Irish people know something else, too. He Deputy does not want "an" emergency budget. He wants one a week.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I do-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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He came in here about two weeks ago and asked me to bring forward a package of measures that would have cost €1 billion. Last week, Sinn Féin held its Ard-Fheis and said, "God, we had better come up with another plan - €3.2 billion". Sinn Féin's policies are not sustainable. We will have no options left in the winter if the Deputy continually comes in here every week and says "another billion, another billion, another €3 billion" without even bothering to target the measures. Under Sinn Féin's plan, the Deputy would get an energy credit. He does not need an energy credit. Sinn Féin has not even done the level of detailed policy work-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Government has had four years to target energy credits.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Every week with the Deputy, it is another emergency budget. He wants to spend a surplus that would not even exist if he was in power. We are acting. The Deputy is making it up.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Let us walk down the street together and talk to ordinary people.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Order please.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Tánaiste needs to get out of his bubble. It is no wonder he is going down in the polls. Seriously.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Doherty is making it up as he goes along-----

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We now move to Deputy Gannon.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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-----and it is more about the tensions in Sinn Féin than here in Parliament.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Gannon, with respect.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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When the shouting stops.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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When they cool down.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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The Tánaiste leads a party that identifies itself as the party of law and order. Fine Gael's website says, "Fine Gael is the party of law and order" and "We are the party that will ensure your family, your community, and our country is secure from crime". After 15 years of Fine Gael in government, for 14 of which his party held the justice portfolio, could he stand in Ballymun today and tell those he meets there that his party has ensured that their community and the families who live there are secure from crime?

At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, a child of 11 picked up a loaded gun that had been discarded during a Garda pursuit and fired a shot into the air. It is by the grace of God that this child or another child in the vicinity was not killed. That is a truly terrifying incident and should be a watershed moment because this problem is much deeper than what happened in Ballymun and has been shaped by long-term policy choices on housing, public services and community investment. Since 2021, there have been over 2,500 recorded incidents of drug-related intimidation across this State. Arson attacks linked to drug debt have quadrupled in four years. Debts are sold between gangs so that families who pay once are forced to pay again. Of those 2,500 incidents, just 4% have resulted in prosecution. This is not law and order, but the absence of it.

This is no longer just an urban problem. A Garda sergeant and a crime prevention officer in Galway told a community meeting that decent hard-working families across rural Ireland were being targeted to pay off the drug debts of their children and that drug intimidation had become more lucrative for dealers than selling the drugs themselves.

Teenagers are being used to distribute drugs the length and breadth of this country. The four national Greentown reports since 2015 captured this. The Montague report on Ballymun and the Connolly report on Dublin South-Central found that criminal networks in Ireland deliberately and systematically recruited children below the age of criminal responsibility not just because they could not be prosecuted, but because the conditions of their birth made them vulnerable to exploitation; that once the child complies even once, the obligations deepen and a refusal is met with violence and intimidation; and that children embedded in these networks are from the most deprived communities in the country. Up to 1,000 children at any given time across the State are under the coercive control of criminal adults. Clare O'Connor, one of the researchers behind the most recent Irish Penal Reform Trust, IPRT, report, put it to me simply. She said that, above all else, poverty was the one consistent factor in the grooming of children into crime. Poverty creates conditions, deprivation removes the options and the sole focus on criminalisation compounds the cycle.

The Tánaiste cannot continue to claim that his party is one of law and order and avert his gaze from the factors that have led to children in this State being exploited and groomed into the most exploitative forms of criminality. Given what we have heard about the level of child criminalisation and exploitation and the level of crime in rural Ireland, can the Tánaiste still tell us that Fine Gael is a party of law and order? What is the actual plan to break the cycle of crime and deprivation, not only in marginalised communities, but across Ireland?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I join with Deputy Gannon in acknowledging the huge sense of trauma, fear, disgust and shock being felt in the community of Ballymun and by people right across this country, but nowhere more acutely than in Ballymun. As the Deputy rightly said, on 28 April, a man armed with a handgun was seen near Ballymun Garda station where a second man was being detained. Both are suspected of being involved in an ongoing feud. Gardaí approached the man with the firearm. He ran away, was pursued and threw the gun into bushes as he made his escape. That gun was then subsequently picked up and fired by a child of around 11 years of age. Thank God, nobody was injured in the shooting, but as the Deputy says, it was for the grace of God that nobody was injured. A short time later, two men arrived on an electric bike and took the gun away but the weapon has still not been recovered in spite of intensive searches by gardaí, including armed units.

I am conscious that two males were subsequently arrested - a man in his 20s and a teenager - in connection with the incident and both have been detained under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. That is law and order. When a crime or an alleged crime is carried out, people should be detained, arrested and questioned. I believe the man in his 20s is still being questioned in connection with the incident while the teenager has been released without charge, pending a file being issued to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

I know that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has been briefed by the Garda on the circumstances concerning the incident in Ballymun. I am obviously aware that there have been arrests and I do not want to comment too much on that part, but I join with the Deputy and everyone else in this House in asking anybody with any information in connection with the investigation to come forward either to the local Garda station in Ballymun or to the Garda confidential line where any information they have will be treated with the utmost confidence.

I want to say to the community in Ballymun that at the end of February, 268 gardaí were assigned to Ballymun district. Of those,160 were assigned to Ballymun Garda station. Since 2024, 34 probational gardaí have been assigned to Ballymun. To tackle some of the deep-rooted issues that have existed over many years in the community, the Ballymun Implementation Board was established in 2024 by my colleague, the former Minister for justice, Deputy McEntee. The board is led by an independent chair, hosted by Dublin City Council and brings together relevant social services, providers and the Garda to work together with community leaders and local business leaders. We have provided funding of €200,000 through the Department of justice to help with the running of the board. It would be useful for us to have further engagement with it as a Government in terms of concrete steps that we can take.

We changed the law with regard to children being coerced into crime. For anybody to solicit or coerce a child is a particularly disgusting and heinous crime.

While the Deputy makes the point this is often the most deprived communities in Ireland, drug use is often not in those most deprived areas. It is happening in so-called middle-class areas - middle Ireland - where people are snorting a line of coke at the weekend, not thinking of the devastating consequences it is having on communities, and that action should be called out too.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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What happened in Ballymun on Tuesday was absolutely shocking but I chose in my opening remarks to widen it beyond simply Ballymun because I recognise the pattern. There will be an incident that captures public attention in a particular area, and then we will talk solely about that one community as if this is happening in isolation. I am not sure if anyone in Fine Gael reads the Irish Farmers' Journal anymore-----

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We do.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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-----but in March, for example, farmers were forced to sell cattle to pay drug debts amid rising rural crime.

What is happening in this State with drugs, drug-related intimidation and the exploitation and coercion of children into that crime is an absolute failure of this Republic. It will not simply be addressed by Fine Gael stating it is a party of law and order on its website. It must look into the underlying causes of the crime, the cycle that brings children into criminality and into the prison systems and to have that repeated ad nauseam. Also, why is this happening in communities that never felt it? There is something deeper happening and I do not believe for a second that the Tánaiste's Government is aware of it or has the means by which we can actually police it. We do not have enough gardaí in this State to police the level of crime and criminality that is happening, and we certainly do not have the understanding to appreciate what causes that crime.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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First, I fully appreciate the Deputy is making a point that is broader than Ballymun. I just wanted to acknowledge the trauma in Ballymun and point out there is a structure there that Government should harness to try to support the community at this time of particular acute challenge.

We have taken a number of initiatives to try to tackle deprivation in the country. I can think of one as recently as last month, with the rollout of DEIS plus, targeting schools in our communities that are not just the most disadvantaged but the most disadvantaged within those most disadvantaged. The Deputy is right on the broader point of something going on in society. It is not just in a certain small number of communities. Drug use is now widespread. I hope we can join across the political divide in making that point but there needs to be an understanding in society, in everyone's home, in every community, pub and social setting in Ireland that the taking of illegal drugs in your community is not a victimless crime. Somewhere along that chain, before you snorted that line of coke or took that pill, there was potentially a child being brought into a life of crime. We cannot avoid or sugar-coat that anymore by just thinking this is an issue confined to certain communities.

Nearly all communities are now complicit in this harm and we need to have a much less tolerant approach to the casual taking of drugs.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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As the Tánaiste knows, 7,000 students marched in UCD at the beginning of March in support and solidarity with a student who had been drugged, raped, had image-based sexual abuse used against her and, unfortunately, became pregnant and lost her place on her course. I know the Tánaiste is well aware of the issues. It was very positive, in an era of an epidemic of gender-based violence and where the manosphere is being promoted, to see all genders and students there. They wanted justice for this student and they wanted her reinstated onto the course. They also wanted an end to the multiple sharing of image-based sexual abuse. Unfortunately, those things have not happened. The student has not successfully been reinstated and there have been further images of image-based sexual abuse. The Government's role in this is that it has a duty to make colleges safe and to have good procedures and practices by authorities.

I want to raise the academic issues first, and getting this student back to her dream of becoming a doctor and allowing her to salvage something from this horrific trauma. It has been a month since the dean of medicine responded to the medical student after the talks that took place. She was assured they would reply after Easter but that has not happened. This is going against the thousands who marched and is also a rebuke to that student who put her faith in the process. As she said to me, it was difficult and upsetting to be let down and then have to re-engage. We have an unprecedented situation here and an unprecedented response is called for. I know there are issues with academic qualifications and I am absolutely not saying this is straightforward but I ask the Minister to intervene with the college even more directly, and I know he met the student. It is absolutely vital we do not have a rapist continuing on and the rape victim being the one who suffers.

I also want to mention the culture in UCD. A number of people were emailed this image again, not on the UCD server but to people connected with the protest and the president herself. President Feely was sent this image since this was raised publicly. This person is clearly saying "F you" to everybody else - the brazenness of it. However, this comes from the top because the UCD legal team characterised a rape disclosure as dropping a bombshell. Those were the words it were used. This 21-year-old was crying on the stand. When she reported text messages she received last year, she was told she might be better to continue her studies in a different college year. These ideas are coming from the top. A medical student wrote to me about the dean of medicine coming into the college, putting up a big QR code in the lecture hall and going through what happened in the court. This student said to me it bordered on victim-blaming and it was shocking to see somebody talking about a rape victim like that. We have real problems still in our colleges.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising this issue and this case again, and I say that sincerely. I know the intense and constructive ways in which she has been engaging to try to support this student. I say that before I say the next piece, which is I am genuinely not 100% sure how to answer this question, for the reason that I am conscious, based on what she has told me now and what she has said previously in this House, that there are parts of this that may require due process. There are very clear laws in this country, quite rightly, regarding rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual violence. An Garda Síochána are the people who enforce those laws and no part of Irish society, no matter what kind of governing structure anybody has or academic autonomy or anything else, is independent of or separate from those laws. I need to be very conscious of that, and I am not being in any way critical of the Deputy, but when it comes to referring to a rapist or a rape victim, there are places outside of the Dáil where, quite rightly, importantly and appropriately, those issues should be determined and established.

I join the Deputy in commending all the students who stood up and spoke up for zero tolerance when it comes to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The Deputy made the point that it was not just women or female students at that protest but it was also men because men cannot recuse themselves from this huge epidemic in Ireland as regards sexual violence. I fully agree with her in a broad sense that every college, workplace and educational setting has an absolute duty to be a safe environment. I remember from my own time as Minister for higher education a significant body of work that was under way in the universities in that regard. Therefore, I am concerned and disappointed - and it is an understatement - to hear some of what the Deputy has told me here today.

I am conscious the Deputy has also said some of this is not straightforward in terms of the academic piece. I acknowledge that and I know the Minister, Deputy Lawless, had an engagement with the student, quite properly, on foot of the Deputy raising this issue here. I will speak to the Minister again and perhaps there is an opportunity to engage with the governing authority as well as the college. I will ask the Minister to come back to Deputy Coppinger directly.

The final thing I will say is that this House has quite rightly taken serious action in recent years on the sharing of intimate images, or indeed even the threat of sharing intimate images under Coco's Law. That law is very clear and robust on that and I expect the laws of this land to be applied without fear or favour. Clearly, if there are any breaches, complaints or allegations of a breach of that, An Garda Síochána should investigate it fully.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I wonder should the Minister ask for himself or one of his team, if you like, to be engaged in those discussions with the college and the student because it does not help when the dean of medicine walks into lecture halls, spends half an hour undermining a student and is then the person taking part in the discussion around the academic issues. This medical student told me that a significant number of students now perceive the supports available as performative and not something they would engage in because if you speak out, you are going to be ostracised. This is a male student by the way. He said that many of them felt their colleague's credibility and the reputation of the student were being undermined in front of their own eyes and that they would not talk about a rape patient in that way.

There are problems in the culture, and I am sure it is not just UCD but other colleges too. UCD has a DEI Athena Swan Award for its great ability to be inclusive but that is not reflected in reality. Just to say, a rape did take place, regardless of the person not reporting it.

You can see why. They tried to get on with their life. We know that from the image that was shared after, in any case.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should conclude now.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I am asking the Tánaiste to get the Minister to intervene as much as he can.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am not in any way, shape or form undermining or implying any doubt in regard to what the victim has said to the Deputy and others. I am simply respecting the role I have versus the roles others have in society. There are obviously processes outside of here that have to establish fact. I do not say that to be in any way lacking in empathy; it is just to be factual. On the broader point the Deputy makes around the Minister and asking whether the Minister can provide any further assistance, guidance or linkages with the governing authorities, it is certainly a point I will discuss with the Minister, Deputy Lawless. I know the Minister already met with the student and was eager to do so.

A broader point I want to make - I made this point when I was Minister for higher education - is that there is an epidemic of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Irish society. Our colleges and universities are not immune from that and, therefore, there was a very strict programme of action that they were all meant to undertake. To hear the Deputy - and I accept she said it in good faith - use the word "performative" is something I know none of us would like to ever see, so I will ask the Minister to reflect on that broader point too.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I thank the Leas Cheann-Comhairle. I might beg your indulgence for a couple of seconds before my Leader's Question. I would briefly like to say "Thank you" to Brigid McGlynn, who is finishing in the Dáil today. I wish her the very best and thank her for all her work and kindness to us all down through the years. She has been here since 1980, so we can only imagine what she has seen and heard in these corridors during that time. We want to say, "Thank you" to Brigid on behalf of everyone in the Dáil.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Hear, hear.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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Energy poverty is not a theory. It is a reality in kitchens and sitting rooms across the country today. This morning on "Ireland AM", it was stated that households need an extra €480 a year just to exit fuel poverty. That figure is now backed up by new ESRI research published today, which tells us that 14% of Irish households, one in seven, cannot afford adequate warmth or to pay their energy bills in full. When broader measures are taken into account, up to 30% of households are experiencing some form of energy affordability crisis. I acknowledge the packages that have been given out but the pressure is not easing on families; it is getting worse.

As of February of this year, almost 317,000 households were in arrears on their electricity bill, with the average debt approaching €500 per household and over 190,000 families trapped in arrears for more than 90 days. This is no longer short-term difficulty; it is systematic energy poverty. At the same time, the ESRI tells us that €480 a year would be enough to lift a household out of fuel poverty. That is less than what many families already owe. Yet, instead of being helped out, they are being dragged further under.

We hear the phrase "choosing between eating and heating" so often in this House that we risk becoming immune to it. People are dreading the ESB bill landing on the mat like a stealth bomb, not knowing how they will cover it. That bill never arrives alone. It arrives the week parents are trying to pay increased school transport charges. It arrives when the car is due for the NCT and needs money spent before it will pass. It arrives the same week someone in the household gets sick, costing €60 for a GP visit and €100 for medication.

The Government repeatedly tells people the solution is to move away from fossil fuels but let us be honest about that and what it costs an ordinary family. To install a solar system capable of covering heating, hot water, everyday electricity and charging a car can cost up to €20,000. The grant is a measly €1,800. That is simply not enough to encourage anyone to change over. Then comes the electric car. Any vehicle capable of a real family mileage is around €50,000. Even with grants, that remains totally out of reach for households already struggling to pay their electricity bills.

The reality is that for a normal family to fully transition from fossil fuels, the up-front cost is close to €70,000, and that is before the cost of a home charging unit is even considered. That is not a transition; it is an impossible one. My question to the Tánaiste is, will the Government increase the solar panel grants? Will the grants for heat pumps and electric cars be increased, and what is the Government going to do, in real, targeted, affordable terms, to help citizens of this country to exit fuel poverty rather than simply endure it year after year?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Collins. I join with him in wishing Brigid McGlynn all the very best. I was not aware of that. I say it from a position of affection and respect that she has been part of the furniture around here in all the time I have been here. She is quite an institution in and of her own and I wish her and her family all the very best, and indeed the best, as the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins tells me, with their Dublin Hills goat's cheese venture as well. I wish her all the very best and every health.

I thank Deputy Collins for acknowledging the package that has been put in place. We can always have a debate in this House around more, and we should, and what else can be done. The package we have put in place for farmers, fishers, farm contractors and hauliers, and the engagement we will have with contractors in the construction sector, is all an effort to recognise that, yes, a fuel and energy crisis impacts everybody in our country but there are some sectors of society and some industries that are heavily dependent on fuel and that it has a greater impact on. I welcome the generally broad welcome that there has been across those industries for these packages. Of course, it is important we keep them kind of simple and non-bureaucratic and that we get payments out as quickly as possible. I am pleased that the farm scheme will open, I think, next Tuesday as well.

I already referenced in an earlier engagement the report of the ESRI, a report we commissioned. We commissioned it as a Government because we always want to monitor what can be done in this area. It did find the fuel allowance to be effective and it talked about targeted measures. That is why I think the trajectory we are on, under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy Calleary, of expanding the fuel allowance, making sure more people than ever before are accessing it and the increases to it in recent years are all measures that make real differences to people. I have been in the homes of many people where they will tell you the difference that makes as well.

I welcome the fact that the Deputy has also referenced what more we can do. He would be the first to remind us that there are certain sectors of society that it is harder to transition away from diesel and fossil fuel. I get that, but there are also lots of people in the Deputy's constituency and mine who are trying to do the right thing by their own home and their own lives to save a few bob too. We have already made a number of changes to try to help people with electric vehicles, EVs, solar panels, windows, doors and heat pumps. In fact, the changes made by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, only in recent weeks are already seeing a big benefit. There has been about 186% of an increase in people looking for home upgrade grants.

I have made the point - and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, myself and everybody in Government shares this point - that we have to be constantly restless to do more in this space. One of the areas we are looking at in the time ahead, as well as having discussions about what we can do in the here and now to help people with the bills, is whether there is more we can help people do to break that cycle around being so reliant on fossil fuels and being in homes that can sometimes be cold, drafty or the likes. In the next couple of weeks, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will be updating Cabinet on the work of the national energy affordability task force. In addition to that, my Department of Finance is doing some work on energy economics and what the right levers are to pull to try to address energy poverty. I will be very happy to update the Deputy when we have those two pieces of work completed.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. If the system was working, 317,000 households would not be in electricity arrears, with average debts close to €500 and 190,000 families stuck in long-term arrears. That is deep-rooted energy hardship and when the ESRI tells us that just €480 a year would lift a household out of fuel poverty, it is indefensible that people are being allowed to sink further into debt instead of being helped over that line.

I see Government saying in the past week that it is forecasting a €9.2 billion surplus. Great news, and we have a rainy day fund. In 2023, it was estimated at €6 billion. This is a rainy day. It could not be wetter out there for the people of this country, besides the sun over my head right now. The point is that rainy day fund should be put back into people who are struggling badly. The surplus needs to be focused on families who are at home, scared of the electricity bill coming in the door and not being able to pay the bill. Those are the facts of the matter. People cannot heat their homes on announcements; they need targeted supports.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I would make a couple of points on the surplus. First, it is better to have one than not have one, and it has enabled us to bring in a €750 million package of supports, one of the largest in the European Union, and not have to borrow for it. If you look at our nearest neighbours in the UK, they brought in a smaller package for their citizens per head of population. They had to borrow and were charged around 5% on the market for that as well. We are using the fact that we have a fiscal buffer to the advantage of our citizens in being able to have a larger package in place but also not having to borrow and pay interest for that package as well.

To reassure people, I would also make the point that the €9.4 billion is not sitting in the Department of Finance getting dusty. This is a projection as to what we believe the surplus could be by the end of the year. It has not come in yet. This is the month of April; it is what we believe the surplus could be by 31 December. I think that sometimes gets missed in this debate. There is not €9.4 billion of a surplus sitting over there now.

The third point I would make, and I say this respectfully, is that in the past perhaps people talked of rainy day funds. We do not have any such fund in Ireland any more. We have two funds that are very clearly actively being used, one around infrastructure, climate adaptation, capital projects, metro potentially and for other things, and another called the Future Ireland Fund, for demographics, including a population that is going to get older in the Deputy's constituency and mine. We do have options in terms of being able to do more in the time ahead but the politics and the facts of the surplus are a little more complicated than is sometimes presented.