The Taoiseach:

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Gabhaim buíochas freisin leis an Seanad as ucht an cuireadh chun labhairt libh inniu. A Sheanadóirí, táim an-sásta an t-eolas is déanaí a thabhairt daoibh ar roinnt obair an Rialtais agus, go deimhin, éisteacht le do thuairimí agus na ceisteanna a bheidh agaibh. Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom a rá gur príomhaidhm an Rialtais ná an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn i gcónaí agus tacaíocht agus níos mó áiseanna a thabhairt don Ghaeilge agus do na Gaeltachtaí mar aon leis sin. Tá plean agus jab an-mhór le déanamh againn ina dtaobh.

It is a great privilege to be back in the Seanad and to speak to you as Taoiseach. We are living in a time of great disruption and conflict in the world. Of central concern to Government is the extent to which this impacts our economic security. The shift from global co-operation and trade is not of Ireland’s choosing but it is a challenge that we must face and act upon. Through the hard work of the Irish people and careful planning by successive Governments, Ireland’s economy remains resilient and our public finances are robust. What is interesting is that, notwithstanding the tariffs and so on, about 70% of world trade is still under WTO rules. It is important we do not lose a sense of perspective in relation to the trade turbulence across the world.

Through budget 2026, we are fully committed to maintaining a strong and stable economy, to protect jobs and support businesses to grow and expand. A key foundation of our economic success is free trade, and the Government continues to support European efforts to forge new trade deals, including with India and Indonesia. It is a very important point. I think in the Oireachtas we have had an interesting and, from my perspective, odd approach to trade. Trade puts bread and butter on our tables yet we always look very negatively at trade deals and we look to see the problem as opposed to the opportunity. That is a point that is worth wider debate in the Oireachtas in the time ahead. Ireland depends on free trade, fundamentally, as a small, open economy.

We are very focused on the need to invest in our future and about €19 billion has been allocated for capital investment in the budget. That is an increase of €2 billion on 2025. What that is about, really, is delivering thousands of new-build social homes, major water infrastructure projects and flood relief schemes, building sustainability and resilience in our electricity grid and boosting our electricity supply, and delivering on major projects across the transport, health, education, justice, arts and sport sectors. Fundamentally, it is utilities. It is water, grid, public transport and roads that will require very sustained investment to enable us to have a sustainable society as well as an economy. We have reserve funds in place to protect the country in times of economic challenge, the Future Ireland Fund and the climate and nature fund. By the end of 2026 they will comprise €24 billion, and by 2030, maintaining the same trajectory, we will have about €47 billion put aside to protect the country. The budget puts about €7 billion in capital funding specifically for housing, that is apart from the current, and then with a range of tax measures to incentivise the provision of new residential units and accelerate the delivery of affordable homes into the housing market. Building on the housing measures already taken, we are finalising a new housing plan for the next five years and beyond. Narrowing the viability gap is key in terms of apartment building and that is what we have done with a series of reforms plus the tax measures in the budget. It is fundamentally about getting more homes built, particularly on the private sector side. The public sector is enormous in terms of the contribution we are making. To get to 50,000 or 60,000 houses you need a balance of public and private.

The strength and resilience of our economy allows us to continue to invest in social progress. Last month, the Government published a new child poverty target which seeks to ensure that by 2030 no more than 3% of children should be living in consistent poverty. The measures announced in the budget represent the first year of our multi-year plan to meet this target. We have prioritised targeted and focused investment to support the children and families who need our help most. It is a package of about €320 million in income supports for children living in families at risk of poverty. That includes include the largest ever increase in the child support payment, a €60 increase in the weekly income thresholds for the working family payment, the extension of the increased fuel allowance to those receiving the working family payment, and the expansion of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance to include children aged two and three. These increases will benefit 330,000 children whose parents are in receipt of a social welfare payment. These are mainstream improvements to the social protection package for low income families but particularly children, emanating from the unit within my Department that is focusing on child poverty issues.

Parallel with other Departments, there are further measures tackling educational disadvantage. Education is critical in supporting children living at risk of poverty and transforming the opportunities they have to thrive. There is about €48 million to support pupils and students with the highest risk of educational disadvantage, including the introduction of a new DEIS plus programme as part of a new DEIS plan. That will mean more targeted and focused measures on those schools that need it the most within the DEIS framework. We also have enhanced capitation for funding for urban band 1 DEIS primary schools. That will be critical to give children a decent opportunity and start in life, so children are not growing up defined by poverty, but instead are defined by their potential.

Likewise we have prioritised disability in the programme for Government and in the budget. We want to step change the level and scale of support for people with disabilities and their families. The budget begins that in terms of this Government's term of office. There is about €3.8 billion allocated to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. That is a 20% increase in funding over and above last year. It provides for substantial increases in income disregards for carers, increases in the disability allowance and expansion of the wage subsidy scheme. We have allocated about €3 billion for special education, which will provide for significant improvements in how we support children with additional needs in education and in how we plan for the future. We want to get to a position where children will know well in advance that they have a place the following September. We are making a lot of progress on the education front. We have a lot more to do in terms of section 38 and 39 organisations and in terms of healthcare supports. That is an issue I am focusing on and prioritising.We have provided over 1,100 new college places for key health and social care professions to meet the workforce needs of the health, disability and education sectors. I have established a new disability unit in my Department to prioritise disability issues and to make sure we can troubleshoot across Departments and get every Department involved, with no hiding place for any Department in respect of these issues. A whole-of-government approach is key. This is just year 1 of what will be a five-year programme.

Our population is growing and ageing at a rapid rate. That means greater demand and pressure on our health and social care services, so we have to continue with the programme of health reforms and recovery to transform how we deliver healthcare in Ireland. I think it is arguable, and I have argued it within Government and with Departments, that we have never properly factored in the exponential growth in the Irish population over the last two decades. It has been very significant. We are now at historic highs. Going back to pre-Famine times, we are just about getting back to the pre-Famine population on the island. That has implications for public services, public finances and how we meet those challenges.

The health budget reflects that. There is now about €27.4 billion allocated to health. That is double what it was in 2016. We have to use that budget effectively. Value for money is now important. Productivity is important. There will be increases in terms of acute and community bed capacity, home support hours, staffing, nursing home places, enhanced community care and the expansion of mental health services.

Ensuring that we have safe communities and putting more gardaí on our streets are key priorities for the Government. We are speeding up recruitment, including an increase in the Garda trainee allowance. We are going to fund up to 1,000 new gardaí in this budget, 200 more Garda staff and a doubling of the Garda Reserve. All of that is needed to create safe communities in our cities and in our country.

We remain fully committed to implementing the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy, which aims to ensure there is zero tolerance for the kinds of attitude and behaviour that enable such violence. Significant legislative reforms are being advanced to strengthen protections for victims and the budget allocates €80 million to support Cuan, our new agency, and other services supporting victims and survivors.

As a nation, we will always stand ready to assist those fleeing war and persecution. Like many other countries in Europe, we have seen an increase in recent years in people seeking international protection. However, this year has seen over 9,300 international protection applications received, representing a significant decrease compared to the same period last year. It is important to remember that Ireland’s overall immigration policy is based on rules and is fair to those who come here to work, to study and to seek refuge. The upcoming new international protection Bill will lead to the most significant reform of our asylum laws in the history of the State in line with the EU’s migration and asylum pact. I think it is extremely important that we have a broader debate on migration, on ethnicity and on the need to maintain our proactive approach to multiculturalism not just to make people feel welcome, but to be welcomed. I am very concerned about the rhetoric and the language being used and the aggression out there in society. Those of us who stand up for the fundamental values of the dignity of every human being, irrespective of colour, creed or ethnicity, must stand up and take this on. I am watching what is going on in other countries and there is a moment in Ireland where that, too, could become a tipping point. We need to stand up and protect what has been very good for the country over the last number of decades.

In regard to the shared island, after some difficult years we have seen a welcome renewal in the British-Irish relationship. Last March, Prime Minister Starmer and I agreed an extensive and ambitious programme of practical co-operation up to 2030. I am keen to see our co-operation lead to tangible benefits, most immediately on infrastructure delivery, the protection of subsea infrastructure, emergency planning and cultural partnerships. The programme for Government affirms our strong commitment to building a shared, reconciled future with all communities and on this island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. The relationship with the UK Government is a strong one - it is transformed, to be frank - and we are more or less back to where we were in terms of both Governments anchoring the Good Friday Agreement. That is important.

Under the Government’s €2 billion shared island fund - we have added a further €1 billion to the earlier €1 billion up to 2035 - we are seeking to drive strategic all-island investment co-operation that benefits people both North and South. We are building on successes so far, with the iconic Narrow Water Bridge now under construction and the Ulster Canal restoration project now well on the way to full delivery. Next year, Government resourcing will also enable a new Dublin-Derry air link, construction to start on a new teaching building at Ulster University in Derry, and the continuation of the transformative hourly Dublin to Belfast rail service. New all-island investment programmes on enterprise, tourism, the bio-economy and higher education research collaboration will also intensify in 2026. This has been a very significant and, in my view, major programme. It is somewhat under the radar but is really creating connectivity, pragmatic co-operation and engagement on all aspects of life on the island. It is respectful of people's different constitutional preferences. It is really looking at how we can share this island in a pragmatic and sensible way into the future.

I am sure the House will join with me in welcoming developments in the Middle East. After two brutal years of conflict and slaughter, we have at long last seen a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of remaining hostages and humanitarian aid beginning to arrive at scale across the border. I pay warm tribute to all those who have worked so hard to put last week’s agreement in place, regional partners including Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye, and global partners, especially President Trump and his team. The world does owe a debt of gratitude to those who have been trying to get a peace for quite some time.

However, it has happened too late and the collective punishment of a people is unacceptable at any time. There is an opportunity now to change the narrative and to put in place a process that can lead to a just and lasting peace. I have also been clear in my view that only a two-state solution can deliver that outcome and Ireland stands ready to work with others, in good faith, to bring it about.

We are, of course, at a very early stage and there will be many, many challenges ahead, but there is now a real opportunity for a just peace and I urge all parties to seize it. In particular, we urge all involved in Israel in particular to restrain the aggressive and violent settlers in the West Bank, to stop the suffocation of the Palestinian Authority in terms of revenue flows into the PA, and to reassert the primacy of the United Nations in terms of the distribution of humanitarian aid and vital life supplies into Gaza. That is extremely important.

By contrast, any settlement for the war in Ukraine remains elusive. The Ukrainian people continue to bravely defend their country after more than three and a half years of brutal war. The Russian Government shows no interest in peace and, as winter approaches once again, Russia continues to target civilians and civilian infrastructure, including energy plants, in Ukraine. As we have done from the outset of this illegal war, Ireland will continue to stand with Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes, and I look forward to welcoming President Zelenskyy to Ireland in the near future. He has indicated he is going to come.

Of course, Russia’s aggression extends well beyond Ukraine. We have recently seen the airspace of our EU partners, including Denmark, Poland, Estonia and Romania, violated by drones and planes. We live in a world where threats, including cyber and hybrid, are increasingly complex and increasingly frequent. Ireland is not immune to these threats, as we have already seen. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the volume or quality of discussion and debate in this country is equal to the threats that we face. I worked to kickstart a more serious approach to the issue with the forum on international security and defence policy when I was Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence. That was a very useful exercise, with good-quality, informed people presenting, but it was intended as a starting point for discussion, not the final word. It was also an illustrative example of the point I have just made about the quality of debate around these issues. I had to face down noisy protests and was accused of hatching secret plans to join NATO before a single word was uttered at the forum. The extent of our dependence on critical undersea infrastructure in terms of connectivity, data security, economic resilience, energy and the vulnerability of that infrastructure is not understood to the extent that it should be. As a Government, we are taking unprecedented steps at home to equip our Defence Forces to operate more effectively in this new environment. We will also continue to co-operate closely with our EU partners in what is an increasingly important area of activity for the Union.

Like other EU member states, we remain responsible for our own defence policies.However, there are areas where like-minded partners can and should do more together. We need to have a sensible and mature discussion about what those areas are and what closer collaboration might look like, including, I hope, in this House.

On cybersecurity, subsea cables and gas connectors, we simply have to work with other EU member states, the UK, the US and others to protect vital undersea infrastructure, which is of existential importance to our economic and societal well-being. Russia has become more aggressive beyond Ukraine, with – as I have said – drone violations of airspace in multiple EU states, hybrid attacks, disinformation campaigns, monitoring of undersea infrastructure and an expanded shadow fleet with multiple purposes that also pose massive environmental risks and threats. Over recent months, a pattern has emerged that represents a new phase of Russian activity against EU member states and the UK. Ireland is not immune to this. We have to share knowledge and expertise with other EU member states and the UK, significantly increase our own defence capability and resilience and ensure that in the context of peacekeeping, we have maximum interoperability with other member states participating with us. The war in Ukraine must end.

I acknowledge the important contribution by the Members of this House to constructive discussion and the development of public policy and legislation. The Government recently published an ambitious legislative programme for the autumn session to deliver meaningful and necessary legislative reform across a wide range of areas. This House is renowned for its tradition of informed and contemplative debate, untroubled by the daily cut and thrust, the rí-rá agus ruaille buaille, of other places. I look forward to that spirit of wise co-operation in advancing the legislative changes that need to be made. I always value my interactions with Members of this House. I look forward to our interaction today. I am confident that we will continue to work together in a spirit of co-operation as we seek to provide a secure and prosperous future for all.

I thank the Chair for his indulgence. I may have gone over time; I do not know because I did not look at the clock.