Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 10 Feb 2026

Vol. 1080 No. 4

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Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

Seventy thousand more households are behind on their electricity bills now than at this time last year. The overall number in electricity arrears now stands at a staggering and record 303,465 households. We have not seen the worst of it yet because the figures for December and January are still to be reported. This is a shocking situation and yet there is not a word from the Taoiseach, only silence. One would never think that households were under such enormous pressure, given the deafening silence from the Taoiseach's Government. People are working every hour they can and still cannot keep up. It is one big, never-ending and exhausting rip-off.

Working households find themselves in this desperate situation because of the Taoiseach's terrible decisions. He was told that withdrawing the energy credits would cause big problems. The regulator told him that even more households would struggle to pay their bills due to rising prices and that arrears would hit record levels, but, incredibly, the Government went ahead and withdrew those credits anyway. I have lost count of the times that I have raised this with the Taoiseach, the pressure that households are under, and the stress that they face to pay rip-off energy bills. What was the Government's big idea, by response? A talking shop, a so-called task force to tackle big energy bills, cobbled together by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, last June. How many times has this crack team met since then? Three. Yes, that is it - three times in eight months. That really takes the biscuit. There is no urgency, no determination and no real care for what people are going through. Families are hammered by incredible, unbearable daily pressure, and the Government's so-called task force, its big solution, is as láthair, sleeping on the job.

While the Government and its task force twiddle their thumbs, households have been hit with price hike after price hike. The big energy companies hiked up their prices one after the other and the Government allowed this to happen. It refused to take on the price-gouging energy companies. It repeatedly ignored calls to give the regulator more power to get energy costs under control.

The Government then took away energy credits - the one lifeline households had in the face of these rip-off bills. As people struggle to get by, we have a do-nothing, say-nothing Government - doing nothing to tackle the problem and saying nothing about the impact on people's lives. Tá líon níos mó teaghlaigh ná riamh ag streachailt chun billí ródhaora leictreachais a íoc. Tá sé in am don Rialtas seo a jab a dhéanamh agus gníomh a ghlacadh chun deireadh a chur leis an saill fuinnimh. This silence and inaction simply cannot continue.

Only yesterday, we heard how the sky-high prices of groceries have gone up again - the fastest increase in two years. The Government has done nothing to tackle that problem either. People cannot take any more. They are especially sick of working every hour but still not being able to pay their electricity bills. They want the Government to do its job to protect them from price gouging, to tackle relentless price hikes and to end this rip off. Will the Government do its job? Will it reinstate energy credits, which households so desperately need? Will it haul in the energy companies and tell them to stop ripping people off? Will it finally act to give the energy regulator the powers it needs to get energy costs down and to bring this rip off to a stop?

The Taoiseach

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Tá an-chuid déanta ag an Rialtas ó thaobh na gcostas maireachtála de. Bhí an-chuid laistigh den bhuiséad a bhí againn i mí Dheireadh Fómhair, go háirithe dóibh siúd ar ioncam íseal agus an-chuid cabhair tugtha againn tríd leas sóisialach chun daoine a chosaint agus cóir agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine.

I do not accept the Deputy's overall presentation of the Government's response to what are significant pressures on the people in respect of the cost of living. Of course, that began a number of years ago, particularly coming out of Covid and the war in Ukraine in terms of energy prices. We have now moved from a situation where inflation was 10% to a point where it is significantly below that at 2.6%. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we were looking at 10%. That came down to 5% in 2023, 2.7% in December 2025 and 2.6% in January. That is the overall inflation rate.

In terms of energy, I still disagree with the Deputy that we should retain universal energy credits. I find it difficult to comprehend that a party that comes from where it claims it comes from would argue that millionaires and people on very sizeable incomes should get energy credits and particularly when, in terms of the totality of the cost-of-living payments we had been making in the worst of times during and post-Covid and in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Deputy is saying we keep that €2 billion or €3 billion going on top of the expenditure we have already increased by about 8%. If we took the Deputy's budget proposals, they would add 2.5% to the cost of living at a time when she is complaining about the cost of living. She has form on this. Her last episode in terms of energy policy was a Liz Truss moment and I can recall that. Now she is saying we should keep energy credits.

Employment is very strong. The best protection people have in terms of meeting inflation and cost-of-living pressures are high-quality and good-quality jobs, and making the fuel allowance available to those on lower incomes or those on the working family payment which is what we did in the budget. We increased social protection payments by about €10 per week and made a very big increase in child support payments. Children aged 12 years and over get an extra €16, bringing it to about €78 per week for families in that situation while those with children aged under 12 get an extra €8, bringing it to €58 per week. These were substantial targeted measures for those on the lowest incomes. I would have thought the Deputy would have favoured that approach yet she wants millionaires and the very well-off to get the benefits from the budget allocation.

The fuel allowance now covers 26% of households - up from 23%. This is a targeted and intelligent way of allocating resources to those who need them most.

We have extended the reduced 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity until the end of 2030. That is a five-to-six-year measure. Home energy upgrades have been hugely invested in, with approximately €558 million allocated. Microgeneration income tax exemption is well provided for. These are embedded measures which will have a medium to longer term impact. It is better to put money into measures that are there for the long haul, as opposed to the Deputy’s never-ending short-term knee-jerk reactions to every issue that arises.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

The Taoiseach’s view is simply wrong. It is neither intelligent nor targeted. As a matter of fact, it strikes me as most unintelligent because 70,000 more households than last year are now in difficulties. They cannot pay their bills. I told the Taoiseach we have hit a record of 303,465 such households. They are not millionaires. They are working households who now cannot pay their bills. I want a long-term solution. The long-term solution is to end the price gouging, end the rip-off by the big energy companies and to give the regulator the powers it needs, but the Taoiseach knows that because I have told him that repeatedly. I will tell him this much: in the here and now I want those households to be able to make their bills. The only way in the short term, in the immediacy of now, that they can do that is by the Taoiseach reinstating the energy credit. That is the reality.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank the Deputy.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

That is the intelligent, targeted reality that people are living.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Taoiseach to respond.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

Let me ask again: will the Taoiseach do the right thing, reinstate these credits and then, of course, take the longer-term measures that so far he has ignored?

Deputies

Hear, hear.

The Taoiseach

Actually, the energy credit would help the vast, vast majority of those who are not in arrears. The Deputy should think about it for a moment. She identified how many people are in arrears. The vast majority of people are not in arrears. People are under pressure; do not get me wrong. The energy credit applies to everybody; it is universal.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

I understand the meaning of universal, thank you.

The Taoiseach

That is what she is arguing should be extended to everybody. Surely it would be far better to help those who are in genuine difficulty.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The Government is not doing that.

The Taoiseach

You are not leader yet, Pearse, for God's sake.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

Are you talking to yourself?

The Taoiseach

You have been making attempts lately but just let me respond to the leader.

(Interruptions).

A Deputy

The Taoiseach must be feeling the pressure.

The Taoiseach

I just want to make the point that we have targeted our measures-----

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The Taoiseach has a half-eye on Deputy Jim O'Callaghan.

The Taoiseach

-----to meet those who are in difficulty, and that is the key. Once-off cost-of-living measures are not fiscally sustainable for the next number of years. The €3 billion and €4 billion we allocated for two years, we just cannot keep doing that. We have a strong economy. We have probably one of the best employment positions of any European Union state. We want to preserve that and we also want to support those who need support, and we will, in terms of energy affordability and security.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I raise the case of Seamus Culleton, the Irish citizen and Kilkenny man who has now spent five months imprisoned in an ICE detention camp in Texas. Yesterday, the country was silenced, listening in as Seamus phoned "Liveline" to speak about his ordeal. Last night, I spoke directly to Seamus's sister Caroline and heard more details about the appalling conditions in which he is detained. There are 72 men packed into a single tent, with filth everywhere and a lack of sanitation, violent guards, alleged strangling, three men dead already, and conditions so brutal that detainees are gambling on who will be the next person to take their own life. They are deprived of fresh air. Seamus has seen the sun only a handful of times in his five months there. He calls it a hell and a concentration camp and he fears for his life.

Seamus is a man who has lived in the US for 17 years. He runs a successful business in Boston and married his American wife, Tiffany Smyth, last April. However, he has now spent more than half of his married life behind barbed wire in this camp. Why? Because he was lifted off the streets by ICE on his way to the shops after he had been kept waiting for his green card following long delays. As Caroline said, it is deeply ironic that one arm of the US Government is processing him for permanent residency while the other has locked him in a cage. To describe his testimony as shocking would be an understatement. It appears beyond doubt to breach American commitments under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

What is the Irish Government doing about this? On his way to Cabinet today, the Taoiseach told the media his officials had contacted Washington.

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, has said that consular assistance is being offered, yet I understand that no Government Minister has contacted the family directly. This is an Irish citizen about whose plight the Government has known for some time. Reports of his treatment hit the press days ago with Karlin Lillington's piece in The Irish Times. The Taoiseach must commit now, on the floor of the Dáil, to pulling out every stop and using every diplomatic lever at his disposal to secure Mr. Culleton's release. There can be no delays and no waiting for St. Patrick's Day.

Unfortunately, Mr. Culleton's is not an isolated case. Parliamentary questions from my Labour Party colleague Deputy Duncan Smith reveal that the number of deportations of Irish citizens from the US has quadrupled in a year. We have all read articles about the detention of innocent people like Donna Hughes-Brown, a grandmother who has lived in the US legally since she was 11 years old. Immigration lawyers in America tell us Irish citizens are watching the news and fearing for their own futures. We do not know if any more Irish citizens have been detained in the same manner as Mr. Culleton. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, says it is fewer than 12. Is it ten? Is it 11? In five, weeks, the Taoiseach plans to hand a bowl of shamrock to the man responsible for all this. He plans to offer a symbol of friendship to the man who humiliated Ireland on St. Patrick's Day last year when he snubbed the Taoiseach in favour of a photo op with Conor McGregor. The Taoiseach knows the expression, "With friends like these". What will he do today to ensure the release of Seamus Culleton and to ensure the safety of other Irish citizens being detained by ICE or in fear of being detained by it?

The Taoiseach

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I first became aware it yesterday via the media. That is fine. The Department of foreign affairs became aware of the case in October and had been providing consular assistance to Seamus Culleton and his family via the teams at the consulate general in Austin, the embassy in Washington DC and our consular unit in Dublin.

We have migration law in this country. We have laws. There is legal status in Ireland and there is undocumented status in Ireland. All countries, bar none, have migration laws. We have sought, over the years, to try and regularise the undocumented in America via legislation in Congress on the Hill. Long before President Trump entered the White House, this has been a challenge. Deputy Bacik and everybody else in the House knows that. We came very close a number of years ago with the E-3 visa. At that time, we lost out by one vote on having a number of thousand visas from the Australian visa allocation allocated to Ireland. One vote stymied what would have been a significant breakthrough on that occasion. It has been extraordinarily difficult to get consensus on the Hill in respect of migration for any one specific country because Hispanics and Latinos will all want similar deals. It is either a deal for all or none, and that has been the consistent position in the US for the past decade or so. That makes it particularly difficult in terms of endeavouring to the get the Irish who are undocumented in the United States regularised. It is a very traumatic and difficult position for people to be in when it comes to their families and the many who have established homes there and so on. Families in the US are always watching over their shoulders and worried about a knock on the door or their being in a position where they would be deported.

Deportations have been going on for quite a number of years. There is a particularly intensity in the current ICE campaign. Of that, there is no doubt. The Government's position is that we will do everything we can to help Seamus Culleton, but we have to do it in a way that can really help and be effective for him. We cannot promise anything, because we do not control American migration law or practice. However, we can engage. We have engaged and we will continue to engage. We are concerned about the conditions that exist in the place where Seamus Culleton is being held, but we are also anxious for the matter to be resolved in the context of the status issue.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

If I may say, that is a most unsatisfactory response. The Taoiseach has conflated, wrongly in my view, quite a number of issues. Of course countries have migration laws. Of course, the successive Irish Governments have for many years been trying to regularise undocumented Irish citizens in the US.

However, we are talking about an Irish citizen who has been detained in inhumane conditions for five months in the US in breach of international law. That is the issue here. What I have not heard from the Taoiseach is any sense of urgency about securing his release or ensuring that no other Irish citizens are being held in the same conditions. Some may be, but we do not know. There could be as many as 12 apparently.

What I have not heard from the Taoiseach are any words that will offer comfort to families here of Irish citizens in the US, to Seamus’s family or, indeed, to others. The Taoiseach is saying that the Government is going to continue using fairly limited diplomatic levers. He is still going to go to the US. Would it not be more appropriate to go to the US on St. Patrick’s Day to offer condolences to the mayor of Minneapolis? Because we are seeing ICE killing US citizens on the streets and detaining Irish citizens in breach of due process and in inhumane conditions.

The Taoiseach

There are a number of cases. It could be five to six cases, but they vary in status. The Deputy is implying, wrongly, my approach to this. I would have thought that the prime objective is to secure status. People want to get out of the detention facility. The Deputy knows best.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

The objective is to get him out.

A Deputy

It is helping him out of the cage.

The Taoiseach

I would argue that it is status. Let us not do anything that could make that more difficult. That is all I am saying.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

Let us not do anything.

The Taoiseach

This cannot be resolved in the public domain. The Deputy should know that. Either we want to genuinely try to help, and I know the Deputy does-----

Deputy Ivana Bacik

Of course.

The Taoiseach

The issue is status, it seems to me. That is the number one issue that I would like to see dealt with. I cannot promise anything in respect of securing that, but I would have thought it would be the objective for Seamus Culleton. He is married, he has been there for 20 years and he has a business. That is the ultimate objective that we want to achieve.

Deputy Holly Cairns

I am going to read one woman’s account of her postnatal care:

At my 6 week post natal check, the consultant who had delivered my baby asked me only about contraception. There were no questions about my mental health, my emotional state, or how I was coping. I left that appointment feeling invisible and unheard. Like I was just a vessel that had to ‘get on with things’.

After giving birth, mothers are faced with a countdown. Six weeks of postnatal care. Six-weeks of check-ups. Six weeks, and then you are on your own. Life with a newborn does not become easier after those six weeks. For so many women, it becomes even harder. postnatal depression, anxiety and overwhelm can build up over months. When sleep deprivation accumulates, when your partner goes back to work, when supports fall away and when you start to feel invisible and unheard, everyone expects you to just get on with it. Of course, all of these are immeasurably harder for single parents.

This is the reality that is being highlighted by Aolish Gormley and the Year of Care campaign. Those involved are asking for something very simple, namely for the Government to finally prioritise mothers. There is no strategy for supporting mothers' physical and mental health in their first year after giving birth. With postnatal appointments largely ending after six weeks, mental health supports are inconsistent, inaccessible or entirely absent. Paid leave ends months before many women have physically or psychologically recovered.

The maternity and infant scheme which outlines postnatal care in Ireland has not been updated since 1997. That is 29 years ago. The long-promised review has been endlessly delayed. An entire generation of women have been born, are having children and are going through the same old creaking system as their mothers did. The standard of postnatal care in Ireland is far below what is available in other countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands. Despite the incredible work of midwives and other staff in our maternity services, our system does not represent best practice. It does not embody the reality faced by mothers in 2026 and it does not reflect everything we know about the importance of the first year for mother and child.

What makes this more frustrating is that the Government has already acknowledged so many of the flaws in the system. Many of the solutions are contained in the national maternity strategy, which is gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.

I ask the Taoiseach to follow through and to recognise that birth has a profound impact on women's health and well-being far beyond six weeks, and for the State to finally step up and help mothers through that first difficult year. I am asking him to deliver a mother and baby unit so that getting mental health support does not mean being separated from one's baby. Will the Government produce a strategy to expand physical and mental health supports to mothers for an entire year after birth? We have been waiting on a review of the maternity and infant scheme for ten years. It is supposed to be ready in quarter 1 of this year. When will the report be published?

The Taoiseach

Without question care for mothers particularly postnatal is absolutely important. Despite what the Deputy said, the Government has made a lot of progress in this area over quite a number of years, in particular the establishment of nine postnatal hubs, giving women access to postnatal care in community settings. Additional funding of €2 million in 2025 will initiate four further hubs which will bring the total network to €13 million. Some €28 million in new development funding has been invested in the national maternity strategy, transforming maternity services for mothers and babies. Over 550 additional full-time staff have been funded across maternity services, including 44 consultants, and 381 nurses and midwives.

In terms of the mental health dimension, the expansion of specialist perinatal mental health services has been prioritised and again funding has been provided for additional posts this year to meet the demand, particularly in the busiest of hospitals. The HSE is reviewing the model of care this year with a view to further expanding services as per the programme for Government. The perinatal mental health service is available in all 19 maternity hospitals nationwide, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old with an existing or new mental health challenge. Work is under way to deliver Ireland's first mother-and-baby unit with a site currently being confirmed at St. Vincent's hospital.

There have been a lot of service improvements. Without question we have more to do and we will continue to invest in this area as we have in maternity more generally. There will be a successor to the current national maternity strategy. The current one runs from 2016 to 2026. That is imminent and work is under way on that. The programme for Government commits to the mother-and-baby mental health unit, doubling the number of multidisciplinary teams for pregnant women, increasing the number of perinatal mental health midwife posts, and proactively providing mental health supports through maternity hospitals following trauma events connected to pregnancy and childbirth. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is strongly committed to this.

There are a range of other programmes in the gynaecological and obstetric area where there have been very substantial investments and improvements. That has to also be acknowledged. Significant developments have taken place with postnatal depression and care after pregnancy. We acknowledge clearly the need to do more and are prepared to do more.

Deputy Holly Cairns

I thank the Taoiseach. I acknowledge that the postnatal hubs delivered through Sláintecare do excellent work. The point that the care campaign is highlighting is that those services need to be expanded massively to address the mental health gaps in postnatal care. It is clear that it has not been prioritised to the extent that the Taoiseach just laid out. There is evidence of that in fact that is it has not been reviewed in 29 years. I specifically asked about the review of the maternity and infant scheme. It was supposed to be ready in quarter 1 of this year. When will it be ready?

The Taoiseach mentioned the mother and baby unit in his reply. When will that be delivered? Is it planned to have more than one in Ireland? We are far behind other countries like the UK on this. The care campaign is not calling for anything radical. We need our maternal health care to be evidence based. We need to recognise the immense physical and mental toll giving birth takes on people. We need to expand supports in that regard. We need to expand paid leave to cover the first year of a child's life. We need to modernise the maternity and infant scheme, and to implement the national maternity strategy.

The Taoiseach

The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are absolutely committed to expanding this. I am not clear about that 29-year reference but I repeat that in terms of mental health, the perinatal mental health service is now available in all 19 maternity hospitals, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old. That is the current position. As we discussed this morning, both the Minister and the Minister of State are quite committed to prioritising this even further and also in terms of the mother and baby unit in St. Vincent's Hospital. Again, I see no difficulty in the Government working with the Opposition in this area and working with the campaign in terms of ensuring that we do the best and the optimal for the women and children of Ireland.

Deputy Michael Collins

The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, in spite of its intentions, raises concerns as it could have unintended consequences for many people in this country. The part that raises most concerns for the tourism sector is the short-term letting planning part. It is being proposed as part of this new legislation that Airbnb, bed and breakfast and short-term lets will require registration and planning permission. The people who let for the short term, mainly for tourism purposes, have no issue with being registered as all of their work is above board anyhow. However, if they have to get planning permission for short-term letting, that will close down most of the short-term lets in Ireland. I could understand it if this Bill sought these changes for short-term lets in areas with a population of over 20,000 but those in rural communities who let granny flats or let rooms on a short-term basis in houses or sheds should not come under the residential tenancies planning provisions.

I was dealing with two ladies in west Cork last year who were doing Airbnb for decades, letting out approximately ten rooms in two houses. They heard of this new legislation and knew that if they had to get planning permission, assuming they could get it in the first place, it would cost tens of thousands of euro which would make their little tourism businesses non-viable. Last week, I contacted the ladies to tell them that I was raising this issue in the Dáil only to be told they had pulled out of the business as they could not carry on with the indecision and the stress of not knowing if they would be forced down the planning permission route or not. Ten beds have been lost to the surrounds of Courtmacsharry. Tourism beds mean people calling, staying for a few days, eating in local restaurants in Courtmacsharry, Timoleague, Clonakilty and Bandon, having a few pints in the local pubs and using local transport services, all adding to the economy of the local community. This story is not just confined to Courtmacsharry. This also applies to Connemara in Galway, Westport in Mayo, Bundoran in Donegal, Dungarvan in Waterford, New Ross in Wexford, and Kenmare in Kerry. It is the same story the length and breadth of Ireland. This is tourism and it is a decades-old success.

Tourism was down by 8% last year. Has the Government calculated what this will cost the tourism sector? People from all over the world came to rural parts of Ireland to enjoy what we have to offer, which is far more than anywhere in the world. Those in short-term lets are horrified by what is happening. At a packed public meeting that I held in O'Donovan's Hotel in Clonakilty last Friday night, I heard story after story of great short-term let businesses from Beara to Kinsale and how they sold all that is great about Ireland. All of this looks to be in tatters to them if the Government railroads through this legislation in its current form. Will owners of Airbnb and short-term lets in areas with populations of under 20,000 have to apply for planning permission? The same question applies to bed and breakfast accommodation, short-term holiday lets and the householders providing once-off accommodation at weekends for events like Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta or local festivals the length and breadth of Ireland. Will they all come under this planning legislation? If so, it will damage our tourism industry in rural coastal communities throughout Ireland, which are still reeling from the complete collapse of the fishing industry and the struggles of our beef industry at this time.

The Taoiseach

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is an extremely important issue. The ultimate priority, of course, is housing. All of us in this House agreed a long time ago that housing is a priority. Short-term lets, particularly in cities and large towns, have replaced a lot of rental properties for housing. That is the ultimate priority. Cities and large towns provide the best opportunity for short-term letting properties to be returned to the long-term rental market. We had a meeting last evening of party leaders and the Ministers responsible, Deputy James Brown and Deputy Peter Burke, who is initiating the legislation. First, it will be for towns above 20,000. Many people thought it would be 10,000. I thought that Deputy Collins was getting up to welcome that development but anyway-----

Deputy Michael Collins

I will.

The Taoiseach

It is above 20,000 and we are trying to get the balance right between tourism and housing.

It is important to note, there will be an obligation to register. The Bill is the short-term letting and tourism legislation. We published that, as the Deputy knows. We got Cabinet approval. I think it has gone through pre-legislative scrutiny. It will introduce a national register of all short-term let properties to improve oversight and compliance. It also aligns domestic law with the European Union short-term rental regulation, which will be effective from 20 May 2026. There are various criteria. The Minister, Deputy Browne, will then develop a planning statement on short-term letting.

In terms of the planning status I thought the Deputy would have been aware that any variation from residential to commercial and Airbnb - we sought the Attorney General's advice on this - requires planning. That is just the law as it is. We are examining the process of registering so that we would facilitate opportunities for those registering to regularise planning over a particular timeframe. That has to be tied down with a degree of precision. That will happen before the Bill comes to the Dáil. That is all fairly imminent. Those are the factual legal positions. I think we can achieve it. I would not be coming forward with the potential doomsday scenarios the Deputy came forward with. We need to keep calm here and facilitate regularisation, if people have not done that already. A year or two ago, if, bar in the case of home sharing, someone wanted to change the status of a particular house to an Airbnb scenario, by law, as it currently stands, the person would need planning permission to do that.

Deputy Michael Collins

The Taoiseach may say that I am putting forward a doomsday scenario. It is doomsday for these people who have been doing Airbnb for the past five, ten, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years if planning regulations have to come into place. I welcome the statement from the Minister, Deputy Burke, but the planning requirement is still going ahead. That is the very serious concern we all have. That is the part that will ruin existing short-term holiday lets. Independent Ireland has an amendment tomorrow night that would safeguard existing businesses and provide them with certainty if the Government will agree to it. The only opportunity to put this right is through the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 tomorrow night. I am getting emails from Airbnb short-term providers all over Ireland who are up in arms over this. Nowhere else in Europe are existing Airbnb and short-term lets being destroyed. It has been tried by the Scottish Government but it had to row back on the decision. The loss of income in a female dominated industry will be felt the length and breadth of the country if this is to go ahead. At this moment, Fáilte Ireland has registration forms ready on which it quite clearly asks if the person has planning. If this is not removed, it is breathtaking to see that Fáilte Ireland, the very body put in place to build tourism, will be the body at the forefront, with this Government, of destroying tourism, as we know it, forever.

The Taoiseach

The Deputy is confusing his Bills.

Deputy Michael Collins

I am not.

The Taoiseach

You are.

Deputy Michael Collins

We have done research on this.

The Taoiseach

The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 has nothing to do with short-term letting.

Deputy Michael Collins

It has.

The Taoiseach

No, it does not. I want to make it clear that the short-term letting Bill will be brought to the House by the Minister, Deputy Burke. We had a meeting of the housing committee yesterday. We dealt with it. The issue in terms of variation is a matter of law as we stand, and that is anywhere, not just in the context of short-term lets. For any premises, permission has to be obtained for a variation of use to commercial. The Deputy knows that because he is a TD and he knows his way around the place in terms of these kinds of issues. Let us not pretend innocence. I would say the Deputy has helped a good few people down through the years to navigate all those kinds of things.

Deputies on our side of the House are very anxious that we go to the 20,000 figure. We got the balance right and we have to bring forward the legislation. What we will endeavour to do is to enable people, as they register, to regularise their planning over a period of time, to give people time. By the way, I know the Deputy is concerned about Courtmacsherry and all of that. Brad Pitt is on his way to Timoleague, apparently. The Airbnbs will be full now for the next couple of days.

Deputy Michael Collins

There will be no room for poor Brad Pitt or anybody else if the Government does not wake up. We have to have a debate in the Chamber on short-term lets. The Taoiseach can ignore me all he likes.

An Ceann Comhairle

Before I move to the Order of Business, Deputy Collins has a number of guests in the Gallery. They are students from University College Cork's government and politics society. You are very welcome indeed.

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• An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business