Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 7 Oct 2026

Vol. 1092 No. 2

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Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

An Ceann Comhairle: I welcome to the Gallery pupils from two national schools from County Mayo: Attymass National School and Carramore National School. They are here at the behest of the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

Mayo for Sam.

Before I proceed, I want to remember the ten people who lost their lives in the Creeslough tragedy four years ago today. I want to express solidarity with their families and friends and the entire community. Four years on, they are still waiting for answers and justice. They deserve just that.

Tar éis 11 lá, tá muintir Gharbhachaidh fós ina seasamh go daingean chun an tsíocháin a chosaint. Ní mór don Rialtas éileamh ar Stát-Rúnaí na Breataine stop a chur leis an máirseáil Oráisteach seo. There have been 11 days of fear, anxiety and sleepless nights on the Garvaghy Road. A dark cloud is hanging over families who fear that 28 years of peace could be torn apart. The British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Bryant, has still not intervened. He has allowed this situation to fester. He should have acted on day one, and he must act now. He must use his powers, do his job and bring this crisis to an end. There cannot be an unwanted Orange march down the Garvaghy Road. This issue was resolved 28 years ago and we are not going back to the past.

The residents have made their position crystal-clear, and I stand in support of them. People across Ireland stand shoulder to shoulder with them, as does this Oireachtas. Many people within the Protestant community in the North have spoken out in solidarity. Political figures and others from the United States, Britain and across Europe have added their voice. There has been an outpouring of support that crosses borders, and religious and political traditions, united in defence of dignity and equality. The residents are not standing alone. They should not, however, have to stand vigil for another night to defend their right to live in peace. Their patience must not become an excuse for inaction. Their resilience must not become permission to leave them indefinitely in fear and constantly on guard.

The Taoiseach described the Parades Commission’s decision as "incomprehensible and wrong" and he is correct. I agree with him but condemnation must be followed by action. Last week, at Hillsborough, the British Secretary of State put forward a proposal and then he simply walked away, leaving everyone in limbo. The British Secretary of State now updates his X account more regularly than the residents, whom he has not spoken to since last Thursday. We must remember that it is the residents who live with the consequences. After 11 days of this, the case for direct intervention is now unanswerable. A small minority seeks to drag everyone backwards and undo 28 years of progress. They are damaging community relations, undermining trust and threatening hard-won peace. They cannot dictate the future. Peaceful arrangements on the Garvaghy Road and right across the North must remain secure. No one should be allowed to unravel them. The objective is unequivocal. There must be no Orange march down the Garvaghy Road and an end to the fear that hangs over this community.

When did the Taoiseach last speak to the British Prime Minister and the Secretary of State about this crisis? What concrete action will he take today to secure the British intervention needed to bring this intolerable situation to an end?

The Taoiseach

I dtús báire, first, I welcome all those from the two schools in Mayo. Congratulations on winning the All-Ireland and Sam Maguire. I wish them an enjoyable tour here this afternoon.

I too want to remember all those who lost their lives at Creeslough. Our thoughts are with the families who have been bereaved.

I also want to remember all those who lost their lives following the horrific attack by Hamas on innocent people on 7 October 2023. We have to acknowledge that it was a horrendous terroristic attack, which we should remember. Many innocent people from all over the world were brutally murdered and violated on that day. That led to horrific consequences subsequently, which we have also condemned.

I am on the record in relation to the Garvaghy Road situation and my views on the Parades Commission’s decision are well-known. My view is that we do have to resolve this through the wider lens of community relations. It is not as simplistic as the Deputy has put forward. I met with her on this issue last week. It is not a simple matter of making a declaration and it all goes away. There is a history of hurt around Drumcree. We know that. It requires a lot of sensitivity from all of us in leadership positions. We want to protect the gains of the peace process for people across the island. We all have to contribute positively to finding a way through what is a very, very difficult situation.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy McEntee, met the Northern Secretary of State on the evening before last and she has remained in direct contact with him. The Deputy knows a court case was taken and judgment is awaited in that regard. I remained in contact with the Prime Minister, Andrew Burnham, in the past 48 hours. There had been discussions during the course of past week, in which the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition participated. Those discussions ended without agreement. I acknowledge that. I still believe that we need a mediated resolution. That is the wider lens through which I am looking at this. There has not been a march down the Garvaghy Road. The current stalemate is not acceptable. I take the Deputy’s point on that.

There will always be challenges to the decisions of a public body. I believe in the Parades Commission, and I always have believed in it going back over the past number of decades. Many parades were resolved, and many happen all over the North and, indeed, the island. The Secretary of State had already announced an independent judge-led review into the decision-making process and organisational governance of the Parades Commission before this determination. I supported that process. The Right Honourable Sir John O’Hara KC will lead this review and we await his findings. That is not insignificant in and of itself. I have been in constant contact with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade as well.

I do not understand why the Deputy is having a go at the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the way she has. If we want to persuade people, we have got to try to work to persuade them. I do not agree with the approach she has taken. We must be conscious that the talks that have happened could result in an outcome if we maintain dialogue and we will see-----

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

In the complexities of the Irish question and the North, there is one simple reality and we have to have a very clear-cut, unequivocal enunciation of it, which is that the rights of the Garvaghy Road community to live free from sectarian harassment are crystal-clear.

Deputies

Hear, hear.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

There is no debating that. We are not mediating that away. We have a responsibility to assert that without equivocation. I am focusing my remarks - and I believe the Taoiseach should focus his attention likewise - on the British Secretary of State for the simple reason that he is the person who can intervene now to call an end to this march and to allow the space for the considerable repair work that will have to be done on the Garvaghy Road, across Portadown and farther afield.

We are now facing into a very dangerous limbo and stalemate. There is a responsibility on the Taoiseach to apply all necessary pressure on the British Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to intervene now and to put a stop to what is a dangerous and now lingering limbo situation.

The Taoiseach

The Deputy knows that a further appeal by the residents was heard in the court of appeal and the court has reserved judgment. There is also a responsibility on the Deputy. Some of her actions over the past week were not ones that contributed or would-----

Deputy Máire Devine

Where were you?

The Taoiseach

-----contribute to a satisfactory resolution of the issues, not just for now but into the future. I am looking around the corner and I am looking ahead but I am not so sure the Deputy is. She is looking at the here and now for her own electoral reasons. I hate to say that, but that is the conclusion I have come to.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Oh for God's sake, would the Taoiseach ever stop-----

Deputy Máire Devine

Shameful.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

-----and stand up for the nationalists.

The Taoiseach

I did not interrupt anybody. My commitment to Northern Ireland does not need any lectures from anyone here.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

The Taosieach needs to listen to the nationalist people in the North

The Taoiseach

As Taoiseach, I have been responsible for the largest-scale investment by any Government in the Republic into Northern Ireland and that will continue.

An Ceann Comhairle

Do the Deputies want to hear the answer?

Deputy Máire Devine

Jesus.

The Taoiseach

I want to make a point, if I would be allowed and not have this constant interruption and heckling when Members do not like the message. When Deputy McDonald uses language like there will be a reckonings and so on with the stridency that she did, that has consequences too-----

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

The Taoiseach should make it clear to the British Government that a march should not be allowed to go down the Garvaghy Road.

Deputy Máire Devine

Time up. He has nothing to say.

The Taoiseach

----which could impede a resolution of this, which would mean no marching and no parades down the Garvaghy Road, because nobody wants them.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

Absolute rubbish.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

In the last election, Fianna Fáil was crystal-clear that if it was returned to government, pensions would increase by at least €12 per week every year. It is in the party's manifesto in black and white. The Government broke its promise to pensioners in last year's budget and did so again this year. The additional €10 announced yesterday does not even cover the cost of inflation. As if the broken promise was not enough, the Government spent the past few weeks cynically trying to manipulate pensioners, briefing to the media that pensions would increase by €7.50 weekly. The Government did not care about the huge anxiety and stress that this would cause. It just wanted to make the €10 increase sound generous by comparison. Nobody is falling for the Government's deeply obnoxious spin.

If the Taoiseach had turned on the radio this morning, he would have heard older people living alone who are furious. Eighty-year-old Noel rang into "Today with David McCullagh" earlier. He described how when his wife died, his household income dropped by half. Older people who are heartbroken by the loss of their loved one should not face financial stress. Noel described the €3 increase in the living alone allowance as a joke. I ask the Taoiseach to not insult the intelligence of pensioners by trying to tell them otherwise. Three euro would not even buy a cup of tea in a café. It would just about cover the cost of a pound of butter in the supermarket. That is the level of support pensioners living alone have got from this Government: the equivalent of a butter voucher. The living alone allowance has not been increased for five years. After all of that time, when costs across the country have soared by 30%, the Government increases the payment by a miserly €3.

Eighty-five-year-old Colm told Ireland AM yesterday about how he feels the cold and goes to bed at 8.30 p.m. to stay warm. Older people like Colm, who have worked hard all their life, should not be living in fear of rising prices. They should not be going to bed early because they cannot afford to heat their homes. That is the reality for many older people in Ireland. It is a shameful indictment of the Government. There was a time when Fianna Fáil had the backs of older people and when it stood up for men and women who worked so hard to build this country but those days are gone because pensioners have been bitterly betrayed by the Government in its budget. How can the Taoiseach justify such a small increase in the living alone allowance? Why did the Government break its promise to pensioners again?

The Taoiseach

Fianna Fáil does have the back of pensioners and always will, and our coalition colleagues likewise. The Government has increased pensions by €10 per week. We have a commitment to reach €350 weekly by the end of the term of this Government and we will fulfil that commitment. We cannot look at any payment in isolation, as the Deputy has done with the living alone allowance. It has to be looked at in the context of the pension increase and the permanent increase in the fuel allowance. For many people, this will result in about an €18 increase, to try to help them to get through what is a very difficult period. We have also reduced the impact of carbon tax on heating oil, for example, which will benefit elderly people in particular. Across the budget and particularly regarding social protection, we have provided for people and older people in particular. We are looking at an increase of €2 billion in the social protection budget this year. We will be up at over €31 billion on social welfare. That reflects huge increases over the past four to five years. The bulk of that is on pensions, disability, invalidity and so on. The cost-of-disability payment made yesterday is a permanent breakthrough because it is additional to existing payments. It is not a once-off; it is there permanently. The next issue is working with the organisations as to how best we design how that gets paid into the future. That is not insignificant.

Back in 2017, the living alone allowance was €9. It is now €25 as a result of the increase. We are going to progressively increase that. It will cost €300 million plus in 2027. The period for keeping a deceased person's pension will increase from six weeks to ten weeks to try to help people who are bereaved. We are also potentially increasing the number of single pensioners eligible for the fuel allowance by 10,000 with changes to the means test.

We have also significantly expanded the carer's allowance more generally in terms of the income disregard, with a huge increase of 80%. Two very big decisions have been taken in the two budgets we have had. One was on the carers and the cost-of-disability payment will be a very significant decision. It has been talked about for decades and now for the first time ever, we have a cost-of-disability payment.

The pensions are above the rate of inflation with the €10 increase last year and this year, as well as other supports that we have provided in other areas.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

The Taoiseach should listen back to Noel on "Today with David McCullagh" and hear exactly what he had to say about living alone allowance. He was not speaking just for himself but for countless pensioners living alone across the country who feel the badly let down by the Government. The Taoiseach has not answered my question as to why pensioners were promised in the Fianna Fáil manifesto in black and white, a increase €12 a week every year if the party was returned to government? The Government broke the promise last year and it has broken this year. Why was that promise given to pensioners? Why have they been let down? Why can they not rely on what Fianna Fáil promised them? Why has the Government broken that? Why is the Government not keeping its word to pensioners? Inflation has increased since the election. The cost of living has increased since the election. If anything, they need more than €12 weekly, such as the €15 we proposed. Why was that promise broken?

The Taoiseach

The Deputy's attitude is spend, spend, spend. He does not care about the economy. He does not care about the resources that we need to allocate to social protection. An increase in the social protection budget of €2 billion is quite substantial. The €10 pension increase is above the rate of inflation.

Deputy Gary Gannon

It is not.

The Taoiseach

We have a clear commitment in the programme for Government on pensions that we will fulfil over the lifetime of the Government. This is the second budget of five that we will deliver in this House.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

The Government said €12 in every budget.

The Taoiseach

We are in government with two other groups, Fine Gael and with the group of Independents.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

Is it their fault or Fine Gael's fault?

Deputy Ged Nash

It is Fine Gael's fault.

The Taoiseach

We have made a commitment on pensions that we are going to fulfil. Because of the situation in Iran, we extended payments last year. We have responded in an agile way to try to help people get through what is a very significant pressure point on families because of external international factors such as war and conflict.

We cannot look at one element of social protection in isolation-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Thank you, Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach

-----as Deputy O'Callaghan was endeavouring to do.

An Ceann Comhairle

I call Deputy Bacik.

The Taoiseach

We have to look at it in the overall context of what we have done in the two budgets-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Time is up, thank you, Taoiseach. I call Deputy Bacik.

The Taoiseach

-----covering pensions, covering disability-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Bacik, on your feet, please.

The Taoiseach

-----covering the carer's situation-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Time is up. Deputy Bacik, on your feet, please.

The Taoiseach

-----which has dramatically improved-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Taoiseach, time is up. Thank you very much.

The Taoiseach

----- but which the Deputy is ignoring because of the fact that it represents a dramatic improvement.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Bacik-----

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

The Taoiseach is ignoring his promises.

An Ceann Comhairle

If Members do not stand when I call their name, I am afraid we are going to have to penalise the clock.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

Yesterday, as it lashed rain, the Ministers for Finance and public expenditure dropped their budget for next year. We might call it a pathetic fallacy that it was pouring rain as the Government's plans were revealed. Indeed, the word "pathetic" is appropriate in many ways because the money the Government says will go back into people's pockets could barely buy a chocolate bar a week in reality. It is a KitKat budget from a TikTok Tánaiste.

Deputy Colm Brophy

Did the Deputy work that one up herself?

Deputy Dara Calleary

Did Deputy Nash write that for Deputy Bacik?

Deputy Timmy Dooley

The alliteration.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

In seeking to please everybody, the Government has ended up pleasing nobody, especially not the Minister for missing culture cards, Patrick O'Donovan.

In seriousness, this underwhelming budget has failed many: the PAYE workers the Government forgot last year; the public sector workers still left without any pay deal; the commuters facing a 15% increase in public transport fares; and renters facing eviction into homelessness. What the Government produced will come as cold comfort to workers like Martina, who contacted me today to ask how the Government could think that €4 a week was helping her, a worker who earned €33,500 per annum and who got up to work. She says that everything has gone up hugely and asks what the likes of her are to do this winter. For people like Martina, the Government has not made it any cheaper to heat her home or to commute to work or school. It has put a pittance on the budget for Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, retrofits and taken only €43 off the €1,500 cost of a home heating oil refill. The freezing of funding for active travel means that in real terms the Government has slashed budgets for walking and cycling measures.

With this week's budget, the Government had a choice. We know that geopolitical circumstances are challenging, particularly thanks to Trump's war on Iran, but Ireland is a country with unique opportunities. We have booming corporation taxes, an abundance of wind off our coasts and a talented, educated population. This means that the Government could have invested to lower bills, decarbonise the economy and improve living standards for all. It could have imposed a windfall tax on the companies and data centres that were profiteering during this energy crisis. It could have invested heavily in renewables and a retrofitting revolution to bring down household bills and curb carbon emissions. It could have provided a targeted energy credit to the half a million households already in arrears on their energy bills. The Labour Party had proposed all of these measures. Instead, struggling households will pay through the nose to heat their homes this winter and they will pay again when the Government's failure to decarbonise leaves them footing the bill for fines levied on us when we miss our climate targets.

Yesterday's budget was pathetic and the Taoiseach owes people an explanation. Why is the Government spending more than €200 million on capital gains tax cuts for the wealthiest when hundreds of thousands are in arrears on energy bills? Why did the Government choose not to impose a windfall tax on the energy corporations and data centres enriching themselves with the misery of people who cannot heat their homes? Why did the Government not introduce targeted energy credits for struggling households, as the Labour Party had asked?

The Taoiseach

I disagree fundamentally with Deputy Bacik's analysis of the budget. She is hardly blaming us for the rain, is she? It is melodramatic to say that, as it lashed down last evening, we dropped the budget.

The budget is quite substantial. Deputy Bacik knows that one of the significant features of the Irish taxation system, which has been acknowledged by the OECD and others, is that workers tend to go on the highest rate of tax at a relatively low income level. We addressed this in yesterday's budget through moving the band to €46,500. I take it that Deputy Bacik is in favour of that. Will she please articulate whether she is or is not?

In addition to that, we also introduced a tax credit of approximately €250, in terms of two tax credits of €125 each. In terms of public service pay, which Deputy Bacik referenced, we have provided €1.2 billion for 2027. By any objective metric, both of these measures combined form a basis for entering into negotiations on a new public service pay deal. In my view, there is no basis for industrial action or for disrupting people in education, health or anything else when that platform is there as a basis for negotiation on a new pay agreement. We will negotiate in good faith, like we did for the last number of pay agreements. We have also expanded the public service quite significantly over the last five to six years.

One cannot look at the budget in isolation. Over the last five years, we have increased the number of social houses by 59,560. That is a massive change since 2020. In 2025, 9,000 social houses were built. This year, the figure will be over 10,000 and we are budgeting for 11,000. If we look at the ten years to 2020, there has been a sea change in terms of the Government getting back into building social housing, which is taking pressure off private housing. We are also building affordable housing for people. The number of drawdowns by first-time buyers has been significantly higher over the last five years because of our housing interventions. It is unprecedented. That is still a big focus of the Government. This year, €20 billion will be spent on infrastructure through capital allocation because we took a decision last year to focus on infrastructure and to focus on housing and other parts of the economy.

We will deliver five budgets, not just one. People cannot look at any one in isolation. That is the context here. Workers do benefit significantly. If we had not taken the measures that we did, workers would have certainly been much worse off. No one can argue this in terms of disability, with the cost-of-disability payment and other measures. In terms of childcare, we now have a clear pathway to get down to the €200 a month cost of childcare over the next number of budgets.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

The Taoiseach keeps saying that this is one of a series of budgets and he keeps asking people to wait, but that is just not good enough for households that are struggling now. The Taoiseach asked about Labour policy. Labour has consistently called for the indexation of tax bands, as the Taoiseach knows, and as we did in our alternative budget this year.

The Taoiseach says that the Government is ready to engage on public sector pay. Why does the Minister, Deputy Chambers, not simply give Kevin Callinan or any union leader a call? Why does the Government not engage to avert industrial action?

The Taoiseach spoke about the Government's interventions on housing, but in this budget, its signature housing intervention will simply add €5,000 to the cost of a house. It is an inflationary measure.

Deputies

Hear, hear.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

Instead, the Government could have taken radical action and adopted sustainable solutions. For example, in our budget, Labour proposed that the State should bulk buy targeted, free, plug-in solar units to lower bills for those most in need, a practical and tangible measure that had been taken in Germany. That is the sort of intervention that could have helped to lower household bills and meet our climate targets. Instead in this budget, we have seen no ambition, no urgency and no effective action-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Thank you, Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

-----either to reduce bills or to curb climate change.

The Taoiseach

The Deputy is wrong there. The Minister, Darragh O'Brien, has, since last February, made very significant efforts on simplifying the operation of the grant schemes for retrofitting solar and so forth. In fact, because of our efforts over the last four to five years - the previous Minister, Eamon Ryan, did good work here - over 290,000 homes have now been retrofitted. Since the Minister, Darragh O'Brien, simplified and enhanced the grants, there have been 100,000 applications. I agree with Deputy Bacik that the most effective way to permanently reduce the cost of energy is to assist people to retrofit, to insulate and to install solar. With this budget, the Minister will have up to €800 million to spend next year on these measures for households, farmers and businesses. We must keep our focus on that. It is a far better way of getting an outturn in terms of some of the proposals that have been put forward.

Deputy Charles Ward

Buncrana swimming pool closed in April 2015. This was meant to be for temporary renovation works but it has never reopened. It is now 11 years later and the people of Buncrana and Inishowen have no swimming pool or leisure centre in the second largest town in Donegal. That is a clear example of Donegal being the forgotten county yet again. The population of 40,000 people on the Inishowen Peninsula need a leisure centre but it has been closed for 11 years. Some of the largest schools in Donegal are on the Inishowen Peninsula and the children there have to travel to Derry to avail of a swimming pool, which is a ridiculous situation. Consider the senior citizens of Inishowen, who at one time used the Buncrana leisure centre but have been unable to do so for the past 11 years because it has been closed. Some of them are no longer with us.

A leisure centre is a massive part of a community, yet Inishowen does not have one. That is simply wrong.

I understand that €2 million is being allocated to the project’s detailed design phase, which will go to tender, and that is welcome. My concern, though, is regarding the co-funding element and Donegal County Council having to raise commercial rates over a four-year period by up to 21% when businesses in Donegal are already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis. Even then, that will not be enough for the swimming pool because we cannot know the projected cost of the build, given that inflation is currently increasing.

In May 2022, we were given the cost of the build as €7.7 million. Donegal County Council needed to co-fund €3.9 million of this amount, but it was revised again in May to €12.5 million, with Donegal County Council having to fund over €5 million of this total. This will continue because the project needs to rise now. If we do not get this done, it will become too expensive. There has been a 50% rise in four years.

Donegal County Council is in a unique position where it is at a disadvantage. It is in the middle of a defective concrete crisis that it is trying to get through. It has 2,400 of its own housing stock affected, as well as its own public buildings. The people of Inishowen need good news and delivery. There has been a sitting Minister of State with responsibility for sport over there for the last two years, and yesterday €22 million was provided in the budget for the Ryder Cup. Money is also being provided for the 2028 European Championship, but there is nothing in the budget for the swimming pool in Buncrana.

Donegal County Council is in a dilemma, therefore, where it has to co-fund an element of this project but it does not know what it is going to cost. It could need between 20% and 30% co-funding. We need to make sure that this comes to pass because the co-funding model does not work in this case. Will the Taoiseach intervene and help us get a leisure centre in Buncrana?

The Taoiseach

The bottom line here is that the Minister of State, Charlie McConalogue, has been very committed to this project. As the Deputy knows, he allocated €2 million to Donegal County Council, which I think the Deputy should have acknowledged-----

Deputy Charles Ward

I did.

The Taoiseach

Okay. That was to ensure that we would have a complete detailed design for the project. Donegal County Council estimates that it will have that in quarter 1 of 2027. Some €3.9 million had originally been allocated, I think, to the project, which would bring that to about €5.9 million. However, every county council has to match up to 30% for a large-scale sports infrastructure allocation. That is not new, and it is not specific to Donegal.

I do not think the Deputy should take a cheap shot at the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup is a national event. It will reflect Ireland.

Deputy Niall Collins

It is global.

The Taoiseach

I know it is global. The Limerick man has gone global now.

Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran

The Deputy-----

The Taoiseach

That is certainly how Limerick looks at it. No, he is right.

Deputy Dara Calleary

He is-----

The Taoiseach

The point I am trying to make is that it is something from which not just Limerick, but the entire nation, will benefit, I think, through the profile of the country during the Ryder Cup, tourism and so on. The mid-west will benefit maybe more than others. The point I am trying to make is that it is a big global event and a good thing for the country. All the analysis by the sport officials of the Department indicates that it will yield a lot more for the country.

The large-scale sport infrastructure fund is where this is at, really, in terms of getting these facilities - the swimming pool and leisure centre - off the ground, and we will work to deliver this, but we cannot pick and choose and say that one local authority has to provide matching funding and another does not. I do not think that is feasible. We have been supporting the council in respect of mica and the challenges it has had in that regard.

By the way, we have invested a lot in Donegal right across the board as a Government. We will continue to invest in Donegal from the enterprise side in the creation of jobs and through the shared island initiative and health, particularly by linking North and South in respect of health and other measures that are quite impactful on the quality of life of people. This is particularly the case for people in Inishowen. I have been there, and at the Altnagelvin hospital, and I am aware of how people benefit directly from our investment in the cancer centre and the cardiovascular centre there. It is likewise with our investment in Letterkenny. We have more to do, gan dabht, but we will do it.

Deputy Charles Ward

After 11 years, there is no leisure centre and 40,000 people are without a basic facility. What I am saying to the Taoiseach is that this Buncrana leisure centre is going to become more expensive every year it is not built. We need to do something right now to make sure this can be delivered. I understand what the Taoiseach is saying, but the co-funding model is putting Donegal County Council under immense pressure. It is dealing with a humanitarian crisis and trying to deliver a defective concrete blocks scheme. Its own housing stock is affected.

I am telling the Taoiseach that we have to put something in place. We need to see what a plan looks like and to find a way. I do not care who cuts the ribbon. If Charlie McConalogue is there cutting the ribbon, I will clap and I will be so glad that this leisure centre has been delivered in Buncrana. Right now, however, there is a question mark over when we are going to get this done. If we do not stand up and say honestly that it is not going to be delivered unless something extraordinary is done to help, we will not get it done. It is not going to take much. Under the co-funding model, Donegal County Council is going to be substantially short. It will need help. Can the Government help?

The Taoiseach

The Deputy knows that this project has now gone to the design stage. The county council hopes to be back in quarter 1 with a completed detailed design. That is a very significant step forward. We will be reopening a new large-scale sport infrastructure fund. The Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, has special responsibility for sport. We are committed to this project, but the framework that applies to all local authorities will apply equally to Donegal.

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• Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions