Cathal Crowe
Question:5. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Taoiseach the main policy achievements of his Department since 22 January 2025. [23085/26]
View answerWednesday, 25 March 2026
Questions (5)
Written answers
Since January 2025, the Department of the Taoiseach has been working across Government, including through the system of Cabinet Committees and associated Senior Officials' Groups, to progress the implementation of policy objectives in the Programme for Government.
Achievements to date include:
• Introducing temporary, targeted measures to reduce fuel prices for households and businesses, with additional supports for key sectors of the Irish economy, in response to the increased financial pressure on households and businesses arising from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. These measures include temporary reductions to the Mineral Oil Tax, an increase in the maximum repayment allowable under the Diesel Rebate Scheme, a reduction in the NORA levy, and a four-week extension to the fuel allowance season, benefiting 470,000 households in receipt of the fuel allowance.
• Finalising and commencing implementation of the new National Housing Plan, ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities: An Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness, 2025-2030’, which aims to deliver 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030; support of working groups related to new Housing Plan.
• Supporting the preparation and implementation of Accelerating Infrastructure, the report and action plan to help drive the efficient delivery of infrastructure across Ireland, and associated sectoral infrastructure plans.
• Establishing a stand-alone Cabinet Committee on Disability and a Disability Unit within the Department of the Taoiseach, to oversee cross-government collaboration to improve the lives of disabled people, and the launch, in September 2025, of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. The first meeting of the Delivery and Monitoring Committee for this Strategy took place on 8 December 2025, and the Strategy’s First Programme Plan of Action, covering 2025 and 2026, has been published.
• Implementing the Child Poverty and Well Being Programme Office’s Programme Plan to reduce child poverty and promote well being, including: developing a dashboard of indicators to accompany the Government’s new ambitious Child Poverty Target; developing the new Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan for publication in Q2 2026; and preparing the Office’s second Programme Plan, informed by engagement with children and young people and by the annual Summit on Child Poverty and Well Being held in September.
• Establishing the Ministerial Council on National Security.
• Renewing and strengthening the British-Irish bilateral relationship, including delivering on the commitment to a series of annual UK-Ireland Summits; the second of which was hosted by Ireland in March 2026; and the British Irish Council Summit meetings, held in Northern Ireland in June and in Wales in December 2025.
• Progressing a new phase of the Shared Island Initiative, including allocations of over €100m from the Shared Island Fund to commence a range of new all-island programmes, working with the Executive and through the North South Ministerial Council, with the UK Government, and with Local Authority, Education and Civil Society partners across the island.
• Publishing a new National Digital and AI Strategy, Digital Ireland – Connecting our People, Securing our Future, in February 2026, setting out our ambition to 2030 to strengthen Ireland’s position as a digital leader and a global hub for applied AI innovation, building on our strengths to ensure Ireland's economy reaps the benefits of digital and AI for growth and competitiveness, and that we enhance our public services and empower our people to thrive in a digital society.
• Supporting the new Government Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity and implementing a series of pro-enterprise decisions in Budget 2026 to invest in Ireland’s enterprise base, support job creation, regional development, innovation, tourism and long-term competitiveness. This includes reducing the VAT rate for Food, Catering and Hairdressers to 9%, with effect from 1 July 2026; increasing R&D Tax Credits from 30% to 35%; enhancing the existing Capital Gains Tax Revised Entrepreneur Relief by increasing the lifetime limit on gains to which the relief applies, from €1 million to €1.5 million; increasing the National Minimum Wage by €0.65 per hour; extending SARP, the Special Assignee Relief Programme, and extending Relief on Foreign Earnings to the end of 2030 to assist indigenous exporting companies and their employees overseas.
• Engaging at EU and international level to pursue our foreign policy objectives and meet our international commitments, and engaging with EU leaders to advance high-level objectives in the Programme for Government, in particular economic and competitiveness issues; energy security; EU-UK relations; external relations including response to the situation in the Middle East; as well as continuing our strong, collective EU response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
• Planning and preparing for Ireland's Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2026 in close consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
• Supporting the Cabinet Committee on Climate Action, Environment, and Energy, which oversees implementation of Programme for Government commitments in relation to the environment, climate action, energy, and emergency planning, including meetings on severe weather/flooding preparedness, response and adaptation.
• Hosting a Government Industry Forum on Offshore Renewable Energy and subsequently establishing a Clearing House on Offshore Wind Energy to address identified impediments to the timely delivery of a vibrant offshore renewable energy sector.
• Monitoring the implementation of the Climate Action Plan which contains key measures to help Ireland transition to a zero-carbon economy and society, and supporting the Taoiseach’s attendance at the COP30 Leader’s Summit in Belém, Brazil.
• Supporting the Cabinet Committee on Health, which oversees the implementation of Programme for Government commitments in relation to health, health reforms including Sláintecare and public health, health system preparedness for future health threats, mental health and drugs policy.
• Implementing the Well-Being Framework for Ireland and driving its whole of Government integration in policy making and budgetary systems.
• Supporting the Cabinet Committee on Water Quality, which oversees the implementation of Programme for Government commitments in relation to the range of issues affecting Ireland’s water system, including securing an extension to the derogation for Ireland from certain aspects of the EU Nitrates Directive.
• Establishing the COVID-19 Evaluation to assess Ireland’s management and experience of the pandemic to learn for the future.
• Promoting and supporting civic engagement, including through the work of the National Economic and Social Development Office; the Labour Employer Economic Forum; and exchanging ideas on an agenda and working methods for a structured dialogue between Government and churches, philosophical and non-confessional bodies.
• Supporting the work of the North-East Inner City Initiative to deliver on their new Strategic Plan.
• Supporting implementation of the Dublin City Taskforce Report Capital City through the Roadmap for Delivery, published in June 2025.
• Advancing the Government’s Legislation Programme. Since this Government took office in 2025, 26 bills have been enacted and a further 26 Bills are at various stages in the Oireachtas.