Alan Kelly

I appreciate the Tánaiste’s reply but we need more certainty. This has gone on way too long. His Government needs to make a decision now to have a model 3 hospital. The idea of sending everybody through the UHL emergency room is downright bananas. It is crazy. It is criminal. We need to upgrade the model 2 hospitals in Nenagh and Ennis, 100%. However, a decision has to be made on the principle tha…

Agreed.

More than half of the submissions relating to a recent EU inquiry into the evaluation of whistleblower protections came from Ireland. There were 40 such submissions. This is concerning. The length of time - whatever the outcome - it is taking to process disclosures, the manner in which some of them are being dealt with and the toing and froing involved is not good for the State and it is certainly…

It is all a mirage.

I welcome this motion brought forward by the Social Democrats. It follows motions put before this House before. The Labour Party has raised this numerous times, particularly for young carers who are really discriminated against. If I may reach back into the annals, there was a Deputy, Willie Penrose, who raised this matter here for at least a decade if not longer. He argued that in real terms this…

I know the Minister, Deputy Calleary, ended by saying the Government will strive to reduce child poverty. What he should be saying is it will aim to eradicate child poverty. Not enough debates in here are about philosophy, but ultimately this is a debate about political philosophies. If you want to break that down into layman's language in relation to this issue, it is about whether we should be d…

This is just a transfer of a number of functions and also capital in relation to the purchase of accommodation in regard to provision of accommodation for IPAS. I would make an observation in relation to it. As referred to by Deputy Carthy earlier, we had interaction yesterday in the justice committee in regard to value for money in the purchase of properties, which will be seismic but over will c…

I did not ask the Minister to, in fairness.

I am glad to see the Minister of State back in here because we spoke about this in March so I am sure he is fully on top of it and has some good news for me. This issue is very personal for me. I have said here before that I fought for this. St. Conlon's Nursing Home was very personal for me. Many members of my family had their last days there. It provided an incredible service and the staff were …

The Minister of State is one of the more diligent Ministers of State when it comes to trying to be genuine in his answers. I have been asking parliamentary questions for months looking for a date for when this is to be opened. The Minister has not provided me with that and it is the Minister who is responsible, not the HSE. The Minister is answerable to this Dáil in this Chamber and has refused to…

So do I.

I hope the Minister of State is right about October.

This is good legislation and the Minister should be commended for it.

We will be supporting it 100%. I also compliment CAB, its officers and the people who work there. They do very sensitive and dangerous work and their anonymity is important going forward because these criminals and their organisations have long views. It is incredibly important that we protect the people who work for CAB. I want to acknowledge something that shows how politics works at times. CA…

I know the Taoiseach is going be very sad next week when my great county of Tipperary defeats, in fairness, his great county of Cork in the all-Ireland. I just want to condition him for that. I hope that sadness does not permeate elsewhere, particularly as the Government is doing the NDP and the summer economic statement. There has been a bit of conditioning coming from the Tánaiste and the Taoise…

You already have your car signs printed.

Humble. That is displayed everywhere.

What will be the structural reductions?

I recently met a lady in a supermarket on a fixed income with two adult dependants. She had forgotten her phone which had her loyalty card on it. Panic set in because she did not have it. After we sorted it all out, she told me she could not buy the same groceries on her fixed income as she could a year or two ago. She was quite upset and emotional about it. The CSO today said food and drink price…

Hear, hear.

I recently met MABS and was taken aback by the range of issues people had. I have listened attentively to what the Minister said today about cost-of-living measures. I acknowledge those actions. In the past three years, however, there have been a range of one-off cost-of-living measures in budgets, which have been welcomed. I want to get all the nonsense out of the way and ask definitively if the …

It is concerning how we got to this stage today where we are dealing with these motions in the manner in which we are dealing with them. Frankly, it is unacceptable that we are dealing with such important motions in this haphazard way. The fact one of the motions had to be withdrawn by the Minister at the last minute just goes to show how shoddily this issue is being dealt with. Why was this propo…

What was shown on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme - well done to those who made it - was disgraceful. We have many fine private nursing homes, but when we allow the development of a for-profit model for investors - there are large-scale investors in a large proportion of these nursing homes, as the Minister of State knows - that have borrowed money at low interest rates and there is no sectoral a…

I thank the Minister of State for being here but I have to start by saying the tradition of Topical Issues being dealt with by the appropriate Departments and Ministers needs to come back. It is not fair on the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin. She is not in that Department. It is a retrograde step that any time there are Topical Issues here, the chances of having a Minister from the Department ar…

I am aware of the group. I also have a degree of sympathy in the sense that I believe the previous Government, of which the Minister of State was not part, did very little on this. The new biomethane group was set up. However, I would like the Minister of State to answer the following. When will the regulatory framework be put in place? What are the timelines on it? She has not told us. Second, in…