Micheál Martin

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very sad and challenging situation for Arklow and those working in the Merck Life Sciences plant. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, and ensure the IDA and Enterprise Ireland respond - what normally happens now is that they do respond - and that each employee is engaged with in terms of their own individual choices regarding redeployment or al…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. It has to be done properly and right. It has to be done on a phased basis. I think the Deputy was saying the regulations are nearly ready.

The Deputy was also referring to the Department. I would prefer that they get it right. There will be a lot of people affected by this too, and we have to be conscious of that. The best way to do it is to phase it in in an orderly manner so that people know and there is no cliff edge. Inevitably there will have to be, but it has to be done properly. Also, the capacity must be there to do it. As th…

Without question, tá fadhb ann ó thaobh daoine gan dídean de. Níl aon dabht faoi sin. It is a much more complex situation than it would have been five or ten years ago. There are far wider pressures on emergency accommodation today than there were. I do not want to go into all of the details but that is clear. It is a factor. We worked with Cork Simon and other homeless agencies in respect of Hous…

We have.

I have spoken to the various homeless agencies and they would acknowledge that the nature and composition of those seeking emergency accommodation is very different now. What the Minister is doing immediately is securing additional resources for families to make sure they are accelerated out of emergency accommodation as quickly as possible.

The events of last evening are extremely serious and very grave. As the Deputy quite rightly said, our thoughts are about the well-being and welfare of the child involved and with the entire family. It is the fundamental duty of the State to protect the children of the State. Irrespective of the complexity, acuity or severity of any particular case, that duty has to be fulfilled and on this occasi…

I agree that there needs to be a specific review of this case, but we are not ruling out a wider review of all aspects of how we protect children. We use language like "children in care". That is used in a formal legal sense where a child is in care. However, this child was not necessarily in statutory care because there is an age limit in terms of that. These are important points because the Act …

Clearly, there has been failure of the State's obligation to protect this child.

The execution of a deportation order very much depends on the country involved, the potential country involved or the country alleged to be involved, that is, the country of origin, being in a position to receive a person. There can be a variety of reasons as to why that is not possible.

May I first of all say that I think the CSO should be the standard statistical body that we should adhere to for any analysis and comment, and pin those on it, because there are all sorts of groups coming forward every now and again with indeterminate statistics? There is no question but that inflation has been a very significant issue over the last number of years. In fact, it was close to 10% fo…

We decided to invest in capital in terms of more roads, more schools, more public transport and better rail services. That is what we are doing right across the board. In terms of disability and child poverty measures, we have significantly enhanced the allocation to those respective areas.

We need to get prices down sustainably over the next number of years. That is the key target. Some of the Opposition's proposals would have added 2% to the inflation rate, which would have exacerbated the problem for many families out there. The International Monetary Fund, IMF, is forecasting that among the euro area, Ireland will have the third lowest inflation rate between 2025 and 2026 at 1.7%…

First of all, I appreciate the Deputy raising what is a serious issue, without question. I read part of that report yesterday. I cannot say I was aware of that as Taoiseach back then but there was a lot happening. The Deputy has just asked me right now. Having looked at the report yesterday, obviously the Garda must have put this individual forward for the Scott medal of bravery in respect of the …

I am not justifying what happened. I have made that clear. Certainly, in her time in government, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, did a lot of work as Minister for Justice in respect of domestic violence and gender-based violence. We now have the establishment of Cuan and the new strategy, which I strongly supported as chair of an interdepartmental Cabinet subcommittee, as Taoiseach at the time. The …

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue in a responsible and fair way. I acknowledge that. People are worried and anxious. The Deputy made a fair point at the outset that he is not criticising migration generally or the fact that we now have a country and society that have evolved, with many people of different ethnic origins living in the State who are as Irish as sure as the next man is. We nee…

Sorry, it is about 38%. There can be different factors responsible for that. We need fast, firm procedures in managing the migration issue. That has to be consistent and sustained. This Government took the decision to bring all this back within the Department of justice, which was the correct decision, in my view, and progress has been seen in that respect. I agree that there would be no harm at a…

All those seeking asylum are fingerprinted when they come into the country under the Eurodac system. In 2024, 67% of completed appeals were rejected, and so far in 2025, more than 80% of applications have been rejected at first instance. I accept the Deputy's point if people are here. It is neither fair to the person nor to the country if this system is allowed to drag out for years and years. Th…

We did take very significant measures in the budget to support families, particularly working families and families on low incomes. The Deputy has failed to acknowledge that in all her commentary. The child support payment had a permanent increase of over €16 for those over 12 and a permanent increase of €8 for children under 12. The extension of the fuel allowance to the working family payment me…

That is a fact. That is from the Central Bank-----

By any objective yardstick, one would have to acknowledge that the last five years has seen extraordinary, exponential growth in the provision of social housing in this country compared with any decade going back to the seventies. A total of 50,684 social homes have been added to the social housing stock between July 2020 and quarter 2 of 2025, more than 13,700 homes were brought back into use und…

The Minister for Social Protection is examining the proposal and will work with a range of groups and organisations in respect of it. The free travel scheme, more generally, has expanded very significantly since its conception and has very wide coverage. The Government is not opposed to this but the Government wants to work through the implications.

From an overall perspective, the allocation and commitment in terms of the defective blocks scheme is unprecedented in scale and cost to the State in respect of that. My understanding is there is further legislation on the way in respect of defective apartments, so I will talk to the Minister again in respect of the issue that the Deputy has raised.

The recent budget did provide significant supports for quite a number of sectors in the agricultural industry. Obviously, there are still concerns in relation to tillage and I will take on board what the Deputy has said in respect of the pig industry, although I was in north Cork recently and met with a number of people and it was not quite raised with me on that occasion. Certainly, I will ask th…

I thank the Deputy very much for raising what is an important issue, particularly in terms of smaller schools and smaller denominational schools of particular churches. The late Martin Mansergh was actually very attentive to the needs of smaller schools in rural Ireland and the Border areas, in particular those that were Protestant or Presbyterian, and where the numbers were low in terms of refurb…