Micheál Martin

The second point I will make about the specifics is that the world has changed dramatically since 2013. Russia, the United States and China have the veto on Irish foreign policy - well, not foreign policy.

I ask the Deputy to let me finish. Not on foreign policy but on any decision we would make to send Irish troops abroad. It is quite interesting that a number of Sinn Féin Deputies are asking that we send the Irish Naval Service out to international waters in the Middle East. That would breach the triple lock.

Russia should not have a veto over Ireland's decisions to participate in peacekeeping. We are peacekeepers. We have always been peacekeepers. That is what we want to be in the future. That is our commitment.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on health last met on 17 July and is due to meet again soon. The committee oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to health, receives detailed reports on identified policy areas and considers health reforms including Sláintecare, the reform of public health and health system p…

I thank the ambassador for her work over the past number of years. We enjoyed our engagement with her and I really appreciate that. Deputy McAuliffe raised the issue of Beaumont Hospital. There are four major projects under way there. The national development plan has allocated very substantial funding to the Department of Health and the HSE for the realisation of those projects. The key is to ke…

I have the reply to Deputy Cullinane somewhere.

I apologise. They relate to mental health, early intervention and Jigsaw. I will talk to the Minister. There has been a significant growth in Jigsaw services across the country. I will talk to the Minister in respect of Waterford. I agree with the sentiments the Deputy has articulated. Jigsaw is a very good organisation. It has got a lot of good State support in recent years. A decision has been …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 20, inclusive, together. Ireland has accepted challenging emissions reduction targets at EU and national levels. Our programme for Government has reaffirmed the Government's determination that Ireland will play its full part in tackling what is a global issue. We are seeing encouraging signs. Ireland's emissions have been falling for the last three years, a…

Deputy Cleere was the first into the fray, regarding flood schemes in Kilkenny. He gave a very articulate presentation of the challenges and complexities of flood schemes. They take a lot of time and consultation. Given the frequency and ferocity of storms today, we need to move faster with some of these schemes, because the devastation of a flood on a household or on a town, or on shops and busin…

I was up late last night preparing for the third grouping after watching the presidential debate.

It is fine.

I watched it and then I worked on the parliamentary questions.

At the outset, I want to take the opportunity to offer my deepest condolences to Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family and his parents, Gillian and Stephen. No words of condolence or consolation to Harvey's parents are enough. It is an extraordinarily traumatic thing to happen to any family, but in these circumstances even more traumatic in terms of the experiences the family and Harvey had with the h…

I am not applying my reply to the two cases the Deputy mentioned, for example. There is a fundamental question we have all faced if we are honest, whereby people come to us and say that as a parent they believe their child should get a particular intervention or surgery. If a doctor or clinician does not believe that is appropriate at that time or believes that the outcomes may not be optimal at t…

I appreciate the sincerity of the issues the Deputy has raised in respect of the challenges facing the country. Fundamentally, I make the point to the Deputy that since 2019 employment has grown in this country by 506,000 people. That is 506,000 people over five years. We have a strong and resilient economy and the most effective intervention in terms of poverty or living standards is work and job…

I have indicated that we are going to do that. I said to the Deputy, prior to the summer recess, that we would target our resources as opposed to universal allocations.

Through our social protection frameworks, we have mechanisms that will enable us to do that in terms of the various payments and so on that we can increase, but we will prioritise in respect of the child poverty question. We will prioritise in terms of disability and in terms of the additional costs that families with people who are disabled have to incur, and we will seek to alleviate that. We ar…

First, I take the opportunity to welcome you back, Deputy, and I am looking forward to our continued engagements. I think we both share a love of west Cork and the people of west Cork, as well as their representatives in terms of quality, calibre and so forth. I am going to miss Deputy Cian O’Callaghan. I thank him for his forensic engagement over the last while. I also thank Deputy Cairns for he…

First of all, Deputy Cairns's critique of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled Persons is wrong. There was significant participation of people with disabilities in the formulation, delivery and announcement of that strategy. They enthusiastically participated in that. Structures have been created to follow through on it. That is a kind of a cynical, poor response by the Deputy to what w…

I am just saying to the Deputy-----

I met with the people at the launch of the strategy. I have created a disability unit in my Department to drive change. We will do it over the lifetime of this Government.

It is right across the board. In terms of cost of living, it is not that simple and the Deputy knows that. However, there will be measures in the budget to help families with disabilities in terms of income supports. There will be measures in the budget in that respect.

We are not creating a free-for-all in terms of the rental market more generally. We are creating a national rent pressure zone, ultimately including the entire country. The bottom line is that we need more supply of houses. We need a significant and substantial increase in the supply of housing. That is the key. Without additional supply we will have a very challenging rental market. The Deputy in…

We are going to continue with that agenda.

No, I disagree with that.