Micheál Martin

I have to defer to the Minister. I will ask him to communicate with the Deputy directly in respect of the matter. I am always loath to give precise timelines on behalf of other Ministers but I will make sure that this is followed up because commitments have been given on it. We will make sure that it gets done.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is an important issue for people in the mid-west more generally. I acknowledge that the Deputy has acknowledged some progress in respect of developments in health services in the mid-west. He paid tribute to the chief executive officer and the team there at UHL regarding that progress, which was needed. We need to continue to work to enhance services, particular…

I have always been a strong advocate for investment in Nenagh, Ennis and Clonmel-----

-----which has benefited from significant investment, but that is in a different area from Nenagh and Ennis, which is part of the mid-west provision of services. The most recent 90-bed block was delivered on time. Along with the investment, we need constant reform as to how we provide services. There has been a lot of investment in health services in the past five years, which needs to be acknowl…

I thank the Deputy and commend him on the work he is doing on this issue. It is a particular focus for him. He identified it as a key priority for him, on his election to Dáil Éireann, and for inclusion in the programme for Government. The private wires Bill for which the Minister has received sanction from the Government is priority legislation. The intention is to publish a draft Bill in the com…

Private wires will allow for direct connection between generation and the customer where it is more efficient to do so than connecting to the national grid. Private wires will also provide an alternative connection mechanism from renewable projects to customers. As far as I am concerned, large-scale generation can be positive as well for SMEs. I will talk to the Minister about the aspects the Depu…

In the first instance, the Government has sanctioned legislation to ensure RTÉ comes under the aegis of the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. That will give the Oireachtas a specific mechanism to hold RTÉ to account regarding the types of expenditure the Deputy has just described. It is for RTÉ to account for that. The Government does not run RTÉ. We allocate fu…

The Tánaiste and I have met the Irish Thalidomide Association four times over the past eight months. All of the meetings were cordial and positive. We are anxious to get things moving. We have provided comprehensively and substantively in respect of issues relating to health needs for the entirety of the lives of people impacted by thalidomide and in terms of independent living and any supports th…

I outlined earlier in my comments to Deputy Bacik that the Government and Irish society have made significant progress. The target of 51% is very challenging, but we have made a hell of a lot of progress in onshore wind, which has been quite dramatic. In April, the third month in a row, onshore wind represented 50% of electricity generation here. Solar is really moving at pace now and, from all we…

Let us understand and acknowledge the challenges. Wind farms are objected to and are a source of huge issues across the length and breadth of the country. Solar farms are now becoming a significant issue that people are not happy with.

People are against gas generation stations as well-----

-----and the bottom line is we cannot switch on lights if we do not have more and more renewables. The consensus is not out there in relation to that in society more generally.

There is a challenge and a problem here in terms of the regulatory frameworks governing what is a new phenomenon of drones providing services like delivering coffee or whatever else to people in residential areas. I do not understand why people cannot just go to a café, socialise and so on or why people think a drone is necessary to deliver a cup of coffee or whatever. It is something I do not com…

-----and the Irish Aviation Authority need to come together on this. I have asked Ministers to work on it.

There are fundamental issues with the insourcing model as it evolved. We are talking about people working in tertiary public hospitals who are being paid already. There are issues of which we have to be very conscious in terms of making sure that we are not paying twice for the same procedures or services. There have to be clear lines of demarcation. We are always open to engaging with perspective…

I was almost wishing the leaving certificate upon us given the very tough, wet winter we had. I said that surely when the leaving certificate comes around we would get good weather. Lo and behold, we have scorching weather, which is unfortunate for the students involved. It seems to be the case every year that there is a burst of sunshine at this time. I hope it will create a good backdrop to what…

I would be a very enthusiastic supporter of what the Deputy has articulated in respect of more facilities. Local authorities have a key role in the zoning of land and the designation of lands. We were fortunate in Cork city over the years that successive city councils and city CEOs saw the value of land for playing pitches. I have always contrasted that with the Dublin experience, which I find, f…

Overall, funding is increasing in health and continues to increase dramatically and exponentially, certainly for the past five years.

The Limerick surgical hub is expected to be operational in quarter 4 of this year. Medical assessment units are extending services. Opening hours have been extended from 8 a.m. until midnight in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals. Overall, significant progress is being made in the HSE Mid West region on both waiting lists and waiting times. Compared to December 2021, the April 2026 total waiting list in H…

I am not aware of the specifics of that case. It seems a fairly unusual one in terms of the interaction of a potential wind farm with radar. Normally, the aviation authority has a role in housing, for example, close to an airport, which I would be familiar with. It is difficult to understand how things got to the stage they got to. An Coimisiún Pleanála has made its decision but I am not sure it w…

The Deputy should not be condemning himself so much. It is only 16 months that this Government has been in place. The idea that we are not getting to 50% because of the past 16 months is nonsense. The Deputy must know that. Policies take a lot of time to bed in and deliver. The last Government did a lot, including Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens. The Green Party does not have a monopoly on c…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know he has been advocating strongly on behalf of children and families in Cavan-Monaghan. Those counties have been facing some of the longest waits in the country for children's therapies. The root cause of that has been a chronic staffing deficit. At the Deputy's instigation, the Minister, Deputy Foley, visited the region recently and acknow…

First of all, there has been very significant investment in GP services, significant increases in recruitment and additional placements and positions in our third level colleges. Parallel with that, there has also been the expansion of pharmacy in its role in primary care, which should not be dismissed either. I would argue that a lot of investment under the various negotiations have occurred in …

I am going to come back to the Deputy on that. I will talk to the Minister in respect of that specific issue but the idea that there has not been investment or significant resources allocated to GPs needs to be questioned.

It is happening.