Micheál Martin

The Minister and the Department have engaged with the Law Society. I am concerned because I think people should not be withdrawing their services. I ask those who are doing so to rethink and reflect, and to do what in my view is their obligation, which is to represent people in court. What was going on in many cases was not acceptable either in terms of multiple adjournments and so on.

The fee structure needed to be reviewed and reformed.

First of all, I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this issue. He has been a consistently strong advocate for the Galway city ring road. I accept his point that there has to be a similar intensity in terms of getting this project under way as there is in terms of the metro because this is choking Galway. It is extremely difficult for people living in the Galway area to get from A to B. It also has …

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this issue. It is an important issue. This year has seen very high levels of applications for this scheme, extending well beyond the €10 million per year allocation. It is €50 million from 2023 to 2027. All possible options are now being examined by the Department in respect of the high numbers that have applied. Decisions will be made shortly to allow farmers t…

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising the issue. He raised a number of important points. I will seek to convene a meeting with the CEO of Uisce Éireann and the Deputies for the area. I will also examine the Deputy's issue around Oireachtas committee structures and things like that. That is a fair issue. I am not suggesting that every semi-State body should be subject to parliamentary questions because…

I will talk to the Minister. I did not get the final point the Deputy made. The issue is that about 93% of all eligible providers have signed up to the current core funding scheme. Some are leaving in certain areas, as was articulated yesterday-----

I will engage with the Minister for children on this and ask her to talk to the Deputy in respect of the points he made. Our aim is to try to get the fees down and we have made a lot of progress in the last number of years in doing that. I hope that people are not exiting in certain areas because they feel they can get better prices on the market as opposed to the constraints that the core funding…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 14, inclusive, together. I had a bilateral meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, on 10 March at which we discussed plans and priorities for Ireland's EU Presidency, international issues, including the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine, and bilateral relations, which are excellent. My visit to Madrid was the first in a series of visits…

I should have congratulated them.

I thank all the Deputies for their comments. At the outset, I congratulate Spain on an emphatic win last evening against France, our nearest neighbour in the European Union. I attended the French Embassy last evening and wished them the best. Thankfully there was not a Spanish function afterwards but they did spectacularly well and we eagerly look forward to the final. Deputy Daly raised the issu…

Exactly, but we can always learn. I am always open to learning. Every day is a new day. On the electricity charge, the issue there was the preponderance of renewables in Spain and on the Iberian Peninsula which they did during the Covid crisis because they felt gas was completely distorting their price, given the fact that they were overwhelmingly renewable. They got a carve-out from gas being th…

I did not realise there were five more. In response to Deputy Whitmore, there will be no retreating or withdrawal from climate change during our Presidency. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is very committed to this. He will be taking a leadership role in respect of Europe's presentation at COP. There have been different perspectives across the European Union. People in some member states want to re…

He has raised it with great consistency. I have raised it with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, who keeps telling me the Department is on the case. There are some issues in respect of making sure of safety and so on in houses. I will check that with Bord Gáis. The Deputy was saying it was misleading. I do not think Bord Gáis would deliberate mislead but I will point out the point he has made to it. …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 30, inclusive, together. This will be a long answer because there is one task group and one futures group. In May 2024, the Government appointed a task force to take a holistic view of the measures required to rejuvenate Dublin city centre, north and south, making it a more thriving, attractive, and safe cityscape, and a desirable location to live, work, do …

Can I talk about Cork at all? Give me one minute on Cork.

Give me one minute on Cork.

A dedicated body, to be known as The Cork City Futures Group, will work to unlock the city’s full economic, cultural and academic potential, alongside further investment, innovation and infrastructure. I think people are familiar with the terms of reference. The group is comprised of members representing academia, business, An Garda Síochána, the arts and culture sector, tourism, transport and the…

Who?

Deputy Séamus McGrath raised the issue of the need for a strategic integration transport office in Cork. There are multi-billion euro projects on the go at the moment. The biggest one is the docklands. On 23 June, the Government approved a preliminary business case for the Cork city docklands enabling an infrastructure investment programme. That was reviewed by the major projects advisory group in…

Deputy Whitmore has now left the Chamber. I understand she probably has another committee to go to. I take her point on antisocial behaviour on buses, particularly Dublin Bus. That is a serious issue. We do not want situations where people are afraid to go on a bus, or are discouraged from doing so, because of antisocial behaviour. I will talk to the Minister for Transport in respect of where we a…

The social media companies as well, absolutely. Deputy Heneghan referred to the living city initiative. This initiative, in the context of the changes that have been made to it, is a game-changer. The old living city initiative seemed to be something that civil servants in a certain Department created to make sure that it would not have any impact. They succeeded, because it did not have an impac…

What the Deputy has described is horrific for Sandra - I did not get her surname - and her son Jayden. It is something that we are going to deal with very robustly. The legislation in terms of Grace’s law was enacted on 3 April. We are now in the middle of July. I know the Garda Commissioner is speaking to the Oireachtas committee as well. There has been very proactive seizure of scramblers and, …

As I said, vehicles are being pursued on an ongoing basis. This idea that there is not pursuit-----

I am talking about generally. The idea that gardaí do not pursue criminals or activities is wrong. Yes, there have been cases, unfortunately, taken against gardaí. That is why the Ministers are bringing in additional legislation to protect gardaí while in pursuit. Even with that legislation, we all know judgment has to applied in given situations because pursuits are dangerous in themselves. It co…

Sorry, I-----