Micheál Martin

We extended the free fuel allowance for a month. Obviously, the Government, as a collective, will address this. Every party in government will have to work collectively to prioritise things for the budget in terms of having a targeted approach and how, in general, we alleviate the impact of the undoubted pressure that those in society who are most vulnerable are feeling as a result of the war. We …

I thank the Deputy very much. It is a great school. I was there many years ago in my capacity as Minister for Education and so forth. My understanding is that the Department of education is awaiting the submission of stage 2b material from Cork ETB in respect of this project. When that is received, it will be looked at from a technical and cost perspective. Obviously, as the Deputy said, there is …

The Minister is very committed to the surgical hub concept. The previous Minister, Stephen Donnelly, did a lot of work on that. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has engaged with the hospital, and the funding support will not be there for the surgical hub.

There has also been significant investment in the hospital, as the Deputy knows, and-----

The Minister has had regular engagement with the hospital because it needs two fundamental approaches. One is reform of the management of the hospital and how it is run, both of which have happened,. The second is investment, which is also happening. Funding of €47 million is involved. In any event, the new location in Raheen is a huge boost to the future of tertiary healthcare in Limerick.

The Deputy wants to axe €1.5 billion in revenue, and he has dismissed the social welfare dimension.

We have all always said that one third of it goes to fuel poverty measures. That is how we have been able to expand the fuel allowance-----

-----and to bring in working families for the first time. An extra 50,000 working families are now entitled to the fuel allowance.

In the context of the agriculture sector, a significant amount of money goes to farmers under the agri-climate rural environment scheme. That scheme costs about €1.5 billion. Sixty per cent of that money comes from the Exchequer. The Deputy wants an each-way bet on everything. Is he against the carbon tax revenue going to farmers?

Is the Deputy against it going to the poorest households in the country? If he is, he should say so.

I do not have the background to the specifics of the case, but I will inquire with the HSE and the National Ambulance Service in respect of what the Deputy has said about omissions in clinical care and a failure of the ambulance service to get there within the allocated timeline. Investment in the National Ambulance Service continues to be made and has increased year on year. Personnel are coming …

The Department of Health has agreed the scope of the RSV infant immunisation pathfinder programme for 2026-27, which will involve the same eligibility criteria in place for the 2025-26 season. A health technology assessment on RSV immunisation for infants and adults was undertaken by HIQA and was published on 28 April. HIQA stated that the assessment provides robust evidence that RSV immunisation,…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. His colleague Deputy Malcolm Byrne raised it a number of weeks ago as well. Obviously, it is a pressing issue for Deputy Brennan and his colleagues in Wexford and in Gorey in particular. The Department has stated that site at Gorey provides a good location for expanding capacity in the form of a permanent modular extension for the school. That modular acc…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. Arklow certainly needs that sort of focus in terms of eliminating dereliction. The Deputy's observations are exactly correct and conform with those of the Government. The Minister has produced data in respect of this matter. Some local authorities do far more than others., which motivated the decision in the recent budget to move enforcement in respect of derel…

I thank Deputy Gould for raising the issue. He is correct in that this is not an issue that anybody wants to have a dispute over. Deputy Paudie O'Sullivan raised it this morning. I spoke to the Minister about the case last week. My understanding is that there are ongoing interactions with the company involved. There has been a health technology assessment and so on. This has proven problematic. M…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I have spoken to the Minister for housing about this matter, which is under active consideration in the context of raising the income thresholds. It was raised a number of years ago, but the Minister is examining it. I hope to be back to the Deputy before long.

I acknowledge that the war in the Middle East, which the Deputy somehow managed not to mention, is a war that has created shocking constraints in oil supply and has led to an increase in fuel prices across the world. Globally people are very concerned about what they see as the biggest shock to the energy sector in many a time. They are saying it is bigger than 1973 and 1979 combined, and even 197…

Tá an Rialtas dáiríre faoin gceist seo agus tá an-chuid déanta againn ó thaobh costas maireachtála. Níl aon amhras faoi sin sa mhéid atá déanta againn sa gheilleagar agus leis an gcáinaisnéis a bhí againn an bhliain seo caite agus an bhliain roimhe sin. What Deputy McDonald has outlined is something for everybody. It could be €4 billion or €5 billion in terms of what she announced. Sinn Féin did n…

I think it is approximately €3.5 billion-----

The Deputy says that but what is the cost? I would say it is around €5 billion.

The bottom line is that we have allocated €750 million already-----

-----and there is a budget in October. We need to also bear in mind how best we target the resources we have. We do not have money in the bottom of a drawer like Deputy McDonald is suggesting. Much of that surplus is in the Future Ireland Fund and the infrastructure and nature-----

Unless Deputy McDonald is advocating we take it out of the funds, she needs to clarify this.

The money has been put aside-----

-----and a lot of it is being invested in the economy, in jobs and in housing right now.