Micheál Martin

I already told him that we voted against Mercosur.

We got safeguards in. We are not ignoring farmers. About a month ago, I went to the AGM of the IFA, just before this latest round. There is no sense of ignoring. In fact, it was quite an agreeable, good conversation. I listened, as did the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Dooley and Healy-Rae. The was no reference to the Bord Bia issue, which may not have surfaced at t…

It is just throwing out words that mean nothing. There was never any sense that farmers were being ignored by this Government, nor could there have been.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 41, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on children and education oversees the implementation of programme for Government commitments in the area of children and education. It receives detailed reports on identified policy areas such as child poverty and well-being, and education. The membership of the Cabinet committee on children and education compr…

I am sorry, which Gaelscoil?

Once.

Ba mhaith liom-----

Ba mhaith liom-----

Ba mhaith liom a rá leis an Teachta O’Meara go bhfuil ionadh orm-----

----- nach bhfuil Gaelcholáiste dara leibhéal i dTiobraid Árann. B’fhéidir go mbeidh seans againn teagmháil a dhéanamh leis an ETB chun clár de shaghas éigin a chur i bhfeidhm ionas go mbeidh, diaidh ar ndiaidh, Gaelcholáiste againn. De ghnáth, tá Gaelcholáiste i mbeagnach gach aon chontae anois. There are Gaelcholáistí in most areas now. There is at least one in many counties across the country, …

Without question, the criminal and antisocial behaviour of many in certain communities in our capital city and certain other locations is absolutely unacceptable. Every single resource will be made available to An Garda Síochána to deal with those who are breaking the law on an ongoing basis. Gardaí have the powers and do not have their hands tied behind their backs, actually. They have significan…

It is too late for Grace Lynch. It is absolutely shocking and extremely traumatic for the family and friends of Grace that what happened last week happened in the manner that it happened. What is essential is that every possible dimension of law is brought into being to prevent this insofar as we can in terms of human behaviour. The reckless use of scramblers by people in public parks and on publi…

There is also a very clear message, irrespective of whether a person has a licence. We must remember that the bulk of scramblers that are driven in this particular manner are illegal because they do not have any regulatory governance or licences. The drivers do not bother taking out tax. Those scramblers are illegal. With regard to hot pursuit, that is a Garda policy issue but the Commissioner is…

This is an important issue. I would just make the point that significant progress is being made on the housing front. There were 36,000 completions in 2025. That is a significant figure when we compare it with 2019 and 2020, when we were building just about 20,000 per annum. Then Covid-19 intervened for a good two years after that. The measures we have taken in the last 12 months are having an imp…

On one level, developers are saying that the RPZ reform is an encroachment on their constitutional rights, while the Labour Party is saying that reform is trampling on rights.

It is not.

It is, and the Labour Party has been saying it consistently.

Let us come to the HSE. It has about 190 vacant properties. We have been effective with the LDA in getting a lot of State property for significant housing developments already, and that work continues. The HSE has about 4,300 buildings at the moment in about 2,500 locations across the country. It is one of the largest property owners in the State and it has a very large portfolio. Of course, the p…

What is wrong with that?

The most effective thing we did in terms of dereliction was the grants for restoring properties and houses that are derelict or vacant. Thousands of young families have benefited from those very generous grants we introduced and there was no great enthusiasm from the Deputy's side in respect of those grants. It does not even reference them.

That is positive. It is a proactive way of dealing with dereliction in rural and urban Ireland. The Derelict Sites Act is still in place. Limerick has been the best example. It demonstrated what can be done in terms of the derelict sites levy. Other local authorities were not as good as Limerick. The Government is saying we are putting Revenue in charge-----

-----but Revenue has to do a proper detailed mapping exercise with local authorities to get all of the properties properly identified and documented so that the levy can be applied correctly in an appropriate regulatory way.

Already, people are conscious of this.

People are very conscious that Revenue is coming onto the scene. We are getting action already in advance of it.

I take offence at the Deputy's very dishonest portrayal of the Government's position in respect of this and his deliberate conflation of a different series of events to give the impression that the Government somehow condones the behaviour of X, Grok or Elon Musk. That is reprehensible political behaviour by him but it is par for the course all the time to distort the actual truth. The French pro…