We do have an overall approach but there have been 8,775 new special needs assistants in the past five years since 2020, 16 new special schools in the past five years and a new therapy-based service in our special schools, and that will expand.
Those are not words; they are facts. They are on the ground. That is what is going to happen. We have an overall approach. We have established a Cabinet subcommittee on disab…
TDs / Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin
Taoiseach
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Debates they spoke in most
Plus 6,426 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Cork South-Central 29 November 2024 to now
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-----national strategy and we have had meetings with all of the organisations in respect of that. I have established a disability unit in the Department of an Taoiseach to have that overall picture of all aspects of the life cycle of a child or a person with special needs. It is very challenging, particularly in the health service side of it. That is why in the past number of years we took disability out of the Depar…
-----the lives of people with disabilities in the country from birth right through life itself.
First, in respect of the assessment of the need issue, we need a changed approach. An assessment of need is not required for many services. It is our view-----
I have three minutes. The Deputy started off with the-----
The Deputy started off by raising the issue of assessments of need. I was making the point that our view is that the therapists should be directed at providing services. That is the change that needs to happen in the system. That is why the Minister has brought forward legislation that is designed to do that and to release the resources to support children with special needs in a more direct fashion. That is the appr…
It is a team-based approach. Special education teachers are recruited-----
-----to deal with the very issues the Deputy has raised.
Deputy, I did not interrupt you. I am not deflecting. You are not even listening to the response.
The minute I stood up, you started shouting back at me. Would you listen so we can at least have a courteous exchange of views? Special education-----
I think that is it.
The history of what?
How long have they got?
I accept that the price of rent puts a lot of pressure on people, particularly young people, and that is why we are working very hard to increase supply. There were 36,000 house completions last year. The most effective way to deal with rent prices and moderating them is by means of supply.
The Deputy knows that but what is Sinn Féin's response? It is to oppose housing applications and to oppose apartment constructi…
-----of opposing, opposing, opposing.
The only way we can deal with rent is supply.
I salute the bravery and courage of Lisa Phillips in taking on what was a very corrupt and depraved network, as the Deputy has said. I am not clear on the files the Deputy is talking about. My understanding is that the Government does not hold any files in respect of Epstein, although I stand to be corrected on that, so we need to be more specific in terms-----
I know there was an allegation in the Epstein files in respect of a young woman being brought to Ireland but I have no knowledge of that. I have asked the Department of justice if it has any. It does not but the Garda, which is ultimately responsible for the investigation of any allegations, says it will investigate all complaints received and all allegations of serious crime, particularly, of course, sexual offences…
I do not accept the premise of the Deputy's argument insofar as we have been expanding access to GP care year after year over the past number of years, particularly over the past five to six years, and before then, in terms of access for children, access for those on median incomes and so forth. There has been expansion.
Also, probably one of the biggest transformations in the past two decades has been the move to primary care centres, which did take some time in the late 2000s to get going. They had been earmarked in an earlier strategy in 2001 but we have now invested very significantly in those primary care centres. The strategic review will be published, I understand, before this summer. It will outline further the policy framewo…
I said already during Leaders' Questions there will not be any reductions in special needs assistants in our schools in the school year beginning in September 2026. There will be increases, but there will not be any reductions in our schools. There will be well over 25,000 special needs assistants, which will be an increase of 8,700 since 2020. That is expansion. We will then have the redeployment scheme.
Workforce planning will be published and a new circular in response to that, which will give the template. No one has ever suggested to me that you have the same number forever in any given school. It depends on the need of the school at a given time in terms of the number of children it has who require supports and care. That has always been the case. The Deputy and everyone in the Opposition seems to be now suggest…
I welcome the Kinsale Men's Shed. The Men's Sheds are wonderful organisations across the country generally. I also welcome the history of politics group from Wexford. It is a discipline close to my own heart, as both a student and a practitioner.
On the short-term lets situation, I have watched the odd Facebook presentation from Deputy Collins. He is having meetings up and down and is enjoying himself to a certain e…
He has a duty to tell the truth about these matters. I am willing to engage. The Attorney General is clear that from the get-go, from the beginning, if you move from residential to commercial activity, that de facto requires planning permission. There are certain rules that if you are at it a long time, you do not. That is the existing planning status. That is nothing new. No one is creating something new. That is th…
-----that when the Government brings its proposals you can register without planning permission-----