Micheál Martin

The Deputy raised an issue and it is sleight of hand because if I do not respond, I will be accused of X, Y and Z.

Given that it was raised, I did receive the Deputy's correspondence this morning in respect of Bord Bia. Bord Bia has been performing exceptionally well this year, last year and over the past number of years. If we look at 2020, there were exports of over €13 billion in foodstuffs. This year it is €19 billion. So, it is extraordinary, impressive outcomes and results in the export of foodstuffs inc…

Do not try to drag it down now. Let us not go for this populist, low-level activity. Let us not go like herd instincts-----

----- by jumping everywhere and go after people wrongly without proper perspective or understanding of the food industry, which has been a good success story for Ireland over the past number of years and continues to be.

Bord Bia has been one of the better State agencies and our food companies, which are global by the way, all over Europe and all over the world-----

Let us not undermine them just for the sake of chasing other people for votes and for popularity. In respect of childcare, the Government is very involved in childcare and the State is very involved in childcare in a variety of ways in terms of subsidies, in terms of frozen fees and in terms of investment, capital investment in private and community childcare as well as yesterday announcing a new…

The early childhood care and education programme, ECCE, continues for over 105,000, providing two years of free preschool.

This Government and the previous one did more for childcare in the Past five years than any previous Governments. There has been progress along the way but there was very substantial progress in the Past four to five years. Deputy McDonald does not have it within her to acknowledge that. Core funding increased by 19% under the budget 2026 to over €436 million. That will enable us to maintain fees …

It will also support providers with the cost of the new employment regulation order pay rates and then prepare for year five enhancements, including new funding to reduce the maximum fee cap. We have always said that reducing the fees to €200 was a five-year plan. It will happen. We are not ditching anything. We are committed to that and we are going to do it but it is over the lifetime of the Gov…

Some 93% of eligible providers have now signed up to the fourth year of core funding.

There is good news on recruitment in terms of a continued 10% year-on-year increase in the growth of the workforce as well.

First, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. In the first instance, I pay tribute to the victim here - Margaret Loftus. I commend her bravery in speaking out. I did not get an opportunity to see "Prime Time" last evening. Her courage in reporting this matter has seen it come through the courts and a guilty verdict delivered. We applaud her strength and resilience, showing that no matter who t…

I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy. It is chilling. It is quite shocking. Every effort will have to be made to deal with this on a societal basis through State agencies and State forces - in terms of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. There has to be a very clear zero-tolerance approach to domestic violence. As the Deputy says, increasingly such violence has led to fatalities and murder…

That should also be acknowledged. There are regulations in place to deal with the aftermath of the court case. I do not want to prejudice the outcome of that case.

We are moving on in respect of this scheme. The scheme is expected to cost in excess of €2.2 billion. Government is committed to that. That is a key fact and decision. As the Deputy will know, it is estimated that close to 3,000 homeowners are now at various stages of the scheme. That was the figure at the end of August 2025. A lot of people are engaging with the scheme and a lot of cases are bein…

I will talk to the Minister and ask him to look at these test cases and to revert to the Deputy after doing so. We want to make this work.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, this shocking situation. I saw it yesterday on the news. It is absolutely unacceptable that a family should lose their daughter in such circumstances. It seems to me that this person should never have proceeded with the operation, should never have been doing the operation. I cannot comprehend how that happened. A benign tumour should have been a straight…

There has to be accountability; the Deputy is correct in saying that. I appreciate what he has said about the current management. I also want to place on record that under the leadership of Bernard Gloster, there has been a welcome change in approach to dealing with situations like this----

----in terms of apologies being made much more timely. Eight years is far too long when everybody knew what had happened here. The Deputy is absolutely correct. In issues like medical surgeries, people should put their hand up. It should be about evaluating, learning and so on. People should say that was done wrongly. It should not take eight years for a family to get some sense of accountability …

I am very committed to the evaluation model and have been consistently from the very beginning, even during Covid itself, for a number of reasons. Legal adversarial types of inquiry may not necessarily improve the situation subsequently or indeed for future pandemics as they may arise. We need to learn. We need to find out how to do things better into the future. We do not need people who are in t…

I will talk to those responsible in terms of the public disclosure process. As the Deputy knows, we have a fairly elaborate process for the management of public disclosures under a legislative framework. There have been various amendments to the legislation and so forth. I will follow up on that in terms of the specific case she referenced. The terms of reference for the evaluation are quite broad…

Déanaim comhbhrón le clann Stephen Lavelle as ucht an méid a tharla. Is olc an scéal é gan dabht. Mar a dúirt an Teachta, ní féidir le héinne nó aon fhocail sásamh nó aon rud a chur in iúl don chlann. Is drochscéal ar fad é mar atá á léiriú ag an Teachta inniu. No words can console the family of Stephen Lavelle in terms of what happened and the loss of life in the circumstances the Deputy describe…

There has been recruitment. An 25% increase in staff is a significant increase by any yardstick. The National Ambulance Service is also saying that it is developing alternative care pathways, which are important. It is in the process of reforming and expanding such pathways, which would include clinical capacity in terms of community paramedics deployed nationwide, clinical hubs and so forth. That…

Let me make the point. I fully accept that anything I have said is not a consolation to the Lavelle family. However, without question the reform has to be far greater deployment and upskilling of first responders, and the primary and community care-based approach.

Aontaím leis an Teachta go bhfuil cúrsaí an tsaoil an-dainséarach, deacair faoi láthair agus go bhfuil dúshláin an-mhóra amach romhainn agus roimh mhuintir na hEorpa i gcoitinne. Is maith an rud é go ndearnamar an-chuid ó thaobh cúrsaí eacnamaíochta de agus ó thaobh an gheilleagair. Tá an geilleagar i bhfad níos láidre anois ná mar a bhí. We are in very uncharted territory and the situation is se…