Paul McAuliffe

I welcome what the Minister of State is saying. When the sports capital grant opens, it is almost too late to start to bring together parties in that way. That is why the city council has such an opportunity to lead on this. I am looking at a park like Albert College, for example. Many soccer clubs but also GAA clubs really need somebody to bring them together and to put that package together on c…

I welcome the allocation of additional gardaí. Of the 140 allocated for Dublin, 113 will go to Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, north and west. In particular, so far this year, 37 new gardaí have been allocated to Finglas and to Ballymun. While I welcome that, I also want to see the roll-out of high-visibility policing. It has made a difference in the city centre. It has been rolled out to some ot…

Europe Day is an important day for us to reflect on what Europe means to us and what we mean to Europe. It also allows us to apply a lens to the current issues of the day. I will speak to that first. Ultimately, at its heart, Europe is a peace process. For many hundreds of years, a kind of toxic nationalism existed in Europe. While that toxic nationalism is certainly been diluted as a result of th…

The Tánaiste referenced the voice of children, and I want to speak on behalf of two children in Ballymun, aged 11 and 6, who this week came across a discarded loaded firearm, discarded by gangland criminals. Like any children who come across a gun, they fired that gun. It is scary to think how close we came to a tragic accident. Ballymun is a fantastic community but for several months it has exper…

As we get to the end of this Bill, I commend all the Minister of State’s officials who have worked on this legislation, all the stakeholders who have engaged with the Minister of State and the Minister of State herself. She has engaged with many of us across the House, and particularly with some of her Government colleagues who had concerns in relation to the Bill. I wish to speak to this group o…

129. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the progress to reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child through the national childcare scheme, as set out in the programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29145/26]

My children are now 14 and 16 and while that makes me feel old, it is remarkable to see the investment we have made in childcare over the period. We paid nearly €1,500 per month with no subsidy of any sort from the Government. As the Minister said, the national childcare scheme supports families. However, we need to be careful. A commitment was made. I am saying this not only to the Minister, Depu…

Along with the national childcare scheme, the commitment to a public childcare model is also important. That is why building blocks phase 1 was important. I welcomed the fact the Minister came to our nursery in Ballymun and saw at first hand the work being done. On the balancing act between childcare workers, providers and parents, I am concerned that the €45 million that was set aside last year …

I thank the Aire Stáit. I commend him on staying in the House for the debate. It is important that Ministers who represent the country abroad hear the differing voices in the House. Statements on the European Council are always a very valuable exercise to allow us to put on the record our views and influence our Ministers when they are representing us abroad. The change of government in Hungary i…

Two of my colleagues spoke about the European Single Market. While there have been benefits for industry from the Single Market, consumers in Ireland have not been able to get the full benefit in the areas of industry and financial products. Under our Presidency, what do we intend to do to progress that?

I am pleased to support the Bill, which will prohibit the sale of nicotine consumption products and the advertisement of nicotine inhaling products, particularly in retail outlets. It will deal with the point-of-sale display in mixed retail outlets. The colour and imagery of nicotine inhaling products will be restricted and the sale of the devices or the functioning of other products, such as toys…

I want to raise with the Taoiseach a fairly harrowing incident that took place in my constituency over the weekend. Mary, a 91-year-old lady, fell and injured her hip at 2.15 p.m. and despite an ambulance being called, none attended to her until 6.15 p.m.. She was waiting, lying on the ground, for over four hours for an ambulance. A member of the Garda Síochána was there to assist her, and members…

As Deputy Ellis has said, this is an incredible school. It is incredibly popular and it does an amazing job. Unfortunately, the principal of that school recently met Deputy Hearne, Deputy Ellis and me to ask the question, "To be, or not to be". The school is at stage 2B and the question is whether it will progress. What is proposed is fantastic. We are talking about 15 classrooms and 15 other room…

I echo what Deputy Ellis has said. To reinforce the point, this is a very constrained site. It is quite compact. There is a portion of it that is owned by the religious order where housing is actually being developed. In the wider Santry area, it is very positive that we have more housing supply but there is an increasing population. Around the corner on the Swords Road, the Department of educatio…

15. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on justice, migration and social affairs will next meet. [14274/26]

I thank the Minister of State with responsibility for sport for being with us today. Earlier I heard Ministers being criticised for turning up at high-profile events. In the past I have also heard Ministers being criticised for not turning up at high-profile events. It is the work that happens at local level that I am most pleased with. I thank the Minister of State for coming to my constituency w…

Through the Chair, the Deputy was told-----

There is no doubt we are at a moment of grave international instability so let me begin by acknowledging a number of things. The Iranian regime is a deeply repressive one. Its sponsorship of proxy terrorist groups, its terrorism in parts of the region, destabilising activities in the region and its well-documented oppression of its people cannot be ignored. The brutality of those networks and the …

97. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Transport if there are plans to ensure that the NTA and service providers such as Dublin Bus are adhering to punctuality standards for buses across Dublin city, given that, as per the public service obligation contracts annual performance report, many low-frequency Dublin Bus routes did not experience punctuality of above 80%. [15297/26]

My question relates to the punctuality of buses in my area. The recent roll-out of BusConnects on the F spine routes 23 and 24 has had a profound impact. Punctuality is not something one would have associated with the early phases or even the continuing phases. Will the Minister provide an update in respect of the obligations on providers in this regard?

I appreciate the Minister's interest in this matter. I have engaged with him regarding the core bus corridors, which are incredibly welcome and which will facilitate speedier journeys into the city centre. Together with the tenders going out for the metro project, we are seeing substantial investment in future infrastructure. Before Christmas, at a meeting with public representatives, NTA represe…

Like my colleagues, I know first-hand the benefit that SNAs have had in my own family, and there are many others in my family who have worked as SNAs. That is why we, as Government TDs, when we voted for a programme for Government and for budgets, were pleased and proud to see increases in the number of SNAs. I can say clearly that we would not have voted either for a programme for Government or f…

I want to raise the issue of the national development plan and, in particular, health infrastructure and the delivery of it under the national development plan. For many of the Members in this House who support the Government each week, we want to know that our colleagues in Cabinet are making the national development plan a priority and that those projects within it are a priority. However, more …

The Tánaiste identified a particular matter there. For a long time when we had no money in the country, we had multistage processes to show that projects were progressing but they were not actually getting anywhere. We are now in a situation where we have plenty of money and where the multistage processes are delaying projects. That does not happen often. It is important to have public scrutiny of…

The national development plan is an important investment in the future in terms of infrastructure. Last week’s sectoral announcement on education was welcomed in parts of my constituency. A new nine-classroom school extension has been approved for St. Canice’s Girls National School. However, I must say there is a lot of confusion on the ground regarding the announcement. Schools that would have b…