Cian O'Callaghan

First I want to mention the Northside Home Care workers. This is a group of low-paid workers, earning just above the minimum wage, who do incredibly important care work. As the Government has failed to intervene and make sure they get paid the going rate the same as HSE care workers and failed to ensure there is a sectoral pay agreement for care workers, they are a group that is particularly vulne…

Is mian liom ceist a chur ar an Taoiseach faoi thaighde an Bhainc Ceannais. Research from the Central Bank published today shows that one in three adults has experienced fraud or scams. At the same time, social media companies earned an estimated €32 million last year from scam advertisements aimed at people in Ireland. These social media giants are turning a blind eye in order that they can profi…

Cuirim ceist ar an Tánaiste faoi Ospidéal Beaumont. Despite the very best efforts of nurses and doctors in the emergency department it is often severely overcrowded. For over a decade, the Tánaiste's Government has been promising a new emergency department at Beaumont Hospital. What is causing the delay to this much-needed new emergency department? When is it actually going to be delivered?

Answer the question.

7. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress his Department is making in tackling child poverty. [26694/26]

4. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he will take action to address the issue of special purpose vehicles being used to avoid future liability in public construction contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27625/26]

Ba mhaith liom ceist a chur ar an Aire faoi thionscadal tógála poiblí. When multiple parties contribute to a project but only one still exists years later and when something goes wrong, that party can be held liable for 100% of the cost even if it is only 1% responsible. Developers nearly always use special purpose vehicles and then wind them up, which means they are let off the hook, meaning arch…

I know this issue has been looked at and some work has been done on it, but it has not been addressed to the degree that is necessary for architects, engineers and small firms. They are still being caught by this. They are still not able to go in for projects, cannot get insurance and insurance costs are prohibitive. I recently met with representatives of the Association of Consulting Engineers of…

I think, based on the Minister's comment, that he accepts there is a problem here and I ask him to look into it further. The engineers are not raising this for no reason; it is because they are experiencing a very real problem. There is a solution to this which is to insert net contribution clauses into public contracts. That would not increase risk for the State and would simply prevent smaller c…

10. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation for an update on the proposed new Garda station at Northern Cross in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27621/26]

Is there an update on the provision of a much-needed new Garda station at Northern Cross in Dublin?

It is welcome that we are making some progress in that there is a commitment that construction will start in 2028. Is the Minister of State confident that timeline will be adhered to? If construction begins in 2028, what is the timeline for finishing? I am concerned that we are still talking about identifying a suitable site for this new Garda station when it was announced not by the last Governme…

I welcome his work on this, his commitment to it and his interest in it. That is very welcome. It is also welcome that genuine attempts to move this on are now being made. The Minister of State is right that this is a growing community with a huge population. That community was bitterly disappointed that this was announced in 2019 and that nothing then happened for seven years. The fact that we ha…

13. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation to outline the statutory safeguards, oversight mechanisms and independent review processes that will be put in place to ensure that the significant powers assigned to him under the Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026 are exercised in a transparent, proportionate and account…

On the Critical Infrastructure Bill, it is good that there is a focus on trying to speed up these processes. We have heard from the Minister with responsibility for the OPW that it takes about ten years to deliver a Garda station. That is just one of many examples of how slow these processes are. It is not just about legislation, though. The Bill would give the Minister significant powers in terms…

I accept there is no mystery about these projects. They are all good projects. I cannot see why anyone would want to bring a motion to the Dáil to annul prioritisation of any of the projects under consideration. That is not really the issue. The issue is the bit of mystery about how the prioritisation will be carried out. What will and will not be prioritised? How will that be decided? That is the…

The point I always make about legislation is that it has to be drafted not just for this Government but the governments that come after. It has to be drafted for Ministers who will take these responsibilities in the absolute public interest but also for Ministers who may not do that. My concern is having that concentration of power without information around the process. If we have information as …

I thank my colleague, Deputy Gary Gannon, for bringing forward this motion and, indeed, everyone who has contributed to the debate. The price increase for every day basics are relentless. Rents, food, heating, electricity, petrol and diesel are all through the roof. People's wallets do not stretch indefinitely when their wages stay the same. We are reaching a breaking point. People contact me ever…

The country was brought to the brink last week and it is extraordinary that the Taoiseach will not answer questions today after the Dáil being in recess for three weeks. Why will the Taoiseach not take questions from TDs and party leaders in the Dáil today? Why does he think that is a good precedent to set? Has he learned nothing from the past week and from the mishandling of it in terms of the ne…

Gach lá, gach seachtain, feicfimid Rialtas atá caillte agus nach bhfuil cúram air do ghnáthdhaoine. This is a Government that does not listen. It does not listen to the people or the Opposition. It also does not listen to its own backbenchers. Having ignored all the warnings, the Government stumbled into a full-blown crisis last week. When calm leadership was required, we got chaos. Instead of pur…

I want to start by saying to the Tánaiste that the Government has lost a Minister of State who said clearly that the leadership of the Government was not listening. When I was talking to the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach earlier during the confidence motion and reading out the experience of the cost-of-living crisis of a nurse who had worked for years for the HSE in this country, he and the Taoiseach…

Well, it is true. A couple of people have been in contact with me and I want the Tánaiste to listen when I outline their experiences. A constituent who contacted me this morning said: Now what about the rest of the people Pensioners like myself Every time l go into the supermarket items are going up. I can't afford to buy meat anymore. Maybe you could ask Michael Martin to walk around the sup…

She is a pensioner.

I did not say it would not help anyone.

I want to respond to a couple of points made by Deputy Fleming. Alarm bells ring for me when the explanation for why we cannot do pre-legislative scrutiny is because we cannot do it efficiently and it might take us six months, when we are talking about a Bill that aims to make processes efficient. I did pre-legislative scrutiny in the previous Dáil when it needed to be done quickly on the housing …