Liam Quaide

Can we have order, please?

Deputy Doherty.

Deputy Doherty, can you take your seat, please?

Deputy Doherty.

I thank the Tánaiste. We move back now to Sinn Féin and Deputy Martin Kenny.

Deputy, your time is up.

The assisted decision-making Act represented one of the most significant legal reforms in the history of the State. It abolished the adult wardship system, repealed the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871 and replaced a plenary substitute decision-making model with a graduated rights-based framework designed to support autonomy and maximise decision-making capacity. Its full commencement in Apri…

8. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the first meeting of the delivery and monitoring committee for the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. [13983/26]

In this Chamber, we tend to speak almost exclusively about the right of disabled people to access services, yet many other rights make for a full life, not least the right to employment. Ireland continues to have one of the lowest disability employment rates in Europe. The wage subsidy scheme is designed to close the gap, yet what we have heard from Rehab Group, the largest employer of disabled pe…

31. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach if he will report on implementation of the well-being framework published by his Department. [16304/26]

I begin by commending Deputy Rice on bringing forward this motion and basing it on in-depth engagement with people affected by the crisis in GP care as well as with policy that can address it. The Government is blue in the face accusing the Social Democrats of having no solutions to the problems we highlight, which are problems it has created through a failure to plan, a failure to invest and a my…

I pay tribute to all industrial and reformatory school survivors and to those who have not lived to hear today's State apology. It is one apology in a series to those who suffered terribly in State institutions. It will ring hollow if it is not followed quickly by the enactment of commitments the Taoiseach made to the hunger strikers last November. I connected with Mary Dunlevy Greene, Mary Donova…

3. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the abinet committee on health will next meet. [11618/26]

I want to bring the Taoiseach back once again to that cohort of workers who kept the health service going at our moment of deepest crisis in recent years. I refer to housekeeping staff, porters, nurses, healthcare assistants and other clinicians, some of whom contracted Covid at the height of the pandemic and went on to develop a debilitating condition known as long Covid. A small group of those w…

29. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit. [13982/26]

I commend Sinn Féin on its motion. What we have witnessed in recent weeks on the issue of special needs assistants has been nothing short of a fiasco, one that has caused deep and unnecessary anxiety for families, teachers, principals and SNAs across the country. At its core this episode reveals a Government that still does not understand the daily reality of inclusion in our schools. Instead of p…

I have not got to amendment No. 2 yet, Deputy.

I call Deputy Tóibín.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. There is growing alarm and confusion among parents, teachers and special needs assistants across the country after it was revealed that at least 194 schools had been told they would lose SNA posts from September, with further reviews ongoing. In the past hour, we have heard of a backtrack from Government as it came under ferocious public pressure. It appears tha…

How long will that take?

How long will the review take?

9. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach for an update on the first progress report of the Climate Action Plan 2025. [9561/26]

The urbanisation of our flood plains and the mass removal of native trees and hedgerows in recent decades have drastically reduced our land's ability to hold excess water. Alongside conventional engineering schemes, we need to maximise our potential for nature-based approaches to flood management. There is a clear opportunity here for farmers to be paid a premium for taking measures such as the co…

22. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach his response to the NESC report, Connecting People to the Energy Transition. [11617/26]

A serious structural barrier has emerged in the transition to electric vehicles, EVs, that Government policy is yet to confront. Large numbers of people, particularly those in apartments, terraced houses and rented accommodation, have no driveway and, under current circumstances, they are precluded from installing a home charger. On-street charging schemes remain extremely limited and subject to i…