Neale Richmond

I do not know. I do not think we are doing enough. I do not think any of us are doing enough because, ultimately, there will be scores of Palestinian children killed tonight. I think we accept that with heavy hearts, but I wonder what more we can do than what we are doing. It is important that we constantly have this debate. That is why I repeat my genuine gratitude to the Deputy for tabling this …

I sincerely thank Deputy Dolan for raising this important matter and allowing me the opportunity to outline the changes on behalf of the Government and his party colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, Deputy Michael Moynihan, that have been recently made to the enrolment criteria for specific speech and language disorder special classes. There are 63 special c…

As I outlined previously, the Department has reviewed the enrolment criteria and updated the circular. The updates to the circular were informed by robust engagement with the speech and language therapy service in the National Council for Special Education, the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, and speech and language therapists in the HSE. It was a multifaceted process. There h…

If it is arranged, then that is the next step. I am more than happy to put on pressure to ensure that it delivers a welcome outcome.

As the Deputy will know, I am very aware of this issue and I have been lobbied intensely by the local councillors. I will lay out a few points for the interest of the Chamber before I get to the meat of the ask, as is appropriate in such a debate. It is important to state for the record that the annual enrolment process for new junior infants at primary and new first-years at post-primary is a ve…

I thank the Deputy for using the time available to highlight a really important issue. Being married to a special education teacher, I hear about this quite regularly, as the Deputy can imagine. For anyone who thinks politicians are going on holidays in two weeks' time, I can assure them not only are we not but our school leaders and teachers certainly are not on holidays at the moment. This is pe…

I thank the Deputy for expressing condolences in the House. I suppose when he submitted this Topical Issue, he did not think we would be thinking of tragedies on our roads and indeed more high-profile ones. It is a timely reminder. The Ceann Comhairle has such a strong track record on road safety, it is appropriate we take a moment before discussing this specific issue. As the Deputy is aware, th…

I am glad to hear that the response was of some use. We look at the quantums available, as I alluded to at the outset of my initial response, in terms of the capital spending budget, not necessarily for new national road projects but the €2.9 billion allocated for the protection and renewal of the existing national road network, with a considerable amount, €502 million, made available this year. T…

I really appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I can confirm the Government is of course not opposing this motion. From my time in this Chamber and before that in the Upper Chamber, I know we all share a long-standing desire to deepen the connections between Ireland and the global Irish, but especially on this island. I know there are very few of us in the Chamber who have not b…

I sincerely thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising this topic, which he knows is extremely close to my heart. He has years of experience of involvement, in his local community of Clontarf and beyond, in this specific area and this is a great opportunity to delve into it a little bit. Since 2020 the Department of education has invested more than €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the…

I fully empathise, especially with the comparison with Manor House School. I happen to know the pitch quite well from previous exploits as a really bad coach. I appreciate a pitch of that size represents serious capital work that is obviously way beyond the schemes laid out that are open at the moment. However, we have seen examples where there have been what I would not call public-private partne…

I had to check my phone because in the Deputy's new guise as Oireachtas AI committee chairperson, I had to see if he had been reading my phone for the correspondence I have just had with the principal of a local national school in my area on more or less this exact point. This is an issue that regularly comes up for every Member of this House and I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to…

I will address three points in response. I will come to a broader point, but the first is that if there are specific schools, the financial support services unit, FSSU, on behalf of the Department plays a crucial role in seeing where there are funding gaps. In order for the Department to assess the current financial situation, the school needs to engage with the FSSU for the purpose. The Departmen…

I sincerely thank Deputy O'Donoghue for raising this timely and important issue. At the outset, and before I get into the specifics, I condemn any incidents of racially motivated abuse. I know the Deputy shares that view, as does everyone in this House. It is important to say that sometimes because we can tend gloss over it. Such behaviour is a scourge that we must all stay united in our oppositio…

I really appreciate the opportunity to come back in. I cannot stress enough how important it is that any of these issues that are brought to the attention of the House are solved by all of us. None of us can claim responsibility. None of us can shoulder all the blame. If we work together, however, we can alleviate the impact of what is happening. Community gardaí play such an important part in ad…

I thank the cosponsors for bringing the Bill to Second Stage and all the Deputies for an engaging discussion on the issue. It is an important matter and, as previously stated, the Government fully supports transparency in the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals regarding transfers of value to healthcare professionals or organisations. It is clear that we …

Do Deputies opposite want an answer?

Preach.

I am delighted to take this question from Deputy Donnelly and I appreciate the constructive manner that it is placed and hopefully I will be able to reply in an equally constructive manner. I will skip over some of the introductory remarks, which he will receive to his place shortly - because the Deputy knows himself the Passport Office is working extremely hard on delivering overall, with 440,000…

I will reply on two issues. Where an Irish passport is tampered with, it tends not to be a forged or made-up document. It tends to be a stolen passport which someone uses to try to assume the identity of the owner and by trying to say they look like the person in the photo. That is how good the Irish passport is. The Deputy referred to an incident from ten or 12 years ago. I can assure him that th…

I thank Deputy Callaghan for a pertinent question. Needless to say, the Government in its entirety, and most of the House I expect, remain deeply concerned about the situation on the ground in Ukraine where we see Russia is demonstrating a clear desire to continue escalation and conflict. US proposals for a partial ceasefire on energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea, as well as plans for furth…

It is proposed that up to €20 million be provided to the two UDCG coalitions as outlined, both of which Ireland has joined and at which is represented by the Department of Defence. It is proposed €80 million will be allocated to procurement partnerships with other EU member states. As I said, examples of relevant non-lethal supports could include non-lethal elements of air defence such as radar sy…

This is a key issue when we come to the combined European effort in support of Ukraine. We are being asked to do more for Ukraine by other allies around the world, but not all 27 EU member states are prepared to do that or are pulling their weight. That is why the €250 million allocated to the European PEACE facility is what we want to see developed. It is part of a much wider package. That is why…

There are no Blueshirts left.

The Deputy is twisting his words.