Peadar Tóibín

This is a well-meaning motion and universality sounds great but I have problems with it. It often redirects funds from low-income families to rich families. Approximately 629,000 people are in poverty in this country. While those individuals are in poverty, I do not think we should be using taxpayers' money to pay for Michael O'Leary's children's healthcare. A woman came into my office recently wi…

11. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [12131/26]

The Government announced its decisions regarding SNAs last week like a wrecking ball. It was an incredible situation where teachers, parents, SNAs and, of course, children were not spoken to. The manner in which the Government presented this information to schools around the country was incredible. It created a wave of stress and panic in many families and many schools last week. The ineptitude of…

Where an employee can work at home, it should be facilitated. It can be a massive plus for a worker. It can reduce stress. Obviously, it can reduce the cost of the daily commute, and in certain cases, it can lead to a significant increase in productivity. It can also be good for the local community as it brings people back into local towns and villages during the day. We do live in a city state, u…

Today it has been announced that the Government intends to introduce age restrictions on social media. Most parents around the country will be in favour of that. I have spoken to many children around this and they have said they could do without social media if none of their peers had it. It is the fear of being left out that is the biggest issue for a lot of children in relation to this. I recogn…

It was a stupid thing to do.

First, the Government’s approach to this is shockingly poor and one-dimensional. It does not cover all of the Internet threats to children at the moment. When it comes to the Government’s plan to create a digital ID, there is no real detail. It is not well thought out and there has been no consultation with stakeholders. I have heard some of the Taoiseach’s party colleagues mention a public servic…

I am offering a solution.

I also suggested an alternative.

No.

No. I opposed the spending of €9 million for it.

Teachers and parents were laughing at the idea.

Sixteen. I am saying the cut-off should be 16 years of age.

Yes. No problem.

Much easier.

As the Minister knows, the vast majority of people in the country want an asylum process that provides help to those who need help and returns home those who do not need help. That should be the basis and logic of any asylum system - one that offers compassion to those who are fleeing war and violence but one where common sense is used in the system for those who are trying to use the asylum proce…

That is worrisome and it needs to be fixed. The other aspect to this is that to deal with this issue and not look at the 85% of people coming through Britain is a problem. We need to go to Britain and to the Government in London to try to work out a process that when a person wants to apply for an application for asylum here in Ireland, they do so when they move to the island and vice versa becaus…

The Minister mentioned that people voted for European integration and co-operation. That is absolutely true but there has been significant creep in terms of EU control on a range of different issues in recent years. EU integration is not always a good thing. The EU often makes decisions that are not in our interests. The Mercosur agreement is a full example of that. The Minister talks about us mak…

I want to talk about CHI and the enormous damage being done to children in this country. I received a reply to a parliamentary question today which states that 525 scoliosis operations were cancelled in the past four years. That figure has doubled within just three years. Half of the reasons were given as clinical but we know that Harvey Morrison Sherratt was taken off the waiting list for clinica…

At least 20%-----

The recommendations-----

I asked a question about the terms of reference.

There has been no meeting with the families on the terms of reference.

16. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the first progress report of the climate action plan. [12130/26]

Hundreds of thousands of people are living in commuter hell in this country. Hundreds of thousands of people are now spending four hours a day travelling to and from work. They are being charged higher taxes on their fuel and higher tolls for the pleasure of doing this. In Meath, 60,000 people have no option but to use their cars because of the lack of public transport. The Taoiseach's friend Noel…