Mark Ward

Dublin.

Last week, the Dáil debated Irish unity during Opposition time and today, the conversation continues on Government time. This is a welcome and positive step. The conversation about our constitutional future is moving forward and it is right that the Government begins the serious work of planning for constitutional change now. Across Ireland, more and more people are engaging in this discussion an…

I thank Deputy Sherlock for bringing forward this legislation to bring bin collections back to public control. I am disappointed but not surprised that the Government is opposing this legislation. Fine Gael has a long history and policy of privatising public services. It has not worked in housing, water or transport and it definitely has not worked in waste management. By his own admission, the Mi…

19. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Taoiseach for an update on the implementation of the Dublin city task force report. [49325/26]

I thank the Taoiseach for his update on the future of the GPO. As he knows, the GPO is a historic building in the centre of our capital city. It is where our Republic was declared. It was the central location of the Easter Rising. I know the Cabinet committee met to discuss the future plans for this historic building. I welcome that there will be a public consultation on the future use of the GPO …

Before I talk about the legislation, I want to put it in context. As the Minister knows, there is an epidemic of violence against women and girls in this State. Most recently, we saw the murder of two women, Jamey Carney in Kerry and Adina Raluca Constantin in Laois. I extend my condolences to their families and loves ones. The suspect in their murders is their partner or former partner. Women's A…

I also welcome Jordan and Cian to the Public Gallery and all their family and friends with them. I thank them for raising awareness of dementia. I was looking at their achievement, and they have done 32 marathons in 32 days. That sends shivers down my spine. I do not know how they managed to do it. I ran one marathon in 2018, and not 32 of them, as a person living with multiple sclerosis, just to …

Grace Lynch died in January after being hit by a scrambler. This came after years of calls for increased action against illegal scrambler use. Grace's law has been passed and this is welcome, but we have not seen the benefit or significant changes in our communities. Scramblers are still being driven recklessly. Grace's law made it very clear that the illegal use of scramblers in public spaces is …

The cost of living is one of the biggest issues that people raise in my constituency office. People are struggling to make ends meet. Workers are handing over more than half of their wages in rent. They can barely cover their bills, put diesel in their cars, food on the table or pay for childcare and ever-increasing insurance costs. The cost of fuel is crippling people as they go about their daily…

5. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the impact the EU Presidency will have on the availability of the Garda fleet to service our communities, particularly DMR west; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49649/26]

It is apt for me to ask this question on the day that is in it. It is particularly about DMR west, which includes Clondalkin and Lucan Garda stations. I have a particular interest in the availability of Garda cars and the Garda community bus.

I thank the Minister. DMR west is a huge area. It covers Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Lucan, Saggart, Rathcoole, Brittas, Palmerstown and the junior Minister's area, Ballyfermot. It is a wide area so we need more than 125 cars. I would like to see that scaled up. I raised a situation here last year that despite having these 125 cars, on one occasion last year, only one Garda car was available to c…

It is about population size as well.

It is about population.

I respect that I only mentioned the Garda community bus at the end of my question. I got a response this week from the Garda station saying the DMR west Garda community bus will be unavailable from the end of the month for the rest of the year due to the requirements of the EU Presidency. I met two groups in the area recently, the Quarryvale Butterflies and the Rowlagh women's hub, which are campa…

3. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [46911/26]

As the Minister knows, Ireland is an island and, therefore, its connectivity to the rest of the world is essential. The passenger cap at Dublin Airport is simply not working. In 2025, the cap was exceeded by around 4 million. Not only is it not working, it is not being adhered to. The Government must be mindful that any increase in the passenger cap at Dublin Airport will put pressure on existing …

Go ahead, a Cheann Comhairle.

I welcome the women's shed here as well. My family now lives in Wexford as well. My father is in the men's shed in Gorey and he loves it down there. Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle. I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk about rare diseases. I have been contacted by many residents in my area about Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As the Minister knows, Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a severe, p…

I was at a recent briefing in Leinster House and listened to families affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy. I cannot say there was one person who left that briefing, across the parties, who was not affected listening to the real-life stories of these families' struggles in trying to get this lifesaving drug. I thank every person who contacted, rang or emailed me or called to my constituency off…

This is my first engagement with the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh. I wish her well in her role and look forward to more engagements with her, particularly in respect of youth justice, which is an area in which I have a lot of interest. I look forward to working with her from the Opposition benches in a tangible and constructive way. As my colleague said, the Bill provides for engagement and i…

Having an annual report on something that is new - a new Bill, a new operation or a new entity - is an absolute no-brainer just to see how things are working. We have no idea of the scale of cost of this and where it will end up. Based on the bit of information we got at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage, it is starting with 29 staff. It could be dealing with up to 300,000 orders each year and th…

I thank the Minister of State for giving us some sort of clarity that there will be an annual report. I refer to the process yesterday and today. We were here yesterday for Second Stage and the senior Minister got up and gave his opening statement. We all stood up and asked him some questions we were hoping would be referred to in his concluding remarks. Those questions were not answered, however,…

If the Minister of State has the information, in relation to the 20 members of staff and the 24,000 orders per year they are going to be processing, how long will each of these take to process? Does the Minister of State think that is going to be a burden on the staff?

I will have to get my calculator and work out how long it is going to take. Maybe that could be in the annual report also.