Cathy Bennett

I am delighted to hear that the Minister is committed. I hope he will be able to make the necessary changes. The Government delivered seven spaces by the end of 2023. It delivered 12 in 2024. The language I have heard the Minister use referring to 54 units under construction, or due for refurbishment this year, suggests to me a net increase of less than 54. In the best case scenario that would mea…

I again put it to the Minister that 280 is well below the 500 needed under the Istanbul Convention. A number of weeks ago, I sought a Dáil debate on the provision of these services in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. The Minister will be familiar with the fact that the people in our community are among those without any refuge spaces at all. It is a deep concern that the current ambition of the …

So, because they do not do it, we do not do it either.

The number of adults accessing emergency accommodation across the north-east region that comprises Louth, Cavan and Monaghan in a single week in January was 263. That is an increase of nearly one third on the same period last year. The number of children involved was 130, a near 70% increase year on year. What can the Government do? The tenant in situ scheme is one mechanism that provides a vital…

Is onóir mhór dom a bheith anseo inniu le labhairt faoi Lá Idirnáisiúnta na mBan. International Women's Day is an opportunity to recall and pay tribute to the women who came before us. The rights we have today are their legacy, won and taken by them, never freely given by others. It is not a cause for celebration, but rather a warning and a reminder. A warning that there are those who would see t…

Mental and physical health is one of the strands considered in the Government's well-being framework analysis. In counties Cavan, Louth, Laois, Meath and Monaghan, the well-being of people and our communities will be negatively impacted by the recent downgrading of the services of SOSAD Ireland. They have been downgraded because of a lack of sustainable funding. The potential for this had been wel…

Deputy Bennett.

It is going on since Christmas. Why is it not -----

It needs to happen.

I wish both Ministers well in their new roles. However, I must say that this Government has yet to show the political will needed to resolve the housing crisis. This has been made more apparent in recent weeks as the Government's pre-election confidence in reaching its housing targets was revealed to be utter fantasy. I hope the Government takes note of the Housing Commission's report because some…

I wish the Minister and the Minister of State well in their new roles. I hope they can change healthcare in this country. I have been listening to and taking part in Dáil debates over the past few weeks and it seems easy for the Government to portray that the increased demand for public services has just come out of the ether. Population modelling seems to be only considered as an excuse as to wh…

-----including more pharmacies, rehab care and sport, housing and the environment.

I ask the Minister-----

-----as a starting point that if she will not implement Sinn Féin's plan, will she please-----

-----do her very best to cause no further harm?

In April of last year, the then Fianna Fáil Minister of State at the Department of Transport, and now Minister for public expenditure, described the prior hiring of 30 testers as not enough. He assured us that we would see significant progress between October and the end of the year and that we would get back to a ten-week waiting time early in the following year. It is now early 2025 and the back…

9. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of and value related to dual-use export licences granted to end users based in Israel, by quarter, since Q3 2023; and his engagements with Cabinet colleagues in relation to such. [6708/25]

I would also like to congratulate the new Ministers, especially the Minister of State, Niamh Smyth, from my constituency. Well done and congratulations to you all. Will the Minister outline the total number and value of goods and services with military applications that have been sanctioned with Israel since the onset of its genocide in Palestine?

I understand the Department's position is that the officials provide a thorough risk-assessment to ensure that, in the Minister of State's own words, as far as possible, items are only used for their stated purpose. The Government has intervened in a case before the International Court of Justice where Israel is on trial for the crime of genocide. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the…

In 2022, Ireland's dual-use exports to Israel amounted to €10.7 million, yet in the first eight months of the genocide, those exports ballooned to €32.1 million. Now, the Minister of State tells us that over the period of the genocide, seven licences have been approved from Ireland. At a time when Israel's economy is struggling, does the Minister of State not find this in any way suspect? What eva…

In counties such as Monaghan, rather than tar as a new dawn, as one Minister described it, people instead continue to damage their suspension and blow out tyres following yet another false dawn. Despite all the bluster of Ministers, maintenance and road repair funding in County Monaghan will not increase significantly to improve road repairs. That is because 43% of the additional funding that has …

Comhghairdeas, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. We all wish to see an environment of co-operation fostered between the Department of agriculture and farmers in order that farmers would feel that they, as the primary producers, were viewed by the Department as its primary stakeholder. All too often, however, the relationship is antagonistic. Part of the reason for this is that the Department is all-too-qui…

There has been a long-standing issue regarding the lack of domestic violence refuges in counties Cavan and Monaghan. In its submission to the justice committee on refuges in August 2021, Safe Ireland, the national policy service support and development hub for 39 specialist domestic violence services, many of which provide refuge, highlighted that there were nine counties without refuge accommodat…

I thank the Minister of State. It is disappointing the Minister for Justice is not here, as we could have had a more substantive engagement. I reiterate that Cavan and Monaghan are only being considered for one refuge and ask that the Minister considers two refuges, one for each county. Why are we being treated unfairly in those counties? As well as enduring emotional, psychological and physical …

Pre-election claims to the effect that the Government would deliver 40,000 homes last year now hang like an albatross around the neck of its credibility. The housing crisis permeates virtually every corner of Irish society. Schools are unable to hire teachers, gardaí are unable to secure accommodation in the communities in which they serve and students have been abandoned, while renters and aspiri…