Peter Burke

During Leaders' Questions, I raised quite clearly what the Government was doing for people who were most vulnerable, particularly the 15% increase in our fuel allowance, of which one in four households is now in receipt of, to reflect the challenges related to the cost of living. I also mentioned the social welfare increase for carers, those with disabilities and those on the margins of society of…

Deputy Cahill gave us a good tour of the kingdom. I join him in articulating how important Local Link is and the agility it provides for communities across the age spectrum. It is striking to see in my locality the varying age groups that use it weekly to help them socialise or go to hospital appointments. It is a key asset to our community and another way of thinking. I absolutely support the Dep…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It seems a very genuine case in connection with Alfie. The date was brought forward to give greater certainty but the Minister is working with the NCSE. If the Deputy raises that with the Minister on a case-by-case basis, I hope we will get a satisfactory resolution.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I am a firm advocate for carers. We in society owe a huge debt for the work they do. That is why the Government is responding through supports and is on a trajectory to abolishing the means test for carer's allowance to demonstrate our support for the sector. The taxation is based on other income people may have received. The Taoiseach has …

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important matter. I assure him the IDA is liaising with BNY on the building and a future occupant for it. That will be to the forefront for any building that becomes vacant because of a change in operations, like BNY had in terms of its consolidation. We will do everything we can to get a replacement tenant in it. One of the things I am really driving the I…

I want to acknowledge Amanda's presence and say how proud of her I am. I saw her report on the news. The work she has done in tertiary education has been exemplary. As an Irish Government Minister, I want to say that she and her family are really welcome in our country. My heart goes out to her on what she has had to experience. I will say to Amanda that we have an independent justice system in o…

I thank the Deputy for raising those very important issues on behalf of his constituency. I will raise them with the Minister for education and ask her to revert to him on the policy position directly.

I thank Deputy Neville for raising this very important issue and for the work he is doing for the enterprise sector to ensure rewards for enterprise are very much embedded in our economy. A number of offers are currently going through Enterprise Ireland. We have doubled the value of the innovation voucher, which is a huge assistance with tertiary education. It provides for a great deal of the comm…

I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising this very important issue. I understand that the Bill was published on 9 January and that it is down for Second Stage in the House. It is important to raise those issues. I will raise the Deputy's specific concerns with the Minister for justice during the week.

I thank the Deputy for her question. The Government recognises that the cost of doing business has been an issue for firms in recent years, in particular, on foot of external inflationary pressures. It should also be acknowledged that the Government has been proactive in tackling the issue of rising costs and is pleased to note that the costs for firms, as measured through the CSO's wholesale pri…

We are doing a number of things that will continue to bring viability into businesses. Each of them, on its own, has been opposed by Sinn Féin. First, we have reassessed the trajectory to a living wage, which has been pointed out by firms as a huge cost for viability. Second, we have put a halt to an extension of sick day numbers. Third, we have increased viability through a host of sustainabilit…

I want to come back to the Deputy with evidence and factual data. For every company that goes into liquidation in the economy now, ten more are created. We are at an all-time low in terms of insolvency levels. The CSO data, which is the gold standard of collecting evidence in this economy, backs that up. The Deputy should have a look at the December outturn and the summary of our economic positio…

I thank Deputy Lawlor for this important question. While I acknowledge his observations on revenue, the CSO statistics indicate a more optimistic picture for 2025. Overall tourism revenue in 2025 remained strong, albeit at a slightly lower level than the exceptional high levels reached in 2024 but on par with 2023. Encouragingly, the latest CSO data show a return to growth in overseas visitor numb…

The Deputy is quite right in relation to the CSO earlier in the year. I was making the point that it has recovered significantly over the past four months. We took immediate action. We brought forward a plan that will grow the sector significantly over the next five years. I will work on extending the season because 50% of visitors come from June to September. We are trying to bring it from St. Br…

It is a very important destination for us. We have 21 gateway hubs with the US now. We are keen on expanding them. I was in Savannah and Atlanta for a St. Patrick’s Day mission a couple of years ago. Delta raised with me that it wanted to put new routes into Ireland but the cap at that point precluded it from doing so. We need to resolve the airport cap this year - that will be critically importan…

Enhancing cross-Border co-operation and connections is a key ambition of this Government, and the tourism plan is an important asset towards achieving this goal. Tourism Ireland is responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas as a leading holiday destination, and it works closely with colleagues in Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland. In addition to a commitment to work with Fá…

We are doing exactly that. We are harnessing the close co-operation with Northern Ireland. I am working very closely with the Minister, Dr. Archibald, whom I have met on a number of occasions, and we are promoting the country as an island internationally while abroad at trade missions. Fermanagh has been included in Ireland's Hidden Heartlands. As for the Causeway Coastal Route, collaboration is …

I assure the Deputy that any time I am marketing Ireland as a tourism product, it is the island of Ireland. We can see this in the infrastructural projects that reach into other sectors outside my Department. Through the shared island economic brand, it is very important to tackle the key infrastructural deficits we have on the island. We are being honest that they are there and very visible. We h…

I thank the Deputy for his very important question. In December, I launched the Government's new national tourism policy statement, A New Era for Irish Tourism. This sets out our clear vision to 2031 to have balanced product development. Since the move of tourism into my Department, I have reflected that SMEs are at the heart of the Department of enterprise. There are over 46,000 of them. We publi…

Again, I acknowledge the work Fáilte Ireland is doing on the coastal path, the 11 stops I mentioned and the others that are planned. Fáilte Ireland is a named partner in the Dublin Bay UNESCO Biosphere, the purpose of which is to ensure that tourism growth is aligned with sustainability and environmental stewardship. Fáilte Ireland continues to invest in seasonal events, such as the New Year's Fes…

I am happy to work with Deputies Heneghan and Ó Muirí in their constituency, particularly as this is a very important project. We will be working on a number of projects in the context of our destination and experience development plan, which will chart the development of the area, over the coming months and years. It is important that this work links with that of our State agencies and local auth…

I thank Deputy Fleming for his very important question on the midlands. Regional development is a key focus of our programme for Government and is central to the work the Department and our enterprise agencies. The region, comprising counties Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath, is home to 51 IDA Ireland companies that employ 7,501 people. Foreign direct investment performance has been consisten…

I acknowledge the concern raised by Deputy Fleming in connection with Laois. I was on the ground there with Deputies Fleming and Aird recently and looked at where we have an advanced planning permit in Portlaoise and lands surrounding it, as well as being there on the occasion when Midland Steel announced 70 jobs, which are very important for the area. We have seen 11% growth in Enterprise Ireland…

I take on board Deputy Fleming's comments. I will work with the IDA on attracting foreign direct investment into the region. We have increased our regional target, which is very important, to get as many jobs as we can. We are working through our capital programme, in which we have about €500 million for regional buildings, to put the infrastructure in place around them and ensure they are in the …

I thank Deputy Cahill for his very important question. In line with the programme for Government, I was pleased to launch the Government's new national - I have the wrong one there. My apologies. I think I have the wrong question, if you could just give me a second. I do not see it here. Anyway, I will manage. In relation to our short-term lets, there is obviously a commitment in the programme fo…