Malcolm Byrne

This issue is critical, particularly in the context of our need to deliver housing across the State. If we are to deliver homes, we must ensure that we have in place critical energy infrastructure and water and wastewater infrastructure. The first question the person in charge of every State agency should be asking every morning is what is he or she doing to help to address the housing crisis. If …

10. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Taoiseach for a report on his attendance at the G20 in South Africa. [5810/26]

13. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Taoiseach for a report on his attendance at the EU-African Union summit. [68211/25]

10. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Health for an update on the development of the new primary care centre, PPC, at Gorey, County Wexford. [4437/26]

I ask the Minister for Health for an update on the long-promised, long-awaited and long-overdue primary care centre at Gorey, County Wexford.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will recall that in my time in the Seanad, I raised this issue four times as a Commencement matter. I raised it as a Topical Issue in this House on 13 February last year, which was also answered by the Minister of State. She concluded her response on that occasion by saying: "I have no doubt I will be back in here again to answer about the Gorey primary care c…

I recognise the Minister's commitment in this area. It is critical that we have a primary care centre that will include the local CDNT, have adequate facilities and include the planned additional CAMHS unit. My issue has been that when the project was conceived in 2010, everyone locally said the site identified by the HSE would not work. Finally, the HSE accepted that. When we had a meeting with t…

With regard to affordable housing, while there is a need for more to be done, I welcome the fact that the Minister was in Gorey last Friday where a very successful affordable housing scheme of 20 homes was launched. The families were very satisfied. I was delighted that the Sinn Féin Deputy was present. Even though he opposed many of the Government's measures in this regard, he had no problem hopp…

The challenge in this regard is to get far more of these affordable homes schemes going. I urge him to expedite the schemes that are coming into him from Wicklow and Wexford County Councils because we need them as quickly as possible.

146. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline his Department's support for local authorities to tackle coastal erosion. [4418/26]

What measures are in place for local authorities to address coastal erosion?

The Minister is very aware of the challenges of coastal erosion. I am fortunate to represent a constituency that has some of the finest beaches in the country, stretching from Brittas Bay in Wicklow down to Morriscastle in Wexford. The Minister knows the challenges many of those communities have faced. Our problem is that we have so many strategies being developed but all the time the coast is sta…

I thank the Deputy. Wicklow and Wexford county councils are taking this issue seriously. I love the beaches around my area but a lot of them are starting to disappear. It is not just a problem in counties Wicklow and Wexford. The Minister will be very familiar with the challenges around Courtown and the area to the north of that. Courtown is a legendary destination for many people but the beach ha…

I thank the Minister of State for being here for this very important debate. As others have said, we could touch on any number of topics from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing horrors we are seeing in the Middle East to what has been happening in Sudan. I think what is important in this House is that Ireland reasserts our values, the things that have always been important to us …

I do want to refer to Greenland and the threats we are seeing there. I am possibly one of the few Members, if not the only Member of this House, who has actually been to Greenland.

I would share Deputy Boyd Barrett's view that the Inuit people are a wonderful and friendly people. It is one of the challenges in this debate. A lot of the discussion is rightly around geopolitics and security but we do need to think about the 57,000 people who live there. It is for the people of Greenland to determine their future. They have made very clear that at present they want to remain as…

I will follow on from Deputy O'Meara, with whom I entirely agree on the accountability of Uisce Éireann. Last July I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister around the question of accountability of Uisce Éireann to these Houses. While his office responded that he does not have a say in the operational matters, it was indicated that Uisce Éireann could be called before some of the parliamen…

I strongly support my colleague Deputy O'Meara on this. The Oireachtas committee on sport has considered this as a serious issue. When the Minister of State looks to the next round of sports capital funding, we urge him to include this as a factor in deciding on funding. One of our local soccer clubs, Courtown Hibs, runs very inclusive soccer training for children and young people who are neurodiv…

I welcome the announcement that there will be a further round of the sports capital scheme later. I commend the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, on their commitment to the development of not just clubs, but the critical role they play within our communities. I would ask that, in the announcements, regard would be had to rapidly growing communities. As the Minister of State wi…

I speak in strong support of Deputy O'Meara's question in this regard. I have regularly asked the Department of education what facilities are specifically going to be provided for sport, particularly for new builds, but also in terms of existing funding streams that can be made available to schools to get sports funding. I look at somewhere like Riverchapel National School in County Wexford. Inci…

Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue matter. I appreciate it is not his Department, but I hope he will bring this matter back to the Department of education and that the officials tuning in will be very aware of the concerns around Bunclody Community College. Bunclody Community College is a school with an enrolment of 310 students. This is an increase of…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I appreciate it is not his Department but, frankly, there is nothing new in this. This is deeply, deeply frustrating. The challenge for this school and for the staff, the students and the wider community - and I spoke with my good friend and colleague, Councillor Barbara-Anne Murphy, who chairs the board of management of the school - is that this sch…

I welcome this debate. This is an incredibly important subject. I thank the Minister of State for the leadership she has provided in this space. Working with me as chair of the Oireachtas committee, she has been very co-operative, as have officials in her Department. As my colleague Deputy McAuliffe said, artificial intelligence is a tool, not a goal in itself. We use any tool to, hopefully, impr…

1. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs will next meet. [65714/25]

I welcome the Taoiseach's continued commitment to multilateralism and human rights, the rule of law and democracy. As someone who has raised Iran in this House before, I salute too the brave men and women who are fighting against that oppressive regime. Equally, it the right of the people of Venezuela, now that the despot Maduro has gone, to decide on their future, even though his removal was in b…