David Cullinane

The Government made a mess of this. Why does the Taoiseach not admit it?

10. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the first progress report of the climate action plan. [9923/26]

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

If you tried to create a housing crisis, you could not do a better job than this Government is doing. It has allowed investor funds to come in and purchase family homes - ordinary homes - from under the feet of families who need them. Big corporations and big multinationals are coming in to make money while families are looking for a roof over their heads and for their own homes. The Government ha…

Ireland needs an international protection system that is fair, efficient and enforced. That means being fair to those coming here fleeing war and persecution. We have to respect and protect their dignity and provide clarity and timely decisions. It must always be fair to communities as well by providing resources and supports to them when additional people come. The system also has to be efficien…

I thank the Minister of State for visiting Passage East on Sunday last. He met with the local authority and with residents whose homes were affected by flood damage. He would have heard at first hand that what those who were affected by the floods in Passage East want is less talk and more action. There were concerns raised - rightly so - by residents in regard to the response from Waterford City …

34. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on children and education will next meet. [9922/26]

I acknowledge that Irish cancer services are among the best in the world. I want to pay tribute to all the staff who work in cancer services. However, we are beginning to see slippage in some areas which is disappointing. The response to a parliamentary question from me on key targets set by the HSE for diagnostics and treatment shows that we are beginning to see serious slippage. One in seven che…

10. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Taoiseach for an update on the programme for Government. [4024/26]

The Taoiseach says time and again that housing is the number one issue for this Government, and he accepts that there is a housing crisis. Notices to quit are on the increase in every county, including mine, Waterford. Last week, I met with three families, all of which have children, who received notices to quit. They are very worried and stressed about having to find alternative accommodation, wh…

The council is telling me that this year, it still has not received its allocation. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this issue again because this scheme is one of the few supports that is available and is actually working for those families.

The Government gutted it.

Infrastructure development is really important and is obviously important for every city, county and constituency, so I wish to raise infrastructure development for Waterford city and county and the wider south east. The North Quays development has received significant Government funding so I want to start by acknowledging that. However, I also have to say to the Minister that, per capita, the so…

I second the motion because emergency mental health care services are not fit for purpose. Too many people in acute distress feel they have little choice but to present to chaotic and overcrowded emergency departments that are simply not designed to meet their needs. This motion is about fixing and reforming the system, not managing its failures. Specialist care and safe spaces, such as assessmen…

1. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the measures she will take in 2026 to reverse the trend of increasing hospital and emergency department overcrowding and hospital waiting lists; the additional acute beds, step-down beds and home-care capacity added in 2025 and planned for 2026; the steps she will take to expedite elective centres; and if she will make a statement on the matt…

3. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health if she will remove charges for blister packs for those with a clinician-determined need; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5083/26]

5. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the steps she will take to address the major shortfalls in school dental screening and extreme waiting times for orthodontic care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5084/26]

I have ten minutes, and I am sharing time with two of my colleagues. I welcome the opportunity to contribute. We will support the Bill on Second Stage because the private homes support sector must be regulated, and families deserve basic assurances of safety standards and accountability. However, supporting a Bill is the not the same, as I am sure the Minister of State will agree, as applauding t…

I want to agree with Deputy Mac Lochlainn. We all have very similar problems with Uisce Éireann. We are on the front line of dealing with these issues. Communities come to us because they have no way themselves of getting through to Uisce Éireann. They expect that their democratically elected public representatives can get fast information for them. Through no fault of our own – because we try – w…

That is a different target.

The Bill proposes to ban single-use vapes and creates a framework to achieve this. The ban will be in effect within six months of the commencement of section 7 of the Act, as the Minister said. I support this Bill because it is simple in what it seeks to achieve, which is to ban single-use vapes. I will offer my opinion on, and a critique of, the Government's wider approach to this issue. I will f…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — in September, the Government accepted and published the new Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025, which was negotiated by the Department of Health; — the Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025 explicitly excluded reimbursement for monitored dosage systems (MDS), which had previously been reimbursed through the phased dispensing reimbursement mechanism, a practi…

I do not understand this approach. It may not have been the Minister who gave the speech in the Seanad but certainly it was a Minister who essentially doubled down. Nowhere did the reply say there would be any agreement. In fact, what it said was that this is a private matter between patients and pharmacists. I understand that this was funded indirectly; I said so at the time. It seems that this …