Martin Daly

2. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister. [46937/26]

The relationship between Ireland and Spain is hugely important with €15 billion in total in trade, including €10 billion in goods and services from Ireland to Spain, a country that is in the European Union and has shared our values, culture and history. It was a hugely important meeting and is a hugely important relationship. I ask the Taoiseach to comment in particular on the memorandum of unders…

I ask the Minister for an update on the plan to increase the capacity of inpatient beds by 4,000 or 4,500 across the country and if she will make a statement on the matter. We know we currently have 12,000 public beds and 2,500 private beds, which is about 2.9 beds per thousand of the population. We also know that the ESRI has predicted a need for a 40% increase in inpatient beds by 2040 and that …

I thank the Minister very much. We had the excellent Professor Rose Anne Kenny, co-ordinator of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, TILDA, in recently with the health committee. She pointed out the demographic challenge we are facing in health. We are going to have 1 million people over the age of 65 by 2030 and a doubling of the number of those aged over 65 by 2057, to 1.6 million people. We …

I accept that answer and I thank the Minister very much for that update. It is important because people sometimes equate healthcare with hospital beds, but that is not reality. In isolation, beds cannot provide for the healthcare needs of the public. We will never develop enough capacity in beds unless we change the way we manage healthcare, both in preventative and in primary care. We really do h…

I wish to ask if the Government has or is developing a policy for the development of industrial hemp production in Ireland. Industrial hemp is a remarkable plant. It is a recognised crop grown largely in France, Belgium and Germany and is governed by an EU regulatory framework to keep the active tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, content lower than 0.3%, which is important because it is part of the cannab…

I thank the Minister for being here. This is a success story that the Minister will be glad to hear about. The question is how we are going to support and expand the service that exists at Roscommon University Hospital. The reconfiguration of the hospital, which caused huge controversy at the time, has turned out to be a great success, with many innovative departments and many new services for peo…

I thank the Minister for her comprehensive answer, which I appreciate. The important thing is the innovation that has happened at this particular unit in terms of the "see and treat" model, where patients are referred for photo triage before they attend. The service is led by a consultant but delivered by specialist advanced nurse practitioners, ANPs, in dermatology, who are trained in the screeni…

6. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [23618/26]

Once again I want to ask about Roscommon University Hospital and the promised neurorehabilitation unit. It was promised in 2015 with an attached budget of €8 million. It was twice removed from the HSE's capital plan without any discussion and twice put back on after lobbying by me and my office. Now there is a real lack of urgency about providing those places. Neurorehabilitation looks after acqui…

26. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his St. Patrick’s Day visit to the US. [45337/26]

I welcomed the Taoiseach's visit to the US. He represented Ireland's interests extremely well. He reminded America that it is a two-way street in terms of economic collaboration, with Ireland being the fifth largest source of foreign direct investment, FDI, in the US, investing close to $390 billion in the American economy, with 200,000 people directly employed there, and $476 billion in FDI comin…

I acknowledge the families and people who live with rare diseases for their advocacy and their resilience. I am not going to go into individual diseases. It is welcome news, though, that givinostat has been approved. I pay particular tribute to the current Minister for Health, who has really taken on the issue around givinostat and is also looking at the reform of the accessibility for orphan drug…

17. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on disability will next meet. [14279/26]

I am aware of the Taoiseach's commitment to the matter of disability and the establishment of the unit in his Department, and the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley's, commitment to improving the lot of people who live with disability in Ireland. We have met groups of parents whose main concern and apprehension is the care of their vulnerable offspring when they are not around anymore, either through in…

127. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Minister for Defence when a decision on a location for the Army headquarters will be made; if Custume Barracks, Athlone, will be considered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42807/26]

I thank the Minister for a comprehensive reply. This is in the context of the record €1.7 billion defence national development plan, which the Government will invest in capital infrastructure for the next five years. It is important that it is got right. We are living in a changed geopolitical situation since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and we will have to live up to our defence obligations…

I welcome the investment in our defence capability. It has grown by 35% in the past three years and by 11% in the past year. We need to continue to invest to meet our international obligations but also to meet our own obligation as a sovereign nation and to protect our borders and the seas that surround this island. It is extremely important that we be strategic as a small country in the investmen…

When we speak about ensuring our skills, training and innovation systems keep pace with the changing world, we often focus on technology, artificial intelligence - which will be revolutionary - automation and digital transformation, but for constituencies like Roscommon-Galway, the real question is much simpler: will people have the opportunity to build a future where they are from? Change is alre…

25. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs will next meet. [9938/26]

We are leading out on the European Presidency from July. Can we bring a focus on the cost-of-living issues throughout Europe and use European institutions, such as European competitiveness and competition law, in relation to the price of groceries? Up to 35% of families are spending a third of their disposable income on groceries each week.

I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue which has been felt in households right across Roscommon-Galway and, indeed, across the country. People are very clear about what they are experiencing. The cost of the weekly shop has risen significantly and it continues to rise. For many households, particularly those on low and middle incomes, this is not an abstract issue; it is a real and immediat…

I appreciate the response but the concern remains around how this is being experienced by people on the ground. People are telling us that the value of a euro in the shopping trolley has fundamentally changed. There was a time when people could shop around. They might do a core shop in one retailer and then top up in other retailers for choice. However, we are increasingly hearing those price diff…

Will the Minister of State reflect on the election of Péter Magyar as Prime Minister of Hungary, his winning the election and the end of the Orbán regime? Hungary stood out as a sore thumb. I have been trying to understand, for the life of me, why the European Union did not take further sanctions against Hungary, although I know moneys were withheld. The lesson for other jurisdictions - if we foll…

As both a doctor and TD, I wish to be very clear about what we are dealing with here. This is not a minor trend. This is the early stage of a new addiction epidemic. In Ireland today, one in three students has tried vaping and one in six is a current user. Among the under-25s, 11% are regularly e-cigarettes users, which is the highest of any age group. Most worrying of all, the majority of young p…