Paschal Donohoe

I have seen few people who care more about children with scoliosis and their health needs than Simon Harris. I have seen at first hand the commitment he has had to making a difference to their lives and health.

I have seen few people who are moved more by the pain they are in and the needs they and their families have than Simon. I absolutely refute some of the things Deputy Tóibín has said about him and tell him that some of the claims he has made are cynical.

They devalue the commitment-----

-----the Tánaiste and the current Minister for Health have to making a difference to those who need support.

In relation to the points the Deputy made, the Government has made available - because we know it needs to be done - additional operating capacity in Ireland to support families who need that healthcare and we have put in place the surgeons and support to do it. I will certainly follow up on the status of the need for children to travel abroad to get that healthcare, but in many cases it can be dr…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. As he said, I know there is a new 95-bed unit that is now located in Thomastown providing really important health services to the community he represents. He is correct, unfortunately, to say that there has been a delay with regard to the recruitment of speech and language therapists. The post has been advertised on two different occasions and it has not been p…

The rural transport scheme has played a really important role in connectivity between our towns and villages. The note I have here indicates that in 2024 passenger numbers went up to 5.8 million, which is great. It is so important we have a local transport service that directly links up the towns and villages in our country. Cork has been a big beneficiary of this. There has been a 50% increase in…

I thank the Deputy. I am very much aware of the importance of family resources centres. We have a number of them in the area of Dublin that I represent and, in particular, there is a great one on Hill Street. I see the great work it does in supporting our diverse communities and all the work it does there. I am very familiar with Dungarvan. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, is well awa…

It is because sport brings people together. Because in the world we are in at the moment, where there are so many things that can bring people apart and so many things that are capable of dividing us, sport and culture are one of the few common grounds we have by which we can unite people and bring them together in a way that respects athletic endeavour and joins people together in admiring what g…

That is the reason we are doing it. This weekend will see our country and our city, in particular, full of American people who are coming to Ireland for the opportunity to see a game happen. I think that is a good thing. It will lead to extensive economic benefits for Ireland, that will happen, but for me there is a broader reason we do it. With all the causes we have at the moment that are pullin…

I am very familiar with the work of the LauraLynn foundation and the really important care and support it provides to young children. On the Deputy’s particular request for multiannual funding, I do not believe the budget will deliver that. This House passes budgets year by year. It is therefore very difficult, and I do not believe it should happen, that we can give current funding commitments tha…

No.

Yes.

Sure you do it all the time.

Disgraceful.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund is a €16.6 billion fund comprising the discretionary portfolio of €8.9 billion and the directed portfolio of €7.7 billion, based on the 2024 annual report. It has a double bottom line mandate to invest on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. ISIF has complete independence in implementing its investment…

The key point to emphasise is that ISIF made the decision to divest of these bonds. It no longer holds them. I understand this decision was made over the last number of weeks.

I will make three points on this. First, ISIF no longer holds these bonds. It divested of them. Second, as the Deputy well knows, ISIF independently decides what shares it is going to hold and what investments it is going to make. It does so in a way that is completely independent of me. Third, I thoroughly refute any suggestion of complicity in the appalling violence being inflicted on the people…

-----as the Government already has on many different occasions. I emphasise that these bonds are no longer held by ISIF and were sold.

I thank the Deputy. He is making reference to a G7 statement published on 28 June, adopting a common position on a path forward for the OECD agreement. In that statement, the G7 proposed the side-by-side application of the OECD pillar two system, and the US minimum tax rules, which are now under consideration by the OECD inclusive framework. Since January, the US Administration has set out various…

The short answer to the Deputy’s question is that this agreement does have consequences for the OECD agreement overall. There are three in particular. The first is what this means for competitiveness of economies and countries that remain fully inside pillar two. The second is how other economies and important stakeholders in the OECD agreement will respond, given the actions that have been taken …

It is possible it could require action at EU level but I cannot give the Deputy a definitive answer to that yet. The reason for that is that what I have seen is the publication of a general agreement on how the US would engage in the OECD framework that raises many questions. At this point in time, I cannot give the Deputy a definitive answer regarding how that agreement will be executed and wheth…

The European Central Bank increased interest rates over the course of 2022 and 2023 as a move to combat excessive inflation. Since the middle of 2024, the ECB has reduced its main official lending rate to 2.15%. While changes by the ECB generally have a direct impact on tracker mortgage rates, reductions by the ECB are only one factor that feed into the commercial decisions made by creditors in re…

First, the Deputy referred to me being "a cheerleader". What I said at the time was that the sale of those loan books from those various banks was an important step in the banks regaining financial health, which, in turn, would help them to lend more in the future and contribute to our economy growing. I understood at that point the sensitivity with regard to it. That is why the consumer protectio…

Is that to encourage us to speak quicker?