Mairéad Farrell

I look forward to seeing how that unfolds. It is incredibly important. It is interesting that on both the budgetary oversight and finance committees we have been dealing with the issue of tariffs. One of the big things is how we can protect ourselves. What may or may not happen nobody can predict. One of the longer term things is the investment in capital infrastructure, so we can build housing an…

Go raibh maith agat. Sometimes you are waiting a few minutes in between questions.

3. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if his Department’s submission to the EU review of the protected disclosures regime will refer to the views of whistleblowers from the Farrelly commission and Children's Health Ireland (children’s hip surgeries) about the reprisals they faced. [39487/25]

The Minister might be aware that I have a particular interest in the issue of protected disclosures and protecting whistleblowers. I worked well with the previous Minister, Michael McGrath, in regard to the EU directive. I put forward my own legislation on this. There is obviously now going to be the review of that. There is the EU review of the protected disclosures regime, and I am interested in…

When the Government was transposing the EU directive on protected disclosures, I was clear at the time and I voiced significant concerns. I felt it was perhaps deliberately going to weaken the transposition. I said I felt the setting up of the protected disclosures office was a retrograde step and that it removed a protected disclosure as a political issue. Previously, an Opposition TD could deliv…

One thing I absolutely encourage and urge the Minister to do is listen to the voices of whistleblowers. That is essential. We have had an issue for far too long whereby whistleblowers highlight wrongdoing and feel that they are persecuted after doing so. Unfortunately, from listening to the real-life experiences of whistleblowers, I do not think the position in that regard has changed. We need to …

When we are talking about investment within Uisce Éireann and we know investment is desperately needed in terms of delivery of housing and so on across the State, we also need to look at the investment we are making in water infrastructure on the offshore islands. On Inis Oirr, for example, there are night-time restrictions every summer. We need to have a plan and we need to invest in the offshore…

Apologies. I did not realise.

15. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if he will provide an update on his scoping exercise for the overpayment of civil servants and Ministers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39499/25]

My question relates to the scoping exercise the Minister and his Department are undertaking on the overpayment of pensions to civil servants and Ministers. What is the status of that, what has been identified to date and what can he tell us about it?

People are quite worried about this. We are seeing reports that one civil servant was apparently overpaid by €280,000. The 19 former and existing senior civil servants received overpayments worth €1.4 million. I hope measures are being put in place to make sure this does not happen again. The fact that it happened in the first place is shocking. When I raised it with the Minister at a committee he…

It is deeply concerning for most people that this is where it is. When does the Minister expect to have an outcome? Has he been able to identity exactly how this occurred? I do not mean any one person should be blamed for something like this but there must have been some system failures as well. Has the Minister got to the bottom of that? Does he expect that to come out of the report? When does he…

This is an issue we have been discussing for many years. In my home county, Galway, not a single dental practice is taking on new patients with medical cards. This is an issue I have been raising for some time. Consistently over recent years, people in dire straits have come to me, whether for themselves or their children, to try to gain access to medical care. A child in absolute agony might be t…

I am sure the Minister would agree that for too long women's health was not discussed and was seen as something secretive or embarrassing. As a result, for decades, women's healthcare has been utterly neglected. This is not exclusive to women with endometriosis; it concerns a whole range of things. This needs to end. Especially as the Minister is a woman, I appeal to her to see what this motion sa…

We know the application system for driving tests can be a disaster. An issue not raised as much is motorcyclists applying for tests. There is a major waiting list and people are told to monitor the site for a cancellation. There is a new practice where third-party sites and apps, for a fee, use bots and book up the cancellations. This places normal applicants at a disadvantage. It means some peopl…

Ursula von der Leyen has been one of the staunchest defenders of the current Israeli regime. She has consistently provided cover for them, going for photo opportunities at every possible moment. She talks about human rights and international law but it is clear for all to see how unequally she applies this. She will talk about Russian war crimes but she will not talk about Israeli war crimes. She…

The Minister clearly does not know how budgets work. I have only two minutes of speaking time so I will not be able to go through it now but I have no problem sitting down with him at some other time to go through exactly how budgets work. Budgets are about political choices. The Minister says it is a policy decision. It is a policy decision the Government said it was going to take.

In the run-up to the general election, the Government parties made all of these promises about how they were going to get rid of student fees. The Tánaiste even said in November that he would return to genuinely free fees and that this would be done over the lifetime of the next Government if he was returned to power. What do we have instead? The first thing we hear is that promise being reneged u…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cheann Comhairle agus leis an Aire Stáit. This is my third week in a row speaking on a Private Members' Bill from the Opposition which, on a Thursday afternoon, is being pushed back or declined by Government. This feeds in to a narrative and the opinion that this is a slow-moving do-nothing Government. First of all, I commend Deputy Bacik and the Labour Party on bringing…

Go raibh maith agat, a Theachta.

Your time is up.

Go raibh maith agat.

Go raibh maith agat, a Theachta. Your time is up.

We have a domestic violence epidemic in this country, North and South. Every single week now in my weekly clinics, women disclose domestic violence to me. Reporting of domestic violence has increased everywhere, including in Domestic Violence Response Galway. It is clear that something needs to change. I understand and recognise that is an enormous task to undertake, as domestic violence is an epi…

Where else in the world would a building from which a rebellion was led and from which the independence of a country in its entirety was proclaimed be the subject of an attempt by the government of the day to get rid of that historic tradition by having the commercialisation of the building as its mainstay? Would the French commercialise the Bastille? This is one of the proudest buildings in our h…