Aidan Farrelly

For the information of Members present, we cannot take supplementary questions on priority questions. Apologies to Members.

Four Members have indicated they would like to come in with a supplementary comment. I ask them to be really mindful of their time and to keep their contributions nice and short. They have a maximum of 30 seconds each.

Thank you, Deputy.

In the spirit of showing each other documents across the floor like the Minister did a couple of minutes ago, I present a news article from January where Michael Lowry is quoted as saying, "The Group’s contribution to the review of the National Development Plan and our input to the HSE Capital Plan, will be central to our ongoing work within Government." Can the Minister reassure people that we ha…

The truth is this Government does not have the mandate to change the triple lock. As my colleague said, the Fianna Fáil general election manifesto vaguely mentions it. In a 200-page document, it gets one mention. The Fine Gael general election manifesto does not mention the triple lock at all and I am pretty sure it did not make it to Michael Lowry’s shopping list either. People did not vote for …

We move now to Question No. 10 in the name of Deputy O'Reilly.

We have a supplementary question from the Deputy's colleague.

Come on Deputy, you are way over time.

Deputy, sit down. Thank you.

Let us stick to the initial topic.

I am thankful to have the opportunity to speak on the report today. The discourse on housing is often influenced by numbers, namely the number of people experiencing homelessness, the number of homes delivered below the Government's target in 2024, the falling number of planning permissions and commencement notices, the number of workers and apprentices needed, the number of recommendations in the…

I thank our colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I have been listening to the conversation and the debate. Who is making this decision? Who is taking this scheme, a diamond in the rough of a terrible housing policy, and saying let us scrap it because it is nearly too successful?

It is being scrapped.

It is being scrapped. As it stands, it absolutely is being scrapped. If what he said makes the Minister sleep at night, that is fine. He is making this scheme so restrictive now, though, that it guarantees homelessness. It guarantees it. We will see the evidence play out. How is there an evidence-based approach to say "No" regarding the tenant in situ scheme? The Government can still call it somet…

2. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he will provide further details in respect of his plans to review spending by bodies under his remit and-or aegis. [9994/25]

First, I take the opportunity to wish the Minister well and congratulate him on his new role. I ask him to provide further details in respect of his plans to review spending by bodies under his remit or aegis.

There is a bit of a smoke and mirrors effort happening here; a bit of a damage limitation stunt. I appreciate what the Minister has inherited here is a little bit of a mess but the reality is that his Department already knows what is being spent. That is fair to say. What we have seen though, with both of the incidents the Minister cited, is an abject failure in terms of oversight in governance. …

We all know, having worked in different sectors, that extensive reporting mechanisms are in place already. If we draw down public funds, we have to report at every step of that process. We know that, for example, as regards the IT system, there are what we call decision gates at various stages of expenditure, whereby organisations have to report that back. As for my concern about the committee to …

Last week, the Government published its spring legislation programme. I am interested in the planned reform of the legislation relating to corporate governance in RTÉ and TG4. Governance in RTÉ has been like a terrible soap opera at times. Employment arrangements there are often unacceptable. Our national broadcaster needs to be the subject of ongoing scrutiny. Specifically on what we talked about…

I wish the Minister well in her new brief. It has been a privilege to sit here and listen to input from Deputies from across the Chamber this evening. I do not think that will come as a surprise to any us. We have learned enough in recent years to have a good understanding of the lived experience of people with disabilities in the main. What people with disabilities do not in fact need is Members …

I thank colleagues in Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. I will keep my contribution short. We are having this debate in the context of a conversation about carbon emissions and climate change. We are in the midst of a necessarily modal shift. Some 60% of greenhouse has emissions relate to passenger cars. When I hear interesting figures to the effect that 250,000 tests were carried out last year,…

113. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will outline her plans to reform and improve the provision of children’s disability network teams, as outlined in the programme for Government. [8145/25]

I wish the Minister and the Minister of State well in their roles. Will the Minister of State outline her plans to reform and improve the provision of children's disability network teams as outlined in the programme for Government?

We received a response this week to a parliamentary question on the issue, in which the HSE cites staff vacancy as one of the major issues. That aligns with what the Minister of State says about being able to work with as many children and young people as possible in the State. Are we confident that we are maximising workforce opportunities from the point of view of third level education and in t…

I appreciate the Minister of State's response. That level of detail is very welcome. I offer the full support of the Social Democrats in progressing this in whatever way we can in terms of policy. This is incredibly important. We have spoken quite often in the Chamber in recent weeks about SET and disability services. There is an intersectionality between the two. It is not just about the level of…