Thomas Gould

I support the amendment. It is a commonsense amendment that requires transparency, openness and discussion. There is really important work to be done regarding infrastructure. We really need to get it right now. The Government is bringing forward a plan, which we support, but it is not going far enough. I will give a couple of examples. The point was made by a number of speakers about transparency…

We have the same issue with northern distributor road. We have an elective hospital that was promised 20 years ago. It is vital that these pieces of infrastructure are delivered not alone for northside of Cork city but for Munster. Someone made a point about delivering infrastructure quickly. That is impossible. It will never happen on this island, especially in the Twenty-six Counties, but we co…

I want to start by congratulating Councillor Ted Tynan of the Worker's Party who retired from politics in Cork City Council last night. The reason this is relevant is that Ted fought for the working classes and communities on the north side of Cork city for years. However, the one thing he always fought against was the privatisation agenda of Fiann Fáil and Fine Gael. We had many marches and prote…

I recently undertook a housing survey across the State. There is more information in it than in everything the Minister or Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, said earlier because these are the facts. I will give the Minister a few facts. Some 83% of people said they had maintenance issues with black mould all over their houses. Some 77% of people said they had damp. They are major issues. Black mo…

7. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications for urgent needs payments in Cork in the first three months of each of the years 2019, 2025 and 2026 respectively, by category of application, and the number approved, in tabular form. [31076/26]

Will the Minister provide an update on the number of applications for urgent needs payments in Cork for the first three months of the years 2019, 2025 and 2026, by category of application and the numbers approved, in tabular form?

Go raibh maith agat. I would have preferred to have the information in front of me so I could have gone through it. There has been a reduction of 40 payments made between 2025 and 2026, if what the Minister has said is correct. I find that unbelievable. More and more people are coming to my office every week in urgent need - people in debt, whether in arrears on electricity or on gas; people who h…

If we are serious, the Minister has a job of work to do now. Over 300,000 people are in arrears on their energy bills. The Minister for energy has announced that there will be a 9% rise in energy prices, so more and more people will go into arrears. What is the plan? Has the Minister devised a plan in his Department to support affected people and let them know support exists? The fuel allowance e…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on these very important issues. The reality is that State is failing vulnerable children. A lady contacted me in my clinic on Monday. She was in foster care the majority of her life. For a short period when she was 17, she tried to go back home and rebuild a relationship with her mother but this did not work out and she went back into residential care. When she t…

Most days, the Taoiseach and I fight and argue about policy and politics. Today, is not one of those days. I come in here today to speak on behalf of Craig Coady. He had a family, a wife and two sons. His wife now is in long-term hospitalisation. She has Huntington's disease. They buried their 13-year-old son Rory, who died as a result of Friedreich's ataxia. Their second son Paudie, who is 15 yea…

Can I just say this?

I spoke to-----

I spoke to Craig this morning. He is pleading from his heart that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health see to it that this drug is provided.

On the 13th of this month a boy in my constituency turned six. Boys and girls his age organise parties, but there was no one to come to his party, only his family. He has been without a school place for a year. I contacted the NCSE about him last August and still he has no school place. It is nearly May and they still do not know whether he will have a school place in August. He is not alone; the…

As the Minister of State and I both know, a 19-bed unit in Heather House was first announced in 2022. Four years later this special dementia unit has not been opened and all we are getting is excuse after excuse and no date for when it will be open. The latest update from the HSE is that following HIQA's inspection, it is now looking to make amendments to the building. There is still no opening ti…

That is not right.

I appreciate that the Minister of State has said he is going to look into this personally but I am really disappointed because four years on it is still not open. The 25 beds in the nursing home are also really important but people with dementia are really vulnerable. They are scattered around nursing homes all over County Cork when there is a purpose-built nursing home at Heather House. I was ho…

I am standing here as a GAA person. However, in my community I see the power and the work that soccer teams, soccer clubs and soccer coaches have done. I have seen over the last 40 years how the number one sport in Cork was hurling. The number one sport now in Cork is soccer. There are a number of reasons for that but I have seen it taking off. The amount of young people playing the game is unbeli…

Correct the Dáil record.

Every house in the country has serious matters to deal with.

Is this a questions and answers session?

The first thing I want to say is that I am really disappointed in the Labour Party and the Social Democrats tonight and how they voted. I cannot believe they voted with the Government and against Sinn Féin when we tried to bring down the price of fuel and home heating oil. We are supposed to be united together in opposition against the Government. We stood against it, and we voted that we did not …

The Government will be run out the door.

Some 18,000 women and children went through or spent time in Bessborough. It closed in 1998. This is not just a historical wrongdoing; it is a modern one right up to today. There are people who still bear the scars and the trauma. To give a feel of it, John O'Brien died on 3 November 1922. He was ten months old. He was a young little baby, who was probably laughing and able to clap and what have y…

Today, 500 litres of home heating oil in Cork cost €900. That is less than half a tank. What the Government has proposed is a €10 cut. How insulting is that? The Minister is an intelligent man. Does he not think that this is insulting to people who are struggling to keep the heating on? Does he accept this is not good enough? If he does not accept it, I cannot believe him. The way the Minister is …