Simon Harris

I thank Deputy Dempsey for raising this issue, as I know she has on a number of occasions. On foot of her raising this, I will speak with the Minister, Deputy James Browne. I think there is a broad issue in relation to this. I have spoken to the Minister on this and he shares that view. We need to look at better accountability structures for Uisce Éireann to elected Members of this House. It is no…

On the specific issue the Deputy has raised, I will ask the Minister, Deputy Browne, to come back to her.

I thank Deputy Clendennen for raising this important issue and listing a number of the important school projects across Offaly that are in need of progression. Being blunt, quite a lot of schools are at stage 2B. We, collectively as a House, want to see as many of them move on as possible, and the Deputy has obviously advocated strongly for the schools in Offaly. The Minister for education has pub…

I thank Deputy Dolan for raising the issue and the analytical approach he always brings to issues in this House. It is a fair point he is raising. We are obviously increasing our investment in public transport, but the affordability and fairness of public transport across all parts of the country is, of course, a legitimate issue that the Government will consider. On foot of the Deputy raising it,…

I thank Deputy Cummins. On foot of her raising this, I will ask the Minister, Deputy Naughton, to come back to her directly. I take the point she made. It is a very busy time for schools, with lots going on in the school community. However, we have also provided funding certainty to the Department of education and made a decision, which we debated earlier, to quite rightly provide significant addi…

The Deputy is so right. It is disgusting, despicable racism, and it is not who we are as a people. The people of Galway showed that with the very significant vote Labour's candidate received. I was pleased to meet Helen Ogbu over the weekend and to congratulate her on her campaign. The Deputy's point about the powers of Coimisiún na Meán are valid. I will ask the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, to com…

I thank Deputy Ní Raghallaigh for raising the issue. I truthfully do not know enough about that train station, other than that she makes a compelling case about how population growth needs to be met by improved public transport. Her suggestion that a train station that previously existed could be reopened certainly merits the Minister engaging with her on that. On foot of the Deputy raising it, I …

I thank Deputy Wall for engaging with the Minister for education on this. He is right that the general direction of travel that all of us in this House want to see is reducing the costs that families face when their children attend school. That is why we have had the hot school meals and the free schoolbooks. It is why we are genuinely trying to work with the CCPC and others on uniform costs. It w…

One sure way to run down supplies is to not allow them in and out when we only had one refinery in the country. I am glad that situation is resolved because at a time of global insecurity regarding energy supply, it is important that we continue to make sure that supply of energy to this country continues. I recently met NORA, not a female but the National Oil Reserve Agency, and was pleased to sa…

In fairness, it is not the first time Deputy Collins has raised the issue with me. It sounds to me like he wants fewer political visitors and more political action on the pier, which is not an unreasonable thing to say. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will ask the relevant Minister to bring together the stakeholders. It sounds to me, from previous engagement we have had on this, that a numbe…

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government has already intervened to help absorb the impact of rising energy prices for households and businesses with two packages of measures worth over €750 million. The first package of measures introduced in March reduced excise on fuel, cut the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy to a nominal amount and enhanced the diesel rebate scheme. We also extended…

I am not sure that the Deputy's take on the Irish people is where they are at. The Irish people get the fact that this Government responded with one of the largest packages of support in the European Union, so nobody has been asked to wait at all. We reduced excise on diesel and petrol and put in place measures for key sectors. All of that benefits every citizen in this State in terms of trying to…

The Deputy is doing it again. The Deputy is speaking for the people of Ireland. We both went to Galway and we put our cases to the people. The Deputy said, "Send a message to the Government on the cost-of-living crisis - vote Sinn Féin", and the people of Galway West said, "Now, hang on a second here. We can see through this." The Deputy should have a little humility in terms of coming in here spe…

I appreciate the Deputy's support for the initiative. The living city initiative is provided for in Chapter 13 of Part 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. It offers income or corporation tax relief for qualifying expenditure incurred in the refurbishment and conversion of qualifying residential and commercial buildings located within special regeneration areas. Often these are inner city or c…

That is a fair point. Truthfully, I do not know whether Revenue went out and marketed the scheme previously. From my recollection, it is generally the local authorities that promote the scheme and obviously the Revenue Commissioners that administer the scheme. On the Deputy's broader point as to whether we should have roadshows or workshops, absolutely we should. On foot of the Deputy raising thi…

As I say, I am positively disposed to that. We passed a law in this House to make this living city initiative available to five more regional towns, including places such as Drogheda and Dundalk. We all want to see it succeed now. We have tried to show flexibility as a Department and as a Government in terms of enhancing the scheme. In the previous Finance Act, there were a number of enhancements…

The European Union does not work in the manner in which the Deputy described. It is not about forcing anybody's hand. We are members of the European Union. The Deputy's party did not support joining the European Union, but we are members of it and sit round the table and make decisions together. It clearly makes sense in a single market that if you are introducing a taxation system around energy, …

I fully accept that it is the very clear position of the Government that if we were to act on windfall taxation, we would do it at an EU level because of the interconnectedness of the EU market. That is the position of the Government. This week, Deputy Doherty wants to fund the new measures he would like to do outside of a budget with a windfall tax.

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Let me speak, Pearse. Come on.

The angry routine is not working. Just let me speak. I thank the Deputy. I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. The transcript will show that Deputy Doherty talked about bringing in a windfall tax measure that could help to provide supports families and businesses.

This is my time. I am allowed to speak. I might be allowed to suggest the Deputy might tell me what the purpose of it is if he does not believe it is for that. Last week, he wanted us to use the surplus. The point is we have put in place one of the largest energy support packages in the European Union. We are working at an EU level because a co-ordinated approach matters. Being isolated and not wo…

He just used all of my time.

I do not have a script.

That is the problem.