Simon Harris

Yes.

I thank Deputy Brabazon. I am a bit frustrated to hear they have not made progress more speedily on those Uisce Éireann works. I really appeal to Uisce Éireann, when Members of the Oireachtas, Government or Opposition, raise issues in this House to please take them seriously. Please, just take them seriously. Uisce Éireann is a State body and TDs raise issues here in good faith. When they raise th…

I thank Deputy Roche for raising this issue. It is an interesting point. The primary focus of investments in the regional local road network is on the protection and renewal of them, which obviously plays a crucial role for communities, local economies and the likes. We have very significantly increased our funding on that. There is a discretionary grant under the regional and local road grant tha…

I thank the Deputy for her contribution and for acknowledging the additional gardaí, who are badly needed. We need to continue to increase the number of gardaí through Templemore. The Deputy is right that as we increase the number of gardaí, we need to make sure we have modern fit-for-purpose stations. The population of Swords is now much closer to the population of a city than that of a village. …

I fully do and I thank Deputy Currie for raising this issue. People who work hard should be able to get ahead and not just get by. Work must always pay. There are far too many people in this country who feel they play by the rules, do everything they possibly can, spend long times commuting, have childcare costs and the like and at the end of the month, they say "Is that it?" when they look at the…

I certainly will. It is a very important issue. The National Ambulance Service plays a literally life-saving role right across our communities. I am proud of the work that we have done together in Government where we increased overall funding for the National Ambulance Service by 41% between 2022 and 2025. We increased staff, with 588 more staff to a total number of 2,655, and we invested €126 mil…

The Minister for justice is not accountable in terms of where gardaí are deployed, which is only my best guess as to why that question would have been ruled out of order but, of course, the Government has an active interest in policing, Garda numbers and working with communities. I am very conscious that the community in Saggart - good decent people in Saggart - have asked Government for a number …

I remember that day well. I think the Deputy was at the launch with me. It might be the day the Deputy suggested the date of the general election. I remember it was a busy day but I am very pleased we launched that report and that we have taken a number of decisions recently in terms of resourcing the Dublin city centre task force, including the appointment of Robert Watt to oversee the office to …

I can quote a lot of statistics but that is not going to fix the challenge. We are increasing the number of people working in CDNTs. We are funding more posts and training more people but there are clearly real challenges in terms of fully staffing some of these teams. The Deputy mentioned specific issues with regard to the four teams in County Wexford and the inability - perhaps for very good rea…

I thank Deputy Whitmore for raising the issue. I have heard the annoyance, to put it mildly, of our constituents regarding this issue. On foot of the Deputy raising it today, perhaps we could convene all the Wicklow TDs with the Department and the NTA to try to get some facts on this. I will certainly play any supportive role I can, and I will link in with the Deputy's office to set that up.

Again, I am annoyed and irked to hear about this. I am not annoyed with the Deputy or Deputy Whitmore. State bodies have to be accountable to the Oireachtas and the democratically elected people. That does not mean they are always going to give us all the answers - I get that - but you have to at least feel as an Oireachtas Member of the Government or the Opposition that you are getting a proper f…

I thank Deputy Burke for raising the matter. I know the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is committed to working with him on this issue, as am I. Significant investment has been made at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in recent years. The annual budget has increased significantly and staffing has grown significantly, with the former by more than a third and the budge…

I thank Deputy Collins. We are now on the third example of an elected Member of the Oireachtas being frustrated by their inability to get answers from those who are accountable to the democratically elected Members of the Oireachtas. I thank him for raising the issue. The staff in SouthDoc in Clonakilty do fantastic work but I am aware of the issues the Deputy has raised in this House. I will spea…

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this issue. First, as the Deputy knows, we have worked hard to try to support the haulage section and I praise the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, for his leadership on that and the engagement we have had with the Irish Road Haulage Association and others, which is right and proper. However, the Deputy's question is also quite important because it is harder for some i…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I hope the agencies have looked in on today's proceedings. He does his very best to chair these proceedings, and I do my very best to answer as best I can the questions put. It is fair to say there is clear concern across this House about the lack of responsiveness of several unelected heads of agencies, which needs to be reflected on. Both this Oireachtas and th…

-----and it can pave a pathway to resolve this dispute.

Of course, the Government has not waited to act. It has introduced what is either the largest or second largest package of supports in the EU. It was announced on the floor of this House around two weeks ago, and I am pleased to say it is having an impact. While diesel and petrol prices are still too high, people have seen them lower at the pumps than they were before the intervention. People see …

Wow.

It is quite extraordinary that after 16 years as the Opposition spokesperson on finance, the Deputy still believes that a cost-of-living package of €750 million does not help. Of course it helps. It helps reduce the cost of diesel and petrol; it extended the fuel allowance; it is making people's homes warmer; it is helping the farmers, fishers and hauliers; and it is helping to suppress inflation.…

Deputy Doherty is trying to convince them of a false narrative, but the Irish people know something else, too. He Deputy does not want "an" emergency budget. He wants one a week.

He came in here about two weeks ago and asked me to bring forward a package of measures that would have cost €1 billion. Last week, Sinn Féin held its Ard-Fheis and said, "God, we had better come up with another plan - €3.2 billion". Sinn Féin's policies are not sustainable. We will have no options left in the winter if the Deputy continually comes in here every week and says "another billion, ano…

Every week with the Deputy, it is another emergency budget. He wants to spend a surplus that would not even exist if he was in power. We are acting. The Deputy is making it up.

Deputy Doherty is making it up as he goes along-----

-----and it is more about the tensions in Sinn Féin than here in Parliament.

I join with Deputy Gannon in acknowledging the huge sense of trauma, fear, disgust and shock being felt in the community of Ballymun and by people right across this country, but nowhere more acutely than in Ballymun. As the Deputy rightly said, on 28 April, a man armed with a handgun was seen near Ballymun Garda station where a second man was being detained. Both are suspected of being involved in…