Simon Harris

I am conscious that Fingal East has one of the youngest populations in the country and is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. We are seeing more houses being built and more people moving in, and they require school places. Sometimes the Department of education can be right on the macro and wrong on the micro. It needs to take a look again at specific parts of the country, including th…

The answer is that I am hoping we can do more on measures in the budget to help people adapt, and I am hoping we can do more in each budget that comes thereafter. The budget is 6 October. I know the Deputy does not need to be told this, but the point I was trying to make is that we should not reduce the conversation in here to just about a cash support right now if there are actually other things …

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy. Of course, the Government did not wait. It brought forward, objectively, one of the largest packages of supports in the European Union to assist our citizens. It is either the largest or second largest package in the European Union, depending on how you look at it, and it is around two and a half times larger than the average package in the European Union. While I welcome the E…

Truthfully, it is quite the opposite. We have already brought forward a package of €750 million. That is the opposite of refusing to act; it is acting. It is concrete, meaningful action and people see it at the pump. They know that the diesel price is lower than it was before. It is still too high but people know it is lower. They know the petrol price is lower than it was. Hauliers and their repr…

We will not be bringing forward a mini budget but we did introduce a €750 million package, the second largest in the European Union and two and a half times the European average, less than two weeks ago. I take some of the points the Deputy made on sectoral interests versus everybody. There is something in that. However, I will make two points regarding that. First, there are some sectors where it…

We will not get into it but the Deputy knows Ronald McDonald does not own the McDonald's in Bray. He knows there are franchises in relation to many of these places. It is important to point that out.

Whether it is a franchise or a small independent business, there are hardworking, decent people running these places too. They employ PAYE workers too. I will stand in any of these cafés, restaurants or rural pubs that serve food and say to people that the reduction we have brought about from July on VAT is a reduction in the cost base of that business. At a time of real pressure, reducing costs o…

Cannot mention that.

I thank the Deputy. I remember very well standing at the GPO for what was a very important moment for Dublin with the launch of the Dublin city task force report. I say that because it was a report that had nothing to do with me. I decided that we should have a task force for Dublin but the report is the culmination of an incredible body of work done by many people, including many Members, many pe…

It was May 2024. I became Taoiseach in April 2024 so it was May 2024 that we announced the plan to put this in place. Now, in 2026, we are already seeing delivery on that. The Deputy is actually right about the living city initiative. There was a rigidity around the living city initiative that, quite frankly, was making it too hard for people to benefit from. That is why we made a number of change…

A memo is due to go to the Government around the next two weeks specifically on the next steps for the GPO.

I thank the Deputy for raising last night's programme. It is a programme which has been extraordinarily difficult for people across the country to watch. First and foremost, I thank the young people who came forward and shared their experience of the care system. It takes a lot of courage and bravery to do so and to do so in such a public manner. I commend "RTÉ Investigates" on the work it did on …

I need to be very careful here. There are extraordinarily harrowing cases that deserve and require a full investigation. I know that, over time, there have been five referrals to An Garda Síochána. The gardaí do their job very well but we should also acknowledge that Tusla is not the problem here. Tusla is working with children in very vulnerable and complex situations. It is not acceptable for an…

It is important to say that there are around 6,000 children in our care system, living with foster parents and in registered centres. The vast majority are in education and training. It is also true, in fairness to the Minister, Deputy Foley, who is working hard on this matter, that she secured an increase in the Tusla budget of €177 million this year on top of an additional €53 million in additio…

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this important matter. I acknowledge that, as he rightly reminded the House, this is not the first time he has raised this issue here, and directly with the Minister for Health as well. There has been a welcome and renewed policy focus in this House and from the Government on the importance of HRT treatment and accessibility to the free HRT programme. I tha…

The Deputy is right. It is always a milestone moment in relation to the consideration of any new medicine for Irish patients when the NCPE produces its report and that has obviously happened. The next step is for the HSE to invite the company to initiate commercial negotiations. Following that step, clinical submissions are considered and so too are patient submissions. That is important so that t…

I agree with a lot of what the Deputy said in the sense of these being extraordinarily harrowing cases involving extraordinarily vulnerable children. I want to answer his question. I know all of us in this House would say that these children do matter. Their voices do matter. All of us need to be their voice. I did have a good conversation with the CEO of Tusla earlier, with whom I have regular en…

Last year alone, more than 106,000 referrals were received by Tusla. There are over 6,000 children in foster care with foster parents or in registered centres doing well. The vast majority of children in care are thriving and are being well looked after. The vast majority of them are in education or training. That is not to take away from the harrowing failures. The Government will of course want…

I thank Deputy Cummins for bringing up the issue and I will have a look at that report. The question she is raising is a broader one that arises from time to time, where there is a model that works well in parts of the city or of our country and there are other communities saying that they too could benefit from that model. I am going from my memory now, but I know there was work to be undertaken …

I thank Deputy Healy and acknowledge this is not the first time he has raised it in this House. It does seem to have been going on for a very long time. Truthfully, I do not know the factual reason, whether it is regarding an inability to recruit or not. I know it often can be. The Deputy also raised the issue in relation to the transfer of services. On foot of him raising it again, I will ask tha…

I thank Deputy O'Flynn for raising this issue. On foot of him specifically raising that area, I will ask the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, who has responsibility for this area, to come back to him directly. The broader point as to how we make sure we can retrofit and make homes warm for people to live in and to have a higher standard more quickly is absolutely at the core of what we need to be doing n…

I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this issue. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Burke, on this matter today. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, has told me he has spoken to him as well today. Pfizer is a great company and has been a great employer in the Deputy's own community but also in this country. I would like to have a better and deeper understanding of this and I am obviously very …

I thank Deputy O'Shea for raising this issue with me and with the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, here who has responsibility for rural transport as well. I am pleased to see the investment in rural transport in Cork increased by 46% between 2024 and 2025 to more than €7.2 million. To the Deputy's point about Cork, passenger numbers on the rural routes are increasing by 95% so there is clear d…

I thank Deputy Donnelly. I am very proud to be a member of the Government that has introduced the DEIS plus programme. For the first time ever in the history of the State, we now have DEIS plus and I thank the Minister, Deputy Naughton, for her work on that. The Deputy and I have discussed this before. It is a start. The schools have been chosen on the basis of need, with criteria that are above a…