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 the Government should …
TDs / Simon Harris
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
566,209
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566,201 as a minister, 8 as a TD
140
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Debates they spoke in most
Plus 2,685 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Wicklow 29 November 2024 to now
- office Taoiseach 29 November 2024 to 22 January 2025
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-----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 that with their own …
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. The Deputy wants to…
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, another billion, anothe…
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 an ongoing feud. Ga…
We do.
First, I fully appreciate the Deputy is making a point that is broader than Ballymun. I just wanted to acknowledge the trauma in Ballymun and point out there is a structure there that Government should harness to try to support the community at this time of particular acute challenge.
We have taken a number of initiatives to try to tackle deprivation in the country. I can think of one as recently as last month, with…
I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising this issue and this case again, and I say that sincerely. I know the intense and constructive ways in which she has been engaging to try to support this student. I say that before I say the next piece, which is I am genuinely not 100% sure how to answer this question, for the reason that I am conscious, based on what she has told me now and what she has said previously in this Hou…
I am not in any way, shape or form undermining or implying any doubt in regard to what the victim has said to the Deputy and others. I am simply respecting the role I have versus the roles others have in society. There are obviously processes outside of here that have to establish fact. I do not say that to be in any way lacking in empathy; it is just to be factual. On the broader point the Deputy makes around the Mi…
I thank Deputy Collins. I join with him in wishing Brigid McGlynn all the very best. I was not aware of that. I say it from a position of affection and respect that she has been part of the furniture around here in all the time I have been here. She is quite an institution in and of her own and I wish her and her family all the very best, and indeed the best, as the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins tells me, with th…
I would make a couple of points on the surplus. First, it is better to have one than not have one, and it has enabled us to bring in a €750 million package of supports, one of the largest in the European Union, and not have to borrow for it. If you look at our nearest neighbours in the UK, they brought in a smaller package for their citizens per head of population. They had to borrow and were charged around 5% on the…
I thank my colleague, Deputy Butterly, for raising this matter. I accept her challenge and request in terms of seeking progress and expediency in relation to this. I am also conscious of CIÉ pensioners who are probably watching this and thinking there has been nothing expeditious about it. I am conscious of that as I say it. I did speak with ministerial colleagues on this during the week and I know there is a shared …
The Deputy is right; time does not stand still. There are real people waiting for this increase, and waiting longer than they ever expected they would have to and longer than we would have wished. I acknowledge that. I also acknowledge that they are people who worked bloody hard in public service for the good of our country, through a great and proud tradition of working in CIÉ. Many of us know people in our communit…
We are listening, we are acting. It is an important and serious issue. We have made a lot of progress in relation to improvement to our cancer services over a sustained period. Under the current national cancer strategy, we have already allocated €105 million to support our cancer services and an additional €120 million in direct investment in radiation oncology centres in Cork and Galway to address the radiotherapy …
I rarely disagree with the Deputy, and I do not mean to be argumentative, but that woman in Wexford received penalty points because she was speeding not because there was a lack of signage. Speed kills. I encourage people to put up correct signage, but we are living through a road safety crisis. Static cameras are an effort to try to assist people. Nobody likes to get penalty points. If you obey the rules of the road…
Before answering, I would like to welcome the young people in the Gallery from the Youth Advocate Programme, Foróige and Springboard Family Support Project, all of whom appeared in front of the Joint Committee on Children and Equality. Deputy Keogh, the Chair of the committee, asked me to say that. They were before the committee in respect of the topic of online safety, which, I assure them, is something we always di…
The short answer is that I will speak to my colleague the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, in relation to this. Thankfully, we live in a country that has had full employment for 16 consecutive quarters, but we are not in any way complacent in saying that. We are seeing a churn, for want of a better phrase, in the jobs market. There is no room for complacency. That is why IDA Ireland, which had its most successful year e…
On the Deputy's point about the need to have a plan for replacement jobs in Laois and the use of IDA Ireland land is a fair on, as is that which he makes around people's quality of life and traffic congestion. We believe passionately in balanced regional development. On foot of the Deputy raising this matter today, I will ask the Minister to speak to IDA Ireland and to come back to him directly.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again and for acknowledging Deputy's Aird's interest and work in this area as well. I am very sorry to hear of those extraordinarily painful, difficult and sad situations regarding children. I will seek an urgent update from the Minister on the specific drug and the condition to which it relates and on the Deputy's broader point regarding early access.
I am taken by the poin…