Simon Harris

Farmers are far from stupid; they are the backbone of the indigenous Irish economy. They also know that this Government has their back. It had their back on nitrates and on Mercosur and will have it when it comes to the CAP and bluetongue. We know that they know we are with them and will be supporting them. We have had a point of disagreement with regard to the chair of a semi-State board. The Gov…

The Deputy has been in this House long enough that when he says he attended the most impactful presentation he has been to, I take that very seriously. I will certainly arrange for the relevant Ministers, perhaps Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in the first instance, to engage with that organisation and work through the list of, no doubt, constructive p…

The Government has voted expenditure of over €118 billion. Within that voted expenditure, this additional allocation of around €19 million will be made to the Department of Education and Youth. No official should be in any way glib in that regard, because we are very sincere in respect of this matter. That money will be provided. I say this as a coalition leader and as the Minister for Finance. I…

I truthfully do not know if the Minister has received the report, but I will certainly find out for the Deputy and ask that the Minister write to him. The programme for Government is clear in relation to this. There are examples around the country. I should declare an interest that I am a former member of a town commission in Greystones. There are examples of how town councils and town commissions…

In the two budgets that I intend to deliver as the Minister for Finance, I am absolutely determined that we do something in relation to retail investment. Irish people are among the best savers in the European Union, but we have one of the lowest rates of participation in investments. The reality is that good, hard-working and decent people right across the country are trying to do the right thing…

SMEs remain the backbone of the Irish economy. While this country proudly has a good tradition - and one we want to continue - in terms of foreign direct investment, including in the Deputy's county, the biggest employer in Ireland remains small- and medium-sized enterprises the length of breadth of the country. This is why we took a number of measures in the budget to support small businesses, to…

I thank the Deputy for raising the very specific issue in relation that particular stretch of the N68. I will follow up directly with the Minister on the matter, on the funding involved and on the purpose for which the Deputy believed and which the documents indicated-it was for versus what she has heard locally. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy on the matter. I join with the De…

I thank Deputy Ó Cearúil for raising this important issue in relation to St. Patrick's National School in Celbridge. I am pleased to hear that the Minister visited the school in recent times and will, therefore, have an awareness of the situation. I am also conscious of the health and safety information the Deputy has read out in respect of the seriousness of this matter. On the basis of what he s…

I thank Deputy Ward for raising this serious issue regarding water quality in Dún Laoghaire and Dublin Bay and more broadly. We have made a lot of progress on water quality in recent years. We are investing more now through Uisce Éireann. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue, I will speak directly to Uisce Éireann in respect of it. We have provided a lot of additional funding to Uisce Éireann …

I sincerely thank Deputy Mythen for raising this very important issue. As he rightly says, I was in Wexford very recently and I took the opportunity to visit the hospital. I met with the hospital manager, Linda O'Leary, and the team there who do very good work. I was very conscious in all of my engagements in Wexford that there is an acute issue with mental health services in the county. I have ha…

I thank Deputy O'Flynn very much for raising this issue and the concerns of his constituents and the community in relation to the presence of asbestos and the actions that have been brought about potentially as a result of demolition works. While I am not familiar with all of the granular detail, on foot of the Deputy mentioning that the HSE and the HSA are both familiar with it, I will ask the Mi…

I thank Deputy Kenny very much, and for his ongoing work in this important area. I can assure him that the Government is working on this constantly through both the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan. As a Government leader, I am being kept up to date regularly on this, as are others. There are a number of issues here. There is the opening of additional s…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. What he said is right based on what I have heard today from the Deputy and his colleagues - that you have to see it to believe it. The good news is the fact that the Minister for education has seen it. I know she was out at the school in the past month or so. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, later today an…

I thank Deputy Moynihan very much for raising this issue, which I can only imagine is causing significant concern for residents and businesses in Palmerstown and Clondalkin in his Dublin Mid-West constituency. On foot of him bringing it to my attention, I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who is the Minister with responsibility for energy and also ask that he engages with the ESB…

I thank Deputy O'Shea very much for raising this matter on behalf of his constituents. My understanding is that the Kanturk wastewater treatment plant has provision in the current RC4 investment cycle. There are plans to initiate a wastewater treatment plant upgrade project. This project is currently at stage 1, where Uisce Éireann develops the project objectives and outcomes and indicative range …

I will indeed, and I thank the Deputy for highlighting the issue. I thank his constituents in the community for the incredible amount of fundraising they have done, raising €41,000 for maternity care that is no doubt urgently needed in Gaza where the health service has been obliterated and utterly decimated. I will ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to inquire with our embassy in Cairo…

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett. The Government is in the process of working to develop a cost-of-disability payment. The consultation opened on that last week. We are actively engaging now with people with disabilities directly and also with their representative bodies. I encourage everybody and political parties in this House to get involved in that process as we try to design, for the first time, a…

I join the Taoiseach in thanking the group of survivors from industrial and reformatory schools for their presence in the Dáil today, and indeed for their campaign to highlight the ongoing legacy of trauma bestowed by this country's shameful history of cruelty towards children. Today we welcome Mary, Mary, Miriam and Maurice. I know you met with the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, last…

We all know that house prices are too high for too many but it is also important that we do not misunderstand what a median price is. A median price does not refer to every house or indeed a typical house, as the Deputy said, in Dublin. Anyone who searches online will see many homes available in Dublin for below €500,000. That is not to take away from the challenge in relation to affordability but…

It ensures that people can actually benefit from cash through the help-to-buy scheme and from an equity share in relation to their first home. We are also conscious when we look at how we are doing compared with other European countries that we now live in a country that has one of the strongest rates of home completion in the entire European Union. For every 1,000 people in Ireland, we are seeing…

Of course I recognise that house prices are still far too high for far too many, but I also recognise that the figures - the very same set of figures the Deputy has quoted - show more home transactions last year than the year before, and more first-time buyers last year than the year before. They are real people too. They exist in the Deputy's community and mine. Six hundred people every single we…

I join the Deputy in welcoming Rush Tidy Towns to Leinster House. It has been an extraordinarily upsetting and difficult week for parents of children with additional needs, for SNAs, for the children themselves, for teachers and for school communities. That is why it was really important to pause and get this right. The first thing I want to say is that we will see more SNAs in our schools next S…

It is an issue for the whole of Government to get right. We are absolutely determined to get it right. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, are working hand in glove, along with all colleagues in government, to get this right. There should be no change in the application of the care needs criteria. The Deputy asked me what my view is regarding what must come f…

I do not agree with the Deputy's view in relation to the football game. Our position in relation to Gaza, the genocidal activity there and the horrors the people of Palestine have experienced is very clear, as are the views of the Irish Government and the people of Ireland in relation to the horrific terrorist organisation that is Hamas and the terrorist attack it carried out. We continue to take …

It will not.