Simon Harris

That is a fair question and the short answer is "No". We have to start somewhere in terms of a list and a significant ramp-up of capital investment. What we saw yesterday was an effort to move forward a further 105 projects. That list consisted of 80 large-scale additional school accommodation projects and 25 further projects to be delivered under the modular accommodation programme. A total of 45…

I thank Deputy Collins for how he has raised the issue. It is important we tease through this carefully. I think we would all agree there is a need to make sure we get the best use out of the housing stock that exists in our country, particularly in a housing emergency. We all share that view. We do not want an unintended consequence. This is not about going into small rural communities where they…

I would be very happy to meet the group. I thank Deputy Wall, Deputy McGreehan and Senator Tully for the work they are doing. It is good to see a cross-party approach to this issue. I think in all our election manifestos we all promised a roughly similar direction of travel. I spoke to Family Carers Ireland this week. I am looking forward to meeting them and Care Alliance Ireland shortly too. It i…

I find myself somewhat agreeing with the Deputy on this. I have not had an opportunity to probe the rationale behind the ten minutes but I will. I know the Minister and Department were eager to do something positive and providing additional time is that. As a former Minister for higher education, I am aware of how the higher education sector provides those accommodations. We need to ensure there i…

I thank Deputy McGreehan for the work she does as co-chair of the family carers group. I look forward to meeting them. I rule nothing out but I want to have an informed conversation because - I do not mean this in any way flippantly - carers to do such amazing work. We all want to commit to doing more but the commitment a couple of weeks ago was that we were all going to focus on the means test. W…

It is an important point. These delays are not consequence-free, as the Deputy rightly outlined, for somebody trying to go work, go about their lives or go to college. The national average wait time for driving tests has fallen. It is 10.3 weeks, slightly above where it is meant to be, which is ten weeks. It is down a lot from last April when it was 27 weeks at the peak. I take the point that the …

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As she stated, it is an issue of which the Minister is aware on foot of her recent visit to Celbridge. I will speak with the Minister, Deputy Naughton, about this in order to determine when St. Patrick's National School can expect progress on the campus and on what can be done in the interim. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy directly.

We also do not need to babysit the local authorities. They need to get on and do their job. We have given them all vacancy officers and we have funded them. Hard-pressed taxpayers in this country have funded posts for local authorities to tackle dereliction. It utterly unacceptable that it would exist at the scale it does, particularly in the context of what the Deputy outlined with regard to his …

Let me begin by agreeing with the Deputy on one point, which is that Bord Bia is indeed an exemplary organisation. It is an organisation that is fulfilling its mandate with distinction and it is doing so at a time of huge geopolitical and geoeconomic uncertainty. Last year, we saw Irish agrifood exports exceed more than €21 billion. Bord Bia is, therefore, excelling. Bord Bia is doing an exception…

That is the way business should be done. In fact, that is not just my view; it is actually the view of the president of the Irish Farmers Association. The Deputy wraps himself in the mantle of speaking for farmers. Their elected representative said in his statement yesterday that the correct forum to address this issue is with the chair and other directors at a board meeting. He also had the decen…

You are at it again, Deputy, and you have done it in this House so many times. You just come in, say somebody's name and call for them to be sacked. Do you remember your leader did that with a former Garda Commissioner and how badly that backfired on your party?

Due process matters. Just because the Deputy has read a headline or heard this or that: what is the purpose of a board of directors if the Deputy does not actually want it to have met this morning. It is meeting right now. Can he wait a few minutes? Can he wait for board members to sit down, have a conversation and then report to the Minister, or does it have to be now, in time for the 1 o'clock n…

We have confidence in a process. Process matters. I know process, democracy and all of that are really inconvenient. Kangaroo courts are much easier but actually allowing somebody an opportunity to talk and answer questions and a board to give a considered view is how this Government functions, and that is a stark difference between this Government and our responsible politics and your populism.

Let the process commence.

I thank Deputy Kelly for his leadership on this issue. I acknowledge his Bill and thank him for the role the committee he chairs is playing in this regard. I, too, commend Gráinne Seoige on going before the committee. In recent times, what we have seen in relation to Grok and the use of AI to undress and produce nudified images is dehumanising, degrading and disgusting. There absolutely is an onus…

Just in case there is any confusion I am agreeing with the Deputy in principle entirely that the responsibility here has to be on the company. The way that has been transposed into national legislation has been under the infrastructure of the AI Act. This Government will work constructively with the Deputy, with his party and with his committee on any improvements or changes we can make to Irish l…

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan very much for raising the matter. Just to remind all of us, including myself, the original idea in relation to a Board of Peace – I will get to what I think are the very serious issues with it – arose from the comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict which on 17 November received support from the United Nations. On 17 November the United Nations voted to adopt a resol…

Unlike some governments around the world I do not stand up and single-handedly make decisions and announce them without engagement with colleagues. My personal view and the view of Government colleagues is that we cannot see any scenario in which Ireland can participate in the so-called Board of Peace as currently constructed. Of course, it would be a very different situation were we back to where…

On the occupied territories Bill, the position is as outlined by the Taoiseach. The Minister received the Attorney General's advice just before Christmas. She has gone back with further questions and we will engage with the Oireachtas on it in due course.

I agree with the Deputy. I am also grateful to him for raising the issue of Iran. It is not raised nearly often enough in this House. The brutal, disgusting repression we have seen of the brave Iranian protesters should be called out, as should the heroism of those protesters, who are standing up for their future and the aspiration they rightly have to live in a free, safe and democratic country a…

Absolutely. I forgot to say in my first answer that I will take a look at the wording of the European Parliament resolution because I am not familiar with it. However, the Deputy is right that when we talk about peace and stability in the Middle East, it is hard, or almost impossible, to have that conversation without also looking at the situation in Iran. While Ireland is neutral and will remain …

I thank Deputy Nolan for raising this issue and for the constructive way in which she has gone about it. It is a serious issue. I represent and have lived in County Wicklow all my life. I remember vividly the incident in 2023 when a farmer, Pat Dunne, was beaten up on his own land. I remember meeting with the IFA at Wicklow level and national level. This is a real issue that farmers are grappling …

There is an issue here, and potentially a legislative one. That is why we should keep the laws under review. We will engage constructively on the Deputy's Bill, and on any views from the Minister for justice, the Garda and others around the law. There is also an issue of enforcement because we are seeing - I am certainly hearing it more and more - attacks on sheep and the likes. There is a sense t…

I know what side the Government is on. The Deputy is engaging in what our counterpart across the Atlantic Ocean would call "fake news." This Government opposed the Mercosur agreement.

No, Deputy. You had your say. Allow me to speak too. In a democracy, allow me to speak too.