Simon Harris

I acknowledge the point the Deputy makes, and do not want to jump over it, that it is not now an issue of shortage of money. It used to be. It is an issue now where we are actually able to invest properly, but that also means that we need to look at the processes. If 11,000 people put up their hand and say they want to join An Garda Síochána, the Minister for justice and the Garda Commissioner are…

Disability issues and disability services are an absolute priority for this Government. That is why one of the things the Deputy will have seen published in the past number of months was the new national human rights strategy for disabled people, which is a really good piece of work. A huge amount of work was done with representative groups and with people with disabilities directly. It is a Gover…

The Minister, Deputy Calleary, is eager to work collaboratively and is eager to engage with the Social Democrats and others on the composition of a cost-of-disability payment, what it looks like and who qualifies. He will engage with the Deputy and others on that. I have provided a status update in the sense that that work is under way with groups in the Department of Social Protection this week s…

I do not remember the Deputy welcoming budgets where we brought in cost-of-living measures before the election. He is kind of opining wishing we had the budgets of the past number of years. I do not remember him ever supporting measures we brought into this House over the past several years to try and assist people at a time of extraordinarily high levels of inflation. The Deputy seeks to slag Pas…

Surely, the Deputy would acknowledge that, while we would like to see inflation fall further, that inflation both in Ireland and in the eurozone is at a much lower level than it was when those cost-of-living packages were brought in. The inflation was off the Richter scale for a period. It may be the Deputy's position, and in fairness to him I think it is as he is quite clear about it, that he wan…

-----but we need to build apartments. All of the decisions we take are to protect jobs because that is how we keep people in employment, and it is also how we run the country in terms of funding public services and we also make sure we can stimulate the building of houses and apartments in this country. These are good things to do. However, I want people with a disability to know, as I have direct…

Except when you say it. When you say it you are such a wise sage.

No, the point I am making is very clear. The Deputy stands up and makes snide remarks about supporting multinationals or snide remarks about supporting developers.

I make the point that is about supporting jobs and building homes. That is the difference between the Deputy's ideology and ours. He is proud of that difference and I am proud of that as well. We have a different view in on this. The multinational jobs in this country are important. They help to actually fund through income and corporation taxes the running of this State and it is a bloody good th…

We are not planning on opening the budget process again because we are delivering one annual budget. Within the context of the budget we delivered, we have delivered a progressive budget. The budget documentation shows it is a progressive budget, helping those most in need over those who have the most. That is the budget we ran. That is the budgetary process and we will continue to run progressive…

I thank Deputy Roche for raising the issue. I agree that we do not want people who are running a business to decide it makes economic sense to run it from their home. Last Friday, I was in Macroom where we saw the opposite. I met a woman called Nickie who owns a business called Juniper Lane, which makes homemade products, including jewellery and the like - very nice stuff. She had been doing that …

I thank Deputy Roche. I do not want to comment on a specific case for obvious reasons, including the fact that there are appeals mechanisms open and anybody can appeal a valuation to the Valuation Tribunal. The business to which the Deputy referred may or may not have done that. The level of increase to which the Deputy referred is not the general experience but is cause for concern. Perhaps we c…

I thank Deputy Doherty. The position of the Government remains the same and as outlined in the programme for Government in terms of our concerns regarding the Mercosur deal. A lot of significant work is being undertaken, in particular by the Minister for agriculture and other Government colleagues, to engage with other like-minded countries or those which have similar concerns about the Mercosur d…

I outlined that the Government-----

-----remains opposed to-----

I am not going to be heckled in the House.

I talk directly to farmers every day of the week.

I talk to-----

I thank Deputy Ahern for his question. Obviously, in terms of debating these things, that is a matter for the Business Committee but I have no issue with debates taking place. There is a lot of legislation to get through between now and the Christmas break but I am sure there will be an opportunity to debate and discuss the transport plan. I would make a number of points on it. First, we are inves…

I thank Deputy Rice for raising this important issue. I want to treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves in terms of getting the latest update from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I will make sure that the Department makes contact with Deputy Rice today in relation to that issue. I will not say anything regarding an ongoing case in the European Union but I know that the consul…

I will absolutely ensure that Deputy O'Gorman is also briefed in relation to this situation. I am being intentionally cautious in what I say until I speak directly to the Department of foreign affairs on this because of the active nature of the case that the Deputy has raised today. I appreciate the seriousness of it and appreciate the importance of timely intervention. I will seek the latest from…

I thank Deputy Collins for raising what is clearly a very sensitive matter but he does so with the affected family's consent. I want to reply with the same sensitivity. I am conscious that this is a public forum but my heart goes out to that man and his family in what is an extraordinarily difficult and challenging time. I am also concerned by some of what the Deputy has said there. I will immedia…

I thank Deputy O'Meara who represents the people of Tipperary North with distinction and hard work. I thank him for raising this important issue today, which he has also raised with the Taoiseach. This is an issue about which people right across the country feel very strongly. Indeed, I have had a number of meetings with a number of community organisations that are simply asking for the publicatio…

The Deputy just has to sit over there and ask us to do things; we actually have to do them. We will publish these-----

Deputy O'Meara makes a fair point. There are 48 of them. When he stands up to try to ask a question, the Deputies try to shout him down. They should give him a second. He is asking a question on behalf of the people of Tipperary North.