Simon Harris

He has a right to hear from me on behalf of the Government. I thank Deputy O'Meara for raising the issue. We are actually going to deliver the guidelines and not just shout about it.

I thank Deputy Clendennen for his question. This is an issue, as he rightly says, that has been discussed for quite a number of years. A consultative panel was established, as he says, in 2016. I understand that the Department of Justice is holding meetings with individual firearms organisations on request and engages with various firearms stakeholders in other ways, while An Garda Síochána also m…

I agree with Deputy O’Rourke on the point that we all want to see a successful resolution to this. School secretaries and caretakers play an important role in our communities. They are engaging, as is the State, in good faith to try to make progress. I welcome the fact that it has now been referred to the Labour Court. The Labour Court has a strong track record of resolving such disputes. Of cours…

I thank Deputy Cahill for raising this important matter for Killarney. One can see the compelling case for a need for this in such a vibrant and busy town. CCTV can play an important role in assisting the Garda and acting as a deterrent to crime. I am going from my memory but I thought the policing Act in this House brought in new kinds of structures to try to help to ensure clarity around how CCT…

My heart goes out to the family of Aoife. We think of them particularly as they approach the tenth anniversary. It sounds like the most horrifically sad and tragic situation. From what I recall, Scouting Ireland may receive money from the Department of children. If that is not the right Department, I will bring this matter to the relevant Minister’s attention and ask him or her to consider the Dep…

I remember the long and frequent exchanges in this House around the need for that special school in Monaghan. I am pleased to hear that it is now open but I take the point that there is a need for a permanent building. In the education capital allocation that was recently given to the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, there is a significant additional allocatio…

I do.

I hope it does not make the Deputy uneasy, but I find myself agreeing with him on this issue. Along with a number of Government colleagues, I must acknowledge, I have been trying to pursue this. There is significant institutional resistance - let us call it that - to what I see as a common-sense proposal.

I am trying to work my way through it. Someone who is 71 years of age could drive kids to a football match but that same person could not drive the same kids to their school. If it is safe to drive them to the football match, it must be safe to drive them to the school. It has to be logical. Bus Éireann has a very specific view on this. I think they are entirely wrong. On foot of the Deputy’s ques…

I will do my best.

In my new role, I practice prudence every day but I take the broader point regarding the importance of this project. I have heard it from a number of colleagues as well as from Deputy Farrelly. In the context of capital budgets, often capital budgets are announced but not every project moves at the same time. There can often be an opportunity to make amendments or additionalities because not ever…

The Deputy is right to highlight this issue. In every report, in particular in the housing report, the need for more apprentices is very apparent. I would just make the point that we are making good progress in the number of new apprentices and in the number of programmes in which apprenticeships are available. We need to make it continually attractive for people to be an apprentice. The Minister …

We do, and we need to see a bit of respect from State agencies for the people's elected representatives. This is a point I make frequently. I have made it this week in relation to one State agency. If an elected representative is trying to engage in a project, they are doing so because it matters to the people they are elected to represent. It is very important that mechanisms are put in place in …

I thank Deputy Brennan for raising this issue on behalf of farmers in Wicklow and Wexford. I know the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Martin Heydon, is working very hard in relation to this issue. In fact, he is working very hard on a number of issues, be it the nitrates derogation, Mercosur, and getting a properly adequately resourced CAP with less bureaucracy that works for farmers in the new m…

Deputy Tóibín raises a very important and very serious issue. We have seen a very large increase of about 500% - that is the figure in my mind - in unaccompanied minors presenting. I am sitting beside the Minister of State with responsibility for migration, Deputy Brophy. It is a reality that an increasing number of people are now travelling by themselves and they present to the international prot…

First, I join with colleagues in welcoming our former colleague, Ireland's friend and our Commissioner in the European Union, Commissioner McGrath, and thank him for the job he is doing in the European Commission on crucial areas at this time. I also join with Deputy Doherty in welcoming the group from the Shankill Shared Women's Centre to the Public Gallery. I thank him for the important work he …

Deputy Gould should hang on a second and give me a chance. It now stands at 62% of properties, which affects more than six out of ten people. It also finds the benefit of the rent pressure zones because it finds that, where rents have increased, it is disproportionately in areas not covered by rent pressure zones. Deputy Doherty likes to talk a lot about what has happened since the election. What…

-----including ending no-fault evictions for larger landlords with four or more tenancies, and bringing in rent controls and extending them nationally through the RPZs for the first time ever, from 20 June. We are already seeing the benefit of that. There is a housing emergency, but there are some signs of encouragement in terms of the number of properties now that are not seeing an increase in re…

I will take the same latitude on the clock as well.

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I do not understand a Sinn Féin policy that opposes every single support for small landlords to try to keep them in the market and then ones to make sure we have more rental properties available. How does Sinn Féin wish to have rental properties without landlords, yet it demonises small landlords across this country and opposes every single measure?

Mom and pop landlords - people in my constituency and Deputy Doherty's - who rent out one or two properties are demonised. We need them to stay in the market. Deputy Doherty wants to drive them out and increase rental property. It does not make sense. It is probably why he is celebrating his 15th anniversary as the Opposition spokesperson on finance. Five finance Ministers later, he is still sitti…

Angry Pearse.

In the extra time available to me that was available to Deputy Doherty, can I point out there is only party in this House that receives very significant financial funding from builders and construction companies?

The published accounts of Friends of Sinn Féin in the United States of America show that of its €366,000 in donations-----

-----the bulk of them came from construction companies and builders. Do you know where the biggest donation from?