Simon Harris

I do not doubt the good faith of the people in our country and in other countries who have been trying to make this trip happen. No one doubts that. No one doubts wanting to support children. Of course, we are not just talking about 33 children seeking to come to Ireland. We are also talking a number of adults, almost all of whom are not the parents of any of the children.

Please do not interrupt me on a sensitive issue. We have just discussed child protection. It is very important. Vetting is very important. We have strict rules on migration and who can come into our country. It has to be a rules-based system. I do not want to go too far into the application. I am sure everyone is engaging in good faith. There is certainly not an effort by the State to seek to bloc…

I genuinely take the good faith in which people are raising it. They are quite right to raise it. Many people have raised it and contacted us all about it. The Minister for justice has a specific and important job to do and that is to apply the laws of our land on visas, child protection and immigration. If he did not do that, I am sure he would be criticised in the other direction. We are grantin…

It must be exhausting speaking for the whole nation, but I also speak for people in this country, as does every Member of this House. We are not tearing up our rules-based migration system. If, God forbid, anything happened to any child from any part of this country who came in here unaccompanied by a parent, the Minister would be hauled in here and asked what he did and why he let it happen. Chil…

Sorry, there is no going around the back of the scrum. Do not dare do Israel versus Palestine. This is child protection. We have a visa system. We have a rules-based system. The Deputy might want to have a different approach to migration. This Government has rules and those rules will be followed in relation to migration.

The Gender Recognition Act 2015 resides with the Department of Social Protection so I will ask the Minister for Social Protection to come back to the Deputy on that matter and with a timeline for the review she is seeking.

I thank the Deputy for raising that issue and my sincere sympathy goes to the family of Catherine. The Deputy is quite right to highlight this issue. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has had a number of meetings with her colleague and counterpart in Northern Ireland, the Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt. I know there is a real willingness and desire on the part of both Ministers a…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and congratulate him on publishing his first legislation so soon into the term of this Dáil. He is quite right that this is a huge area. We have seen many companies such as JP Morgan and Ford make significant comments over the last week about job displacement and the type of new jobs that will be created. There is a live debate around regulation. We discus…

I thank Deputy Ó Muirí and he is correct that I had the honour of visiting Marino Institute of Education. It is a brilliant third level facility and it had made this point for some time. I want to acknowledge that. The reason some of its courses are not funded under the free fees initiative is because of its status as a private institution with charitable status under the co-trusteeship of the Eur…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. We had an informal word on this issue last night and I know of her very sincere and good interest in this matter and I acknowledge that. Everybody acknowledges that everyone is acting in good faith here. People here in Ireland are trying to do something good for children from a war-torn area. There is no two ways about that and I acknowledge that too. On the in…

I thank Deputy Scanlon for raising this important issue for his constituents, particularly those who travel from Bellaghy to Sligo town and are affected by the deficit he has identified in public transport provision there. I am very proud of the work we have done together over the last number of years to expand the Local Link services. It was one of the great success stories of the last Government…

I thank Deputy Clendennen for raising this issue. We have been progressing the renewable heat obligation to ensure the increased used of renewable fuel types across the fuel heating sector is possible. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment is now preparing the heads of Bill for submission to Government shortly. Representatives of that Department and the Sustainable Energy Authority…

First, the use of the word "apartheid" is very unfortunate in relation to this. What we are doing is-----

What we are doing is applying the laws of our land - laws which the Deputy and his party have not proposed changing, laws in relation to child protection, which I am sure he takes seriously, and laws in relation to a visa system that has to be impartial and applied. We cannot provide visas on the basis of public petition. We have to provide them on the basis of the rules. We have to address child …

Everybody is talking-----

With respect to Deputies Devine and Ó Snodaigh, that has nothing to do with child protection. It is absolutely nothing to do with the point. Everyone is talking about 33 children. Why is nobody saying the next bit, which is that they are travelling from one far-flung part of the world to another with adults who are not their parents and the importance of child protection checks in relation to that…

It is worked through the system.

The Deputy will not resolve this by shouting.

I thank Deputy Daly for this. He is so right. The Government is absolutely at one in recognising that just because inflation has fallen, it does not mean the cost of going to the supermarket has fallen as well. The cost of living still remains high. People see that in their weekly shop. They see it when they go to the checkout with their trolley. While we have been very clear that there will not b…

I thank Deputy Currie for her work as Fine Gael spokesperson on childcare and as part of the Government's collective effort on childcare. The programme for Government is ambitious in this area. As we have discussed before, there are around 21 commitments in relation to childcare. The next step will be the publication of a new action plan on childcare and how we intend to advance it. I broadly agre…

I thank the Deputy for bringing this to my attention. I was not aware of it but it needs to be stopped. There are enough challenges for people trying to get these tests without somebody gaming the system and exploiting people looking for a test. I will raise it in the first instance with the Minister for Transport.

I think Deputy Carroll MacNeill and I find ourselves in large agreement with a lot of what Deputy Kelly said. I know I get myself in trouble from time to time for saying these sorts of things but the cost-of-living challenge is still very real for people. We have to acknowledge that. We have to prudently budget and carefully work our way through things and always protect our economy. We can quote …

Deputy Carroll MacNeill and I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, as the Minister of State responsible for mental health to look at the serious points Deputy Cahill made. It sounds like there is a lot of stress and concern in the local community. I know the Minister of State will be eager to constructively engage with him and the HSE on this matter. I will ask her to come back directly …

I welcome this opportunity to set out the Government position on the situation in the Middle East. The region is experiencing a period of significant jeopardy and instability with multiple crises playing out, many of which are interrelated and all of which threaten further escalation, further destruction and further devastating loss of civilian lives. I will turn first to the appalling and deteri…

I do not want to interrupt.