Be nice now.
Sentiment score: 0.42
I thank the Deputy for raising this very serious issue. I have offered my condolences to Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family, to Gillian and Stephen, on previous occasions, as has Deputy McDonald. I respect the Deputy's commitment to the issue. As I have said in this House before, no words of condolence or consolation to Harvey's parents are enough. It is an enormous trauma for any parent to go through but, in these circumstances, it is even more traumatic in terms of the experiences the family and Harvey have had with hospitals and the clinical world. It is unacceptable. The Government is anxious to help the family to find the answers to the questions they have about Harvey's care. The Minister for Health asked for a multidisciplinary report on the chronology from CHI regarding its involvement in Harvey's care and the key milestones, as recorded on CHI hospital records. The HSE CEO received this draft report on 19 August and shared it with Harvey's parents. The HSE CEO and the Minister have made it clear they view this report as a draft until such time as the family have the opportunity to comment on and feed into the chronology and ensure any additional information they have is reflected in the final report. The Tánaiste and Minister for Health met Harvey's parents on 29 September. At that meeting, there was agreement that there would be an inquiry and that the detail of it would be determined in partnership. Following the meeting, as agreed, the Minister for Health wrote to the parents on 13 October setting out the range of types of inquiries available. The Minister subsequently attended the audiovisual room briefing, which many Members of this House also attended, to listen to the requests being made. There will be a meeting today between the Minister and the Tánaiste following up on this. The objective is to make progress on the nature and format of an inquiry which will be commissioned. With regard to The Sunday Times report on a protected disclosure being made to the Department of Health, I want to make absolutely clear - I do not think it should be conflated wrongly - that neither I, the Tánaiste nor the Minister for Health had any awareness of this.
Sentiment score: 0.22
This is the factual position. It is not right or proper, in my view, that any other construction should be put on it. As we now know, any protected disclosure is investigated by an independent person, not by the Minister or anyone else. The allegations, as the Deputy outlined, are very serious and warrant investigation. That is currently under way in the manner set out in law by the protected disclosure process. There is clear legislation outlining how protected disclosures are dealt with now. I accept and understand fully the serious distress to the family who have been wanting to know for some time why Harvey was removed from the waiting list without any notice or discussion. Indeed, in this House I have said - I think when it was alerted to me by the Deputy next to Deputy McDonald - that it is unacceptable. Every parent should be informed. The Deputy made a point that Harvey was deliberately removed. I do not know the circumstances or why someone would be motivated to deliberately remove the child from a surgical waiting list without telling the parents.
Sentiment score: 0.09
That is something I cannot comprehend. That needs to be the subject matter of an inquiry.
Sentiment score: 0.01
The Deputy made a comment in respect of the Minister receiving this, which is not correct in the sense that there is a dedicated channel, a secure, dedicated mailbox, set up to receive protected disclosures via the ministerial channel. The Minister does not engage with that. The legislation is very clear on that.
Sentiment score: 0.37
The legislation was passed in the House.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The protected disclosure was received in the mailbox on 31 August.
Sentiment score: 0.44
First, the notification was sent from the Department to the reporting person informing them that in accordance with section 8-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
You are not because you gave an opposite perspective.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I did not interrupt you. Please.
Sentiment score: 0.29
The commissioner for protected disclosures, who is responsible, acknowledged receipt on 2 September. Once transmitted, the commissioner independently determines the appropriate prescribed person or public body to follow up on the disclosure. The HSE has issued a statement, as the Deputy is aware. Ministers are required to establish dedicated channels to receive protected disclosures and to publish information on how to access and use the reporting channel. A secure dedicated mailbox was set up to receive protected disclosures via the ministerial channels.
Sentiment score: 0.43
Access to records is strictly limited to ensure the identities of the-----
Sentiment score: 0.18
-----reporting person and any persons named in the report are kept confidential to the greatest extent possible.
Sentiment score: 0.64
All disclosures received by a Minister or Minister of State must be transmitted to the protected disclosures commissioner within ten calendar days of receipt. That is a statutory requirement under the Act.
Sentiment score: 0.22
I am but Deputy McDonald was too. It is not good enough that misleading presentations are being made by the Deputy.
Sentiment score: -0.31
Let us not play politics.
Sentiment score: -0.26
First of all, I fundamentally disagree with the positioning of the Deputy in respect of the housing issue, which is the number one priority facing our country, particularly young people. Progress was made under Housing for All and the targets outlined in it were achieved, despite commentary to the contrary. Over 137,000 houses have been built since Housing for All was published, with €14 billion in terms of capital Exchequer funding allocated. Some 59,000 households have purchased their first home through the help to buy scheme. That is people out there in the private market. Another 8,400 have done so through the first home scheme, which I understand the Deputy opposed. These are real people out there who were able to buy their home because of access to the help to buy scheme and the first home scheme. The percentage of drawdown of first-time mortgages has risen significantly, to about 35%, from about 23% in 2015. There has been real activity in terms of enabling people to purchase homes but it simply is not enough and we have a lot more to do. There is no question about that. We need to get from 33,000 to 35,000 homes to 50,000 to 60,000 homes per annum. That is the bottom line. We need both the public sector and the private sector. We also need unprecedented investment in infrastructure. If you look at what we have allocated through the public capital investment programme and the off-balance sheet procurement of finance by the State agencies on the energy side, you are looking at an investment of about €54 billion in transport, energy and water. All of that investment will enable more housing. A very structured, fundamental and strategic approach has been adopted by the Government. An unprecedented amount of public money is going into housing in terms of the unprecedented amount of money going into the infrastructure that will enable more housing. We also want to bring on board significant activity from the private sector to complement the work of the public sector. All of those strands are required to deal with the housing crisis. An eviction ban will not deal with the housing crisis. Measures the Deputy has advocated in the past would seek to undermine any potential of any private sector investment coming into the market and we need private sector investment. It is estimated by the Department of Finance that we need about €20 billion per year to meet the required number of houses. The State on its own cannot provide that €20 billion. We need additionality to the public sector spend from the private sector as well. I know the Deputy disagrees with that but I see no proposals from her that would in any way reach the €20 billion to enable us to get to 60,000 houses per annum.
Sentiment score: -0.00
I have never said that.
Sentiment score: 0.00
We have over 190,000 workers in the construction sector. That is up by about 45,000 since 2019, so there has been huge work done in terms of the human resources requirement for house construction. I was on a housing site last week in Ballyvolane in Cork. They are now building the houses within a nine-week timeframe because of the infrastructure work that went in there about two years ago. Up to 800 houses will be delivered on that site, through timber frame and modern methods of construction, utilising the Enterprise Ireland framework and programme. There is huge progress being made, but it is not enough. The population has grown exponentially. We acknowledge that. We need to remove barriers and bottlenecks to infrastructural development, which we will do. We need the support of those opposite in that regard. What happens when we want to amend Department guidelines? Those opposite seek judicial reviews.
Sentiment score: 0.10
We need houses of different types and size and different approaches to solve this issue.
Sentiment score: 0.20
Everywhere you go, the Opposition opposes almost all of the measures.
Sentiment score: 0.00
What Deputy Sherlock offered there is of no real substance-----
Sentiment score: -0.30
-----in terms of talking about a new agency. The LDA will now have €8.5 billion for direct build.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I thank the Deputy for raising what is an existential issue facing humankind. I also welcome her mother, Madeline, and her good friends to the Chamber. I hope they have a very enjoyable day. I will also take this opportunity to wish President Connolly the very best of success in her role as President of Ireland, as we did yesterday. I fully concur with the objective of addressing the issue of climate change. I have no issue with being overly critical. The last Government actually did engineer a step change in terms of the Government response to climate change. We provided a legislative template. That is very challenging and I do not doubt that. We also undertook a range of initiatives in areas such as offshore renewables, electric vehicles, retrofitting, better environmental practices in farming and utilising carbon tax revenue. We also put carbon tax into legislation and have utilised it to address fuel poverty, to help develop better sustainable farming methods for the farming community and for the retrofitting programme, which has been quite extensive. To give an example, onshore wind energy provided 48% of Ireland's power last February. Last January, Ireland reached the important milestone of hitting 5 GW of installed onshore wind capacity. In 2023, Ireland was ranked second in the world for onshore wind generation. You will never hear the Opposition acknowledge that. It is as if we are doing nothing. Huge strides are being made. A revolution has happened in terms of onshore wind. The Deputy is correct that we need more new technologies and innovation but we are seen as one of the best in terms of integrating renewables into the grid. That is a good thing. The next big step change has to be offshore wind generation. We are pushing as fast and as best we can. I will come back to that in a moment. I have established a clearing house. This means bringing industry in to meet with Government Departments in a committee structure to make sure we can remove barriers and accelerate the development of offshore wind in line with the designated maritime area plans, DMAPs, proper procedures and so forth. Wastewater is very important in terms of a clean environment, water quality and so on, and yet a great many people are opposing wastewater treatment plants, including some from the environmental sector. It beggars belief when you think about it. The objective is to clean the water before it goes into our rivers and seas and yet there are interminable delays because of judicial reviews. That is a factor. I hope that when it comes to the offshore wind agenda, we do not see objections to it because it is vital to the climate change agenda in this country, emissions reductions and reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, which is driving up costs and causing real challenges for us.
Sentiment score: 0.28
I have never said we would be shelving any climate projects, but I did say we should not attempt to litigate our way out of climate change because we would divide society. We will develop a counter-reaction to the changes that are required to meet our climate change targets. Maybe I was picked up wrong, but I have been saying this for quite some time. The legal route will be the ruination of the consensus that we have created in society around the need to tackle climate change. That is the view I have. There are certain people out there who feel that it is all in the courts and that we should drag people kicking and screaming through the court system. I can guarantee the Deputy that will not work. It will not work in farming. We have to bring the farming community with us. They have a lifetime of involvement in the food production system. We have one of the most carbon-efficient food production systems in Europe and, indeed, the world.
Sentiment score: -0.06
The challenge on the nitrates directive is to give us space and time to get it right, but not to undermine and ruin what is a very important industry to the country-----
Sentiment score: -0.27
----but also to do it in a proper, effective way. That is the objective, and that is what I have been doing-----
Sentiment score: 0.24
-----in my discussions with the present Commissioner. I know the Minister, Deputy Heydon, has also been doing so in his discussions.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I am sorry.
Sentiment score: -0.08
I thank the Deputy very much for raising an important issue that is close to my heart. At the time, I opposed the abolition of town and borough councils. As a democrat, I believe in fundamental layers of democracy. Town councils played a very effective and impactful role in their day. In the first instance, they were a channel for people to get involved in communities and politics and to outline plans and visions for their towns. As Deputy Healy says, in Clonmel and all across the country we have very good examples, including in Clonakilty, Kinsale and Dungarvan. They were all effective. The problem is that when the system gets rid of something, the system then has to be dragged kicking and screaming to re-establish it. We have set up the task force because in the intervening period what replaced the town councils were the area-----
Sentiment score: 0.19
-----municipal districts. That is an issue that has to be factored into whatever we do. I do favour at least establishing a pilot programme whereby we look at certain areas of population of a certain scale where we could reintroduce councils. We talk about connection to people and we talk about democracy. The town councils were that connection. I was in some places recently where flooding had taken place. The absence of a town council and a basic administrative capacity was sorely felt over the past number of years in terms of resources being readily available in a given town if flooding occurred. More importantly, these councils are a way of bringing people into politics at a particular level. People can graduate to county councils or the Dáil subsequently. It is about civic participation in society and in our communities. I could never understand the negativity in some quarters towards councils. I was a bit frustrated at the decision by my good colleague - and I have great respect for him - former Deputy and Minister Brendan Howlin. As soon as he left the Department, he had regrets about the decision. That said, it is important that he has said that he thinks it was not a great idea. The latter is important because he is somebody who has been through both sides of it. The task force will be reporting in the first quarter of next year. There has been stakeholder consultation. I take the Deputy’s point about public consultation. We might ask the task force to have a look at that. It is examining structures, functions and the financing of local government. I take on board the Deputy's bona fides in the context of what he is saying. The report will come back to us and we will take it from there.
Sentiment score: 0.08
It probably would be an unfair characterisation to say the task force is full of insiders. The Minister of State has just informed me that about five councillors are on the task force. They were nominated by the representative bodies of councillors. There will be a serious, genuine and substantive look at the issue. It will then fall to the Government to act on the report. As I have said, I would like to see this happen in new areas where there has been significant growth in population and in historic areas where people were very aggrieved by the removal of the borough councils. As I say, whatever happens will have to be integrated into the area council format or will have to take cognisance of that. The latter is something I am sure the task force is looking at as well.
Sentiment score: 0.09