The Government is very conscious of this issue. We are accelerating the delivery of safe accommodation and significantly strengthening capacity nationwide. There are currently about 241 safe accommodation places, with 181 domestic violence refuge units and 60 safe home units. At the end of the year, it is envisaged that there will be 193 domestic violence refuge units completed and 94 safe homes, bringing total safe accommodation to 287. There is a further 50 refuge units under construction. We have allocated resources. It is now an issue of the timelines to getting these buildings constructed and completed. We will continue with this over the next number of months and years.
Sentiment score: 0.14
Again, I think that should not happen tomorrow. I do not believe people should withdraw their services and I do not think it is the correct or appropriate action. Department officials have been engaging sensitively with the relevant stakeholders and the Law Society. That includes legal professionals and their representative bodies on the proposed changes. That discussion has been ongoing for quite some time. There is no reduction in resources. If anything, the resources have increased significantly. Discussions are ongoing within the Department and so forth. Again, there is a need for reform. I am sure the Deputy would accept that. That should not affect the ability of legal professionals to engage in criminal legal aid work.
Sentiment score: 0.07
First, the Government in good faith, in terms of the Deputy's legislation, proposed a timed amendment to do further work. The Minister, Deputy Burke, and his officials have been developing a policy to provide pregnancy loss leave to women in the workplace, particularly women who have suffered a pregnancy loss before 23 weeks. The Minister met with the Oireachtas cross-party group on pregnancy loss in January. He will have heads of a Bill before the summer recess. Obviously, that will have to go to pre-legislative scrutiny in the Oireachtas. The draft heads of Bill are more or less ready. They were submitted to the Attorney General's office. He continues to work with the officials and across government on these proposals. He hopes to bring them to the Government before the summer recess.
Sentiment score: 0.04
I will talk to the Minister for Transport and the Road Safety Authority in respect of this. I cannot operationally run the Road Safety Authority. There had been some progress in terms of reducing-----
Sentiment score: 0.54
----- the timelines. I will talk to the Minister and ask him to engage with the Road Safety Authority to continue to work on getting waiting times for driving tests down.
Sentiment score: 0.34
Sorry, about 14,500?
Sentiment score: -0.08
There will always be people who will leave a job or occupation. I think there would have to be a survey done of the 189 specifically to ascertain why they decided to leave An Garda Síochána. The good news is we are oversubscribed in terms of applications and there are very healthy numbers going into Templemore on a regular basis now to qualify to become a member of An Garda Síochána. Those coming out of Templemore are then being allocated in fairly sizable numbers. It began with Dublin two years ago. Cork secured a good few, and also Limerick and across the country. Over time, I think there will be a significant increase because of the resources we put behind recruitment to An Garda Síochána. Equally, on retention, we increased the retirement age significantly.
Sentiment score: 0.25
That is a matter that the Garda should evaluate and do a survey to see whether there are underlying reasons.
Sentiment score: 0.03
I thank Deputy Smith for raising this matter. I want to acknowledge his strong commitment to ensuring that children and their families in Cavan who need early intervention and therapy services can access that support in a timely way. My understanding is that there is no after-school school support provided by Cavan CDNT, but Enable Ireland apparently advises that it is planning on putting in an application to provide after-school and respite. I need to get underneath the bonnet of that.
Sentiment score: 0.33
In any event, it says here that it is planning to put in an application. I will follow up with the Minister and see if we can get to the bottom of that in terms of getting it progressed.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The long-term illness scheme is under review at the moment. It has not been added to for a long time because other provision has overtaken the practice of having the long-term illness scheme. The condition that the Deputy raised has very severe and profound impacts on patients. We have taken a variety of other measures to alleviate the cost of medication, for example, long-term medication, for people and so forth. I will alert the Minister for Health that the Deputy has raised the issue and ask her to engage with him on that.
Sentiment score: -0.14
I did not get the specific question asked, but I agree that there should be a centralised system whereby if a garda is convicted of a criminal offence, that should be collated, recorded and collected by An Garda Síochána just as the Defence Forces are now devising a system to do that in respect of Defence Forces members who may have committed a criminal offence. That level of data and knowledge is required centrally and should be known centrally from a proper management perspective.
Sentiment score: -0.27
First of all, I appreciate the Deputy raising this issue. That incident was shocking, but there are too many shocking incidents in relation to scramblers. I know that Deputy McAuliffe has been working with the Deputy and others to deal with this issue. It does need enforcement. About 1,000 scramblers have been seized over the past number of years, but we need a full-on focus on this. The law is now there. It needs enforcement on a continuous basis, whether through a unit or a proper system operated by the Garda. This is absolutely unacceptable. These are a major threat to life in Dublin in particular. It is rampant in certain areas and needs to be targeted and dealt with.
Sentiment score: -0.10
First of all, I understand that a person has been arrested but I cannot comment, as I do not want to prejudice the outcome of this. We just need to be careful that we do not draw conclusions that might be the wrong conclusions in respect of this specific case. There is a zero-tolerance approach to racism generally, but we have to wait and see what emerges here first before drawing the kinds of implied conclusions that the Deputy is suggesting in respect of this specific incident. We have to await the outcome of the investigation.
Sentiment score: 0.23
I think there has been huge expansion of greenways and huge investment by Government. It is an area I am particularly interested in myself. I think it has been transformative over the last five years. The level of investment that has taken place across the length and breadth of the country has created greater socialisation, which enhances security as well. In terms of the initial design, safety and security dimensions should be built in when greenways are being designed by the National Transport Authority, NTA, or Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII. That should be an automatic part of the designing of greenways, walkways and so forth.
Sentiment score: 0.41
I thank Deputy Cahill for raising this issue. It is fair to say that he has been a persistent advocate and strong voice for rural Ireland in respect of this issue, particularly advocating for young couples and young people generally to be in a position to build houses in their localities, very often on their land. This will be of significance in helping to sustain rural communities across the western and south-western seaboards, particularly in Kerry, the area the Deputy represents. There are, of course, the Chorca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht and others, which are of significance to him. I think that the Gaeltacht provisions will facilitate one-off housing in those areas, particularly in villages and towns across south Kerry and the Kerry area more generally. This will be significant. On the timeline, I hope that it will not take too long after the screening.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I thank Deputy Gould for raising the issue. I am not clear as to why, if he posted it last Friday, it did not get there quicker, but in any event, there is a huge challenge with overcrowding at the moment. Colleagues in the Deputy's party have been raising the overcrowding issue with the Minister. The Minister is under huge pressure in terms of capacity constraints in our prisons and the resulting challenge faced by those who work in our prisons and so forth. He is endeavouring to do the very best he can in terms of providing additional spaces as quickly as he can. It is arising out of that pressure that the use is being made of that site.
Sentiment score: 0.28
First of all, I wish that everyone attending the festival enjoys it. Sixty-five thousand is a huge number. It is obviously a very successful festival. I am not familiar with the council's arrangements but the implication was that the council was providing the transport.
Sentiment score: 0.51
Yes. That is kind of unusual, but in any event that is what happened. Maybe the council was hoping to get it off the ground and that it would then sustain itself. I am not familiar with the background as to why the council pulled back on that aspect of it but I will talk to people to see what can be done there. Normally, Governments do not support transport to festivals.
Sentiment score: 0.18
I will talk to the Minister and see what can be done.
Sentiment score: 0.00
In the aftermath of the Charleton inquiry, for example, there were significant awareness levels in relation to whistleblowing more generally. I will raise the issue with the Minister. Operationally, the Garda Commissioner and, indeed, all workplaces have responsibility for ensuring that any whistleblower who provides a disclosure in accordance with the Act is not penalised. There are very clear strictures in that regard both in the public service and in the private sector. We have fairly robust legislation in place on protected disclosures. It is efficient. That is shown by the fact that so many have engaged with the European issue.
Sentiment score: 0.35