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.
Sentiment score: -0.05
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 block or be difficult here. I am engaging in good faith on this too. There are rules and processes. There is an appeals process available. I have no doubt that will be considered by some of people I have heard speaking publicly on this today. I know this is an effort by people to do good. I do not doubt that. However, we have to uphold the integrity of our migration system as well.
Sentiment score: 0.18
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 granting and have granted visit visas for quite a number of people from Palestine. We are always looking for ways, as a people, to support and show solidarity. We also have to operate and respect the integrity of our system. I am quite confident the rules being applied here by Ireland are exactly the sort of rules we would expect any other country to be applying as well. There is an appeals process in place. I do not want to cut across the independence of that. The Minister has outlined clearly the reasons why his Department was not in a position currently to grant the visas. I am ad idem with him on that.
Sentiment score: 0.35
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. Child protection matters. There is no short circuit; there is no quick-----
Sentiment score: -0.15
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.
Sentiment score: -0.04
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.
Sentiment score: 0.03
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 and both health services to see how we can do more together on cross-Border health. The Deputy is right that Altnagelvin was a big and important development, so was the all-island congenital heart disease network. We do not want to just keep looking back and saying is it not great we did that. It is about what is next. I suggest if the Deputy is willing to give those details to the Minister for Health, she will come back to him directly.
Sentiment score: 0.19
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 discussed the issue of AI at our competitiveness summit this week. We have a dedicated Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth, who is doing an excellent job in this area. I have no doubt she will give consideration to Deputy Ó Cearúil's Bill and the Government will give it due and fair consideration also.
Sentiment score: 0.30
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 European Province of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and Trinity College Dublin. From memory, we brought in a new Higher Education Act which gives an ability to a private institution to decide to bring itself closer into the family, to use colloquial language, and therefore that opens up opportunities on free fees. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will ask the Minister, Deputy Lawless, to come back to him directly. I have no doubt the Minister and officials will meet MIE. I know they are in ongoing engagement on this matter. I thank him for highlighting this.
Sentiment score: 0.35
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 information available to me, when applications came in for visas, and without overly getting into individual applications, they were processed in a very efficient way. Applications were being submitted at various points up to May. To be given a decision by 9 July, if anything, seems to be a faster processing time in terms of an answer than usual, probably because of the sensitivity of this. There are legitimate issues. The migration service would not be doing its job, from a child protection point of view, if it did not raise those issues. There is an appeals process open. I know that while it is a matter for the Department of justice, my diplomatic colleagues in Tel Aviv and other places provide information on the best way forward and give the best advice possible. That will continue.
Sentiment score: 0.26
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 from a public transport point of view. On foot of the Deputy raising this today, I will ask both the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, and the NTA to consider the point he is making to see how the issue can be best addressed.
Sentiment score: 0.56
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 of Ireland also participate in an expert group on renewable and low-carbon fuels and the drafting of a new heat policy statement is now at an advanced stage. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I recognise its importance in Offaly and the surrounding areas. Our programme for Government commits to targeting older homes still using oil to switch to renewable heating systems and to consider the use of sustainable biofuels to reduce emissions from existing home boilers where deep retrofits are not always possible in the short term. These commitments are framing the work now under way to develop our new heat policy statement and the roadmap to phase out fossil fuel heating systems. There is a draft statement that is informed by the findings of a new national heat study. This has undergone extensive consultation and will set out our new overarching approach to decarbonising the heat sector as well. Finally, the 2025 programme for Government also includes a commitment to examine the taxation of HVO used for commercial freight to support sustainable transport solutions, which the Department of Finance is also undertaking.
Sentiment score: 0.35
First, the use of the word "apartheid" is very unfortunate in relation to this. What we are doing is-----
Sentiment score: -0.25
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 protection. We would all love this to happen in many ways. Who would not like to help children? Of course we would, but there is a "but" here. This has to be done correctly. There are child protection requirements around visas. Everyone is talking about 33 children.
Sentiment score: 0.06
Everybody is talking-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
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 a perfectly appropriate thing to do. No migration service and no Minister for justice would be doing their job if they did not take that seriously.
Sentiment score: 0.27
It is worked through the system.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Deputy will not resolve this by shouting.
Sentiment score: -0.29
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 be a cost of living specific measure between September, October and December, that is not to say that a budget of over €100 billion - probably around €120 billion - will not try to help people with their cost of living. Of course it will. Every budget does, in terms of looking at what we can do for older people, younger people and families. That will be the approach we will all take together. However, specifically on the issue of grocery prices, we want to ensure consumers are treated fairly, that pricing is transparent and that competition in the retail sector remains robust. Our colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Dillon, has met with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and has asked it to conduct an updated analysis of the Irish grocery retail sector on the issue of excessive pricing. I am told that piece of work is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
Sentiment score: 0.06
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 agree with the Deputy. We do not want a system that is overly rigid. We have to have a system that recognises parents need to be empowered in what works best for their child. The idea that one model designed in an office is the model that will work best for everyone does not work. Community childcare providers have a significant role to play. We have not seen a level of growth, which should be an indication in and of itself as we carry out this review. Yes is the answer to the Deputy's question. We will ensure the community model is specifically examined in the context of that review and we will look at issues like core funding and high levels of administration and how that could be a barrier to an expansion of a sector doing good work in many counties.
Sentiment score: 0.38
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.
Sentiment score: -0.09
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 all the economic statistics we want but the cost of living is still very challenging for many people I would loosely refer to as the squeezed middle. On supermarkets in particular, I welcome the measures taken by Minister of State, Deputy Dillon. He met the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and asked it to review again the Irish grocery retail sector on the issue of excessive pricing. I am told that is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has a statutory mandate now to investigate anti-competitive behaviour to ensure consumers are not misled or exploited. I understand several major retailers have been prosecuted for misleading discount practices. These cases marked the first wave of enforcement under new pricing transparency laws. We have committed to strengthening the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission further in the programme for Government. Perhaps we could work constructively on what that law should look like. I will specifically ask the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, for a view on loyalty cards. I share the Deputy's concerns. It is one thing if it is optional but if it becomes almost mandatory to have it or you have to pay a much higher price, that is a legitimate cause for concern.
Sentiment score: 0.21
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 to the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.20