The lads are watching it in Arbour Hill as well.
Sentiment score: 0.27
There is five hours of debate.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The tenant in situ scheme has not been closed at all, as the Deputy knows.
Sentiment score: 0.00
There has been a very strong performance in the scheme since it was introduced in 2023. More than 1,800 social homes were acquired in 2023, of which more than 1,000 were for properties where tenants received a notice of termination. This year the Minister has allocated €325 million to the tenant in situ scheme. It was announced for this year. There are issues and the local authority in Cork raised some of those issues. There was engagement between officials in the Department of housing and officials in Cork City Council but it is not correct to say the scheme has been closed off. That is simply just not true.
Sentiment score: 0.08
The scheme is open and the bottom line is that the programme for Government commits to the continuation of the tenant in situ scheme. The allocation of resources has been made. There are issues in terms of numbers, refurbishment and all that kind of thing. These are issues that will still have to be resolved between officials.
Sentiment score: 0.05
As articulated very clearly by the Minister for Education, Deputy McEntee, the Government is in favour of parental choice in respect of school choice. I have been a strong supporter of multidenominational education. Way back, I was involved in providing for the first time 100% grant aid. The Ranelagh school benefited from that decision. The late Mary O'Rourke was the game-changer in paving the way for multidenominational schools. There is parental choice across the board. We have different patrons and it is the policy to continue with a multi-patron approach to education, consulting with parents, and increasingly with students more generally, to make sure there is a diversity of provision in education, and that parental choice is prioritised.
Sentiment score: 0.31
We are, and have been, very clear and the investment shows it. There have been some first-class multidenominational schools built. I have opened one or two of them in the last two to three years. These are first class, state-of-the-art provision. It is likewise in Catholic voluntary schools, Church of Ireland schools, Gaelscoileanna, Gaelcholáistí and a variety of schools. Plurality of school provision and parental choice is where the Government policy sits. We need to sweat our assets more. Where it is logical for divestment or where a school building is available, it should be used and enhanced. This makes value for money. That issue cannot always be the last item on the agenda. We should focus on it strongly as well.
Sentiment score: 0.13
At the weekend, I said very clearly that I did not believe Ireland should allow an imperialistic aggressor nation a veto on Irish troops' participation in peacekeeping missions. That is essentially our position. That is why the triple lock needs amendment in the context of how the world has evolved geopolitically and of the stance taken by permanent members of the Security Council. In our view, an aggressor nation like Russia should not have a veto on our participation in peacekeeping.
Sentiment score: 0.41
To go by the Deputy's figures, it is now April and I find it difficult to comprehend how €20 million has already been allocated in three months. There is a need to bottom this out more and for ongoing engagement between the officials in the Department of housing and those in Cork City Council. The refinement of the tenant in situ scheme was to make sure funding would be allocated for people in immediate danger of falling into homelessness unless a house was purchased. The scheme was administered or delivered in different ways across the country. This led to a review of the scheme with a view to targeting resources more. It is my understanding that those acquisitions committed to will be fulfilled. The Minister is scheduled to meet with the chief executive officer of the city council.
Sentiment score: 0.04
I would definitely be inclined to agree with the Deputy. This is a new area of development. When you endeavour to comprehend the idea of drones flying left, right and centre performing various functions, the question of regulatory and safety frameworks to govern all of that activity arises. That point is well made. I suggest that the relevant Oireachtas committee take this matter up with a view to examining it in greater detail. I will talk to the Minister in respect of the issue now that the Deputy has raised it.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I met with Uisce Éireann recently. It is conscious of challenges and difficulties with water supply and quality in the Cork area, particularly on the north side of Cork, extending into Ballyhooly. It is my understanding that remedial works are taking place to progressively improve the situation. I will again raise the issue with Uisce Éireann with a view to alerting it to the fact that the Deputy raised the matter in the House and to keeping pressure on to make sure that remedial work continues in the interests of the people living in the area and availing of the water supply.
Sentiment score: 0.17
Will the Deputy bring the details of the case to me after this session? I will then deal with it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I am only a phone call away. I will talk to the Deputy afterwards.
Sentiment score: 0.00
If it is 60%, that is too high. It creates unfair pressure for those, namely young couples or young people generally, who might be endeavouring to buy houses for the first time. I will certainly talk to the Minister for housing and Limerick City and County Council on that issue. The balance has to be right. We want approved housing bodies and councils to be building houses in the first instance. The more social houses we build, the more pressure will be taken off the private sector. We do not want councils or approved housing bodies competing with people who want to buy houses at affordable prices.
Sentiment score: 0.04
I do not have the details on that matter. However, I will talk to the Minister for Justice and ask him if he can communicate with the Deputy in respect of it.
Sentiment score: 0.39
I thank Deputy Gogarty for raising this issue. I will talk to him again about this, but I accept that it is a serious issue. Very often, some of these issues fall between two or three stools, particularly in the context of who is legislatively responsible or when it comes to the different areas involved. We need a co-ordinated approach in respect of this issue. The Ministers for Justice and Health may have a role to play in terms of a legislative response to the issue of sales to under-18s. We do it for other products and substances so there is no reason why we cannot do it in this instance.
Sentiment score: 0.33
We have already taken that decision. It is not sustainable to say it has a chilling effect because it does not have a chilling effect. Every member state of the European Union, including Ireland, has signed up to the IHRA definition. However, this has not stopped Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and other countries from criticising the State of Israel in respect of its campaign in and bombardment of Gaza or the prevention of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza.
Sentiment score: 0.10
There is no evidence that it has actually had a chilling effect.
Sentiment score: -0.32
There is a clause in the explanatory note, but that is not part of the guidelines. We have been very clear that it in no way, shape or form inhibits anybody from criticising, legitimately, the policies of the Israeli Government in respect of Gaza or the West Bank. That is the factual position, but people keep making these assertions. It has not stopped us one bit from doing what we want to do in respect of our policy on the Middle East.
Sentiment score: 0.17
In the broader scheme of things, compared with other increases that have happened because of pressures in the market and so on, the impact of this is not similar in scale. However, the Deputy has rightly raised issues about payments to farmers. A third of that revenue goes to farmers in terms of environmental schemes. A third goes to retrofitting. The Deputy will come in to me another day asking for an expansion of the retrofitting scheme and the elasticity of it - make it simpler, make it better, provide better grants and so on. Then there are the fuel allowances. Up to €1,200 in per-person payments were made last year in respect of fuel allowances. All that is coming from the revenue that is raised from the carbon tax. It enables a sustainable revenue stream for those three areas: farming, fuel poverty and retrofitting. Without it, I do not think the retrofitting scheme would have expanded to the degree that it has. We acknowledge that we can improve upon that scheme, but that is the trade-off.
Sentiment score: 0.06