I thank Deputy Doherty for raising the question on children's disability services. I want to begin where he began by welcoming the special rapporteur from the United Nations for the occupied territories to Ireland and thank her for her work. With a representative of the United Nations in our country, I want to join with all Members of this House and with the Secretary General of the United Nations in expressing our deep sadness and shock to learn of the death of a United Nations Office for Project Services staff member when two UN guesthouses were hit in Israeli air strikes. Five other UN personnel were seriously injured and, of course, hundreds upon hundreds of people, including children, have been killed in brutal airstrikes over the past number of days, an utterly despicable situation. Let me first agree with the Deputy. This money should be released. The Deputy asked me what I was going to do. I am going to make sure it is released. I am going to make sure it is provided. I have spoken to the Taoiseach about this matter at the Cabinet committee on disability on Monday. I agree with the Deputy that this issue needs to be resolved on behalf of parents, their children and organisations that applied in good faith for the scheme. I must acknowledge that the scheme was an innovative and good idea to try to find another mechanism to provide much-needed funding and, as the Deputy says, a stopgap level of funding, to provide vital services. That fund needs to be provided. I regret that this situation has gone on as long as it has. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and for raising the views of Denise. I am sure there are many others like Denise who rightly want to know when this is going to be resolved. My understanding is that the HSE launched a call for what is called the children's disability service grant fund back in October 2023. There was a quite a lot of interest, which is probably no surprise to anyone, such is the level of need. Following the evaluation process, the HSE confirmed that projects with a cost of around €8 million have met the criteria for the fund. This now needs to be provided. It is no fault of the organisations involved. I am sure many of those organisations are having to deal with the disappointment and concern of parents. My view is very simple, in that, if an application met the criteria under the scheme, that application should be funded. We need to resolve this urgently. I thank the Deputy for highlighting the issue and am happy to come back to him directly on this matter. This is one measure we have taken and the funding needs to be provided. The second stopgap - the Deputy called it that, but it is an appropriate phrase while we try to build up capacity - is the initiative we took last year to try to provide additional funding for assessments of need, many of which will be required by many of the families the Deputy deals with in his own work. I am pleased to say that an initiative we put in place to provide funding for private assessments of need where required saw 2,479 assessments of need commissioned from private providers between June and December of last year at a cost of €8.2 million. We have allocated an additional €10 million for that scheme this year.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I am not rowing with Deputy Doherty today. He seems nearly disappointed that I am saying I am going to resolve the matter. He is right to highlight this issue. He is right to call on us to resolve the issue, and we are going to do that. I am not going to stand up and defend something that cannot be defended. A scheme was announced in good faith, people applied, and the funding now needs to be provided. The HSE has a level of funding that is almost eye-watering, and €8 million is a rounding error. The idea that that €8 million, which could make a fundamental difference to the lives of so many children, including in the Deputy's county, has not yet been provided is extraordinarily frustrating. The Deputy asked. I am not commentating on this. I know what I am going to do. I have told the Deputy very clearly what I am going to do. I have spoken to the Taoiseach. He and I are ad idem on this issue. We will have a Cabinet committee on disability, and we are going to resolve the issue and make sure the money flows because the Deputy has outlined the very serious human impact to young children when that does not happen, and I thank him for doing that.
Sentiment score: 0.08
I thank Deputy Bacik for the common-sense suggestion she made regarding a briefing for the Opposition. I apologise but with various international travel and the like over the last while there has been a bit of a lacuna. I suggest that on Monday we have that briefing for Opposition parties either with me or, if my diary does not allow, with senior officials because we need to get that flow of information going. I am very happy to do that and to come into this House to keep it regularly briefed and to put a structure in place to make sure the Deputy has access when doing her job. We are highly likely to face a very significant period of turbulence. We have got to control what we can control in terms of what we can do here in Ireland. We have got to work as part of, and as members of, the European Union where, of course, trade policy is at. As the Deputy rightly said, we have to engage with our foreign direct investment, FDI, base that is present in the country. With regard to the financial analysis or the macroeconomic analysis that is being carried out, my understanding is that it is likely we will see some research published with regard to it this week. What I would say in advance of that is that even in modelling, we are operating with a lot of what they probably call "known unknowns" in terms of not yet having seen the detail. However, sharing the best information available is a sensible thing to do. I will come back to trade specifically and to tariffs, but on the occupied territories Bill, about which I have spoken to the Taoiseach, he absolutely reiterated the commitment in the programme for Government with regard to legislating in this area. Whatever others wish to say - I do not mean Deputy Bacik - the Government's commitment remains as outlined in the programme for Government in that regard. On the issue of tariffs and trade, the Deputy is right to suggest that this country has a lot of foreign direct investment and that brings exposure and challenge. That is true. We are also approaching it from a position of relative strength because regardless of politics, there is a reality that many companies are based in this country not for the weather but because it is a good place to do business. It is a good place to access the European market. Many of them have not just years but decades of experience of doing business in Ireland. Regardless of who is in the White House or what policies are pursued, it is a statement of fact that many American multinationals still want to do business in a market with more than 400 million people. I will certainly hear that in my interactions with them on Friday. I will chair the Government's trade forum, which brings together Government Departments, Ministers and relevant State agencies but crucially sectors of the economy and business representative organisations to have that engagement and flow of information the Deputy rightly highlighted. I hope we can all speak with a team Ireland voice with regard to this. Europe does not want tariffs. I have heard so much misinformation in the last few days on why Europe will not engage. The position of Europe, of which Ireland is proudly a part, is really clear. We want to sit down and reach an agreement. We want to do business with the United States. We want to buy more stuff from the United States. It seems the tactic and approach of the American Administration is to announce a series of measures first and then engage. We believe that is wrong. The engagement should happen now.
Sentiment score: 0.31
I, too, welcome that. On the occupied territories Bill, my office was in touch with Senator Black yesterday to arrange for me to meet with her. I will come back to the Deputy once that has happened. In the vein of controlling what is within our control, and we can talk about this more when we have our briefing and engagement, it is imperative that we look at what is within our control and what continues to bring jobs and investment to this country, such as competitiveness, refocusing on costs, improving the stock of strategically important infrastructure and, from a public finance perspective, building up a buffer. We were often, not necessarily by the Deputy but by many others in this House, ridiculed for setting money aside for rainy days. People asked why we did not spend it. There are some in this House who believe that because they have it, they will spend it and even if they do not, they will spend it. Thank God we have now set aside money in terms of funds for economic turbulence should that happen. The Department of Finance will set out its updated assessment of the economic outlook, which will incorporate the latest developments in the global economy. It will also have its spring forecast, which will be published next month. However, this is going to require significant attention and engagement from everybody in this House and I, on behalf of the Government, want to work in a constructive way, right across this Chamber, so that we can do our very best for this country in the time ahead.
Sentiment score: 0.19
I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for raising what is one of the most serious issues we face in the public service and in the lives of children with disabilities, namely, access to therapy provision and the process they go through to gain that access. To be clear, the waiting lists for assessment of need are far too long. This is having a significant negative impact on the lives of children and their families. I accept the point the Deputy has made and I believe it is the right one, in that we need to look at the system. I accept that is going to require a more detailed debate in the House. It is clear to me that, if we have a situation where an assessment of need is lasting on average 36 hours and in some cases up to 90 hours before a child gets any therapy, even when the therapist carrying out the assessment does not believe that level of assessment is required - I will be very careful lest people misrepresent what I am saying, as children have a legal entitlement to an assessment of need, which I believe is vital and I will always defend and cherish that right - it is the rigidity under which that right is being interpreted with regard to the number of hours over which it must be carried out that is causing a significant challenge. I have spoken to many parents across Ireland on this issue, and there is absolutely no point in my view in a therapist spending one third of his or her working week on assessments rather than providing the therapy, particularly when that professional - not me as a politician - believes that his or her time could be better used in the provision of therapy. We have got to get a better model. The Deputy is right, in that I said this was an area of priority. It is an area of priority. I have met Cara Darmody, the incredible young teenager from Tipperary. She put it up to me very forcefully, articulately and compellingly that we had to do much better. She also made a suggestion that, in fairness, colleagues in the Labour Party tabled a motion on regarding the use of using private money in the short term. We have done that and have seen 2,479 more children get assessments as a result. It is not enough, though, if we have a situation where we continue to have a child needing 36 to 90 hours of assessment when the parent and the therapist do not believe that that time is needed. I have engaged with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, on this to see how the current system can be reformed because I believe it is clear to everybody that it is not working. I can reel off figures as to extra investment we have made about extra people we have hired and all of that, but that would miss the point. We need to change the system, which I believe will likely require legislative change, where I would like to work constructively in this House to see if we can get to a point of consensus on that. It is not about the right to assessment, which I will defend. Rather, the rigidity stemming from the 2022 High Court judgment is, in the views of the healthcare providers, the single biggest challenge in terms of the waiting times for children's disability services.
Sentiment score: 0.21
That is a fair question but the Deputy would rightly ask me a different question if I came in here and said the State was going to contest the cases, as that would not be a compassionate or decent approach to take on this issue. The law is clear on the 2022 High Court judgment. I am saying three things to the parents. First, we need to reform the system, potentially including the law, and the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, are looking at that. Two, we need to move beyond parents having education over here and health over there and never do the two meet. We have got to implement the programme for Government commitment to put therapy services back in schools, starting with special schools. That process has begun and we are looking to accelerate it. We will be discussing that in our Cabinet committee on disability on Monday. Third, I say to parents that, in the here and now, the initiative I mentioned whereby we are using private capacity and that saw over 2,470 children getting assessments last year who would not otherwise have got them will have its level of funding increased this year to over €10 million.
Sentiment score: 0.10
That is not what I am saying.
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We are not.
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I am so sick and tired of the Deputy misrepresenting my position and demeaning all that we do as sweet words. I would really love - I am not sure I would actually - if some time she were in Brussels with me at some of these meetings where we are working extraordinarily hard on these issues. She could ask any other member state, or indeed the Israeli Government, if they feel Ireland is not taking action to support the people of Palestine. She asked me not to talk about what we have done in terms of recognition so I will not. I will tell her five things we are doing. First, we are actively involved in the International Court of Justice case. That used to be the Opposition's demand. We took that decision as one of only a small number of countries to intervene in a case in the international court. At a time when international courts are coming under attack from others, we are proudly standing with the international courts and speaking up for international law. That is something I am proud we are doing. That is an action; that is not sweet words. I presume the Deputy recognises the importance of international courts. That is a practical measure. The second thing we are doing is providing significant humanitarian aid. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, has responsibility for this. Today we have trucks in Jordan with enough aid for 6,000 people in Gaza. Those are practical measures taken by the Deputy's constituents and mine to fund and pay for aid. We need to get that aid into Gaza but it is a practical measure. It is not sweet words; do not be so flippant. The third thing we are doing is supporting UNRWA. The Deputy should talk to the director general of UNRWA and ask him how supportive this Government has been. Not only have we provided €38 million at a time when others have walked away and walked off the pitch from UNRWA, we have provided €38 million on behalf of the people of this country. I have also announced in my role as Tánaiste a further €20 million in support to keep UNRWA working in Gaza and the Middle East. That is a practical measure and not sweet words, or the flippant point the Deputy made . The next thing we have done is work with Arab countries. I have met the minister in Jordan, the minister in Egypt and the Palestinian Prime Minister in recent weeks in Munich and Johannesburg. I have met these people and we are supporting the Arab plan for reconstruction. We are saying to people, including the United States, that we see their plan on the displacement of people from Palestine as utterly unacceptable and in breach of international law. We want an alternative plan for Gaza that sees no role for Hamas, a brutal and illegal terrorist organisation. I am sure the Deputy will agree with that. However, it sees the reconstruction of Gaza and a new governance and security arrangement in place. That is the fourth thing. The fifth practical thing we are doing is engaging to advance the commitment in the programme for Government to legislate on the occupied territories. Those are five practical measures that do not include the recognition of the State of Palestine, and that we are taking to help them. They are not sweet words, but real action. You know what? Diplomacy is tough. It takes real action. In fact, if anyone is talking sweet words, it is only the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.09
Sure, the Deputy does not trust me.
Sentiment score: -0.10
So dismissive.
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It is not in our name.
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It is a disgraceful slur. It is not in our name. How dare you.
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The Taoiseach is entirely correct to meet representatives of the Jewish community, as do I. Antisemitism is disgusting and despicable. There are hostages who have been taken from the people and families of Israel and they need to be freed. The carry on of Hamas is utterly despicable, parading children's caskets like some sort of sick, twisted act of propaganda. Hamas needs to be condemned and we here in this Government will always engage proudly with the Jewish community at home and abroad but we will also speak the truth. We stand up for international law. We utterly condemn the actions of the Netanyahu government.
Sentiment score: -0.07
We condemn it. If the Deputy wants to talk about genocide, read our submission to the ICJ.
Sentiment score: -0.19
It must be exhausting for Deputy Connolly to think she alone carries responsibility and care for this. We care passionately and we are acting. I am proud of the actions of the Irish Government, and so are many people across the country and so is the government of Palestine.
Sentiment score: 0.39