It is a matter of very serious concern that a landlord would behave in this manner. The reports were raised over the weekend with regard to the serving of 36 notices of termination by that landlord. The Minister, Deputy Browne, asked the Residential Tenancies Board to engage with the affected tenants and with Wexford County Council to ensure the impacted tenants' rights are protected. He has also been in touch with Wexford County Council to be supportive of those tenants. I have not seen the report back from the RTB yet. I will work with the Minister for housing to get access to that report to see where the situation now lies.
Sentiment score: 0.08
Of course, these eviction notices came before the new rules came into place-----
Sentiment score: -0.46
I should not have to explain that to the Deputy. She should know that and she did not acknowledge that.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The new laws provide far greater and stronger protection to tenants than the old system did and Deputy Bacik was the very person who alleged that we ignored the Housing Commission. The Housing Commission said that the rent protection zones, RPZs-----
Sentiment score: 0.21
-----could not stay as they were and that we needed to reform them. We bought in the Housing Agency to come up with proposals. It did so and we have taken the decisions to reform. The Deputy will always sit on the fence on this one because electorally nothing else will suit her or suffice. That is the truth.
Sentiment score: 0.06
Deputy Bacik calls for reform but when reform happens and decisions are taken - none of this is easy because it is a complex landscape - she will continue to sit on the fence.
Sentiment score: 0.59
What happened in Wexford is unacceptable.
Sentiment score: -0.46
The Minister sent the Residential Tenancies Board down.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Deputy makes all sorts of accusations against the Government, which are unfounded. She claims the moral high ground on everything. I have met with survivors from Bessborough and many did not want the forensic exhumation or examination of the site. They want a memorial and they want it to be respected. My own view is that it would have been far more preferable if-----
Sentiment score: 0.04
I did not interrupt the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.26
I did not interrupt the Deputy. Do not be so morally condescending, which is her wont. I have as much concern for people as she has but her tone is always one of condescension on these matters. I have spoken to survivors. I was about to say that I would have preferred if the city council had acquired Bessborough, which should have happened many years ago, for amenity purposes, and recreation-----
Sentiment score: 0.06
-----and memorialisation. We do not have a say as an executive authority in planning applications or planning decisions by An Bord Pleanála or its operations.
Sentiment score: 0.04
I have been very clear that the action taken is not in accordance with a UN mandate. I have been equally clear about the powerlessness and paralysis of the international rules-based order as it is via the UN Security Council. I am also very conscious that for years the Deputy has been very silent in terms of Iranian atrocities.
Sentiment score: 0.35
I did not interrupt you, Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.26
I have never interrupted-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
We will be charitable. The Deputy has put many the wrong spin on things I have said over the years and I am under no illusion-----
Sentiment score: -0.12
They do not.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I just did earlier, if you were listening. I did, actually.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Go back and check.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Deputy cannot have it both ways. We did establish the tribunal. That was a commitment a previous Government and former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave. The tribunal was established in good faith. People always have the entitlement to take their case through the courts if they so wish, but that tribunal, introduced by the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, at the time, had a very broad framework in how it was established and the jurisdiction it had and so forth. In our view, it would potentially have been an easier route to go through but people are entitled to take decisions in respect of how they pursue this.
Sentiment score: 0.37
My understanding is the UK Government may have introduced new travel requirements on this. I will pursue this with the UK Government and with Aer Lingus.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I just got some information. I will check it for the Deputy and I will pursue it. I understand many Donegal people travel for different reasons----
Sentiment score: 0.00
-----sporting, especially.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Practical, that is what I am saying.
Sentiment score: 0.00
There is lots of to and fro from Donegal.
Sentiment score: 0.00
If there was a medal to be awarded for the best contributor of the week, the Deputy would be most deserving of it because he is a lone voice among many voices whose only inclination and focus is on spending more money, calling on Government to keep on spending more money and spend as much as we can. He is the first person in a long time who has stood up and said that public expenditure in itself is not something that we should just in a knee-jerk way or automatically applaud.
Sentiment score: 0.65
We should be very focused on outputs, outcomes, value for money and somebody in here supporting the taxpayer every now and again. I salute that. It is an awful pity the Minister for public expenditure did not hear him because he would feel a bit less lonely in the overall scheme of things than he currently does in keeping a rein on public expenditure. I agree with the Deputy that capital expenditure is an investment in the productive capacity of our economy. It does give yields and economic efficiency, and can help economic growth into the future. That is why the budget focused very much on capital investment this year but also through the national development plan over the next decade.
Sentiment score: 0.23
I acknowledge that there are challenges with delays here. I will discuss this with the Minister. We had a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on health yesterday. A lot of progress has been made on waiting times and on health in general. Some very significant progress has been made. There is a lot of investment yet to come in terms of capacity on the current side and on the infrastructure side. However, we acknowledge that there are issues here and we need to get these waiting times down.
Sentiment score: 0.16
The advice is very clear: to shelter in place and to register with the relevant embassy for the country in which they are based so that there can be clear communication between our embassies and Irish citizens. All options are being, and will be, pursued to help our citizens. The immediate situation is very challenging because it is unsafe. Emirates and Etihad got opportunities yesterday; they got short time windows to get some planes out. Those were mostly towards the east. We would hope that there might be opportunities in the coming week if that could happen. In the meantime, we are pursuing all options, including co-ordinating with our European partners on any potential evacuation. For the immediate days ahead, the advice is to stay in shelter and register. We will do everything we can with the authorities in the respective countries in the Gulf to support our citizens.
Sentiment score: 0.34
As the Deputy said, €24 million was allocated for this facility in the capital plan. We need to work through the design. Under the acceleration of critical infrastructure, we hope that they will follow through on the work the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has done on fast-tracking these developments. Yesterday, I met with the HSE chief executive along with the Minister at the Cabinet subcommittee on health. The north east is the best area in the country with the lowest number of people on trolleys for any length of time. It is in the green zone a lot more than others. Overall, notwithstanding the experiences that some of the Deputy's constituents have articulated to him, a lot more progress is happening in the north east than in some other parts of the country in the accident and emergency story overall. I will talk to the HSE in respect of timelines at that accident and emergency department. We are conscious that HSE infrastructure takes longer than other infrastructure.
Sentiment score: -0.02
We need to find a solution because in other parts of the health service we would love if people would stay on after training, qualifying and working. We have made huge progress on the nursing front in that regard. I will talk to the Minister for Health and get the background to this.
Sentiment score: 0.46
I hear the frustration in the Deputy's voice and I share it. The funding has been increased. I recall the council saying that it needed more to reduce the council contribution. That has happened and it is still holding out. It is not good enough. I will meet with the county executive; I have to schedule it. We would like to meet the Galway County Council chief executive and the Galway City Council chief executive to discuss zoning and housing and now this as well. These schemes have dragged on for a long time. They were announced four or five years ago.
Sentiment score: 0.02
There has to be a developmental will, a will to do things, take risks and go for it. Too many are taking soft options here and are overly dependent on the Government for everything. It is not good enough.
Sentiment score: -0.20
First of all, I did not hear that programme this morning and offer my sincere sympathies to the Deputy's niece and the wider family. I will have to check the background to this but would the consultants not have been obliged under the law to sign? I do not have the full background.
Sentiment score: 0.13
That was a fairly fundamental part of the referendum, if we are honest, a number of years ago and then the legislation that followed. That would need consideration. The best thing I can do is to replay the programme, listen to the Deputy's niece and hear the circumstances.
Sentiment score: 0.40
The decision on the Rotunda Hospital was taken less than two weeks ago. The Minister will be making a clear statement on behalf of the Government on the issue. We had a good discussion yesterday at the Cabinet subcommittee on health. A very clear statement will be issued by the Minister. Consultations are obviously under way, which is to be expected to ensure that any statement issued has substance behind it and involves as wide and deep a consideration as possible. There will be that clarity.
Sentiment score: 0.34
Without commenting on specific cases, the State has been asked to intervene left, right and centre, and everywhere. There is a problem there in terms of sustainability. When estates are developed, there have to be bonds and people have responsibilities. There are different cases, and I accept all of that, but there is an issue for us as a State. People have obligations when they enter these contracts and finish estates and so forth. Forty-seven years is a bit long, and I take that point, but I am speaking more generally. I will ask the Minister for housing for his observations. We are committing unprecedented sums of money to local authorities on housing across a whole range of headings. Only today, the Government decided to provide more funding to the local authorities for retrofitting and voids. The local authorities tend to use it for other reasons or in different ways. They spend an amount on the deep retrofit and refurbishment of houses-----
Sentiment score: -0.01
-----where that was never the original reason for the allocation of a grant. The money was given to something else.
Sentiment score: 0.07