The history of what?
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How long have they got?
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I accept that the price of rent puts a lot of pressure on people, particularly young people, and that is why we are working very hard to increase supply. There were 36,000 house completions last year. The most effective way to deal with rent prices and moderating them is by means of supply. The Deputy knows that but what is Sinn Féin's response? It is to oppose housing applications and to oppose apartment construction. Its leader has now opposed the most recent development in her constituency, of hundreds of apartments. If you add it all up, she now has a fairly unenviable record-----
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-----of opposing, opposing, opposing.
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The only way we can deal with rent is supply.
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I salute the bravery and courage of Lisa Phillips in taking on what was a very corrupt and depraved network, as the Deputy has said. I am not clear on the files the Deputy is talking about. My understanding is that the Government does not hold any files in respect of Epstein, although I stand to be corrected on that, so we need to be more specific in terms-----
Sentiment score: 0.31
I know there was an allegation in the Epstein files in respect of a young woman being brought to Ireland but I have no knowledge of that. I have asked the Department of justice if it has any. It does not but the Garda, which is ultimately responsible for the investigation of any allegations, says it will investigate all complaints received and all allegations of serious crime, particularly, of course, sexual offences, child abuse and human trafficking. They are treated with the utmost seriousness. I encourage anyone who has any information and anyone who has been a victim of sexual violence to reach out for help and to engage with An Garda Síochána.
Sentiment score: -0.07
I do not accept the premise of the Deputy's argument insofar as we have been expanding access to GP care year after year over the past number of years, particularly over the past five to six years, and before then, in terms of access for children, access for those on median incomes and so forth. There has been expansion.
Sentiment score: -0.02
Also, probably one of the biggest transformations in the past two decades has been the move to primary care centres, which did take some time in the late 2000s to get going. They had been earmarked in an earlier strategy in 2001 but we have now invested very significantly in those primary care centres. The strategic review will be published, I understand, before this summer. It will outline further the policy framework and the direction of travel in respect of GP care, as regards both recruitment and directly publicly recruited GPs, as well as an expansion of access to GPs.
Sentiment score: 0.49
I said already during Leaders' Questions there will not be any reductions in special needs assistants in our schools in the school year beginning in September 2026. There will be increases, but there will not be any reductions in our schools. There will be well over 25,000 special needs assistants, which will be an increase of 8,700 since 2020. That is expansion. We will then have the redeployment scheme.
Sentiment score: 0.23
Workforce planning will be published and a new circular in response to that, which will give the template. No one has ever suggested to me that you have the same number forever in any given school. It depends on the need of the school at a given time in terms of the number of children it has who require supports and care. That has always been the case. The Deputy and everyone in the Opposition seems to be now suggesting there should never be any evolution.
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I welcome the Kinsale Men's Shed. The Men's Sheds are wonderful organisations across the country generally. I also welcome the history of politics group from Wexford. It is a discipline close to my own heart, as both a student and a practitioner. On the short-term lets situation, I have watched the odd Facebook presentation from Deputy Collins. He is having meetings up and down and is enjoying himself to a certain extent. The legislation is not requesting anyone to have planning permission. The Deputy knows this.
Sentiment score: 0.23
He has a duty to tell the truth about these matters. I am willing to engage. The Attorney General is clear that from the get-go, from the beginning, if you move from residential to commercial activity, that de facto requires planning permission. There are certain rules that if you are at it a long time, you do not. That is the existing planning status. That is nothing new. No one is creating something new. That is the position. You can register and the idea will be-----
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-----that when the Government brings its proposals you can register without planning permission-----
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-----but there will be an expectation that, over time, you would regularise your planning.
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I thank the Deputy for producing that Bill. I want to engage with him regarding how I can fast track it. It might matter for the House to be of assistance in that regard. In terms of tougher laws on the generation of images, the Attorney General and the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration are examining that issue. We do have very strong laws preventing the sharing of intimate images and very strong laws in terms of child abuse online. There is no equivocation there. The generation of an image is a complex matter because an image can be generated online or offline in various contexts - what one might presume would be an intimate imagine. I am not going go into the particular fields where that can happen. It is the sharing of the image that is the crime at the moment but they are examining it. I know that on the generation side Britain has introduced it but has not commenced it.
Sentiment score: 0.16
I will raise the issue with the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, although there are offences and they are well provided for - any assault on any person. It gets a bit complicated if we start categorising. We have specifics for emergency care workers, bus workers and transport generally. The attack in Temple Bar was appalling. The issue is the behaviour of the individuals who do this sort of thing. We have to look at sentencing and we need to be very clear that the criminal justice system is in a position to apprehend those responsible for such violent acts and to put them away for a decent amount of time. Deterrence is required here because far too casually, people are using violence to carry out terrible deeds that kill people or create very severe impacts for and inflict very severe damage to people for the rest of their lives. These are life-altering injuries in some cases and it is reprehensible. I will talk to the Minister.
Sentiment score: -0.19
Wicklow got about €14.9 million, which is a very substantial amount. In terms of the storm damage, we have told the county councils to continue and work away at fixing those roads. Estimates are coming in from the councils separate from their normal road budget, although there are contingencies built into their normal allocation. Nonetheless we do accept that under Storm Éowyn there were particular impacts, so the Department of Transport is working with county councils, including the Deputy's county council, regarding the estimation of the damage done to the roads as a result of the recent flooding in particular.
Sentiment score: -0.09
I thank the Deputy for his commentary. It is a sign of the high esteem in which An Garda Síochána is held in this country that every part of the country is looking for more gardaí but I know it is also to have greater security and safety. The new Commissioner is very clear on the importance of the visibility of An Garda Síochána on our streets. It will get there. The through-put in Templemore is very good, with increased numbers all the time. There is a clear commitment in the programme for Government of up to 5,000 additional gardaí over the lifetime of this Government. A total of 223 trainees entered in November, which was the largest intake since 2014, and it was similar in the last one, so about 617 have come through in 2025 alone. That is manifest in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. I take the Deputy's point. About 94 members of An Garda Síochána are assigned to stations in Longford, which is an increase of 8% since the end of 2016 when there were 87 members. We will focus and I will talk to the Minister and the Commissioner.
Sentiment score: 0.30
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Obviously, I cannot deal with every school extension and so on. However, I will raise this with the Minister. There is, again, record funding for school buildings this year, with a particular focus on school extensions for special classes and special education. I will see what we can do in this case.
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To be fair, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, who was the Minister of State with responsibility for special education in the previous Government, would be more than willing to meet with the various groups. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, has been travelling the length and breadth of the country meeting with parents, schools and stakeholders in respect of these issues and continues to engage with both the NCSE and the schools. I will raise this issue with the Minister. There has been extensive consultation with the unions in respect of the redeployment scheme. That was brought, more or less, to a conclusion. That should be issued fairly quickly. The workforce planning document is nearing completion. There is the new circular as well, which builds on the 2014 circular and has changes included. All of that will have to be published and discussed.
Sentiment score: 0.23