I dtosach, ar son mo phairtí, Fine Gael agus ar son an Rialtais, déanaim comhbhrón le clann Paddy Cooney, a cailleadh i rith na seachtaine. He was a former Minister for Justice - I note a flag is at half-mast over the House today - a former TD for Longford-Westmeath and a former Senator. He was a great advocate in the Dáil for the people of Longford and Westmeath and did a huge amount of work to protect our democracy in the face of many people who sought to undermine and subvert it over many years. On behalf of my party and the wider Government, I extend my sympathies to the Cooney family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann. Yesterday, the Taoiseach was asked about the issue Deputy Carthy raised. He gave a substantial answer with regard to what the Government has been doing over the past number of years, particularly in relation to health and social protection for those who are the most vulnerable. He outlined to the House, and I will use the opportunity to spell out again today, the supports the Government is giving to the least well-off and the most vulnerable in our society. He gave a lot of detail on the drugs payment scheme and how it operates. Under that scheme, cardholders and their families only have to pay a maximum of €80 per month for approved prescribed drugs and medicines. This has improved dramatically over the last number of years. The resources the Government has available to it, thanks to the economic growth that has been made available through the financial policies we have pursued, all of which have been objected to by Deputy Carthy and his party, has resulted in us being in a position to invest very heavily in the areas of health and social protection. Last week alone, the most vulnerable in our society saw the Christmas bonus start to be paid out. In his response yesterday, the Taoiseach also acknowledged that for many people, and I have personal experience of this, the dispensing and taking of tablets on a daily basis is something that some people require assistance with. For some people who operate on their own, it can be quite daunting. The Taoiseach outlined yesterday that he believed there is still an opportunity for the HSE to engage with the Irish Pharmacy Union over the time ahead to see whether this issue can be further discussed. On the same lines as what the Taoiseach said, that opportunity is there. He outlined why he believes this is important, the importance of the drugs payment scheme and blister packs, and how they have supported people over many years. The reality is that health now has the largest budget it has ever had. There is €27 billion in health for 2026. It is not an insignificant amount of money. I know the party opposite laid out its proposals with regard to health and social protection and a number of other areas, which did not include everything that the Government included, particularly in the area of social protection for budget 2026, yet it derided the Government for things it did include for social protection. The Taoiseach in his response yesterday outlined that the opportunity still exists for the HSE to engage with the Irish Pharmacy Union, and I expect that engagement to happen.
Sentiment score: 0.31
Deputy Carthy does a good job of pretending he has a monopoly on people's concerns in this country. The one thing he never mentions is the economy or jobs or anything as to where the actual wealth in the country comes from. I think it is something his party is incapable of understanding. The income into this State-----
Sentiment score: 0.26
I did not interrupt the Deputy. The income into this State and its ability to spend money is derived from the strong economy and all the policies to which he and his party have objected.
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I know it is a tactic they use.
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Sometimes they do it quite well, but they are showing themselves up by trying to shout people down. If they will just listen, Deputy Carthy said a while ago that we have nothing with regard to cost-of-living measures.
Sentiment score: 0.09
This has been said time and again. Sorry, I do not know who the questioner is supposed to be here.
Sentiment score: -0.04
Time and again Sinn Féin brings up the Government's issues with regard to cost of living. I will put it on the record of the House again because the Deputy has already said something that is clearly not true. We are introducing the largest ever child support benefit. We have introduced-----
Sentiment score: 0.20
-----back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. We are increasing the domiciliary care allowance and, as late as yesterday, one of the Deputy's own party colleagues asked me to hike up the charge for people's Netflix accounts. Had I done that yesterday, Deputy Carthy would be in here today with the same old cant as always, that we are not taxing enough.
Sentiment score: 0.24
If I can answer Deputy Carthy, he wants to have his cake and eat it.
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He wants to tax everybody and pretend he lives in a world where everything is free.
Sentiment score: 0.44
I thank Deputy Sheehan for raising an issue that is very important to both of us, the current situation in University Hospital Limerick. Deputy Sheehan was at the opening of the 96-bed block with me and others. He would agree that there have been substantial improvements made in University Hospital Limerick over the past number of years. It is starting from a really low base, there is no doubt about it. Our colleague from the mid-west, the former Minister, Alan Kelly, has referred to this on many occasions as well. The reconfiguration of the midwestern hospitals group a number of years ago has left a negative legacy with regard to healthcare provision in the mid-west that several Governments, including the current one, have had to try to unwind and deal with. The reality is that over the past number of years we have had a substantial deficiency as regards bed capacity in the mid-west that this Government is dealing with. The new 96-bed unit is open. The second 96-bed unit, which Deputy can see himself as he passes, in Dooradoyle is well under way. Planning permission for that was more difficult than we expected. There is an options appraisal, as the Deputy pointed out, that is with the Minister for Health. It is the Minister for Health who will ultimately bring forward proposals with regard to this. The Minister was in Limerick, where she has arrived unannounced. Oftentimes Ministers are criticised for coming to the hospital on an announced basis. She has arrived in on an unannounced basis and has seen first-hand what Deputy Sheehan and I have seen. I do not in any way dispute what the Deputy said earlier, but the numbers in UHL are going in the right direction. Today there are 26 people on trolleys. That is 26 too many. Ideally there should be zero, but it is not that long ago that the Deputy and I would remember that number being three, four or five times that amount. Bed capacity is the route to this. I pay tribute to the staff of the hospital, many of whom are my neighbours and Deputy Sheehan's neighbours. They have had to work in appalling conditions over many years while we had to grapple with the fact that there were successive elements of underinvestment. There is substantial investment in UHL, and I am glad the Deputy has recognised it, but there is also an options appraisal. The Minister for Health will bring forward proposals with regard to options A, B and C. She has already alluded to the fact that A and B will likely continue. There will be more room at Dooradoyle and other units in Ennis and Nenagh will continue to be invested in. The surgical unit up at the Mount is currently well under way and the Bon Secours private hospital is open. Significant investment from the public and private sectors is helping to transform the mid-west. We have also seen significant investment in St. Camillus's, St. Ita's and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. This is all improving the delivery of healthcare for the mid-west. I am not for one minute saying we are finished; there is further work that needs to be delivered on this. I will come back to the flu question in my next reply.
Sentiment score: 0.02
I do not need to be reminded of my duties to the mid-west. I have been here 15 years, thanks be to God and to the people of County Limerick for returning me. It is a great honour and I work very hard, not only on my national duties, but on my regional and county duties, also. UHL is a concern to all of us and the one thing it does not need is politics. The Deputy is right as regards the flu. We are worried about the amount of people who still have to get the flu vaccine. The vaccine is the best form of protection. There are many people in hospital with the flu - well over three quarters of the people in hospital at present - who are not vaccinated, which is a concern. I use this opportunity to remind people that anyone over 60 or in the age group of two to 17 can get it free, as can healthcare workers. The HSE has done many campaigns. Indeed, on the day of the opening of the hospital in Limerick, it did a campaign in Limerick to try to encourage people to get the vaccine. I encourage people in the House to get it. I have got it, as I am from a cohort of people who are immunosuppressed and need to get it. I encourage anybody who still has not got the flu vaccine to go out and get it.
Sentiment score: 0.22
I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising what is an important issue, particularly at this time of year. We should all be cognisant and reminded of the great work taxi drivers and hackney drivers do all over the country in bringing us home safely in communities across the country, particularly when we are all so anxious to ensure that people do not drink and drive. We want people to go out and enjoy themselves and the reliance on night-time economy workers like taxi drivers and hackney drivers is very important. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is on Government business abroad at present. I agree with the Deputy that no one should be vilified for any approach they take as regards their relationships with either State structures or anything else. I would just like to put that on the record. The Minister wrote to the National Transport Authority, NTA, to request clarification on the regulatory position on the Uber fixed-price fare for the information of taxi operators and public reps alike. In the response to his letter, the Minister was advised by the NTA that the charging of a fixed-price fare was in accordance with the applicable regulations. He was also advised that the NTA continued to keep the regulatory model under review. The Minister instructed his senior departmental officials to meet the NTA to discuss the response. Following the meeting, which took place on Tuesday, 9 December, the Minister formally requested the urgent consideration of the matter by the advisory committee on small public service vehicles. That is to take place today. I am sure the Deputy will agree that it is important that these discussions be allowed to take place without feeling pressure from anybody, including anybody in the House. The advisory committee on small public service vehicles is an independent body, established under the taxi regulations of 2013. Its primary function is to provide advice to the NTA as the regulator and to the Minister for Transport regarding taxis, hackneys and their drivers. Members of the committee include drivers, operators, representatives of consumer interests, disability interests, local government, An Garda Síochána and the tourism sector. I hope that, after today, we might have a greater degree of clarity. The Minister is on Government business abroad at present, and I am sure that when he returns to the House next week, we will have greater clarity in this regard.
Sentiment score: 0.31
The Deputy will be aware that the NTA is an independent transport regulator of the taxi sector. It is not for the Minister for Transport to intervene in the day-to-day operations of the sector, no more that it is for any Minister who has set up, or has under their remit, a regulatory authority, be it in health, my own Department, justice or wherever. It is not within the ambit or the remit of the line Minister to interfere in the day-to-day operations of the regulatory authority. Based on the information made available to me by the Department of Transport, there is an opportunity today, deoxygenated in many ways, to have a discussion around this between the two parties that are critical of it in the hope that they can arrive at a workable solution. I encourage people to allow them the space and the time to do that, particularly at this time of year. All of our towns rely to a massive degree on taxi drivers and hackney drivers for Christmas shopping, Christmas parties and everything else. At the end of the day, I hope we can get a resolution. I am sure that the Minister will be back in the House next week and there will be other opportunities, either in the transport committee or in the Dáil, to raise the matter directly with him.
Sentiment score: 0.42
In his intervention, Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned Lough Funshinagh in County Roscommon. I know that area intimately, unfortunately for all of the wrong reasons. The poor misfortunate people there had to put up with years of torture, for want of a better word, because an attempt by the Office of Public Works and Roscommon County Council to relieve flooding was held up and objected to. As Deputy Fitzmaurice referenced, the habitats directive was the principal instrument. The Minister of State, Deputy Moran, has made huge progress in this area. This will be one of the first Christmases that the people there will at least have pumps running and know that the terrible situation is not going to happen to them on Christmas Day again. I agree with the Deputy's wider point about EU simplification, and so does the President of the European Commission. One of the hallmarks of the President of the European Commission's contribution to the state of the Union address was the need for the Union to look at EU simplification. I do not believe that it was ever intended that an instrument originally designed to protect the habitats of flora and fauna would be used as an instrument or a method to allow sewage to flow through people's houses, regardless of the town or village where the flood relief scheme was to take place and regardless of whether there was potable water. We all remember back in the 1990s or the early 2000s the situation with the Galway city water scheme. Galway City Council was the first agent of the State to use imperative reasons of overriding public interest, IROPI. The Deputy will know exactly what I am talking about. When there is an overriding need for public good, we can, as he said, screen out things that would otherwise not be looked favourably upon in an application. However, that is a long and arduous process and it can be appealed. I agree with the Deputy about our infrastructure, whether it is in the building of a road or a railway or the laying of a water main, such as the one being discussed from north of Limerick to Dublin. All of these things are being objected to by people for spurious reasons, in many cases. The Deputy knows as well as I do that, as soon as someone mentions the Aarhus Convention, they have carte blanche to go the whole way to the Supreme Court. Many people here do not agree with my analysis or the Deputy's, and that is another problem. If legislation was brought before the Dáil tomorrow in terms of harmonising or simplifying Ireland's interpretation of the habitats directive, I am not so sure that everybody who claims to be on the same side as us would all of a sudden jump to that. Certainly, when it comes to the European institutions, we definitely know that is not the case. In general, the Deputy's point about EU simplification is one that the Minister for agriculture, the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, others and I entirely agree with.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I omitted to say in my original response that I think the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, was not referring to the ECJ during the week but to the European Court of Human Rights, but I know the point Deputy Fitzmaurice is making, which is the same thing. It is about EU simplification. Whether it is in relation to potable water or being able to flush the toilet, it is taking too long. It is not down to a shortage of money. Anyone would tell you that, in most cases, the delivery of infrastructure now has built into it substantial legal fees. An awful lot of the legal fees are being absorbed by cases being contested in the courts over environmental regulations. Like the Deputy, I do not believe that those regulations were ever designed to be interpreted in such a fashion as to prevent people from getting access to potable water. If that is the case, it is time to go back and look at this again. With regard to what the Deputy said about the nitrates directive, this is a good week in terms of what the Minister for agriculture has achieved. It is about EU simplification and ensuring a common-sense approach, working with farmers and people who know and love the land and who know their animals better than anybody, so that they can have a manageable way to do this. They are not people who will go out and degrade or destroy the environment. They want to work with the environment because it is what they derive their income from.
Sentiment score: 0.11