I accept that soundbites are not the answer, and I would respectfully respond to the Deputy that the public do not need soundbites from Sinn Féin either on this question.
Sentiment score: 0.65
People want a substantive, policy-driven and evidence-informed approach to dealing with the energy price issue. It is a huge issue in terms of Ireland's competitiveness and its impact on consumers and households. We have done a lot over the last number of years to best cushion households. We accept the pressure on them. The linkage at European level between gas and broader energy prices is an issue. We have already established a group to review this. We will pursue this with the companies and the CRU.
Sentiment score: 0.24
I thank the Deputy for raising an important issue that is of significant concern to workers in CIÉ umbrella companies. I have been monitoring this for quite some time. I was delighted to see agreement reached. I certainly will pursue the matter with the respective Ministers to get this brought to a conclusion as quickly as possible.
Sentiment score: 0.51
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue to the workers concerned. I did meet them. We had a further extension following that meeting and a consultation with Ministers, particularly the Minister for Health. I will talk to the Ministers involved again. I do not want to raise any hopes or anything like that because, as the Deputy knows, this went to the Labour Court, which made a recommendation of a further extension at the time. That said, I will talk to other Ministers in respect of this.
Sentiment score: 0.28
There have been consistent increases in the number of SNAs in our schools on an ongoing basis. The largest increase in a long time is happening this year. About 860 additional special education teachers and 1,717 new SNAs will be recruited as a result of budget 2026. That will bring the total number of SNAs in the State to 24,900. Therefore, it should be within the capacity of the Department of education and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to work with individual schools. I do not have the specifics on each school - there are over 3,000 primary schools, and I appreciate the Deputy raising the case of one in his own locality - but I will refer the matter to the NCSE. However, there is no shortage in the increased allocation. It is at a very high level now, with close to 25,000 special needs assistants in the county, so surely some should be facilitated.
Sentiment score: 0.25
I thank the Deputy. He has a point but the legislation is not in the current legislative programme. We will have a meeting in early January on the new legislative programme for the next session. We will talk to the relevant Minister as well and hopefully we can provide some clarity on the matter of the reintroduction.
Sentiment score: 0.28
This is a very important issue and is perhaps one that the State or local authorities have not responded to in a comprehensive and effective over the years. That has been my own personal experience, like the one the Deputy has articulated. Criminal activity will have to be dealt with. Maybe resources are required or a greater security dimension is needed to support public servants locally in addressing issues of this kind. Very often, it can be quite intimidating for all concerned in certain situations, but I will talk to the relevant Minister and maybe we can work with the Deputy on how we might progress a fresh initiative in this area.
Sentiment score: 0.44
Is the Deputy referring to schools building projects?
Sentiment score: 0.00
We will talk to the Minister. Over the last five years, there has been exponential growth in capital expenditure for school projects, with many in the special education arena, which is very important. The Department of education had agreed with the Department of public expenditure a very substantial national development framework for further extensions. I will refer the cases in question to the Minister for education and we will try to get to the bottom of the matter. Many schools across the country are progressing and there is a lot of work under way. I am aware that all the Deputies in Galway East and elsewhere are very anxious to have things progress quickly.
Sentiment score: 0.23
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I will certainly raise it with the Minister, James Browne. I will talk to the Ministers of State, Deputies O’Sullivan and Moran, in respect of Elm Park and, in particular, the residents, who need clarity.
Sentiment score: 0.47
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I discussed it earlier during Leaders' Questions. European security and defence is a live issue in Europe. From the onset of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, there has been an exponential growth in cyberattacks, both on private sector installations, companies and businesses and on public sector areas. There has also been clear evidence of hybrid warfare, essentially, and increased emergence of drones and violation of airspace in a number of EU member states, including Denmark, Belgium, Ireland and France. There was an attack on a railway track in Poland, which is clear as to the culprits. There have been increased arson attacks in eastern European states. It is very clear that there is a security threat to Ireland. Our security threat is to our critical undersea infrastructure, our gas imports and to security of other areas. We are very much aware of it. The country at large needs to increase its awareness of it also.
Sentiment score: 0.03
I would commit to meeting the group, subject to varying commitments. We fully accept the need to overhaul access to therapy services. I would say that we are rolling out for the first time the therapy and education service, beginning with 45 special schools, hopefully starting in this academic year, and then all 145 special schools for the 2026-27 school year. After that, we will expand it to the mainstream school system. Obviously, we have to progress it because of recruitment and so on and we are expanding the number of placements. On top of that, we are developing a different assessment of need process, which the legislation published yesterday was designed to streamline but also to free up therapists to provide services as opposed to being locked up in an assessment process. Then we are looking at specifics around autism and so on. I take the Deputy's point about Down's syndrome. Some areas of special needs feel neglected with how things have evolved, so I understand the point.
Sentiment score: 0.33
I thank the Deputy for raising an important issue. The Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, said yesterday that he would engage with the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, about the issue. I think he has met the owners or those who are running the centre and understands the wide usage, enjoyment and creativity that has taken place there. I will engage again with both Ministers in respect of it.
Sentiment score: 0.56
I thank the Deputy for raising what is an important issue for rural people in general who want to build one-off housing. The Minister is revising the guidelines in respect of this issue. On the development levies, we got 60,000 commencements. We now need to see them concluded. The Deputy has asked that we explore demarcation between one-off and general schemes, because we brought the VAT rate down to facilitate apartment-building and get critical mass back into that. I will talk to the Ministers with a view to looking at that or a specific ring-fenced initiative.
Sentiment score: 0.12
I will talk to the Minister for Health in respect of that. We have brought down other charges a lot at acute hospitals but I take the point. We have allocated significant additional resources to the Health Service Executive in respect of a variety of services, including cancer services. It is always about balance and making sure we prioritise the allocation of resources to services, but we also want to try to reduce the pressure on patients and those who have to access hospitals for treatment. I will come back to the Deputy on it.
Sentiment score: 0.01
I will refer the question to the Minister. I know Deputy Shane Moynihan and others have been in touch with him in respect of this issue. We will try to accelerate projects as quickly as possible. There should not be any delay on that. I will get clarity from the Minister about that and ask him to discuss it with the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.22
As I said earlier in response to Deputy Lowry, the Government has been working with the Commission on the nitrates derogation. The Commission, including the President of the Commission, has been extremely constructive on that. We have also been working with like-minded countries in terms of Mercosur. About 200,000 tonnes from Mercosur countries already comes into the European Union. There is no question that the original deal has been changed in some respects in terms of the legal instruments that the Commission has now introduced in respect of safeguards, including stronger sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, checks. It was SPS checks that revealed the unacceptable discoveries in terms of hormone-infected beef across Europe. It is a significant issue in terms of the different standards, approaches and so forth. We also had the multi-annual financial framework to negotiate with the Commission, which will be quite serious if we do not get improvements for farming.
Sentiment score: 0.03
I know that discussions and negotiations are ongoing between the Minister for Health and the pharmaceutical industry in respect of approval of new medicines, in particular new medical technologies. The pharmacovigilance unit in St. James's Hospital does a cost-benefit analysis using various equations and formulas to determine whether a drug should be approved or not. There has to be some framework governing that. On the other hand, if it is available in the private market, it means that process has agreed it. That is not optimal at all, but I will re-engage with Minister in respect of this specific drug.
Sentiment score: 0.47
On Monday, I chaired the first meeting of the delivery and monitoring committee for the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 when we considered the programme plan of action for 2025 and 2026. In the budget that we just had, we recorded a 20% increase in disability funding, strengthening mainstream services and introducing targeted social protection supports for households with disabilities. We enhanced the domiciliary care allowance by €20 a week. We broadened the thresholds for carer's allowance and other payments were also increased. There were related investments in health and education. We are committed to introducing a permanent annual cost-of-disability support payment. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary, is leading the strategic focus network on the cost of disability. That is a key commitment under the strategy that I referenced earlier. That will shape our approach to delivering that payment and several meetings have already taken place. We want to put permanent supports in place. It is not financially sustainable to keep doing one-off payments.
Sentiment score: 0.27
I will talk to the Minister in respect of that. The previous Government increased it. I make the point that between July 2020 and the end of quarter 2 of this year, 50,684 social houses were added to the social housing stock. That is way ahead of anything that was ever done in the previous 20 years.
Sentiment score: 0.19
It is an important point to acknowledge. Nearly 14,000 homes were brought back into use under the voids programme. We are reaching levels of social housing building and provision now that we had not seen since the 1970s, which is good. We need to continue to do that and we will continue to do it. More than 26,000 social homes are at all stages of design and build in Ireland. That is dealing with those on the list already but we will look at that category the Deputy mentioned, in terms of those on the working family payment or those who may not be able to avail of cost rental. I accept that there is a category there. When we started in 2020, we had to substantially ramp up construction and supply of social housing, which we have done, and we now have a consistent level. We will also increase that over the next number of years. Then there is the issue with the eligibility threshold, which will be progressively increased.
Sentiment score: 0.18