Results 121-140 of 43,498 for speaker:Simon Harris
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: The Deputy has every right to vigorously represent his constituents in Waterford here, as he does, and I respect that. I have a right to put across the Government's view too. We promised a technological university. It is in the programme for Government. It has been delivered. We promised ring-fenced research funding. It has been delivered. We promised that we would help secure the...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: We will publish the Housing Commission report today. It is a bit old-fashioned, but it is useful to read things before commenting on them with such authority. Before the Deputy wraps himself in the recommendations of the report, I recommend that he read them. I received the report last night. There are 83 recommendations, 500 actions and subactions, 400 pages of text and three years of...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: I have read it because that is the useful thing to do-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: -----when one is Taoiseach. When one gets a report the night before, one reads it.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: I would advise the Deputy to read it when it is published, too, and then we can have a more informed discussion on it because the report very clearly talks about the need for diverse funding models. Yes, we need and have record levels of Exchequer development, but this idea of private investment and diverse sources of investment being the devil incarnate is not what the report has found. It...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: The Deputy is picking one line out of approximately 400 pages of a report, which I accept he has not had an opportunity to get or read yet, but what I would suggest-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: We will be publishing it today. When the Deputy sees the actions, he will see that many of them are underway. We agree with many of them, by the way. Many of them are in line with Government policy. Many of them are things that we are working on right now.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: There are some with which I am not sure Deputy O'Callaghan will fully agree.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: There are some with which I am not sure Deputy Boyd Barrett will agree either. I do not think it will be a case of every single recommendation meeting the satisfaction of every political viewpoint in this House but there are good ideas here. We need good ideas. We need to be open to listening to new ideas. We should never be so complacent or arrogant to suggest, when it comes to...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: That is a great line, but unfortunately the graph shows that you are wrong. Look at the increase in social housing building since my party came to office. You are, yet again, wrong.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: If a contest in fluency and verbosity was an Olympic sport, you would win a gold medal, but it does not build houses. We are not afraid to take more radical steps when it comes to housing. That is why we asked the Housing Commission to come up with ideas. How do you build a sustainable model that does not have boom and bust, with ghost estates one year and no housing supply the next? That...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: The Simon Communities said it must increase as well.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: Let me tell you this. It is 153 days since Deputy Mary Lou McDonald told the people of this country that she would provide homes for €300,000 in Dublin. I ask the same question that I ask every day: how? Please tell us.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: How?
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: You advocated for €10 billion and now you are against it.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Broin for his assistance
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Cairns for her contribution. I acknowledge her long-standing support and that of her party for the recognition of the state of Palestine. I am proud to be Taoiseach in a country where there has been, for a significant period, a political consensus about the importance of this. We have division in this House on many occasions, which is right and proper in a Parliament and...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: I have got recent legal advice. I am happy to share with the Deputy the date of the most recent legal advice. I do not have it to hand. We have engaged on this in good faith. I believe that, at a European level, we had a significant breakthrough at the last European Council meeting in April - the first one I was honoured to attend - where the unanimous conclusion was a call for an...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: There are a couple of different aspects here, namely the Housing Commission report, to which the Deputy referred, and rental supports. Today, the Government will publish the Housing Commission report. In an effort to be helpful to the House and to inform debate on this, the Minister will also publish alongside it an initial assessment of where we are at with a number of the actions. This...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)
Simon Harris: Deputy Ó Broin should be very careful telling me what he does not do because I have the information here. Just to be clear on this, Sinn Féin has asked us to spend more than €10 billion on these supports. If you want to know why, it is because in an emergency while ramping up housing supply, we have to do something in the here and now. You say landlords; I say renters....