Results 1-20 of 104 for going forward speaker:Duncan Smith

National Cancer Strategy: Motion [Private Members] (16 Apr 2024)

Duncan Smith: I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. It is important that we are honest about the failings of this Government on cancer care. I had hoped that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, perhaps on Daffodil Day on 22 March or as part of, or instead of, a countermotion, would have announced a commitment to funding a national cancer strategy in the upcoming budget. It would not have...

Supporting People with Disabilities and Carers: Motion [Private Members] (5 Mar 2024)

Duncan Smith: ...for Social Protection and, of course, the Minister for disabilities. We have the Minister of State responsible for disabilities with us now. In response to my contribution and that of others, a cross-governmental approach is required. Increasingly, I am of the view that we need a senior Ministry for disabilities alone. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, who holds the portfolio at present,...

Child and Youth Mental Health: Statements (29 Feb 2024)

Duncan Smith: It is seven months since the Mental Health Commission published its final report on child and adolescent mental health services. Earlier this week, we heard that the Government does not want to regulate CAMHS now, choosing instead to wait until the summer session of the Dáil to introduce its own Bill for that purpose. We do not yet have sight of that Bill. Those of us involved in...

Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 Feb 2024)

Duncan Smith: I thank Deputies Cullinane and Ward for bringing forward the Bill and acknowledge the work of Deputy Ward in the field of young persons' mental health over recent years. The Mental Health Commission's report into CAMHS highlighted a multitude of concerning issues on which we have seen too little action from this Government. To list some of the issues highlighted, we have seen children being...

Healthcare Provision in Rural Communities: Motion [Private Members] (21 Feb 2024)

Duncan Smith: 11 o’clock I also want to extend my sympathies and those of the Labour Party to Deputy Collins on his loss. I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this motion on GP numbers and rural healthcare. I will send the Minister of State a note on this, but there is a situation with a community nursing home in Nenagh that has been in development for seven years. My...

Road Traffic Bill 2024: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Duncan Smith: ...that road deaths have increased, and have increased significantly, so I not only welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill but welcome the Bill itself. The legislation will mark a good step forward in what needs to be an ongoing effort to ensure the safety and well-being of every individual on our roads, including drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and all road users. However, I feel this...

Children and Family Relationships (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (25 Jan 2024)

Duncan Smith: ...the children born to LGBTQ+ couples have one legal parent or two? It is that simple. We cannot accept the nine-month delay, given the reasons that have been outlined, the life cycle of this Government and what the Minister said about the AHR Bill and having two parallel processes. We understand the complexities of parliamentary procedure but we are still bringing this forward because we...

Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 Jan 2024)

Duncan Smith: ...be with a timed amendment. It pales in comparison to the disappointment that many women and couples will have who have had their eyes on this legislation for the last three years. We believe the Government is making a huge error, politically, in what it is doing here. Regardless of when the next election is going to take place, we know that a 12-month timed amendment in the life cycle...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Cancer Services (18 Jan 2024)

Duncan Smith: ...the national cancer strategy is an ambitious but realistic document. There is a real risk that cancer outcomes, which have been trending in a more positive direction in recent years, will begin to go backwards if we do not see that funding continued in the specific areas that have been outlined. There seems to be a disconnect between what the Minister is saying here and what the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Duncan Smith: I thank the committee for letting me speak to the issue. I missed the deadline to submit an amendment for this Stage, but it is my intention to bring one forward on Report Stage about the naming of the two new constituencies born out of Dublin Fingal, namely, Dublin Fingal west and Dublin Fingal east. Dublin Fingal west is hugely problematic. No point on the compass would accurately...

Health Service Recruitment Freeze: Motion [Private Members] (21 Nov 2023)

Duncan Smith: This is a very good, simple, to-the-point motion that we wholeheartedly support because it goes to the heart of what is going on in the health service at the moment. The Minister's response was to begin talking about the aim to eliminate cervical cancer in Ireland. This is a very laudable aim, which we all support 100%. By God, what a legacy that would be for Vicky Phelan, just over a year...

Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (21 Nov 2023)

Duncan Smith: The Labour Party will be supporting this legislation. Every year we have this same debate, in which we amend the Health Insurance Act to modify the regulations governing the private health insurance sector. This is in the context of the goal of our health policy being the drive towards the delivery of Sláintecare, a universal, single-tier healthcare system that has the support, at...

Road Safety: Statements (26 Oct 2023)

Duncan Smith: We know that, regrettably, lamentably and tragically we are going backwards in terms of road safety and road deaths. We saw 25 road deaths in August alone. We nearly had one death every day during what should be one of the safer months. As of Tuesday last, 24 October, we have seen an increase of 36 in the number of road deaths as compared with the corresponding date in 2022. We have also...

Investment in Healthcare: Statements (19 Oct 2023)

Duncan Smith: ...and why there has been so much rancour and righteous anger in the last nine days. In summing up, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, also mentioned that the workers can sometimes be "forgotten in a politically-charged debate". I mentioned the workers in the drugs sector earlier. Those workers were almost forgotten by this Government earlier this week in the section 39, section...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rail Network (5 Oct 2023)

Duncan Smith: I agree. Public transport, be it a local bus service or, ideally, cycling and active travel to get people to the train station, is the way to go. I do not like to see big park-and-ride facilities and I am certainly not promoting that in this case but the reality is that, on the Kinsealy side of Portmarnock especially, none of the Fingal County Council plans is going to provide safe levels...

Children's Health Ireland - Patient safety concerns and reviews in paediatric orthopaedic surgical services: Statements, Questions and Answers (26 Sep 2023)

Duncan Smith: ...the crisis that we understand and see across our entire health service. It is because it happened in the theatre, where we all expect and put our trust that the delivery of clinical excellence is going to happen. All of our thoughts have been with these patients - these children - and their families and advocacy groups in the past eight days in particular, as this has burst onto the...

Investment in Football: Motion [Private Members] (12 Jul 2023)

Duncan Smith: ...of negligence, the mismanagement at the very top and the abandonment on the part of the political class of football in terms of our grassroots, we believe, has now come to an end. Therefore, we bring forward this motion not because football is in a state of crisis but because this is the moment to strike. We have the report from the FAI. We believe in it. We believe that football,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Driver Recruitment: Discussion (5 Jul 2023)

Duncan Smith: ..., which relates to one of their recommendations, about over-70s being unable to do school transport. Do they have any idea of how many drivers they are losing in that regard? Has there been ongoing political campaigning or discussion or is it a dead issue, as it were, that has fallen flat? I will run through all of my questions and the witnesses can come back in afterwards. What impact...

Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023: Second Stage (13 Jun 2023)

Duncan Smith: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill, which the Labour Party will support. It is a relatively straightforward and common-sense Bill to which I do not think there will be any opposition. It inserts itself into the overall policy framework, designed in 2013, that seeks to make Ireland tobacco-free by 2025. Currently, Ireland has a smoking rate of 18%. While we as a nation consider...