Dáil debates

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Ceisteanna - Questions

Departmental Strategies

4:00 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will examine the details and try to get back to the Deputy. If he can send me the background to the case, we will pursue it. We want people to insulate. We do not want people to be penalised for insulation.

Deputy Bacik raised workers' rights and the reproductive healthcare leave Bill. I will have to check where the research commissioned by the previous Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is.

Remote and flexible working is kept under constant review. Due to the nature of different jobs and the nature of work in different Departments, there cannot be a uniform policy across the board. I will check with the Department of public expenditure what is happening on that front.

Deputy Aindrias Moynihan raised the issue of the well-being framework and what is measured by it. In the words of Robert Kennedy, who put it far more eloquently, GDP "measures everything ... except that which makes life worthwhile". That is what the well-being framework is endeavouring to meet. On the biodiversity front and on the insulation front, I agree that there will be more spending.

We are spending huge amounts of money on the electricity grid which the IFAC-CCAC report identified this morning. We are spending a lot on electric vehicles. Maybe we can do more. However, I am conscious we must do it within the fiscal framework we are told we must keep within. It is not that simple. We will be spending more on the grid and many of these issues and the budget will prioritise many of the areas around biodiversity restoration.

Last week, for example, the Shared Island fund had some very effective biodiversity measures, environmental trails and so on, which are very positive in the Border county areas in Cavan, Monaghan, Carlingford and Cuilcagh, the geopark that straddles both sides of the Border which the Shared Island fund enabled us to purchase. Now we are developing trails around that.

I take on board what Deputy Ó Murchú is saying about mental health generally. The SOSAD issue has been raised by other Deputies too. Deputy -----

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