Results 3,721-3,740 of 33,883 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: Progress is being made, therefore, but we know more needs to be made. I will follow up on the specific matter of the task force reporting its status.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is working on this issue now. It has been the subject of discussion at our Cabinet subcommittee which deals with health policy. As the Deputy acknowledged, it is no longer an issue of the funding of new drugs. The Deputy will also appreciate the trade-offs and balances involved in this context. A patient and a family desperately...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I appreciate the importance of the empty house programme; it is why, between 2020 and 2022, more than 8,000 so-called voids were turned into homes across the country. In recognition of the Deputy's point that we should turn empty properties into full homes at a time of such great housing difficulty, that has happened. The programme for 2023 is to use €31 million, which I mentioned a...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The Government is already recognising the challenges many face with the cost of living. For example, in June, an additional €100 payment per child will be available through a bonus child benefit payment, we are making a further increase in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, the hot school meal is being extended, we have made efforts to reduce school transport costs...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: We are all aware of the huge importance of this as a healthcare policy. We are also aware of the important report the Government and Oireachtas received on the matter. On the operational points the Deputy raised, we in the Government appreciate their seriousness. We have requested that the HSE put in place an implementation group to respond to the important operational issues raised in the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The census to which the Deputy refers reminds us all of the scale of change under way in our society and economy. From my experience of divestment programmes and procedures, I have seen the reason they do not happen or happen slowly is that the school community takes time to consider this process and does not always reach a view that a change in patronage is appropriate. We need a more...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: That is a fair point. We put in place those measures to make a much needed, and I believe much valued, contribution to families at a time in which the cost of living and the increase in the cost of living was so urgent and causing such hardship. I am aware from Deputies on these benches of the anomaly to which Deputy Canney refers and also of the frustration that many families and pupils...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I emphasise that while this review is under way, we will continue to deliver against all of the commitments on the current scheme. I have no doubt that Bus Éireann and the Department of Education will do all they can to try to resolve individual issues that are developing. I cannot promise that we can resolve all of them, but I know everyone will do their best.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I am sure the Deputy would not be short of many great ideas regarding how to spend €1 billion in County Kerry. I am also sure he would be able to turn that money to very good effect. But on the point about €1 billion, it is important to make the case that during two of the three years that Deputy Healy-Rae refers to, we were dealing with a pandemic during which the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The sole reason as to why there were capital underspends for the year before last is that during that period the construction sector was not functioning in a normal way. That is the key reason.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I completely agree with the point Deputy Healy-Rae made about voids. In many ways, the term "void" is very misleading. It is an empty home. In Constitution Hill, at the heart of Dublin Central, a very different setting, I have seen the way in which properties that were described as voids have now been turned into homes for people who needed them. That is why the successful delivery of,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: Respectfully, the maintenance of the moratorium on evictions in the rental sector ran the great risk over time of leading to even fewer rental properties being available.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: Prolonging the eviction ban also ran the risk of even greater difficulty arising when it ended. That is the reason the Government made what we accept was a difficult decision, one that has been the subject of much explanation in the House and debate elsewhere. I wish to challenge Deputy Bacik on one point. She stated that our provision of 11,800 social homes, which is our ambition for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: This is a matter with which I am familiar; Deputy Cannon has been raising it as well. I am sure he has been attending the same meetings as the Deputy and engaging with parents, pupils and teachers who are concerned about the issue. I acknowledge the scheme's importance and the valuable role it plays in supporting school access and supporting families. I also acknowledge the importance...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is right in being very clear in calling out crimes that are the subject of such trauma and sorrow. Like the Deputy, when I see the reports of the crimes and particularly the funerals and those mourning the loss of life because of the crimes, I find it difficult to comprehend. My human response is to look away briefly, particularly if the loss of life of children is involved. We...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for again raising what everybody in this House knows is such an important matter. I said previously that the decision to end the eviction moratorium was one of the most difficult and complex I have ever been involved in as a member of the Cabinet, but I am acutely aware and can see in my constituency that whatever difficulty was involved in making the decision was minor by...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (31 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank Deputy McDonald for raising what is an exceptionally sensitive and important report into the most difficult of circumstances possible. When the Minister, Deputy Harris, was briefing the Government on this report yesterday morning, it reminded me, and I am sure it has reminded all of us, that there are a set of tragic circumstances that I think are beyond the ability of most of us...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Brexit Supports (30 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The European Union’s Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), provides support to counter the adverse economic, social, territorial and, environmental consequences of the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. The application for BAR funding must set out the negative impacts of the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, and how the measures carried out under the Fund alleviate...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff (30 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I have responsibility for the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme. This Scheme ordinarily provides for the payment of the following to public servants during periods of absence from work due to illness or injury:A maximum of 92 days on full pay in a rolling one-year periodFollowed by a maximum of 91 days on half pay in a rolling one-year periodThis...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Brexit Supports (30 May 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The European Union’s Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), provides support to counter the adverse economic, social, territorial and, environmental consequences of the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. The application for BAR funding must set out the negative impacts of the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, and how the measures carried out under the Fund alleviate...