Results 46,321-46,340 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I cannot pre-judge. We have a WRC and Labour Court that are independent of government. We have An Garda Síochána. We have a number of avenues and robust whistleblower legislation. I suggest in the first instance, if the Deputy believes there are more issues that need to be considered, to provide them to the relevant Department.

Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for highlighting this extremely important issue and for highlighting it on an ongoing basis and for her work on this. We appreciate that. It is important. I was listening to the Deputy and thinking back to some of the debates we had in the previous Dáil. We are going to have to do more to empower An Garda Síochána with the technology it needs for this....

Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: There is a special place in hell for anybody who commits a sexual crime against a child. While we cannot do much about places in hell, we can do things about places in prison. We can do things about making sure our legislation and resourcing are as robust as possible. As the Deputy rightly said, we need to come at this with every possible resource and avenue. I appeal to the Oireachtas to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I do not doubt the good faith of the people in our country and in other countries who have been trying to make this trip happen. No one doubts that. No one doubts wanting to support children. Of course, we are not just talking about 33 children seeking to come to Ireland. We are also talking a number of adults, almost all of whom are not the parents of any of the children.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: Please do not interrupt me on a sensitive issue. We have just discussed child protection. It is very important. Vetting is very important. We have strict rules on migration and who can come into our country. It has to be a rules-based system. I do not want to go too far into the application. I am sure everyone is engaging in good faith. There is certainly not an effort by the State to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I genuinely take the good faith in which people are raising it. They are quite right to raise it. Many people have raised it and contacted us all about it. The Minister for justice has a specific and important job to do and that is to apply the laws of our land on visas, child protection and immigration. If he did not do that, I am sure he would be criticised in the other direction. We...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: It must be exhausting speaking for the whole nation, but I also speak for people in this country, as does every Member of this House. We are not tearing up our rules-based migration system. If, God forbid, anything happened to any child from any part of this country who came in here unaccompanied by a parent, the Minister would be hauled in here and asked what he did and why he let it...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: Sorry, there is no going around the back of the scrum. Do not dare do Israel versus Palestine. This is child protection. We have a visa system. We have a rules-based system. The Deputy might want to have a different approach to migration. This Government has rules and those rules will be followed in relation to migration.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: The Gender Recognition Act 2015 resides with the Department of Social Protection so I will ask the Minister for Social Protection to come back to the Deputy on that matter and with a timeline for the review she is seeking.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising that issue and my sincere sympathy goes to the family of Catherine. The Deputy is quite right to highlight this issue. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has had a number of meetings with her colleague and counterpart in Northern Ireland, the Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt. I know there is a real willingness and desire on the part of both...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and congratulate him on publishing his first legislation so soon into the term of this Dáil. He is quite right that this is a huge area. We have seen many companies such as JP Morgan and Ford make significant comments over the last week about job displacement and the type of new jobs that will be created. There is a live debate around...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Muirí and he is correct that I had the honour of visiting Marino Institute of Education. It is a brilliant third level facility and it had made this point for some time. I want to acknowledge that. The reason some of its courses are not funded under the free fees initiative is because of its status as a private institution with charitable status under the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this. We had an informal word on this issue last night and I know of her very sincere and good interest in this matter and I acknowledge that. Everybody acknowledges that everyone is acting in good faith here. People here in Ireland are trying to do something good for children from a war-torn area. There is no two ways about that and I acknowledge that too....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Scanlon for raising this important issue for his constituents, particularly those who travel from Bellaghy to Sligo town and are affected by the deficit he has identified in public transport provision there. I am very proud of the work we have done together over the last number of years to expand the Local Link services. It was one of the great success stories of the last...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Clendennen for raising this issue. We have been progressing the renewable heat obligation to ensure the increased used of renewable fuel types across the fuel heating sector is possible. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment is now preparing the heads of Bill for submission to Government shortly. Representatives of that Department and the Sustainable Energy...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: First, the use of the word "apartheid" is very unfortunate in relation to this. What we are doing is-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: What we are doing is applying the laws of our land - laws which the Deputy and his party have not proposed changing, laws in relation to child protection, which I am sure he takes seriously, and laws in relation to a visa system that has to be impartial and applied. We cannot provide visas on the basis of public petition. We have to provide them on the basis of the rules. We have to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: Everybody is talking-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: With respect to Deputies Devine and Ó Snodaigh, that has nothing to do with child protection. It is absolutely nothing to do with the point. Everyone is talking about 33 children. Why is nobody saying the next bit, which is that they are travelling from one far-flung part of the world to another with adults who are not their parents and the importance of child protection checks in...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2025)

Simon Harris: It is worked through the system.