Results 2,361-2,380 of 32,527 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

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

Paschal Donohoe: The Government wishes to provide all the access we can to important medicines that we know make such a difference to the lives and health of those battling cancer. I am aware of the report referred to by the Deputy and I believe it is the case that the only treatments approved by the HSE have been ones eligible for credits from the high-cost claims pool within the risk equalisation scheme...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for raising what we all know is such an important matter. In the aftermath of the loss of life and health he referred to, the Government and the Department of Health took many steps to try to improve the level of confidence patients will have in the cancer screening procedures. This is because we know that a successful cancer screening health programme is so important in...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I know road projects like these are extremely important and the role they can play in the prevention of congestion and in making transport on our roads safer. I am, indeed, responsible for the funding the Department of Transport has but I am not involved in decisions it makes concerning individual road projects. I am, however, familiar with the project the Deputy referred to. Government...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I am not aware of the status of that specific report. It does sound unusual that a process would have been put in place to address such an important matter in 2019 and that it would not yet have reached a conclusion. I do know, however, that record levels of funding are being provided to Galway County Council, as is the case with every local authority, to help it respond to the housing...

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...