Results 2,361-2,380 of 45,281 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I learned from you.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy very much. I appreciate her pledge not to engage in smart alec comments. With regard to this important issue, I am very happy to meet the families. It is the least I could do. I will arrange to do that. I cannot give the Deputy a date right now, but I will do it in the next couple of weeks. I am very happy to do that; in fact, I think I would benefit from doing it....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I certainly will. I have already had contact with Finola Cassidy from the group, who is a regular campaigner here in Leinster House and known to all of us. I am very happy to have that engagement. As the Deputy said, there was a lot of engagement prior to my appointment with both my predecessors, Deputy Varadkar and the Tánaiste. I have asked to be briefed by my officials on where...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Cairns for raising this issue. I agree that climate change is the most pressing challenge for society. The planet is on fire and major action is required. At a European level, and I will make this point in Brussels today, we need to be more ambitious in the EU strategic agenda in terms of its commentary on action on climate. We have some encouraging signs. I will not...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: -----but overall will be the better for it. We will have an opportunity to tease through in painstaking detail the EU migration pact at the justice committee and on the floor of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. Far from ceding sovereignty, the people's representatives, including the Deputy, me and everyone else in this House, will vote "Tá" or "Níl" on whether we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: That is a horrendous slur.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: In the minute available to me, it is not possible to deal with the electric buses, the metro, the national children's hospital, waste and a range of other issues that Deputy Tóibín went on an interesting journey around. However, it is absolutely beneath him to slur my political tradition and political party in this House. Let us look at the party the Deputy spent most of his...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I was 15.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: If it was up to the Deputy, we would not be in the European Union because-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: Sorry, Deputy McDonald is muttering something I cannot hear.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: It is a statement of fact that Sinn Féin has opposed every European referendum since we joined the European Union, including the one to join the European Union. That is the truth.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: Old fogey, young fogey.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I was distracted about the personal slurs Deputy McDonald made about my character, rather than engaging on political issues. In response to Deputy Tóibín, we are proudly seeking to join the EU migration pact. It is good for the country and for Europe. We are looking forward to teasing through and debating the detail in this House, the Seanad and at the justice committee and we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Collins for raising the important matter of small businesses and especially mentioning a number of them in what we call the hospitality sector, cafés, restaurants, pubs and others. I fully accept they have been struggling to absorb significant costs and have been operating in an environment of high inflation, rising costs and a number of charges that have come at them all...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: -----to provide policy certainty as to what the next few years will look like with respect to the cost of doing business in Ireland.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I look forward to meeting Cara and working with Deputies who are like-minded on this issue across this House. It is an area in which we can make progress together but one in which we really need to do that. I will check with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, but my memory tells me the publication of that document is imminent. The strategy is much awaited and a lot of work has gone...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I can shake my head if I wish to because for some of what I heard, it was quite a challenge to just keep my head movement to that. On this idea that we are ceding sovereignty and that people in Brussels are making decisions - does Deputy Tóibín not want to be a member of the European Parliament? Is he not running for election because he wants to be there making-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: Let us not go down the kind of Brexit Britain road here of Brussels bad, Ireland good. The reality is we are members of the European Union. After I finish taking questions, I will head to Brussels where I will participate in a decision-making process with other European Heads of Government. Members of the European Parliament, which the Deputy aspires to be, will vote democratically on...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I cannot hear the Deputy. When it comes to migration, it is fanciful in the extreme to think that this small little island with, thankfully, an open border - which we all worked very hard to protect during the Brexit process - could just go it alone regarding global and EU migration and that we would continue with the system in which we cannot effectively return anybody, in many ways, in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy did.