Results 1,081-1,100 of 45,291 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I am in favour of the Waterford Airport development. I know there is frustration in Waterford. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue regarding a decision. I will seek an update from the Minister for Transport. My understanding is that the business case is with him for consideration. In my view, there is a very compelling case in respect of Waterford Airport. That is a strongly held...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy will remember the issues in this regard over the summer months. The Government has decided to proceed with this tax because it is important, and the Deputy shares this view, that in a housing crisis there is not any land hoarding. To his point, it is also important that the tax needs to be implemented in a fair manner. There is a difference between land hoarding and people who...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue following her meeting with the group at Emyvale. I know the importance of this. She is right to say that there is a lot of unmet need, when it comes to day and weekend respite for children. We are all working to come up with innovative solutions. The one the Deputy outlined sounds like a very innovative solution. I had the honour of...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I sincerely acknowledge the Deputy's work and his strength of feeling on this. Even though we do not always agree on every element of it, I fully acknowledge he is motivated by a sense of wanting to save lives and help people. I thank him for the work he has done on that. The first thing I will do is read the report, which I have not done. All of us, during the general election, need...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I do not doubt the seriousness of the issue the Deputy raised. I just do not have the details to hand nor am I sure about the appropriateness of commenting on the floor of the House. However, if the Deputy wants to correspond with me on the matter, I will certainly undertake to pass it on to the relevant parties.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I try not to quote the Gospels but I take HIQA reports seriously. They are an important indication and are there for a very good reason. I have not yet seen that HIQA report but I will look at it now the Deputy has brought it to my attention. We have provided very significant additional funding to the Saolta Hospital Group for 2025. We are at the point of asking what the impact is in...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I am very grateful to the task force I established for launching its report on Monday. It is a really good blueprint for Dublin. I expect the interdepartmental group to be established without delay as in within days and that it will report to the Government in the middle of December with a three-year action plan for moving those recommendations forward. The figure of 1,000 gardaí is a...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: That is a very sensible suggestion and I assure him it is one we are going to act on. The challenge is the issue of forward planning and better co-ordinating. I see a number of schools with multiple application processes in my constituency and I imagine it is very similar in Kildare. This leads to a child being on many lists. This is not to blame the parents, who are doing their best....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I will check the data. I do not doubt the Deputy's data but I do not have the data in front of me. I know Garda numbers overall are back in a position where we can make real progress because Templemore is finally effectively full. A new class is coming out every 12 weeks. We have provided significant funding for up to 1,000 more gardaí over the next 12 months and I have no doubt...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I do not accept that characterisation at all. Of course, it is hard to cost the locations that Deputy McDonald would secure for migrant accommodation because she will not tell us where they are. She keeps telling us where she is against and what she is against when it comes to the migration debate, but she has yet to tell us where she believes any site should be located. I look forward to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: We were looking to provide them with accommodation. We were working in real-time, in an absolute emergency, to provide accommodation to tens of thousands of Ukrainians. There were no ideal sites or ideal situations at all. We also know, because the Comptroller and Auditor General quotes this, although Deputy McDonald left it out, that the overall cost of the modular project is the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Smith for raising this important issue regarding Holywell in Swords and the fact there is a serious constraint on access to bus capacity and the length of time that is adding to people's commute as they go about their daily lives. I will certainly contact the National Transport Authority to highlight the Deputy’s views and I will liaise with him directly on it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: First, the women of Ireland and everybody in Ireland will know exactly my positions and the positions of my party in a general election on this and other issues. It is not correct to say that no progress has been made in relation to that report as a number of operational elements have been implemented by the Department of Health. While I am open to correction on this, I am not sure it is...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: We all want a better health service for all, and that is what we are working for on a daily basis. That is why we provided the largest ever health budget, why we have the largest number of people ever working in the public service and why we provided funding for thousands more nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals in the HSE budget for 2025. In relation to the issue of Mallow...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: Wow. To be so flippant about the efforts that were made.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: To be so flippant. Yes, that is what I said. To be so flippant. Do you want me to say it again? To be so flippant about the efforts that were made to save lives in this country, the efforts that were made to secure every possible piece of equipment, every possible piece of PPE-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: Many worked-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I am not out of order. I am in order, thank you very much. I am trying to answer your question. You might not like the answer because you just like to stand up and pontificate.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: Just let me answer the question, will you? Thank you. The reality of the situation is that so much effort was made by so many good people working in the Department of Health to save lives. That is what they did, and I am proud of them. They did not waste during Covid. They worked really hard during Covid, around the clock, while people like you just threw barbed comments from the sidelines.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Oct 2024)

Simon Harris: I do not think there is a person on any side of this House, or in Ireland, who is not both utterly horrified and heartbroken at what is emerging in relation to the case of young Kyran Durnin. This is nothing to do with political establishment or any sort of rhetoric. This is just to do with basic humanity. An eight-year-old boy effectively went missing for two years and the saddest and...