Results 101-120 of 4,372 for in 'Dáil debates' speaker:Fergus O'Dowd

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Courts Service (25 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: 8. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide an update on the status of the review of the Special Criminal Court and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25162/23]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Courts Service (25 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: Could the Minister provide an update on the status of the review of the Special Criminal Court, which I understand he received this week, after due consideration in his Department? In particular, when does he expect to place the report in the public domain and before the Oireachtas?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Courts Service (25 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I welcome the Minister's response and concur entirely with his view that the Special Criminal Court has been a key component of democracy's response to serious intimidation from paramilitaries, drug barons and evil people who would otherwise stalk this land and intimidate jurors. The Special Criminal Court should be used in exceptional circumstances. The fact that there are three judges...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Courts Service (25 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I again welcome the Minister's personal commitment to that. Clearly it will be a matter for the House to vote or abstain on that resolution as some parties may choose to do. I want to affirm my support for the exceptional circumstances in which it must be used and the continuation of that in our armoury as a democracy to fight those who would challenge and intimidate most jurors. I...

Accommodation Needs for New Arrivals: Statements (23 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I am sharing time with Deputy Higgins. This is an important debate. I agree with much of what has been said, on all sides of the House. It strikes a chord with me and the people I have been talking to. Nobody would have believed in February 2022 that 85,000 new people would now be living in Ireland. It is the equivalent of the total population of counties Cavan or Offaly or, as was...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (18 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: There was a grant some years ago - perhaps my colleague, Deputy Durkan, might recall it - where in lieu of a housing application, the extension was built and the council then deemed that the housing need had been met. That might be worth looking at. I will refer to what the Minister of State said regarding the review of housing adaptation grants. We need that very soon. This week, it...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Schemes (18 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: The Government's policies are working. The Minister referred to the first home and help-to-buy schemes. He visited Drogheda recently, but he may not be aware that, under those schemes, houses are being advertised for sale today at a mortgage rate of just under €1,000 per month, making them more affordable than renting there. We need more of the same. The schemes are working because...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: House Prices (18 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: May I ask a supplementary question?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: House Prices (18 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I certainly will. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the courtesy.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 May 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I first raised this issue in February of last year. Many of my constituents whose principal private residence is a mobile home are living in the ice age as regards heating them. They cannot afford to heat them, the homes have poor insulation, and many of these residents are in poor health or have disabilities and a number of them have fallen on hard times. They cannot benefit from the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (27 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: More than 2,000 people who were residents of nursing homes died during Covid-19. Rightly and properly, the Government funded supports for nursing homes to the tune of, as of December 2022, €145 million. There are problems, however, regarding the funding of some of those nursing homes. An example on the HIQA website is Ratoath Manor nursing home, which received more than...

Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: Statements (26 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I wish to reflect on the number of people who lost their lives during the conflict, or Troubles, in Northern Ireland. More than 3,700 people died and 47,541 were injured. The majority of those who died were actually innocent civilians, and 68% of those injured were also innocent civilians. Therefore, the Troubles cast considerable shame on all those involved. The Good Friday Agreement is...

Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: Statements (26 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: The master's voice.

Organised Crime: Statements (20 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: I do not know where Deputy Tóibín will be. He deserves his place in the House but in what role I will decide later. Where does Sinn Féin stand in respect of the Special Criminal Court? If we look at criminality, and the fear and loathing of people who carry out the most evil crimes in our society, many of them were brought before the Special Criminal Court because of...

Organised Crime: Statements (20 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: But it is the job of Deputies to express their views-----

Organised Crime: Statements (20 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: -----whether in government or opposition.

Organised Crime: Statements (20 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: Listening to the addresses of the Opposition, obviously most of them are entirely unaware of what is happening in my constituency, County Louth, with one clear exception. Deputy Ó Murchú is well aware, familiar and supportive of what is happening in the town of Drogheda and in County Louth in fighting crime, organised crime and drugs. There were appalling murders, the dismembering...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (20 Apr 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: Since the resignation of the members of the independent Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal in 2021, more than 759 severely disabled and permanently disabled citizens have been denied an appeals process, having been refused a HSE primary medical certificate. They are entitled to appeal that. There is no way they can appeal now. This very day I have the case of an 81-year-old...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (30 Mar 2023)

Fergus O'Dowd: The Ardee Educate Together National School in County Louth has 187 students. A portion of the school building dates from 1812, the year in which Charles Dickens was born. The situation some of the students must go through at the moment is unbelievable. The school is ready to go, the council has been appointed a contracting authority and the tenders have been finalised. However, the...