Results 1,301-1,320 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

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...

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

Simon Harris: I ran out of time.

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

Simon Harris: It is not my job to order the business of an Oireachtas committee. I am sure the Deputy is well-----

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

Simon Harris: The Deputy is asking me a question as the Taoiseach. I will respond to it, if that is alright. First, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is a good person who works hard and does a good job. I do not like the aspersion cast on him in the constant framing of the Deputy's questions quite frankly. Of course, I am going to use the time available to me, when the Deputy raised the case of Kyran...

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

Simon Harris: Come on.

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

Simon Harris: They are not.

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

Simon Harris: We will not scrap the pay and numbers strategy because that is how you run the country. You run Government Departments and public services by providing a budget that is voted through this House. That budget then translates into a number of positions in any public service agency and then the agency or the Minister responsible ensures those positions are filled. If it is the position of the...

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

Simon Harris: Excuse me, sorry.

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

Simon Harris: I thank the Ceann Comhairle. We do not need to use language in this House about "deceiving" and "gaslighting". I have facts, which I have outlined. The Deputy can tell me-----

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

Simon Harris: The Deputy can wave his sheet of paper, but-----

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

Simon Harris: The Deputy will get another chance in a minute, so it would be appreciated if he could give me a little opportunity to respond. Does he accept that 9,375 additional nurses and midwives are now working in the health service compared with 2020, that there are 4,092 health and social care professionals additional to 2020 or that there are an additional 3,330 doctors and dentists? Those are...

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

Simon Harris: I am kind of baffled by the fact the Deputy thinks it is breaking news - hold the front page - that organisations are given a budget and can employ people within that budget. The budget we have given for the health service allows it to hire 7,500 more people between the end of this year and the end of next year. Last year saw the highest number of staff ever recruited in the history of the...

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

Simon Harris: The faux outrage must be utterly exhausting. In St. Michael's Hospital, the Deputy's hospital, as he calls it-----

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

Simon Harris: In the hospital in the Deputy's constituency, there has been a 5% increase in staffing levels since this Government came to office. That is the truth. More people are working in that hospital. Despite the Deputy's constant talking-down of the Government's recruitment efforts-----

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

Simon Harris: -----more people are working in that hospital. When it comes to safe staffing, which is the agreed staffing structure we have for safe nursing levels in the Irish health service, every single post in the safe staffing structure is now funded. Of the 2,000 posts, 1,500 are filled; 500 are fully funded. These are the facts.

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

Simon Harris: It is simply not true to say we are not hiring permanent staff.

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

Simon Harris: I just went through in quite a lot of detail the fact that there are 27,901 more people working in the Irish public health service now than when this Government came into office.