Results 1,901-1,920 of 45,291 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I fully agree with Deputy Stanton. As I travel around the country, I see many projects that have benefited from the fund. I am sure there are many in his own county of Cork. I do not have the specific date but I will ask the Minister for housing to revert to Deputy Stanton directly.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Kelly for raising this issue regarding temporary higher appointments. I will not pretend to have been aware of it because I was not. I do not doubt what he has said. I will ask the Minister for Health to come back to the Deputy on the matter directly. I have a note here that shows the very significant increase in staffing at the hospital. I will send it to the Deputy but I...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy. I genuinely welcome that the Government and the Opposition in Ireland speak with one voice on this matter. It is important for the people of Palestine and for Ireland that we recognise the state of Palestine. I acknowledge the Deputy's long-standing support for that. I assure her and the House that we will continue to work at every possible opportunity for an immediate...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I can. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I fully agree with him. I am aware of the size of Swords and the population expansion being seen there. I am of the view that if there are challenges in the delivery of any such primary care centres, we will have to come up with alternative ways of progressing them. I accept the need for the people of Swords and south Fingal to have that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: If that is an unwritten policy, it has not been approved by the Government and somebody would need to scrap that policy pretty quickly because we are in urgent need of more additional autism classes. What the Deputy outlined has not been my experience in a couple of projects I worked on in my constituency, but that situation must be very frustrating if a school puts up its hand to say it is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I do not want to be overly argumentative with the Deputy, but I want to check. She did not say that Israel does not have the right to exist?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: To be very clear, it is the Government's position-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: -----that there is a State of Israel and a state of Palestine, based on the 1967 borders.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy may not agree with that. I am articulating the Government's position on what recognition means today and that both states have a right to exist in peace and security, as do the Israeli and Palestinian people, their children and their children's children. We intend to keep diplomatic relations with Israel.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: We keep diplomatic relations with countries we vehemently disagree with. Those diplomatic relations are often very important in relation to our citizens.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for making a constructive suggestion regarding how innovation is helping patients and being cost-efficient. The health service is funded this year to grow its staffing levels by 2,200 additional staff; it is 3,000 when disability services are included. I will ask about the service the Deputy referenced and its particular benefits from a cost and patient point of view.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of factory workers and the benefits support for them would have for the whole sector. I will ask the Minister for Social Protection to look into his suggestion and to revert to him directly.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: First, the Deputy referenced anger and toxicity in politics. While anger and toxicity, when manifested in the way some local election candidates across the political divide have experienced it, is utterly unacceptable and should always be called out by all of us, as I know the Deputy would, my overwhelming experience when I engage with people right across this country is that people are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy has every right to vigorously represent his constituents in Waterford here, as he does, and I respect that. I have a right to put across the Government's view too. We promised a technological university. It is in the programme for Government. It has been delivered. We promised ring-fenced research funding. It has been delivered. We promised that we would help secure the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: We will publish the Housing Commission report today. It is a bit old-fashioned, but it is useful to read things before commenting on them with such authority. Before the Deputy wraps himself in the recommendations of the report, I recommend that he read them. I received the report last night. There are 83 recommendations, 500 actions and subactions, 400 pages of text and three years of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I have read it because that is the useful thing to do-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: -----when one is Taoiseach. When one gets a report the night before, one reads it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: I would advise the Deputy to read it when it is published, too, and then we can have a more informed discussion on it because the report very clearly talks about the need for diverse funding models. Yes, we need and have record levels of Exchequer development, but this idea of private investment and diverse sources of investment being the devil incarnate is not what the report has found. It...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is picking one line out of approximately 400 pages of a report, which I accept he has not had an opportunity to get or read yet, but what I would suggest-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2024)

Simon Harris: We will be publishing it today. When the Deputy sees the actions, he will see that many of them are underway. We agree with many of them, by the way. Many of them are in line with Government policy. Many of them are things that we are working on right now.