Results 1-20 of 749 for at speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: Special needs assistants are being denied equal health and safety leave provision while pregnant. They are given just 21 days' leave if deemed at risk in the work environment. This means they have to use other leave to compensate for long-term absence if they encounter risk in the early stages of pregnancy. Contagious diseases are more common in younger children and these diseases are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: SNAs are given 21 days' leave if deemed to be at risk in the work environment. Teachers and SNAs should be treated the same and I do not want to see any disparity. Providing special needs assistance is a vocation, as far as I am concerned. Tomorrow at my constituency office, there will be queues of people looking for facilities for their children. When a child goes to school and is looked...

Delivering Universal Healthcare: Statements (15 May 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...the proposals set out in the Sláintecare report, much more is required to move towards universal healthcare in Ireland. We need to get to a point where we truly have healthcare delivered free at the point of delivery. Three principles should underpin all of our approaches to healthcare, namely affordability, accessibility and accountability. With regard to affordability, all of...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (2 May 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: As a former member of the Defence Forces, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. On the back of key recommendations of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality Issues in the Defence Forces and the statutory inquiry into systemic failures in dealing with individual complaints, including sexual misconduct, the creation of an external oversight body was...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fodder Crisis (25 Apr 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...and tillage. The Minister knows the spring crops such as barley have not been sown yet, even in County Louth, which is normally a very dry county. I ask the Minister again if he intends to reinstate the fodder schemes. There has been adverse weather which has affected livestock. People are struggling. There is extreme hardship. I do not come from a farming background but in County...

Support for Carers: Motion [Private Members] (24 Apr 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: .... In every corner of Ireland, there are family carers tirelessly devoting themselves to the well-being of their loved ones. In fact, family carers represent one in eight of the Irish population and have long been the cornerstone of care provision in this country. Whether it is caring for an ageing parent, a spouse with a chronic illness or a child with special needs, these remarkable...

Acknowledgement and Apology to the Families and to the Victims of the Stardust Tragedy: Statements (23 Apr 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: On the night of 14 February 1981, many parents' worst nightmare came true. Forty-eight young people in the prime of their lives went out to the Stardust nightclub in Artane to celebrate St. Valentine's Day but never came home. Witnesses spoke of fire exits being locked and chained, which was denied by management. There were two inquests, one tribunal of inquiry, a compensation tribunal and...

Road Safety: Statements (17 Apr 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: As recently as five years ago, Ireland was being celebrated within the EU for its road safety. Yet, in 2024, it is on course to prove the most lethal for traffic fatalities in 15 years. An alarming trend is in the disproportionate number of young people aged between 16 to 25 years who are involved in road fatalities. Speeding and intoxicated drivers are contributing to dozens of fatalities...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (11 Apr 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: 87. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is aware that at the heart of the housing crisis is an affordability crisis; if he is aware that only half of the houses in Louth County Council's affordable housing scheme were claimed due to stringent eligibility criteria, whether this necessitates some changes in the terms of access for support in order that no one...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Departmental Schemes (6 Mar 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: 60. To ask the Minister for Finance the updated position regarding the review of the disabled drivers’ and disabled passengers' scheme; the criteria for the primary medical certificate; what stage the review is at; what steps have been taken since the publication of the working group report; what changes are being proposed; the timeframe for the implementation of the proposed changes;...

Supporting People with Disabilities and Carers: Motion [Private Members] (5 Mar 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...carers, the Governments needs to provide much more substantial supports to both carers and those with disabilities. Financial supports for people with disabilities and family carers are inadequate and fail minimum essential standards of living tests. The Department’s own cost of disability report published in 2021 shows the extra cost in Ireland of being disabled ranges from...

RTÉ: Statements (28 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: The problems that exist in RTÉ are not of the Minister, Deputy Martin's making by any means. While I do not agree with how the situation was handled last week, the Minister is focused on her work in supporting RTÉ. She has been a champion for RTÉ and for the importance of public service broadcasting. Her sole focus has been on getting the truth, achieving maximum...

Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...in areas such as online safety, affordable access to childcare and the school books scheme expansion during 2023, when it comes to mental health care and supports we continue to fall far short of what is required. Children with a dual diagnosis of mental ill-health and an intellectual disability are falling through the cracks, as are neurodiverse children. A lack of emergency CAMHS...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Oversight of RTÉ's Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues and Plans for Longer-term Support and Funding for Public Service Media: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (27 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: Yes. Did you ring the DG before or after “Prime Time” or did you not ring the DG at all?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Oversight of RTÉ's Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues and Plans for Longer-term Support and Funding for Public Service Media: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (27 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...€31,000 a year for doing a job? Someone is being paid over €200,000 - the director general - and the lady is being paid €31,000. I will be dead straight, and I will not use the word that I could use about being paid €31,000 to get all the flack. To me, she was the scapegoat. She was the lady who was thrown under the bus. The person who should be taking...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Oversight of RTÉ's Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues and Plans for Longer-term Support and Funding for Public Service Media: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (27 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...smart. This is going on a long time. This is going on months and months. Every time you think you are finished, something else happens. I will be honest; I do not know anything about the lady at all and I am sure she is very good. If you gave me a copy of your statement this evening, I would give her a job because the reference you gave her was very good but she has been made a...

Paediatric Orthopaedic and Urology Services: Motion [Private Members] (20 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...with a range of needs rely on the orthopaedic service of Children’s Health Ireland, among them children with spina bifida, scoliosis, hip deformity and other orthopaedic needs. The complex patient needs of these children remains at the forefront of service provision. However, waiting times for many hospital procedures and appointments are unacceptably long. I remain acutely aware...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: ...remove a blood clot from an artery or a vein. The procedure can restore bloodflow to vital organs, such as legs, arms, intestines, kidneys, brain or other vital organs. A thrombectomy can also greatly reduce the risk of death or permanent disablement if performed properly. A thrombectomy must be preformed within a matter of hours to prevent life- or limb-threatening complications from...

Recent Developments in Northern Ireland: Statements (14 Feb 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: I welcome and strongly support the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly at Stormont. The people of Ireland, North and South, have been adversely affected by the behaviour of the DUP and its boycott of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. The political institutions of the agreement have not been fully functioning since February 2022. Since October 2022, the...