Results 1-15 of 15 for at segment:8890865

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: The people will decide the outcome of the elections, not Deputy Collins's utterances in the Dáil. I would never be so arrogant as to tell the people what they are going to do in an election; maybe Deputy Collins should not either. It is not helpful to come at this with a suggestion that there is one way of helping businesses and if we do not do it this way, we do not care at all. That...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: ...bank account. The Government is seeking to give people financial assistance and we are saying we will not stop there. We are going to do more around energy efficiency. We have increased the VAT threshold. We have left the gas and electricity VAT cuts in place for the time being. We are also looking at how we can provide certainty. The big thing I hear from small businesses is that...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: -----but overall will be the better for it. We will have an opportunity to tease through in painstaking detail the EU migration pact at the justice committee and on the floor of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. Far from ceding sovereignty, the people's representatives, including the Deputy, me and everyone else in this House, will vote "Tá" or "Níl" on whether we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: I asked the Taoiseach how much it would cost the State to sign into the EU migration pact and he stated, in front of the Dáil, that he does not know. That is an absolutely disgraceful answer from a Government that has already made a political commitment to sign up to that pact. It is an incredible situation. This is potentially the Taoiseach's first blank check with respect to the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: In the minute available to me, it is not possible to deal with the electric buses, the metro, the national children's hospital, waste and a range of other issues that Deputy Tóibín went on an interesting journey around. However, it is absolutely beneath him to slur my political tradition and political party in this House. Let us look at the party the Deputy spent most of his...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I was distracted about the personal slurs Deputy McDonald made about my character, rather than engaging on political issues. In response to Deputy Tóibín, we are proudly seeking to join the EU migration pact. It is good for the country and for Europe. We are looking forward to teasing through and debating the detail in this House, the Seanad and at the justice committee and we...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Michael Collins: Small businesses are going through the most horrendous time, especially in the past few months. Cafés, restaurants, pubs and family hotels are closing at an alarming rate. Hundreds have already closed this year. Businesses the length and breadth of the island are pleading for help in an effective way but to date, the call has gone unheeded by the Government. Last week, the Government...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Collins for raising the important matter of small businesses and especially mentioning a number of them in what we call the hospitality sector, cafés, restaurants, pubs and others. I fully accept they have been struggling to absorb significant costs and have been operating in an environment of high inflation, rising costs and a number of charges that have come at them all...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: ...forward to meeting Cara and working with Deputies who are like-minded on this issue across this House. It is an area in which we can make progress together but one in which we really need to do that. I will check with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, but my memory tells me the publication of that document is imminent. The strategy is much awaited and a lot of work has gone into...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: Last week, the Taoiseach made a full commitment to supporting Ukraine's sovereignty. In the same week, he made an argument for Ireland to cede sovereignty to the European Union in the EU migration pact. Sovereignty is no small thing. It means that the people of this country can self-determine the laws that govern us, they can influence the elected representatives and hold them to account....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: I cannot hear the Deputy. When it comes to migration, it is fanciful in the extreme to think that this small little island with, thankfully, an open border - which we all worked very hard to protect during the Brexit process - could just go it alone regarding global and EU migration and that we would continue with the system in which we cannot effectively return anybody, in many ways, in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: No, it is not ludicrous. I am just asking that when the Deputy talks to the people at home, she gives them the facts. The HSE specifically asked Sinn Féin not to do what it did today in comparing the data. That is the first point. The second point is that wait times and cancellations and how long it takes to see a doctor are all interlinked. What I want people at home, most...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Ivana Bacik: ...on autism services for children. It included a call for action to end the lengthy delays, the backlog, in accessing assessments of need for children. Responding to our motion then, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, committed to reimbursing parents for private assessments where the State had failed to provide them after a certain time. That announcement was significant and very...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Simon Harris: ...knows. She had a number of items on which she wanted to make progress. She has got some of them over the line and I know she wants us to do a lot more. I am very happy to meet her and her father Mark and I will be in touch with them to arrange that. She has written to me very recently as well. I am very happy to accept Deputy Bacik's invitation today to meet with her, so I will...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Apr 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: Hospitals are under enormous pressure. Chronic overcrowding means constant chaos in emergency departments. We are all painfully aware of the year-round crisis, which sees hundreds of patients suffer the indignity of lying on trolleys. More than 600 people were on trolleys in our hospitals yesterday; the number is 528 today. However, a not so visible but real consequence of overcrowding...