Everett McKinley Dirksen, a US politician and civil rights activist, coined the famous phrase, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money". Never in the history of the State have we had as large a sum of public money to disburse. It is €85.8 billion next year, up 6.5% on last year. With that also, never has our national debt been higher. It is €241 billion. Now we are talking real money. This whopping number is double the national debt at the end of 2011, which stood at €119 billion…

I will not speak to the Bill as I prefer to take this opportunity to flag several issues in regard to planning generally. The Minister has intimated there are further amendments to come, which will give us a chance to revisit the provisions. There is an obvious need for affordable housing, whether by way of private sector delivery or State-supported schemes. With the cost trajectory and affordability index rising all the while, State spending is more and more required to supplement runaway costs. Does the Minister …

I have significant concerns regarding the absence of publicly available data on Government spending, a matter I raised previously with the Tánaiste. In particular, capital spending is a black hole. We see the money going in - some €87 billion this year, €12 billion of which is on capital projects with €165 billion heading out the door by 2030. We see bits and pieces of the outcomes - often just the stuff that gets attention, the calamities or the patronage. How can this House provide parliamentary oversight of publ…

It might interest the Tánaiste to know that I asked the Library and Research Service, L&RS, to conduct a review for me last year. It told me that it could not do it because it did not have adequate transparency around data. That is something that the House needs to take up. I will digress to share my frustration about capital downgrades. This morning we heard about a downgrade of vascular surgical services at University Hospital Waterford. That came on the back, I would say, of another steered report that has again…

That is why what we advertise counts.

I welcome this Bill on the provision of education for children with special needs. I thank both Ministers for being in the House today. It has been well outlined that we have a significant problem with providing the educational pathway for children with special needs and disability. We all want to provide, inasmuch as it is possible, the opportunity for children to be offered education in mainstream schools, where possible, and close to their homes and siblings, where appropriate. I note the Minister of State's inv…

My question is for the Minister. What are the present procurement schedule and timelines for a new build, Gaelcholáiste Phort Láirge, Baile Gunnair?

I thank the Minister most sincerely for her engagement with me on this process from the outset and her diligent attention to this school project, which is so badly needed in east Waterford and will do so much to improve the whole ecosystem of Irish in the region. We have an adjacent Gaelscoil as a feeder school to Gaelcholáiste Phort Láirge, which will take in almost 180 students this year and has had two junior cycle classes for the past three years. As the Minister knows, the school is going from strength to stre…

I sincerely thank Ms Cáit Ní Shé, the príomhoide, and the foireann iontach she has around her, especially the múinteoirí, tuismitheoirí and an bord bainistíochta. I will also raise the issue of site ownership. The Department has to buy that site and I ask that this be expedited. There are ongoing contracts that, hopefully, are to be exchanged. I again acknowledge the Minister's work in this area. This school is of great importance as it is a natural pivot to An Rinn in Dungarvan. It means we will now have a very co…

During Leaders' Questions last week, the Taoiseach described to me improvements in foreign direct investment, FDI, job creation into the south-east region. I can find no reference to his data. What I can find shows national IDA Ireland jobs growth of 6% but lacklustre growth in the south-east region of just 1.6%. Despite having 9% of the population, the south east has just 5% of IDA Ireland jobs and a mere 4.5% of IDA Ireland-supported companies in the region. That amounts to over 9,500 missing jobs. This deficit h…

We all know how important a subject this is across our communities and especially for business owners. The Alliance for Insurance Reform was before the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment recently. We discussed many of the problems of which the Minister of State is well aware and has covered recently. When will the duty of care legislation be published? When will it be enacted? More importantly, when will it commence? Can we expect that to happen soon? I know the Minister of State has been approache…

A number of Sundays ago, a gentleman suffered a cardiac event and was resuscitated on the ground outside University Hospital Waterford, UHW. Even if he had been inside UHW, a model 4 hospital in our great Republic, he could not have accessed cardiac care as the cath lab was closed, which it is 129 hours of every week. Sadly, that man passed away two days later in UHW. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Where is the 24-7 cardiac service the Taoiseach promised the south east? The Taoiseach extols his Government's capital s…

The Taoiseach said I reduced it to politics; I actually did not. He did when he stood in the grounds of University Hospital Waterford with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and made a commitment to deliver 24-7 cardiac care to the south east. In recent weeks, I presented to the Dáil data from a three-year National Office of Clinical Audit report along with three years of patient ambulance transfer times for University Hospital Waterford that show that the average transfer time for a cardiac patient was three an…

Will it deliver 24-7?

That was two and a half years ago.

That was two and a half years ago.

My question relates to the steps the Minister of State and the Department are taking to provide further consumer choice in the Irish retail banking sector, especially with the exit of the two main banks.

As the Minister of State outlined, KBC and Ulster Bank are leaving the Irish market and because of that approximately 900,000 account holders need to find a new home. That process is ongoing, to a degree, but it is causing a lot of anxiety for people. Some of those customers have left the banks they are now going back to, possibly because of disputes over a number of years or when they were refused credit, and now find their choice has been reduced. The Minister of State spoke about the accommodative actions the ex…

The retail banking sector is very important but what most people are now concerned about is access to finance and access to credit, especially if they are in the construction and manufacturing sectors and, in particular, the agricultural sector at present. There are major headwinds in those areas in terms of where people can go to access finance. That is a big problem. I accept that Revolut is in the market here for retail services, but is there anything the Department can do to put pressure on the system or to bri…

The principle of garda court presenters means that any member of An Garda Síochána can institute and can conduct prosecutions in a court of summary jurisdiction in the name of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. As Members have already said, the system has been well represented, well established and has been working efficiently. For many within the District Court prosecutions, the legal basis for garda court presenters being well understood ensures that gardaí would not be taken off the beat because …