On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 509 of 516 decisive votes (0 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| FF | Fianna Fáil | 19,180 | 2020-02-20 – 2026-09-30 |
Membership spells on record: FF 1989-06-15–1992-11-05 · FF 1992-11-25–1997-05-15 · FF 1997-06-06–2002-04-25 · FF 2002-05-17–2007-04-30 · FF 2007-05-24–2011-02-01 · FF 2011-02-25–2016-03-09 · FF 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · FF 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · FF 2024-11-29–present
What I am saying is that consultation is under way and it is happening. When it is right and when the Minister has concluded those consultations with the partners and with the State Examination Commission, and with the advisory committee, they will-----
Deputy McDonald is out of order. The Deputy should not be interrupting me in that manner.
I did not say that.
I said last week Deputy McDonald-----
Hold on a second now. Deputy McDonald-----
No.
That is what happened last week. The Minister for Education was attacked last week wrongly for not consulting by the Deputy.
The Minister is consulting with the partners-----
-----and is engaging, and we will respond appropriately.
I thank the Deputy for his query. The broad range of regulations, which will emanate from yesterday's Government decisions, will be drawn up, hopefully, by the end of the week.
I will make further inquiries on this. There are clearly legal obligations but that in itself is an enormous challenge going back to the early decades of the State from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The 1940s in particular saw an appallingly high infant mortality rate in mother and baby homes. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is developing a broad base response to the commission's report. How to deal with this will form part of it.
The Deputy is well aware that the Government has honoured its statutory redundancy commitments to workers in Debenhams. The Government is the only party which has honoured its commitments in respect of the workers concerned. The Deputy is correct about the deficiencies in whatever collective agreement had been previously entered into at the time. We have gone through this with the representative bodies and the trade unions every way we can and we have pursued every avenue. That €3 million is not statutory redundanc…
I agree with Deputy Berry in terms of the significance of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, particularly if it emerges that one jab would be sufficient in terms of its efficacy. From my understanding, it will be early April when it comes to authorisation by the European Medicines Agency. It could happen that it comes earlier but that is the timeline that I have right now. It may improve. The European Commission's engagement with Johnson & Johnson is a professional one and one with which it is satisfied in terms of the…
They have been closed by the virus, not the Government. That is an important point to make.
The Government is providing unprecedented resources to many businesses across the board. Utility companies should not be charging-----
Will the Deputy let me speak? Utility companies should not be charging for gas or electricity that people are not using. I will ask the Minister to engage with the utility companies on this. People should be charged for what they are using. We have provided rates relief which is extensive and significant in terms of the amounts of money involved. We have also provided supports through EWSS, the employment wage subsidy scheme, CRSS, the Covid-19 restrictions support scheme, and the pandemic unemployment subsidy.
The Minister is reviewing the threshold. It is a low threshold. That said, we have many people on the social housing list which is why this year the Government has allocated a record €3 billion to housing and announced a record programme of social house building for the next 12 months. Undoubtedly, that has been impacted by Covid and level 5 restrictions. However, we hope to pick that up during the remainder of the year and get a record number of social houses built this year to eat into those waiting lists.
The sharing of data will not cut off that gap. The Northern Ireland Executive wants us to share data on passengers coming in through Dublin Airport and who transit on to Northern Ireland. We are working to provide this. There was constructive engagement. Sometimes I am somewhat surprised by the public statements because they do not reflect the private conversations that have been had. I will put it that way to the Deputy. I raised this issue at meetings with the First Minister and deputy First Minister and said we …
I find it very difficult to comprehend what has just been said given all that has happened in the country. I know that in earlier stages of the debate Deputies Danny Healy-Rae, Michael Healy-Rae, Mary Lou McDonald and others called for the pubs to be opened, saying they should have been opened a long time ago. Have you learned anything from what has transpired? Human behaviour in all settings affects the spread of the virus. We do not blame publicans at all per se . In some cases, there were people who in certain s…
I thank the Deputies for raising the issue. I understand the concerns of the Deputies about this. It is in the programme for Government that the review of the national development plan would not frustrate existing projects that are under way. I will certainly bring the views of the Deputies to the Minister and will engage with him on the matter.