No it is not.

It was not. Do not suggest that.

We need an urgent debate this week on the underfunding of the health service for next year. Both Bernard Gloster and Robert Watt issued dire warnings about the implications of the underfunding for patient care next year. Last week's supplementary allocation of €1 billion goes some way to plugging the hole in the budget for this year, but that has to be carried over to next year. There is a mechanism for doing so. It happens from time to time that a Supplementary Estimate goes into the following year's base. Will th…

What about the health budget?

I very much welcome this legislation from Deputy Shanahan and his colleagues. I also welcome the opportunity to discuss capital cost overruns. When it comes to capital spending, as we know, questions are repeatedly asked after the fact but the answers are hard to find. Paper trails run out and memories falter. Transparency is all too absent with our Government and political system having not fully embraced a culture of open decision-making. Along with undermining trust in the system, this lack of accountability als…

I move amendment No. 7: In page 15, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “Report on third rate of income tax 10. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, produce a report on the potential for the introduction of a 43 per cent income tax rate on all individuals with incomes in excess of €100,000, with appropriate uplifts for married couples, as a means of maintaining progressivity in the income tax system, and the estimated annual revenue which such a rate would generate. I expres…

I note the Minister did not answer my question. I asked him to explain to us the rationale for giving tax breaks to, for example, people in this House. Does he think it is fair and why did he do that? I am still waiting to hear his answer to that question. The Minister talks about the SWITCH model, which looked at the impact of the budget across the board in various measures within it. I know the Taoiseach quoted this and made various claims on it. In particular he quoted the Budget 2024: Beyond GDP - Quality of Li…

The Minister has not answered my question yet. I asked why anybody in this House should get money back from the tax system and why there should be cash energy payments. Maybe the Minister will answer that question after my third time asking. Competitiveness is impacted. The top three issues, according to IBEC, are a lack of affordable housing, childcare and healthcare. Those are the things that make us uncompetitive and that should be addressed. On refundable tax credits, 6% of the working population are living in …

What I am trying to do is to get the Minister to justify why anyone earning over €100,000 should get a benefit from the budget-----

------while people earning €20,000 get little or nothing.

Clearly the Minister does not want to answer the question.

It is up to the Minister to justify his actions and he is clearly refusing to do that.

What about people earning the minimum wage? What is their percentage?

I move amendment No. 8: In page 15, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: Report on tax credit changes 11. The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, produce a report which evaluates the impact of introducing a system of refundable tax credits, as one means of improving the living standards of low income workers, and increasing the two main tax credits by €225 each.

I welcome this amendment. I tabled questions to the Minister some weeks ago, in the reply to which he indicated there would not be any change at all in this area. I welcome that he has now brought forward this amendment. As he said, it addresses only part of the problem, namely, those situations involving partners in a practice. There are many other situations, however, in which the intention is that GPs would be employees of the company or corporate body and certainly in the case of not-for-profit organisations th…

I have no difficulty with the Bill before us and the annual requirement that we pass this legislation. As an insurance system, community-rated voluntary private insurance is fine and it is essential there is a risk equalisation scheme as part of that. We cannot really argue about that if we are talking about a health insurance system. However, the difficulty arises with the health system we have, which is a two-tier, dysfunctional, mix-and-match one. It does not serve people terribly well. Many people wish they had…

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for allowing me to contribute and I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion. The Social Democrats will support it. It is frankly unforgivable this Government has allowed a situation to occur where a recruitment freeze is even on the table, never mind being implemented. It is not as if Government was not aware of the challenges facing the health service and the need for additional funding. After all, there have been repeated warnings, all of which have been ignored, it w…

The horror unfolding in Gaza is on an unimaginable scale. In just over a month, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the besieged Gaza Strip, which is home to 2.3 million people, half of whom are children. Shockingly, more than one in 20 people in Gaza is now believed to be either injured, missing or dead. Entire families have been wiped out and the number of child casualties continues to spiral, with on average 160 children dying every single day. Yet much of the international community, par…

I wish to raise the EU's approach to the use of the controversial pesticide, glyphosate. As the Taoiseach knows, a qualified majority was not achieved to renew the licence last month and the issue will be before the appeals committee tomorrow. A qualified majority was not achieved because there was widespread concern about the impact of that pesticide on the environment, biodiversity and, in particular, public health. A number of organisations campaigning on neurodegenerative conditions, particularly the Parkinson’…

I am happy to support both amendments tabled by Deputy Smith. This is part of a wider debate about prior warning we have had on a number of occasions. Amendment No. 1 is sensible in that, at the moment, the Bill requires the warning in writing and there could be other means of recording a warning. It future-proofs the legislation. I am happy to support the insertion of "by any other manner and in any such system as may be prescribed by the Minister in accordance with subsection (6)". It makes absolute sense for it …