I am delighted to be back once again in the Seanad to participate in this timely discussion on the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. The ongoing work of this Chamber on Brexit issues, particularly the efforts of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU, underlines the continued importance of this issue for communities across the country. Northern Ireland did not seek Brexit and did not vote for Brexit. It is a policy whose problems were all too foreseeable. Week by week an…

I thank all Senators for their contributions which, in some cases, were questions. I will try to move through those questions as best I can. I will deal first with Senator Mullen's comments. He rightly asked questions that some might, perhaps, think are unpalatable and so on. I will try to answer some of the issues. As the person representing him and the Irish Government, I have tried to be very careful never to allow my language slip into a language that is seen as anti-British. It is against everything I stand fo…

They have accepted that, but they also want to maintain connection with the rest of the island of Ireland. They want an absence of borders and the protections of a free trading environment in and out of the European Union, as well as with the rest of the United Kingdom. This was a compromise where all sides had to sacrifice something. To see it through only one perspective because there is disruption linked to the protocol, there would be a lot more disruption without it. The disruption emanates primarily from the …

First of all, the Government is very aware of the trauma that many individuals and families continue to go through in the context of this issue. The families will get to see a full report. We want that to happen as soon as possible. The HSE commissioned the national independent review panel, NIRP, to carry out a review of abuse allegations at a HSE-provided residential service for adults with disabilities. The purpose of the NIRP was to review the governance arrangements for the facility to which the Deputy referre…

Once the issue was brought to her attention in November 2020, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, sought an urgent update from the HSE on these matters and has engaged with it extensively since then to reach a point where the full findings can be published. The Minister of State met the families that wanted to meet her on a one-to-one basis last week. The Minister of State has also been in contact with Mr. Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE, and the HSE board on this matter, including last week regarding the publication…

I thank the Deputy for raising the question. I know that given his previous experience as a Minister, the issue is something that he knows a lot about. I was in Glasgow yesterday with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who, people should be glad to hear, has been drawn into serious negotiations on issues such as climate finance and so on, in terms of trying to get general agreement, which I think is a recognition of where Ireland stands now in the challenge of climate a…

No, I do not think we are but we are at risk of losing investment if we cannot provide the assurances that investors need. If we look at the investment flow that has come in over recent years, through IDA Ireland work predominantly and elsewhere, it has been a very strong pipeline of investment. The strength of foreign direct investment here and its expansion have been hugely helpful through the Covid period. The Deputy is right. There are two challenges here. In my view we will lose investment if we do not decarbo…

The Deputy and I have had this debate many times in the House. He is right on one thing. Overly relying on rental supports is not a long- to medium-term solution for the housing challenges we face. Supply is the solution, with more social housing, more affordable housing, more targeted and tailor-made solutions for people who need housing and who want to own and pay for their own homes but need the support of the State to do so, and people who want to be in the rental market and need supports to be there. The truth…

The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is looking at the limits issue. There are areas, particularly in the capital, where rental prices are significantly higher than HAP can support. I recognise this. It is an issue that is being looked at. To correct the record, it was not policy, either for me or my predecessor, to not build large numbers of social housing homes. It was the opposite, in fact. It was about ramping up as quickly as we possibly could and spending billions of euro in taxpayers' money to do so. That has taken…

The straight answer to the Deputy’s last question is “Yes”. The Government has confidence in the Office of the Planning Regulator and in the individual referred to by the Deputy. The role of the Office of the Planning Regulator is clear. This office ensures that county development plans, as they are developed, are consistent with national planning framework. If mistakes are made and there are legal challenges, then that is why we have a court system. I do not want to go in to the detail of the particular court judg…

I have not read the judgment. I said I was familiar with the case and the issues around it as are others in this House. I have spoken to the Minister about it at different points because it is an issue that has been ongoing for quite a period of time. It involves both Cork City Council and Cork County Council and an ambition to develop a big new retail centre in east Cork.

Yes, if it is a landmark case, we will learn from it. That is what the courts are there for.

Cork County Council felt aggrieved on this issue and took a court case. We now have a judgment and we need to act on it. That is how the system works.

That does not mean that the role of the Office of the Planning Regulator is not still an important one. It is. If mistakes were made here, they need to be corrected and we need to learn lessons from that. I do not want to comment on the judgment or its text because I have not read it yet but, as I said, I am familiar with the overall issue here and the tension and differences of views around it and the role of the local authorities and of the OPR in regard to it. I am glad we now have clarity in a court judgment an…

I am sure there will be an opportunity to ask the Minister his rationale in the context of these appointments. My understanding is that both of these individuals are eminently qualified for the job they are being asked to do. I am sure the Minister will give full details of the basis of that decision and how it came about.

There is no doubt that significant reform is under way. I will ask the Minister for Justice to come back to the Deputy directly rather than me giving him a stock answer now.

That is a very detailed proposal. If the Deputy wants to put it in writing or give me a call afterwards, I will follow up properly on it.

As the Deputy probably knows, I have probably been more vocal on this issue than any other foreign minister on the planet. I was in the Middle East last week. I visited Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Jordan. I appeared on international and national media to voice my concern about the fact that the six Palestinian NGOs were effectively designated as terrorist organisations. I have not seen any evidence to give that designation any credibility. We provide modest funding to two of the six organisations…

The local property tax, LPT, allocation for next year to Galway County Council is €14.5 million. That includes €2.7 million in equalisation funding. As the Deputy knows, it is open to councillors to decide whether they want to increase LPT rates. That has happened in Clare, Limerick, Donegal and Sligo, which have all decided to increase their rates by 15%. Mayo decided to increase it by 10% and Kerry by 7.5%. Leitrim and Roscommon also raised their LPT rate for next year by 15%. I wish to reassure the Deputy that t…

I understand the frustrations regarding the time it takes from route selection to the final delivery of a project of scale. We have a lot of experience of that in my constituency in the context of some TII projects there. I do not have the power to do what the Deputy is asking, but I will raise the matter with the line Minister.