I have to begin by acknowledging that since we last met as a Dáil only yesterday, four lives have been lost on our roads. I know that communities in counties Mayo and Westmeath have been devastated by the news of this loss of life. I know that I join with everybody in this House in sending our deepest sympathies to the families of those who have died. Tragically, this brings the number of lives lost on Irish roads already this year to 97. Of course, no number can hide the reality of the personal tragedy and upset a…

I suppose when you are Taoiseach rather than leader of the Opposition it is not good enough to just define the problem. You have to tell the people of Ireland the actions you are taking. Let me absolutely agree there is a huge body of work that we need to do in relation to Dublin city centre and I will tell the Deputy eight things we are doing. We are putting bodycams on our gardaí. This is a key tool in public safety and garda safety and we have started that in Dublin. Second, we have legislated to increase the se…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I acknowledge it is an issue that she rightly raises on a regular basis, as one would expect, because it is a major issue and one of challenge. I assure her and the people of her constituency who are experiencing the barriers issue and the people more broadly across Ireland that we are endeavouring in real time to move from an emergency response to migration to a more sustainable model and we are having to do that in real time. I make that point because what we have seen h…

I agree that this is not sustainable. There is no one in this House, and I doubt there is anyone in Waterways Ireland, who would not like to see the barriers removed. It just needs to be done in a way that is safe. I am conscious that Waterways Ireland is having to monitor that. A whole variety of safety issues need to be considered. We are seeing some examples around the country of where we are moving from the emergency response. As a result of policy changes in respect of Ukraine, and as a result of the numbers o…

We take it extraordinarily seriously. The Deputy's constant misrepresentation of the position of the Minister for Justice, time and time again, and indeed some of his commentary on some of the changes she has tried to make and the introduction of wokery into public debate, has certainly not helped, quite frankly. If we are deadly serious about creating a zero-tolerance approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, it would be important that Members in this House have the courage to bring about some of the…

Let me start and see where I can agree with the Deputy. We need more gardaí; that is a statement of fact. That is why we are putting a huge focus on Garda recruitment and retention. He will also see more measures from us this month on that. Regarding roads policing, I have met the Garda Commissioner and the assistant Garda commissioner with responsibility for roads policing and of course I have met the Minister for Justice. I have personally chaired two meetings of the ministerial road safety committee. This year w…

Let us not just say everything is down to the gardaí. When getting behind the wheel of a car, we all have individual important responsibilities. The second issue on which I agree with the Deputy is the issue of sentencing. While we might not agree on how we get there, we have set up the Judicial Council under the Judicial Council Act 2019. A body of work is currently under way on sentencing guidelines. The first area they are looking at on sentencing guidelines is in the area of domestic violence. Those sentencing …

I thank Deputy Collins for raising this important matter. I note he raised the issue of the horticulture course in Skibbereen with me previously in this House. I have done a bit of research, on which I will engage with him in a moment. There is huge importance in investing in talent and in our people. We need to have an education system that has multiple pathways for people to reach their full potential. For some people that will be university. For some people that will be our education and training boards. For som…

I will certainly undertake to look into it because I know a little about it from my time in that Department. I was down in the Cork College of Further Education and Training and made aware of the horticultural course. I am trying to remember if I visited the actual facility in Skibbereen. I am not sure. I could have, because I was involved in a number of discussions about horticulture in Cork and I know there was a general level of excitement about the education and training programmes which saw a benefit to the re…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue, and I thank the media committee for the work members across parties have put into the RTÉ issue over a sustained period. I look forward to reading their report and recommendations. I particularly thank the Chair, Deputy Niamh Smyth. I assure the Deputy that there is action on this. The Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I met with the Minister for media on Monday at our weekly leaders' meeting. I expect we will meet her again next Monday. We will reach a decisio…

I am sorry to hear about those job losses and my immediate thoughts are with workers and families affected, as I know are the Deputy's. I will of course work with him on this, as we have done in the past. I think the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, was in Drogheda this week with regard to the regional enterprise plans. We remain committed to doing everything we can to support the town. I make the point that the benefit of the DART line runs both ways because it also has an opportunity to bring workers and invest…

I take the point about the bad news received in Drogheda today. I am happy to meet with the Deputy. As he knows, I am scheduled to meet shortly with the group of enterprise stakeholders who have come together in Drogheda. They have a plan and a view and I will follow up to arrange that.

I am reading a note on this. I thank Deputy Cairns for raising this serious issue. I am told, specifically with regard to CHO 4, which is Cork and Kerry, that the HSE has advised that data showed an increased referral rate across the region of 63%, specifically for primary care psychology waiting lists. There seems to be a particular challenge in this region that I do not believe is replicated nationally based on this note. Psychology vacancies in the region equate to approximately 25 whole-time equivalents. It is …

-----but I will speak with the Minister and come back to the Deputy with the response.

I doubt that many people in this country favour strike action and I think most people, as the Deputy said, want to see an end to the disruption. I am very conscious the least helpful thing anyone in this House, most of all me, could do is wade right into this while Labour Court hearings are under way today. A huge amount of work has gone in to get to this point. I thank both parties for agreeing to attend and the Labour Court for agreeing to intervene. All I will do at this stage is really encourage both sides to d…

There is no need to be provoking or rubbing salt in the wounds of Dublin Deputies, but I congratulate Galway on their win at the weekend. The Deputy raises a very important issue. The last time I raised it there was a lot of tut-tutting from top brass in the GAA and they were very disappointed with my comments, but I would say this to them, respectfully. Far more people are disappointed with how this season has been shown in terms of GAAGO. They should not listen to me if they do not want to - that is grand - but t…

In fairness to Deputy McGrath, he was good enough to send me a note today to say representatives of the Tipperary spina bifida group are in the Dáil and I would love to get a chance to say hello if I can. I will be here for quite a while yet. I wish them well and thank them for being here, along with the Irish Wheelchair Association. There are two issues. I understand that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has just allocated some money to the Irish Wheelchair Association in Clonmel for a new bus, I believe, a…

I was just speaking to the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, on this matter while the Deputy was speaking. I will discuss it further with him and the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman. My understanding, though, is that these are transfers, as opposed to evictions, whereby people are being asked to transfer to other locations, but-----

Okay. I will take a look at the specific situation the Deputy has raised and discuss it with the Minister of State and the Minister. What we are doing, and we have to be honest about this, is that the number of people coming from Ukraine has fallen and we are reducing our footprint in terms of leases and contracts-----

I accept that this has to be done in a way that is careful and compassionate and I accept that a number of communities across the country are, rightly, highlighting the sensitivities around this. I am not familiar with the specific situation relating to Galway but I will make myself familiar with it today.