Simon Harris
Wicklow · Fine Gael · Ireland
“There are more than 10,000 routes and thousands of buses involved and the number of students using the services is not a million miles away from 200,000. The current terms of the scheme are going to continue to apply for the 2026-27 school year.”
“I thank Deputy McDonald for raising what is genuinely an important issue. I do take the point that when we talk about this in the abstract or from a process point of view in here, that for people watching this is their real lived experience.”
“There number of children who have been supported by means of the school transport scheme, as Deputy Fitzmaurice knows and has alluded to, has grown significantly in recent years. Since 2018, the number increased from 120,000 in 2018 to more than 181,000 now. Included in that figure are 24,000 pupils with special educational needs.”
“I knew the Deputy would have to mention the GAA, especially with Galway and Limerick playing at the weekend. I wish everybody involved the best of luck. We are very committed to the school transport scheme. If the Deputy wants to see our commitment, he should look to our budget.”
“An ageing population, increasing healthcare needs, the transition to net zero and the need for continued investment in housing, energy and infrastructure will place a significant demand on public resources.”
“There is also a legitimacy to the point the Deputy made about how it is a legitimate form of transport for some people. We see this working in other European countries. We see it in our nearest neighbours. I do not want to get the regime wrong, but I think they have registration at the point of purchase that allows people to track this.”
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“I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Minister for Health engaged with the national cancer screening service recently and has engaged with cancer advocacy groups too. I am not satisfied if people are experiencing those waiting times. The Deputy is quite right. As well as the clinical importance of quick diagnosis, there is also – as she very eloquently put it – the hugely stressful and worrying time that it is for women and for their families. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy on the actions she and the HSE believe we can take since there is clarity regarding funding for the health service in budget 2026. We will try to make progress on the matter.”
“I would point out, though, that we are seeing in Mayo, for example, one of the largest drawdowns in the country of the vacant property refurbishment grant. The latter is a practical measure that is helping. On the viability issue, we have to try to get the balance right. We felt it was a prudent use of taxpayers' money for apartments. We thought the need in that regard was more acute in terms of the viability issue and a better use of money as opposed to a wider tax measure on housing. Such wider measures have not always worked in the past. I will mention schemes, but they will be the only ones. The first home and help to buy schemes have a lot of relevance in County Mayo, and perhaps even greater relevance there or in some counties that are even further away from Dublin.”
“I will try not to do what the Deputy asked me not to do. We obviously need to look at the housing situation nationally but we also need to work locally, county by county, in relation to housing. That is what we are trying to do. It is what the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, are trying to do. The Taoiseach and I will be interacting with a number of local authority chief executives. I will see if we can engage with the chief executive of Mayo County Council as well. Even in a country as geographically small as Ireland, there can be certain ways that local authorities and national government can work together to try to advance a response to the housing challenges.”
“I thank Deputy Mythen very much for raising this issue. There is, as there should be, constant engagement with all stakeholders in respect of special education. I am pleased that the budget has provided significant additional funding that will allow for 860 extra teaching posts in the area of special education needs and 1,717 extra SNA posts. Also, we will be providing funding of €16 million to roll out the national therapy service in education to special needs schools. I will ask the Minister to respond directly to the Deputy on this matter.”
“I thank Deputy McAuliffe very much for raising this issue. We took an important step forward in this budget in moving towards the abolition of the means test with the increases in the thresholds to €1,000 for a single person and €2,000 for a couple. This is to show intent. We have not reached the destination yet. That destination is to abolish the means test. That is what we intend to do, working with colleagues, during the lifetime of this Government.”
“We will be working through all the detail of what that will mean in terms of numbers of home-energy upgrades, and the relevant announcement will be made as part of the REV later this year. As the Deputy knows, we reduced the VAT rate for heat pumps to 9% from 1 January, which has helped somewhat when it comes to affordability for people switching to efficient electric heating. The Department and SEAI keep their grant schemes, including the terms and conditions, eligibility criteria and rates, under review. I will ask that they reflect on what the Deputy has suggested.”
“Deputy Ó Muirí is right. I thank him for highlighting this. It is an issue I have been raising personally for a while. We all want to do our bit for the climate – of course we do, and we are living through a climate emergency – but we also have to recognise that while quite a few people in this country would like to retrofit some element of their homes, they may not be in a position to do everything at once. We have to show flexibility in the context of the grants, particularly for those who are older and do not necessarily want the whole house uprooted but who are happy to take some measures that will help to keep them warm in their own homes and reduce their energy bills, and also allow them to do their bit for the planet. As the Deputy rightly said, we have increased the budget for retrofitting and climate measures.”
“I will deal with that constructively. I will even work with the Deputy on it, but I will not stand for the suggestion that only the people he represents are affected by addiction. It is a scourge in so many parts of society, causing pain for so many who deal with it in family life. Addiction is not a party issue at all. The Deputy did raise a legitimate issue, however, which is what I wanted to start by saying. The drug and alcohol addiction task forces do excellent work. I am aware of the work they do in my constituency - right across Wicklow. I will speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O’Connor, about this to see what can be done to support the task forces in the context of what is a massive budget for the health service overall. I will ask her to meet the Deputy specifically on this issue.”
“I was genuinely rising to my feet to try to give a constructive reply, because I doubt there is a family, and certainly not a political party in this Oireachtas, that has not been impacted by addiction. I can tell the Deputy that there are many people in my party, his and all others, who have lived with addiction, have loved ones with addiction or go home to addiction. Therefore, let us not be-----”
“It has taken on additional contractors to manage forested areas where there are damaged or weakened trees. Forestry-harvesting machines have been acquired and the ESB has sourced stocks of material to underpin repair capacity during the winter season. However, I will ask the relevant Minister to do exactly what the Deputy suggests, namely interact with the regulator of utility companies. The latter is the prudent thing to do at this stage.”
“I thank Deputy Feighan for raising this issue. I am very conscious that he represents a part of the country impacted by Storm Amy and that is still very much living with the fallout from Storm Éowyn and, to put it mildly, the absolute chaos it caused. People in Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal were particularly affected by Storm Amy, as were those in Mayo, Roscommon and Galway. I extend the sympathies of everybody in this House to the family of Mr. Connors from Letterkenny, who died due to a weather-related incident in Donegal. All our thoughts are with his family. Preparations were put in place for Storm Amy. The ESB put crews in position in advance. At the peak of the storm, over 184,000 premises were affected by power outages. The Deputy is right about the ESB, which as taken a number of measures.”
“I do not have an answer to the direct question, but let me talk to the Minister to see if we can get a specific timeline for delivery. I will ask the Minister to revert to the Deputy directly.”
“I sincerely thank Deputy O’Sullivan for having put this issue in the spotlight so many times. It really is important. He is right that I am familiar with it as a result of the advocacy of an incredible person I know, a constituent of mine, in County Wicklow. This advocacy has really helped to move the dial. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is also very committed to addressing this issue. She would have met and engaged with the Deputy on it. We have the rare diseases strategy, which, as the Deputy said, is very clear on the expansion of newborn screening. It is a cause of collective frustration that we still have not seen this expansion. To say the screening is transformational and life-altering is quite an understatement.”
“I thank Deputy O'Flynn very much. I heard the Minister for justice comment on the issue regarding podcasters recently and he expressed his surprise and, perhaps, displeasure in that regard. I will ask him to come back to the Deputy on each specific issue he has raised. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, is putting a real focus on increasing prison capacity and has worked very hard to secure additional funding for prison capacity. We need that going into the delivery of prisons. Value for money is going to be very important in that regard. I will ask the Minister to reflect further on the issues the Deputy has highlighted. Our plan for the years ahead is to drive forward with increasing prison capacity. I take the point on value for money being important.”
“This is a real example of where we need to see good co-ordination across the country and across our local authorities. Perhaps we can take that away as an action. Specifically on the period from here to the end of the year, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, to engage with Tipperary County Council.”
“After disagreeing with Deputy Healy earlier, I find myself more in agreement with him in relation to this matter. As the Deputy knows and has alluded to, we have allocated extra money for the disabled person's grant in the budget. The question he is asking is a fair one, namely, whether we can do anything between now and the end of the year in relation to Tipperary. We always keep these issues under review. We obviously want to see these works continue. I will ask the Minister to engage with Tipperary County Council to see if progress can be made because there is now certainty and a line of sight as regards funding as a result of the budget. On the broader point, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is overseeing the new human rights strategy for disabled people.”
“We are taking every step we possibly can to endeavour to increase housing supply. There is a viability issue when it comes to apartment construction. Anything that can assist in the construction and sale of apartments is a good thing. Of course, this is only one of the many things we are doing to try to help.”
“That is disgraceful to hear. I am not going to endeavour to justify it. It is not acceptable. These sorts of things drive any right-thinking person absolutely berserk. That is appalling. I suggest that anybody who thinks there is not a clinical need should go spend an evening with Josh, as his family does in caring for him. I will ask the relevant Minister to follow up with Deputy Lawlor and the HSE immediately to see if we can make progress in this regard. I am very sorry to hear about this.”
“The Minister of State met with concerned fishers in Killybegs last Sunday. I have not had an opportunity to speak to him since but he was also to meet relevant stakeholder groups yesterday to gather input so that we could see how best to approach this together. I will ask that he keep in touch with Deputy Doherty and other interested Members of the House.”
“I thank Deputy Doherty very much for raising this issue. I had the opportunity to visit Donegal in the not-too-distant past and I met some of the fishing organisations and fishers in Killybegs. I know what a worrying time this is for people, as do the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, who has specific responsibility for the area. There is no doubt that the proposals are deeply concerning. They will significantly impact on the Irish seafood sector. Ireland has repeatedly raised the overfishing of key stocks by some coastal states outside the EU. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, will continue to highlight this critical issue for our fishers and engage intently with the European Commission and other member states on possible actions we could take to protect our stocks.”
“On the local property tax, which enables and empowers the local authority to partner with us on projects, the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, tells me Kildare will get an extra €4.9 million as a result of the campaign that Deputy Neville, the Minister, Deputy Heydon and others highlighted on the unfairness Kildare was feeling in terms of getting its fair share of this. We will work in partnership in the times ahead but the message is received and heard clearly, and it is a fair one, that certain parts of our country are growing faster than other parts and we need to make sure the infrastructure keeps up with it.”
“I agree with Deputy Neville. It is important that local government, national government and State agencies work in partnership to try to drive forward the delivery of this infrastructure which is much needed in north Kildare. It is stark when Deputy Neville makes the point that when we look at Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth together there is a population of 53,000 people. As he says, it is almost the population of some cities in our country. I am satisfied the budget we have put in place has provided significant funding for sports capital, which is one of the areas Deputy Neville highlighted, so we can deliver community and sporting facilities, and there is more funding for community centres also.”
“I want Deputy Neville to know I am very conscious of the infrastructural needs in growing areas of our country, such as north Kildare. We have put the funding in place and we are now trying to remove the blockages and barriers to delivery. The budget, alongside the revised national development plan, gives us a real basis on which we can proceed with confidence.”
“It is not acceptable that homes are built in Kildare for which people are awaiting ESB connections, or that there are homes that could be built in Kildare if people could have access to water or wastewater. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, has reminded me that additional funding has been provided in the budget that will allow us to have a further round of the URDF, and we will reflect the point Deputy Neville has made on a balanced focus for the funding. I know a bugbear of public representatives in Kildare is the proportion of local property tax the county gets. I understand there have been improvements in this. I am proud that Maynooth one of the first towns in Ireland to have student accommodation that has been at least part funded by the Government. We need to continue to do more on this.”
“The Minister, Deputy Chambers, will be back to Cabinet in the coming month with proposals from the expert group he has set up on what we can do to make processes more simple and straightforward and speed up delivery. We have also allocated money in the budget, for example, for, An Coimisiún Pleanála so that turnaround times and planning decisions can be much more speedy. As I have said, Irish Water ran a very effective public relation campaign highlighting the need for more funding. The Government has provided the funding but there is a proviso that we want the funding to be used to enable more homes to be built. There is a very clear understanding of the Government's expectation on this.”
“What I can say, and what Deputy Neville and the people of Kildare know, is that we now have a record level of capital funding provided through the national development plan. It is a large amount of money that we can invest now and in the years ahead. We need to make sure the urgency with which these investments are required is also in place, in terms of not allowing bureaucracy and red tape delay the delivery of planning. The Department of public expenditure and reform now has a new infrastructure delivery unit. It is the job of that Department not only to count the money but also to drive forward the delivery of the projects that are funded.”
“I thank Deputy Neville for raising this issue. It is fair to say he raises these issues on a very ongoing basis. Recently I was at Kildare Chamber of Commerce with Deputy Neville and the Minister, Deputy Heydon, where we had a good chance to sit down and talk with the Kildare Chamber of Commerce. What I heard very clearly from it was the growing frustration that the county, not dissimilar to my county, is seeing a growing population and infrastructure that really needs to grow to keep up with the extra population. One of the frustrations I heard at that meeting, and which I hear from Deputy Neville regularly and which I know he highlights in his role as Vice Chair of the Oireachtas committee on infrastructure, is the need to remove blockages and barriers that delay projects.”
“Please do not mislead carers. Family carers deserve to know the truth and this is the truth. We have frozen VAT at 9% for gas and electricity for the next five years and we are making sure an extra 50,000 households throughout the country will benefit from the fuel allowance. We are extending the renter's tax credit. We have the back of Irish people and the back of businesses. Crucially, the measures in the budget most proportionately favour the most vulnerable in our society and that is the way it should be.”
“I reject out of hand what Deputy Healy said about that because we took the first step in the budget, with an increase in thresholds to €1,000 for a single person carer and €2,000 for a couple.”
“We are not going to agree on this, so no, the Government does not intend to reverse the commitment it gave and is delivering on, but it needs to be seen in context. This is an important measure to back business and jobs in regional and rural Ireland. It is also just one of a number of measures. The budget allocated a hell of a lot more to childcare, disability, education and health than it did to this measure. In addition, we have also taken very important measures to protect those most in need. The minimum wage will increase for 200,000 workers. All workers will now have an automatic entitlement to a pension as auto-enrolment begins. We are continuing to drive down the cost of education. We are moving towards the abolition of the carer's means test.”
“This is a permanent reduction to reassure business owners across the country in the hospitality sector that we have their backs and are reducing their cost bases and to drive on and keep and grow those jobs in towns and villages around the country.”
“These jobs often lift people out of poverty because the best way to do so is to get them a job. Many of the large companies that I have heard mentioned in this House in recent days are franchises run by Irish people. They are Irish owned and, yet again, they create jobs. Too many people in this House are taking job creation for granted. I remember that when I first got elected to the Dáil, it was hard to get a job in this country. We are back at full employment and we have to make sure we back businesses and reduce their cost bases. This is a practical measure. We are not reducing it for just a year or two.”
“No, it would not. To be clear in case Deputy Newsome Drennan has not read her own party's alternative budget, Sinn Féin proposed this as well, so Sinn Féin is in favour of this and agrees with us on this one. The rate of 9% is supported by Sinn Féin as well, so I thank her for that support. Deputy Healy does not support it and that is his right. On balance, we think this is the right thing to do. Some 191,000 people are employed in this sector directly in 20,000 businesses. The Deputy is right, some of them are large businesses and that is the same when any measure is introduced. Seventy five percent are not, with only 0.4% classified as large companies. Even the large businesses, heaven forbid, create good jobs as well, in every town, city and village.”
“We have very different economic ideology and I will not debate that in the two minutes available to me. As the Deputy rightly said, 75% of the businesses in the hospitality sector employ fewer than ten people. If I walked around the Deputy's constituency with him, which I would be happy to do some time, it would be a brave politician who stood on the floor of the shop, café, restaurant or pub that is opening to do a bit of lunch for the local community and tell it that everything is flaithiúlach and grand and that it does not need the bit of assistance. The Deputy knows how European VAT-----”
“The services in this country - education, health, social welfare, pensions, carers, our salaries - are all funded on the back of people who run businesses. Breaking news: enterprise and creating profits are good things. Employing people is a really good thing.”
“I will not accept that at all. I will accept that we will do what we promised the people we were going to do to in the general election. Not too many of us in here, including myself, have had to lie awake at night wondering how we are going to pay the wage bill. Not many of us have to wonder that if we get sick and cannot run the café where our income is going to come from. Not too many of us have had to worry about the insurance cost of running a small business. In general, people come in here with good ideas about how they are going to come up with new policies that will increase costs for small- and medium-sized businesses. That is fine if that is what they want to do, but it is not the politics we practice.”
“This is because the Social Democrats do not believe that cafés in my constituency - in Greystones, Delgany or Bray - deserve the VAT cut that they promised during the election and which they are now walking away from. There is a pub-----”
“The Irish electorate are sophisticated. Funding for an additional 35,000 places has been provided. A cap will be put in place for next September for those with the highest fees. We are extending the footwear and clothing allowance for the first time to children in preschool. I am sure this is something that the Social Democrats must support but did not fund in their alternative budget. The electorate do listen to what people say in elections.”
“We are already acting. That is why it is important that parents know. If the Deputy is saying that parents do not follow this, then I completely disagree. Let parents watching know this: the budget we just delivered provided funding for 35,000-----”
“That is helping to ensure we have people working in childcare facilities to mind our children and educate them. There is also funding for further pay increases for their staff next year as well and we extended the back to school clothing and footwear payment to preschool for the first time ever, benefitting the children most in need along with a range of childcare measures. The commitment remains and the commitment will be delivered on.”
“It is absolutely what I said in the manifesto and I talked about it an awful lot. Every party in this Dáil gave that commitment and we stand by that commitment. However, we have outlined a record budget for childcare of €1.5 billion. The national childcare scheme is now funded for an additional 35,000 children next year. There is a 14% increase in the number of children benefitting. In the coming months, the Minister will set out plans for a new maximum fee-cap set from next September. That will benefit people with the costs. This will reduce costs for families paying the highest fees. That is where we should start. The Minister and Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, have signed off on a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators that takes effect next Monday.”
“However, this year’s budget did see objectively a step change in the investment in disability services. That has been recognised by the likes of Inclusion Ireland. The extra funding of €628 million for disability services from the Minister, Deputy Foley and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is an important step forward and will make a real difference. On childcare, we have taken a number of measures. The commitment was to produce a plan within 100 days. All these things were going to be done as part of the budget.”
“Other decisions we made, like extending the renters tax credit which was due to expire this year at a cost of €350 million a year, will directly benefit and help students. I appreciate we have different views on the measures we have taken around apartments and tax but I believe it is an important viability measure. We will see who is right in time. We have listened to a lot of people in terms of the viability gap. We have taken a number of measures to try to close that gap because there are tens of thousands of apartments with active planning permission today that are not being built and we need them built. We all want more housing supply. On disability, the Minister for Social Protection has been clear he is working on developing a cost of disability payment. We would like to see that in place for the next budget.”
“Our aid people will be endeavouring to assist in that. On college fees and many issues, we were very clear during the election campaign that we were moving back to a one annual budget process. That meant that the one-off measures between September and Christmas were going to be replaced with an annual budget and that we would seek to embed permanent, sustainable, affordable cuts to a number of areas, including education, the cost for business and a variety of other areas. The measure we have taken on student fees is the first instalment of five. I remain committed to the very strong views I have in relation to the cost of education and college fees. We intend to build on that further in the time ahead.”
“First, I share the Deputy’s condemnation of what happened to our five Irish citizens. I have just received confirmation that Deputy Heneghan is back in Ireland. I had a brief message from him to that effect. It seems Israel released parliamentarians first. I know he is Deputy O’Callaghan’s constituency colleague. He is back in Ireland but the remaining Irish citizens will be engaging with our embassy team today. Obviously we are calling for their swift release. We believe it was illegal in terms of how they were detained and I do intend to consider how to pursue that with counterparts. I join the Deputy in welcoming the very real live prospect of a ceasefire and the fact the United Nations has talked about there being enough food in the region to feed the people of Gaza for three months if we can just get that in and do so urgently.”
“We all agree with expanding capacity. Then there is the question of whether we further expand the UHL campus but also develop it on another site - that is what it says - or, for want of a less colloquial phrase, do we start from scratch and develop a new model 3 hospital? Both options recognise that there will have to be significant new healthcare capacity above and beyond the current Dooradoyle site. How quickly we can narrow down the pros and cons of each of them is very important. The Minister will be in UHL with the HSE and local public representatives next week and she will have the opportunity to speak with the Deputy then. I take the point about the need to make a decision in principle as quickly as we possibly can.”
“I thank the Deputy. I accept the Government needs to make a timely decision on this and I accept it is an issue that has gone on for many years. In fairness to the Minister for Health, she is proactively engaging on this issue. The point the Deputy makes about population is really key. He is correct that the population of the mid-west region is growing faster than the population of many other regions, including other regions that have a greater hospital capacity. That is absolutely factually correct. When one looks at the three options, I do not really think there are three. There is to do one obvious thing, which is to expand capacity and then there is a choice between two others. That is how I read it.”
“There are extensive findings. Quite a lot of work was done behind each of the potential options and the Minister will now fully consider them and report back to the Government. However, I will share the Deputy's recommendation with the Minister. There is a lot of logic in it. We need to drive on quickly with extra capacity. The 96 beds are great, but we need to drive on the next bit and the bit after that and so on and then we need to recognise that in itself will not be enough. There is a compelling case in relation to the option identified in the report around a new level 3 hospital for the mid-west. That needs to be looked into. We all know that will not happen today or tomorrow so how do we make sure we put the capacity in in the meantime?”
“We all welcome that, but what the Deputy is saying is that, in itself, is not enough. I accept that too. The HIQA report was commissioned, regardless of the Deputy's view on it. The Government was briefed on it by the Minister on 30 September. It outlines three potential options for consideration. One is to continue to expand the capacity at UHL's Dooradoyle site. I think we should do that anyway, to be honest. It is not either-or. The second is to extend the UHL hospital campus to comprise the existing Dooradoyle site and another site. The third is to develop a model 3 hospital in the HSE mid-west. Alongside these options, HIQA presented an extensive number of additional considerations. In fairness to HIQA, it did not just lob out three options. It went through, in quite a bit of detail, the pros and cons of each of the options.”
“If we are honest, since then, successive Governments have been trying to play catch-up on a variety of issues in the mid-west, particularly and acutely on the issue of bed capacity, but also on the issue of how to properly utilise Nenagh and Ennis hospitals, which are excellent hospitals that are eager to do more and are now beginning to do more. The Deputy has been a vocal advocate on this issue and will continue to be. I accept the collective challenge we face is to address this once and for all together. The Minister for Health takes this seriously. She will be in Limerick next week for the opening of a new 96-bed block at UHL. I acknowledge the roles the Deputy and others played in that. There are also plans to significantly increase capacity further in the hospital.”