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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“The Department of Education and Youth is continually planning for this and investing in existing and new schools and is also now bringing forward the time at which projections for the following year are made. That needs to happen much earlier. The Minister is working on that. We have seen 400 new special places provided for in budget 2025. My understanding is 399 of the 400 have been sanctioned already. I can get the Deputy a breakdown, which might be useful for the families he is working with as well.”
“I agree with a lot of what the Deputy said in the sense that no parent should have to protest in relation to that. I would just say - the Deputy may or may not agree - that there is not a lack of political will. Everybody in this House wants to get this issue right. I believe the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has engaged with a number of families involved and is willing, as is the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, to do that again. It would be good to see that happen. People obviously have a right to protest and rightly feel strongly about this but engagement directly with the Minister and Department is important and I would like to see that happening. I know the Minister would too. It is our absolute priority to ensure every child in the State has access to a school place.”
“On the decisions the Department of Justice and Government take around the location of IPAS centres, it is well known it is Government policy to get to a number of State-led, State-owned facilities, including the one in Citywest that we have, and to move away over time from having to use smaller facilities in communities, particularly ones that were used for the likes of hotels in the past. I will ask the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and-or the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, to come back to the Deputy directly with an update on Dundrum, conscious of what the Deputy is saying is happening in the community tonight.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue with me again in the Dáil. As he rightly said, I met a number of local residents, including Ms O'Dwyer and Ms Crowe, and they were very decent people. It is not fair to say I did not come back to them. I listened to them, engaged with them and passed on their views to the relevant Ministers. The description of Ukrainian people being put on buses and not knowing where they are going is not my experience of how these issues are handled. We need to look at the number of Ukrainians in Ireland, State contracts, value for money and the fact people have been here quite a while. People want to get on with their lives and a lot of work is done to try to do that correctly.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and bringing to my attention the petition and advocacy of the family of the late Adam. We thank them for that too. I take very seriously the points raised. There will be a new mental health Bill coming through the House relatively shortly and that will provide an opportunity for us to tease through these issues and make sure the mental health structures and laws in place are modern and adequate. They are very much in need of an overhaul. I will ask the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy Butler, to come back to the Deputy on the suggestions he made on the commission report, the NHS and funding levels.”
“I thank the Deputy. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae thinks that is a great idea so I had better pass that on too. There is a lot of common sense in what the Deputy said. Garda vetting is an extremely important issue. The Deputy says that, I say that and we all know that. We have to support the Garda in making sure we know everything we need to know about people, particularly those who work with children and vulnerable and older people, from a safety point of view. That is not the same as saying we cannot reform the system and use technology to apply a common-sense methodology. I am sure a lot of gardaí would support that. In light of the Deputy raising this matter in the Dáil, I will ask our colleague, the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, to consider the proposals and revert to him directly.”
“It is expected to progress to detailed design this year. We also have a new ambulance base in New Ross, which involved the purchase of a former fire station. That is investment in two crucial pieces of infrastructure for the ambulance service in County Wexford.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I have loads of statistics here and do you know what I am going to do? I will not read them out. The statistics tell me we are doing well in terms of response times and the likes but I also live in County Wicklow, know County Wexford well and know and hear the challenges people raise in relation to this. I am told in relation to the question on capacity that the National Ambulance Service continuously reviews capacity requirements and then feeds that back in terms of investment plans. I will ask that the head of the National Ambulance Service and the Minister for Health engage with the Deputy directly on this. Putting infrastructure in place is important, in terms of where the ambulances are deployed from. We will see a new ambulance base in Gorey.”
“I thank the Deputy. She is right that we have consistently said that no one should be disadvantaged based on when they entered the scheme. She is bringing forward a suggestion that sounds as if it makes common sense and is constructive, and I thank her for that. In the absence of all the information, I will ask the Minister, Deputy Browne, to look at her proposal and engage with her directly.”
“I am sure there are people locally who will contradict this, but I am saying what I am being told. I am being told this was not the case and the school did not have available accommodation and the class could only be supported in an external location property that needed to be rented. The NCSE re-evaluated the situation and was satisfied that the needs of the children locally could be met in another way. I know this is not to the satisfaction of the school or the local community, and in light of the Deputy raising this matter, I will ask the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, to engage with him on the matter directly.”
“I thank the Deputy and Councillor Marie Murphy for their work on this. I was looking into this and there are approximately 17 new special classes sanctioned for County Tipperary for the coming academic year. I think there are nine at primary level and eight at post-primary level. This is in addition to 138 special classes currently in operation in County Tipperary and three special schools in the county which have approximately 409 students enrolled. One of the five new special schools for the coming school year is going to open in Nenagh. I take the point about Ballyporeen and how upsetting this has been. My understanding is that the school received sanction based on potential local demand for special class places and based on the information the school had available accommodation to host a special class.”
“However, I think the most important and urgent thing to do in that framework is to spend time to get the system and structure right because we ultimately end up buying the drug but it takes too long and there are patients with SMA, many of whom I met back in the day. That is an example. I will ask the Minister for Health to come back to the Deputy on that specifically, but the new framework agreement is a chance, once and for all, to make a broken system work much better.”
“It certainly does not sound like it, based on what the Deputy has said. I know he has done a huge amount of work on the issue of access to medication, particularly for those with rare diseases. I met the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association approximately two weeks ago. As the Deputy can imagine, we discussed trade and tariffs, but we also discussed that a new framework agreement is due to be negotiated between it and the State. I made a suggestion at that meeting, one which I think they agree with and which I will speak to the Minister for Health about. The discussion and negotiation are always about the quantum, or how much money we are going to spend on new drugs in the next number of years.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is right that there are far too many Irish teachers abroad. We would much rather, as would a lot of them, that they were back here teaching. I know this is a huge priority for the Minister, Deputy McEntee. The Deputy will be aware that the Minister made a number of announcements on policy decisions in this regard over the Easter period. They include making it easier for people to get permanent contracts, but also making it easier for teachers to return. If the Deputy wants to send that letter to me, the Minister, or both of us, I will ask her to take on board the points he is making.”
“I was waiting for the twist in the story. I thank the Deputy for highlighting that issue. To be blunt, there is a challenge in that lots of people around our country want to do the right thing in their own lives with regard to climate. They are finding the schemes we are providing are either not adequately resourced or are too rigid in terms of their application of rules. I am hopeful the Government can address this through budgetary processes and the NDP review. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about Galway and the fact that there are people ready to go but there is not an adequate degree of funding. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy directly.”
“In return for that, we need to see real delivery and a reform plan. A key part of that must include transparency and interacting in a very open way with Oireachtas committees.”
“I thank Deputy Gibney for her work on this matter on the committee. To add to the point she made, the IT project at RTÉ, which I believe was discussed at the media committee, came to light after the Minister wrote to agencies asking them whether they had anything they wished to tell about the wastage of public money. Deputy Gibney’s point in general about being transparent and up-front would certainly be extremely helpful, particularly when RTÉ has gone through such a difficult period of time. As Deputy Gibney said, it is the ordinary, decent staff out there who are working hard and want to see this organisation go to where it needs to be. The taxpayer, the Government and the people of Ireland have rightly decided to support public service broadcasting. We have provided a way forward.”
“I thank Deputy Ahern. This whole issue of energy security and supply is an important one. We all know where we need to get to in the context of renewable and offshore energy. We know that we need to turbocharge - pardon the pun - getting there in every way we possibly can. It is about a balanced approach, however. We do not want our country to be closed to investment and investment opportunities. I know Deputy Ahern does not wish that either. We are also seeing data centres themselves changing the way they go about their operations. The way forward on this will be for the Government to work on the large energy users connection policy. I would ideally like to see that published in the autumn. It will show what the policy approach should be from here out to the medium term.”
“We are significantly increasing funding for defence and supporting the Air Corps, the Naval Service and Defence Forces more broadly. Indeed, funding for defence has increased by 30% since 2020 to a record level. It will increase again in the review of the national development plan shortly. We are back in an era of major investment. Deputy Doherty is right, however. It is no surprise to anyone that there are pinch points in parts of our Defence Forces, particularly in the context of particular skills and challenges in the retention of air traffic controllers. We are working with the Defence Forces, the Department of Defence and the Government more broadly to see what more can be done in this regard. Contingency planning will also be put in place. This issue pertains to Baldonnel. We live in a country which has other airports and air bases.”
“We have to ramp up housing too. We have to get it right. That is why I am encouraged by the work being done by the Minister, Deputy Chambers, with the establishment of the new infrastructure division. Instead of what I call "pen pals international" where everyone writes to each other, we have seconded into that division key people from Uisce Éireann, the ESB and people with experience of An Bord Pleanála, who will work together with experienced civil servants. Those key bodies of work are either about to commence or are already under way.”
“The honest answer is "Yes". We need to be more ambitious. While these are judgment calls the Minister will no doubt get right in the time ahead, with Government colleagues, we also need to recognise that projects announced today obviously have a lead-in time. This Government wants to deliver 300,000 new homes by 2030. In order to fulfil that, we are going to have to press "go" on crucial water and energy projects and provide extra support and funding for the Land Development Agency. The Deputy is right that if we do not do that early on, we will not see the benefit of it for the people of this country later in this term of Government. It is a balance and a judgment call. We have to ramp up the delivery of key pieces of infrastructure such as water, energy and transport infrastructure because they are obviously enablers of housing.”
“In the coming months, we have tasked the infrastructure division to engage with key stakeholders to identify and propose solutions to barriers they see in delivery; to carry out a public consultation on barriers to infrastructure delivery, which is due to commence in the coming days; to carry out a review, as the Deputy rightly called for, of international best practice and international delivery, including looking at what happens in other comparable European countries; and to produce a report on barriers to critical infrastructure delivery, which is also due to come back to Government in July. Getting these building blocks right will serve us well as we ramp up capital in the weeks and months ahead.”
“It now has a newly established infrastructure division led by a deputy secretary general and staffed by a combination of experienced civil servants and sectoral experts redeployed from key State agencies, including the ESB, EirGrid, Uisce Éireann, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and An Bord Pleanála. Government efficiency, value for money and that common-sense approach will be hallmarks of this division within the Department. The Minister and the whole Government are determined in that regard.”
“While that is great, our voters and the citizens of this country will want to know whether we got value for money, delivered projects in a timely manner and managed to break down the silos and bureaucracy. That is why, in advance of the national development plan in July, we are putting a big focus on trying to get the structures right. As the Deputy knows, the new programme for Government has made a number of commitments around infrastructure delivery, crucially looking at how Departments and agencies can work better together. We are working with stakeholders to advise on strategic project selection and expediting the delivery of project assessments. Crucially, the most important thing is the reform taking place in the Department of public expenditure and reform.”
“Approximately 800 school building projects have been completed since 2020 with a further 300 under construction along with the first phase of the new national rehabilitation hospital and new ward blocks. I make that point to set a context because the Deputy is right. We are about to enter a new phase and we have to put ourselves under pressure with regard to the speed, pace and value for money of delivery. We do it from a relatively strong foundation because of the scaling up we have been able to do in delivering capital projects in recent years. We are about to enter a new phase because the Minister, Deputy Chambers, will shortly carry out the review of the national development plan, which will see an unprecedented level of capital investment.”
“I thank Deputy Brennan for raising timely and important issue. It is worth reflecting on the level of capital investment we are seeing. Since 2019, through the national development plan, we have delivered 170 km of new roads, including the New Ross bypass, the Dunkettle interchange, the Moycullen bypass, the N22 Macroom road and the N5 Westport-Turlough road. We have delivered active travel infrastructure throughout the country of 660 km walking infrastructure, 400 km of cycling infrastructure and 220 km of greenways. There have been almost 53,000 new local authority schemes since 2021, 110,000 premises connected to high-speed broadband as a result of the national broadband plan, 330 premises with an available connection and a new city campus for TU Dublin in Grangegorman.”
“On the reconstitution grant and the difference between the issue the Deputy raised about wind-blown timber, the Minister and Minister of State are here today as those with responsibility. They will engage with the Deputy and keep in touch with him about it.”
“We will keep the pressure on for those who do not have service. The Deputy's second point is one of the real learnings of the storm, that when the network goes down, it is not just the loss of the phone - I do not mean to be flippant - but also the loss of all contact and connection with the outside world. For older or vulnerable people or people who live in isolated rural areas and their families, the impact, stress, mental health impact and worry going on 18 weeks later are a cause of significant concern. ComReg as the regulator and the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, will continue to intensively monitor this situation until it is fully resolved. Then, as I said, there will be a broader piece of work on what, if anything, needs to change from a regulatory point of view and definitely from a resilience building point of view.”
“I thank him for the photographs he sent my office this morning. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, are here today and will have heard the Deputy. I am sure they will reflect on the constructive suggestions he made.”
“It is currently reviewing the performance of operators with regard to service restoration in the aftermath of the storm. It is also conducting a review of the applicable regulations to ensure that they are fit for purpose. It is then a matter for ComReg to decide whether action needs to be taken against operators. ComReg will send a report of this review to the Minister. There are a few aspects: looking at the performance of operators after this storm and whether action is needed by the regulator; looking at regulations and whether they need to be strengthened; and from the point of view of the Government and operator working together, what more we need to do in terms of resilience in future storms. The Deputy also raised the broader issue of forestry and timber and considering changes to the various schemes.”
“The task force meeting was attended by all mobile and fixed-network operators affected by Storm Éowyn, ComReg, representatives of local authorities and ESB Networks. A key focus of the meeting was issues around network resilience and service restoration with a view to having a firm action plan in place before next winter to reduce the impacts experienced in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn. Knowing the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, we can be particularly sure that he expressed his frustration at the meeting regarding Eir's inability to restore services to all customers nearly 18 weeks later. It is farcical. He has also held meetings with individual operators to address network resilience concerns. For example, he met Vodafone last week and will shortly meet the CEO and owner of Eir. ComReg is the statutorily independent regulator.”
“This excludes 11 cases where there is a third-party constraint like access rights outside of Eir's control. Eir has told the Government that everything within its control will be completed by 3 June. ComReg will monitor the restoration work until it is completed. The Government will continue to ensure that the resilience of the communications network and the capacity to quickly restore services in the aftermath of events such as Storm Éowyn are improved, which they clearly need to be. As the Deputy referenced, the Ministers, Deputies O'Donovan and Calleary, are engaging intensively on this matter. There was a meeting of the mobile phone and broadband task force last week, convened by the two Ministers.”
“I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for raising this important issue and, in fairness to him, for raising it consistently in terms of the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and the impact it has had on people across our country, but most particularly the elongated impact it has had on people living in rural or more disperse communities, many of which I know he represents in his constituency. I will deal first with the issue relating to Eir. I agree with the Deputy. I do not want to say anything that cuts across the regulator but Eir really needs to step up in how it deals with customers. I have heard this in countless locations. Eir has informed the telecommunications regulator, ComReg, that all storm-related repairs for the remaining affected customers will be completed by 3 June, next week.”
“Every day I come to work and work with all people in here to do our best to show leadership at a time of horrific conflict.”
“-----we are working to support the people of Palestine. The only Chamber I ever go into in the entire world where people do not acknowledge that Ireland - the Government and the people of Ireland - are standing with the people of Palestine, standing up for human rights and standing up for international law is here, when you get up and distort with your ideology the actions of this Government. I am proud of the people of this country. I am proud that we went into an election and it did not matter what party you were in; you stood up and said, "We are going to support the people of Palestine." Get beyond yourself with this narrative that you have all the moral authority and we are terrible people. I am disgusted and sickened watching children dying on our television screens.”
“Deputy Connolly has such vitriol for and dislike of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that she cannot ever actually come above and rise to the moment. Ours is the first Government in the European Union to say that what Israel is doing is genocide. Do you hear that, Deputy? It is genocide.”
“I say this in the hope that other countries now look to Ireland and say, "Hang on, if this little country on the periphery of Europe can pass legislation to ban trade with the occupied Palestinian territories, why can we not do it as well?" I call today, as I hope everybody in this House does, for other countries to replicate what we are doing. On the issue of services, and before I am misrepresented again, as I constantly seem to be, I have no difficulty with services being included if we can find a legal way forward in that regard. There is no policy difference. We have a lot of work to do on this. I never buy into the "Opposition good, Government bad" narrative. We are all appalled and sickened by the genocide we are witnessing.”
“While we want to see an immediate end to the conflict, of course, and we want to see a ceasefire and the release of all the hostages, in the here and now, today, the people in Gaza who are starving could be fed, and it is a political choice of the Israeli Government not to allow that aid in, which is also a war crime. In Ireland, we will continue to do everything we can and we will continue to work constructively with the Opposition. A very good motion was put down by the Labour Party. Not only did we not oppose it but I will proactively work with the Opposition to advance it. I had very good engagement in the Seanad this morning with Senator Frances Black on the occupied Palestinian territories. We are the first country in Europe to do this.”
“What we see happening today and what we have seen happening for a very significant period is despicable and is an act of evil. This is evil at work. There is just no other way about that. I say it is evil because the people of this great country have, through their taxes, paid for a very significant amount of aid to get into Gaza, with enough food on trucks paid for by the Irish people to feed at least 6,000 people in Palestine, and for four months those trucks have been parked in Jordan. There is only one reason - no other reason - why those trucks cannot get in, and that is the Israeli blockade.”
“I am not suggesting the Deputy did not do so but I always like to differentiate between the Government of Israel and the people of Israel because I believe many people in Israel are utterly horrified by the decisions being taken by the Netanyahu Government, which are genocidal, which are war crimes and which are starving children, which is in turn a breach of international law. Nobody in this House comes in and seeks to praise what Ireland is doing. What we do seek to do in this House is outline that, as a small country in the European Union, we are doing everything we can to maximise the pressure on the international community to help bring about a ceasefire. All political parties need to use their own political networks and links in European countries and the United States and everywhere else to try to help amplify that.”
“We are not standing over any false narrative. We are reiterating long-standing foreign policy and, I think, the long-standing policy of the people of Ireland that there needs to be a two-state solution in the Middle East, that the State of Israel has every right to exist in peace and security and that the people of Palestine have every right to a sovereign state that exists in peace and security. As we know in this country better than many, the only way to get to that point is through political dialogue, not through the genocidal activity we see from the Netanyahu Government.”
“Another thing we are working on that probably comes across the Deputy's constituency office desk - it certainly comes across mine - is our engagement with CORU to examine how we can speed up the recognition of qualifications for staff coming from overseas. I want parents looking in to know that, in the here and now, we are also taking action. There were proposals that as we build up capacity in the public sector and bring about reforms, we would also use capacity in the private sector. I assure parents that we have made a waiting list initiative available where there is procurement of private assessments. A further €10 million has been provided this year. This has seen a 30% increase in assessments of need carried out in the past year. In other words, 4,162 were carried out in 2024 compared to 3,205 in 2023.”
“There is an agreed way forward. We have a very clear view forward regarding amending and reforming the legislation and the model around assessment of need and we want to work with people in good faith to get this right, including, most importantly, parents and those who carry out assessments of need - the clinical professions. The House can expect engagement from us on that very shortly. We have seen an additional 272 staff in our children's disability network teams in the past year alone. The Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, are actively engaging on further measures about retaining existing staff and attracting new entrants. We have seen that decision regarding significantly ramping up the number of therapy places in third level.”
“We have taken the decision to significantly increase the number of therapy posts in universities - the Minister, Deputy Lawless, has led on this - so that we can have a greater pipeline of graduates. I would like to work with people in a collaborative way on this issue, as would the rest of the Government. We need to kick off a number of major bodies of work across this House in the next few weeks.”
“I think we agree that it makes sense to have therapy services in schools, starting with special schools and then going into special classes and then into mainstream schools. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, has received Government approval to proceed with that and I expect the recruitment for it to be able to commence very shortly, as in, in advance of the new school year. I hear the Deputy regarding the pay and numbers strategy. I remember checking this out. If there was a piece of paper that said there was a cap stopping speech and language therapists being hired, I would agree with him 100% but the last time I checked this in recent days, there were funded vacant posts in therapies. We have to look at why those posts are vacant. It is not because there is a cap on recruitment. There are funded posts today that are vacant.”
“Approximately 30% of therapists' time is now being spent on assessment of need. I am not suggesting this is easy, and we want to work constructively to get this right, but I would be misleading the Deputy if I did not say that we were going to bring forward reforms regarding the legislation around assessment of need. The second thing we have to do - we have made the decision to do it - is establish a national therapy service for education. There are far too many parents who feel such a sense of relief when their children finally get places in education, particularly in special schools, only to then wonder about speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.”
“However, I also believe that we need to look at how that legislation works. This has been my view for a long period of time. It is the view of many people who work in clinical practice. It is also the view of many parents, who want clarity and to have a system that can more efficiently but in a clinically appropriate and clinician-led way determine the length of time required for the assessment. I believe in clinicians - not politicians or judges - determining that and that is the piece we want to get right. From memory, the same article the Deputy referenced concerning the potential number of 25,000 children also spoke about how approximately one third of the children who went through the assessment of need process were determined not to have a disability in that defined sense. We need to give those children that clarity more quickly.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is right. This is an area where a significant amount of work is needed to make progress. There is no doubt about that. I would make the point at the outset that I do not think any one strand of work will get us to where we need to get. We will need to do four or five very significant things at the same time and this is the focus of the Government, including the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. The Minister and Minister of State updated the Cabinet sub-committee on disability on this matter in May. We are due to have a further meeting of that Cabinet sub-committee this month. I agree with the Deputy that the right of a child to access an assessment of need must remain. I really believe that and the rest of the Government believes that.”
“I hope the Deputy will support the establishment of a housing activation office that will do exactly what he said, which is bring in people from Irish Water and the local authorities and put them in an office working together to break down those silos so we can deliver the homes for our people.”
“Between now and the month of July, we are going to work on a housing plan; not a glossy document but a targeted list of actions we can take in relation to water, energy and planning that will get us to 300,000 homes. I assure Deputies we have the money and capital to make this happen. What we now need is political support across this House and in communities to drive on delivery.”