Results 721-740 of 1,067,151 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Jan O'Sullivan OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:Brian Stanley)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: It has failed and failed. We needed to have a citizens’ assembly to prove how much it has failed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: That is reasonable but, from that framing of it, do I take it that the only response the Department will provide to the drugs committee and those of us on the citizens’ assembly who engage with that process will be in the form of the new national drugs strategy? It will not be done recommendation by recommendation or as a direct response; it will be in the shape of a new strategy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: I understand that. The Minister of State sounds very reasonable when he says that but major legislative questions were raised by the citizens’ assembly and the drugs committee that will not fit within the framework of the drugs strategy nationally. Moreover, if the drugs strategy is a refresh of an existing policy, that also will not serve the citizens’ assembly's findings.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: I want to move on to other questions. I understand the Minister of State’s point that some of it is policy. However, some of it is not policy and is very practical stuff around the regulation of drugs in a particular way, and I am not just talking about cannabis but about naloxone and products like that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: In what format will that be?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: What will be the role of the Department in contributing to that work?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: Is the Department doing work on that right now?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: When will we see that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: In our earlier session, the drugs task force said it felt that relationships between it and the Department were at the lowest ebb they have ever been. Will Mr. Walsh respond to that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: In the next iteration, we can perhaps work on that so the feeling is mutual.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: My time is ticking down so I will finish with two questions. A recent parliamentary question response states that the Department intends to commission an independent evaluation of the existing drugs strategy in quarter 4 of 2024, to be completed in 2025, and the witnesses have mentioned this a number of times. Is that commissioned and who has the Department commissioned to do it? Second,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: The tender is out at the moment but is not commissioned yet.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: Will that push out the quarter 1 target?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: The inspection piece came up a number of times.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Local Drug and Alcohol Task Forces: Discussion (6 Nov 2024)

Neasa Hourigan: Is Ms McArdle saying there are inspections?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (6 Nov 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I welcome the Minister. Like myself, she is near the end of the road.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (6 Nov 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Three of us here are, but we will work to the line. I see that the Minister is doing that. Most of the provisions here are small. There is an extra €12 million in total, however, which I welcome. I recognise what has been done on the local improvement schemes, but in practice, I find that the genuine list of projects that need to be done is way longer than the money that is being...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (6 Nov 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The issue I raised was that on the Gaeltacht islands the co-operatives, which are called comharchumainn on the islands, are funded by Údarás na Gaeltachta. On the non-Gaeltacht islands, each island or cluster of islands in the case of small islands has a community development project on the island that is funded by the Minister's Department. The community development projects are...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (6 Nov 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Am I right in believing that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has legislative responsibility for the Dormant Accounts Fund and that each Department makes provision in its Estimates to get money from it? It is a bit like lottery funding. The Departments then expend that money in their day-to-day expenditure.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Supplementary) (6 Nov 2024)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have a quick question I was asked to ask the Minister of State. I take it the money will continue for men’s and women’s sheds and will be expanded. It is a very important programme and does huge work in communities.