WITH AROUND A week to go before they head off on holidays, TDs are taking care of the last bits of business before their break.
Yesterday Eamon Ryan tackled the issue of bin charges in the Dáil by bringing bags of rubbish into the chamber. Will we see any similar stunts today?
Eamon Ryan caused a ruckus in the Dáil yesterday when he brought a bag of his household waste into the chamber as he called for the government to do more to tackle waste.
Read more about it here:
Today looks like it might be a little bit more mundane.
Here we go…
Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly is up first.
He says vulture funds are availing of Section 110 to avoid paying tax in Ireland.
He’s asking if the government are aware that no other European country allow tax avoidance as such.
Minister Richard Bruton says the government are taking a leading role in tax avoidance issues on an international front.
He is going to ask the Minister for Finance to review the issue and will ask him to take initiative is needs be.
Read more on the matter here: Tax avoidance clampdown expected to take in €50 million ‘should yield €500 million’
Bruton says that we should use our revenue to make sure everyone pays their “fair share” of tax.
The idea that we need an independent review of the revenue isn’t something that Bruton thinks is necessary.
Louise O’Reilly is raising the issue of a family with a child with autism that are struggling to get respite care.
The boy is getting older and stronger and causing a greater risk to his parents and school. He recently tried to strangle his mother.
To date no requests for respite have been taken into account.
Figures from HSE show that numbers of people needing respite care is going up but the allocation of respite care isn’t matching that, according to Reilly.
Last week the family told their story on RTE Radio One’s Sean O’Rourke Show. Reilly says now they have received a meeting with Minister McGrath, seven months after they first requested it.
Minister Bruton starts by expressing his sympathy to the family.
Minister McGrath has applied additional funds to these families, Bruton said.
We do need to have a better planning framework for this
The government are investing in getting children like this boy to stay in school, according to Bruton.
Louise O’Reilly says people “don’t need to be a genius” to figure out that respite care is not up the scratch.
People with disabilities shouldn’t have to talk to RTÉ to get state care, says O’Reilly.
“It’s an insult that they can’t access respite care.”
Bríd Smith moves the discussions onto bin charge issues.
Here’s the latest on the bin charges problems:
Things are heating up in the chamber..
The city council are “browned off” collecting illegally dumped waste, says Smith.
She says the government need to give local authorities control of bin services.
Yesterday Eamon Ryan brought a bag of plastic waste into the Dáil, as he called on the government to do more to tackle waste problems.
Bruton says we have a problem with bin waste.
He says government are protecting people with the current system of bin waste management.
He says there is monitoring in place to ensure cartel activity won’t happen within waste operations.
The next question is from Deputy Healy-Rae.
He’s raising the issue of the St. Finian’s mental hospital in Kilarney town.
Urgent plans need to be formulated in regards to St. Finian’s future, says Healy-Rae.
The Minister for Health should get involved immediately to create a plan to ensure that a definitive decision is made on what will happen to the grounds of the hospital.
He says the building could be made available to local groups.
He says the ceiling is leaking and it would be a shame to let it fall into dereliction.
“It has many uses and it shouldn’t be left idle.”
Bruton says the HSE would be interested in working with local communities to find a sole purpose for buildings like this.
He says the Department of Housing is keen to make use of buildings like this but it needs to fall in line with their building requirements.
If there is a local group that are bringing planning suggestions together, the government will warmly welcome them, says Bruton.
That’s all from Leaders’ Questions today. Thanks for sticking with us throughout the liveblog.
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