School Attendance

378. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Education and Youth the supports that are available to a child in a primary school with no home-school liaison who is experiencing school refusal. [68171/26]

Visa Applications

530. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration when the visa appeal for a student accepted on the Ireland Palestine Scholarship Programme will be decided. [68066/26]

Crime Prevention

542. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration whether he is aware of the number of petrol bombings in Cork in recent months; and the action he intends to take. [68130/26]

Vacant Properties

125. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance for an update on the collection of the vacant homes tax. [68491/26]

Tax Collection

180. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance for an update on the work he has undertaken to introduce the new Derelict Property Tax. [68489/26]

Public Transport

128. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Transport whether he is aware that two routes in Cork under BusConnects had to be rerouted because a bus cannot traverse Church Hill despite numerous public consultations and millions spent to date. [66853/26]

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Thomas Gould The National Bus and Rail Union has described the Cork to Dublin train as a hotspot of antisocial behaviour in recent years. There have been 120 complaints of antisocial behaviour on trains to and from Cork in the last 12 months. I thank The Echo newspaper in Cork and Amy Campbell for her work in highlighting this. These incidents include times where people feel unsafe, intimidated and scared. There is no way to exit a train once it is moving. Volatile behaviour can be parti

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Thomas Gould The First Dáil declared that it was the first duty of the Government of Ireland to ensure that no child suffered from a lack of clothing, food or shelter. This Government is failing in that duty. There are currently 17,885 people homeless. That was the August figure. It is actually higher now. Some 5,830 of those are children. I asked the Minister's predecessor how many children must become homeless before Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and this Government admit they are wrong and a

34th Dáil debate — 2026-09-30

Deputy Thomas Gould Just two months after the State-owned ESB raised its prices for over 1 million customers, it posted profits of €636 million and gave its chief executive a 29% increase, raising his salary from €318,000 to €410,000. That is €92,000 of an increase. The Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan has published research that shows that ordinary households are paying the price for data centre connections. We have seen a surge in connections to the grid that are the equivalent of 160,000 homes. Rec

34th Dáil debate — 2026-09-30

Deputy Thomas Gould I want to be clear about what the Minister of State said. He said that nothing will happen until the families are satisfied and the situation has been worked through. I have met the families privately and there has been a public meeting. The families do not want their loved ones to be moved out of the unit. They fear for the health of their loved ones if they are moved. They were given a list of places in Cork and Kerry where they were advised to take their loved ones. Why w

34th Dáil debate — 2026-09-30

Deputy Thomas Gould Can the Minister of State imagine a person's husband or partner being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in their late 50s, then having to search for a nursing home with an Alzheimer's-specific dementia unit when they are 65, and just when they have settled into their new home, they are being evicted? Can the Minister of State imagine that? Can he imagine a person whose mother had passed away over the summer then being told their father has to find a new home after eight yea